Taipei Day Trip - Yehliu and Jiufen

Our last day in Taipei, we hired a cab driver to take us to the northern coast of the island to see the Yehliu Geopark with its strange eroded rock formations and to old town Jiufen, both worthwhile places to visit.  We found our cab driver on Tripadvisor - he was very prompt, friendly and charged a very reasonable rate.  Visiting the two places on the same day would have been impossible without a car and having a driver meant we didn't have to worry about parking at the very crowded Jiufen.  It was the most efficient way of touring these out of the way places.

We spent a few hours at Yehliu Geopark - there were lots to see but there were also lots of people. Considerable time was spent waiting for people to finish their various poses with each of the rock formations.  At the most famous one, the "Queen" (looked like the bust of Queen Nefertiti), there were long line ups to pose with it.  It was next to impossible to get a clean Queen profile.

Wind and water erosion created the strange formations at Yehliu.  The waves on this side of the Pacific were fierce and very impressive.

Perfect for Halloween!

The "Queen" 

I called this "the Hare and the Tortoise"

Two Hippos

Our driver took a detour to showed us these other strange rock formations at Nanya 

The Face

These are actually cemeteries on the hillside beside the highway - nice houses!

Golden Falls on the way to Jiufen

View of the Jiufen temple rooftop

This is an impressive "double-decker" temple 

Jiufen was a preserved old town built on a hill - somewhat like the old European hilltowns, but with a temple instead of a church on top.  The narrow streets were picturesque and packed with street food.  You could eat as you walk or you could take a break and sit down at one of these places.  It's dessert heaven.

One of my childhood favourites was peanuts in rice paper pancakes.  I've never tried it with ice cream before.  It was out-of-this world delicious.

Grilled squid

Soy/tea egss

Shark fish balls??

Carmen in Jiufen??