the usual price of £62 - but only on the second night after you’d paid the first night full price!!! A little out of our price range!! As a parting shot I asked it we could pay to come in and use the pool, fully expecting the guy to say no. To our complete astonishment though he said that if we wanted to use the pool we should just go downstairs and use it, as the lifeguard couldn’t speak any English and he would just assume that as we were foreigners we must be guests!! Result!! So we raced back to get our swimming stuff before he changed his mind!! It did get a little more complicated when he insisted that we needed swimming caps, and was quite surprised that we didn’t have them. Then tried to get us to buy them from the hotel shop, but with a little face pulling and shoulder shrugging we persuaded him to lend us a couple for the duration!!! The pool itself was quite big and deep, but not overly warm, and for some reason best known to themselves the Taiwanese seem keen to use air-conditioning on

full blast regardless of the temperature!! As a result it was quite a brief swim. At the end of the pool was a pair of smaller pools, one was colder then the main one, but the other was actually pretty warm - a much more appealing prospect, although even this wasn’t warm enough to warrant being in there for too long!!!! The best part of the visit were the superb hot showers!!! A most welcome antidote to the chilling temperatures outside.

On the way back we checked out the other hostel, which did look a little more modern and appealing than ours, but they wanted £20 for a standard room, which were full, and £27 for a larger room. We decided that this was just too much for a hostel room, and were generally quite amazed at the pricing structure in this place!!!! We settled in for another night of noodles in our igloo, although we did get some extra blankets which made for a warmer, if heavier