November 8, 2010

Hello Taipei – Day 3 (Part 2)

 

As we prepared to leave Danshui the immediate plan was

to soak ourselves silly in one of the hotsprings in Beitou hotels

boarded the MRT to Beitou and made a transit to the Xin Beitou line

and caught a cab to the nearest hotspring hub

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i was sweating profusely all the way there

we walked and walked and finally came to a natural hotspring

and i was really sweating buckets by then

due to the heat from the hotspring

*not for public use!!!

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note: temperature 100 Celcius

jump in, you die!!

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hotspring hotels are widely available in Xin Beitou

you don’t have to stay over to enjoy a soak

the cab driver left us at the foot of the hill where there were

hotsprings all over with prices ranging from NTD200-NTD400 per person

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i was so freaking tired i decided to patronize the nearest one

thank god the bf said he wanted to have a look at the private room

it was a small room with a bathtub with a hot and cold water tab and worst of all

the place looked really rundown and dirty

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actually i was expecting to go for the luxurious hotsprings as seen on TV

the locals told us that we had to walk uphill for more options

i was flabbergasted but i had no choice so i continued walking

and finally settled on Spring City Resort or something

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it looked pretty decent on the outside

walked in, paid NTD1,600 for an hour of this hotspring experience

and i enjoyed every minute of it

it was pretty zen inside, obviously influenced by Japanese architecture

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an hour flew by quickly and we had to leave the hotel

lucky for us, they provide shuttle service to the Beitou MRT station

boarded the train and made a transit at Taipei Main Station for Ximending (blue line)

took us about 15-20 minutes altogether

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the plan was to stay a night at Ximending

we thought we’d be able to find a room so we didn’t make any reservations

the first hotel we went to, Rainbow Hotel was fully booked for the night

the receptionist told us to try our luck at other nearby hotels

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we combed the entire area and still couldn’t find a room

because it was a Saturday night

having already walked the entire Ximending area

we opted not to stay for the night

we quickly diverted and caught a cab

and told the driver to find a reasonably-priced hotel nearest to Taipei 101

and the hunt began…… and finally found one

and i was elated as i was totally knackered from the day

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after we freshened up we prepped ourselves for Shilin night market

i’ve heard so much about this place

and i was excited to go there because i didn’t get a chance

the last trip there

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From our hotel we told the cab driver to bring us to the MRT station

From the Guting (green line) station we took the MRT to Taipei Main Station

and changed platform to the Danshui line and

boarded off at Jiantan

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the night market was just opposite the station

the closer i was the more excited i became i dunno why

and when once i arrived

it was street food galore and more shopping

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the bf immediately led me to the foody goody area

and ordered a variety of food he couldn’t finish

i settled for plain noodles

cause i couldn’t think right at that point – too tired

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although there were plenty to see

surprisingly i couldn’t find any clothes i liked

i think cause i was too too tired.. (repeated 100x at least, lol)

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so i bought some gifts from here

toiletry pouches, little print bags and other stuff liddat

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to be honest we must have taken literally hundreds of pictures today

but lao niang lazy to upload now

Shihlin really lives up to its reputation, size and variety

but like i’ve said in the previous post

if you’ve been to one night market, you’ve been to all

and that is what it is for me

we covered the whole night market god knows where i got that energy from

and by the time we were back at the hotel it was already close to 2 a.m

crazy anot?

youtellme

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