Taiwan2014之梅雨的季节-Houtong Cat village(侯硐猫村）

 The new place were are going today is called Houtong (侯硐） where a cat village is located. This station is located along the Yilan line or Pingsi line though I think most of the express trains to Yilan would not stop at this station but still there are some which does.

Anyways, I have been planning to come here for the longest time but didn't manage to squeeze in the packed itinerary previously. This time round since Shifen was left out, we have the time to explore this new place.

Mr Love have no idea that what is in store here since I didn't brief him much hehe.

We got off the train at 3plus and it was drizzling. The rain is kinda irritating, not too heavy but not too light to forgo the umbrella.

Was so happie when I saw this sign

Houtong was previously a mining town but as the trade declines, all it left here are the abandon mining infrastructures until the cats here gave the town's tourism a boost.

We exited from the left of the station and came face to face with the station's mascot black nose (黑鼻） who had passed away in 2010. This is 1 of the 4 "heavenly kings" in Houtong and was so poprlar that after death they built it's figurine here as remembrance.

Opposite the mascot is a souvenir shop where you can buy all sorts of cats or Taiwan railway related stuff.

The station mascot-Black nose

Signs

Not knowing where to go and thought that we are in cat village already, we stepped out of the station main hall. Saw a provision shop and went to buy some cat food. It was priced at NT120 for 4 packs. Quite a good deal I suppose.

Old school veggie vendor

Because of the rain, we ducked into a pasteries shop that sells mining biscuits. It was biscuits filled with either black sesame or peanuts representing coal and gold, 2 things that were used to mine here.

Since we had brought dawn cakes and other pasteries in Taichung, we didn't want buy much here. Instead, I brought the 1 each of the 2 flavours to try out. The lady boss was nice enough to let us try nearly everything available here. The cheesecake they made was super nice and affordable too. I was given a discount voucher for some cafe down the street as I made my payment.

We continued our tour in this small town and there was some small eateries right outside the train station. Didn't try it though since we were not that hungry. Stood there to observe the few cats there are running about under the shelter from the rain. Mr Love told me that cats didn't like water and hence I decided that it was safe for me to stand in the rain to hide from the cats.

Eating it's lunch

There are really alot of cats here and it freaks me out a bit especially they are not afraid of strangers cause I am afraid of them!!

We came to a mining museum and went in to hide from the rain and cats. Haha

But guess what? I found a cat all curled up by the window, sleeping peacefully. Seriously I wanna cry already. There is no where here that are safe from the cats. And to think my initial plan is to hide here and ask Mr Love to go outside and feed the cats. Haha

Taking a lazy nap

The lady working here told us that this is not the cat village of Houtong, this is the old mining town where you can explore and see the old mining structures. But since it is raining, she advises us not to and instead just go see the cats haha. Turns out the cat village is on the right side of the station where there is an overhead bridge linking the village to the station. We thank her for the information and move out from the museum.

So happy even though its only a figurine

My coffee craving kicks in by this time (15:45) and we decided to go check out the cafe of the discount voucher.

Its located along the street as you exit left from the station. A cafe with sweet pink settings, I like!

The cafe was pretty quiet when we went in and the lady was nice enough to leave us on our own while we check out the cakes on display. I decided that I wanna have a cuppa here and the cakes and so we settled down and made our orders.

Loving the pink settings

I simply love the decoration of this cafe, all pinkish and the cute looking cakes, my kind of dream cafe that I wanna owned. Hahah.

Seriously had a hard time deciding what to eat. The discount voucher entitles us to 10% of the purchases but prices here are consider quite reasonable as compared to Singapore standards. So we ordered a coffee each and cakes.

Cupcakes, puffs, tiramisus

More cupcakes

Turns out, there are cats here too!! These 2 are reared by the owner and customers can play with them as they sipped coffee here. I nearly fainted. There is really no where to hide from the cats in this town. Imagine's Mr Love's joy when he saw the cats, imagine my fear too. I just want have my tea break in peace and it is not happening.

