Hey there everyone, thanks for choosing to continue to follow along with my travels to Taipei. I know that yesterday was not very exciting, but I think you will find today to be much more in line with your general expectations of travel adventure.
As I think I had mentioned earlier, for this trip I was staying at my friend Haowen’s place, which is very conveniently located near Nangang MRT station. So, using public transportation was a cinch. Haowen had lent me a transit card, but if you are coming on your own, it is very easy to get your own for just 100 NTD ($3.39 USD) at any convenience store or even right there in a metro station. Similarly, it’s quick and easy to reload the card at the same locations. Unless you are wed to the idea of going around in taxis everywhere, I suggest you do this the first thing you get off the plane. The card is for any urban public transport: local train, subway, bus or even bike share, and Google maps works great for suggesting the best routes at any time of the day. Furthermore, throughout my trip, I found all of the public transport options to be clean, comfortable, quiet and not really all that crowded . . . in short, an urban commuter’s dream.
For today’s adventure, I had once again decided to use the tour aggregator GetYourGuide. I have used this service in several countries and have never been disappointed; although, I do take the time to read comments and ratings before booking. For this time around, I had chosen the highly popular Shipen, Jiufen and Yehliu Guided Day Trip with a cost of $45 USD. As much as I use this aggregator, and also write fairly positive reviews, I feel like these folks should as a minimum be giving me a discount, but so far that hasn’t happened. Maybe I should ask them?
So, I will spare you the MRT (subway) details, but given my confusion the previous evening, I had left a bit early, thus arriving at 8:18 AM to Taipei Main Station, M3 exit, just as I had been directed by the tour operator. I wasn’t too sure about the food situation for the day and still had almost thirty minutes until the designated meeting time; thus, I bought 2 pork buns, 2 cabbage buns and a simple drink for 100 NTD ($3.39 USD) right near the exit.
Eating it was a bit awkward, since there was no obvious place to sit nearby, but the food was tasty and filling, so no complaints on that score. While this was in a permanent stand, I think this might classify as “street food,” and this seems to be quite common in Taipei. Similarly, I had already noticed that there frequently was no obvious place to sit to eat the food. I am guessing that most local buy this either on their way to work, school or home and then eat it once they get there. Nevertheless, nobody seemed to be mad at me for eating it right there on the street.
At 8:38 AM, just as I had been informed, I saw our tour guide for the day, Anne, in a bright yellow shirt, and at 8:43 I was already sitting in the comfortable Pullman style bus. Although the trip had been advertised as being sold out, the bus definitely wasn’t crowded, and I had two seats to myself. Also, I wasn’t sure, but most of my fellow tourists seemed to be Taiwanese, a couple Japanese and a small scattering of mixed European/North Americans.
Again, ever prompt, at 9:00 AM Anne apologized for us not taking off on time but asked if it would be okay if we were to wait a maximum of five more minutes for a latecomer, who arrived at 9:04 AM, and we were off on our adventure. I was particularly impressed that Anne asked us to fasten our seatbelts, walked through checking, and then showed an incredibly informative safety video just like on an airplane. I could see how this might get old but given that this was the first time in my life I had actually seen a bus safety video, I was actually tempted to take some notes. In case you are curious, there are all sorts of disasters which might happen when riding on a bus, if one catches fire while you are on it, the first 60 seconds are crucial to getting off safely. The video itself was in Mandarin with English subtitles.
At 9:17 AM Anne started to do her spiel. It seemed like she was simultaneously doing everything in Chinese, English and Japanese. Furthermore, she seemed quite confident in all three languages. Facilitating things for the upcoming trip, she mentioned that the first place we would be visiting was Shifen waterfall. Evidently, that area was first developed as a coal mining region, but it was unclear to me if that is still continuing today. For those who want to, while in that area we would have the option to send up traditional Chinese lanterns, but this had an additional cost of 200 NTD ($6.77 USD). Furthermore, a big food specialty of this spot is a sort of stuffed chicken wing and some sort of ice-cream with peanut; these two items could also be advance ordered for 130 NTD ($4.40 USD). I didn’t think that I was particularly keen on the lantern, but I definitely put my name down for the food.
