Dan Shui (淡水) is located north of Taipei and literally translated, means "fresh water"... it's famous for the Dan Shui river, which flows into the Taiwan Strait so naturally, one would expect lots of water, and boats like below :)
The trip was planned by some of the members and we started off with a "store treasure hunt". We were split into groups and each group was given 6 photos taken from stores in Dan Shui... so we had about 1.5 hours to explore the areas and locate the stores... it was quite fun and fulfilling, especially since we also took the chance to explore the food in the area...This is my ah-gei 阿給, it's glass noodles packed inside tofu with some kind of sauce... isn't it creative? why have boring noodles outside of tofu when it can be inside?
This is me with my stick of potato chips... again, Taiwanese creativity with food... why bother having chips separate from each other and packed in a bag when you can "curve-slice" the potato, skewer it and roast it over fire? (I don't think there's such a word as "curve-slice" officially but it's the only word I can think of, considering the slices are cut such that they are linked together... like skinning an apple in a single slice)Other tasty food I encountered: Dan Shui fish balls (with meat fillings!) and Iron eggs or 鐵蛋 (eggs which have been repeatedly stewed in a mix of spices and air dried)... that means I've pretty much eaten all the supposed famous food from Dan Shui... hooray for treasure hunts!!
so with a very full stomach, and an incomplete treasure hunt paper (we only managed to find 4 of the 6 stores), we gathered again with the other groups and headed out for part 2 of our Dan Shui adventure...
After a brief (but very windy and cold) boat ride across the river, we reached Ba Li (八里) island... yes there's a Bali in Taiwan too!! :)
It's a small township, and mostly visited by people looking to enjoy some nature and cycling... 
Here I am with Maxx, an intern from Thailand/New Zealand (he's Thai but has studied in NZ since he was 13) who is working in Kaohsiong but comes to Taipei some weekends just to sightsee and hang out with AIESECers here.Ba Li is quite nice for cycling, since there are specially constructed tracks for cyclists and you get some really nice views along the way
for example, rows and rows of mangrove trees beside us (that wooden path is for pedestrians)
and a blend again between the city, factories, nature and open space...So all in all, it was another great day spent with lots of cool people exploring another cool place in Taipei... and just to round it off, here's part of what I had for dinner :)
Mussels, prawn balls, Miso soup, sauteed squid, vegetables and (missing from the photo) diced chicken!!!for the rest of the photos, check out http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=231682&id=576355703&l=2087f7cab4
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