To refresh your memory, here's the link for Taiwan Day 1.
So from our hotel at Ximending area, we continued our journey to Houtong (侯硐) àShifen (十分) à Jiufen (九份).
Houtong (候硐)
To get to houtong, take the MRT from Ximen to Taipei Main Station. Buy separate tickets at the Taipei Railway Administration (TRA) towards Ruifang Station (瑞芳). There are few classes of train that you can take, for example Premium Express (自強) and Normal Express (莒光). Of course for the premium express you have to pay additional charges. For the normal express train, the ticket is priced at NT$49. Do check the TRA website for specific timings to take the train.
And so, we boarded the train (in the Yilan line) towards Ruifang Station (瑞芳). After alighting at Ruifang Station (瑞芳), we bought another set of tickets at the counter for trains towards Pingxi line (平溪線). The tickets are priced at NT$50 for a one-day pass.
So from there, you have to wait for the right train that goes towards Houtong (候硐), which is 1 stop from Ruifang Station.
I am an avid cat lover, so I was super excited to visit the Cat Paradise(侯硐貓村) at Houtong. It is easy to get there, just follow the signboards pasted outside the station.
As what I've read online, the cats are really tamed and not afraid of humans at all. There's lots of stray cats over there, and the residents continue to feed them by laying out food for them daily. And this lovely was super sticky to us! The moment I reached up the stairs, the cat walked towards us immediately. I must be a cat attractant. LOL
Look at her grooming herself so comfortably around my legs.
And when B sat down, she found her human sofa. Like a boss.
Even after he stood up, the cat still refused to come down. Haha
Grumpy furball.
Same grumpy furball.
Another cat at the train station.
As we missed the earlier train, we had to wait for 2 hours for the next train to come. So we settled our lunch near the train station. There are a few eathouses outside the train station. We chose the eathouse that had more photographs of famous people who had eaten there. Haha.
Yangchunmian 陽春面 NT$25.
Verdict: Totally worth it. So cheap somemore! It's like SGD$1. WTF. Where to find food in SG that costs $1?
Shifen (十分)
So we catched the next train to Shifen (十分). There is the only 3 things that you can do there - Enjoy the food and scenary at Shifen Old Street, releasing sky lanterns (NT$100-200) and visiting Shifen Waterfall (十分瀑布), which is a 20 mins down along the railway tracks.
On the way, we grabbed a popsicle, despite the weather being so horribly rainy and cold. ):
We decided to fly some lanterns first, to pray for our lives and our families.
The people are really pro-s, they will shoot for you together with your lanterns and even take pictures of the lantern flying. But the weather was still raining, and I hadn't gotten my UV filter for my DSLR yet. Every single rain drop that dropped onto my lens = heartpainnnn! ):
Finally we reached Shifen Waterfall (十分瀑布). Entrance fee NT$80.
Didn't finish walking the entire area. The weather was pissing me off. Haha.
Back at shifen train station. Look at how foggy it was. Brrrr.
Jiufen
(九份)
Caught the next train to Jiufen
(九份). To get to Jiufen
(九份), you have to take the train back to Ruifang station, exit the station and board the Keelung
Bus (Jiufen-Jinguashi). Point to note is there the streets in Jiufen close around 6-7pm. So be sure to reach before that timing else you will have no dinner to eat.
They are showing my favourite show - Queen Seon Deok. (:
Very clean toilet.
Because we reached around 6pm, most stalls have started to close. Thus, we quickly rushed to find the food that have been greatly raved about. For eg….
阿柑姨芋圓 Ah Gan Yee Taro Balls (NT$40)
and Red Wine MeatBall with Glutinous Rice
Skin (NT$40).
Huge Vitagen/Yakult drink. And… ew.. Asparagus Drink. Didn't try it in the end.
And that concludes our Day 2!
(:
No comments:
Post a Comment