i-Taipei

Part 3

Hot spring was something that we were talking about before making the Taipei trip. A and myself spent that tiny bit of time that we could from work to look for value-for-money hot spring package. Unfortunately, nothing prospective turned up. We decided to look around when we were in Taipei instead. 

Z recommended Dan Shui Yu Ren Ma Tou (渔人码头), she said scenery was pretty good. So we planned to visit Yu Ren Ma Tou for cycling and do hot spring on the same day. Sounds pretty logical doesn't it? A hot soak after cycling :)

Prior to making our day trip, we went to get some breakfast. Hot dumplings! Looks good doesn't it :) Street food was pretty affordable when compared to what we paid for Korea's. 

Yu Ren Ma Tou is perhaps about 45 min from where we stay by train. After the 45 min of train, guess our dismal when we were met with huge downpour when we exit from the train gantry! But we were still lucky, we got our rain coat with us :) We walked from where we were to the nearest mall, and hung around there for about an hour or so before we decided the rain was small enough for us to venture to the nearby old streets (老街). 

The streets looked rather unimpressive, but as we walked, there were stuff that caught our interest, especially the food stuff. We even saw a Hello Kitty bakery store. I was more intrigued with this machine that could churn out blocks of cake. 

We left Dan Shui in the late afternoon as the weather continued to be wet, and made our way to Xin Bei Tou (新北头) for the hot spring. We started our walk from the train station and looked around for hot spring. I think what I had in mind was kind of like what I used to see in the Japanese drama series that I watched - small pool of steaming water in open air. Well, I never knew hotels had upgraded to pumping the hot spring water into their hotel room, and now it is soaking in a bathtub in the hotel room. 

Everyone was pretty tired for the day, and we decided to check into a semi-hotel for the night. The room was less than SGD100, and we could soak in the comfort of our own room. Hmm... but I probably would not go back to such hot-spring-water soak again? No pictures for the hotel room and the bath tub; you can pretty much use your imagination. 

An overview of Xin Bei Tou from our room.

The next day, we checked out close to noon, and made our way back to the apartment to offload the food stuff we got from the Dan Shui's old streets, and made our way to Jiu Fen and Shi Fen!

We had no idea how to make our way so we asked our way there; and it was the start of a long chain of train rides. 

By the time we reached Shi Fen, the sky were dark, and the local told us it was not wise to continue the trip to Jiu Fen after Shi Fen...

Peeping when hubby and K were buying sausages :)

So we took our time in Shi Fen, to light the sky lantern (孔明灯) for the new year wishes, shopped around for souvenir and to have a hot dinner. The sky lanterns were lighted along the railway track. It was drizzling pretty heavily when the lanterns were let off, but miraculously the lanterns flew off without much deterrence. 

We reached Taipei close to midnight, and once past midnight, it was K's birthday! A had made arrangement with us prior to the trip to look out for a night cafe where we could celebrate K's birthday. In the end, A decided to get the cake and celebrate in the apartment instead. 

A small cake, that is :)

Excluding the accommodation and air tickets, the expenses for 5-night stay in Taipei can be as low as SGD400. I think this is pretty comfortable; this amount should cover the food, transport and simple shopping. Facial product is relatively cheap in Taipei too. For example, I use this 3M Nexcare pimple patch; this costs about SGD8.00 for 36 patches in Singapore. I got twice the number of patches for close to the same price. I know I would be stocking up on this on the next trip!