Taipei is surrounded by some amazing hot springs. One among them is in Beitou. It's quite the site to watch the green water vapor rise from the jade like green sulphureous water.
A software programmer wandering around the world looking for treasure under rocks.
Wish me luck!
Taipei is surrounded by some amazing hot springs. One among them is in Beitou. It's quite the site to watch the green water vapor rise from the jade like green sulphureous water.
Beitou Hot Spring, Taipei
The hot spring comes from deep inside the volcano, acidified with volcanic gas. It mostly consists of sulfate minerals and some radioactive Radium!
Beitou Hot Spring, Taipei
And it all crystallizes into a rare mineral called Hokutolite("Beitou Rock"), which is only found here and in Japan.
Beitou Hot Spring, Taipei
What was interesting is that people cooked eggs in this hot spring, since the water temperature was over 90°C (194°F). So people were eating radioactive Radium Eggs!
Unfortunately, this practice was stopped in 1993.
Imagine all the superheroes we missed out on. EggMan, OmellteMan, the possibilities were endless!
Random shop in Taipei
Although no radioactive eggs, I did find some tea eggs. These are eggs that are hard boiled, slightly cracked and then boiled again in tea and/or spices
Yangmingshan National Park, Taipei
Yangmingshan National Park is also a cool place to see hot springs & geysers. You can hike right next to them or even through them sometimes
Yangmingshan National Park, Taipei
Try to do this when the sun is not right on top of you. The hot sulphur and sun's heat, can be a bit overwhelming like we found out personally.
Train station in Taipei
Taiwan is pretty big on gaming, the biggest posters I saw in the city were of games.
Train station in Taipei
Even the entire subway station was filled with gaming advertisements. Gaming companies seem to be making the big bucks here
Photo Transformer in Taipei
I needed to get some photos before I leave Taiwan, probably for the next destination's visa. Someone told me to go to a mall nearby to get it. After searching for a while there, a girl pointed me to this machine in the corner
Photo Transformer in Taipei
After some goofing around with it, turns out you pull side panels out all the way and then pull down the front panel and Tada! You are surrounded by a white box, now just select the type of photo needed, pay and you are done. Pretty nifty machine
Taipei City street
The city is really flowing, always moving. And foood, there's so much variety of food, it's just amazing. It'll probably take months to even try all of them!