Wandering Fel

Showing posts with label Jiufen. Show all posts

"You ain't ever gonna burn my heart out."

Came back to work and immediately swamped with a mountain of work and dishearterned spirit, I seriously need a good dose of songs from Oasis, really. Sometimes when I wonder why do I work so much I have to be reminded of what I enjoy doing the most in life, travelling. And travelling does not come free since the most basic requirement from travelling is well...air ticket? #bitterlaugh

So it is time to remember the good time that I had back then when I was travelling to Taiwan. Let's count this as self-motivating post. I could not believe I need to split Jiufen post into 3 parts but combining them all in one post seems lengthy and Jiufen does have a lot of things to offer from street food, crafts and even awesome view. You will not be able to see the view unless you walk all the way to the end of this lanterns-lit passage.

10D9N Taiwan Trip: Jiufen Old Street Part 3

There is one hand-crafted ocarina store in Jiufen Old Street. The store has been around since my first visit to Jiufen few years ago so I suppose the store really has a good business selling ocarina. You are not allowed to take picture of their ocarina though but looking from the display case from outside, the ocarinas sold here have so many cute shapes, mostly animals. If you buy the ocarina, the store owner will give you free tutorial booklet on how to play the ocarina.

Ocarina shop at Jiufen Old Street in Taiwan

Few steps from the ocarina store, we are back to food hunt and the sight of colorful filled Chinese pastry lured me deeper into temptation. Obviously I failed and bought the milk filled pastry for NTD 40. Yummy!

Pastry shop at Jiufen Old Street in Taiwan

Right after I just finished my pastry, I got lured again, this time by this fragrant Chinese sausage. Oh my gawd, there is no way I will miss this unhealthy and yet so fragrant and juicy (because it's laden with oil obviously) Chinese sausage.

Grilled Chinese sausage store at Jiufen Old Street in Taiwan

My travelling buddy could resist the temptation of sausage but only to fall on the next store's temptation which sells some glutinous gooey stuff which I cannot explain. This gooey gooey stuff taste pretty weird to me but travel buddy seems to enjoy it just fine. This prove that Jiufen has everything for everybody.

Glutinous rice ball from Jiufen Old Street in Taiwan

When you reach the end of the passage, you will see many tea houses and cafes with view. It seems that there are more and more cafes nowadays and they have fancy decoration for these cafes.

You don't have to dine in one of the cafes or tea houses if you just want to catch the view though. It's just you have to endure the crowd in patience if you want to have a shot of the clear mountainous view without anyone photobombing your scenery picture.

View from tea house at Jiufen Old Street in Taiwan

If you zoom in at the road, you will see that the road is by no means, easy to navigate at all. It has so many turns and yet the bus drivers seem to be able to drive the bus without any difficulty. I do pray for a safe trip everytime I go to Jiufen though. LOL.

The nine dragon turns road at Jiufen Taiwan

Since we have spent 90 minutes or so to reach Jiufen, we decided to chill at one of the tea house. We just had simple meal and coffee but the atmosphere of the tea house was so nice we ended up spending at least an hour inside. Hahaha.

Relaxing at tea house at Jiufen Old Street Taiwan

The garlic butter toast that we tried that day. Simple and yet tasty.

Garlic toast from tea house at Jiufen Old Street in Taiwan

How to reach Jiufen by direct bus:

1. Make your way to Zhongxiao Fuxing MRT station

2. Exit via Exit 1 and walk all the way until you see Kao Chi at your left side

3. Walk further down the road for at least 3 minutes until you see a bus stop (which usually has crowd) for bus no. 1062

4. The bus may show Jinguansi at its destination but 1062 will surely bring you to Jiufen

5. Bus no. 1062 will also go via Ruifang so if you want to visit this city, you can board the same bus

"I'm free to be whatever I, whatever I choose and I'll sing the blues if I want."

Totally singing the blues now because holiday is over today. But then, looking at the bulging belly, I probably really need to go back to harsh reality hoping that the harsh situation of my life will make me slimmer. At least before my cousin's wedding three weeks later. Hahaha wishful thinking?

If Singapore has a lot of street food like what Jiufen Old Street have, the above goal may just be really a dream. The food street sold at Jiufen Old Street really gives a lot of temptation to my eyes really.

10D9N Taiwan Trip: Jiufen Old Street Part 2

There are non-food stores as well at Jiufen Old Street but most of them are handcrafts and arts store which is not really my subject of interest. My brother would be able to appreciate these better I suppose.

Souvenir store in Jiufen Old Street Taiwan

I, for sure, will be able to appreciate pretty food such as these colorful mochi. Oh right, Jiufen is famous for its yummy mochi too and this store who has this bright and yummy display sells pretty good ones. I tried the fruit mochis before and the mango mochi tastes good. Strawberry ain't bad either.

Fruit mochi store at Jiufen Old Street in Taiwan

This time, I would like to try out the bean/nut-related mochi and chose green tea instead. Taste not bad too but if you want to buy a box of these mochi, please take note of the expiry date. If I recall correctly, they don't last that long even if you put them in the fridge. Probably a week+ tops.

Nuts mochi from Jiufen Old Street in Taiwan

My friend gave me a mission to buy these nougat crackers at Jiufen Old Street. Not like your regular crackers, these crackers are not super crunchy because of the sticky and gooey filling (and hence, the name "nougat"). I did not buy these for myself but my travelling buddy who got a box for herself commented that while these snacks taste yummy when we tasted them in Jiufen, they got soggy pretty fast when you brought them back home after few days. So words of advice, consume them fast!

Nougat biscuit store at Jiufen Old Street in Taiwan

Once you have reached this restaurant, which gives inspiration to Hayao Miyazaki for the bathhouse in his movie, Spirited Away, you have reached the middle section of Jiufen Old Street. Halfway to go to the beautiful mountainous view from the top.