At 9:51 AM we exited a 2 km long tunnel. Throughout, the scenery had been beautiful, the road smooth, the ride comfortable, and the driving extremely safe. As an added tidbit, Anne mentioned that certain local residents would go gather the fallen lanterns for recycling, getting 12 NTD ($0.41 USD) each from the local government. I wondered how difficult it would be to recover these, but it seemed like a fairly good motivation to do so. Anyway, we arrived at the first stop at 9:57 AM, and she told us that we had to be back to the bus at 10:50 AM sharp.
As quickly became apparent, this was just the “nature location” and it seemed fairly popular as a stopover point for many people, but it definitely didn’t feel crowded. I thought that the whole “waterfall thing” was a bit oversold, but it was still a pleasant stop along the way. If this were your only location for the day, it might be a bit of a disappointment, but as part of a larger day-tour package, it seemed more than adequate.
At 10:44 AM I was back on the bus. Coming without a group, this stop could maybe have been drawn out to 3 hours, but that would only be if also getting a meal. Certainly, it seemed like an easily accessible daytrip location for nearby local residents. However, an average solo visitor would definitely not spend more than 90 minutes here, regardless of how much they wanted to stare at “the waterfall”. The bus started going again at 10:57 AM, but we were once again off at 10:59 AM. As I had opted to not release a lantern, I was told that I had until 12:00 PM to wander around on my own. Releasing lanterns seemed to be the main draw of this village, and it was definitely possible to do so without an advance reservation/purchase, but it was a picturesque spot to visit, and there were of course plenty of souvenir and food options as well.
At 12:00 PM I met back up with the rest of the group and received my stuffed chicken wing and ice-cream burrito from Anne. Both were nice, but the chicken wing seemed to be particularly satisfying. As far as I could tell, it was made by removing the larger bones of the wing, stuffing the extra area with seasoned sticky rice, and then roasting it in some way. I could tell it required some degree of preparation time, but I wondered why it would be more of a specialty to this particular area rather than being more widespread . . . I mean I would eat it fairly regularly if it were available. The ice-cream seemed sort of like a very thin, but glutinous crepe wrapping around very cold ice-cream with a bit of lightly sugared peanut dust
As we got on the bus again at 12:08 PM, Anne mentioned that a typhoon was supposed to be arriving either Thursday or Friday, and I wondered if that might affect my flight. However, she mentioned that it seemed that this would mainly be an issue for southern Taiwan. I suppose it was insensitive for me to just be worrying about my travel plans, but nobody else seemed particularly concerned either. I am guessing that typhoons here are fairly common. As we were headed to the village of Jiufen, Anne explained it’s three major claims to fame. The first is a 92-year-old theatre which was apparently constructed during a gold rush. The second was because of a movie called “A Chinese Ghost Story” which had been filmed there in the 1980s in which some big movie star named Tony Liang had starred. And the final one was that one of the well-known buildings in the town seems to appear in the 2001 movie “Spirited Away”. Evidently there will be a lot of stairs here, so I am guessing not the best location for those with mobility issues, but maybe they have some workaround for that?
We arrived at 12:48 AM, and Anne said that we needed to be back on the bus at 2:50 PM. We started walking up as a group, and she had a small speaker in her bag to amplify her voice, as she pointed out some of the main locations. The first stop, which was about ten minutes later, was the famous theatre.
I can’t say that I was all that impressed by the theatre, but I suppose one has to put things in historical context. I do however think that it might have been enjoyable to see a movie there. Continuing up the stairs about five minutes later was the Amei Tea House which many people claim was the basis for the main building in “Spirited Away”. As is indicated in the name, this is evidently a great place to have tea, but as far as I could tell, nobody in my group was particularly interested in that. However, EVERYONE was quite excited about taking pictures of the exterior of the house. I suppose if I had come only to Jiufen, I probably would have had tea there, even though there were clearly plenty of other options for food and drink as well.
At 1:12 PM we all sort of continued exploring on our own. I really had no idea what to expect, but I was on vacation, and it all seemed pretty enough, so there were no complaints from me. It did become clear rather quickly that the main reasons for coming here were threefold: looking at pretty buildings, buying souvenirs (from absurdly tacky to rather fine jewellery) and of course eating.
