台北游记12 Day5 －热烘烘的体验

We decided to "squeeze" in a half-day excursion to "hot spring" at Beitou, which was about 30mins train ride from Taipei. It was doable becos we purposely booked our flight late pm. We wanted to experience the private bath experience as compared to the public pool in Japan. Taking simple cleansing lotion and off we started on our early morning journey. We passed by a small breakfast eatery besides Cosmo Hotel to fulfill my wife's craving for nice and economical breakfast that her brother has brought her to try before. 

The journey to New Beitou was smooth. We have to make a change only at Beitou and I read that there supposed to be a "pick up" shuttle to send us to "hot spring" hotel. Reading from the guidebook and internet, there were several recommended ones to try and we decided on a 5-star one called Spring City resort (we like "Spring" theme for this trip, I guess). I rem watching a show about hotspring hotels in Taiwan and the importance of visiting reputable ones to ensure quality experience. As usual, we decided to walk to find for the pickup transport and we missed it and only saw the van driving past us. As determined as usual, we walked to the hotel. It was a cool 30 mins walk and luckily it was still early morning.

The hotel gave us a modern feel and we were ushered to a private room for an hour experience. Didn't want to stay long as it was not advisable to immerse in mineral water for long anyway. There was a warning sign next to the bath tub and made me feel uneasy and more conscious when playing with the hot spring. It was interesting to have such artificial way of hot springing where there were separate taps for water and spring water. I liked to put the hot towel on my forehead like the japs and this time I did it quickly to adhere to the guidelines of not hot springing for a longer than recommended timings. It was really a hot feeling but we felt relaxed after the hot springing.



After hot springing, we went to Thermal Valley and the hot spring museum to understand the hot spring culture in Beitou. Along the route we chanced upon a public hot spring bath and also a natural hot spring river. We saw two pairs of couple - one young and one old and my wife thought it was an interesting scene to capture. I felt so too. 

It is good to travel with loved ones and there will always be fond memories to talk about and to laugh about. Being a "difficult" traveller, I am amazed how my wife love to travel with me. Looking at the two couples, I can imagine how much things we can talk about when we go traveling at old age. It is the things that we do together that make our lives fun and memorable. Things that we try together and things that we may succeed or not that piece the happy family puzzle together.

As how "difficult" traveller could I get, we were "hot" again carrying our backpack to the train station. I rem there were two different stations and it would be important to get to the right one especially with our heavy backpack. After sweating out buying my doeraemon buns and my wife's delighted goods, we went searching for the station and finally got there after sweating profusely on my back. A bit pissed off but we managed to cool down on our journey. I must rem to get to the right station next time when I bring my wife and family to Taipei again. Heh.

台北游记12 Day4 － 再见清境

不知不觉我们已经在深山野林三天了，有点依依。I have purposely bought the bubble bottles to blow bubbles with my wife at the balcony but there were simply too much distractions from the bees and insects. However, the "tree" house we have was really an experience and that it would be a pity if we did not enjoy sitting at the balcony blowing bubbles.

Looking at the bubbles - some bigger and some smaller flowing down to the mountain and trees was a nice feeling. I blew a few real big bubbles and I even took one photo of the big bubble (or aptly called balloon) as it followed the wind into the deep forest.

我们没安排太多节目，清境显得很轻松。因为想再吃不同的摆夷菜，就google到云南十八怪这间菜馆。It wasnt very far from our homestay, about 10 mins walk but upslope before reaching the makan place. I read from blog that this restaurant was also yunnan people. I also noticed that there was a special type of fish which they would cook - one of the 18 different types of dishes - giving them this unique name.

Trying not to order too much before our journey back to be town mice, we ordered the dishes that we have not tried before at 七彩屋。The food was okay and the place was interestingly decorated. I liked the "yunnan" tune that they played and it was the same at the 七彩屋.

There were some pictures of "stars"  on the wall, probably local ones which we did not recog. Overall experience was good like eating in a tree house. Tree houses were unique of Yunnan people I was told.

It was a good getaway from the busy Taipei life. We packed our stuff and took a few more photos before walking to our boarding point. Without coming here, we didn't know the culture of yunnan has immersed greatly in this mountainous area. I have the urge to travel to the real Yunnan some time in our lives to experience the yunnan delicacies and culture.