KaoHsiung I

Lotus Pond

Ok. So I haven't posted in forever and I really should have posted this way back in April, but here goes. It was a quick trip, and hopefully I'll be going back soon.

I just took this pic cause it was a big tomb. It's pretty common to see these things around. Hope I get one when I call it in!

I went to visit my friend's chicken farm. 

We saw this cool field full of flowers. It was just out in one of those new development areas. All paid for by the city.

My friend and her nephews and niece. 

I guess in the old days people who were traveling by foot needed to a place to rest, so they built this type temple by the roadsides. This one happens to be in the middle of Lotus Pond.

The "resting" temple at Lotus Pond.

Towers before the resting temple. You can go inside the dragon's mouth and you come out a tiger's mouth!

  

You can feed the turtles before heading into the dragon's mouth with these fish pellets. So many turtles! The turtles are awesome, but I think we are over-feeding them, so let's go to the resting temple.

You gotta go into the dragon's mouth.

Lots of cool pictures around on tiles. 

Inside the dragon.

Chinese "ghosts".

 After going through the dragon and tiger, head to the resting temple. It's about 100 meters, and it goes way out into the Pond.

You have to traverse the walk-way to get to the resting temple. 

After walking this, no wonder they call it a resting temple!

Inside the resting temple. Bottom floor.

Once you're at the temple, you're actually way out on the water. So, everything seems really calm and cool. 

 We'll head here next, just a little ways down the road:

Pagodas not far from resting temple.

There's also a big regular temple right across the way from the resting temple, if you wanna check that out.

These pagodas look imposing even from afar! You go into the dragon and tiger to access them. 

As you approach the pagodas, you'll see all these types of decorations. I'll have to come back to make rubbins of the designs. These reliefs depict different Chinese proverbs. I think it's over a hundred!

 

The inside of the pagodas. Each floor is a different set of gods, I think.

 

On the way back home, we stopped to get some roast duck and watched the lady chop up the duck. 

She does a whole duck in under three minutes. When that meat cleaver starts flailing... scary.

The duck roaster. Looks to be about 100 years old.

Beitou Hot-springs I

This is the public hotspring area. 

Ahhhh the Taipei hot-springs. Actually, there are no hot-springs in Taipei. You need to go a little ways out of the city to find these. Beitou is in the north, and to get to it all you have to do is take red MRT just like you're going to Danshui, but you need to switch to the pink line when you reach Beitou. The pink line will take you to Xin Beitou, which is where the hot-springs really are. 

Once you exit the MRT there are very easy signs to follow to get to where you are going. 

Just outside the MRT there are very easy signs to follow. You don't even need a guide book... you just gotta be a little intrepid. 

Ok, so to get to the public hot-spring, all we need to do is walk through the middle of that big green park there to the East of the MRT and we will reach it. Just keep a look out for the plentiful signs to guide you.

Very easy maps to follow. Be careful, though, some of the MRT maps don't orient North towards the top of the map. This one does.  For example, see below. 

Hmmm... Never, eat, soggy... hey wait a minute!!!

Cool staircase. It leads up to a public library with huge windows set amidst the lush greenery. 

Lots of lush foliage in the park we are walking through. Another tip to reach the public hot-spring is to simply follow the little river. It's a hot-spring river and will lead you right by the public bath. 

A cool place to sit and have some tea. 

View of the hot-spring museum through the foliage. 

Some kids playing on the rocks. I must admit I warn't much interested in museums at that age either. 

Museum has nice architecture. 

A court-yard of the museum.

One of the museum's back doors. 

More easy signs. These are all over the place. Just have a little faith that another sign is just around the corner. 

When you see this staircase and the white wall, you know you have reached the public bath. Don't go down the staircase. The entrance to the bath is on the left. 

Don't try to sneak a pic over the top of the wall. 

Front door of the public bath. 

Rates for the public bath. 

Obviously, we couldn't take pictures inside the bath, but it is really cool. You'll just have to see it for yourself.

After the bath, you can head over to the Plum Garden Residence. Some famous guy lived here a long time ago, but I don't know who he was except that he was a master at calligraphy. The residence has traditional architecture. This place is just after the public bath.

The landscaping is very beautiful.

Inside the front of entrance of the Plum Garden Residence. 

After the Plum Residence you can take a stroll through this forest walk. It's pretty cool and it's not too far out of the way to where we are headed.

Here you begin to see the hot-spring river flowing out of the Thermal Valley attraction. 

Hints of the river through the trees.

Awesome old tree looms over everyone in the river. 

Everybody just hanging out in the water. 

Ancient steps lead to the water. 

Damn, my feet are white!

You can see I am very satisfied. 

After the river you can check out some of the private hotels. They have hot-spring baths, too, but they are way more expensive. The "public" bath is open for a fee of about $400 per person, but it doesn't include a room. You can get a room for about $800 per person for 90 minutes and it includes hot-springs bath and bed. The baths here look really nice, so we'll probably head back for the hotels some time. 

Hot-spring hotel from outside. 

A cat sleeping in front of one of the hotels. 

This is what I really want to see: the Thermal Valley attraction.

This was a cool little pottery shop outside the entrance to the Thermal Valley.

Walk down this way into the trees to get to the Thermal Valley. 

Almost there! 

Naturally, when I got there, it was closed. Tomorrow is a national holiday, so they closed early. 

Oh, well. I'll have to see the Thermal Valley next time. 

Even after the Thermal Valley, theres a lot to see.

Very popular restaurant in the hot-springs area. 

I found a crazy-looking church right in the middle of everything. 

All around the hot-springs area you can find these really cool stairways leading up the mountains to people's houses. See videos below!

Okay, I took too many videos. But I just couldn't stop going up the mountain!

Beitou from the top of one of the staircases.

And now, back down!

Xin Beitou is even more beautiful by night!

Hot-springs hotel at night. 

Most places near the city have pedestrian walkways, but some areas are old or the buildings are in too close, so you just gotta walk on the street! I've never seen someone get hurt and people don't drive too fast anyway, fortunately. 

The walkway by the hot-springs river by night. 

The Xin Beitou MRT exit from outside. Headed back home. 

Well, we missed the Thermal Valley, but there just is too much to do in one day in Beitou. Definitely deserves multiple weekend trips back just to soak in the thermal waters!