beach and tamshui

I went to the beach today. It's actually very easy to get there, take the MRT to the terminal station and then catch a bus to Jinshan. But it drags on, and it took us almost 2.5 hours from the moment when I picked up Frank and Zeynel at the hotel until we finally stood at the beach.
It was the nicest beach I've seen in Northern Taiwan so far (not that I've seen very many), and just second to the beautiful beaches I came across on my trip to Penghu last year. Unlike the slippery, stony beach where I had that yummie seafood bbq with Alan, Jenny and Luna on Tomb-Sweeping Day 2003, it had real sand (though not as white as the name Baishawan - White Sand Bay - would suggest) and you could really go into the water without climbing over some rocks first. There was a sardines area where people lay next to each other and weren't allowed to go into the water any further than knee-high (most Taiwanese are scared of the water anyway), then a shut-off part where they had some rescue exercises, and another swimming area, much less crowded, with less eager life-guards and people who actually could swim. We got ourselves one of those shade thingies and dove into the water. It was terrific. We played with the waves, floated to and fro and watched the couple next to us whose Terrier obviously liked the water as much as them and us. We stayed in waaaaaaay too long and then got out and tried to sit in the shade which was sort of inconvenient as the wind was blowing and it felt like being sand-blasted. Thank godness they have showers and changing rooms at the entrance, so we could properly get rid of the sand before catching the bus back to Tamshui. Good thing, too, as my arms, back and face were of course turning into my usual shade of lobster red, and it wouldn't have been too comfortable slipping into my clothes with sand all over. Maybe, maybe, if I have time when the weather turns nice again after the upcoming typhoon, I could go again before I leave.
We concluded the trip with a proper seafood dinner in Tamshui, at one of those places with aquariums and big ice boxes at the entrance, where you choose what you want and how you want it before you go in, and then they prepare for you. We had a great view towards Bali, too, over the riverside promenade that they've fixed up really nicely in the past couple of years. I love the food in Tamshui. I could probably stuff myself just with all the snacks they sell at the promenade: bbqued squid on a stick, fried quail eggs, tiny seafood hotpots, fried shrimp dumplings..., and some Pearl Milk Tea or freshly squeezed fruit juice or fruit smoothie for dessert. And it's a fun place to do people watching, the old man with the squeaking erhu, the blind musicians right next to him, the young Taiwanese guy playing his guitar, the guys doing drawings of whoever wants their portrait, an older woman singing karaoke in one of the tiny restaurants, the kids catching tiny gold fish for prizes, the teens gaming away in the game arcades, the parents taking out their kids on tricycles, with the grandparents trailing behind, the young couples walking hand in hand, a few country bumpkins gawking at everything... We once even saw a guy with two big pigs on a leash and three piglets running after them.