** Combining two days of Jiufen together in one blog post!
Day 5 – 15/11/2017 (Wednesday)
This day was probably Bruno’s most excited day in the entire trip – as he would finally be able to visit Jiufen – a place where he had been yearning to go ever since he knew the backdrop of Spirited Away was inspired by Jiufen.
We checked out of Cityinn and the hotel kindly kept our luggage for us as we would be coming back to stay with them after the Jiufen trip. I made a decision to stay at Jiufen because 1) it will give us more time to explore the area as we had planned Jiufen, Shifen, and Houtong; and 2) the inns over at Jiufen really had awesome views.
Initially I wanted to stay at a BnB inn that was very popular with awesome seaview to wake up to, but that inn only accepts reservations three months prior. I was actually waiting for it, until I saw an even prettier apartment available on AirBnB! I was so blown away by the pictures of the room that I showed Bruno, and he too, prefered the AirBnB room to the original BnB inn that we had wanted to go for. We ended up booking that AirBnB room instead – more pictures on that later!
We went over to 天天利美食坊 again for breakfast (its just so good, cheap and filling) before we head to take bus 1062 at Zhongxiao Fuxing intersection. We stumbled around like headless chicken for the first few minutes, before realising that the bus stop had moved to a newer location.
The queue for the bus was a tad confusing – we were unsure if the guy holding the “1062 – To Jiufen” sign and motioned for us to queue in a line is actually from a private bus company that’s trying to guide unsuspecting tourists into paying for a more expensive bus fare. He wasn’t wearing any uniform to indicate that he’s from the official bus company either. Nevertheless there doesn’t seem to be any other queues there anyway, so we just joined in the line. After about roughly 12 minutes wait, the bus came and it’s the official public bus! We were almost right in front of the queue so we were guaranteed seats as this is the first bus stop for the route. Since it’s a long journey (about 1 hour), it’s best that you find yourself a seat.
This is the first time I took a bus to Jiufen, as previous trip I only took the TRA to Ruifang and then change to this bus only at Ruifang station. I clearly remembered a LONG queue for the bus to Jiufen at Ruifang station. So I’m just glad I took the bus route straightaway this time. It gave me more sights to enjoy as well! Bruno took several photos along the way.
Soon, the bus reached Jiufen and we alighted. The weather was good! Not rainy, not sunny. Slightly chilly weather – but at least its not raining! Yay! First off – taking photos of the breathtaking landscape from the observatory pavilion near the bus stop we alight at, of course!
Although my camera sensor failed, it can still take decent panorama photos! So here’s one for you to enjoy.
We then went into the relatively huge FamilyMart next to the observatory pavilion. I can’t resist taking a photo of the facade because it really doesn’t bear the usual FamilyMart colours! I wouldn’t have know it’s a FamilyMart at first glance, if not for the small familiar green/blue FamilyMart logo at the side. (Sorry for the blur photo though.)
We bought some bottles of mineral water and instant noodles to bring to the AirBnB. And because we were relatively early, we started our exploration of Jiufen right away! I was quite regretful that the last time I came to Jiufen, I only managed to go to a side alley and did not go to path with many steps that lead to the famous red-lantern tea house. So this time I want to make sure I have enough time to find that place!
But first off, the obligatory photo of the “start” of Jiufen Old Street…
In my previous trip, I just walked straight all the way without bothering to turn left or right, and thus I missed the path with many steps down to 阿妹茶楼 (A Mei tea house). But anyway… We passed by the huge fishball shop that I had awesome Teochew fishball last time, so this time I couldn’t resist either. I always didn’t manage to take photo of the shop name…. but there wasn’t many fishball shops there. I’m sure you can find it yourself.
After filling up our tummy a little, we walked further and came across many ocarina shops, which Bruno bought one for his mom. It was a small interesting flute that can come in different sizes and shapes. I don’t think it’s that daunting for me to learn but I guess I just wasn’t that interested in playing instruments anymore.
