Second day of Taiwan we woke up to a beautiful morning! Taiwan's sun is seriously hardworking. I set my alarm to wake me up at 7AM but I woke up naturally around 6AM because the day was already very bright!

View from our window. This was taken around 6AM!

Beautiful mountain and houses. Those building at the top right corner of this pic were actually cemeteries. They looked like small houses!

Can even see the sea! No regrets for choosing this homestay!

My initial plan was to first have our breakfast that was included with our stay before we go out for photo-taking session. However, we all woke up 1 hour earlier than expected and the breakfast wasn't ready until 8AM. So, we changed our plan and had an earlier photo-taking session since the day light was already perfect for photos!

Now the first thing I went for was of course the tunnel that's may be related to Spirited Away! Thank God for Google Maps. This free APP is very useful in Taiwan!

Well, along the way of course we had to snap photos at wherever we thought was pretty. I can say every corner of Jiufen is actually suitable for photos. I try to edit my photos as least as I can to keep it natural so as not to distort the original look and atmosphere of the places. However, my blog doesn't do justice to these places because the blog template I'm using somehow causes the photos to be blurred. Anyway, click into the photos for clearer versions.

Don't know why I had to take photo of this street at night and in the morning as well. This was the street where the famous 護理長的店 was located. And it was closed in the morning :(

Ahh I wish I had someone to take this photo for me

THE ONLY PHOTO with all four of us in it! Believe it or not, I put my camera on something waist level and used the self-timer!

Pretentious photos ahead....

This is the famous stairs that tourists cannot miss taking photos at

The panama hat that I bought from Taobao specifically for photo-taking. Didn't really like the furry edges and the hat is too big.

What a fake smile lol however love the feeling of this photo and the fact that the cat photobombed me.

Cute house (I think it's a tea house) on an alley

After the corner of the alley there was a lot to explore.

Cold breeze along the way I like!!

Breath taking sea view

Town on a mountain

Walking into housing area

Perhaps a homestay

Pretty interesting roads. I think we basically just walked along 輕便路 Qing Bian Lu (on the left) to reach the tunnel. Then on the way back to our homestay we took the 基山街 Ji Shan Jie (on the right)

And then finally.... we reached the tunnel!

Looks like just an ordinary tunnel right?

It's actually just a very short tunnel

Do u see the resemblance with the tunnel in Spirited Away that leads to the other world ?

A scene in Spirited Away

Well of course, it's not an exact replica but... the first time I saw a photo of it on Google when I was researching about Jiufen, I immediately thought of Spirited Away!





Attraction name: 磅坑口 Pang Keng Kou (No. 350, Qingbian Road, Ruifang District)

Walking through houses again to go back to our homestay

There were a lot of homestays along the way...

Got a bottle of Taiwanese guava juice 芭樂汁 (Ba La Zhi) NT$ 90

This guava juice is very expensive yes... but I just wanted to try because Taiwan's guava is different from Malaysia's. And they didn't add sugar or anything, 100% natural and very concentrated. The taste was different from our Malaysian's guava but still had that guava distinctive flavour. It was very thick and I think not everyone can accept it but we generally liked it.

Skyline Tea House 海悅樓 (Hai Yue Lou)

This Skyline Tea House was initially in my itinerary but I had to cancel it due to time constraint. I wanted to have tea there in the evening because its 2nd floor balcony is said to be the best place to take picture of Ah Mei Tea House 阿妹茶樓 (Ah Mei Cha Lou).

Walking back to our homestay to have our breakfast!

Our stay included breakfast prepared by the host. The breakfast consists of egg and cheese or ham sandwiches, toasts, soy milk and instant coffee/tea. It was lovely.

Homemade soy milk by host. No sugar (0% sweetness!) and the soybean taste was quite mild but I felt healthy drinking it.

After breakfast, we went outside again for food hunting to taste all the food that we didn't manage to eat the night before. But before that, we paid a visit to the cinema museum.

It's the first cinema ever built in Taiwan

It was early so the cinema was empty.

Oh BTW there's a place to get tourist stamp at the entrance. It's also the first place I got my first stamp for my Taiwan travel journal.


Attraction name: 升平戲院 Sheng Ping Xi Yuan (Shengping Theater)







Our food hunt started with.... Beef noodles at 九份老麵店 (Jiu Fen Lao Mian Dian) !


Hahaha I just realised most of my food photos are out of focus xD Should take more time to take food photos next time...

We ordered two types of noodles that the shop was famous for and one side dish

Signature beef noodles 招牌牛肉麵 (Zhao Pai Niu Rou Mian) NT$ 120

OK this beef noodle is a must-try! To be honest, it's not common to find beef noodles in Malaysia so I think the number of times I ate beef noodle in my life is less than 5! OMG I'm serious. Furthermore, this was the first bowl of beef noodles I tried in Taiwan, so I don't know whether it's really that good but me and my family liked it. I guess the taste was what I've expected from beef noodles.

