Taiwan 2015 Day 5 & 6: Taipei

DAY 5: 5 JAN 2015

Ah Mei Tea House

We got up early today because we wanted to do a day trip to 九份 (Jiufen) and 十分 (Shifen)!

As these two places are located at the outskirts, the journey will take at least an hour.

To get to either places, you will need to take a train from Taipei Railway Station to 瑞芳 (Ruifang),

instead of the regular metro stations.

The trains do not come regularly, and it is best to check for the timetable online before departing.

A train ticket costs NT49 (ordinary) or NT76 (express).

We took the ordinary train and we arrived at Ruifang station after 45 minutes.

As we wanted to go to Jiufen first, we exited Ruifang station and walked to the bus stop for bus 1062.

To get to the bus stop, you will need to cross the road and turn left, towards the police centre.

After winding up the mountains, we finally reached Jiufen Old Street.

Jiu Fen Old Street

The Old Street is actually rather small and easy to navigate.

There were many shops selling 姜母茶 (ginger tea) and taiwanese mochi.

After some time, we found the famous 赖阿婆芋圆 (taro balls).

赖阿婆芋圆

Our bowl of taro balls 

Each bowl, either hot or cold, costs NT50.

Flavours like yam, sweet potato and black sesame can be found in that little bowl.

The texture is just right, much better than the ones found in the Blackball outlets in Singapore.

In the end, we shared two bowls because it was so good!

Panoramic view from a pavilion

阿妹茶馆

An attraction you shouldn't miss is 阿妹茶馆 (Ah Mei Tea House).

This tea house is the main inspiration for Spirited Away, a popular Japanese manga.

The traditional architecture looked stunning, together with the combination of black and red.

I didn't remember seeing this tea house during my first visit to Taiwan, and I made sure that

I see it during this trip!

So, mission accomplished!

We spent quite some time in Jiufen, shopping for goodies to bring home.

However, by the time we finished exploring the Old Street, it was a little too early for Shifen.

So, I went online to search for neighbouring sights and chanced upon this interesting village,

known as 侯硐猫村 (Houtong Cat Village).

You could probably tell what this village actually offers by looking at the name.

This village has more than 100 cats roaming around the village, and most of them are really friendly!

Since Phoebe is a huge cat lover, we decided to make a trip there.

Platforms at Houtong station

We took a bus back to Ruifang station and took the Pingxi line to Houtong station.

Do note that the bus to Ruifang departs at the bus stop further up the slope instead of the one

you originally alighted at.

Also, the trains on the Pingxi line do not come often (every hour) and you should take a picture 

of the timetable at your departing station and plan your time well.

We arrived at Houtong really fast as it was the stop right after Ruifang station.

Getting to the village was really easy, and we were greeted by our first cat within seconds.

Fattest cat in Houtong

The cats were surprisingly well-tamed and friendly, which made me take interest

in them slightly more.

And this was the first time I touched a cat, haha.

Spot the real cat game

After taking tons of photos of the cats in the village, we observed that the cats have

the habit of closing their eyes when we want to snap photos.

I guess some tourists just can't obey the rule of no flash photography, and these cats become

victims of those irresponsible flashes.

Pretty autumn leaves with the mountains as backdrop

We spent about an hour at the cat village before heading to Shifen, which was a few train

stops away from Houtong.

Colourful train on Pingxi Line

 We arrived in Shifen after some time.

The main attractions at Shifen are the sky lanterns and Shifen waterfall.

The Shifen waterfall is a 30 minutes walk away from the train station, and you will need

to pay an entrance fee to visit the waterfall.

As we have seen really nice waterfalls before, we decided to skip the waterfall and

just release sky lanterns!

Railway tracks full of tourists

We wanted to release the sky lanterns when the sky turns a little darker.

So, we decided to have some snacks and walk the suspension bridge first.

Suspension bridge at Shifen

Wishes tied onto the bridge

You might be able to see people releasing fireworks from the bridge.

Some released them really near the railway tracks, which is extremely dangerous, and

the debris actually landed really close to us when we were releasing our sky lanterns.

When it was time, we decided to approach the furthest stall from the train station.

There are tons of stalls selling sky lanterns and the prices are the same for the different lantern types.

However, the last stall had the least crowd on the tracks which meant that there would be

fewer people photobombing your photos.

Anyways, we chose a sky lantern with four colours, representing money, 

people relations, love and success.

And because ours had four colours, it costs NT200.

We spent some time writing our wishes on each side of the sky lantern, and the staffs

were really nice and didn't rush us.

When we were done, a staff volunteered to be our photographer and took lots of photos

for us together with our lantern.

He even took a video when we released the lantern!

Us with our sky lantern

I really enjoyed the experience of releasing a sky lantern!

Hopefully our wishes do come true (:

Tourists releasing their sky lanterns

  After Shifen, we decided to head back to Taipei and try out 高记 (Kao Chi), the rival

of Din Tai Fung.

Kao Chi is located at the start of Yong Kang Street, 2 minutes from Da Men station.

There wasn't any queue at the restaurant, probably because it was already 8.30pm.

As we had street snacks before boarding our train at Ruifang, we only ordered

10 xiao long baos and a plate of carrot cake to share.

The xiao long baos had a very flavourful broth, which was slightly better than Din Tai Fung's.

However, I still preferred Din Tai Fung's in the end as the skin is thinner and the

texture of the meat is slightly better.

When I return to Taipei again, I will definitely try out their signature fried pork buns!

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DAY 6: 6 JAN 2015

Our last day in Taipei, and we decided to make a trip out to Yehliu Geopark.

To get there, we took bus 1815 from Taipei West bus terminal A.

The bus ride took close to 1.5 hours and we had to take a 10 minutes walk in as the bus

doesn't stop right in front of the entrance.

Yehliu Geopark

An adult ticket costs NT80, which is really cheap.

We spent around 2.5 hours exploring the park, including a short hike to the lighthouse.

There were various rock formations for you to spot, and the most famous one is the Queen's head.

The Queen's head is expected to fall off by 2040, and so you should make a trip there someday!

 

I have been to Yehliu before but I only spent an hour in the park as I joined a tour group.

To fully appreciate the park, you will need at least 1.5 hours to explore.

And we did, haha.

After Yehliu, we took bus 1815 back to Taipei, and headed for some shopping at ChiaTe!

We took a train to Taipei City Hall station and took a 25 minutes walk to ChiaTe.

ChiaTe
No. 88, Section 5, Nanjing East Road, Songshan District
Taipei City, Taiwan 105

We were really lucky when we arrived at the shop because we didn't have to queue to enter.

I bought a box of 12 太阳饼 (sun cakes) and a box of 12 fruit pastries back for my relatives 

and family.

And all these came up to NT704 only!

Oh, they are famous for their pineapple pastry so do remember to grab some of those back home!

After ChiaTe, we cabbed to Yong Kang Street for Din Tai Fung and Smoothie House!

Smoothie House
No. 15 Yongkang Street, Da'an District, Taipei 106, Taiwan

We couldn't leave Taiwan without having some snow ice!

We decided to order their signature snow ice, mango snow ice with panna cotta.

Although we were really full from Din Tai Fung, we managed to finish the entire plate of snow ice!

Probably because it was dessert, haha.

And with that, my adventure in Taiwan came to a sweet end (:

I will definitely return to Taiwan in the near future, and probably 

explore the other parts of Taiwan!

I miss travelling already!