Ha, our Ms "Perseverance Princess" is birthed.
We didn't noe how persevering Winnie can be till we went about wat we did today... Yups. {i was a bit unwell yet she cld persuade me to go on n on, that's how persevering she is !}
We went to Bei Tou via MTR aka the jie (2) yun (4); in S'pore known as MRT - did I mention this already ?
Bei Tou has two portions > one is the old area - called Bei Tou; whereas another portion is called Xin Bei Tou (newer and more commercialised?). It's famous for hotsprings and lotsa locals DO NOT come here. Haha. they go to Shi (1) Pai (2).
Anyways, we could not bother, as we were already in Xin Bei Tou and were quite happy just to go somewhere nearby for the hotspring experience !
It's a must since we are in Taiwan.
But the weather was said not to be suitable for a hot dip. The locals gave us a weird look. Yups.....
We found out there were mnany hotsprings within hotels, and shortlisted a few places after talking to the MTR staff.
There was a shuttle bus gg to the SPRING CITY HOTEL - with hotspring and thus we waited.
It was quite a short 5mins' wait yet we wondered several times - why isn't the bus coming ?
Ha.
We finally boarded the bus and were on our way to SPRING CITY HOTEL. But upon reaching, we were disappointed that they could not allow us to use different varieties of the hotspring pools at a reasonable price (would be more than NT 800 if we wanted so).
THUS, we left SPRING CITY and embarked on a 'search'. Yes, literally a search, down the hill (SpRING City was on the hill top - must be the more expensive one) and went on and on.....coz all of us - except Winnie, felt maybe there was no good place for hotspring after being challenged by the heat.
Nevertheless, Winnie led us on with enthusiasm and we finally found a place called Shui (3) Du (1) that could let us use several pools at NT 499 - with lockers and towels.
It was a good experience tis afternoon, and tho' there were many pple initially, there was NONE when we finally went into the pools (after our tea break - sipping tea and having thick toasts) > haha, God's divine timing for us, YEAH !
Julie and Winnie were so glad and refreshed that you cld see the glow on their faces. And yups, Win is planning to go for another one on the last day...
After the hot dip, we changed and went back to the City. [Oooppss, did we go Bei Tou and later Dan Shui ? actually as I am writing this, I am lost in the chronological order.]
So here it is (shd be accurately accounted here) ...
We proceeded to Dan Shui via MTR. It was a good ride. We enjoyed the ride to the end of the MRT line, chatting and also enjoying the scenery. It was the long weekend for the Taiwanese (Dumpling Festival/Dragon Boat Fest.) and the train was packed wif commuters.
*****
Dan Shui's famous for street stalls and also near to the Fisherman Wharf and Bali. Lotsa food and stuff to see. There were plenty of pple sitting by the benches just outside the Dan Shui MTR station. Much of the activities going on were craft-selling by the locals and caricature-drawing (jia lat, can't spell).
The weather was superb. We had reached ard evening time and there was a cool breeze. Lotsa food smells made it extremely tempting as we walked along. We were determined to stay focused [=p tho' sista Ivy ate lotsa of hua (1) zhi (1) wan (2), aka sotong balls (fried)] and eat only the famous foods (you see, as we chatted, we were told, hv to try the kong (3) que (4) ha (2) aka mussels and yam balls & Ah Gek (toufu stuffed wif beehoon).
To be honest, we dunno where to find all the delicious foods and famous local stuff. Just walked, walked, walked, bought and munched, tasted the different sorts together.
The first was hua zhi wan; followed by quail eggs (yummY !) and then Chou Toufu (smelly beancurd). Really yucky. Really.
ALL 4 of US agreed that we have had such bad experience wif the Chou Toufu that we frantically looked for something to get rid of the 'drain' smell lingering in our mouths thereafter, immediately.
Smelly Toufu is SUPPOSED to smell realli bad BUt taste heavenly. Guess wat ? the one which we bought DID NOT smell bad at all, BUT taste really yucky !!!!!!!!!
Gosh, after which, we all did not hv the courage to try smelly toufu which we saw along the way (even tho' the stall owners were v. persuasive in marketing their toufu).
Some more fried chicken nibblets for my frens.....and then we saw the 'magically tall' ice-cream (urgh, wish I knew how to post my pics now !) and had a go at it.
The queue was quite long, however, the servers worked hard and focused at 'churning' out numerous cones of 'magically tall ice-cream'. Ha, it was not tasty at all, tho' a sight to behold.
There was not much ice-cream flavour/taste at all. *Zilch* =P 'looks-nice-but-dun-taste-gd-at-all' item...
The best part is where we walked to a portion of the street, not knowing where else to go...and moi, yes - the greedy me said, "I am hungry, I need some rice ! Rice, not junky food or snacks !"
So, I pointed to the MacDonalds outlet just above my eye-level & said, let me go and buy a fillet burger. Ha, never tot that we would hv stumbled upon a reasonably gd and cheap seafood restaurant ! (it's just below the Macs) and upon my fren's Winnie's suggestion, we all went in [i forsaken my macs]
The restaurant was packed (forgot the name) and the mussels was a favorite dish among all the diners. We waited just a while and got a table -Yippee ! Food is on the way ! They ordered mussels, clams clear soup, fried rice (for moi) and kang kong. The three of them persuaded me to try the mussels and clams clear soup as well.
Tho' I did not comment much at the pt in time, I wana write here that the two dishes were rEALLY Gooddddddd. So fresh that I believe there's no fresher one that cld be found. Ivy said chirpily that she just felt like singing after eating the mussels ! haaaaaa. Yummy yummy, wished u were there rite ?
Thereafter, the four 'hungry ghosts' were so satisfied that we just walked on with renewed enthusiasm.
We also went for the boat ride to Bali (the queue was SSupppeeerrrr-super-long) Haaaaa, tis another story to tell...anyway, we managed to get into a conversation wif the boat assistant and managed to queue in a shorter queue and got onto the boat within 10mins. (The whole trip's really blessed lah)
Bali - read as Ba (1) Li (3) was just across Dan Shui and the nite was v cool as the breeze never stopped. We alighted and took a stroll along the promenade.....really gd after the dinner, coz after the stroll, we took the boat back to Dan Shui and ate MORE MORe more....haha, Ah Gek (not so fantastic) and shopped, shopped (they bought the 'tie (3) dan (4)' aka iron eggs and took pics wif the famous lady [best tie dan owner]. We walked on, and had beancurd wif yam balls much later in the nite. HAaaaaaa calories, late into the nite....fats.
O yes, we returned to the Taipei city area and went to another nite mkt ! We all became nite owls......
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