the DAY of the Amazing Race
After a tiring night out clubbing, it was once again time for us to drag our weary bodies out of bed to accomplish our itinerary for the day. Slave drivers? Weren't holidays meant to be relaxing? Oh well, only 3 days remain and the desire to visit as many places as possible proved too strong a lure and we got ready and all set to leave, though at an hour behind schedule. Breakfast was settled at our old favourite.. 7 - 11, with me trying their curry rice, a typical jap dish but with so many jap influences having seeped into the taipei culture, what's new?
... clearly tired ...
We missed the bus, and it was on an hourly basis, scary.. so had to wait quite awhile for the next bus, damn sian, and it was a wet cold morning, with an overcast sky, pretty much making us feel the same way. Well, the bus finally arrive and took us off to YangMingShan (YMS), and upon arrival there, it was pretty easy to spot fellow Singaporeans, and no it wasn't through the way they speak, rather just their actions and mannerisms were tell tale signs to give themselves away, (and yes, us included as well). Perhaps the kiasu nature, the bunching up at the map, the clothes.. etc. So the bunch of Singaporeans all gathered at the YMS bus stop and waited for it, machiam like the starting line, and off we go!
THE AMAZING RACE - TAIPEI YMS VERSION
"Make your way to 竹子湖 and collect the local produce and your next clue."
First stop! we alighted at the designated bus stop but it was still an extremely far walk in. By this time, we had labelled some of the more colourful (literally) Singaporeans that were with us on the bus, they had donned bright yellow rain coats and well, we called them Team FedEx, but seriously, its DHL that's yellow, so erm, stupid mistake made by Andy.. but we didn't spot it then and happily called them Team FedEx anyway. With us being typical kiasu Singaporeans, we couldn't really afford to lose to them right, but haha, we did anyway. We were taking our time walking and it had started to rain so umbrellas were necessary and slowed us down abit. FedEx became so far ahead that we lost sight of them and without people to follow, we ran into some navigation problems as we lost sight of the route markers and had to resort to a little intuition and through the clearing, we could spot the signature yellow of team FedEx and were able to find the correct way!
At 竹子湖, it wasn't all too impressive, a little post history reading revealed that actually, it used to be a pond but had then since dried up and became a place for farmers etc. So erm.. really quite boring and with the rain and all, it really wasn't all that awe - inspiring, by the time we were done, team FedEx had long gone and some of the backmarkers had caught up with us, a group we affectionately termed team NUS, they were a bunch of 4 girls, from Engine I believe, and we just exchange glances / stares without saying hi. We scrambled to leave before we got overtaken once again. Oh and before we forget, we had to obtain one of the local produce and tada! Lilies!
With that, we walked back to the bus stop to get our next clue, another 20-30 min walk in the rain, the 竹子湖 was really not worth going. DETOUR.
A DETOUR is a choice between two tasks, each with its own pros and cons. Teams must successfully complete one of the tasks described on the clue in order to proceed.
1) Proceed to Erziping and take on a 1 hr hike up to Datun's Peak in gruelling conditions such as freezing cold rain.
2) Proceed to another equally boring area, and take on a 1 hr hike in equally gruelling conditions.
Well given tasks such as these, we clearly had to take Option 1. So off we go up the mountain and it was cold, wet and erm.. wet. Sigh, yup, terrible day to be walking but lucky we all wore slippers, we had foresight! But that made for a little uncomfortable trek/walk and we made it nonetheless. All the way up the mountain to a plateau where well, could see more mountains in the background! Midway up, had a little voice from nowhere incident, thanks to a phone that didn't have a ready keylock :S, made from a moment of confusion... And oh at the top, well, perhaps the view was obstructed due to the rainy weather which led to quite a number of clouds or mist surrounding us. Gosh.. with the task performed it was on to next one which was well, ROADBLOCK. Erm, not really a roadblock but the closest there is.
"Who's ready for a foot masasge?" A ROADBLOCK is a task that only one team member can perform.
Andy took it and it involved walking back down the mountain barefoot and wasn't he happy! With his slippers having tortured him the whole way, he was more than excited to strip off the naughty lil thing, and embraced the great outdoors full-frontedly. The task was easily completed and soon we arrived back at the start of the trail and boy were we hungry!
Time for a food break and well, there was only one store there but luckily it sold rice dumplings and each of us took one and gosh, in harsh surroundings, food always taste good and revitalised us a fair bit, though not enough as I was still blurred enough to walk into a female toilet, and didn't realised it until a lady emerged from the cubicle. Talk about embarassing.
