My Family

Taipei Trip- Day 4

Jiufen
Hotpot Buffet
Ximending
Gong Guan Night Market

We went to Jiufen today. Journey there was already quite tiring. We took the train to Ruifang station and hopped into the Keelung bus. The whole journey took around 1.5 hr. The train system in Taiwan is a maze by itself. There's no signboard telling us where that particular train is heading to. We have to ask around to make sure that we are boarding the correct train. In the train, we had to rely on the broadcast when they reached each station. But we can barely hear the announcement. It's quite lucky that a lady overheard my conversation with another commuter that she told me that I must alight at the next stop after she alighted.

To our surprise, Jiufen was very packed today as we thought it would be deserted since it's a Mon.

Anyway, we like this place very much. There's lots of nice food everywhere. We bought most of the goodies for our frds from there. Think their specialities are Tai Yang Bing, Taro ball, Feng Li Su, Mochi and Fruits Jelly.

Beancurd with Taro ball.

This is 1 of the best beef noodle that I have eaten in Taiwan. It's just at the entrance of Jiufen

The place is so packed. Checked with 1 of the stalls and she told me that it's dumpling festival and it's Public Holiday on Mon and Tues. Shiok. How I wish it's Public Holiday for S'pore too. No wonder the whole Taipei is so crowded this few days.

This is quite a popular food in Jiufen. Quite nice. Below are 2 pics of this popular dish

Big Mushroom stem (or whatever it is).

Took this pic not because the food is nice but the owner is 'chio'.

This is bake potato chip (It looks like the normal potato chip). Didn't buy it as the one we saw in Shilin look nicer. But in the end, we didn't get to eat the one in Shilin cause it's not open when we went there again

Smelly toufu again. But not very nice.

Nice mochi shop. Look very classy too.

Nice scenery

Jiufen Teahouse. The tea is very fragrant but very ex. The small packet of tea leave cost NT$800 and NT$100 per pax for hot water charges

Inside the Teahouse

A nice place to relax after a hectic morning

We shifted to a more cosy table after a while

Train system in Ruifang. The staffs are selling bento set. Didnt get to try it. There's a few types of trains in Taipei railway. We came to Jiufen by the normal train that look like the MRT. For return journey, there's seats allocation for the train and we had to stand as the seats were all taken. Another one is the express train which is much faster and of course much more expensive

Supposed to go Keelung Miaokou after Jiufen but the bus queue was super long. Waited almost an hr for the bus. The bus was heading to Ruifang instead of Keelung so we just boarded it. Anyway Taiwanese drivers are very reckless. My bags of goodies were almost crushed by a bus when it drove past me.

We skipped Yeliu and Jinguashi as we don't really like to see scenery. The weather was also quite unpredictable.

Had hotpot buffet dinner near Ximending. Very cheap. Only around NT$400 and they even serve Haagen Dazs for dessert which we won't be able to find in S'pore. Overall, the experience was good.

Walked around Ximending after dinner and saw Rainbow Hotel. It' really at the heart of Ximending. There's also a hotpot bufet on the 2nd level of the hotel. This is the much talk about buffet by many forums. There's haagen dazs and movenpicks ice cream.

Party World that's opposite Ximending. This place is very grand. The lobby is just like a 5 star hotel lobby. Wanted to sing K but it's full house tks to the holiday

CKS MRT station. nice signage.

No K to sing. So off we went shopping to Gong Guan Night Market(Gong Guan station). Its not really a Night Market. It's just normal shops that cater for the university students there. Anyway, there's nothing much there.