Taiwan - Day 5

Taiwan - Day 5

Our plan today is to visit Keelung City so we left Taipei by boarding bus 1062 from Zhongxiao Fuxing to Jin Gua Shi 金瓜石. Another alternative route is to take the express train to RuiFang and change bus from there. Jin Gua Shi is a museum that consist of the history on gold and copper mines. However I am not into history and museum so I find it a waste of time to travel all the way there. Not that everything is waste of time there, I am still impressed on the art piece and antique stuffs in the museum.

Fabulous art piece 

I guess Daddy is getting bored of this place.

After viewing the museum and Japanese style pavilion, we decided to make a visit to Cyuanji Temple 勸濟堂. We even thought that we were lost while on our way there since we didn't expect the distance to be quite far and even passed by the village's houses.

I prefer more on scenery and that's part of the reason I came all the way to Ruifang area. Jin Gua Shi do have some scenery since its on the mountain area however I find that visiting JiuFen is more than enough to see the scenery. So next we are visiting is Jiu Fen Lao Jie 九份老街 ! Remember to try their famous 芋圆 Taro Balls, 花生冰淇淋卷 Peanut Ice Cream wrap, 金枝紅糟肉圓 Red Date Meatball and 阿蘭宇粿/草仔粿 Kueh.

Jiu Fen Lao Jie is not only about food, you can shop for souvenirs over there but price might be slightly higher since it's more for tourist. I didn't get much stuffs there but instead trying all the famous & must try food in Jiu Fen.

Red Date meatball. My parents enjoyed this but I don't like red date!

Tried their Kueh and the texture was surprising QQ!

The most famous Taro Balls in Jiu Fen Lao Jie will be Ah Gan Yi Taro Balls 阿柑姨芋圆! Don't miss it if you are already there and you should go up to their second level to enjoy their Taro Balls with a great scenery view.

You have to climb up some steep stairs to get here!

So I finally tried this FAMOUS TARO BALLS! DELICIOUS!

Not forgetting the yummy Peanut Ice Cream wrap 花生冰淇淋卷 that I couldn't forget about it! I even tried buying again at other part of Taiwan but still Jiu Fen Lao Jie have the best one! You will never imagine how matching is the popiah skin together with the cooling ice cream and peanut! I FEEL LIKE HAVING IT NOW!

Delicious peanut ice cream wrap!

Lastly, the captivating scenery that I am so in love with at Jiu Fen Lao Jie! I just love scenery view with sea and mountain especially when the place is quiet, you will feel the calmness and fresh air.

Envying those ppl who stay there but at the same time it gonna be really troublesome to travel to the city for shopping!

We left Jiufen by taking train from Rui Fang station to Shi Fen 十分 station. It was quite late so we didn't have the time to visit the waterfall. We went straight to put Sky Lantern 天燈 in Shi Fen station which is one of the popular activities when you visit Taiwan. Once you reach there, you will get to see a beautiful sky with colorful Sky Lanterns.

It's pretty competitive for all the shops there since everybody is selling sky lantern and price are ranging from $100NTD. We got our red sky lantern which cost only $100NTD ($4sgd) and started to write down our well wishes. Every color have their own meaning and for red one actually represents good health and safe. You can also get those colorful sky lantern with 4 different colors by paying slightly more.

放天燈!

Mini sky lantern accessories for souvenirs

Although I find it kind of waste time just to travel to Shifen for sky lantern but at least a well wishes to all my loves one. We left Shifen and took the train to Keelung station, finally time for night market before we head back to Taipei!!

We are here at Keelung Miaokou 廟口夜市 night market, I love how they design the night market with stretch of lanterns. I have did my research so these are the lists of food you should try at there: seafood, ding bian cuo 鼎邊趖, nutritious sandwich 營養三明治 and pao pao ice 泡泡冰.

Enjoying peanut ice cream in this cold weather is just great! I love how fine and soft the texture is.

We had this famous Ying Yang Sandwich which is a deep fried bread with cucumber, ham, tomatoes and hard boiled egg. Taste was really good tgt with the mayo sauce.  

Feeling satisfied to have tried all the famous food in every night market, I won't have the time to feel hungry whenever I am at Taiwan. Everywhere is just food to fill my empty stomach!
We then took a cab back to Keelung station follow by the train back to Taipei, a long journey back to our hotel but at least we had fun exploring and eating.