Ops, I did it again I guess. Neglecting my blog and spent an immense amount of time in playing PvZ and procrastinating. But, I’m back, at least. So don’t complain.
Continue blogging about my Taiwan trip before I forget everything.
Okay, so I’d visited most of the tourist attractions that were labeled as “must-see” so for the second last day of my trip, we went out a little further out of Taipei City, to the Taipei County.
Before jumping straight to the travelogue.. I want to make a little confession here, well.. not really a confession but something worth to remember for the rest of my life, and as a reminder. Hehehehe
Remember that I mentioned that the stupid driver from Alishan tore my mom’s luggage? So, with that big gap, it’s impossible to put stuffs in so we’re left with 2 options,
1) buy a new luggage
2) get it fixed
Well, of course, as a well-known *cough* frugal person (and don’t you go attacking me because I don’t owe you any explanation or MONEY! And, I don’t think I am that karit, considering the amount of money I spent on food, entertainment, and sometimes.. unnecessary WANTS)… we ever came across a man who repairs shoes on the street and my mom said we should try letting him repair it and unless the luggage is “certified”, then we’ll get a new one.
So on that particular Sunday morning, we woke up extra early hoping to meet that man. But, to go there, we would have to wait for 2 traffic lights when it’s just opposite where we stayed!
Er, you understand what I was trying to say?
Okay, long story short.. I was lazy to walk that much just to go across with a big luggage so, I trespassed. Because, I thought I saw someone did that too.
WHAT???? Don’t look at me like that! It was 7am in the morning okay, there’s very little traffic that’s why I dared to do that lah.
So I found a gap that enables pedestrians to trespass and just after I crossed two lanes and reached the middle, two blue motorbikes drove towards me….
Yeap, it’s the policemen. How lucky kan?
Policeman: Heh, 你是有看到这里有斑马线ho? (Hey, you saw zebra crossing here?)
Me: Eh… 我在赶时间。对不起对不起。(I’m in a rush. Sorry sorry)
Actually, I didn’t give chance for the policeman to talk to me, I just walked away from him. HAhahaha. I know it’s bad but… I had no idea how come I dare to walk away from him just like that. And, I was a bit angry at that time because.. HOW COME I SO SOI ONE!!! That fellow who did that 1 minute ago didn’t kana and I kana!!!
But ever since that time, I really don’t dare to trespass anymore, in Taiwan.
And 48 laughed when I told her that. I was wondering.. will they saman pedestrians? And… if they do, and I don’t pay, can they track me down and don’t let me get out of the country until I pay the saman? Hmmm….
Ya, that’s my first time kana warning by police. In Taiwan somemore.
Bah, back to normal posting. We didn’t manage to find the man, bought some buns and sandwich and hopped on the train to go Jinguashi/Jiufen.
水煎包 (Pan-fried stuffed buns) a
I was already missing Soi Heng’s big pao that time.
After about 30minutes, we arrived Ruei Fang. Actually, there’s another story that happened inside the train. Involved a weird dorky guy and a female tourist from Hong Kong. I hope I’ll remember to let you know what happened.
Stepping out from the train.
Oh, unlike MRT, the automatic vending machine to purchase the train tickets are way way way way way complicated! I suggest you give up trying on that and just queue at the ticket counter. It’s faster that way, trust me.
Hello Jiufen / Jinguashi.
Ruei Fang train station.
One fine day, hot and sunny, perfect for camwhoring while sitting in the bus.
Oh, just opposite the train station, there’s a bus stop that will takes you to JInguashi / Jiufen. Jinguashi is further up in the mountain and Jiufen is in the middle. So, we headed up to Jinguashi first, then Jiufen, and then Keelung. But, we gave Keelung up because too malas already.
A map that’s not going to help because of the image size.
We wanted to go to Jinguashi for the GOLD ECOLOGICAL PARK! Emas emas kami datang!
Oh, they’re close on Monday.
Another LED display for the entrance.
Admission is free.
Saw those little little bits on the mountain? Can you guess what are those?
GRAVE YARD!
