Tuesday, April 3, 2018

Taiwan Day 2 (Part 1): Tamsui Warf & Bali

Today we took the Red/ Tamsui-Xinyl Line of the Taipei Metro all the way to the end of the line to Tamsui.  Tamsui has a ferry that will take you across the river to a small town called Bali, and that was our destination this morning.


Taipei Metro is one of the cleanest and easiest to understand!  The reason it is so very clean, is because there is absolutely no eating and drinking on the metro.  There are big signs everywhere and also police to monitor the people.  Not only is it not allowed, but there is a hearty fine if you are caught eating on the Metro.  Poor Monster was hungry, and we couldn't give him anything to curb his hunger.  Luckily there was plenty to see outside the windows as we made our way down the line.  It didn't take too long and soon enough we found ourselves at Tamsui.  We walked a short distance to the Tamsui Warf.  There were many little shops and food ends along the way.  The waffle bubbles smelled the best!


Once we got to the warf, we bought our tickets to the ferry, then boarded our boat.


The kids were so excited to get a row all to themselves!  They were even more excited to be on the boat.


The ferry ride was only about 10-15 minutes to get to Bali.  Little A asked where we were going, and I told her we were going to a small town called Bali.  Her face lights up and she states, "Then I get to go to Bali just like you did!".  I tried to explain that it was different and not even in the same country, but she just kept saying she was so glad to go to Bali, just like me.


After departing the boat, we found a bike shop and rented three large family bikes.  Kevin and I took one with Monster and Little A.  Holly and Tyler took another bike with their two littles.  Big Sis and M&M along with the older two Rust boys took the third bike.


We all had a blast on the bikes!  The kids would try to race us, and we would all be huffing and puffing, because these bikes only had peddles and a chain, no fancy inner spoke or speed changing gears, just a simple chain.


The bike had two peddles in the front and two peddles in the back.  The bike was controlled by the person on the left side.  The four kids took turns being the left had driver.


There were cute stops along the route and we made sure to stop and take pictures at each one!  The first stop was a huge red cut-out BALI sign.  We all took turns standing in the different letters and getting a picture "in" Bali.  Haha!!


The next stop was at a huge Silver heart.  One thing that we love about Korea is the hand gestures that are made in pictures.  The two most popular hand gestures are the peace sign and the little thumb and pointer finger heart.  We took our picture in front of the heart making little hearts with our fingers.


Our last stop was at a bunny park.  The kids took some time to run up the hill and run through the park.  The park had little bunny figures all over.


We only rented the bikes for an hour, so we had to book it back to the bike shop.  We went ahead of Holly and Tyler, and raced the older kids all the way back.  Since we only had two people peddling, and they had four kids peddling, we couldn't ever catch up to them.  They won the race to the bike shop. Those kids were really pushing it!  When they were all done, they were panting and super red-faced.  We got them all some water to cool off while we waited for the last bike.


We ended up waited a while for Holly and Tyler.  We started to get worried, when they rolled up.  Sadly, their youngest boy got his foot stuck in the spokes, so they had to stop and bandage up his leg.  Poor guy!!

The weather was perfect for our bike ride!  Everyone had an amazing time riding around Bali.  The bike path was gorgeous!  We passed by parks, the ocean, and forest areas.  It was a huge highlight of our trip!


We boarded our boat and made our way back to Tamsui Warf, on the other side of the river.  The kids talked and laughed about their bike ride the entire way back.  It was a great morning!















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