After a late night last night it was a very late start this morning. Steve and I tried to work out how to get our train tickets for tomorrow. This ended up with us asking family mart, them having no clue what e were talking about so we walked back to the hotel to ask. The lady at our hotel was so nice that she ran across the road with us to Family Mart to get the tickets for us. It took a while and she had to run back to get more help but finally thanks to her we have our booked tickets.
It was about 12:30 by the time we headed to Beitou. We got off at Beitou station and made our way across to the special hot springs train that took us to Shin Beitou. The whole area smelt like sulfur and the hot springs actually runs as a river throughout the town. We strolled up the banks of the river, thankful to be out of the city for a bit and for having amazing scenery surrounding us. The walk up was beautiful and the only disappointment was the Hot Spring Museum was closed. We finally made our way to the Thermal Valley. The sulfur pool here is a bright green and is meant to be one of very few green sulfur pits in the world. We stayed and took some photos and enjoyed the wonderful if not hot view.
Rob and I wanted to head to the Public foot baths which are free foot bath used by tourists. Using google maps we found ourselves scaling the mountain and after 20 mins walking up the hills through the town we found the park. The walk was worth it as we definitely got some amazing views and we felt way of the tourist track. The park has the area with the hot springs located inside it. I do not think many tourists get out here as we got some interested looks. However we washed our feet and sat down to soak for a while. It felt so good. The locals around the pool kept looking us, i think impressed that we managed to find this place.
After a while of soaking we decided to head to Marshal Zen garden which has private mineral springs. Another 20 minute walk through the country side of Bietou we arrived. Sarma didn’t want to do a hot spring so Chris being the amazing guy he is bowed out to go back with Sarma. The other 4 of us booked 2 rooms and had a bit to eat. Marshal Zen garden is beautiful and when we were taken to our private hot springs the sun had set and we had the most beautiful view over the town. We bathed for 1 hour and felt amazingly relaxed. It was such a beautiful place. Relaxed we caught a shuttle bus back to the station met up with Chris for dinner and then called it a night, What a magical day in the countryside.
