I wasn't feeling great last night. I was rundown, my nose slightly infected, my chest congested, and I thought damn I must have gotten a cold from being around so many sick people for the last three weeks. I decided to rest and started my day very late, at noon. I think it's just what I needed because even though my nose is still a little icky I felt so much better.
Instead of doing the smart thing the night before and planning out my trip properly I was still winging it. I thought I'd do Elephant Mountain first but then I slammed my foot into the ladder of the bunk bed last night and I'm pretty sure I broke one of my toes in the process, plus my other foot has been cramped up for the last two days. Climbing 927 stairs in my condition just didn't seem very smart so I headed to my second destination of the day - Beitou. It's a city of hot springs which I haven't seen before in my travels and I thought it would be nice to get away from the city center for a bit.
I picked up a matcha milk (YUM!!) and a couple onigiri from the convenience store on my walk to the train. I had opted to go in just my t-shirt, having finally acclimated more or less to the much colder temperatures here (about 50 degrees) and thought "suns out, guns out" - might as well not let my tan start fading if I can help it. A middle age woman stopped me and said, "Oh you must be so strong! No jacket! Wow!" I laughed and thanked her before walking away. It was then that I noticed that nearly everyone was bundled up in down jackets and scarves, a little excessive if you ask me.
Once at the train, I thought about getting the contact payment card (similar to the Oyster, Myki, or Opal card) but I didn't feel like dealing with talking to the person in the ticket booth so I opted for a one-way ticket again. It's not an actual ticket but rather a little plastic token that you get that's also NFC enabled. Tap to get in and then deposit the coin on your way out. It's set to a pre-determined amount that you buy from the machine that dispenses it. I tapped my coin and enjoyed the view on the hour long train ride to Beitou.
When I got off the train, however, it was just more of the same! I was a little annoyed that I had gone all this way and couldn't get out of the same city center feeling. Still I had gone all that way so I might as well get going. I started walking and eventually came upon a park that reminded me of the ones that spot the streets of lower Manhattan back home. An oasis in the middle of the hustle and bustle. I walked through the park, along the river there, and eventually came upon the Hot Spring Museum which was closed for renovations.
I kept walking, following all the other tourists, and the city eventually melted away into just trees, the water, and a few buildings and hotels. I had looked at booking a hotel in the area for the night to enjoy the hot spring in private or to just access it for the day but decided not to. Soon I came upon the public bath/hot spring and I considered for a minute going in until the gaggle of older Asian couples stopped to go in. As I explained to my friend Ariana, you have to have a certain level of patience and strength to want to deal with old Asian people yelling at you - something I've experienced a number of times in Flushing back home - and I just didn't have it in me to deal with such a terrifying situation.
There were still tourists walking past the public bath and so I went back to following the crowds. They lead me to the Thermal Springs, which I wasn't quite sure what it was. The stone path was enveloped in trees and so I continued following everyone. The air grew a little warmer and suddenly a giant cloud of mist was ebbing and flowing from the jade green waters. I had come upon the source of some of the hot springs in the area. It was so pretty watching the smoke billow and move with the wind and it was even nicer to be in the low hanging sun and warmth of the pool of water below me. I stayed there for a while and my nose felt a little better. I thought about going back to the public pool and enjoying it, my swimsuit was sitting in the bottom of my bag, but I then read online that they can be quite restrictive and force you to buy a suit from their vending machine- which would be impossible for me.
After having my fill of green sulfur air I walked back to the train and thought about what to do tonight. I really wanted another scallion pancake but I also wanted to keep exploring the city. I found a few recommendations for night markets and settled on one just on the other side of the city - about a 30 minute subway ride away from my hostel. I thought I'd come back to the Homey Hostel first and drop off some things and start writing my post for the evening and plan out tomorrow. I was so busy dreaming of flame grilled meats and scallion pancakes that I didn't notice that I got on the train headed in the wrong direction! It took me nearly 2 hours to get back as a result, but at least I had a plan for the next day!
I spent my evening exploring a new night market. Last night I went to the Ningxia Night Market which is very conveniently located just a few blocks from my hostel. There I had
the best scallion pancake ever but found it pretty small and nothing like what I expected based on the photos and videos I had seen from my friends who came here recently. I stumbled across a post on JB's blog "
Will Fly For Food" about Raohe and Shilin Night Markets. These were the two I was debated between and I found his write-up to be very helpful on picking one for tonight.
"Will Fly For Food" did not disappoint. JB had said Raohe Street Market was the place to go for food and as soon as I walked into the area I was immediately overwhelemed with choices. Ningxia had maybe the same four or five stalls repeated throughout the small block but Raohe seemed to have something different every few feet. I walked down one third of it to start at the beginning. The first thing I found was a roped off line at least 50 people deep. I couldn't really tell what it was for, some kind of meat filled bun, but I was way too hungry to wait that long to eat something.
Next door to the super long line was some fried squid chunks. It looked pretty edible to me so I bought a small batch and scarfed it down. The man had asked me if I wanted it to be spicy and of course I said yes. The first few bites I wondered, is this what he thinks spicy is? but by the end my mouth was on fire. My next stop was at a roasted ribeye stand. There was one with a long line, so I thought that must be the one to eat. I grabbed a container of round, pan fried dumplings and ate them while I waited for the steak, steam emanating from my mouth with each bite.
I was a little disappointed that the steak wasn't finished with a blow torch but it was well done and well seasoned so it wasn't that upsetting. I found a stand later on that cooked it with a blow torch but the cuts were much fattier then the one I had so I was happy with the steak stand that I selected. I kept walking and everywhere was something that looked even better then the thing I had eaten before. Finally I came upon my favorite dumpling - soup dumplings. I watched the man methodically and quickly make each mini dumpling by hand and the woman next to him steaming them with a timer in bamboo containers stacked one on top of the other. They had a small seating area so you could eat them there as well.
Unfortunately I was so full that I couldn't think of tiny soup dumplings so I kept walking. I made it to the end and turned around. Sure enough I made my way back to tiny soup dumpling stand and asked for one to go. As I shuffled my way along with the rest of the crowd I slurped down the soup dumplings and took in the rest of the sites. One of which caught my eye - grilled mochi. I had heard it was a Taiwanese specialty so naturally I had to have one.
Bloated with too much deliciousness I crawled my way back to the subway and back to my hostel where I found a swing dance party going on and a group of young Asian men eating dinner and drinking beer. I took the opportunity to start writing and was quickly distracted by wondering what was going on at work. I think there are three or four new people that have started while I've been gone and almost as many that have left. It's so strange to be so far from home yet almost at the end of my trip, the idea of returning to work is looming ahead of me like a boogey monster. I still have a day left here, so it's time to look not too far forward, only far enough to get ready for the next adventure ahead!
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