Back at the bus stop, we were on the verge of giving up before deciding to take the FAST FORWARD for this leg of the race, skipping the remaining tasks and heading straight to the pit stop. With hardly a trace of energy left, we were in no shape to visit the rest of the tourist spots and headed back to the starting point to leave YMS. Seems like the better attraction were of the later stops, with the natural hotspring and the waterfall all towards the end. More planning needed here!
After a backbreaking race, we desperately needed a break, both from the rain and from the physical exertion. We aimed to go to Beitou for a good hot spring soak and upon boarding the bus from YMS, the 3 of us slept soundly till we arrived back at Jiantan, following which, we took the train to Xin Beitou where we combed the streets looking for a hotspring place. Well there were really two options only,
1. a public hotspring that would cost 40NT per person
2. private hotspring i.e. Hotel which provides us with a room / bed / etc for approx 800NT for 3 hrs
If divided by 3, a private room isn't that bad, at least its sheltered from teh rain, nice comfortable room, with shower facilities, air con, etc. We went around looking for one but weren't able to find one that had a reasonable rate or accommodate the 3 of us, so after awhile, we settled for the public hotspring.
Hmm... woo, a lot of people were inside, but most were of the senior age group and a few foreigners or kids. It was divided into 3 levels, with the hotness of the water separated accordingly. The baths were of the natural rock design, had 'super hot', 'just nice hot', 'medium hot', and 'you call this hot?' levels followed by two icy cold pools (perhaps extra cold due to the rainy weather). Foolhardy perhaps but we jumped into the medium hot one, which was actually quite ok, the area where the water flowed in from was a tad too hot for comfort initially but once we adapted, it became quite shuang.
After soaking for awhile, we tried the ice cold pool, and wow.. big big difference, haha. The water was still evaporating off our back etc and can still see the vapour trails and immersing the body totally inside was both nerve wrecking and let's just say, I prefer staying in the hot pool. Think the drastic change in temperature could also result in momentarily giddiness so erm, be careful! Anyway, after that short stint, it was back in the hot pool and just lying there, with raindrops lightly pattering on your head was ultimate shuang-ness. Refer to pic.. for a better understanding.
Well, part of the hotspring experience is to see how hot you can take, so up we went to the highest level. Ok, the temperature there was CRAZY. It was also the smallest and gosh, most crowded so had to squeeze our way through. Well, that was a bad move, cause wanted to test the water temperature first, but without having much space to move, had to go all the way inside, and that's done by entering the pool, haha, so with no turning back, dip in and faster climb up at the other edge. Wah, pain! It wasn't only me through all 3 of us had problems with the water temperature and I was already the one with either the dead nerves or thickest skin as I could stay in the longest but yup, as one of the auntie there said, why torture yourself, the whole point about hotspring is for enjoyment! We agreed with her and finally settled down in the just nice hot, which was next to the crazy one.
After a relaxing soak, we emerged refreshed and energised from the hotspring and were all ready to continue our itinerarry for the day, which was more shopping! We had watned to go to Danshui Fisherman Wharf + the Lover's Bridge and had aims to catch the sunset there, but we were running behing schedule and tired from the travelling, in the end, shopping wins. We decided to go back to Shihlin Night Market and later at night catch the Miramar Ferris Wheel (but haha, once started shopping, ahh, ferris wheel was cancelled also. Oh, Danshui had the "Ah Gei", some toufu / tanghoon conception, which we had been looking for as it was supposed to be quite famous but weren't able to find. Well, realised it was available at Danshui through Jiali's pictures.
Anyway, we were starving and at Shihlin it was a food hunt again. Despite it being the second time we were here, and the 鸡排, we were all craving for it... Deep fried goodness, yummy!
End of day 6. We didn't get to complete our planned itinerary, had to cut short both the YMS tri pas well as the Danshui segment so hmm, guess we were getting quite tired, both physically and mentally and lacked the initial eagerness that had carried us thus far. Despite that, we still had lots of fun, be it at the hotspring or later on at Shihlin, even revisiting it was able to find new places to explore, new food to eat.. oh we finally ate chou toufu, haha experience was terrible! I always couldn't really tahan the smell, but ermm.. had to try it anyway. First bite, hmm still ok, despite smelling bad, still tasted like normal toufu. After passing it to Andy and LH, wah, their facial expressions were priceless. Make it seem so terrible then they keep saying the smell regurgitating in your mouth and all, that wah, I became so conscious of my next bite that I ended up feeling the same way too! Gah! So after a couple of bites, we threw it away lol.
Hmm, lets stick to both nicer smelling and nicer tasting food. If it tastes like normal toufu, then just eat normal ones for goodness sake!
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