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Published: August 25th 2009
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Vietnamese concert
Taiwanese hiding from the sun. Da'an Park
I'm starting to wake up at slightly more respectable time of day than I did when I first arrived. The last couple of days it's been around 9:30 so i'm feeling like less of a teenager. Anyway when it's 35 C outside being surrounded by concrete and constant traffic becomes pretty oppressive so I flick through the guidebook to see if I can escape from it all. Da'an park is Taipei's largest park and is apparently where the Taiwanese go to chill out. It;s a bit of a pain in the arse to get to becasue the brown line is closed for engineering works (it's not just London that does this on a Sunday then) so I have to catch a shuttle bus which takes me within ten minutes of the park. I actually wasn't expecting anything too special as I remember that in Korea many of the parks were just small scrubby areas of brown grass and concrete. So it was a pleasant surprise when it came into view. It's a good size, maybe not in the same bracket as Hyde Park or Central Park but certainly big. One half is open space and I can see
people playing baseball and frisbee. The other half is more landscaped, in fact it's so manicured it almost looks artificial. I take a stroll round and walk into the middle of a Vietnamese music festival that's going on. There are so many Taiwanese watching that even the trees are full of people. A couple of attractive Taiwanese girls come up to me and say hi before running off giggling. The music is pretty dire so I carry on walking and get to the foot massage path. This is a short stretch of concrete embedded with pebbles that you are invited to walk over bare foot. It's a bit like walking on Brighton beach but more painful. I finally walk out the other end of the park from where I entered back into the concrete jungle of the city. It has to be said though that the area around the park is a lot nicer than where I'm staying at Minquan W road. The streets are wider and heavily lined with trees which bring the temperature down to a more bearable level. There are quite a few buxibans around the place and I jot a few names down to email later.
Da'an
Tree lined streets met with my approval.
This is definitely an area I'd like to spend more time in and I add it to the category marked "potential"
Beitou hot springs
So when it's 35 C outside the first thing you think of doing is visiting some volcanic hot springs. I decide to go because they aren't too far from Martin's and i'm feeling lazy. I take the MRT to Beitou and then transfer there to Xinbeitou which is just one stop further on. As the train approaches Jiantan we go right past the Grand Hotel and I wonder how the hell I missed it at the first time of asking. Anyway, underneath Taipei there bubbles a number of naturally occurring volcanic hot springs. Beitou is the best place to experience these and a resort has grown up to cater for the large number of visitors who, like me, want to see what all the fuss is about. Anyway, I get off the MRT at Xinbeitou and wow, there is a really strong smell of sulphur in the air. Bearing in mind I'm also exploring potential areas to live in at the moment I add Xinbeitou to the category marked "no." But it is kind
of pretty. I walk up to the hot springs park which is an elongated oval shape running lengthways uphill. The hot spring runs down the middle of the park giving off its foul smell, flanked by spa hotels which channel the water to their paying guests. And yes it is damn hot, i stick my hand in. I walk upstream and find the Beitou Hot Spring Museum where I'm invited to remove my shoes and given a snazzy pair of leather slippers to walk around in. As i browse around I hear a shout of "Where you from" that I've not heard for months. I'm accosted by two Korean students who are delighted to find out that I spent time over there. I've hardly spoken to anyone in person for a week so I'm happy to stand around yakking for a few minutes with them. This museum is remarkable for it's unremarkableness (new word). There is almost nothing in it and it's a very quick visit. The public baths are right next to the museum but they're closed for lunch. Great timing, and I've forgotten my trunks so I'll be back here again, probably when it's a little cooler. There's
Beitou hot spring museum
Remarkably unremarkable. time for a cheeky iced coffee at the Starbucks back at the bottom of the hill and then it's back to Martin's and some welcome air-conditioning.
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