Taipei Day 4 - Beitou (spring)

 Beitou today!!! 

First we MRT and got off at the Beitou MRT station, and walked towards Shin Beitou Station. We forgot that we were supposed to transfer onto the pink line at the MRT station but oh well, that means we get 2 MRT stamps! 

Then we headed down to Qixing Park, and a man was selling strawberries. We picked the cheapest one at $150. They were tart but yummy. Half the plastic box was just air. XD It was lined with a polystyrene sort of foam and only like 1.5 later of strawberry lined up on the top. 

The old wooden Shin historical Beitou Station was across from the MRT station. The old wooden station had really pretty roof rafters and the roof tiles were copper, so it would have up to 7 different colours depending on the lighting. The windows were round and protuded put from the roof and the unique architecture was pointed out.  The roof gutter piping was copper too. 

The station had a shop inside and some info about the building. Outside there was a old train (pre-air conditioning) with a blue runner that was a Japanese model that ran for many years, adding to the memories of the local Beitou residents. 

Next we headed towards the park and started to stroll towards the Hot Spring Museum. 

We were getting hungry, and we spotted a ramen place just across from the entrance of the park, that had the windows open on 2F. We managed to get a seat next to the window, and thank goodness. The ramen were tourist priced though, at $399 a bowl. It was yum, and their fried tofu was awesome. 

To the Hot Spring Museum now. The museum was busy! 

They were very orderly though, and first we took our shoes off and placed them into the lockers. They had a lot of windows open today, and at the central lounge they had a big tatami mat room, with the sides open to the balcony, so heaps of fresh air. The museum was structured that you could follow the viewing order, and one flight of stairs is one way only, so you go down and then go up another set of stairs. The bottom floor had the big onsen pool, with the stained glass windows. 

There was another room with smaller pools made with the mosaic of 奶奶 and 姥姥's bathtubs!!!!!!!!! I loved this. One of the pools had a screen with a misty effect coming up from the bottom and you could take a photo looking like you're soaking in a natural scenic view background. It was hard hiding the phone in the mist and getting a good photo into frame. 

The Beitou area used to be Taiwan Hollywood due to the large amount of films produced there in the 50-60's. There were heaps of hotels and lots of resorts. If you were a business boss you would come to beitou to have your gatherings and talks, with the makashi (?) bands. Later it became a legal red light district, and then in the 80's it was outlawed so Beitou started to decline. 

Beitou also has the only mineral names after a place in Taiwan called Hokutolite (Japanese pronounciation). This mineral comes from the hot spring waters, and takes 120 yrs to deposit and form. The deeply bluey green of the spring water is one of the 3 types of onsen waters available in Beitou. 

After the museum we went to thermal valley. On the way we stopped for onsen tamago and L got a spicy one. Tea was sold out so I got a non-flavored one and a wine flavoured one. The wine flavoured one really did have quite a strong wine flavour, but the soup it was soaking in is yum. The plain one felt underflavoured in comparison, haha. 

Then we went into Thermal Valley. It was a huge lake that was hot!! With signs saying it is hot and to keep out. I think it was about 75-80°C. So a huge amount of steam rose up all the time. The mud in the lake looked kinda like the moon's surface, crater-y and lots of mountain ranges. It was a small valley and the track went around in a loop. At the entrance they had a hand bath in the shape of Taiwan haha, with the tail being a drain into a secondary pool.

We got to the thermal valley about 4:15pm, and the valley closes at 5pm so we finished more or less on time. We decided to head to a public footbath, and on the way we chance discovered 中心新村!!! I didn't know that was here!! They have 79 houses and eventually all of them will be preserved and open to the public. There was also a stamp rally that pieced together a scenery of the street. 

中心新村 felt the most authentic in the set up and it really did feel like 姥姥's 眷村. So nostalgic... I will come back here again as they close at 6pm and we got here at like 5:15pm. Ahhhhh they even had a public bathhouse/toilet (as no houses had plumbing initially). 

After that we started to head back. We decided to have beef noodles and I found a place about 15 min walk from Shin Beitou Station. It was called 吳家牛肉麵 and there was a line!!!! They had heaps of seating but they were still so busy!!!!!! 

We opted for the other noodle place next door and they were fairly quiet in comparison. The noodles were average, and the soup wasn't very brothy. I had the plain broth (clear soup), and the noodles were just a tad undercooked so it had the floury flavour. 

Once done we headed back to the MRT station to get back to the hotel. 

We stopped by a 7 on the way and bought some stuff for breakfast. 

Then when we were back in Ximen we stopped by Uniqlo and I found a Saint Seiya shirt!! That's a present for Lake, along with the Blokees plakit my friends picked up for me. 

Then back, shower and crash!!! L had energy still and went to DONKI. How. Lmao. My feet actually hurt.

I feel asleep and didn't hear him come back.