Inside the Gold Refining Building
On our way up (photo taken when I had already finished climbing up the stairs) to the Gold building / Gold panning area.
I don’t know why I had to climb stairs everyday when I was in Taiwan! Damn many many many many stairs okay!
Life saver!
Best taufu-fa ever! Well, it was really hot and we’re really tired from all the stairs-climbing. Each of us had 2 bowls of that.
The tunnel was closed that day so we headed straight up to the Gold panning area.
Bobby and his famous “smell my finger” pose. I layan-ed.
10.30am – For those who are interested, try not to miss it ya.
Not much people know about that so it was quite empty when we went in. But, the experience was really worth it. NT100 per head.
A small dish will be given with soil and a small bottle for you to fill the gold dust in later.
See, not much people kan? So sayang eh.
Step 1: Get rid of the bigger pebbles.
Step 2: Get rid of more unwanted sand and little stones.
Step 3: Get rid of more and more unwanted sand.
Mm… I was kind of impatient so I lost quite a lot of gold dust. The instructor gave me his (he had one for demo purpose) and I had the most amount of gold dust in the bottle. Hahahhaaa.
*ta da*
Inside the Gold museum
My mom weights that much.
There, 220kg of pure 999 Gold!
And that’s the price of the gold ingot that day.
NT 284,379,763!!!!
Teapot stone.
There’s a lot of this-stone, that-stone, or this-mountain, that-mountain in Rueifang, named after the item they look like.
Street performer. His musical instrument is a handsaw!
It’s called musical saw or singing saw actually.
Didn’t quite enjoy the music because.. it sounded really haunted!
That man twirled the wire with the help of the machine and put in a marble, selling it for NT100.
Saw the little girl turning the wheel of the machine? The man was saying, “I prefer girls than boys, so uncle is going to give you 2 marbles instead! Go choose from the basin.”
Then the little boy in yellow asked, “How about boys then?”
Uncle replied, “That’s your problem then.”
Hhaahaahaa.
Has a quick lunch at this stall.
Admiring my gold dust.
Soba for my mom
Assorted sushi for us
My mom also don wan layan me. hahahaha
Okay okay, I act cool lah.
The very first cat we saw in Taiwan!!!
So lazy, when I walked pass it.. the cat didn’t even bother to move.
My mischievous mom kacau-ing the cat.
Now you know where I get my naughtiness from. Hahhaaa.
This is a police station!
Oh, behind my mom is a shop that sells nothing but umbrella! All sorts of umbrella, UV rays proof, typhoon proof, lacey and all sorts you can think of!
My very first marble soda/ramune!
Sorry ah, sakai bah.
It’s just a soda with marble at the tip of the bottle. To drink it, you’ll have to pop the marble down.
Next, to the Gold Waterfall and “Yin Yang” sea.
The roads are super narrow and winding! When the driver is taking corners, he will horn in case there’s car coming from the opposite. I guess it’s a good place for drifting too. LOL
Can you see the Yin-Yang sea and why is it called Yin-Yang sea~
Another shot of the road. I find it amusing, that’s why.
Next destination, Gold Waterfall.
“The substantial Jinguashi rainfall seeps into the mine shafts through cracks in the surface rock, becoming acidulous water after interacting with the pyrite and energite underground and undergoing oxidation reduction. A natural wonder “Gold Waterfall” has formed where the terrain drops sharply. This is one of the sources of the Yin-yang Sea. “
It didn’t rain that much during time of our visit so the waterfall didn’t look as magnificent as compared to the photo.
Love how those houses were built on the mountain like that. This one really is 背山面海！
This is Yin-yang Sea. It was initially believed that the sea color was the result of pollution from Taiwan Metal Mining Corp’s smelting activities but, over 10 years after the company stopped its activities, Yin-yang Sea still exists. Scholars say that the Jinguashi geology has a large amount of pyrite that, after millions of years has formed Fe3+ which does no dissolve easily in water. This forms iron ion floating particles when it flows into the sea, resulting in the strange sight of the Yin-yang Sea.
