day 7 and 8 - ping xi - jiu fen 九份 - dan shui - taipei - singapore
after an exhausting night at shi fen, everybody slept pretty well. i've also gotten use to the tatami mats...but too bad, it was our last day at ping xi.
went back the same breakfast shop for breakfast, then the kind boss made us coffee again :D
entrance to the stairs that will lead to the rooms...miss this place so much!
the mummies having a chat with the boss over cups of coffee
instead of heading straight back to dan shui (where we will stay at the same accoms), we decided to make use of the day and explore jiu fen 九份, a town not far away from ruifang 瑞方 where trains to taipei connect to the ping xi train
jiu fen is a town that is kinda built into one side of the mountain, hence the whole town is like a giant lookout point. it's a fairly well-known tourist spot, especially for its tea houses 茶楼. also for its numerous steps that links the shops together. a few travel shows to taiwan have introduced this place before, and many people who visits taipei does a day trip to jiu fen, mostly for the scenery, food and tea.
can u see why there are so many stairs in jiu fen? it's the only way to link all these streets together
with our trusty guidebook from NLB, we hunted down a few of the famous food in jiu fen...
fishballs, meatballs, fishballs with meat inside...YUMMY!
we couldn't get enough of the 'balls', so headed into another shop for more food. the taiwanese have the CUTEST containers!
this shop we went into had pictures of the lady boss plastered ALL OVER the shop, some blown up to 8R....the lady boss had many poses, and for someone her age, she really knows how to pose :D also, many celebrities have come to this shop before, including jolin tsai and jacky wu. how do i know? because lady boss took pics with them lor
at the top of these steps is a rather famous shop that sells yam balls (yeah, we had a 'balls' day at jiu fen). the shop also boasts of great in-house seats that overlook the scenic jiu fen...
and it was really good view, can see the mountains in the distant!
even doggie knows how to appreciate the scenery! (yes, pets are apparently allowed in the shop...this doggie also had a few yam balls from its master)
this 'tunnel' actually leads to more shops at the top. only i went up to take a look...in the darkest part of the steps, i couldn't see my own fingers at all, so it was quite challenging to descend the steps
all the food we ate was quickly digested with all the climbing and descending. such stairways are found all over jiu fen, linking the whole town together.
we chose one of the many teahouses in jiu fen to rest our feet. al fresco, and a fantastic view...
too bad for the hazy skies, otherwise i'm quite sure the picture will turn out even better than this
mummy looks like she can really fit well into this relaxing atmosphere :D
after all the huffing, eating and relaxing, we decided to catch a bus back to taipei instead of going back via train. the bus ride wasn't too bad initially, and we manage to all get seats after a while (i got one right at the back of the bus though)
however, the driver apparently is super confident of his driving, and although i was asleep 99% of the ride, there was a point when there was a loud SCCCREEECH, and then horns sounded and everyone (except me) gasped in the bus. i got woken up by the sccreech, but didn't manage to catch what happened. judging from the gasps, i'm just glad that i didn't hear a crash.
i promptly fell back to sleep...and then suddenly, i heard someone calling my name to wake me up. 3 mummies, YQ and Dinnie were all getting ready to alight! i hurriedly get off the bus, last thing i heard the driver saying was '松山车站' (songshan station). as we all tried and clear our heads and orientate ourselves to the surroundings, it dawned onto me that we seem to have gotten off at the wrong stop. i guess someone heard '车站' and mistook it for the MRT station. luckily, a taiwanese gentleman told us which bus to take that will take us to the nearest MRT station (which another lady told us is very long way to walk to). so we got onto another bus, and the MRT was VERY far..cos the bus journey took like 20mins or more.
on the way, we passed by 小巨蛋, kinda equivalent to singapore's esplanade. there were some concerts going on...but too bad we don't have time to go and take a look :(
we finally arrive back into the heart of the city, and our stomachs were growling in protest! went to a rather fancy restaurant for dinner, but the service wasn't really good. probably cos we ordered the cheaper dishes? after dinner, mrt ride back to dan shui, where YQ's aunt and cousins are gonna meet up with us...
back in danshui, back to the homey accoms...everyone shrug off their backpacks and begin our nightly routine of showering. while we waited for YQ's relatives to come, we also started to pack our bags as it's our last night in taiwan! :(
YQ's reunion with her cousins and aunt was...a noisy affair. can definitely tell that they are all very close to each other. and that night, they planned to go to KTV and sing the night away. well, avid KTV lover like me found it very hard to say 'no', so everyone else went back to sleep, while YQ and i followed her cousins and aunt to the KTV
now now, taiwanese KTV is nothing like kbox or party world. it's an art...a culture...and the WHOLE building is nothing but KTV rooms. each room has its own toilet somemore! and the drinks were yummier...sound system better...only flaw is that in between songs, they will play some random new MTV while loading the next song. that kinda waste ur singing time...but otherwise, OMG, i only wish that a whole building in singapore is just purely KTV rooms.
we sang (i didn't sing much...kinda tired from all the days of travelling here and there) till about 4+am, then walked to YQ's cousin's apartment (it was like a 45mins walk, i think) walking at that time of the 'night' was quite an experience, especially since i was more like floating from the lack of sleep. reason we head there is to check in online, so that we don't have to rush to the airport. after that, YQ and i caught about 2 hours of sleep, before we depart and walked back to our accoms.
i was impressed with YQ. with just 2hours of sleep, she managed to remember the way back and we didn't get lost anywhere. *applause* after waking everyone up, then washing up blah blah blah, we heaved our backpacks onto our back and begin the end of our taiwan trip :(
breakfast was 豆浆油条 at a rather famous shop, and it was good! first time i ate a youtiao in taiwan that wasn't dripping or saturated with oil
after breakfast, we took the mrt down to taipei, dumped our backpacks in lockers and then?
u guessed it...shopping lor! where? back at taipei underground streets...
no choice, everyone has to buy something back to feed their colleagues. besides, i think dinnie was super happywith her bargains. shoes, bags etc...in the end, she had to buy a big bag to put all her shopping in..impressive lor.
however much i wished we can stay in taiwan forever and ever more, it came to a point where we had to get to the airport. original plan was to take a bus, but we found out that there are no bus available! so in the end, we had to call taxis...
and guess what? it started to rain again...
even the sky is sad that we are leaving....
it was a fairly long wait cos of the traffic jams everywhere in taipei (it was a saturday)..and everyone kinda got abit angsty.
finally, eventually, one of the cabs appeared. dinnie and mum went off first cos their flight is earlier. the 2nd cab never came (or at least we didn't wait that long). we hailed down another cab to take us to the airport.
everything else after that was kinda forgotten cos 1) i was asleep all the way to the airport 2) everyone was kinda grumpy cos it's the end of our hols...
and so, with this entry marks the end of my 'travelouge' for taiwan trip...
next destination in taiwan? i hope to go to 垦定，YQ wants to go to 南投.
hopefully we don't have to wait too long...because my travelling withdrawal symptoms are starting to act up again..
~the end~
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