Taipei Day 2 | From Shifen to Jiufen

Started our morning with a cup of bitter gourd juice after breakfast at the hotel. Guess this will be our first and last time eating breakfast at the hotel throughout our trip as there are way more breakfast options to explore here.

Apparently the bitter gourd juice taste quite nice with honey which helps make Pigg's throat infection and my impending sore throat better. We drank it for three days consecutively till we got a little sick of it.

It was drizzling while we are on our way to Ximen station to take the metro to Taipei Main Station. Luckily, we borrowed the umbrella from the hotel which subquently accompanied us throughout the rest of the trip. Even though it's drizzling, the weather was still manageable, breezy and cooling, and I could still wear my romper.

Second round of brunch at Formosa Chang which was located at some food court of Taipei Main station. Ordered their famous 卤肉饭 set which comes with 玉米浓汤. The main gist of the 卤肉饭 was the fats which made the rice really savoury. Was never a fan of fats until I ate this, so damn good. The corn soup was really good too with bits of chicken and corn.

Totally wiped our bowl cleaned. This is how good the 卤肉饭 was. If only they have 胡须张 in Singapore.

As we were still early for our train to Ruifang, we decided to go outside and take a picture with the iconic train.

It was still drizzling at that time so we decided to selfie instead. However, after many not so nice photos, we asked for help and a friendly Taiwanese guy helped us to take the photo despite the rain. And it turned out great! He know the angles well!

Made our way to Taipei Main station even though it's still early. Better to be early than late as we did not want to miss our train! Taiwan transport systems are really punctual and they come and go on the spot!

One picture before we headed to the platforms

Our tickets!

So we have to sit all the way to Ruifang station, it looks like so many stops but actually the entire ride is only 30mins as we took the direct express train which skips a few stops.

While waiting for our train! So excited to be able to experience so many types of their transport throughout the trip.

Inside the train! Reminds me of train to Busan.

Playing around with the fish eye lens that we only use it for the first and last time.

And soon enough, we reached Ruifang station! Here, we have to change to the Pingxi line which takes us directly to Shifen

Lucky for us, the train just nice came when we arrived. If not, we would have to wait another hour which would be a waste of time.

Beautiful scenery while on our way to Shifen

So much scenery which we would not be able to witness in Singapore

At last! We reached Shifen station!

Hand in hand shot taken nicely by a fellow tourist. Everyone are so friendly here!!

Such a peaceful and nice place

Time to write our wishes on the sky lantern!

There were a lot of sky lantern vendors but we chose the stall closer to the station as we did not want to go too far behind where everyone will be crowding around. All the vendor prices were the same and we chose the multicoloured lantern which was 200TWD.

Pigg and his wishes!

Now to the blue side!

Last side by Pigg!

Then they brought us down to the railway tracks to fly our lantern! Holding on to both ends to take picture with each side. Actually there's a guy behind holding the lantern down.

Second side!

Third side!

The last side!

1,2,3...and off it goes!

Hope our wishes will come true!

Up up and away!

Solo pic on the railway after we fly our lantern

Trying had to balance and hold hands at the same time for this shot 

Finally succeeded in doing this pose (and without any photobombers) after countless tries 

Selfie~

At the famous Jing'an suspension bridge

So many people!

One without the crowd

The bridge was shaky as we walked on it. It was a little scary as it tilts to one side when more people walk kept to the left

The view!

No one to help us take photo, we just take it ourselves! The monopod came in really handy! 

View of the station

Beautiful view

Xiaolongbao at some random stall. Of course lose to Din Tai Fung, not as soupy

As we missed the previous train, we had to wait for another hour for the next one to arrive. Then we took the train back to Ruifang.

From Ruifang, we took a bus up to Jiufen

Jiufen is a mountainous town and the view up there was breathtaking

Temple and mountains

Heading into Jiufen Old streets!

A must eat here is the A'Zhu peanut ice cream which is wrapped in something like a popiah skin. It tastes something like a Mochi

Pigg wanted to try these jade snails 🐌

Not as nice as escargots but more chewy

Best enjoyed with some pepper

And we reached the higher peak

Some chubby tabbies resting atop of the motorbikes. Guess the weather is very nice to chill outside

So cute to resist taking a picture with them

So soft! they were so gentle and busy sleeping even when I'm petting them

Machiam filming a oolong tea commercial

Walking down the iconic steps

Jiufen is home to many tea houses. If we had more time here, I would not mind having a cup of tea and chill.

Photo with all my loots from Jiufen

It was evening time by the time we were done with Jiufen, the skies looked amazing!

From Jiufen, we took a bus to Keelung, the thing about Taipei buses is that they have a lot of stops, but if no one presses the bell to alight, the driver will continue to drive on. The sky turned dark when it was 7pm, therefore, the only way to look out for our stop was the screen which announces the stop.

However, we still missed our stop and therefore, we had to walk one bus stop away to the night market.

Keelung Miaokou Night Market to end our day!

A night Market that's way better than Shihlin which was so overrated.

Dinner! Crab meat soup, glutinous rice and suckling pig wrap! Yums!

At the end of the day, we returned back with bagful of stuff, food and souvenirs from Shifen and Jiufen, belts and clothes from Miaokou. It's only the second day in Taipei, more shopping to come!

The ride back to Taipei Main Station was more convenient as we took the railway back, before changing to the metro to Ximen. And more shopping again at Ximending!