Xin Bei Tou Hot Springs

We awoke this morning to a crisp blue sky and twenty degrees, absolutely the most perfect weather for leaving the house and making new discoveries. As is usually the case with us (in Taipei), we were hard pressed to come up with anything interesting to do. After a frustrating half hour or so wandering around bumping into the locals, Rob decided we'd return to one of our old haunts: Xin Bei Tou.

We lived near, in and around the Xin Bei Tou hot springs for a month with our Hungarian friend Gabi, about two years ago. The trek up the hill brings one past several hotels that take advantage of the natural hot spring, as they pipe the water in to offer their guests privacy while luxuriating in sulfur baths, at a hefty premium of course. Our apartment also had one of these feeds, so our bathwater could be hot spring water or regular water, or any combination we desired. The hot spring stuff is pretty hot, 80 to 100 celsius, so you either have to dilute it, or run the bath several hours in advance for the undiluted variation. We definitely never took full advantage of those baths!

The pics in the post after this are also from the same journey.

Check out the picture of the shops; there's one called "Come Come Club Bar." Priceless.