Taiwan 2011 – Taipei (Day 2)

Date: Sat 26 Mar 2011
Stay: Keymans Hotel, Taipei

Woke up to a dreary wet day. Looking at how cold Mum and aunt were, I decided that a good hotspring would warm them up. This day, we headed out to Wulai, a mountain retreat just out of the city. Before we took the train, we topped up our Easy Card 悠游卡. It was convenient to have a note change machine next to the top-up machine so we could have smaller notes. The good thing about using the Easy Card is that you can use on buses as well and it gives rebates, very much like Singapore’s MRT system.

It was easy getting to Wulai 乌来. Take the green line to Xindian station 新店站 (last station in the line), ask the MRT info counter on where to take the bus 新店客运 up to Wulai. The stop is just on the right side of the station exit. There was a queue and we waited about 15 minutes. It was crowded and the ride up to the mountain was scenic though a bit bumpy. After about 40 minutes, we reached the bus station. The ride was surprisingly cheap! Just NT15 (about SGD0.66) to get to this beautiful place!

Melancholic Wulai

The light drizzle got heavier and lent a mystic feel to the place. Wulai is also home to the aboriginal tribe, Atalya 泰雅族, known to be fierce warriors. It is also famous for its colourless and odorless hotspring water. I checked out a few hotspring spas while strolling down the old street. The street offers an array of local delicacies, mostly wild boar meat, wild vegetables, hotspring eggs. We bought some skewers of wild boar meat and crossed a bridge to take the old diesel-ran tram up to a waterfall. Took deep breaths of the fresh mountain air!

Old-school tram to the waterfall

Headed down to the first hotspring spa I spotted – Full Moon Spa 明日月温泉. It was not the cheapest (NT390, unlimited time) but we liked its privacy and there are water therapy facilities in the public bath (Note: this is nude bath, like in Japan’s onsen). It turned out to be a great choice! We felt so relaxed and much warmer after the session.

Full Moon Hotspring Spa

Time for lunch! We settled on an aboriginal-themed meal which was much recommended in guidebooks. It was interesting with bamboo rice, Warrior Soup (wild boar black bean soup), wild vegetables etc. Price was reasonable.

Lunch at Grandma Tai-Ya's

Atalya Cuisine

After a satisfying meal and some shopping of local food, we headed back to Taipei city. The rain got heavier.

Our next stop was the famous Chenghuang Temple 霞海城隍庙at Dihua Street 迪化街. This temple is well-known for its match-making deity 月老 and sees hundreds of singles visiting it yearly. There are temple aides to assist you on the proper rituals to pray to the deity. Dihua Street is lined with shops selling dried goods and medicinal herbs. It is about a 20-minute walk from Shuanglian MRT station (green line).

Chenghuang Temple

On our way back to the train station, we grabbed some dinner from Ningxia Night Market 宁夏夜市, a small-scale night market with stalls of many years’ history. A must-try would be the deep-fried yam balls – so crispy on the outside and soft in the inside. Be prepared to queue.

Deep fried yam balls

Ningxia Night Market