[TW; 2013] CNY Travels | Taipei P2

DESTINATION 5: TAIPEI

I divided the Taipei trip into 2 sections:
This is the second part will be covering my trip in Taipei & Jiufen-Pingxi area.

DAY1
#1 Colormix > Zhongxiao Fuxing
Took the metro to Zhongxiao Fuxing.
We had breakfast opposite the bus stop to Jiufen.

To travel to Jiufen from Zhongxiao Fuxing, please read THIS POST

How the bus stop stand looks like to take the bus to Jiufen.
My mum was abit hesitant when I told her that we need to take metro-train-bus in order to reach Jiufen. Lucky that I remember reading somewhere there was a direct bus to Jiufen from Zhongxiao Fuxing Station. And taking a direct bus was the right option cause as the bus drove by Ruifang Station, the queue for bus to Jiufen was ridiculously long.

Bus 1062, full fare NT$102, Bus ride slight more than an hour

#2 Zhongxiao Fuxing > Jiufen

It was so crowded and it was raining...! burrr

Lunched at this famous stall

鱼圆汤 Fishball Soup NT$30, 豆干包 Dried Toufu NT$30

魚丸伯仔－60年老店
No. 17號, Jīshān St, Ruifang District, New Taipei City, Taiwan 224

Bought 麻糬 mochi at this famous stall

手信坊-九份店
No. 6-1, Jīshān St, Ruifang District New Taipei City, Taiwan 224

Ate 花生卷冰淇淋 Peanut wrap with Icecream at some stall with long queue! YUMMY

After that we left the old street, wanted to head to Pingxi....
but the queue for the bus was so long that we stood in the rain for 1hour.
Soaked in the rain and had to go against cold freezing winds.
So we dropped the idea of heading to Pingxi, and go back to Ximending.

#3 Jiufen > Zhongxiao Fuxing > Ximending
Took Bus 1062 back to Zhongxiao Fuxing Metro Station.
PS: The bus 1062 will drive pass Raohe Night Market from Jiufen > Zhongxiao Fuxing direction; it would be a nice idea to plan a day trip Jinguashi + Jiufen + Raohe Night Market + Wufenpu by just traveling with bus 1062 the whole day

Had BBQ buffet at Ximending!

There is a 2 hour limit, but the food there was so good! With lots of desserts and free flow of drinks and beer!
It would be good if you call beforehand and reserve. For adults it is NT$549/person, abit expensive but I feel it is worth!

燒匠-西門町, http://www.bbqmaster.com.tw/, +886 2 2311 7117
No. 98-4, Kūnmíng St, Wanhua District  Taipei City, Taiwan 108

Ended the day BBQ-ing!

DAY2

#1 Colormix > Ximending

Brunch at a famous stall in Ximending. There were lots of hongkong travelers sitting around us.

We thought this stall is selling duck meat, but end up it was goose meat.

Lesson learnt; 土鸭＝鹅. 

Half goose meat, for NT$800! EXPENSIVE
Hmm, not that great cause I dont like goose meat anyway. But my parents preferred the "cheaper" stall opposite the hospital which is recommended in this post

Goose meat with noodles. NT$50?

I wont recommend the noodles; The meat in the noodles was different from the meat on the plate. I actually suspect the meat in my noodles was overnight meat, as the meat had this "overnight meat" taste.

The meat in the noodles was a great turnoff for me. It just mountain up my dislike for goose meat.

But preferences differs among people hah!

鴨肉扁土鵝專賣店
台北市萬華區中華路一段98號

Next up, this is super nice!

Cheese potato!!! ordered 王子综合, NT$60+
It always have this long queue in the evening, so the trick is to buy it in the late morning to avoid the massive crowd! I was really happy to see this in XMD cause I could not find the another brand/stall which is also selling this similar type of potato-cheese in Fengjia NM.
I dont know what to describe the taste but... it was just nice! Something you will crave to eat it.

西門町王子起士馬鈴薯
台北市萬華區峨嵋街49-3號

Another stall with long queue in the evening...

It is actually fishballs but cooked in different type of soup base? The taste was so-so, nothing special I feel.

（冠）鱼蛋小屋
Next to 西門町王子起士馬鈴薯

#2 Ximending > Taipei Main Station > Pingxi

Went Taipei main station and took the 区间车 to Ruifang. Good thing about 区间车 is it is free sitting, but I think it takes a longer time to reach Ruifang.

NT$49 one way

At Ruifang, we bought the pingxi one day pass. Actually we just want the tickets to pingxi but the crowd at the platform counter was too much due to cny so no matter where you want to go they just issue the one day pass to ease the crowd.

NT$52 unlimited rides on Pingxi line

But... The train to pingxi was delayed.

So we waited for an hour. An hour is considered lucky enough, some people had waited for the train for more than an hour.

Finally reached pingxi and the first thing my family wanted to do is to release sky lanterns. Manage to find our way to the pingxi old street and found a shop that sell sky lanterns.

but the shop owner told us to lit up the lanterns by ourself, lol? anway, we climbed right up to the train tracks to put the sky lanterns. The train tracks are super high up the steep slope. I thought I would roll down the slope as the steps were very small.

And we were lucky enough that there was a guy that helped us to lit up. We found a group of strangers and we release the sky lanterns together!

Went back to the old street and had small snacks.

Deep-fried pork!

After that we were hesitating whether to take a bus or train back to Taipei, upon reaching the bus stop we saw this stall selling salted pork meat. So we decided to have a meal first in case the return journey is long.

Had their salted meat with a bowl of beehoon.

The meat was really salty but it tasted just right with the beehoon.

#3 Pingxi > Songshan > Raohe Night Market

The queue for the bus was quite long too, and the bus goes to places I wasn't really familiar with. So we decided to hop on to the train.

We thought we were lucky to get on the train upon reaching the train station.

Nightmare begins when the train stopped moving. I thought we will be stuck in the train for the whole night with the massive crowd on the train.

So the ride from pingxi back to Ruifang it took like 2hours?

Going to pingxi line and jiufen is a big no-no on cny period!

Upon reaching pingxi I notice the next train to Taipei is approaching in 5mins time so we rushed to the next platform and took it using our metro card. No time to buy train tickets.

After boarding I realize the train stops at songshan (松山車站) before arriving at Taipei main station so we decided to drop off there.

And I hearsay from a girl on board that she had been standing on that train more than 4hours. So our 2hours on pingxi train was nothing compared to hers.

Reached songshan in 30-40mins time.

No idea how much is the fare, should be less than nt$200.

As it was pretty late, I gave my family a choice, as songshan station is in the middle so either left for wufenpu or right for raohe night market. Eventually my sister chose right, so we went raohe night market.

Street view of Raohe Night Market

Had our dinner.

The mini steamboat costed like NT$120~NT$150 each. The portion was so big that 2 person can share one steamboat and still be bloated. There was an add-on options, so I add on a plate of 五花肉!

We also tried this ice. Tasted yummy. Costed around NT$100~120.

This deep-fried crab is a MUST-TRY!

Located at the entrance of the Night Market. Super nice! The crab shells was so crispy and the meat was so sweet.

Anyway something hilarious happened on that night. Me and my mum entered this arcade after midnight. The staff who looked around my age (just that she was in makeup and I wasn't) came forward and approached me to tell me that those aged under 18years old is not allowed to enter the arcade after midnight. LOL I am already in my twenties, thanks to her I know I look less than 18years old; I'm still young hahaha. So... friendly reminder to those who are really under 18 year old yo, please do not enter the arcade in Taiwan after midnight!

This marks the end of my CNY Taiwan Trip!

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