Wandering Fel

Showing posts with label Jiufen Old Street. 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.

Restaurant 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

"Who kicked a hole in the sky so the heavens would cry over me?"

Ugh, I'm feeling kinda blues now that my two-weeks break is coming to an end soon. I consider a break as a short escape from all the troubles of yesterdays. The thing is, none of these troubles have been resolved, so I have to face them again when I am back to reality. Geez. Time to play my Oasis' playlist again.

Rewind back to few months ago at one fine cloudy morning in Taipei, my travel buddy and I wanted to visit Jiufen, a mountain town located in the northeastern part of Taiwan. There are many ways to reach Jiufen but we think that the easiest way to reach Jiufen is by taking a direct bus from Zhongxiao Fuxing to Jiufen. We were kinda lost when we tried to locate the bus stop because turns out the bus stop for bus no. 1062 which goes straight to Jiufen has moved few metres further down the road. The key to locate the right bus stop is to check where the crowd is queuing because there is surely many tourists who want to visit Jiufen.

10D9N Taiwan Trip: Jiufen Old Street Part 1

The bus ticket will cost you NTD 100 so make sure you have sufficient balance in your YouYongKa (the equivalent to Singapore's EZ link) before boarding the bus. The same bus no. 1062 goes all the way to Jinguanshi and Keelung but don't worry, it will go via Jiufen before reaching its final destination. One hour 20 minutes later, we have reached Jiufen and ready to explore this popular tourist spot.

I always prefer to visit Jiufen not on a rainy day because can you imagine the challenge of navigating yourself through this narrow passageway while carrying an open umbrella? Nightmare, really. The crowd that day was not so bad yet because we visited Jiufen pretty early around 11.30ish.

Wandering through old street of Jiufen in Taiwan

The main attraction in Jiufen is gotta be the Old Street where all kinds of stores are located side by side. There are so many food and souvenirs to check out you should allocated at least one hour to check them out. There are some restaurants and tea houses too, so if you want to dine or having a cup of coffee/ tea with a great view, allocate your time accordingly.

Oh look at this stall, the big block that the guy is currently shaving is actually peanut block. One of the main delicacy sold at Jiufen Old Street is peanut ice cream wrap. Nowadays, I see this food at normal night markets in Taipei so you don't have to make your way all the way to Jiufen if you only want to eat this. Hahaha.

Peanut ice cream crepe from Jiufen Old Street in Taiwan

However, when you are in Jiufen Old Street, you have to make a pit stop at one of the many taro balls stall in Jiufen. Jiufen is usually identified with its famous and yummy taro balls. Since the first stall near to the entrance of the old street is the easiest taro balls stall that I spotted, I decided to just have a go at those yummy looking taro balls here.

Taro balls stall from Jiufen Old Street at Taiwan

The big pot of taro balls and many bowls of toppings are displayed to lure customers in.

Ingredients for iced taro balls from Jiufen Old Street in Taiwan

One bowl of taro balls costs NTD 50 and you can have your taro balls hot or cold. We prefer to have it cold so the stall owner put some ice inside the our taro balls. The taro balls are served with dou hua (i.e. Very soft tofu layer) and many other things inside such as tapioca pieces, etc. It tastes pretty yummy and it can be a very comforting food for both rainy and dry season.