Keelung In Port Day

We have arrived in Taiwan. Resolution is tied up dockside and we are loading busses for an aggressive day ashore. No one is terribly excited about a 40-minute bus ride to a cemetery;  at least not until we arrive at the "cemetery".

Imagine what appears to be a normal populated mountainside village that turns out to be a mountainside cemetery of temples and mausoleums. The place is beautiful.

This is a Buddhist section of the cemetery populated with images of the Buddha.

We are not in Greece but this section looks Greek.

Between the density and the elegance, these tombs look more like homes.

What appears to be a temple is really the complex's office building.

Pictures do not do the beauty of this place justice.

This is a huge mausoleum building.

After departing the cemetery, the wheels begin to come off the Lindblad wagon. We are taken to a seaside 'attraction' that claims to have identifiable geological rock formations. It is hot and humid. It is a public holiday and half of Taiwan is at the place. CJ counts more than 50 large busses and several smaller tour busses in the parking lot. 

The guided forced march falls apart due to heat, lack of interest, opposing tour groups, and the age of our group's participants.

On the way to lunch at a restaurant, we're informed that there are 147 steps up to the first attraction after lunch AND that to get to the restaurant we must switch from our comfortable private bus and stand in queue for public transportation. A mutiny ensues. 

Nearly everyone on this cruise has been on multiple Lindblad National Geographic cruises. It is our 5th. For one couple it was their 29th. We do not pay premium fares for public transportation. Someone at Lindblad did not vet this shoreside tour vendor properly. 

For the first time one of the Nat Geo naturalists loses it, and in a negative sense. Her attitude in our opinion should be enough to get her banned in the future.

By the time a horrible lunch is finished, it is pouring rain. Instead of walking up steps to catch a public bus, they provide taxis to our private bus. They have also cancelled the afternoon event for our mutinous group, an answer unfair to those who wished to continue. For the first time on one of these cruises, no one is happy, and it's a shame.