Hello Taiwan 2014 ! Day 4 - Hot Spring Thermal Valley (地熱谷) >>> Dan Shui (淡水老街) >>> Mengjia Night Market (艋舺夜市)

We were on our own for the 4th day ! It's pretty accessible for what we have planned, to the northernmost district of Taipei City, Xin Bei Tou & Dan Shui Lao Jie.

The past three days, I did not really do much retail therapy for myself but rather feeling happy with my retail therapy for Vera ! Managed to find and bought some headbands for Vera from the night markets.

We had some lunch and went Taipei main station in search of Micia. Took me quite a while to locate the shop, not knowing that it was actually located at U Square. They carry a wide range of rubber stamps with Chinese characters. I am pretty well self disciplined. I shortlisted the few below to add into my cart. =)

Another mission on hand at Taipei Main Station is to locate the infamous shop that sells Tai Yang Bing, 太阳饼 (Sun Biscuits) . I was told by one of my friends that this brand tastes good. It's flaky on the outside with malt fillings in it.

Salted egg yolk lovers, you may want to try this if you come across. I bought one of them from the same shop to try. We bought quite a few boxes of Sun Biscuits back for our friends and colleagues.

Li Yi (李义饼店) is located at Taipei Station basement (Zone Z), 11-2B, near to exit J.

From Taipei Main Station, we took an approximately half an hour train ride to Xin Bei Tou, 新北投and went on foot about 850m to Hot Spring Thermal Valley << 地熱谷 >>.

 

As  we walked, we bypassed a few landmarks;

Taipei Public Library Beitou Branch << 台北市立圖書館北投分館 >>

Due to time constraints, We did not went into Beitou Hot Spring Museum. But we did popped by and Xav was enjoying his stamping session.

During the Japanese era, Beitou Hot Spring Museum, was a main public bath area. Visitors were asked to remove their footwear before entering (Japanese custom) and change into a pair of slippers as provided.

Beitou Hot Spring Museum << 北投溫泉博物館 >>

During the Japanese Colonial era, Hot Spring Thermal Valley was known as one of Taiwan’s eight great natural beauties. The temperature of the water ranges between 80 - 100 deg °C. The sight can be quite spectacular, the jade blue water with the rising mist over the green backdrop.

  

Do keep your mozzie patch on if you are visiting this place, I have got quite a few nasty bites from visiting the washroom !

We stopped by a convenience store and spotted this machine whereby you can have your picture taken and emailed to you.

Our near to 5pm, it was just nice to go to our next stop as planned - Dan Shui Old Street << 淡水老街 >>

From afar, we were drawn to the giant bubbles ! Yes end up, we bought the giant bubble stick back to Singapore.

淡水老街

The really HUGE cuttlefish

The happiest part of this trip to Dan Shui was probably, he got to savour this super tall, dual flavour ice-cream.

 

Don't topple please !

Happiness !

Vera was thinking if she gets her share too !

Brain FREEZE !

If you agree that when it comes to the second born, you'll tend to close one eye on what food they can try and this was what happened. Vera got to try something cold and sweet !

That was her reaction ! Hmmm.. What's that, mummy ?!

 

We managed to witnessed and captured the beautiful sunset which was gone within seconds.

Loads of games stalls along the stretch of houses.

Saw this "Chewy" cookie at one of the shops and hence, I decided to try it.

 

 

With red bean and pork floss filling and some other ingredients I didn't manage to figure it out. But overall, it was pretty nice  ! I loved the "chewiness" and end up I bought one big box back.

 

Do not ask me if Xav loves Hello Kitty. The moment he spotted it , instantly he requested for a picture with it.

 

A cute miniature of the kitty sponge cake standing outside.

Pretty lots of shops selling old school kind of games and titbits. We bought a set of Monopoly (Taiwan) version for our little Monopoly craze.

 

 

We went back to the hotel to unload, had a nice shower and change into a new set of clothes before we venture out to the next night market, Mengjia Night Market (艋舺夜市) and Huaxi Street Night Market.

Mengjia Night Market can be easily accessed via Taiwan Metro as well, alighting at Longshan  Station. This night market, youngsters may not like it. I feel that it's like a night market selling 2nd hand goods and don't expect to see any fashionable apparels , bags or shoes here. But they do have a wide variety of food stalls lined up along the closed roads.

We allowed Xav to try his hands on some shooting game. 300 "bullets" for him to target at the moving characters.

And he won himself a dart board !

 

Next, we went to Huaxi St Night Market aka Snake Valley.  At the southern part, if you are game enough to try out snake dishes here. This night market has a few shops that serves snake soup, snake blood, snake semen and even snake venom. But no photography is allowed.

Other than the above mentioned "special" food, turtle meat can be found here too. Plenty of massage parlours here if you would like to give your tired feet a massage.

We arrived here pretty late, majority of the shops were closed except for the massage parlours and the Snake restaurant. More to see in the day for sure. Personally, I find this area pretty boring =p.  But it's a good experience to come here just to look at what they have.

This completed our Day 4 of our 8 days Taiwan Trip.

 Below is my itinerary for Hello, Taiwan 2014  as I went along :
Day 1 - Inhouse Hotel << 薆悅酒店 >> & Shilin Night Market << 士林夜市 >>
Day 2 [Part 1] -  Cingjing, Lu Ma Ma 清境 << 魯媽媽 >>
Day 2 [Part 2] -  Cingjing , The Evergreen Grassland 清境 清境农场 & Starry House 觀星園景觀山莊
Day 3 - Day 3 Cingjing 清境 >>> Taichung 台中

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