Day 2 - 11 Jul 2019
The first meal of the day was at this authentic-looking eatery called 四海豆浆大王. I ordered 油条 (youtiao), 豆浆 (soy milk) and egg omelette. There is something special about eating here - it was the sharing of experience in the morning life of a typical Taiwanese. After breakfast, I went back to the hotel to have a cup of latte. It felt good that the morning was slow without the need to “get onto work stuff”. I guess that’s the whole point of a vacation.
I set off at 915am. Right outside the hotel, a taxi was there waiting; not as if I ordered a taxi, it just happened to be there. Haha. I reached the meeting point near Ximen station about 940am. The coach set off at about 10am and drove for an hour to our first destination - the Shifen waterfall. Upon seeing it, I whipped out my phone and snapped away and got fellow tourists to help me as I posed for the camera with the waterfall as the background. It then began to rain but thankfully, it was after all the photographing was done.
We headed to Shifen next; it was only about 5 min drive from the Shifen waterfall. At Shifen, most tourists did the releasing of the sky lanterns with their customised wishes written on them. I skipped the activity but instead, sauntered along the streets. I came across 豪哥 (Haoge), a small eatery that sells braised pork rice and decided that I should stop for lunch. It was so tasty and I finished up the entire bowl in a jiff. After lunch, I continued to explore Shifen and take pictures of various parts of this lovely town.
Next, we went to Jiufen which was about 45 min drive from Shifen. We reached Jiufen at 145pm and the driver gave us 2 hours to explore Jiufen. Before the shopping and eating, the first thing I did was to take in the breathtaking view of its misty mountains and its sprawling landscape.
There were lots of eating and shopping that one could do at Jiufen. I wasn’t that into shopping but I didn’t feel that hungry too to try all its recommended places. In the end, I only had Taro balls at 阿柑姨 (Ah Gan Yi) and drank tea at its famous A-Mei teahouse.
Our last stop was Keelung Miaokou night market. We left Jiufen at 345pm and reached the night market at about 410pm. By then, my stomach was already up to its limit but I knew I just had to stretch it to try out some “must try” at the night market. Due to my own constraint, I narrowed it down to the crab thick soup and Shenji Paopao shaved ice dessert (I had coffee milk flavour). I also tried one of its stall’s bee hoon (my dinner). As I still had a bit of time before the coach’s arrival, I went for a quick hair wash. The timing couldn’t be more perfect as after the hair wash, it was about the time to board the coach.
The driver dropped us off near Ximending. At Ximending, I headed to Driftwood for their famous Taihu brewery while figuring out what I should do next. I decided to catch a movie - Spider-Man: Far from Home - at LUX cinema. The time of the show was at 845pm. Armed with popcorn and a cup of iced tea, I thoroughly enjoyed the 2-hour show.
What a long day it has been. I got back to the hotel at about 1115pm. Looking forward to the third day.