{"id":3563,"date":"2011-12-29T17:29:25","date_gmt":"2011-12-29T09:29:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mytwogirls.net\/?p=3563"},"modified":"2014-06-18T14:23:06","modified_gmt":"2014-06-18T06:23:06","slug":"taiwan-2011-part-3-jiufen-%e4%b9%9d%e4%bb%bd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/mytwogirls.net\/?p=3563","title":{"rendered":"Taiwan 2011 Part 3 – Jiufen (\u4e5d\u4efd)"},"content":{"rendered":"

(continues from here)<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2665Dec 4th – Cloudy\u2665<\/strong><\/span>
\nAfter breakfast, we checked out of Li Yuan Hotel, stored our baggage there, and headed to Taipei Main Station (\u53f0\u5317\u706b\u8eca\u7ad9) using the Metro. We bought our tickets to Ruifang (\u745e\u82b3), our transit point to Jiufen (\u4e5d\u4efd). Adults and kids ticket with numbered seats cost NTD76 and NT38 respectively.<\/p>\n

Train was comfortable, and took us about 40mins to arrive Ruifang. <\/p>\n

Ruifang Station Underpass was turned into a photo gallery\"Rui<\/p>\n

Girls were not interested in the photos, but the ‘sparkly’ pebble washed wall. o.O”\"Rui<\/p>\n

This girl will use the disable ramp instead of stairs; and climbing through barriers, instead of just walking passed it.\"Zaria<\/p>\n

And she’s always eager to do something dangerous. o.O”\"Zaria<\/p>\n

We wanted to have lunch at Ruifang. We walked through the street market but could not find a place to eat.\"Pork<\/p>\n

Pork sausages.\"Pork<\/p>\n

So we got a bus and headed to Jiufen (\u4e5d\u4efd)<\/a>, a picturesque town which used to be a prosperous mining town.<\/p>\n

The moment we arrived, signs of minsu (\u6c11\u5bbf) or homestay is every where.\"Minsu<\/p>\n

Using the directions sent to us by the minsu owner, we found our minsu, Windsor B&B\/\u6eab\u838e\u5821\u666f\u89c0\u6c11\u5bbf<\/a>, easily.<\/p>\n

The entrance to the reception area of Windsor B&B or minsu.\"Windsor<\/p>\n

We got room no. 3<\/a> for our first night. Girls love the spacious room we got. With 2 queen beds; a balcony; bathroom with wooden tub; separate living and dining area (although cooking is not allowed); and a little attic with floor to ceiling window, which the girls loved the most. Zaria called it the ‘secret’ room, and everytime we got back to the room, she would ask us to go there to share secrets.<\/p>\n

Our room balcony.\"Room
\nJiufen’s main attraction is the old street, filled with eateries, and shops selling food stuff. It was good place for us to get some snacks as late lunch.<\/p>\n

Instead of pop corn, there’s pop rice (a crisp made from puff up rice) \"Pop<\/p>\n

This stall stinks, but it serves extremely tasty fried stinky tofu.\"StinkyDon’t miss it if you were in Jiufen. The shop name is Jiufen 1st Shop (\u4e5d\u4efd\u7b2c\u4e00\u5bb6).<\/p>\n

We actually went back for another serving of this stinky tofu before we left 2 days later. \"Fried<\/p>\n

While we had stinky tofu, girls had the fishball there (not bad too).\"Zaria<\/p>\n

This is a very famous snack in Jiufen. A dumpling made with red yeast and pork<\/a> or Hongzao Rouyuan (\u7d05\u7cdf\u8089\u5713<\/a>).<\/p>\n

A group of workers making the dumpling.\"\u5236\u4f5c\u7d05\u7cdf\u8089\u5713\"<\/p>\n

Boiling them in water.\"Cooking<\/p>\n

And this is how they look like.\"hongzaoAs it’s filled with pork, we didn’t try any.<\/p>\n

Yam\/Taro Balls or Yu Yuan (\u828b\u5713) is another famous snack in Jiufen. This is the balls that you get in your Snowflake<\/a> dessert. <\/p>\n

Business is brisk for this famous Taro Balls shop Lai Apo (\u8cf4\u963f\u5a46<\/a>). Tourists buy them raw to bring home as souvenir.\"Taro.<\/p>\n

\"Taro<\/p>\n

Making of taro balls in Lai Apo\"Making<\/p>\n

Most people would just buy a bowl and eat in the shop.\"Making (we’re not most people, instead we went to another shop for Taro Ball Dessert o.O”)<\/p>\n

Vendor selling various stew dishes.\"Stew <\/p>\n

Signage of a herbal tea shop.\"Herbal<\/p>\n

Shaved peanut brittle with ice cream (\u82b1\u751f\u6372\u51b0\u6dc7\u6dcb) is another popular snack. A big block of peanut brittle is shaved, and laid on top of a springroll wrapper, 3 scoops of ice cream is added, and then topped with some coriander leave and wrapped up.\"Man We had one without ice cream. The coriander and the crunch of shaved peanut brittle was a nice combination. <\/p>\n

Jiufen has some ‘traditional’ toy shops which of course attracted the girls.\"Girls<\/p>\n

Jiufen is a place to sip tea, relax when enjoying the view, so the old street is lined with tea houses with fabulous view. Jiufen Teahouse (\u4e5d\u4efd\u8336\u574a)<\/a> is probably the most posh one. \"Tea<\/p>\n

Love the way they boiled water for tea brewing.\"Water<\/p>\n

After checking how much it cost to have some tea here (~RM300 for the whole famiy), we thought better of it. What more, Zaria was touching everyhing, and I was worried she might break something.<\/p>\n

We continued walking came to a cafe (988 Cafe).<\/p>\n

Zaria decided to hang around and try out riding on a bike while Zara and me went into the cafe to get a table with a view.\"Zaria<\/p>\n

The cafe didn’t serve nice drinks, but the view was spectacular.\"Around<\/p>\n

We can see other cafes or tea houses along the old street.\"View<\/p>\n

As well as Keelong town far away. \"View<\/p>\n

After sunset, Jiufen is still very picturesque.\"Jiufen<\/p>\n

The restaurant street of Jiufen in the night.\"Restaurant<\/p>\n

Looking up at the restaurant street.\"Restaurant<\/p>\n

We took dinner hopping from one stall after another while the girls took the onigiri from 7-11 (which they loved and had it a few more times the rest of our trip).<\/p>\n

To be continued<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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