2006-10-29 – Day 6 – Taipei – Yang Ming Shan
Yang Ming Shan (阳明山)
1040 After days of waking up at 6 am, we finally took a break and set off for Yang Ming Shan. Unfortunately, we were a little sotong after listening to the hotel receptionist’s instruction of not crossing the road when taking the bus and took the wrong direction when we boarded Bus 260. By the time we realized, we had to wait 15 minutes for another bus (and it was the same bus driver!). The ride is only 15 å…ƒ so luckily only time was wasted.
1215 The bus trip up the mountain took roughly an hour and we were surprised to see quite a few schools along the way as well as a university. After getting off at the terminus, we took another leisure bus around Yang Ming Shan. We hadn’t done much research and after going on the winding road and encountering a lot of fog, we decided to just get off at Leng Shuei Keng (冷水å‘) and see what we could do. Thank goodness we had decided correctly since the wind was pretty cold but refreshing and I don’t think we could have walked around for much.
1340 After a quick brunch and getting a map to orientate ourselves, we set off on a “easy” 2.2 km trail after looking at some of the public hot spring baths.
Actually, 2.2 km in normal conditions would be pretty easy but with the fog, the trail was rather slippery and we took the closer part of 2 hours to get to Jyuansih Waterfall (绢ä¸ç€‘布). It was definitely worth taking the trail and I think it would be an amazing place to work out each weekend 
1600 A short 20 minutes away from Jyuansih Waterfall was Jiengshan Recreational Area (è山游憩区). We kinda stumbled into the place without realising there would be a hot spring villa nestled in the area. Luckily, we walked the small winding road and came upon Sakura Resort (原櫻花溫泉). It was a beautiful place and we had afternoon tea enjoying the great view. The skies however wasn’t very cooperative and opened up on us.
While perusing the magazines, I happened upon an article on Wu Lai (the very place we were heading to tomorrow). The great staff at the resort graciously offered us the magazine when we requested to make a copy of the article
1730 Since it was getting pretty late to head towards Bei Tou, we decided to enjoy a 2 hour hot spring bath at the villa. Definitely worth it (NTD $1700) as we got a whole villa to ourselves!
2010 We met a helpful worker who directed us to the public bus (Bus 15) down the moutain. She actually wakes up each day at 4 am to get to her work place!
2045 Getting off at Jiantan MRT, we headed again to Shilin Night Market (士林夜市) for our dinner. One of the definite must try is Deep fried chicken fillet (豪大大鸡排) from on the front row stalls. Had it first 3 years ago and must say the singapore version is nothing like it. We also tried some BBQ Sotong (花æž) and finally had Teppanyaki (é“æ¿çƒ§) for the main course.
We then walked around the area a little to explore the stuff that we missed out last night and Yuhui found a nice shop that specialised in clothing/accessories from India. Guess she finally found stuff to buy as she went wild and purchased a few items there
2330 It’s been a late night for us and we headed back to Ximen Station and our great hotel at Onestar Yuhui helped make phone calls to the places to visit from the Wu Lai article and so we planned out the next day’s itinerary.