Below is a roughly 4 minute video of my recent excursions. It's mostly me visiting the nearby hot springs just outside of Taipei. The first was just wandering around Xin Bei-tou 新北投, seeing the sights. Then there was Chinese New Year, which I suppose is still technically going on? It's a multiple day event. However, the important stuff is over with. Jared and I's friend Brian was supposed to fly in from Hong Kong, but unfortunately he had some visa troubles and won't be coming in. Sorry you couldn't make it Brian, hopefully we'll see you in the spring.
Taipei is pretty dead right now. A lot of people head to other parts of Taiwan to visit family, and most shops are closed. Which makes it difficult for those without family and who don't celebrate with little to do. Jared and I ended up seeing "The Book of Eli". Handful of good action sequences, but don't see it. We followed that up with a visit to the hot springs at Wu Lai 烏來, a very scenic area roughly an hour south of Taipei. The video doesn't feature the actual hot spring area because nearly all the hot springs are completely nude. Meaning once you go past the locker room, you're nude from there on out. It's a bit awkward at first, but after about 15 minutes or so you get over it. No else cares, so you stop to care as well. Yes, they're separated by sex. Afterwards you go upstairs and you can drink as much tea as you want, featured in the video. It's probably among the most relaxing things you can do, I highly recommend doing it. Not to mention, I would assume compared to American hot springs (I have no experience so I don't really know) it's fairly affordable. Or, if you want to have a really cheap the nearby streams have pools, or in the case of Xin Bei-tou 新北投 you can just go a stream that's probably as hot as the hottest pool at the hot springs we went to (42-43C, 107.6-109.4F), also featured in the video at the very beginning. That was good just to dip your feet in.
Anyway, the video isn't very exciting but it's something. I'm on vacation right now, which just means I'm getting my grad application stuff ready for when the application period starts at the end of the month. Wish me luck! Enjoy the video.
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Articles that I found interesting:
Good insight into how China's nationalism is influencing their politics, whether certain members of the government like it or not.
The View from Taiwan
The always interesting Glenn Greenwald: "Religious faith in government accusations"
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I loved how the steam was hovering so high over the water, it looks really pretty there; oh and good luck with your grad apps!
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