Oct 27 - Jiu Fen 九份 Let's Eat

The famous Jiu Fen dish. Anything made from fish.

One of the famous shop selling fish stuff. The trademark is the Ah Po or grandma.

The sweets

Nice shop selling the nice desserts

Yummy desserts with yam

Ice kacang anyone?

It's pancake with peanut and two scoops of ice cream.

Another fish dish, prepared in the Hock Chiew style.

Marinated pork.

Hong Zhao is the Hock Chiew method/material of cooking style I think, stand to be corrected.

This auntie is selling BBQ mushroom. Notice the big white one on the right? That's pre-BBQ.

Rows of shell, BBQ styled.

They will dig out the shell flesh and cut in pieces, sprinkled with salt or spices at your choice.

The notice says "The Famous Mushroom"

This shop is famous for its biscuits and confectionary where lots of people buy as souvenirs back home.

Oct 27 - Jiu Fen 九份

Jiu Fen is a nice cool town built entirely at the mountain side, that explains the narrow and winding road all the way. It's a perfect place to sample nice cooling weather and get a glimpse of the charm of the old Taiwan era as most of the buildings are old.

For me, the attraction is the fact that the famous Taiwanese director, Hou Hsiao Hsien directed The City of Sadness 悲情城市 here.

Welcome to Jiu Fen

The 3-some Deity (with all due respect, they always portrayed in 3, no other meaning), the famous 福禄寿, loosely representing wealth, happiness and health.

Again, not only they conquered Alishan but Starbucks was here for long already.

The entrance to the famous food street at the back.

Crowded alley with lots of food to sample and stuff to look at or buy.

Handicraft for sale.

Taken in one of the coffee shop, which are aplenty.

More shopping.

The name of the shop is "The Story of Small Town" coincidentally a song by Teresa Teng.

The name of this coffee is another famous movie by the Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao Hsien.

Cool weather is perfect for cuddling and intimacy. What they sell? With the neon light, you should guessed it already. It's the Condom World.

The name of the shop is City of Sadness, the movie that catapulted Hou Hsiao Hsien to fame being honored in Venice Film Festival.

This is an old cinema. The poster of the movie shown is actually another movie by Hou Hsiao Hsien, 恋恋风尘

The weather in Jiu Fen is quite unpredictable. It was becoming very windy and starts to rain at the end of the visit.

Love Jiu Fen. Comfy and felt that you were transported to another era. Stroll along the alleys and enjoy the ambience. I wished I had more time indeed.

Oct 26 - Hot Spring 温泉 Time in Beitou 北投

Sometimes it's worth pampering ourselves.

After learning the horror stories about going to those horrible hot spring in Taipei (well... she couldn't tell me exactly the location actually) from liangmoi on her adventure with the moss-colored tiles and plastic baldi equipped hot spring, I decided to splurge a bit and yes, it's a perfect pamper indeed.

I got to know they open 24 hours. And for a night stay, it's VERY expensive.

Oct 26 - Jin Gua Shi 金瓜石 and Golden Waterfall 黄金瀑布

This is the town of Rui-Fang 瑞芳. The town is reachable by train from Taipei. I forgot the journey time but it should be around 1-1/2 hrs depending on what type of train you took on.



From the train station, there're lots of cab driver who's willing to bring you around Jin Gua Shi (JGS) 金瓜石 and Golden Waterfall (GW) 黄金瀑布 and they come complete with a clear folder of the pics of the place and also recommendations/comments from the tourist too.

Normally, I would like to take bus (available) but decided against it because bus will only manage to take us to Jiu Fen 九份 we still need other transport to bring us around JGS and GW. I forgot the cost of the taxi but I think it's around RM60-80 for the 3 places, which spanned almost 4hours plus I think.

Everyday is a winding road - Sheryl Crow

That was the mine which was in operation for quite a while ago. That's why the place got its gold-related name.

That's the Big Yellow taxi that we were on.

The taxi driver drove us further up away from the old mine and the scenery was breathtaking. The sky was gloomy though. If the sun shines brightly etc... I'm sure it will be one heck of a photo!!!

Another view

I wouldn't go as far as saying that it's similar to the Great Ocean Road in Australia but in the same vein maybe?

The rock looks like a frog. Oh... froggie. Some Malaysian MPs, especially the Sabahan ones should take this pic and frame it and hang it in their office; so appropriate!!! Maybe I should take the initiative and start it by sending it first to.....

笑看风云变?

No no... this is not the Nefertiti-look-alike rock in Yeliu, North Taiwan, which regretably I missed due to lack of time.

Interesting formation of the rock, after years and years of enduring the waves and strong wind.

This is what they called Golden Waterfall. Gold colour is due to the oxidation of the metal content of the mining area in JGS.