Hello Everyone,
in our blog entry today, we will be covering the Beitou Hot Spring and Golden Spring Hotel in Taipei, Taiwan.

Last year, Baby and I wanted to go to Beitou Hot Spring but as the weather was rather unfavourable, we had to give it a miss. This time round, lady luck was smiling on us and we really thank God for giving us a really perfect weather and timing to go to Beitou Hot Spring and rejuvenate ourselves.

After arriving in Taipei High Speed Rail Station, Baby and I lugged our heavy baggage to take the Taipei MRT to XinBeiTou Station. The journey from Taipei Main Station to XinBeiTou Station took about 27 minutes and it was extremely fast!

Here’s some photographs while waiting for the train to arrive.

From Day 3 Taiwan Holiday 2012 [Melvin’s Perspective]

From Day 3 Taiwan Holiday 2012 [Melvin’s Perspective]

During the train ride to XinBeiTou Station, we noticed that most of the residential houses were constructed rather near the MRT tracks. In fact, you could see what the people are doing in their houses from the train. Hence, it really makes us wonder how the people could stand the noise coming from the train.

From Day 3 Taiwan Holiday 2012 [Melvin’s Perspective]

When we stepped out of the train at XinBeiTou Station, we can literally smell that the air has changed somewhat. In fact, the atmosphere smelt quite pungent and it could be due to the sulphur content in the hot spring.

From Day 3 Taiwan Holiday 2012 [Melvin’s Perspective]

As we had lots of heavy baggage, the most urgent and most important thing we had to do was to check into our hotel and unload our heavy baggage before we could even think about exploring the area. So, we checked into our accommodation for the night, the Golden Spring Hotel.

From Day 3 Taiwan Holiday 2012 [Melvin’s Perspective]

The exterior of Golden Spring Hotel looks rather shabby but once you step inside, its a different matter altogether.

From Day 3 Taiwan Holiday 2012 [Jacqueline’s Perspective]

Here is a photograph of the lobby at Golden Spring Hotel.

From Day 3 Taiwan Holiday 2012 [Melvin’s Perspective]

All of the rooms are equipped with the Hot Spring Facility and this plaque basically serves to inform guests that the hotel has been certified by the relevant agencies. It even tells you what is the type of spring water, the contents of the spring water, and the temperature of the spring water.

From Day 3 Taiwan Holiday 2012 [Melvin’s Perspective]

After the checking-in process, we adjourned to our room.

From Day 3 Taiwan Holiday 2012 [Jacqueline’s Perspective]

Here’s some photographs of the room that we took. The room comes with a television, a safe deposit box, a cupboard to put your clothing, a mini-bar fridge, and coffee/tea making facility.

From Day 3 Taiwan Holiday 2012 [Jacqueline’s Perspective]

From Day 3 Taiwan Holiday 2012 [Melvin’s Perspective]

From Day 3 Taiwan Holiday 2012 [Melvin’s Perspective]

From Day 3 Taiwan Holiday 2012 [Melvin’s Perspective]

Here’s some photographs of the bathroom.

From Day 3 Taiwan Holiday 2012 [Melvin’s Perspective]

Again, there is a see-through glass panel and to be honest, I personally feel that the see-through glass panel was constructed out of safety reasons. You can choose to shower standing or soak in the bath. The bath has three types of knobs; one for the normal hot water, one for the normal cold water, and one for the hot spring water.

From Day 3 Taiwan Holiday 2012 [Jacqueline’s Perspective]

From Day 3 Taiwan Holiday 2012 [Melvin’s Perspective]

The complimentary toiletries kit.

From Day 3 Taiwan Holiday 2012 [Melvin’s Perspective]

Before I continue on with the rest of the blog entry, do allow me to share some tips with you when you are planning to soak yourself in the hot spring water.

1). When you are soaking yourself in the hot spring water, remember to shut the bathroom door tight; if not, the strong smell of sulphur will seep into your room, causing you to have a rather uncomfortable sleep at night.

2). Do not soak your body in the hot spring water for more than 30 minutes.

