Journey to Yeliou (野柳)

One of my dreams is to be able to see the Queen's Head while it's still intact. Hence, I've planned one day in my itinerary for the visit. It's quite a long way from Taipei. But still I'm pretty lucky that it is still located in Taipei so there's no need to take any Hi-Speed train or whatever just to get there.

Following the guide, we took the MRT (捷运) to Taipei Main Station (台北车站) then took the Train (台铁) to Keelung (Jilong/基隆). The journey from Taipei to Keelung is about 35 mins according to be book. In fact, we are pretty lucky to be taking the Express Train (自强号) instead of the normal train, so it's actually a bit faster but I had forgotten how long is the exact journey, probably around 30mins or so.

Here comes the train...

Finally, we alighted at Keelung (Jilong/基隆) to change to the bus. While waiting for my partner who's at the loo, I took a photo with the building in the area. Quite a big place and I wonder where is the bus stop?

Some helpful people guided us to the bus stop below the overhead bridge near the Hang Yun Building (航运大楼). So we took the Keelung Bus (基隆客运) from Keelung towards Jin Shan line (基隆至金山线). The bus number is 1022 according to Wikipedia. The F1 Bus driver will bring you to Yeliu (野柳) in about 30 - 45 mins depending on the bus waiting time. We actually got the uncle to inform us that we had reached the station as we weren't too sure if we will be able to tell where to alight.

Next, I'll be sharing more on the places we saw in Yeliu (野柳) apart from the Queen's Head..

Read more »

Buying & Releasing Skylight (买/放天灯) @ Shifen Train Station (十分车站)

At Shifen Train Station (十分车站), you'll noticed that almost everywhere is selling Skylights. Not only do they support the releasing of Skylights (天灯), they also sells miniature Skylights as Souvenirs, from normal miniature to glow in the dark and even with LED lights in various sizes and wordings. As for those with wordings, you can get the ones with pre-printed wordings or the one that has no wordings and get the store owner to write for you, with the latter only available in Shifen.

Here's the miniature I've got for myself

In fact, it is way cheaper to get such souvenirs at Shihfen Train Station (十分车站) than anywhere else due to the amount of competition and probably because it is the source of such products. As such, it is actually cheaper to get the manually written Skylights miniature at Shihfen than to get those printed miniature at Jiufen. But of course, the manually written ones cost more than the pre-printed ones at Shihfen.

At this place, you'll be able to see how others release Skylights to pray for good luck or experience it yourself!

Posing for Camera Shots

Ready to release the Skylight

After all the activities at the Shifen Train Station (十分车站), we took the train and continued to Pingsi Station (平溪) only to find out that it's too late and dark so most of the shops had already closed. In this station, they even have the Skylight Decorations at the train station itself.

A glimpse of the Pingsi Line Train. Beautiful, isn't it?

That marks the end of our Shifen Trip and we headed back to our hotel at Taipei. Will be sharing on Yeliu in my next post. So stay tuned...

Read more »

Shihfen Waterfall (十分瀑布)

After a long walk, we finally reached the Shihfen Waterfall (十分瀑布). I would say that it's tiring but certainly worth our time. The journey is a beautiful walkway with nice scenery of the river that led us towards the waterfall.

Btw, there's an entrance fee that you need to pay to get into the place to look at the Largest Waterfall in Taipei. Anyway, all the nice scenery areas of Taipei needs entrance fee but of course it helps them preserve the area better and to maintain it.

Due to the slopes and stairs, it's advise that you reach the area before 5pm so that we'll still get the see the waterfall otherwise, it might get too dark. :) Night falls pretty early in Taipei as compared to Singapore.

How to get here:
From Taipei (台北) take MRT (捷运) to Taipei Main Station (台北车站) and then the Train (台铁) from Taipei Main Station (台北车站) to Ruifang Station (瑞芳站) change to the PingSi Line (平溪线) towards PingSi Station (平溪站). Although the nearest station seems to be DaHua Station (大华站) but you can only walk there via Shihfen Station (十分站) due to the walking route's availability. So you will need to alight at the Shihfen station (十分站) then walk there according to the map located at the station. It's a pretty long route, probably about 20 - 30mins just to walk there.
Note: You can only use Easy Card up to Ruifang Station (瑞芳站) and will need to buy the per trip or 1 day pass for the PingSi Line (平溪线).

