5/14/2008

Taiwan's Longest Escalator


I visited Fancyworld (劍湖山世界) in Douliu (斗六), Yunlin (雲林) County's largest city yesterday and this morning as part of a project I'm doing at work. Above is a shot of Taiwan's longest escalator. The amusement park is built on the side of a mountain, so this is supposed to provide a bit of respite for elderly visitors. But I thought it was as freaky as any of the rides in the park.

I took this shot of the nastiest roller coaster I have encountered in Taiwan thus far: the Flying Submarine. According to the rep. that showed us around the park, it'll hit speeds of 110 km/hr., with 5Gs to keep riders plastered to their seats. I took some shots of the drop, which starts at the top of Jianhushan (劍湖山) and ends disappearing into a hole at the base. I'm not able to realize vertical photos at Blogspot via my IMac, so I've posted them at flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/patrick_cowsill/2491495503/
and also with this one: http://www.flickr.com/photos/patrick_cowsill/2491492993/
The Ferris wheel in the background takes about 15 minutes to complete a loop. It's Taiwan's tallest, completely dwarfing the one at the Miramar Complex in Taipei. At 88 meters, it provides quite a view of the Yunlin plain. For our loop, we lucked out, encountering very little wind.

I also picked up a couple of bags of Taiwan's very own Gookun (古坑) Coffee for a pricey NT$800 (US$25). I've often wondered why Taiwan doesn't grow (more) beans. The conditions couldn't be that much different than those of Hawaii (Kona) or Jamaica (Blue Mountain), two little islands with high elevations and tropical climates.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Damn. That's just cool. :O

Yilan, eh?

Patrick Cowsill said...

No, Yunlin. It's down past Taichung.

John Naruwan said...

I really want to like Taiwan's coffee but unfortunately it just doesn't taste as good as pretty much any other coffee bean that I've ever tried. And damn it's expensive!

Patrick Cowsill said...

I haven't tried them yet. They're just sitting in my freezer, behind a bag of really good Blue Mountain that I got at Costco.

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