3). When planning to soak in the hot spring water, don’t plunge your body into the water at one go; start by entering the water with your feet, then to your legs, and followed by your waist. This is to allow your body to slowly acclimatise to the temperature of the hot spring water.

4). Never ever soak into the water near where your heart is.

5). It is perfectly normal to feel your heart beating fast. However, if you start feeling giddy/nauseous, get out of the hot spring water immediately. If you don’t, you might become unconscious and the consequences can be worse.

6). Do not soak in the hot spring water immediately after a meal.

Now that you more or less know the dos and don’ts of soaking in the hot spring water, allow me to continue with the rest of the blog post.

Well, since it was already evening when we more or less settled down, we went around to explore the area and we were quite lucky that we actually caught a wedding photoshoot in progress. And so, Baby went around shooting photographs of the beautiful couple.

From Day 3 Taiwan Holiday 2012 [Jacqueline’s Perspective]

From Day 3 Taiwan Holiday 2012 [Jacqueline’s Perspective]

From Day 3 Taiwan Holiday 2012 [Jacqueline’s Perspective]

Taiwan is really a beautiful place for shooting wedding photos and we are just so excited that we can’t wait for our next trip to Taiwan next year.

All over XinBeitou, you will see streams of water flowing [like the one shown in the photograph below] and there are some people whom will just take off their shoes and soak their legs into the water.

From Day 3 Taiwan Holiday 2012 [Jacqueline’s Perspective]

From Day 3 Taiwan Holiday 2012 [Jacqueline’s Perspective]

We also went to check out the Taipei Public Library Beitou Branch.

From Day 3 Taiwan Holiday 2012 [Melvin’s Perspective]

Some photographs taken around XinBeitou.

From Day 3 Taiwan Holiday 2012 [Melvin’s Perspective]

From Day 3 Taiwan Holiday 2012 [Melvin’s Perspective]

From Day 3 Taiwan Holiday 2012 [Jacqueline’s Perspective]

Here is a photograph of the XinBeiTou Hot Spring Zone Guide Map

From Day 3 Taiwan Holiday 2012 [Jacqueline’s Perspective]

While walking, we chanced upon a squirrel munching on some munchies.

From Day 3 Taiwan Holiday 2012 [Jacqueline’s Perspective]

A really beautiful shot of XinBeiTou by Baby.

From Day 3 Taiwan Holiday 2012 [Jacqueline’s Perspective]

Anyways, for the first 3 days of our trip, we did not have a portable data connection. Hence, when we reached XinBeiTou, we were seeking high and low for a mobile shop that sells prepaid mobile data connection. A lot of friends recommended us to get the Taiwan Da Ge Da prepaid mobile data connection as it was considered quite value-for-money. For 5 days worth of mobile data, it cost only $600 TWD [approx. $25.50 SGD].

From Day 3 Taiwan Holiday 2012 [Melvin’s Perspective]

Since we weren’t that familiar with the area, we headed to Sushi Express for dinner and boy, we had a rather filling dinner! Just look at all the food that we had!

From Day 3 Taiwan Holiday 2012 [Jacqueline’s Perspective]

From Day 3 Taiwan Holiday 2012 [Jacqueline’s Perspective]

From Day 3 Taiwan Holiday 2012 [Jacqueline’s Perspective]

From Day 3 Taiwan Holiday 2012 [Jacqueline’s Perspective]

Ok, we shan’t tempt you any further but this was the amount of plates of food that both Baby and I had for dinner. The entire dinner cost us about $700 TWD [approx. $29.75 SGD].

From Day 3 Taiwan Holiday 2012 [Jacqueline’s Perspective]

To end the night on a sweet note, we finally have the opportunity to eat the Feeling 18 Degrees C Chocolate Factory‘s Dark Chocolate that we bought from Puli!

From Day 3 Taiwan Holiday 2012 [Jacqueline’s Perspective]

From Day 3 Taiwan Holiday 2012 [Jacqueline’s Perspective]

In case anyone is wondering how much we paid for a night’s stay at Golden Spring Hotel, we paid $3500 TWD [approx. $148.75 SGD], inclusive of breakfast for 2 persons.

In our next blog entry, we will be blogging about Leofoo Village.

Stay tuned to more updates from us!

God bless!