It rained non stop since last night again and it was still raining by the time we stepped out of our minsu. Today, we were heading back to Taipei. We walked through Jiufen Old Street and heck the many umbrellas.
We had cream puffs breakfast.
Now I know what many people meant by this 7-11 and the bus stop many tourista would looked out for to alight. I managed to squeezed through the crowd to get some shots.
And its back to Taipei.
We stayed at Midtown Hotel Richardson again for the last 2 nights here in Taipei. We met up with another 2 colleagues, Henry and Val for dinner and a stroll down Huaxi Night Market.
Damn the rain. I was the earliest to wake up and looked outside. It had been raining the whole night and still raining. We had plans to tour Pingxi and Shifen but with this kind of weather, I guessed we could only play cards or mahjong in the minsu...not that we have those anyway.
Finally, we decided to get out, with or without rain. We took a walk down the road we came up by. The minsu owner said this road was the fastest way to reach his minsu. Not many people know this. Many would go by the tourist way and alight at 7-11. And due to the many tourists, the roads would become jammed packed with many people and vehicles.
Hey, God is good. The rain actually stopped after we had breakfast. We took bus #825 from Qi Fan Keng. Clue: Beside the bus stop at 七番坑, there is a little road to the right that goes both ways. This is the road we went up by.
Pingxi and Shifen were the 2 little towns we visited. Again, own time own target. But alas, the sun went down too soon and it was dark by the time we left. However, the time was only about 630pm.
The minsu owner called us and enquired our whereabouts and also to check on our safety. We told him we intend to visit Keelung Harbour and Miaokou Night Market. He came by Ruifang Station to pick us up.
Food food food.... I did not take any pics... more importantly ...food! Haha.
Its already the beginning of another new week. Time passes by so fast when you are enjoying. We were due to return back to Singapore on Friday.
Jamie and I searched for some change of breakfast and came across this little cafe some 20 mins ride from Le Parker.
Gabee had bade us farewell the night before as we only hire him for 3 days. His service was excellent and went way beyond his call and duty to take care of us everyday, for the past 3 days. If you would like to have his contact, drop me a message.
DEPOT - English breakfast for a change.
Pre booked out HSR tickets online for the trip back to Taipei, where we changed to the TRA for Ruifang Station.
And upon reaching Ruifang Station, it was raining heavily and through the 2 days we were in Jiufen, it continued to rain....non stop.... Sianz ttm!
Feng Zhi Gu (风之谷) was the name of the minsu we stayed for the next 2 nights. The owner was nice to pick us up from Ruifang Station and he showed us to our room.
Next, he took out a map of Jiufen Old Town and intro to us the good and must have food and how to walk and explore Jiufen Old Town.
Our rooms looked exactly the same we saw online. We liked the design and atmosphere, though with heavy thunderstorm outside.
Hakka food for dinner and were basically stuck there for ages. The rain was coming down hard and the wind was strong. There was no place we could venture without getting wet.
We had this dessert after braving the heavy rain, getting wet from head to toe even with our umbrellas.
Isnt this one of the recommended must have? The minsu owner did recommend so.
Good Morning from Top Cloud! This minsu here was really beautiful. Both the building interior and the surroundings were breath-taking.
We went into Green Green Grassland 青青草原 to wanna watch the sheep show but the millions of people was... OMG!
And not to mention, the sun was equally... OMG!
We went over to watch another acrobatic show; a family (we guessed) from Inner Mongolia with their horsies and doing dare devil acts.
And not forgetting, some pics too.
Pardon me for the 2x pics i used in the above. Little Swiss Garden. I thought i read somewhere this admission is free if you have bought the admission tickets for GGGL but apparently, we were wrong and still had to pay for another admission.
oh, btw... where is this 400 plus steps (步步高升) that I read somewhere again? We did not come to that.
Carton King and I almost wanted to buy some stuff for my kids when I realised the bulky items will not be easy to handle and we still have 1 night in Taichung and another 2 nights in Jiufen before going back to Taipei.
The braised pork rice, braised eggs and meatballs soup were so good , we had a 2nd helping. Gabee never failed to bring us to try nice food, though simple. Nay! We do not necessarily fancy posh restaurants anyway! A simple eatery who serves good food will do too :)
We had ice cream - Feeling 18 degrees. The queue was long. Gabee treated us...yet again to chocolates. We were fatten up every day.
A trip to SML - Sun Moon Lake.
And checked into Le Parker for the night.
And of course, we went shopping and makan again at Feng Jia Night Market. We bought quite a lot of stuff and shopped till most of the shops closed, almost 1am. Surprisingly , Watsons was still open - was it open 24 hours??
Someone asked me for copy right fees... Jamie...u wait long long. Hehe!
Morning peeps! At 4lish, this is the crowd at the train station. Temperature was 13 degrees. Not too cold...
Disclaimer: Those voices in the video do not belong to us. Free narration though..haha.
Some snapshot of the sunrise.
Traditional Taiwanese breakfast is served.
We made our way down and Gabee intro us to this couple tree which was burned many years back during a forest fire.
This temple was destroyed in the 921 earthquake and it was rebuilt and only completed recently.
Most treats from Gabee along the way such as grape crushed ice, fruits such as dragon fruit, mango, grapes, bananas, etc.. He really looked after for our general being, treat and fed us well.
Lunch at the local eatery. Gabee told us not many tourist would come here since its more well known to the locals. No wonder there was a long queue!
We bought tickets for Che Cheng station (车程) from Jiji (集集) station. Gabee said he would pick us up from Che Cheng.
We had an hour to go. Guess what we did? We rented a scooter and bike all around the quaint little town. So many people around and so so hot!
Who said Taiwan is cooling at this time of the year?! In fact, throughout our trip, it was hot everyday, except for the cool evenings at Alishan and Cing Jing...and a rainy season at Jiufen. More about that later.
Arrival into Che Cheng brings us into another quaint little town. Gabee said to call him when we are done shopping and walking around as he claimed it is not easy to find a parking lot.
Our dinner at Talowan Restaurant.
Top Cloud (云顶) was our minsu for the night.
We caught the 2015 Cing Jing Huo Ba Jie. (清境火把节). We joined in the fun and watched the many performances. Nice!
