Friday, July 13, 2007

day 4 : Rueifang, Jingtong, Shifen and nite @ Keelung

we took the mrt then change to railway train a long walk between these stations. then long train rides! we finally arrive at ruifang. then as we departed late we had no time schedule and we then found out we got about an hour before the train comes. so we went to check the nearby streets. we saw a few stalls that sell dragon phoneix thigh... haha direct translation. its like our ngoh hiang. then gx got to try his 1st bowl of beef noodles. with the hot weather we walked back to take our train. a long ride to the end of the railway track. after the long ride since morning, we finally arrived jingtong. this was a very small town. the fun thing in this town was the wooden postcards. and u can actually post it but we didn't. i jus buy the small wooden plank. then the walk to find the recommended coalmine resstuarant by lonely planet was not successful. i didnt know which was it. didnt have the name unless the one that serve western was the one... we headed up a slope, it was dam hot tink that day was about 36degree. we were all sweating. my head was heating up lucky i had the hat! we settled at a top of a cafe and ordered out drinks. i had rose milk tea and ordered a lemon mousse waffle to share. the waffle was hot and crispy. the mousse was light with green lime jest. we then walked down into the small town. i saw this japanese ice-cream signage in quite a few shops and decided to try it out. comes in many flavours and a very nice shape! the ice-cream was shaped in a FLOWER shape very pretty.
then we took the train to the next station. we skipped pingsi and head straight to shifen. when we got off the train, there was no platform. jus step down and take another step we stepped onto to the town walkway! and to get across to the other side to the shophouses we cut across walking onto the traintrack.

its a small town but i like the place as its easy, quiet, very calming. we then saw this bird nest and even got to see the mummy bird flying back with food for her babies. sweet.

we had our lunch in the restuarant and we ordered a few dishes but because their small all turn out to be medium or even almost large. haha but we manage to finish all. we ordered boar meat! the food was not bad. after the meal we headed for a walk to find the waterfall. we had to cross many bridges and walked alot and had to walked next to a railway track to get to see the waterfall. and it was warm haha burning hot! and my leg was aching badly. when we saw the waterfall it was cooling. then we headed up a slope then get back to the town. the mini trekking was good but tiring.
had to had ice to cool down. we had black sugar ice kachang. we get to choose 4 things top it.right after the ice we went to buy souveniers, little lanterns. after that we went to get out huge lanterns. we each got one and we wrote on it with a chinese brush and ink. i will post fotos later cos my camera was low batt and i took video more than fotos when we let the lanterns into the sky. it was great! i enjoyed the whole process especially looking at the lanterns fly high and far! too bad we had to rush for the train and could not wait for sunset... but it was great feeling. we were the only ones at that moment to put the lanterns into the sky.
right after that we rushed to get onto the train and sat a long way to badu and got off to change train to keelung. we walked a long way to find our hotel. we were staying next to the miaokou food street. our hotel was small but nice. it was actually quite nicely decorated almost like a boutique.the shiny thing was a hot and cold water dispenser but we didnt try it out. and nice bath room.
after unloading we head for the street. there was a nite street and the street wth yellow lanterns is a 24hr food street! here there were more seafood choices. we had the starchy crab soup and grilled octopus, taiwan saugages and of cos gx favourite chicken bumbums! i had bbq bacon wrapped spring onion it was good. the pushcart we ordered from suddenly off lites and moved away and we saw 2 policeman getting out. but the stalls didnt go far. they were jus at the side of the streets and they can be seen one. but nothing happen. the police left and they were back. we had fresh grape juice.
the thing to try here is the peanut and "flower bean" (direct translation) ice! there was 2 stores side by side. a must try is the peanut one too. when we ate the fried small prawns and lailiu prawns. the guy who cooked for us talked alot! guessed he drank too much! then we went back and i slept well! so fast cos the bed and comforter was the most comfortable!

1 comment:

TAlive said...

What beautiful times U guys had in Taiwan, Elsie! :-)

This visit to ShiFen has one of the most appealingly rustic sceneries - heartwarming!

I not only commented here as U suggested I do, but I did something better - by linking yr ShiFen trip to one TAdvisor forumer who asked abt ShiFen!

Cheerful & rich reads & pics! Thks guys!

Dave :-)
TaipeiDreams.com