台北 二

3/4/12 TODAY IT IS BLOWING A STRONG WIND in Taipei. We want to do our laundry and manage to find a coin launderette nearby 帥客.

It's not because some one is particularly irksome, it's I who is not personally cultivated, 修养素质不够高。 不够修身养性、反省自新、陶冶品行和涵养道德。

Things that are superficial pass eventually, things that are of the spirit are everlasting.

 

Whilst doing the laundry we "discovered" 刘妈妈饭糰 a few doors away。It is simply beautiful 饭糰; tasty, hot, and great as a snack. And costs only NT$35.

Whilst at the MRT station we read a flash news on the screen that Mao Kong "猫空"（貓空纜車）where we want to go this morning, is temporarily not available due to the strong wind. OMG. We then decide on skipping it and go straight to New Beitou 新北投， our next stop for the day. We will just have to leave 猫空 for another future trip.

 At the 北投 market we find some Taiwanese food stalls and shops + people selling vegies, fish, etc. Like our PASAR.

 北投图书馆

 An interesting sign in front of a urinal

北投温泉博物馆。 Beitou is famous for being a hot spring resort. There are many hot spring hotels here like the ones in Japan. There are more than 150 hot springs open for commercial undertakings in Taiwan. This culture of them is heavily influenced by the Japs.

They even have a museum for hot springs.

 Our next stop is to Tamsui. At the 淡水小白宫故宫. Tamsui is near to Keelung (Taipei sea port) in the northern area of Taiwan. It was used as an admin center during the late Ching Dynasty.

 

 樱花

 At Tamsui 淡水红毛城

Haha

淡水 beach near 老街

 Tamsui famous foods - 阿给和贡丸。 阿给 is 油豆腐 stuffed with 东粉. I like it very much.

淡水老街 we like it here! Lots of eateries and things/ people to see.

豆腐皮蛋

 担仔腼

 Coffee culture is alive and vibrant. It is getting colder as night falls.

According to this ad., coffee is an anti- depressant. SM and I love coffee. And this one is good coffee and only at NT$35.

Today is another good day. We are disappointed we could not go to Maokong due to the strong wind but we did go to Beitou and Tamsui. We have seen a bit of history of the places (hot spring, consulate, university, dutch colonization) and we have had some good food . We like 淡水老街 there is a bit of shopping and night market food .....

The cab driver was right.  淡水阿给 was delightful and tasty.