Saturday24thMarch07

There were no set plans for today so we did a bit of a 'open a map and see what there is' type thing. Turned out to be one of the best ways to do things. We ended up in a small town to the north of Taipei called Xinbeitou at a Geothermal Scenic Park (otherwise known as Hell's Valley.) It was a lovely walk there through a tranquil park but man was it hot! It was one of those days when it's not really sunny but the humidity is so high that your clothes cling to you with no sign of letting go, only to be made worse by the hot spring water river running through the town. I've been trying my best to acclimatise, trying to copy the locals in clothing type (I've resigned to the fact that it's only going to get hotter so am trying not to wander around in tshirts and flip flops) but I failed. I was in thin trousers and sleeveless top and melting next to lots of cool, collected locals in long sleeves. Then we got to the main attraction. And it was hot. Almost boiling point hot. There was this beautiful pool of very hot water, covered in dancing pillars of steam, fading away, and shifting direction with awing grace. It was like a sauna it was so hot, which turned out to be a good thing since everything after that seemed quite cool in comparison. We headed back to the park and had a relaxing lunch in the shade on some large stone picnic tables with game boards of some sort painted onto them. I had barely started to ponder what kind of game it might be, when two old men turned up, animatedly greeting each other, then came and sat next to us. They took out small, flat, circular game pieces and proceeded to play. I watched, trying to pick up some of what they were doing but mostly just felt in mild reverence of these men. They had worked hard through their lives, and now were enjoying some well earned relaxing time with friends. It was lovely, and so were they. I tried to say I was impressed in Chinese but I don't think they got it (to be fair, I'm not sure that I had a clue what I said) but they smiled at me and asked me to play. I was so disappointed that I didn't know how, I felt so honoured to be asked.
It was not long before dark when we got back to Taipei so we decided to take another trip up the 101 building to see the city at night. It was really nice (especially since there was a big bike exhibition on near by, so there were some seriously good looking Australian guys going about) the view was delightful outside. On the way out I wanted to go have a look at a gorgeous jade shop on the bottom floor. I knew it was a scarily expensive shop but I just wanted to see the different styles of jade. I could see the glass doors were open, and the staff looked friendly so I upped my pace and off I went. bang. right smack bang into the middle of one of the open doors. I got such a shock I could do nothing for laughing. I tried to find a little composure since the shop assistants thought I was buckled over in pain, but it was too hard. I was gone. I was so impressed though. I obviously wasn't there to buy anything, and had just walked into a blatantly open door, but still the shop assistants couldn't have been nicer. I still have no idea how I managed it, but I still maintain that my eyes must not have adjusted from looking through glass at the dark city, and the sudden altitude change didn't help...