Taiwan Day 4

Day 4:
We had free 10-hours tour from the package we signed with the bridal. We allowed to choose any trips and to me the most hardest place to get to around Taipei and New Taipei City would be Jiufen. Somewhere northeast of Taipei.

We departed from CityInn at 11am to head to our first destination, Jing Tong station which located just beside a train railway. It is the first station of Ping Xi Line (平西). The journey took us around an hour from our hotel. The weather was rather good on that day. No sun and cloudy but no rain.

Our driver dropped us at Jing Tong station (佟健) and asked us to enjoy the feeling of taking old train and he will meet us at either Pingsi (平溪) or Shifen (十分) station. We opted for Shifen station because we scared that we have limited time to visit the rest of the places. We bought bamboo from the shop beside the station and hang it at one of the pillars. Next we took a train from Jing Tong station to Shifen station which was 4 or 5 stations away. Do note that the train depart every 1 hour. We did not buy any train tickets as we did not know where can get the tickets. Lol..free seat XD.

Once we reached Shifen station, the driver brought us to the railway track where we can stand freely. We can even took a picture on the track freely. Cool huh! We bought tanglung and release all our wishes to the sky. Next we headed to Shifen Waterfall (十分大瀑布) which was quite famous for its large waterfall. Lucky enough, it rained for 2 days that we had our chance to view the magnificent waterfall.

To avoid spending too much time at Shifen, we headed to Houtong (侯桐) aka Cat's Village aka Cat's Heaven. There are lots of cats around. Hubby spent some time taking pictures of cats and I'm busy stamping. Hohoho~. Due to limited time, we skipped Gold Ecological Park and Jiufen Gold Mining Museum which is the home of a more than 200kg gold.

Later, we headed to Jiufen (九分) and on the way up there, it was hazy enough. Driver scared that it is going to rain but luckily it don't. Speaking of luck. However, we unable to view the sea from top of Jiufen. We bought some food to fill up our hungry tummy as we did not have our lunch. We were going to keep out tummy for our dinner at Keelung, Miaokou Night Market (廟口夜市). Bought some local products for family in Malaysia.

Wild boar sausage
Taro balls

On the way to Keelung (基隆), we stopped for a while at Golden Waterfall (黃金瀑布) and rock formation along the beach. We bypassed a 13-level old mine at Jiufen. In fact, that is a 18-levels old mine (like 18-levels hell?). In order not to scare out the tourists, normally they just called it 13 levels only.

Next, night market. We were so anticipated, well maybe we are hungry as well at that time. The night market was not big enough, for me lah. We had braised pork rice (滷肉飯) and thick crab soup. The braised pork rice just divine. Kinda miss it now. We picked up some small snacks along the way. Some of the stalls provide mini games as well and from what I had seen, it is quite a popular activities in the mid of night market. After having our lunch, we went back to hotel. It took around 1 hr to reach. Maybe it is weekday and not crowded. Rather than sleeping after a whole tired day, we chit-chat with the driver throughout the journey.

We ended our trip with hubby watching 海綿寶寶.

Next, Day 5.