Travelling & Living: Day 1 in Taipei

Image from Locky's English Playground

Hi all! Hope you all had a lovely Christmas! 

I went to Taipei for holidays for the first time and it was really fun! First thing I like about going to Taiwan is the duration of the flight. It took only 1.5 hours on a small plane, and 1 hour 15 minutes on a large one! Amazingly quick! I love it!

People. They make an airline.
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This is also the first time my Canon 7D-cum-24-105mm f/4.0-5.6 L is travelling with me, so this trip is a real test for its performance. And it turns out that my new camera has not disappointed me. In fact, it performed so well that I actually think my photography skills have improved with the familiarity of this camera.

Image from Locky's English Playground

My first impression of Taipei is that the Taoyuan airport isn't big and it looks pretty old, definitely nothing like the one in Hong Kong; the streets look very much like mainland China; the MRT (train systems) stations have a design which look almost exactly like those in Singapore, kept giving me a deja vu every time I took the trains; cars and motorbikes use low quality petrol or non-catalytic exhaust pipes which stink the place every time a vehicle drives past, despite these, there are many things very charming about Taipei.

Stone at the entrance
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Number 1, it is the scenery at the Hot Spring Valley of Beitou.

First glimpse of the Hot Spring Valley
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As an island on the Pacific Ring of Fire, it is reasonable to have real hot springs across the entire Taiwan, and thus, the spectacular rush of continuous steam and sulphurous gases from the hot spring.

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The hot spring water flows down from the mountain across the entire hot spring hotels region as shown in the photo below.

Hot spring stream
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Hot steam
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Hot steam and gases rushes through every openings of the sewage! Remarkable!

Hot spring signs
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A taste of the Japanese culture can be seen easily from the colonial architectural elements, such as the hot spring symbol above on a bridge across the stream.

Stream of hot spring
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Simplistic design of lamp covers
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Model of an artist's lodge
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There is no reason to be bored as there are museums, a library and parks for you to spend good relaxing time learning the history of Beitou and immerse yourself into the quietness of the natural environment.

Beitou Hot Spring Musuem
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Abandoned hot spring inside the Hot Spring Museum
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Do note that the museum closes at 5pm, but the library opens till late at night, so if you want to spend more time in the museum, you must not do your shopping first.

Green Natural environment
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It was really a great idea to spend the first day of the trip, what's more, the hot spring hotel has a hot comfy hot spring bath waiting for me.

Mites? Bye bye!

Don't forget to "Like" the entry and the English Playground

Vocabulary:

deja vu -- (n)[U] the strange feeling that in some way you have experienced already what is happening now

Pacific Ring of Fire -- (n) [U] is an area where large numbers of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions occur in the basin of the Pacific Ocean.

sulphurous -- (adj) from sulphur a pale yellow element which exists in various physical forms. It burns with a blue flame and a strong smell and is used in medicine and industry.

sewage -- (n) [U] the system of carrying away waste water and human waste from houses and other buildings through large underground pipes or passages

remarkable -- (adj) unusual or special and therefore surprising and worth mentioning

immerse -- (vb) [R] to become completely involved in something

comfy -- (adj) informal for comfortable

Resources:
Cathay Pacific Official website
http://www.cathaypacific.com/cpa/en_INTL/homepage


Pacific Ring of Fire @ Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Ring_of_Fire

Medical & Vocabulary : Heat Rash and Bug Bites @ Locky's English Playground
http://lockyep.blogspot.com/2010/08/medical-vocabulary-heat-rash-and-bug.html

Medical & TV: Scabies, Monsters Inside Me & solutions -- Part 1 @ Locky's English Playground
http://lockyep.blogspot.com/2011/08/medical-tv-scabies-monsters-inside-me.html

http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/deja-vu?q=deja+vu
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/sulphur?q=sulphurous+
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/sewage?q=sewage+
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/remarkable?q=remarkable+
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/immerse?q=immerse+
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/comfy?q=comfy+