Travel Entrée: Day 5 Backpack Taipei, Taiwan Trip (台湾台北行）

Thinking that my post for taiwan will be numerous post but I still can't shorten my post. Because every detail and moment is memorable for me to jot it down. You can find my Day 4 post of Hualien & Jiufen here.

Day 5 was a great day, we went to 13 places in 13 hours. That's really an amazing journey with our great driver Mr Meeky Yang. He only drive Malaysians and Singaporeans, because he mentioned that M'sians and Singaporeans are fast and steady people, which makes us smile within our hearts. Maybe we got the "KIASU" spirit which someway bring benefits.

Mr Meeky is a great tour guide that drives us around with his steady driving skills and has great knowledge about places he brings us to. Mr Meeky pick us up from our Minsu in Jiufen and started our journey for the day. Below are the list of places we went.

1. 九份 (jiu fen) - I will also count this in because we started off here.
2. 金瓜石 (jing gua shi)
3. 黄金瀑布 (huang jin pu bu)
4. 阴阳海 (ying yang hai)
5. 十三椅 (shi san yi)
6. 基隆山 (ji long shan)
7. 鼻头角 (bi tou jiao)
8. 南雅奇石 (nan ya qi shi)
9. 十份老街 (shi fen lao jie)
10. 野柳公园 (ye liu geopark)
11. 小油坑，阳明山 (xiao you keng @ yang ming shan)
12. 竹子湖(海芋圆)，阳明山 (zhu zi hu @ yang ming shan)
13. 师大夜市 (shi da ye shi @ taipei)

Below are the pictures and details, Mr Meeky quoted us TWD 3300 for 4 person, to us it is reasonable and we even gave him tip for the extra mile he went. Remember to book Mr Meeky early because his schedule is always full. FYI, I booked him 3 months in advance to avoid any disappointments.

Breakfast was provided by the Minsu, light breakfast with Jiufen's scenery

Why 背光? But a great shot by my boy, I dont mind my face being black. Haha!

We started our journey to Jing Gua Shi (金瓜石), this is a museum that is establish in remembrance of Jiu fen as a mining land for gold.

The largest gold in display that cost the amount you see above, it is in TWD. The driver told us that this gold actually reduce in weight every day because it is open to public for touching.

I have no idea whose weight was this, haha! But it is quite a big piece of gold here.

Trying to get the souvenir for remembrance.

There is also the tunnel and gold panning area which you can journey to, but due to time limit, we only went to Jing gua shi.

金瓜石
8, Jinguang Rd., Rueifang Township, Taipei County
Tel: (02)24962800
Opening times: Tuesday – Friday: 9:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.

Saturday – Sunday: 9.30 a.m. – 6.00 p.m.
Entrance fee: NT$ 100 / NT 70 with Youth Travel Card
Gold Panning Experience NT100, Tunnel Experience NT50

This is the Huang Jin Pu Bu, which is called golden waterfall in English. This is located near Jing gua shi, there is no actual gold that is flowing thru this waterfall, because of the rainfall and heavy metal elements in the riverbed caused the reflection of the waterfall to be of golden colour.

These water eventually flows into the sea, which caused the colour combination of the ying yang sea. I do not have any pictures because it was raining quite heavily. The photo below is source from google. It is a mixture of mud and blue colour. A beautiful and unique sight of the sea. It is not caused from pollution.

Picture source from Wikitravel.

We travel to Bitou cape since it was in the other direction, and I did not know that I will need to climb the mountain to get to see wonderful scenery and sights. It is really tiring to walk in the rain, but it is all well worth. Although I am not a good photographer, but the scenery makes the pictures beautiful. Don't worry there is no entrance fee, but be prepare to climb and walk.

Bitou cape is the northeast coast.

The incredible Hulk!

The selfie taken in Nanya, the northern most scenic spot, there is unique rock formation, they are sandstone which is formed by sand and wave.

Just a mile away we are at the Shuinandong smelter which people called the 13 stories. This was an important facility of the gold making during the olden days, which is now neglected. Opposite this building was the Ying Yang sea.

There was also Kee Lung mountain which I didn't get to capture the mountain because it was drizzling all the way. Thank God we have Mr Meeky to drive us around.

We travel to shifen to release sky lanterns (放天灯), the railway is also still in function and we were able to capture the process of the train passing by. The cost of releasing sky lanterns is TWD 100-150 each. The entrance fee is also free.

Located at Ping River(Pingsi) Township, New Taipei City 226, Taiwan.

Mr Meeky told us that this was famous, the bihun soup, but it is OK for us thou, not quite used to the taste/

This chicken wrap is superb.

Yehliu Geopark was out next stop, but it was raining really heavily, but since we had arrive we went in with raincoats.

It was raining heavily and the wind was so strong. This was a memorable photo that we were able to capture a photo with the queen's head.

野柳

167-1, Kantung Rd, Yehliu Village, Wanli District, New Taipei City 20744, Taiwan.

Tel: (02)886224922016

Opening times: Monday to Sunday: 7:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.

Entrance fee: NTD 80 (adult) / NTD 40 for children & students.

This was not in our travel plan, but Mr meeky told us this is a must visit place. The smell of sulphur welcome us with a cold temperature of 21 celsius. This is located at Yang Ming Shan (阳明山). This is a dead volcano that lies behind, we did not know that we were able to see a dead volcano in Taiwan. We were really jumping for joy. There is no entrance fee needed.

We were able to visit a scenery full of giant Taro (海芋花), which is the season in May.

This was the end of our scenic tour of the day. Mr Meeky drive us back to our Minsu and placed our bags. We stayed in Aunty Minsu for the remaining 3 days, which I will blog in my 6th day post. He drive us out to Shida night market. I will rate this night market 3 out of 5, the food here are still ok. For shopping, I would say that it is pricey compared to Shilin or Raohe night market. Out of the 3 night market, I will rate this the 3rd.