I came to this port courtesy of USS KILAUEA on my final Navy WestPac in 1978. This is the only place where we could not have the
ladies aboard the ship. They had to wait in the boat . I have very fond
memories of Keelung because I was single and the ladies were kind of
loose. There was an embassy compound in Taipei where the center of
activity for Military folks took place. This was considered to be an R&R
port. A young lady had made friends with me at the China Seas club in
the compound and I invited her in. She paid for every thing, the
drinks and even the slot machines. She was a very beautiful girl and if
I could have gotten away with it I would have smuggled her in my sea bag
back to the states. But that was 12 years before I met my current wife.
One of the fears that the local officials had was that the girls were
working as spies for the Red Chinese. I have never been back there
thanks to Jimmy Carter so I do not know how things are there now. Back
then there was a big GM plant along the highway from Keelung to Taipei
and our route took us along the perimeter of the Taipei airport , there
were anti aircraft guns in towers all along the fence line. If you
wanted a Chilton book you could get it for 1/4 the price in Keelung but
just try to take it back into the states. You could even get US
NAVY tech manuals there, wonder who was supplying the originals since
those books are classified.
I almost married one of those girls. She called herself Maria. I had to
call it off though.
