Xi Men Station Exit 6
Inside MRT towards Taipei stationMan,Taipei main station is HUGE...i mean real huge as it is the interchange for all rail systems..TRA （台铁）which is the railway, MRT(捷运） and HSR（高铁） which is bullet train of Taiwan..Not to mention here is also the interchange station for all the different lines of MRT..Is really every line that will pass thru this station...
Navigating our way thru Taipei station to TRA
While waiting on TRA platform..opp is the trainWe finally found the entrance to TRA, but couldnt make out how to buy the tix..heheh aso, we couldnt see the timetable for the trains too..There isnt any explanation on the ticketing machine either..End up, we went to the counter and brought our tix there, asking the sales person on the timetable at the same time..Tix were pretty cheap though..55 NTD for 1 way trip to Ruifang which is a 45 min ride frm Taipei..
In TRA, while the train is about to depart from Taipei..
Interior of TRA, looks just like MRT..Train is quite clean and comfortable..Just like the MRT, with air condition n everything..We soon fell asleep inside..the 2 of us! Guess we were too tired as we didn't get a good nite rest the day b4..hehe the lucky thing is, we both woke up just as we were about the reach our destination..Gosh, i really dunno where we will end up if we were to miss the station as there were no map in the train to show the stations along the way..We rely on the announce made b4 pulling into the station..n while we were sleeping, we totally shut out the sounds..hehehe...
Exit the train hastily and cam whore a bit on the platform, as we exit the station, we check on the timing of the train back to Taipei, but I was thinking of taking the bus to Raohe night market（饶河夜市） instead of the train back to Taipei so train is just a back up plan..
On Rui Fang station PlatformThe good thing about Taipei, is everything is well directed, as we exit to the concourse level, there is a sign there indicating the direction to go to Jiu Fen（九份). We walked out of the station, and cross the road to the opposite rows of shop as indicated during my research..There is a bus stop there where a straight bus will take us to Jiu Fen..
By bus stop, i mean just a plate there indicating the bus nos. Not like the Singapore style whereby there is a shelter. It just blends in with the shop signage..whahah Luckily, we read chinese, and thus is able to make out which bus to take.
Bus stop at the rows of shopThe journey uphill took bout half an hr, its on a mountain top and the roads were pretty curvy, nevertheless, the bus uncle seems to be handling well. Jiu Fen is a old mining town, it has now evolve to be come a tourist attraction after some film use it as a backdrop. Nothing much, just a shopping street..but things here are pretty interesting, for i don't see it in Taipei also..even the food is pretty special, again I didnt see them in Taipei.
The weather is also more cooling up here and they have those little min shu (民宿）or otherwise known as homestay that allows u to stay for the night.I would not want to take all my luggage up here, perhaps the next time can arrange to stay here for a night with things pack into an overnight bag.
The start of the shopping street
The shopping street, pretty empty when we got there
The beri tasty grilled mushrooms that I didnt see in Taipei..been craving for it
View frm top of the mountainAfter 2 hrs of shopping, we brought "gong teng" and little souvenirs for my colleagues, and we made our way out to search for the bus which is suppose to bring us back to Taipei's Raohe night market. Turns out it was not too difficult, as i asked every bus that passed by whether they are going my destination or not.
The journey back was longer than coming and it took bout 1 n half hour, again we slept on our way back, simply too tired. Its time for dinner when we reached Raohe and Mr Love suggested KFC. Typical of him.
They serve the roasted chickie burger which was quite nice..again the only funny thing I find they n China have in common is, they dun have chilli sauce. Just tomato sauce..yikeeesss..
1st nite dinner-KFC...how nice..
Raohe Night market... This is the 1st nightmarket（夜市） we visited in Taipei and this is the 1st time I've been to a night market..whahah Was very excited, after watching on TV for countless time, I finally stepped into a night market!!Damm excited can??
Although just taken dinner, but the glutton me still wanna try abit of snack, there is a stall selling some pepper biscuits or something like tat with a long queue, but we weren't interested, instead, what interest us is a shop inside a small lane which sells Smelly Tofu（臭豆腐）, I decided that we die die must at least try the lengendary Smelly Tofu since we missed out the last time in HK..
Took a seat outside the shop and ordered a plate of smelly tofu, and while we are at it, I ordered a bowl of Oyster Mee Sua aso, the mee sua in Taipei is usually mixed with inner pig organs which I dun eat. So decided to try this out...
Store hidden inside a small lane...The thing I like Taipei over Hong Kong is the pricing of the food.In HK, minimum amount we spent for the a meal at a super normal 茶餐厅 is at SGD 5 for a bowl of noodles/rice with maybe a compliementary drink. But here, a bowl of mee sua cost 35NTD, smelly tofu at 45NTD which totals up to SGD 3.70 only. Super cheap can.
Oyster mee sua- not bad..
Smelly tofu, it actually tastes nice after you gotten pass the pungent smell....After eating, we proceed to walk about the night market, were super full and we keep walking past food stalls that seems to sell super nice food, but I am too full to carry on. Brought a nice looking crystals pluto T shirt frOm 1 of the stall at 150 NTD. Whahah damn cheap but I only wore it once cause the stall owner say can machine wash but after I did that, the crystals can dropping off..Faintz...
Hubs brought a shirt here also, the stall auntie was very friendly and keep telling us to buy more and ensured the quality of the shirts but hubs say he is not sure about the quality, so he only brought 1 to try it out. Turns out that the shirt quality is really good, easy to iron, comfortable to wear. Whahah Hubs say he certainly will buy more when we have a chance to go back The auntie says she have been setting up the store there for years here.
Hubs later went to buy a cup of bubble tea（泡泡茶） to quench his thirst and dunno how he ordered, he got such a big cup lo..whahah damn funnie, we 2 had a hard time trying to finish the cup and didnt eat anything else for the night as we were super full le...
The super big cup of bubble tea costing 35NTD...We decided to head back to the hotel at 10pm as we were too tired. Never sleep last nite and had a full day in Taipei once we touched down. Too tired. We headed to Song Shan Train Station（松山车站） and took the TRA back to Taipei station where we changed to MRT to Ximen station. It is pretty near actually. 1 stop away from each other.
Songshan Train station platformAs we were using their easy link card, we didn't really took notice of pricing of the trips but it is not too expensive I think and it is pretty convenient to use that card as all public transports accept it.
Reached Ximen at 10.30pm and Ximenting is full of life. Alot of street hawkers. Very tempting but then still we walked straight bak to our hotel.
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