Misty, Mysterious Taiwan

There are some areas of Taiwan that are shrouded in mist where one might easily believe one was caught up in some kind of ethereal world.  Keelung seems to be one of those places, though many people think it's an ugly county; one reason being it rains all the time. I'd only driven nearby Keelung once before but this weekend a friend and I ventured out  to explore a few of the famous caves in the area.  The one I was most excited about visiting was the Fairy Cave (Shian Tong).  The whimsical cave also has a temple.  The chambers inside are not very big at all; we had to crouch down low in some places and stuff ourselves through narrow openings but it was a fun experience.


I've read a couple of legends about the place.  One legend claims that long ago a fairy used to live inside the cave, others have said that fairies used to worship in the caves.  Regardless, anything to do with fairies is always appealing to me.:)

 

 

 

After exploring the fairy cave we walked up the mountain to see what else we could discover.  There were numerous signs dotted along the pathway that warned of poisonous snakes...

 

Shortly after, we visited another cave called Buddha's Hand Cave.  This was bigger than the Fairy Cave and this cave was also a little creepy.  I saw one spider (smallish) and heard random squeaks from some type of cave-dwelling mammal.   Overall, it's a cool place to visit and I liked the main attraction.

  Some random pics from the rest of the weekend:

Keelung Harbor area

Yangmingshan  area