Dirty duck

It's my first trip back to Taiwan since 3 months ago, and since that time Florentijn Hofman's Rubber Duck Project has moved from Kaoshiung (高雄) to Taoyuan (桃園), and is now parked in Keelung Harbor (基隆港).  I kinda regret not heading down to Kaoshiung to see him back in September, so I was most certainly not gonna miss seeing Ducky in Keelung!

I took the train from Taipei Main Station (台北車站), and got off when the train reached the end of the line at Keelung.  The train station is right next to the harbor, and I saw a yellow blob right after stepping outside.  Within 3 minutes I was at Keelung Maritime Plaza (基隆海洋廣場) and facing Ducky.

For the last few days I had seen news reports about how dirty Ducky's gotten.  Keelung is a narrow harbor with lots of ships passing through, and the wet weather over the last couple of weeks meant all that pollution got stuck on Ducky's body.  Crews have been working hard to scrub Ducky clean, but it hasn't been easy.  Sure enough, large areas were still kinda blackish, and one half of Ducky's face was cleaner than the other half...  Poor Ducky, got so dirty after only 10 days...

But it doesn't matter how dirty he is, Ducky still smiles and greets everyone who's come to see him.  And with the same innocence that just brings a smile to my face.

I hang around the Plaza and snap a few more pics of Ducky from various angles, making sure that the copycat "KEELUNG" sign is in the background for some of them.  Now that my mission has been accomplished, it was time for lunch...

The Keelung Temple Night Market (基隆廟口夜市) is only a couple of blocks from the harbor, so it was a natural destination for me to find some chow.  And I had a very particular item in mind...

You can't come here without biting into a nutritious sandwich (營養三明治).  I do believe it to be a nutritious and balanced meal, as it pretty much covers all the basic food groups:

Grains from the deep-fried bread, protein from ham and soy egg (滷蛋), vegetables from the cucumber, fruit from the tomato, and oil/fat from the generous dollop of Taiwanese-style mayo (not to mention the fat absorbed by the bread in the deep-frying process...)

After that yummy goodness, I walked around and found myself a seat at Wu's Crab Soup (吳記螃蟹羹).  I keep coming back here for the oily glutinous rice (油飯).

I also got myself a bowl of crab soup (螃蟹羹), but at least today I didn't have I Love Lubutin around to spill a ton of white pepper into the bowl like last time...

With my belly full, I strolled back past Ducky once again, thanked him for coming to Taiwan and bringing happiness to thousands of children and adults alike, and made my way back to Taipei.  An epic dinner awaits...

P.S.  The day after my visit, poor Ducky suddenly ripped at the seams and blew up.  I'm sooooo glad I got to see him on this trip!