First part: Yehliu
It was quite a long ride to Yehliu. Scenic, too. But I have a very unfortunate inclination whenever I am seated in a moving vehicle (excluding planes) – I get very, very sleepy after a few minutes. So to stave off sleepiness, I tried my best to pump my curiosity, and look out the bus window for anything that catches my eye.
Soon, the big buildings and the bustle of the city life gave way to narrower roads, less buildings and more simple residential houses along the road. And a while later, it’s just roads and highways and tunnels. Quite a number of them, it seemed. Might not seem much, but from someone like me that experienced the terrifying heights of mountain roads that some provincial buses plied, a proper tunnel on the side of a mountain was a miracle to behold. Granted, I still saw our tour bus go on some mountain roads, but those seemed deliberately made to be as safe and as low as possible given that a tunnel clearly wasn’t on the cards for that area. Maybe there are more “high” mountain roads in that area in northern Taiwan, but as I never saw the bus go through them, I can’t say more.
Once we got to a part that was clearly nearing the coastline, we were treated to majestic seaside road views. The tour bus passengers looked out the window to see the coast, while our tour guide rattled off interesting tidbits about the area. Me, I was more into looking out. I might not see these again, so I battled any wave of sleepiness and looked outside a lot. Man, I wished it was sunny that day. The very cloudy and darkened sky didn’t really do favors for us this day. The sights would’ve been awesome.
Soon, we reached a coastal town. I think the tour guide said Wanli, which later I found to be where we were. Had narrower roads, and lots of establishments that are plying the products from the sea – restaurants, wholesale fish sellers, souvenirs, hotels touting great views of the coast. And at near the end, our first tour destination – Yehliu Geopark.
We soon alighted, and our tour guide gave us the lowdown on what the place is and what to expect. She then started to collect the entrance fees from the group before we entered. It quickly dawned on me that I might be the only one in the group that also found the Klook offer that sold the ticket for the Yehliu Geopark, because I had an e-ticket on my Klook app for it (just a QR code). Regular price on-site was NT 120 (SGD 4.99), while Klook offered it at SGD 4.48 (after coupons). Only slightly cheaper. But still, fuss-free entry, no coins needed. They just scanned my code and let me in within seconds.
Oh, also a tip: the geopark also accepts EasyCard.
Once we all got in, Carol the tour guide led us to a picturesque park pathway that led to a small area with imitations of the most popular rock formations in the park – the “Queen’s Head” and the “Cute Princess”. This area is for tourists and visitors to get some of their social media shots in, if they deem standing in line a hassle.
I kind of see the human-like resemblance on the rocks, but… well, let’s just say it’s a creative stretch and a half, personally. Think of the Nefertiti bust from Egypt. I don’t mind it anyway, they looked awesome as rock formations. And if these helped tourism and gave jobs to many locals, I’m not going to make nits further. What gets the registers to ring win in the end.
When we exited the initial pathways and going into the coast, our tour guide warned us that we are to go only through the first half of the entire geopark, because the latter half was a hike and will take at least a good hour or so to fully enjoy. As we were in a tour, we only have finite time.
So off we went to the “main” attraction, the seaside section where all sorts of sea trenches/holes and multi-shaped rocks were. It’s clearly the main attraction section, as lots of people were there to take the selfies.
Our tour guide led us to some viewing decks where we saw the area in a general sense, from above.
After that, we all were given instructions that we were to go do our thing freestyle, and meet up at the bus at the parking lot later at 11.20am. But for those who wanted to take a few photo shoots at the real Queen’s Head rock, the tour guide led them to the line where the people lined up for the opportunity to take pictures at the most advantageous position. For me, to heck with that, let’s get a lot more other shots.
Once I was satisfied with my shots, I made a beeline for the exit. I only had 20 minutes left.
Right outside the exit, there was a sheltered market with people selling lots of seafood snacks, like dried cuttlefish, small shrimp, eel jerky, and a lot more. But also, lots of souvenir items. Of course I could not pass up buying Yehliu-themed souvenirs in Yehliu itself. I’m not buying that shit in Taipei. If I’d have trinkets that said Yehliu, I can say without a lie that I bought them in Yehliu. I’m not one of those “I have Boracay fridge magnets that I bought at the Manila airport” people.
So I bought a small desk statue (a replica of the Queen’s Head), two Yehliu-themed keychains, one Yehliu fridge magnet, and three cute keychains that had one Taiwanese dollar inside of it. Oh, I also bought a big bag of crispy eel bones, deepfried and coated with caramel, chili powder and sesame seeds. Later when I opened it to eat, it tasted sweet and a little fishy. Of course they be fishy. Very crunchy too.
I made it onto the bus with 3 minutes to spare. Whew. But it seemed I needed not to worry about being late, as four people in the tour got so photo-happy that they were 10 minutes later than the time our tour guide stated for us.
Oh well. Tour went on!
Briathrail // Albert 2MNG 
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