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Saturday, September 11, 2010

Taiwan Holiday - Day 2

Day 2 [Jinguashih - Jiufen - Raohe Night Market]

After a quick breakfast at the hotel, we headed to Jinguashih/Jiufen for a day trip out of Taipei. Following the guide book, we took a train to the Ruifang station (only RM5 each for the 50 minute trip. We were a bit lost at first but a lady with a "volunteer" vest at the station showed us how to buy tickets and which platform to go to) then took the bus straight to the Gold Ecological Park in Jinguashih.

Elyssa and I in the tunnel @ Ruifang Train Station
(such a nice looking tunnel!)

@ the Gold Ecological Park, Jinguashih
We just loved this beautiful park (no entrance fee) where part of it used to be a gold and copper mine Spent pretty much half a day there including a leisurely lunch. It was a darn hot day though.




Walking around the park
(they even had strollers on loan which came in really handy cos the park was huge)


Elyssa and I walking on the mining cart tracks


Hubby fooling around with Elyssa


With a 220kg bar of SOLID GOLD !!


Original tunnel entrance to the gold mine

Our lunch
We ordered the Miner's Lunch Box Set ( RM16). Interesting packaging and the metal container, scarf and chopsticks were ours to bring back ;)





After the Gold Ecological Park, we hopped on the bus for a 15 minute ride to JiuFen. Jiufen is a direct translation of "9 portions" - during the first years of the Qing Dynasty, the village housed nine families thus the village would request "9 portions" everytime shipments arrived from town. This place was also used as a model for the anime movie Spirited Away.

The narrow road
Managed to take a photo of our bus and an oncoming bus trying to pass each other on the road.


Scenery taken from the bus


Jinshan Street at Jiufen

How nice to be Elyssa. Whenever tired, just zzzzzz on daddy's chest :)



While Elyssa slept, we had this yam/sweet potato/green bean dessert.
Pretty good. The balls were placed on top of shaved ice.


Grilled mushrooms


Enjoying tea at one of the tea houses

Elyssa drinking her tea

Ah-Mei teahouse

Another view of the street at JiuFen


Old Cinema

After JiuFen, (between the two towns, we enjoyed Jinguashih more) we took a bus back to Taipei. On the way back, we stopped at the Raohe Street Night Market.


Our Dinner - herbal chicken claypot soups
Not from the night market stalls but at one of the small restaurants cos we needed to use the loo :) Looks good but it was actually quite tasteless


Octopus at the night market. Reminded me of worldcup-predicting Paul the Octopus ;)

Bought some stuff from the night market then took the train back to our hotel. An enjoyable day!

- End of Day 2 -

8 comments:

~LiLHypPo's mUMmy~ said...

A great trip indeed! I always thought Taiwan street snacks were good. But was told that they are a lot different from our food here...thus not syiok enough for our tastebuds

Unknown said...

Nice... I am in the same situation, if I get my pp renewed tomorrow then it's gonna be an abrupt "escape!"

Can bananas like me survive in Taipei without a guide?

Adrine said...

Agnes - Yes, definitely a wonderful trip :) On the food, I somehow enjoyed it from Day 3 onwards. Mebbe I just got more used to taste after that. (or mebbe my expectations changed!)

Irene - You already had your fantastic UK escape ;)

100% banana would be a bit difficult (but then again, the "angmohs" also survived) Would help a lot if can speak some basic Mandarin.

Unknown said...

So muhc goodie food there...I must lose weight first before my trip!!

Mommy to Chumsy said...

ooo..so much to see and so much good food to eat :)

Stacy said...

That pic of Elyssa drinking tea is v good. Good pose, cradling the cup like that, and that background is just perfect.

ChloeRuoyi said...

The Miner's lunch box set is so nice... makes great souvenir too :) So many yummy food! Can feel your happiness seeing all your holiday posts. You are not long-winded la... I think I was worse haha. Holiday posts are supposed to be like that - full of pictures and words cos we just want to capture and have every detail noted down as much as we can :)

Adrine said...

Angeline - Nevermind. Just target to lose weight AFTER the trip ;)

Barbara - Definitely a great place to visit!

Chi2 - Yup, I like the photo too. Luckily she didn't drop the tea cup.

Chloe's mummy - Ha ha.....yes, it's like I want to record as much as I can. But already "self-edit" or the posts would have been twice as long ;)