Taipei Day 2

Taipei day 2 was planned just the previous night before. We also had help from the travel guides provided by Homey Hostel. So our plan was to visit 新北投 (Xin Bei Tou) which was famous for its hot springs and historical sites, then proceed on to 淡水老街 (Dan Shui Old Street), and finally 士林夜市 (Shi Lin Night Market) for some street food.

At Taipei Main Station boarding the subway to Bei Tou.

It's actually quite convenient travelling by the subway. Take the Red Line heading towards Dan Shui and alight at Bei Tou, then change to the Pink Line to Xin Bei Tou(1 stop). Upon walking out of the subway station, follow the signs or map across the road to visit various attractions.

We decided to visit ~~Bei Tou Museum~~ Kaidagelan Cultural Museum for our first stop. Here is where they feature mainly the indigenous people of Taiwan as well as their culture and art dated since a long way back. This is the only photo since we were not allowed to take photos of the artifacts on the other levels.

A very grand looking Bei Tou Library.

We passed by a miniature waterfall on the way.

Next we visited the Bei Tou Hot Spring Museum. This lovely building was built during the Japanese era.

There was a tatami resting area with Japanese sliding doors on the second floor.

Lighting was good, very suitable for photo taking! :D

Meditating away~

These champagne flavored old school ice creams were found in a mini shop just outside a hot spring. Tasted so good on a hot day!

We continued along the path and found a hot spring hotel. I believe they have private hot spring rooms at an extravagant price. So if you want a luxurious holiday this might be the place you want to consider staying in!

We didn't try the hot springs here unfortunately but we did go to another one which you will see later!

The train from Bei Tou to Xin Bei Tou was quite special. It didn't look like the typical train we normally took in Taiwan, this looked like it was made of wood. And there were some touch screen panels inside the train for navigating attractions.

Took the Pink Line back to Bei Tou, and changed back to the Red Line all the way to the last station, Dan Shui.

This was how Dan Shui Old Street looked like. Beware of the incoming traffic along the road!

Students buying the extremely tall ice cream! They had many flavors like Chocolate, Vanilla, Yam, Mango and even Matcha! You can choose to have a mix of 2 flavors as well. There was a stall selling 铁蛋 (iron eggs) opposite.

Turn right at the end of the street and be greeted by a huge empty land and an amazing sea view!

Sea view from Dan Shui.

We did not visit 渔人码头 (Fisherman's Wharf) since it was rainy and the sea was choppy, hence we were lazy to travel across. :x

There were more shops along the sea stretch, most selling barbequed squid and old school games stores.

冰糖葫芦 (candied haw) at NTD 10 onwards!

And TA DAH, we found the authentic 阿给 (A Gei) by luck!

fried tofu cellophane noodles fish paste sweet sauce

Single serving of A gei.

A gei was orginated from Dan Shui and it is actually fried tofu with cellophane noodles and fish paste in it, served in sweet chilli sauce! Yums!

So we ordered a bowl of fishballs to go with it!

Stumbled along the famous 阿婆铁蛋 (A Po Iron Eggs), just at the corner near A Gei, and bought a few packets!

These tea cubes are currently trending in Taiwan. Just add a cube to a bottle of hot water, stir, and it's ready to drink! Comes in various flavors like green apple, osmanthus and black sugar. Some of them can even be made into jelly desserts just by leaving it in the fridge for few hours!

Across the road was this shop that sold freshly baked chiffon cakes. We wanted to try it since there was a queue and obviously very popular but they only sold the cakes in loaves. :( We didn't think two of us can finish one loaf by ourselves so if you go in groups, perhaps you can give it a try! Just look at how happy the Uncle was!

Another dog lover!:D

Since we had some spare time, we decided to go 八仙大唐温泉物语 (Ba Xian Da Tang Hot Spring).

After paying the entrance fees, we got to choose pretty yukata robes of our choices! :D

Left was for ladies, right was for men. The ones at the bottom were designs for kids!

The place was dimly lit with warm yellow lighting and there was soft music played in the background, very relaxing place!

Entrance to the washroom!

Us with our yukatas!

Look like settings in some Japanese anime.

Ohai!

How to train a tortoise.

I'm on a horse! :D

In a beautiful room for resting!

Heehee!

Having only a feet spa since we didn't bring our swimming costumes! The fishes all swarm over to bite off the dead skin on our feet, it was so ticklish initially!

Happy feet!

I hope Sadako doesn't crawl out! :p

Happy feet, happy us.

After the foot spa our feet was really smoother!! And it eased the tiredness from all the long walks! <3

Since we reached there after 5pm on a weekday, we got the tickets at a discounted price of NTD 490 each. Normal price was NTD 700. On weekends before 5pm tickets are NTD 800 and after 5pm tickets are NTD 560. They have different pricings for young kids and the elderly(above 65 years old).

You can check out the full price list here: http://www.fww.com.tw/tangspa/webc/html/about/index.asp

How to go there: Take the subway to Guandu Station, exit from Exit 1 and take bus R13 or R22. Alight at the last stop (Ba Li Station). The bus journey was quite long from what I remembered, at least half an hour!

Visited Shi Lin Night Market (Red Line) after that.

These two stalls were rather popular, and we tried both of them!

Chives wrapped in bacon from the carbon barbeque stall.

We didn't quite like it because of the sour sauce and taste of the chives in bundles.

LTT with the cheesy potato and bacon!

Not bad, but we were sick of it after few mouthfuls!

This uncle was selling really delicious black pork sausage! Try it if you see him!! He loves dancing while barbequing the sausages so it's easy to spot him! :D