Taiwan Day 4 - 23rd March 2011

Day 4 in Taiwan. Same as previous day, it's cool in the room...and can felt cold wind just as we stepped out of the door even though we're still inside the building. This time, I stick to long pants and bringing along the umbrella we bought the day before. We don't want to have to buy again if it rained again. We stopped at OK Mart near our hostel to have breakfast. As usual they have a promotion of a bread and drink for a promotional price.

The view from OK Mart where we had our breakfast.

Another view outside. Time is about 10am. Not many cars here. Maybe most of them ride the MRT or it's already working time. We actually took our time to come out, that's the beauty of free and easy. Haha.

My drink. Mixed fruit/vege juice. Not bad la.

The bread.

Our first destination to go today is Yehliu. Since it's only 2 of us, it's not worth hiring a car/cab so we go there conventional way. By bus. We board the MRT at Jiantan Station and head south towards Taipei Main Station. The bus station within the same building does not cater the route to Yehliu so the lady from the information counter guide us to another bus station nearby.

This is the mall where MRT, HSR and bus station house. We are standing at a pedestrian bridge now. We came from the far right(in the pic above) and need to use this pedestrian bridge to get across the big road that is busy with traffic. Opposite this mall is the Railway Main Station. And the other opposite of the railway station is the bus station that we need to head to.

From the pedestrian bridge too, we saw this Panasonic signboard with the current temperature. Yes, it 13 degree now at 11.15am.

11.20am bus ticket to Yehliu. Cost NT96 per person. Kuo Kuang Express bus, quite comfortable.

While on the way, saw this building with a huge dog on the rooftop.

We reached Yehliu at about 12.30pm. Journey approximately 1 hour 10 minutes. We came down at the main road and had to walk some distance to Yehliu Geopark. Luckily it's not hot, so we don't really feel tired while walking.

Harvest at the Fishing Harbour.

Lots of fisherman's boat around here.

Sea view shot.

As we approached the main entrance of the Geopark, we can see a parking space full of buses. There are a few seafood nearby and the workers will come and ask us if we want to have our lunch here. No thanks. Need to pay NT50 per person to enter the Geopark.

I can't seems to stop taking close up shot of nice flowers we encountered so here's one more.

The ever famous rock here in Yehliu which is the Queen's Head. Lots of people want to take the photo. This is a maximum zoom from my camera, surprisingly the quality not bad. Still clear. Picture below can see the actual distance without zooming.

With brochure of the geopark in our hands, we try to locate some of the special rocks that resembles something.

This is Candle rock. It does look like a candle.

According to the staff nearby, this is Ginger rock.

Mushroom rock.

Honeycomb rock from far.

I have no idea what is this. It looks nice though.

Look at the queue to take the picture of the Queen's head. Can see it from here.

Another stealth shot of the rock.

Fairy's Shoe Rock.

Earth Rock.

Elephant's Head.

So called beancurd rock. But because the tide is high, we can't really see it.

I forgot what animal this resembled to.

Something like an ancient GPS system.

We kind of rushed here because we reached quite late and we want to go to Jiufen after this. Since we have seen most of the major rocks and the wind is strong and there's a sign of raining soon, we decided to leave. Exit through another door and we pass a row of souvenir shops. Bought a cup of ginger tea to keep ourselves warm. It's nice. NT30 for the ginger tea. We also bought some snacks as souvenirs also, 3 bags for NT250.

By the time we get back to the main road to board the bus to Keelung City and switch bus to Jiufen, it's already 2.35pm. We actually spent about 2 hours here. A bit rushed but still can cover most parts.

Here's Keelung City. This is where the bus dropped us.

Reached here about 3.19pm, a journey that took about 1 hour from Yeliou. Board another bus here to Jiufen which took about another 45minutes. Kinda waste time in travelling.

The moment we stepped down from the bus, this viewing deck is in front of us. Nice view from here. The sad things are that it's not a clear sky and it's going to rain soon, which it did rained soon after. Luckily it's not really heavy. But it's really so so so cold when the wind blows.

The first stall we saw is this lady selling Stinky Tofu. This is the wet one, not the fried one. It taste not bad, very little smell. Price as stated in the stall, NT35 each.

Then we came to a crowd of people surrounding this girl. Looks like popiah but it's a sweet peanut plus ice cream.

There's the ice cream. 2 scoops each.

It's NT35. Put your money there and take your balance yourself.

