You've spent some time soaking your feet at the outside Taiyen Ocean Foot Spa and the hot and humid Taiwanese summer weather is starting to get to you. You need to get out of the sun and get in to some artificial lighting and air conditioning quick. It should also serve to keep the kids busy. Well my touring friend, you're in luck.

Contained within the same factory campus as the spa and only a few yards from the spa area is the Taiyen Museum. It's a small building dedicated primarily to the history and products of the Taiyen company but it also goes into the methods and technology behind how they (used to) collect and refine salt from the nearby ocean.

It makes a great respite from the water and heat-heavy summer air outside.

Once your kids are finished looking at the fountains, products, and salt sculptures in the main area of the museum go back out the front door. Make a quick right, then turn right again heading for the back-left corner of the building where you will find a small door to an auxiliary room. Here you and your children can create art projects and learn-by-doing how ocean water can be evaporated away to produce salt.

And when you're ready, head back out into the heat and stick your feet back into the warm waters of the spa.

…or head of to a local soda factory to learn how to bottle your own custom soft drink…

…next week.

Oh, and if you're expecting to see mountains of salt produced from salt water fed by the neighboring Taiwan Strait you will be disappointed. The factory hasn't actually manufactured salt for a couple of years. These days the factory serves only as a packaging center. The salt comes from Austrailia. The area in which the mounds of salt used to slowly coelece out of sea water evaporating in the sun is now gone.

Some of the old pumps and pipes that were once used to carry seawater into the electrolysis factory are now used to deliver warm sea water into a series of above-ground pools and stream in which visitors can sit and soak their feet.

And kids can tear through and splash up a storm.

Most of the pool and stream is shaded either by tall trees or a wooden shade, so no need to fret too much over having pale skin. There is also a very large pool with built-in sunbathing chairs, water jets, and fountains however it is currently inactive. A quick inquiry revealed that the large pool is only operational during the summer and would be running again soon.

The spa is totally free and, while it doesn't demand that a specific trip be made to visit, it does make a nice place for a break between places. Perhaps if you're touring through Maioli County and are tired of strawberries you may want to stop here and relax for a bit. There's also some education to be had here too with the Taiyen museum nearby.

That's coming up next week…

If you want to add Taiyen's contact information directly into your smartphone, here's a QR code that they've provided.

Or if you're into using your eye-holes, a pencil, and a piece of scrap paper:

No.122., Neidao Vil., Tongxiao Township, Miaoli County

Tel: 886-37-795121

The most invisible-yet-needed of these is basic infrastructure updating. If you're going to be doing major construction on and under the city streets, why not take the opportunity to update the power, water, and sewage systems, too? It's something that has to be done as populations increase and shift, anyway.

Another benefit is the positive commercial influence the Taipei metrorail has had as it's reached out in to new areas. Take Tamsui, for example. When I first moved to Taipei in December of 1998, Tamsui was a fishing community with a small riverside market. Because the MRT now delivers a regular stream of Taipei citizens looking for a quick out-of-city daytrip, it has evolved into a beautiful boardwalk with games, food stalls, music, and more. The same holds true for Tamsui's brother on the other end of the same MRT line, Xindien. It's also beginning to happen in other areas of New Taipei city where line construction is still underway in anticipation of more foot traffic, such as San Chung.

Note to self: Buy property in San Chung near where the MRT exits will be. Wait. Too late.

Finally, the network of MRT stations have provided the backbone on which Taipei has rolled out it's free municipal WiFi. With stations being planted every couple of kilometers and lines on almost every major street, one is never far from an access point to the Internet. In fact, the old Chunghua WiFi network (WiFly), which was NT$500/mo and had access points in every 7-11 & Starbucks, has been slowly transitioned in to the new free municipal network, so access is literally free AND ubiquitous.

All of this makes the temporary inconvenience caused by lane closures or jackhammer noise (as well as the Twitter and Facebook status updates from people complaining about said closures and noise) more than a reasonable tradeoff in my opinion.

I just realized how wordy this has been for a Random Encounters post, so I've re-named and re-categorized it into something more appropriate.

I do hope that you like the Taipei MRT construction pictures, though.

I'm spending this coming Saturday in Miaoli visiting soft drink and salt factories (fingers crossed) so there may not be a Streets Saturday. I promise to bring back some great pictures, though.

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Did you know vaccinations fade after a couple of decades?

I did take advantage of some Taipei MRT construction that I came across with a proper camera, but since the photos are related they'll be posted under the Random Encounters banner next week.

Here we go.

Next Saturday I'm hoping to tour both salt and soft drink factories in Mioli County (known more for strawberries then salt or soda). Look forward to my coverage on those visits in the near future. You can always follow me on Twitter if you want to know where I am and see random phone pics.

Up next: Taipei Metrorail construction.

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When I commented to a vendor selling Rasberry Pi kits (board, case, SD card with Android, and a projects book) on how I found it interesting that the Rasberry Pi was a Taiwanese creation that became popular with hacker/maker culture in the US last year, but maker culture is just now becoming popular in Taiwan this year he replied Taiwanese made it for the US market where the maker culture is established. When Taiwanese saw that it had become so 'fashionable' in the US, they started wanting it here and that helped mainstream the maker culture here.

The hacker circle of life.

If you have 3 minutes to spare, here's a quick video I threw together to summarize most of what was there. You can view the video in HD on YouTube.

As you can tell from the video, one of the biggest themes at the show was 3D printing. It wasn't just the too-large-and-complicated-to-be-practical sort of 3D printers on display either, but a noticeable few microwave printers.

No, not the high-frequency, water-exciting radiation. I mean the appliance. I mean, 3D printers in small and pleasantly-designed packages that will fit on a printer stand or desk with an easy-to-use interface. Check out Real Fun's Bone One printer as an example of what I mean. Those look almost mainstream consumer-ready, don't they? Soon we'll all be printing our own action figures.

Another thing thing that struck me was the amount of things dedicated to grabbing the interest of children and the encouragement that they were given, from basic motorized building blocks to RC creations left in the open for kids to play with and model rocketry clubs with craft areas. Getting them experimenting and making now will lead to them innovating new inventions and driving whole new economies in the future.

*Insert cheezy, overplayed Whitney Houston song about children and the future here*

The Taipei Maker Faire was a great experience, both for my children and I. And it didn't end with the fair. The best takeaway this weekend was that Taipei has hakerspaces.

Odd man out…

Up next, another Streets Saturday…then maybe a trip to a local soda factory?

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