Sunday, May 31, 2009 @ 8:10 PM
Taiwan Day 6
Taiwan Day 6 (Tuesday)-Moved to Garden House home stay
-Beitou Spring city Hotspring resort
-Danshui 老街
-Shilin Night Market
Woke up to check out of our convenient Rainbow Hotel at approximately 12pm.
Travelled to gu ting(古亭） Station where our home stay was located near by.
TY sourced out for us this particular home stay as it had good reviews via word of mouth and that it was near her school.
The home stay's website is over here.
The homestay provides:
A toothbrush with toothpaste
A small face towel
Soap & Shampoo
washing machine
communal toilets
communal fridge
Kitchen
Wireless internet [ REMEMBER TO ASK THE OWNER FOR THE PASSWORD BEFORE SHE GOES OFF!]
It was really interesting! We actually got to experience how Taiwanese people live in the city!
You had to walk through a lane to the back alley where the house was located and even though the building looks narrow, space is maximised to the fullest usage, such as a narrow corridor etc.
Just take a look at the pictures ( some were taken at night):
There's a cafe beside the home stay.
Front seating area, sort of like the waiting place or hang out place:
Main door area before going out.
Our room,
The dining area & small kitchen,
Everyone wants to know the cleanliness of the toilets,
There were 2 toilets, shower head only and seating urinals. Not bad hygiene standard! The soap and shampoo is provided inside with a dispensing machine.
Narrow corridor, total of about 3 rooms in the house.
Laundry area outside the house, but within coverage of the apartment.
We left our luggage in the room and went off to beitou!!!!!!!
After serious walking, my feet were aching like mad!
Was thoroughly looking forward to a nice relaxing hot spring dip!
We went to : Spring Resort
http://www.springresort.com.tw/en/main4.php
At Beitou Station, there will be a shuttle bus just for Spring resort.
Quite pricey! NT$800 per person for the outdoor hot spring pools, unlimited time. However, there is only so long you can stay inside right?
Spring Resort Lobby
There were 9 different hot/cold springs in the outdoor facility.
Hot/cold springs area
Must wear swimsuit and bring a shower cap. Cannot take photos inside. Thus the lack of pictures.
Out of the nine pools, 2 were cold springs.
And by cold, it was really cold.
And the rest were hot springs with temperatures 40 degrees celsius and up. It might take some getting used to, to the hot water.
The fun part about the pools was that each pool had a different usage or therapy.
There was the Cleopatra cold spring, the slimming pool ( The hottest water, 42 deg.), the massage one with the water cascading down from the top to hit your back below ( That one was the most relaxing) and much more.
After that you can bathe at their bath house which also provides:
hair dryers
ear buds
soap and shampoo
towels
hair dryer
Quite cool I must say, but again. Hefty price!
After showering, we sneaked a few pictures.
Refreshed, we trooped off to Danshui!
Danshui train station
Danshui surroundings.
One woman blowing bubbles by the sea.
And by gosh, Taiwanese love their Starbucks.
A 5-storey building Starbucks.
Throughout the 8 days, there were times when I desperately needed coffee and it was VERY difficult to get Starbucks coffee as the queues were so long EVERYWHERE.
0.o Don't ask me why! There was no signage outside stating any promo either. Oh well!
Danshui laojie!
Be it with friends or family this is a very nice place to go to!
Very interesting, with the sea so near by and street after street with game stalls, food, and fashion stuff.
The ever famous tall ice cream.
We got a miniature one though, coz we wanted to try out other stuff.
Game stalls, Danshui has a lot!
The streets of Danshui old street.
AHAHAHA, XH look!
Immediately thought of XH. Turned out it was also a home stay! AT DANSHUI! HEEHEE!
Danshui's famous ah gei (阿给） We noted that in forums, they were saying the fishballs were famous and etc.
Thus we tried that out. Found it nothing to be raved about.
Turned out that the most famous thing was what the store was named after, an ah gei, which is something like toufu wrapping tung hoon in some soup.
This mushroom snack in Danshui is my new found drug, I kept CRAVING for it can.
It's just mushroom deep fried in batter, but somehow so yummy and healthy at the same time D:
Danshui had this bag store called the NT$50 store? However the bags inside are really dated, some nice one will go for maybe NT$200.
OH! And Danshui has this store that sells the cutest candy in the cutest packaging.
See, its called Sophisca, along one of the streets. I forgot the address! T_T SO SORRY!
The candy's not cheap though! Do take note!
We soon left that day to go walk around Shilin NM again. Haha, cannot get enough of that place.
We went to line up for the famous Hot star fried chicken
and damn is it big and juicy and terrific-ly yummy.
It accompanied us for our mian xian dinner.
We went to eat Ah Zong Mian xian!
The place where they don't offer tables, haha, it is supposed to be eaten like that.
Was really yummy and cheap too! Approximately SGD $1+ for a small bowl, SGD$2+ for a big bowl!
In fact the whole day, we didnt eat a proper dinner, we just went around buying all the small snacks till we were full.
This time we visited the pet section again, it was quite cruel of the store owners to place them in a container like that with all the bright & hot lights glaring at them =\ What can we do?
How I wish I can da pao ( take away) one puppy or rabbit back to SG.
Hee, Random photo of the day:
Bf & I were wondering how come everyone so automatic will line up for the trains.
Guess we got out answer!
