First day in Taiwan (26/4/2013)

Arriving at Taoyuan early morning around 5:40 am in Terminal 1 by Scoot, we then proceeded to Terminal 2 to get a prepaid card from Chunghwa telecom. They have one shop at Terminal 2 which opens daily at 7 am. The prepaid card that we got costs NT$500, includes 7 days of data plan (NT$50 perday) and NT$150 for calling. While waiting for the shop to open, we got a small bite for breakfast at 7-Eleven.

We hired an 8-seater van with a driver from Yuyu Travel. It was the second time I used their service. It's definitely a recommended one in Taipei. My experience with them is simply excellent.

Our driver then drove us to Windsor B&B. It's a family business at Jiufen, and the place is very close to Jiufen old street. Check out their website to see different styles of rooms that they have. We dropped our luggage in front of a temple, then the owner helped us to bring them to our room. 

Gold Ecological Park (金瓜石).


Our first destination was the Gold Ecological Park. Here we had soy bean curd with ginger soup. The ginger soup was so good. To be honest, we were hungry. Everybody loves the soup, but we thought the soy bean curd was just ok. 

The purpose to visit this park is to see a big piece of gold. After quite some times of walking, we were able to touch the gold bar. 

Leaving the gold ecological park, we then passed by a big waterfall.

Then, we went to JiuFen Old Street for our lunch. 
Food that we tried:

• Ah Gan Yee Taro ball--> It's a must try. The texture of the taro balls and sweet potato balls are just right. The sweetness is perfect. Nevertheless, you'll be able to view a very nice scene of JiuFen from the shop.

• Crepe wrapped Ice cream--> I simply love it. It was the second time that I had the crepe. However, few of my friends didn't appreciate it so much. 

• Fish Ball, Lu rou fan 滷肉飯 (braised pork on rice), braised pork on noodle, vegetable (@Stall #23)

The vegetable looks really simple, but the taste was awesome. You should try to be able to appreciate it. The noodle texture was really nice.

4. Drink-->Brown sugar with ginger.

The ginger taste was quite strong. I personally think that it's a very good combination in which they add in ginger to brown sugar. All of us bring home few packets of this brown sugar cube. 

A little knowledge that I know about ginger is that, it can be used as an anti-inflammatory. I found a scientific journal, written by Grzanna et al., which explained about this. 

Our next stop was Pingxi, ShiFen (十分). The purpose of us going there was to do sky lantern flying. We designed our own lantern, and then let it fly to the sky. If you want to know more information about the flying lantern activity at pingxi, you may find it from this website.

Nearby the flying lantern place, there's another waterfall park. However, we decided not to enter, and just walked around outside the park. There is an entrance fee of NT$80 per person. 

 

Last destination for the day was Keelung night market. I remember trying their meat dumpling, and it was nice. But, I was too hungry that I forgot to take any picture of it. We also tried mien xian. Our driver told us that their sausage is very nice. I didn't try it, however, my friend did, and according to them, it is indeed nice. 

It was a tiring day, since we stay overnight in the plane. Most of us was exhausted and didn't enjoy much the taste of food in Keelung night market.  

In addition, I should share one experience during our stay at Jiufen. Just before we went to bed, we thought of having a night walk around the B&B area. We went to one shop (more like a combination of bar and tea shop). They serve tea, dessert and alcoholic beverages. So, we decided to order tea. The price was at the high range. It was NT$800 just for tea leaves, plus NT$100 per person for the cup. We ended up spending a total bill of NT$1600. It was a good experience though, since we had the chance to know how to really enjoy a cup of tea. 

P.S. Stay tuned for my next post...