As I wandered around, I bought a Taro milk tea (bubble tea) for 60 NTD ($2.03 USD) and one duck gizzard for 40 NTD ($1.35 USD). The gizzard was even tastier than expected, but the tea was not particularly impressive. However, to be fair, I’m not generally a huge fan of bubble tea . . . it is a bit of a novelty, but I don’t really understand what it adds to the experience. I do like the texture of the bubbles, but they seem a bit tasteless, so there is always that to consider.
At 2:45 PM we were back in the bus headed towards Yehliu Geopark, where we arrived at 3:40 PM. The tour planners had scheduled things wisely, since this was clearly the highlight of the day. Like most of natural formations which “look like” something, you many times have to sort of squint your eyes and tilt your head sideways to “see it,” but even without the “natural sculptures” the park was a definite must-see site, and the other locations would have been a bit of a downer had the order of events been reversed. So, good planning on the part of the tour organizers.
At 4:44 PM I was back on the bus, and at 4:51 PM we headed back to Taipei, with the plan to leave us at Raohe night market. I hadn’t realized it when I was there yesterday, but that market is considered a big tourist destination for the city. With today’s clear sky, I guessed that it might be more interesting than the previous evening. As we were arriving at 5:31 PM, we said goodbye to Anne Haowen so we could get together for dinner at a spot she had in mind.
However, I got a bit sidetracked, as a woman who was on the tour had no internet on her phone and needed to get transport back to her hotel with all of her luggage. After a combination of me calling Haowen, and a very kind random woman stopping to help us, we finally figured out both how to flag her down a taxi and figure out the location of her hotel so that the driver would know where to go. I was very happy to help, but it also made me realize how many of us have become overly dependent on our internet connected phones as we travel around the world. For instance, had I dropped and broken my phone, I would have had no way to contact Haowen, and wouldn’t even have been certain of how to get back to her apartment. This is an important cautionary tale that I need to keep in mind.
Fortunately, though, that had not happened, and at 6:02 PM as I was walking towards where Haowen had suggested, I marveled at the beautiful weather.
I arrived at the Teppanyaki place that Haowen had chosen at 6:20 PM and the food was amazing. The name was only in Chinese, but I got the map link; I definitely recommend it if you find yourself in the area. For both of us, it was 1250 NTD ($42.32 USD) and definitely worth it!
We left there at 7:24 PM, and I took advantage of a nearby ATM at 7:35 PM to get another 3300 NTD out in cash from my Indian bank account. Then at 7:50 PM Haowen asked me if I was up for cycling, and I was game, so we took Ubikes around for awhile until 8:16 PM and interestingly enough, there was no charge! I should clarify that Haowen actually had a destination in mind, but as I didn’t know it, it just seemed like fun.
Interestingly when we went into the nearby Xiangshan park MRT station for Haowen to use the washroom, they gave her a special token so she could go through to the washrooms without using the MRT. While I was waiting for her, I also noticed that there were special rental umbrellas for people as they were coming out of the subway; that seemed like a good idea, particularly in a place where I guess it seems to rain rather frequently.
From there we went walking up Elephant Mountain Trail, reaching the main viewpoint at 8:53 PM. It was definitely worth the view, but the steps were a bit brutal, so keep that in mind if you think about doing the same.
Once again, I was very thankful to Haowen, both for hosting me and also for thinking of all of these wonderful things for us to do. We hung out just chatting and looking at the view until finally deciding to walk down at 9:30 PM, shortly thereafter arriving to an absolutely amazing, shaved ice dessert place where we had refreshing and delicious snacks for only 80 NTD ($2.71 USD) each.
From there, we headed out again at 10:09 PM, once more taking Ubikes until 11:36 PM, this time paying 20 NTD ($0.68 USD) each for the rental, and we were finally back in the apartment at 11:40 PM.
So, I don’t know what you think, but for me, this was an absolutely perfect day. Wherever you are, and whatever you are doing, I hope that you also have recently had a day this amazing! Let me see your comments and questions in the section below and keep following along to see what happened on Day 3.
Travels with Jay 