We woke up at about 11am (mainly because of me), which is way behind of what we've planned. We slept pretty late the other night because the dramas on the TV was too interesting. We wanted to go to Jiufen, Shifen and visits a few stops along the Pingxi line but we do not have enough time so we decided to only visit Jiufen. So sad ):
We decided to go Jiufen by bus. Bus 1062 is a direct bus to Jiufen from Taipei. It stops right in front of the entrance of Jiufen, and it doesn't have time constraints, you can use your easy card (if you got one), and is cheaper (about 100NT (5SGD) for 2 ways, can't remember the exact amount).
Direction we took:
Take the blue line MRT to ZhongXiao FuXing Station (NOT ZhongXiao Dunhua Station), and exit through Exit 1. Make a U-turn (the SOGO shopping mall now should be on your right instead of left ) and walk towards the big traffic intersection. Turn left at the intersection. You DO NOT need to cross any roads or intersection. Keep walking until you see a bus stop sign with 1062 bus number on it. If you are travelling during the holidays period, there should be other tourists waiting for the bus as well ;) .
Side note: There will be a lot of taxi drivers approach you about going to Jiufen (at Exit 1 or near the bus stop). If you are travelling in a large group, perhaps you can get a deal with the driver. If not, just politely reject them and wait at the bus stop for 1062.
We grabbed a couple of taiwanese buns (12NT each) from the side shop near the MRT exit so that we don't starve ourself to death before reaching Jiufen. And seriously, the food in Taiwan is so cheap!
We got pretty lucky. The bus arrived a few minutes later ;). So we tapped our easy card and hopped onto the bus. It takes about 50 minutes to 1 hour, depending on the traffic to get to Jiufen. I think for us was about an hour.
More like a coach instead of a public bus
On the way, Shifen Waterfall road sign
Nice scenery on the way
And, we finally reached Jiufen. The bus driver will inform you when the bus reached Jiufen. You have to walk up the hills for a bit before you can see the entrance of Jiufen. If you are not sure. Just follow the tour groups. There will be ALOT of them.
Entrance to Jiufen
We were starving when we reached Jiufen. So of course the first thing we do is to find some food!
Grated peanut & ice cream warp; Famous 'Black Wild Boar' Sausage
Lady grilling the sausage
I personally find the ice cream (35NT) soso, as I'm not a fan of peanuts. The boy loves it though. On the other side, the sausage was delicious! 40NT for one and 100NT for 3. Cheap and worth trying.
Sophicsa; Chocolates that come in females sanity pads packaging
Sophicsa is a interesting little shop located along the main street of Jiufen. It sells cute little fancy candies and chocolate that come in all sort of shape and things like pads and condoms. Cheeky :| .
They do have branches in Singapore as well. You can check them out on their facebook page.
They do have branches in Singapore as well. You can check them out on their facebook page.
Doggie with winter coat on; Condom world
Taiwanese love pets. Especially small dogs. You can see them everywhere, shops, streets, houses. And I think they are quite open (in terms of mentality I guess.. ) as well. There one condom world, that sells fancy adults toys located at the end of the main street of Jiufen. Do go in and have a look :) , apparently their condoms enhances your sexy experiences with your partner. Hehe.
We spent around 4 hours walking around Jiufen.
We passed by this house with about 5 or 6 cats sleeping at the door side. There's a little table. On top of the table, there's a tin for coins, couple of cats sitting on the kitty snacks and a paper written: Throw 10NT into the tin and feel free to grab a bag of kitty snack from the box and feed the cats. Yes. I can read chinese, traditional chinese characters too.
We fed the cats. I love cats. I have a kitty at home too <3. I think the cats are well trained to sit on the box to prevent people stealing the snack without donating 10NT. The moment my boyfriend took out the coin pouch trying to find a 10NT coin, the cats woke up immediately and left the snack box. So we took a bag of kitty food after putting 10NT in the tin and fill up the bowl. Fun little thing to do in Jiufen ;).
According to a Japanese tour guide, this cinema in Jiufen is the oldest cinema. Yes. I do understand some Japanese too. It is now a museum without any entry fee.
We stop by a shop and had some 'proper' meal to eat
The candy (25NT) is a bit tasteless. Expected it to be sweeter. It looks orange because its plum flavoured. The cheese stick was tasty. 1 for 40NT and 3 for 100NT. Worth trying.
Our Jiufen trip ends here. We then took the same bus, 1062 back to Taipei. The bus stop to go back to Taipei located further up the hill. Turn right when you exit Jiufen Old Street, and the bus stop will be on the other side of the road.
We visited the Shida Night market once we reach Taipei. We took the red line and got down at Taipower Station. Exit through Exit 3 and turn right around the corner keep walking until you see stalls and people walking around. Just ask around if you're not sure. You do not need to cross any intersection.
We went on a food hunt when we reached Shida night market.
We stopped by this omelette shop and decided to give this a try because we saw the queue. The signboard says the omelette were freshly made. We ordered the combination omelette with both ham and cheese (45NT) and waited for quite a while, about 20 minutes, before we got our omelette. Its good.
Menu (from the top): Original omelette 25NT, Cheese omelette 35NT, Ham omelette 35NT, Combination omelette (ham and cheese) 45NT, Cauliflower omelette 40NT, Corn omelette 40NT, Bacon omelette 40NT, add cheese for 10NT, Red tea 15NT, Milk tea 20NT.
Next stop we visited the pineapple bun shop just around the corner. (No. the pineapple bun does not have pineapple in there.) It has a long queue as well. We ordered a bun with cheese. My boy is a cheese mania, I on the other side do not like cheese at all. But, being a good girlfriend, I gave in. Forgot how much it was.
We visited the famous crepe shop we know from the net and got a chocolate banana crepe (55NT). Don't quite like it x: more chocolate would be good.
I think there's nothing much to see in Shida night market. There's a lot of clothing shops selling trendy japanese or korean style clothing. Didn't get anything from there.
It was still quite early to call the day after we finish walking Shida night market. So we decided to be adventurous and try to find the famous bubble tea stop near Gong guan MRT Station (next of Taipower Station).
The bubble shop it called 陈三鼎 (Chen San Ding). Their brown sugar fresh milk bubble tea is known to be superb but we did not have the luck to try it. It was closed on Monday D: . So sad. But we manage to ease
After getting
With our starving (again) stomach, we were hoping to find somewhere to have a proper dinner since we did not have a proper lunch. We came across this steak house at the Waterpark but it is expensive. So we continued the hunt. We saw this place, 金鸡园 (Jin Ji Yuan), and I remember reading on the net about they having good dumplings (can compete with Din Tai Fung). We settle down within and order a few dishes. You need to grab the ordering form from the counter before sitting down. When you're done with ordering just leave the form beside and one of the staff will come and collect it. I think they only have chinese menu. You need to be able to read chinese or a friend that can read chinese to be able to order.
330NT for 5 dishes, thats about 16SGD for 2. Super cheap and very satisfied. We were too freaking full and couldn't finish all the food. I tend to over order when I'm hungry. The xiao long bao were juicy and nice. I think I preferred this than Din Tai Fung's xiao long bao.
After the dinner we went back home and visit a local supermarket near our accommodation. We bought a huge 1L green tea yakult for 55NT (2.5SGD). Taste good with the aloe vera. Again, I swear this is the only reason le boyfriend wanted to visit Taiwan.
This ends our day 2 ;)