Wanton noodles 餛飩麵 (Hun Dun Mian) NT$ 50

This wanton noodles was so-so. Of course, don't compare it with our wanton noodles in Malaysia they're completely different dish. This wanton noodles was more like clear soup noodles and it's taste was actually very very mild (I'm guessing Taiwanese don't use MSG?). People who prefer mild taste would like it maybe. I was OK with the taste.

Manganji green pepper with dried tofu 糯米椒豆乾 (Nuo Mi Jiao + Dou Gan) NT$ 30

If the staff didn't recommend us side dish, we probably wouldn't order this. But it's proven to be worth our try. It's quite salty because of the dried anchovies. My mum was rather impressed with the chilli because they weren't spicy at all!



Shop name: 九份老麵店 Jiu Fen Lao Mian Dian (Jiufen Old Noodle Shop)

Fish balls 魚丸湯 (Yu Wan Tang) NT$ 30

Oh, I don't know how to describe the texture of these fish balls. I can only say it's not the typical fish balls we eat in Malaysia. It's not bouncy and Q like the ones in Malaysia but I liked it.

Fried tofu "pau" 豆乾包 (Dou Gan Bao) NT$ 30

This tasted like the type of steamboat ingredient we have in Malaysia. So it's just so-so for us. The sauce however was nice.


Shop name: 魚丸伯仔 Yu Wan Bo Zai (No.17, Jishan Street, Ruifang District) 

蜂巢糕 (Feng Chao Gao) NT$ 20

Haha, this is a type of Chinese pastry that we actually have something similar in Malaysia. In Malaysia we call it 白糖糕 Bak Tong Kou. But in Jiufen they call it 蜂巢糕 (Feng Chao Gao) because of it's internal that looks like bee hive. But this one has no sour taste and instead its sweeter.  I cannot remember whether the flavour I chose was 原味 Yuan Wei (original) or 黑糖麻糬 Hei Tang Mua Ji (brown sugar mochi). I think it was original but the filling tasted like brown sugar. I liked it as its not too sweet and it would serve as a nice snack.



Shop name: 九金店蜂巢糕 Jiu Jin Dian Feng Chao Gao (No.224, Jishan Street, Ruifang District) 




Anyway，I manage to find some cute fridge magnets in Jiufen for my colleagues in logistic pharmacy department.

Cute cats in different cities in Taiwan (suitable for Malays since they like cats haha) NT$ 70 each

I'm not someone who likes to buy souvenirs because let's be frank, souvenirs mostly are waste of money. However, it would be nice to return the favour since my colleagues always bring back souvenirs when they come back from overseas. Honestly, I think the best type of souvenir to bring back from Taiwan or Hong Kong or any other Chinese countries is their non-halal instant noodles haha. But dang, it's so hard to find appropriate souvenirs for Malay colleagues in a Chinese country. Usually, food is the easiest souvenir to but I only saw two 'halal' food products in Taiwan during my whole trip - one was rice bars and another was pineapple tarts that were not that nice haha. I'm not sure whether these will suit their taste buds.

So I think these cat design fridge magnets were perfect as souvenirs for them. I didn't buy more because Jiufen was just our first destination and I thought there would be more choices for souvenirs in other places. But hmm, honestly I couldn't find any other souvenirs more suitable than these. I regretted that I didn't buy for myself!







I also bought the tea that my housemate LS requested. At first, I thought Taiwan's famous Alishan tea would be expensive but they turned out to be very affordable. There were several shops in Jiufen selling tea and so I bought this after I tried their sample. Perhaps some might think why not buy Alishan tea at the place where the tea leaves came from -- Alishan? Hmm, well, I've read online that there were a lot of scammers selling fake tea leaves so I was very careful with who I buy from. Besides, the taste of the tea also depends a lot on the way of processing the tea leaves. So, I decided to buy from this shop at Jiufen because it seemed like a legit company. It even has company card and the staff dressed up in high class looking uniform lol. The staff was also very friendly and professional too.

Well, I didn't compare it's price with the ones sold in Alishan because I didn't even visit the shops in Alishan. But generally I think Jiufen was a much nicer place to shop for souvenirs.



So, all in all, Jiufen was a place I enjoyed more than I've expected. It's a place with good food, good view every corner and a peaceful vibe.

I was quite sad that the time was not enough for me to truly explore the place! If only I didn't reach too late on the first day, I would have tried the famous braised food shop 護理長的店 Hu Li Zhang De Dian (Nurseleader Luwei) and other food that's not on my list. I also would have take my sweet time browsing through the souvenir shops. I regretted that I didn't try the Peanut Ice Cream Roll! I thought it was just like the common ice cream we eat but apparently it's delicious according to what I've been told after I came back from Taiwan.

And just like what I've read online, there was actually much more to see in Jiufen other than the crowded market streets. I think the hiking trails around the mountain would have nice views and the small roads and alleys around Jiufen were also a bliss to stroll around if you like peaceful walks. But remember to do so in the morning as I found that the weather was not too hot and the lighting was nice for photos.




Next: TAIWAN TRAVELOG 2018 臺灣寶島之旅 DAY 2: Jingtong > Shifen > Taipei