DAY 5
The next morning saw us depart early to catch a train back
to Taipei before heading to our next destination, Tamsui, a coastal city on the
northern tip of Taiwan just outside of Taipei.
For the afternoon, we headed out to explore the city. Near our hostel was a street similar to the
night market with many fruit and street food vendors, restaurants, and shops. After that, we meandered over to Fort Santo
Domingo, a fort first built by the Spanish, later used by the British as a
consulate, and now is a tourist destination.
To cap off the afternoon, we went to fisherman’s wharf to walk around
and see the views of the river, mountains, and sea.
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| He wasn't getting any of my breakfast! |
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| Xincheng (Taroko National Park) Station |
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| View from the balcony at the Tamsui Hostel |
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| Old Street (Market) |
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| Fort Santo Domingo |
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| British Consular Residence at Fort Santo Domingo |
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| I finally found shoes in Asia that fit me!!!!! |
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| Fisherman's Wharf |
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| Fisherman's Wharf |
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| Best name I've ever seen for a boat! |
At this point of our trip, both Lisa and I were exhausted
and much in need of some R&R time.
It was the perfect opportunity to go to Xinbeitou, an area near Tamsui
famous for its many hot springs. After
walking around a while and getting lost, we finally find a place we deem
acceptable. It only cost a bit more than
US $1 to enter.
After fumbling around with the lockers and the shower, (both
were pay per use), it was finally time to enter the hot springs. It didn’t take long to get used to the sulfur
smell from the water and once I did, it was a very relaxing evening. There were three tiers of pools, each one
hotter than the one below it. The top
pool’s temperature was between 45°C to 50°C (113°F-122°F). I started in the lowest pool and worked my
way up. The top pool was mostly used by
a bunch of old men and when I finally made my way up there, they were watching
me with an expression that seemed to say, “Yeah, right. Good luck buddy.” The top pool was SCALDING!!!!! It took almost 10 minutes, but I finally was
able to submerge myself up to my neck.
Even then, I could only take about 5 minutes before I had to take a dip
in one of the cold pools. Moving between
the different pools was very enjoyable. It
was a perfect night relaxing the muscles while soaking up the sulfuric water
under the nighttime sky. Needless to
say, I slept like a baby that night!
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| The result of bathing in the hot springs! |
DAY 6
The hot springs were very relaxing, but we were not finished
with our down time. The next day was to
be our day at the beach so back to the train station we went and headed to
Fulong Beach, a popular beach on the northeast coast of Taiwan. Other than being very windy at times, it was
a perfect day (especially for someone with pale skin like me) for lying in the
sand, reading, eating a sub sandwich, and some swimming.
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| Fulong Train Station |
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| Fulong Beach Entrance |
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| It was very windy at times!!!!! |
On the way back to the hostel in Tamsui, we decided to try a
local delicacy called iron eggs. These
dark brown/black eggs have been stewed for days until pickled. Like the stinky tofu, it is widely considered
a must try item when visiting Taiwan, and also like the stinky tofu, it was one
bite and in the trash.
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| I don't know what this was but it was on display in one of the Taipei Metro stations. |
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| Iron Eggs |
DAY 7
With our energy restored, our last full day was spent in
Taipei. We started the day by going to
the Taipei Zoo. Our goal was to see the
pandas and possibly even the baby panda that we had read about. The panda house was our second stop, but
unfortunately, the only panda we could see was napping. We promised to stop by later after touring
the rest of the zoo. Overall, it was a
very nice zoo, but nothing spectacular to set it apart from any other zoo I
have been to. We revisited the panda
house on our way out and luckily, the panda was up and moving about. The baby panda was nowhere to be seen
however.
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| I don't know what it is about Taipei and weird statues!!! This one is outside the Taipei Zoo! |
Upon leaving the zoo, we heading to the Maokong Gondola just
down the street. The glass-floored
gondola offers many scenic views of Taipei, the surrounding mountains, and the
forest canopy as it takes you to the top of a mountain to Maokong, a tea
growing area of Taiwan. After a quick
dinner, the rest of the evening was spent at a teahouse/café on the mountain
watching the sunset over the city of Taipei.
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| Glass Bottom Floors of the Gondola |
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| Maokong |
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| View from Teahouse |
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| Gondola Station On Top of Mountain |
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| Gondola View of Taipei |
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| Gondola View of Taipei 101 |
DAY 8
We had some time to kill on our last day before our flight
was scheduled to depart. We went to a
shopping area in Taipei with the hopes of finding some souvenirs. We did not have much luck as most of the
stores were of the retail variety and did not carry what we were looking
for.
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| We may not have found souvenirs....... |
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| ....but we found giant ice cream cones for cheap!!! |
We both agreed that the best way to end the trip was to head
back to Din Tai Fung for lunch followed by another helping of mango ice. Much to our chagrin, the wait time at the
restaurant was almost two hours, which we could not afford, so we gloomily
headed back to the hostel to get our stuff and then went to the airport.
After an uneventful flight, again sitting in exit row, (I
cannot recommend Korean Air enough to anyone looking to fly into or out of
Korea), we landed at Incheon. After
passing through immigration and getting our luggage, we headed for the bus
ticket counter only to find that the last bus departed for Changwon at 10:00
P.M. as opposed to midnight as I had originally thought! The next bus to Changwon left at 7:00 A.M. so
it appeared we would be spending the night in the airport.
Later, we found out about a 1:00 A.M. bus that would take us
to the Seoul bus station where we could catch an earlier bus in the morning to
Changwon. However, when we arrived, the
terminal was closed for the night.
Looking around, we noticed a bunch of Koreans sleeping off their
drunkenness on the benches in front of the bus station. Lacking other options, we found our own bench
and settled in to grab a couple hours of sleep before finally heading back
home.
Overall it was a great trip.
There was a great variety of activities to do so no matter what your
interest are, be it history, culture, outdoor activities, relaxation, or
anything else, you can find lots to do in Taiwan. To anyone looking to travel in Asia, I would
highly recommend visiting Taiwan. I,
myself, would love to go back to Taiwan someday to revisit some of the same
sights as well as to do many of the other things we never got the chance to do.