We did went into a random tea house (which looked nice from the outside) that promised excellent views. However, the main seating area was full, and we had to head to the basement to get a table. The basement was kinda untidy, dirty and stuffy. We had to pick a table on the balcony to get some fresh air (but that also mean we may get smoke if the next guests came in and had smokers with them). The drinks were also overpriced, and not that great. To be honest, the only “plus” side of that tea house visit was that we get to use the toilet, and had some okay-ish views. It’s so forgettable that I even forgot how the teahouse looks like now!
Somehow time kinda flew quite fast, and we decided to head to the AirBnB at 2.30pm despite me informing the host that I’d only be there at 3pm. We managed to find the apartment (it’s quite hidden from the main street despite it being located right there actually) after awhile and rang the bell. (Due to privacy issues I will not post pictures of how to get to the apartment.) Thankfully there’s another lady host in the house, and she promptly led us in, showed us the room and other features of the AirBnB.
The room that I’ve booked looked exactly like the photos in the website! The view was so breathtaking and the room was immaculately cleaned too. It almost feel like a 5-star hotel room, really! The toilet was very modern as well, with heated seat cover, haha! And they provide Aesop brand of toiletries for guests! So amazing.
And guess what? They have a rooftop balcony too, that’s open for all guests! WITH AMAZING VIEWS!
I did not see the path to the A Mei tea house again when we were heading to the AirBnB, so I quickly took the chance to ask Apple about it. It turned out that there was a turn from the straight path and that was it! After we settled our bags and stuff in the apartment, we went out immediately to search for the elusive path (and to recce places for dinner). Following closely to Apple’s directions, we finally found the path that I had missed twice, and the path that leads to the red-lantern teahouse that appeared so prominently in Spirited Away!
The problem with going down the stairs is that.. once you hit the bottom, you had to make one BIG round around the Jiufen town back to the old street. Ah well… we took the time to explore the less-crowded shops while waiting for our stomachs to rumble. Bruno tried the famous taro balls as well – I didn’t had any because yam makes me bloat. Meh.
Can’t recall if he said he liked them or not. I think it was okay-ish for him…
We went back to the AirBnB to rest a little, and I couldn’t resist the urge to go up to the rooftop balcony again to take photos of the nightsky. Bad photos though, but they still bring back good memories!
It actually wasn’t that late, just that the skies turned dark a lot earlier in Taiwan. It was probably only around 6pm. Bruno wanted to see A Mei teahouse with lit lanterns this time, so we went out to the same path again… and… BIG MISTAKE GEEZ.
The narrow path of stairs was SO HORRIBLY CROWDED. Throngs of tourists (many Japanese and Koreans) were squeezing their way through. It was jam-packed all the way with the people hardly moving, thanks to people in the middle stopping to take photos. I really hate crowds and this was REALLY a BAD experience. We reached the bottom only after like, 30 minutes? And I swore to myself never to come here again at this time.
Soon though, my stomach started rumbling and we had to search for dinner. He was quite picky about it (probably because he wasn’t that hungry) until I nearly lost my temper again. In the end we settled for a random eatery (which proved to be a rather bad choice). I ordered their braised pork rice while Bruno ordered their fried rice, and we ordered an omelette as well as a plate of stir fry cabbage to share. All I can say is… it’s really overpriced and the food is just okay-ish. Not even classified as “decent” under my books, to be honest. I definitely WILL NOT recommend this eatery to anyone. Seriously, just eat instant noodles instead if you can’t find anything else.
While we walked back to the apartment after dinner, it was about 8pm and most tourists had left as most shops had closed. However we had the chance to see Jiufen street as it winds down in the night. It’s a totally different sight! So quiet and peaceful…
Back at the AirBnB, we ended up eating instant noodles at night because we had dinner too early (and it wasn’t filling enough for me). I got a scare from Bruno though – he suddenly complained about feeling sick and feverish, and he had to pop two panadols before going to sleep. I took my flu medication as well, and for the first time I slept through the night without really being kept awake by his snoring.
Day 6 – 16/11/2017 (Thursday)
We woke up, feeling refreshed and Bruno feeling fine, thank goodness!
Initially I had planned Houtong, Shifen, and Keelung for today, but I found out that if I include Keelung in the itinerary, it makes it real tight to make it back to the AirBnB in the evening. We ended up deciding to forgo Keelung and just take our own sweet time at Houtong and Shifen instead (which in hindsight was a good decision).
