Day 3 Taipei Seoul Trip

Day trip out of Taipei to Shifen town. Shifen is an old mining village and home to a waterfall dubbed as Taiwan’s little Niagara Falls. Didnt visit the waterfall due to time constraint. Took the train (not the subway) from Taipei Train Station to Ruifang Station (around 45 mins). & from Ruifang station, transferred to Pingxi line to Shifen station (another 25 mins).

Poor Videl. She vomited a few times today and she's all pale and weak.

We used the You You card (Like our Ez link card) so we do not need to buy any tickets from the train station. But by using You You card, we could not reserve the seats and couldnt take the Tze Chiang Express Train.

1st class seats but not for the big butt.

Kennie and Videl taking 1st class seats as well.

The interior of our train. Those who bought the tickets early will be able to reserve the seats.

At Ruifang Station. Waiting for out train to Shifen.

Ruifang is also the station to go to Jiufen or Jinguashi.

At Ruifang station. Look a bit rundown but at least it served its purpose as a train station

Bought a 便当 (Bento) in the station. Food is allowed in the station and train.

Videl vomited again.

Videl looked so pale.
When the train finally stops at Shifen Station, we need to cross the railway track to the other side. 

Souvenir lantern for sale.

Food Food Food.

It was drizzling when we arrived

We choose this shop to buy our lantern

The cost of a huge lantern starts from NT100 for 2 colours, up to NT200 for 4. We got a 4-colored lantern for NT200. Different colors represent different well-wishes. The color combination we chose was yellow-white-blue-pink and it represents study/career, health/safety, wishes/dream, good fortune/love.

The shop owner clips the lantern to a steel frame. A calligraphy brush and a container of ink are provided for us to pen our wishes onto each of the sides.

6A1 for O level and 260 for PSLE

As it was drizzling, the shop owner was kind enough to ask us to go inside to take photo of all the 4 sides

Getting ready to release the lantern

Up up and away. Was quite worried that it will not fly up or will the lantern will catch fire. Hope our wishes will come true.

Wild Boar Sausages

BBQ Corn on the Cob

Poor Videl. She was very tired

Train Ticket from Shifen to Ruifang. Very cheap. Only 20NT ($0.85). Transport expense in Taipei is very cheap as compared to Sg.

Back to Ruifang Station. Waiting for train to go back to Taipei. Went to buy medicine for Videl

Back to Taipei and at Ximending. Skipped Jiufen and Keelung Miaokung as Videl is not getting better.

Makan at Ah Zhong Mian Xian 阿宗麵線. Looked at the queue.

Very nice especially with the chewy pig intestine, vinegar and chilli. Ah Zhong has maintained the standard of the mee sua really well since the last time we tried. The starchy gravy is savoury and makes us want more.

No proper place for us to eat. Everyone will just stand and eat their bowl of mian xian.

& if you are lucky, you will get to find a chair to sit

Went back to hotel to rest but left shortly for dinner again. We just cant stay in the hotel for long.

At the corridor of our hotel. We stayed in Rm 501.

Wanted to eat at Modern Toilet at Ximending but it was full house. Need to wait for at least 1 hour for a table.

So Veona just camwhore outside the restaurant.

50lan = Sg KOI

Actually tasted almost the same as Sg's KOI. Not very special.

At Ximending.

Illegal street stalls. 

Finally settled for dinner at Ya Rou Bian (鴨肉扁). Though the shop name is called 鴨肉扁 (Duck) but it's actually Goose. This stall is extremely popular among the Taiwanese and is always pack when we walked past it for the past few days.

The soup based noodles/beehoon has a generous serving of beansprouts and the soup is very tasty