This is how it looks like in the middle. The green one is coriander. You can request to put if you want to. Overall it's nice and weird to eat ice cream in an extremely cold weather. Actually we would like another serving but we still haven't had our lunch yet, so we moved on to search other things to eat.

This is the ever famous saussage auntie with the wig and signature glasses. She even stop talking halfway and do the pose when she realized that I was about to take her pictures. Ok, had wild boar saussage here. Also NT35 per stick.

Next we stopped by this fishball shop. Although not many people here, since Jolin and Jacky Wu did came here to eat, we decided to eat here also la.

We chose the last one in the menu which is the mixed balls. Add NT10 if want to add noodles so we asked her to add glass noodle together. Total is NT70.

Glass noodle at the bottom ya. Not bad.

This time is dessert time. Taro ball.

This is how Taro Ball dessert looks like.

At the end of the new road, there's another smaller viewing deck with a viewing telescope. I like the scenery.

Another scenery. So peaceful. It would be nice if it's not raining. And it started to get darker now.

Cute dog sure wanna take pics la...

Artist's photos everywhere at this place on the topmost of the stairs.

As we went down the stairs, this is the restaurant in front of us.

Shot from bottom of the staircase.

Milk stick Japanese style. NT30 each.

That's our last meal in Jiufen. Had to reload our Easycard at 7-11 first before boarding the bus to Ruifang Train Station. Leave Jiufen at 6.05pm, so our total stay here is almost 2 hours. Enough time to spent here? Well, it's not that rushing but some of the shops closed already. Probably 3 hours will be a comfortable time to venture around Jiufen.

The journey to ruifang Train Station took 10 minutes only. Bought 2 tickets to Songshan Train Station by Tze Ching Limited Express. We were there at 6.15pm and luckily they got a train coming at 6.30pm. No need to wait so long then.

The ticket cost NT62 per person and is assigned seating. Travel journey will be approx 30 mins as per ticket, which is true. They really reached on time. How I wish our KTM is like this also.

The reason we stop at Songshan Station is that we want to go to Wufenpu Fashion District and also Raohe Street Night Market in which both are just 5 minutes walk from the train station.

There are a lot of shops here, mostly for the ladies. Small shops like in Berjaya Times Square. So, they are also same, no trying which can deter the ladies to buy here. How do they know whether the clothes they by fit them or looked nice. It's like a gamble. But definitely you can find cheap clothes here.

It's not too crowded yet. But there are a few lorries block almost the entire street when they stopped to deliver goods. Scooters are flying everywhere. We just walked around as there's nothing interesting that we want to buy, so we cut things short, by 8pm we switched side to Raohe Street Night Market.

This is Pepper Biscuit. One of the best food we've tried in Taiwan. If you have a chance to come here, should queue up and try. They are just by the entrance of the Night Market. NT45 each. Nice.

Special sandwich.

We chose the one with original flavour for the skin and shredded radish for the filling. NT12 only each.

It's still a cold night, so when we pass by this stall, we had to stop. The smell of their herbal soup is so nice. And a lot of people are eating, almost no more seating space.

We ordered pork rib herbal soup. Very nice. Should try this. NT60. Nice to drink hot soup in a cold weather.

After that, since we have time, we decided to go to Taipei 101 since we're leaving Taipei the next day. We asked one of the guards there the good way to go from Raohe Street. He said either take taxi, take bus or walk 20mins. I thought, maybe 20 minutes is nothing since we walked a lot longer earlier in the day. So we decided to save some money and walk.

Ok, bad decision, it took longer than 20 minutes. I think we took about 45minutes. Quietly cursing the guard in my heart, lol. Anyway, by the time we reached Taipei 101, they have already closed or just in the process of closing so we can only take pictures outside.

Taipei 101 at night. Anyway, as we were busy taking photos in front of Taipei 101, suddenly the wind blows so darn strong. Even I can't balance myself as I'm taking the picture. I had to hold on to my cap so that it won't fly off. Those who are really skinny and light maybe can fly off already..haha. Then decided to call it a day. We do not want to walk again and in the strong wind, so we board a cab to take us to the nearest MRT station which is the Taipei City Hall Station. NT70 since it's near.

So, that's the end of day 4. The wind is like the sending off present for us as we're leaving Taipei the next day to head south to Taichung. Even though we didn't cover a lot of places and had to waste time in travelling, it's still a great experience for us.

Bye.