The remains of Shuinandong Smelter.
King-Kong mountain.
Look like King-kong or not, you judge.
Shuinandong Smelter
After Yin-Yang sea and the Gold waterfall, we took the bus down to Jiufen!
Ever watched Studio Ghibli’s “Spirited Away”?
You’ll know why I mentioned that later on.
Prawn balls, 3 for NT50.
I thought / was hopping that it’s going to be potato + prawn but no.. it’s cabbage again.
I’m so used to Brunei style of fried food, everything got potato inside. But in Taiwan, they replace potato with cabbage. Bwaaaaaa….
Still nice nevertheless. Just, not what I expected.
Taro balls! Now this is good stuff that both Bobby and I craved from time to time!
Love it so so so so much!
From this shop, just opposite the prawn balls stall. Customers came in and go and it’s always full!
Thanks for telling.
Well, this auntie is really famous for her special look. Again, Bobby and I smelled those sausage also felt like puking that time. No no!
Since it was Sunday, the streets were packed!
I could just stay and see the beautiful development of Jiufen
It was said that Mr. Miyazaki went to Jiufen and sat in Ah-Mei tea house and got inspirations for the movie. Can you see the resemblance?
Bought some cakes/pastries from this shop and went back to Taipei.
Skipped Keelung because the main reason of going there is got the night market. But we seriously had enough of night market and wanted something simple.
And we took the bus back to Taipei and met up with 48 (who just finished her English tutoring and shared plenty of jokes with me).
Two of us took MRT down to Shandao station to return the Digital Tour Buddy I borrowed.
Youth Travel Center in Shandao.
I still had quite a lot of credit inside the phone and because the credit cannot be refunded, I asked 48 to use it all up on the spot.
First she called her parents in Brunei. Remaining credit, NT300+
Then we tried calling SL. No answer.
Then we called Theen, she was in Singapore that time with her phone roaming. Hahhaa
Then we tried calling Yen Kai.
I had no one I want to call because.. the 3 persons whom I love most were there with me in Taiwan that time!
Went to Minder for vegetarian buffet. It’s inside Taipei Main station and mind you, there’s just so so so many choices that will spoil you rotten. But we picked this for my mom.
It was pretty cool. Instead of counting the number of dishes you took, it’s charged by the weight! Fair and square kan?
48’s, mine and mom’s.
Bobby bought this bucket of popcorn but when he ate it in Brunei, he said it’s not nice.
Hmm.. we ming-ming got try all the flavours baru chose this one one leh. Weird.
Doraemon will pengsan if he sees this stall! So many flavors to choose from!
And 48 picked tiramisu. Haiya, why my love ones all suka kopi one?
Then we went to SKH Mall jalan-jalan, makan-makan.
48 was ecstatic when she saw Yakun!
2 months plus in Taiwan and all she longed for was local delicacies. By local, I mean those like fried kueh tiaw, kolomee, and you know what she misses most, LAO-SU-FEN! Die die tell me no lausufen in Taiwan.
Got leh, 米台目 not laosufen meh? Just don’t know where got sell nia mah~
Wu! I love the KFC in Taiwan! The newly introduced grilled one is just okay.. What I love is their fried chicken!
They won’t ask “Original or Spicy”, because there’s only one type! Just like the good old days. It’s like our spicy chicken but not spicy. Sama-sama crispy~
Went back to our room and started to pack a little.
There, top 3 of my favorite persons in the world.
The base of my luggage. Hhehehee. Food, facial masks, shoes and whatnots.
Related Post:
Day 5: Longshan Temple, CKS Memorial Hall, Jian-Guo Weekend Flower Market, Danshui, WuFenPu, RaoHe Night Market
Day 4: Taiwan Storyland, NPM and Hello Hebe
Day 3: Taipei 101, Eslite, Shihlin Night Market (part 2)
Day 3: Alishan sunrise (Part 1)
Day 2 : Up up and away to Alishan
Day 1 : Kao Hsiung
How much to travel to Taiwan?
My Taiwan Itineraries
