Today, we're heading back to the city. It's early morning and we knew it's going to be a really really long drive
Pit stop lunch
It's almost 5pm when we reached Taipei from Lu Shan. I felt nauseous with the long drive and winding road towards the old city of Jiu Fen. As the car maneuvered across the steep winding hills, the city of Jiu Fen emerged. Perched at the top of the hill lay this old gold mining town that overlooks the Pacific Ocean.
It was drizzling. We turned up the collar of our coats and braved the strong wind.
Panaromic view of north Taiwan and the Pacific Ocean.
See that spot where people gathered? That's the entrance of the famous Jiu Fen night market
I really enjoyed this night market. Full of fun stuff to look at and EAT! If you don't plan to buy anything, this night market offers a variety of food tasting which I love :)
Ice cream sandwich with the generous amount of champagne grape flavored ice cream. Nyum!
Crazy hot anchovies!
Guess what's this? Tourists flocked this store and it turns out all this cute ceramic carvings are music makers.
Looks like some huge mushrooms
Fancy some snails? The Asian escargot in larger porpotions
Wonder why Hansel & Gretel entered the candy house? Who can resist such sweet and colourful temptation?
The guys are wondering why am I choosing the candy canes. They all looked the same right? I am telling you, they are different!
Wow, wouldn't dare to ask for any discount from this dude.
I was standing next to this stall and was startled by the machine that suddenly started to spit out these crackers. I was so awed (talking about getting easily impressed when you're on vacation) that I got one of these. After all, you can't go wrong with prawn crackers.
Jiu Fen night market was like a maze. With different path leading to more shops. Some are hidden and if you see something and you don't buy it, you might not find the shop again. Of course, I don't really have a good sense of direction but I am not the only person saying this.
We came out to a slightly less busy area for a breather. Now, this is the Jiu Fen picture moment with red lanterns lining the restaurants here. The rain got heavier. People started to trickle away as the skies turned grey and the air got colder.
Wet and cold, we hid in the 7-11 store while waiting for our driver. Still, nothing can stop us from posing with food that resembles our name.
Mr. Chen came and gave us a bad news. We can't make it to Shi Fen anymore. We still have to conquer another hill to reach Shi Fen and by the time get there, everything would have been closed. Noo....gone are my dreams to release those giant lanterns up to the sky.... Sobz. Maybe next time.
Although we are fast losing the sun, Mr Chen still brought us to see those areas as he promised. The Golden waterfall. Under sunny days, one can see the copper sediments glistened like gold, thus the waterfall's name was born.
The Yin Yang sea. Where the yellow waters in the bay collides with the blue waters of the ocean beyond. The contrast are more apparent during day time but with our naked eyes the contrasting colours.
Put your head very closely to this picture. No, it's not one of those scary jump in your face pictures but if you see close enough, you can really see the constrast of the Yin Yang sea even in such low light.
Sounds of the wave, the strong wind billowing, and the distant light from the city. While admiring the sight, suddenly, the entire city's light blinked. Fumi was like "Did you see that? Did you see that?"
We were curious about the old building that looked like a fort perched at the top of the hill. Mr. Chen told us it was an old mining fort. Boy, with this setting, it looked really eerie but one can't take his eyes off it.
OK, time to go!
Since we didn't go to Shi Fen, Mr Chen tried to cheer us up by bringing us to Keelung market. I mean other drivers would just call it a day but Mr Chen was so nice to maximize our trip with him. I didn't know much about this market but walking along the market tells me that it's a huge seafood night market.
Since I haven't had a proper meal, I sat down and had a bowl of crab soup.
Mmm...hot soup with chunky crab meat. Felt nice in a wet & cold weather.
Not missing out trying Taiwan's Oh-Chien (Fried Oyster). Oysters are cooked in sticky paste with eggs. Then served with a splash of sweet sauce. Taiwan't "Oh" are bigger. But it's kind of too big for my liking. Making me feel like I am eating a bloated oyster. OK, that's just my take on this as some like big oysters :)
Fresh sea food galore!
Mr Chen scooped us back to the heart of Taipei. We'll be staying in Shih Lin for the next couple of days. Boy, the hostel where we're staying is really hard to find. We had to make at least 3 rounds around Shih Lin before we found Taiwan Fun Backpackers hostel. In fact, we did drove past it 3 times!
Time to say goodbye to our awesome driver Mr. Chen....no more chauffeur and luxury of cars.
Our hostel is really "big". We had 2 double bunk beds and they smelled like Ikea. Although the size, it's clean and well equipped. We had a shared living, kitchen and laundry area all with a newly renovated with minimalist design. There are 3 toilets & 3 showers. Ample enough for a 4 bedroom hostel. Couldn't say more about how strategic it is. Walking out of our hostel and we stepped straight to the Shih Lin night market.
Although we were tired, we couldn't resist the Shih Lin night market. So we had a quick preview of it. Snacking along the way, we stumbled on the corn stall. Choose the corn and the seller will weigh it and give you a price. Most people will walk away but I still can't believe we waited for a TWD200 piece of corn. It looked special. I had a bite and all my expectations came tumbling down. Apart from the tasty top, the corn were grilled until it lost it's natural juices. It tasted weird and soggy...something only worth a try if you had some spare cash or if you wanted to try something special
1 comment:
Hi do you still have your driver contact number? Thanks.
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