24th November 2014
The second last day of our trip. We woke up too early and it's still time left before me and CY met with our other travel mates. So, we decided to go to Ximending again. It's still early in the morning and not many shops were opened yet. So, we just strolled around the area. Well, we got a picture of "The Red House 西門紅樓" without the presence of another human beings. Hahaha!
 |
The Red House 西門紅樓
|
We realised that the Watsons was opened for business. Apparently, the store in Ximending was opened for 24 hours. Good news for shopaholics. We went there to browse initially, at the end, we bought many things. Another group of customers in that shop were putting many Naruko products inside their basket enthusiastically. From their accents, I think they were either Malaysians or Singaporeans. Well, I never tried Naruko before, so I didn't know the price, whether it's cheap or not. Then, they told me it's very very very cheap and put more products inside their baskets. So, at the end, I bought three Naruko night gelly, sunscreen, a box of face mask with very cute cover, a cream made with sheep oil, etc. CY also bought six bottles of the night gelly. It's not light, so we went back to the hostel to drop off the products before went out again to meet our friends.
 |
| Skin care products bought from Taiwan |
Our lunch was steamboat. It's one of the must eat items. For this steamboat, we went to Jiufen at afternoon. For me, it's ok only. However, for the Japanese, it's a speciality. Since me and CY was not new to this kind of steamboat, we let our friends ordered, they chose the spicy and milk broth, then we ordered many items from the menu. It's buffet style. We paid 498 NTD per person and after that, free to order as many items we wanted. However, I think the food we ate didn't cost more than the price we paid. The table next to us was different story, they ordered expensive stuffs only and after we left, still kept ordering stuffs.
 |
| steamboat |
Then, we wanted to take the bus to Jiufen. We went to the wrong bus stop and many touts were trying to get us to take the taxi instead. We refused. I still had bad memories on the taxi driver speeding on mountainous road. After that, we rechecked and found out that we got the wrong bus stop (the old stop) and went to the right one. Many more touts there. We waited until the bus came and boarded the bus. I think we should support the public transport, so that the service can continue. Along the way, I think only three or four commuters left the bus, the rest all stopped at the last stop, Jiufen. If all the tourists choose the more convenient way (take the taxi), then the bus company will not have enough incentive to carry on the route. It's bad for the local communities. For example, in my place, the local bus route Banting ⇔ Chodoi, Banting ⇔ Tanjong Sepat, my mother used to be the only customer in the bus from Banting to Tanjong Sepat. Imagined that, the bus company couldn't even cover the fuel, not to mention the maintenance of the bus and the salary of the driver. It's a chicken and egg situation, unreliable public transport services will prone the commuters to find other alternatives (motorcycles or cars), then after that, due to plummeting customers, the bus company didn't want to provide a more regular bus services. Finally, it pushes away more commuters. A very sad cycle.
 |
| Juifen 九份 |
After we reached Riufang, the road started to jam. It's weird, it's Monday, when most of the Taiwanese were supposed to be at work. Anyway, most of the tourists I met in Jiufen were Japanese. 24th November was the public holiday in Japan. I couldn't imagine the crowd during the weekend.
 |
| people mountain people sea in Jiufen |
Anyway, the main aim in Jiufen was to have tea at one of the tea house 九份茶坊. It's featured heavily in Japanese travel guides. It felt so arty. Although I didn't have to, but I felt the need to slow down my voice and moved silently. It's not a place I would normally go. I am a loud person.
 |
| Jiufen Tea House |
The main attraction in this tea house was the seating at the balcony overlooking the hills of Jiufen. However, it was full. So we chose the table inside the building with all the tea paraphernalia. It was quite fancy.
 |
| Jiufen Tea House |
 |
| Jiufen Tea House |
The staffs at the tea house knew how to speak Japanese, much better than me, someone who stayed in Japan for two years. Hahaha, The waitress introduced a tea called 金萱茶, my usual tea was Lipton, not sure this tea was good or not, but it's not bitter and quite easy to drink.
 |
| Jiufen Tea House |
After the waitress put all the tea pots, tea leaves on the table, she demonstrated the correct way to brew the tea. So, we followed the sequence. It's different from the Japanese tea ceremony though. It's more relaxing.
 |
| Jiufen Tea House |
 |
| view from the tea house |
I didn't manage to tour most of the Jiufen, our time was spent in the tea house, and then just strolling around the old street. We didn't go to the Jinguashi. We didn't have enough time. After tea time, it's dark.
 |
| night view of Jiufen |
We followed the crowd to some photo spots. There're too many people, so we just snapped some photos to prove we were here and left.
 |
| The movie "A City of Sadness" was taken here |
 |
| a very iconic place to take photo in Jiufen |
Then, we waited for the bus to go back to Taipei. Sadly, all the buses were full. We waited for quite a long time. There's many taxis there too and kept telling us the bus was full, and 'advised' us to just take the taxi. There's free Wifi there, so I used it to search for alternative route. We took the bus to Ruifang Station, then from there to Taipei. Initially, we wanted to take the train, however, after we departed from the bus, there's one bus to Taipei, so we just took the bus.
Reached Taipei, we were the only customers that reached the end stop. Since it was still early and it was our last night in Taiwan, we decided to go to Ximending again. In Ximending, CY, Miyoshi and Miki were so interested with the selfie stick, so they bargained with the seller. Me and Goto just waited there, watching a fruits seller slice the fruits skilfully. Funny, after that, many food stall owners were pushing their cart to one direction, then, this fruits vendor also pushed her cart away. Then, all the vendors pushed their carts passing us to another direction very fast. In one moment, the street became very quiet, and a policeman came in his motorcycle and left. Ohhh, the stall owners were all illegal. Well, without all these food stalls, Ximending looked a bit dull.
 |
| fruits stall in Ximending |
Then, three of them finally got their selfie sticks and we walked around Ximending. It's still very lively compared to the day time. I got another pair of shoes and CY bought two pairs at the same time.
 |
| face mask (stave off dust type, not the beauty type) |
Then, all of us went back to our stay of the night.
25th November 2014
Last day in Taiwan. We all met at the Din Tai Fung to have our last meal together. We didn't have it in Taipei 101, we had it in the main shop (the original shop) of Din Tai Fung. If there are choices, Japanese will choose the original main shop, the 元祖 or 本店. Miyoshi already booked a place there, so we just entered and ordered and ate as fast as possible.
 |
| Din Tai Fung 鼎泰豐 |
Well, they served all the dim sum at one shot. So, the below trays became not so hot and it affected the taste a bit. Anyway, it's good.
 |
| Dim sum in Din Tai Fung 鼎泰豐 |
After the sumptuous meal, we went to a dessert shop and have desserts. Then, we bye bye with each other. Really the end of our trip.
 |
| desserts in 思慕昔 |
We rushed back to our hostel to take our luggages and rushed to the bus station. Well, I shopped a bit in Taipei, so my luggages became very heavy, it's really a struggle to walk until the bus station. I survived! We took bus to the airport. After we checked in, I felt strange because I didn't see any Taiwanese souvenir shops, there were only liquor store, chocolate store and tobacco store. But, as we walked deeper inside, the shops were there, so I shopped again, I bought Taiwanese tea, honey and some biscuits. I was so proud with myself, I didn't spend all the money I brought to Taiwan.
We took Air Asia back to KL and reached home safely. A great trip.
 |
| Air Asia's Nasi Lemak |
No comments:
Post a Comment