I had no recollections of what we ate for breakfast – probably instant noodles, as the AirBnB also provided them. So after breakfast, we then went back to the Old Street entrance to take a bus to Ruifang train station, where we bought the Pingxi Day Pass ticket, which will allow us unlimited rides along the Pingxi Line. Our first stop – Houtong, which is a cat village and an ex-mining town.
Well there’s really not much there except cats and scenery, and I’m not gonna waste my bandwidth and memory by posting all the photos here. So here are some photos for you to see – I will probably upload the rest into my Flickr at some point and paste the link here if you are interested to view more.
We spent about 2 hours at Houtong, wandering about the cat village as well as the “abandoned” mining town. We were contemplating on getting lunch there but decided against it, and after buying some souvenir cookies for my niece and nephew, we went back to the station to catch the train to Shifen.
The very first thing in our mind when we alighted at Shifen was to find lunch! But guess what? There are plenty of finger food stalls, but hardly any sit-down eateries! I was very sure I saw a few before our train pulled into the train station, so we kept walking… and walking… and finally found the eatery that I had caught sight of while on the train!
Couldn’t remember the shop name though, sorry, but we managed to grab the last empty table available and I just wanted to say it was a good decision to have our meals there. THE FOOD WAS SO DELICIOUS! It looked plain BUT OH SO DELICIOUS. I’m sure it’s not because we are hungry … The wantons had that old school taste that I so sorely missed!
Halfway through our meals, a lady came to our table and asked if we could share it with her. We of course obliged, and eventually we found out that she’s a solo traveller from Singapore and it’s her first time visiting Taiwan! She asked if we have any recommendations as she had finished Shifen and had no idea where to go next. Bruno promptly recommended her to visit Houtong for the cats and scenery.
After bidding goodbye to her, we started our walk/hike to “Asia’s Niagara Falls” – Shifen Waterfall. We weren’t exactly sure which direction to go, so we asked a local uncle for directions. He pointed the way for us, and proceeded to walk us for a bit while chatting with us. We learnt from him that we can actually rent those scooters to ride even though we did not have any driving licences! That’s so odd, but eh, we decided to play it safe and walk still. LOL.
After a looooong walk, climbing some stairs, crossing some bridges/rivers, we came to this smaller waterfall (still big on its own actually), called 眼镜洞瀑布. No idea how it gets it’s name though…. I quite like it because we can get quite close to the falls to feel the spray of the water. Then it’s an upwards climb to a suspension bridge, which we had to cross to get to Shifen Waterfall.
Finally we reached Shifen Waterfall! To be honest I wasn’t quite blown away by it, but Bruno loved it.
We had to climb many many many many slippery stairs back, and for some reason it was rather humid even though the temperature was low. The climb/walk back was taking a toll on me, and I decided to take another route back to Shifen station after crossing the bridge. We came across this fairly newly opened cafe and decided to pop in for some aircon and refreshment. I ordered their Chinese milk tea… which was “meh”. But at least we rested our tired legs.
We got back to Shifen station and waited for the next train to Pingxi. I’ve never been to Pingxi before, but honestly I’m not missing much. There’s really nothing there, and we walked around for less than 40minutes before we caught the next train back to Ruifang because it’s just too boring there.
Back at Ruifang Station, we started to hunt for our dinner. Unfortunately we exited from the wrong side of the exit and had to walk ONE BIG ROUND, all lost and confused. In the end we went back and re-entered the station (thank goodness for the day pass), and exited from the correct side. We walked towards Ruifang Old Street and found an indoor food court of sorts, so being all curious and hungry, we went in and walked one round, where Bruno almost ate at one of the beef noodles stalls. But due to the fact that I don’t really want noodles again, he relented and accompanied me to eat at another stall that has pig’s blood soup!!! I love pig’s blood soup!
He didn’t finished his side dish because he has no idea what it is and it doesn’t taste good. So poor him only had a bowl of braised meat rice…
We caught the bus back to Jiufen (the bus took damn long to arrive!), and bought more instant noodles at Family Mart, before we went back to our apartment to rest and pack up for the night.
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