Here's the slideshow of all the photos taken at the Waterfall. (I figured that it'll be too slow to load everything into the page manually so might as well put it into the slideshow view)

Read more »

Taiwan Coal Mine Museum

Along the way to Shihfen Waterfall, we noticed a Taiwan Coal Mine Museum which is already closed as we reached the area probably around 4+pm. It looks like one of the interesting sightseeing area that we can drop by should we reach there at a much earlier timing.

The activities posters

Coal Mine Train Head remains

Some construction is going on so I wonder
what's coming next?

Website: http://www.coalmine.com.tw
Address:  Around New Taipei City, Pingsi District 新北市平溪区新寮里(十分寮)项寮子5号

Opening Hrs: 9am to 5pm (Closed on Monday & Sale of Tickets end at 4pm)

Read more »

Shihfen Train Station (十分车站) - Pingsi Line (平溪线)

There are various stations along the Pingsi District Train line (平溪线). However, the station with the most things to look at is the Shihfen Train station (十分车站). To reach here, you need to change the train (台铁) from Ruifang Station (瑞芳站) via Taipei Main Station (台北车站).

The most popular sightseeing items are:

• Shihfen Waterfall (十分瀑布)
• Releasing of the Skylight (天灯)

As for me, my main plan was to visit the Shihfen Waterfall (十分瀑布). However, it's sad to see that we need to go on a detour (See map below)...

Shihfen Waterfall (十分瀑布) Detour Map - Looking far

But still, I wanted to get there so let's wait for the train. :)

Oh.. here it comes

As you know, we bought the unlimited train trip ticket :D But in the end, we didn't travel to that many places as there wasn't enough time. We reach here around 4pm I think. So do take note of that, you can probably get that ticket if you are in the area around 2pm or earlier but not when it's too late. :)

Read more »

Jioufen (Jiufen - 九份) Journey

Here's the slideshow of the photos taken around Jioufen (九份). With the foggy mountainous area on my way towards the area, and various stores / eatery and interesting photos of the places you can see in that region: Enjoy....

In general, the highlights of Jiufen - 九份 are:

• Jioufen Tea House where we get to enjoy the nice tea and snacks while relaxing and chatting with your friends or loved ones
• 阿柑姨芋圆 Ah Gan Yi Yam Balls where you get to eat the tasty yam balls dessert

Read more »

阿柑姨芋圆 Ah Gan Yi Yam Balls

After drinking the tea, do drop by 阿柑姨芋圆 (Ah Gan Yi Yam Balls) to enjoy the nice tasting yam balls mix soup dessert. As for the directions, look out for the various signboards as shown in the photographs. They are found along the steep staircases, leading you to the destination. Once you spot that yellow signboard, it means that you are just next to the place.

The Mixed Balls Dessert is a combination of sweet potato balls, yam balls, green bean balls, green beans, red beans, etc mixed in 1 bowl of dessert. I'd recommend that you share the dessert with your partner so that you get to enjoy more variety of the food available.

Address: 瑞芳镇九份豎崎路5号 (No. 5, Shuqi Road, Rueifang District, Jioufen)
Opening Hrs: 9am to 10pm (up to 11pm on Sat)
Tel: (02) 2497 6505

Read more »

鳕鱼海苔脆片 - Codfish Pastry with Seaweed

Bought a packet of the delicious Codfish Pastry with Seaweed (鳕鱼海苔脆片) at Jiufen (九份) from the 九份黄金好运烧菓子工坊 (Jiufen Lucky Cake Store). I even took their namecard as the friendly sales person says that they also provide delivery to any parts of Taipei at a charge of TD$100. Which is pretty convenient if we wanted to eat that pastry but isn't dropping by Jiufen during our trip.

Contact Person: Qiu Xing Hong (邱幸弘)

Shop Name:  九份黄金好运烧菓子工坊 (Jiufen Lucky Cake Store)

Address: 72-1 Jishan St. Ruifang Township, Taipei country 224, Taiwan

(72之1号台北县瑞芳镇基山街 - 九份老街)

HP: 0939-652-238

Tel: +886-2-2406-3319

Read more »