Rainy Nights and Sometimes Days

Wednesday, June 6, 2007--Taipei

It was a day of heavy rains almost all day. I never left the apartment. It was nice though. I had plenty to keep me occupied here. I finished reading the novel The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai. It is set in India and won the Man Booker Prize last year. Like so many novels about India, it was a bit depressing as the main characters' lives became more and more desperate. I gave the book 3 1/2 stars out of 4. I spent time on the computer off and on during the day. And in the evening I watched a DVD of a BBC romantic comedy named About Adam. I gave it 1 1/2 stars out of 4. The main character was despicable. The critics seemed to like it better than I did, however. I just ate what I had. I snacked on a granola bar and some nuts for lunch. Then I had a bowl of instant noodles for dinner.

Thursday, June 7, 2007--Danshui and Beitou

The rain had stopped, so I decided to head out of town again to a couple of places I had identified as interesting to explore. First I headed to Danshui. It's about an hour north of where I live and is a small city on a river front. I visited a temple, walked the streets to see the shops, climbed up a hillside to see Oxford College at Alethia University, walked by the old Fort San Domingo, and rested by the waterfront watching people and the view. While near the university, I ate lunch at one of the student hangouts. I had a local specialty that was unique and quite good called A-Gei--a huge tofu dumpling stuffed with a big ball of rice noodles, sealed with fish paste, fried, and then served in a bowl with broth. The lady added some soy sauce and a nice spicy hot sauce on top before serving it to me. I sat at a long table with a family. When I took a photo, one of the boys whispered to his mother. I told her I was taking it for my family. She replied that her son had whispered because she had taken a photo of hers, too. They turned out to be tourists also visiting from Florida.

From Danshui, I went to Beitou (also spelled Peitou), a mountain resort known for its hot springs. An elderly man who got of the train with me started talking to me. His English was quite good. He was headed to the public baths for a swim. He directed me to the Beitou Hot Springs Museum which I told him I would see first, then continued on his way. The museum was a wonderful old public bathhouse that has been restored to tell the history of the springs and all the bath houses in the area. It had stained glass windows in the area of the large pool, wonderful wooden floors and staircases throughout, and fantastic breezes through the big windows all around it.

I wanted to go to one of the bath houses myself. I hadn't taken a swimsuit, so I couldn't go to the mixed public pools where the elderly man went. But I wasn't sure where to go. They vary greatly in price. I asked the ladies at the museum to recommend one that was segregated by sex since I didn't bring swim wear. She told me to go to Longnaitang, the oldest bathhouse in the area, and located it on my map. It was very atmospheric, but it was a bit of a disappointment after the baths I enjoyed in South Korea last year. There were no towels provided. One was only expected to rinse off before getting into the pool instead of thoroughly bathing with soap. And there was only one pool which was super hot! Someone told me to stay no more than 3 minutes in the pool at a time, and I believed him. When I partially submerged myself a couple of minutes and came up, there was an obvious line where I had stopped immersing myself with all the skin below it bright red. At least there were cold showers for cooling down after that experience. Although the amenities weren't what I had hoped, it had authentic old atmosphere. It was an old stone/stucco building with a wooden roof. The men there were nice, too. They ranged in age from maybe early 30s to late 70s. I stayed about 1 1/2 hours. During that time, there was a turnover with the people there when I left being different from the ones who had been there when I arrived.

The rains came again while I was at the hot springs bathhouse. By the time I was home, my sandals were sopping wet again. At least I had my umbrella. And it was nice to see that the metro provides long plastic bags for the umbrellas so that they don't drip on the floors of the stations and the trains. When I arrived at my station around 19:00, I grabbed a bottle of water and a bucket of instant noodles and headed to the apartment for the evening. I'm still here alone and loving it.