Day 6 Beitou Tamsui

My strategy was if rainy, stay near Taipei, if sunny, head out. :)  Off we went on a day trip to Beitou/Tamsui since the weather forecast was good.  

 At Beitou station

We tried out Fuxing Hot Foot Bath.  It was free and well-patronised, mostly by older people.  The water temperature was no joke... people had an obvious red line on their thighs from where they stood in the bath.  Kind locals advised us the bath with less-hot water.  I had to pressure the girls to go in. :)  

Hot, hot!

Hah, by the time I was ready to leave, the girls had acclimatised and I had to WAIT for them to get out.

Actually this is not so bad

Then we looked for lunch.  It was a Saturday and food outlets were pretty busy.  Went to Ootoya for Japanese food but the queue was long and slow.  Ended up settling on Sukiya for simple Japanese food.

Japanese curry, gyudon/beef rice

Tuna patty for me

Walked past the Beitou Public Library - beautiful architecture.  

This here is the Beitou Public Library

Our destination was the Hot Spring museum which had good internet reviews.  It was a real public bathhouse so we could get a good idea how things were.  Found the place not quite deserving of its high rating heh.  Still, it was free so cannot complain.

Take a photo for my followers...

Messed around with some signs - erm no, couldn't read them.

This cow is... erm bathing

Buy this soap!  It's erm.. good

We walked on to the Thermal Valley.  This was a lake of hot water surrounded by trees and a walkway.  Nice, something special. :)

Steaming hot water below

Good weather too

I started getting anxious we might not have enough time for Tamsui, so we headed off.  I needn't have worried... Tamsui was basically a huge seaside walk with plenty of shops alongside, which open till late.  Well at least we had enough daylight to turn off at this '3D Art Ladder' to see painted murals.  There weren't many and most of the paint was flaking off on the walls and stairs.

The brightest and best mural

Walked on to 'Love Lane' which was an old street with supposedly more murals.  It was atmospheric I suppose, just pretty small.  Sometimes... cannot trust the internet.  There was another group visiting there who obviously got conned as well haha.

Take picture since we are here

OK we leaving now

Of course we had to try 'Ah Gei' which can only be found in Tamsui.  This invention is cellophane noodles stuffed into a fried taufu and served in a starchy sauce.  It was ok, nothing great but easy enough to eat.  We walked around and tried some other snacks.

Having some 'Ah Gei'

This pastry has red bean filling

That night, realised there was an Ootoya outlet right at the doorstep of our hotel!  Dinner was delicious, another one of our top meals!  The waiter was so kind too... brought us an English menu when he noticed this bunch of people didn't read Chinese, later offered to take pictures for us when he noticed me taking pictures of the girls.

Best meal ever!

We were happily stuffed but somehow JE found another stomach for boba tea.  *roll eyes

This brand is good

Yep, overall a good rating for this day!