amazing ... hopeful
thanks to tonie and papi for the pictures!

this is how i describe last saturday's trip with my friends - tonie, papi and david. we went to keelung - pronounced as "ji-long" - city (http://www.klcg.gov.tw/english/home2.asp) which is located at the northern part of taiwan.

the day started with the four of us meeting at the taipei main station to ride a bus to keelung. maikli lang ang biyahe. we arrived at the city around 10am. good thing the weather became pleasant - sun is shining but it's not too hot. umuulan-ulan kasi nung umaga e.

first destination - fairy cave. nag-taxi na kami to get there and we got off right in front of the cave/temple. let me clear that up, the fairy cave is a temple inside a cave. yan. ang unang pumasok sa isip ko - wwwwaaaawww. hehehe. eto kasi ang unang bumulaga sa amin ...
question that came to mind - was it made of gold? maybe not since it's not "very guarded" anu? :) david said it's done in gold leaf.

at first glance, parang walang kakaiba dun sa temple. pero pagdating mo sa loob, may makikita kang 2 path. sa left is a very narrow passage and then sa right is a wider passage. we first went in dun sa mas malaki at eto ang nakita namin ... surreal ... yan ang description ko sa loob. there's this need to whisper kahit kaming apat lang andun. there were remarkable carvings on the wall as well ..

shempre pa, we have to try the very narrow passage. how narrow was it? this narrow ... looks easy right? but it gets more narrow as you near the other end. i tried it and there came a point when claustrophobia started setting in ... i was telling tonie - "ayoko na, ayoko na" ... but i can't go back because david - he was behind me - would have to go back as well. so i decided to plunge ahead. just thinking happy thoughts - like, i sure hope my crack is not showing *haha*.

and i made it ... there's just a simple "altar" at end but what a rush! and the odd thing about it, it's not cold inside but you have yung ... anu bang tawag dun? yung pag malamig e umuusok ang bibig mo? yun! kahit sa umpisa pa lang nung narrow path, meron na nun. as soon as you go out of it, nawawala ang usok. ang galing di ba?

next stop, baimiwong gun emplacement ... it was a long walk from the fairy cave but it was worth it. the view was breathtaking ...

it was past 1pm when we left baimiwong ... we're definitely starving. so we headed to ... i forgot the name of the place ... but it's an island which is connected to taiwan *take note, i said, taiwan* by a bridge ... geographically, it's not in taiwan but it is a part of taiwan ... there's just this small gap between the two islands ... we ate this sumptuous seafood lunch ... mejo nagka-"isyu" lang kami kasi we ordered two whole fish but when it was served to us, it's like we're missing one ... well, we can't complain ... laobaniang said, 2 na yun ...

next ... next ... i can't remember the name of the place ... tama ba yun??? was it hoping island? basta yun ... we went to this place near the beach ... where interesting rock formations abound ...

we can't swim pero mejo nakalapit kami sa tubig ... near enough where we can almost taste the saltiness of the beach ...

wait ... i'll continue this in another post ...