Taipei, Taiwan Sep 2015 part 2
This is part two of our trip to Taipei in Sep 2015.
Beitou
Danshui
Tango Hotel Nanshi
Around Taipei
We love hotsprings and so decided to spend a night at one of the hotsprings hotels at Beitou.
Beitou is a northern suburb of Taipei and easily accessible by the Red MRT subway line.
We took a taxi from Ximending to XinBeitou(New Beitou) and that cost us around 320 NTD.
After about 20 mins, we arrived at Royal Seasons Hotel, Beitou.
The smell of sulphur was quite evident at the front of the hotel where steam came out from vents in the ground.
The room has a big stone tub where we can fill it up with hotspring waters.
The water doesnt smell sulphuric though or very alkaline, more like normal tapwater really.
Water temperature can also be controlled.
Toiletries from L'Occitane and a very nice set of yukata are provided !
The breakfast was quite limited to mostly Taiwanese dishes.
It was ok and not fantastic.
Entrance to the public hotsprings pool.
There are several pools from hot to lukewarm and totally packed on a weekend.
It is quite cheap to enter and they provide basic changing rooms and lockers.
They also sell towels and swimwear for those who need it.
Nudity not allowed here!
Recommend trying this place.
This impressive building is actually a library!
The New Beitou public library
A small picturesque stream outside the library.
Along the Red MRT line, we continued on to Danshui, the last stop on the Red line
Danshui is a small town along the coast and with a small harbour.
Lots of shops along the waterfront selling food, tourist items as well as arcade games.
There are two main streets, one along the waterfront and the other street is just one block south and runs parallel.
The non-waterfront street is more interesting.
We walked along the waterfront until we came to an intersection and walked back along the non-waterfront street.
Shop with a funny name!
Translates to "Mother's" but also sounds like a cussword in Mandarin. :)
In the old street area, we came across this restaurant named "Yeh's wonton restaurant" which is supposedly quite famous.
Actor Jay Chou's favorite restaurant in this area.
Ordered a roast chicken leg, wonton, minced meat noodles and a longan jasmine flower ice dessert.
Roast chicken was passable but the wontons and dessert were quite good!
The iced dessert was so refreshing in the humid hot summer weather!
Came across a teddy bear shop with lots of bears just next to Yeh's wonton.
Long queue! Have to check it out!
This shop sells some sort of egg custard bread but we didnt try due to the long lines.
This shop sells warm bread with butter inside.
Very tasty!!
Similar to the sugar bread we tried in Asakusa, Tokyo.
Should have got two...
Danshui MRT station.
We returned to Beitou and went to a nearby (about 10 mins walk) beef noodle soup restaurant that was recommended by the taxi driver.
This store's beef noodle soup was fantastic! Very very tasty.
The order came very fast as well and they had lots of customers.
This is the Wu family beef noodles shop.
Taipei people really love the apricot coloured toy poodles!
See them everywhere.
Oftentimes, the dogs dont even have leashes and they just follow their family around.
Quite amazing. lol
Older folk playing Chinese chess.
Quite a common sight in China as well, especially in the public parks.
Another interesting cultural aspect is that the Taiwanese would grill and cook food on the sidewalks outside their shops after closing hours.
As we walked back to the hotel, we saw plenty of families cooking and grilling food along the sidewalks. Quite cool!
The next day, we headed back to Taipei.
We checked in at a hotel "Tango hotel Nanshi" which was extremely convenient due to it just being outside a MRT station exit.
Tango hotel's exterior is just a dark glass door and the interior is all very dimly lit.
Reminds me a lot of Shanghai's Puli hotel but on a much smaller scale.
The breakfast selection was very small but very high quality, on the same level as restaurants.
They had steamed fish, grilled beef ribs, braised pork as some of the entrees.
Highest quality breakfast that I have come across so far in all the hotels!
They also provide free in-room cookies and high quality tea.
We spent some time at Taipei 101, the huge Eslite bookstore(which is more like a department store) and the underground malls below Taipei Main station.
The underground malls all run out in various directions from Taipei main station and have a coded letter associated with each.
R runs north to Zhongsan and is the cheapest mall and quite run down.
K/Z are average to lower quality and next to each other.
We didnt get to check out Y.
Very cute quadruple set of Maltese!
They were all sitting quietly in a baby stroller while their owner was inside a shop.
Tasty soft serve Godiva ice cream!
Inside the huge Eslite bookstore at the Xinyi area
It covers several floors and sells all sorts of items, the main feature being the books of course.
Definitely a must visit area.
At that time, a typhoon was bearing down hard on Taiwan and we stopped for a while at a Starbucks.
Taipei seems to have a lack of cafes as compared to say Tokyo or Seoul.
Tiramisu cake and an Affogatto which strangely does not come with coffee...
Taipei 101! Quite an iconic building.
The basement has an excellent food court.
Our last dinner before leaving Taipei was at Celestial restaurant, on the same block as Tango hotel.
We ordered a Beijing roast duck (which only came as a whole duck) and a recommended dish of egg white/scallops.
The egg whites/scallops dish was actually quite good, despite its plain looks.
We took a taxi the next morning to the airport which cost about 1100 NTD.
It would have been much cheaper to take the subway to Taipei main station and switch to the HSR line.
We only went to one night market due to time constraints and the typhoon.
Also missed out on Maokong tea plantation.
Hope you had fun reading!