Immediately try to get friendly with the cats

And forgot about his wife

Still happy with the cats

He took out the cat food we brought earlier and start to feed the cats. Since there are no other customers, he had the all the attention from the cats. I as sitting at the furthest table that I could find in the cafe. Was super bored and and decide to take photos of him playing with the cats and start posting on FB on how happy he is and how scared I am. Hurhur.

The coffee and cakes came and he was not even interested in the food. So I digged in happily while he played and kept the cats away from me.

Our orders

The cats got tired and start to look lazy

The owner then took out some kitty toys and lent to Mr Love for him to play with the cats. Oh man, I wanted to jump out of the cafe when the cats jumped.

Then I forbid Mr Love to come near my table since the cats followed him and wanted a bite of our cakes.

The cats look away after food ran out

We spent 30min here while Mr Love played with the kitties and me hiding in 1 corner savouring my coffee and cake. Decided to move on to the real cat village as the rain had subside by now.

Only dare to pose with the cakes not cats

Station mascot-Black nose

We made our way back to the train station where an overhead bridge will bring us to the cat village. Even on the bridge there are cats roaming about. While I am not as afraid of cats as dogs, still I will jump if any of time attempts to come close.

The bridge which leads to cat village

Some rules to follow or caution

The cat village is actaully a residential area therefore from articles I read earlier we are told not to cause to much disturbances to the residents normal daily life.

Cats are abundant here but most of them belongs to the residents here and therefore are pretty well behave.

Map of the village

The rain got bigger when we entered the village and there was nothing in sight to see, no cats, no shop, no attractions. Still we walked a bit as Mr Love was determine not to give up after travelling all the way here.

We came to a shelter and found serveral cats hiding from the rain here. One of the bigger size ones nearly pounced onto me as she saw me holding on to a bag that she deemed to food. I jumped a mile and quickly hid the bag into Mr Love's backpack. Haha It was food alright but not theirs.

The big fat cat that nearly pounced onto me

Mr Love then happily took out the remaining cat food and start feeding the cats. They were wary of us at first but gradually warmed up to Mr Love and came for the food. I wanted to cry as there was at least 7 to 8 of them here.

Miss Fatty cat eating

View from the shelter

Can 1 have a pice of the food? asks the black kitty

Taking 1 discreetly

Meow!

While Mr Love busied himself with the cats, I walked around the neighbourhood in the rain hoping to hide from the cats who don't fancy water. Hahah

Further down the street from the shelter, I came across a home that have a makeshift gift shop outside that sells handmade stuff. There were quite a few cats here that the owner rear and she told me most of the cats hiding in the shelter belongs to her. Haha

Posing with Little tiger girl

The fatty cat who nearly pounced on me belongs to her too and its name is called 小虎妹(Little tiger girl) and she is the Alpha female of the group.

Thirsty from all the eating

Long way down to dunno where

Houtong train station

Mr Love was so engrossed with the feeding that he didn't even go anywhere besides the shelter in this village. Its partly due to the rain too and time as we are aiming to take the 17:18train back to Taipei, there isn't much time left for us to roam around.

While Mr Love was feeding the cats, I was chatting with the lady boss of the home gift shop and brought some handicrafts here from her.

When she learnt that we are going back to the train station, she passed some cat food to Mr Love and asked him to help feed the cats on the bridge, they belong to her too.

I was amazed by the number of cats she have and also her love for them. She will feed the cats accordingly to their likes. Some will eat dried pellets, some only eat canned food others will request for fresh meat.

Its dinner time!

While on the platform

This station accepts the use of easy card and therefore can tap in/out here without queuing up for tickets.

Since we did not manage to venture much in the cat village, I am sure Mr Love will request for a re-visit the next time we are in Taipei. Hopefully it will not be a rainy day the next day and we will get to see more of the village :)