Day 5 - The First Weekend!

On Sunday we woke up and after a quick breakfast took the MRT to Taipei Main Station where we were to catch the train for the first part of our journey to Jiufen. Again, this became an adventure due to our unfamiliarity with the system. We were uncertain what we were doing with the automatic ticket machine, so we went to the counter to buy our tickets, Unfortunately for us, the woman wanted to leave for her break so instead of explaining to us the various options she just grumpily sold Sonny some tickets and left. Very confused we wandered up to the platform and when out train arrived we realised our misfortune. We had purchased standing tickets for the local train - which was completely packed! we ended up standing and being jostled by gangs of teenagers and cranky businessmen for an hour.

Then when we arrived in Ruifang, where we were supposed to catch the bus to Jiufen we stood in the wrong bus stop for and 20 minutes before someone informed us that they had moved the bus stop, and why didn't we read the sign in Chinese! When we finally got on the bus is was packed as well and we ended up standing for the twisty, somewhat scary ride up the mountain. We eventually arrived in Juifen, and after I stood and admired the view and breathed in and out for a bit to dispel my crankiness we set off to explore this adorable town.

This house was for sale! Sonny was interested :)

The whole town is made up of very narrow alleys connected by stairs. It was really neat.

I ate an ice cream sandwich made with pancakes!

We stopped to eat some meatballs and fishballs at a cute little shop. The soup came with 2 meatballs, one fishball and one giant fishball with a meatball inside!

After lunch we continued to amble through the old streets, until Sonny spotted a famous desert shop which we just had to try, plus it had an outdoor eating area with amazing views of the town and the mountains and the ocean.

After desert, with sugar running in our veins, I convinced Sonny to climb Mt Keelung with me. First we had to get to the trail-head. This was accomplished by walking along the very narrow road, diving for the side whenever the buses went by so as not to get run over. It was a bit terrifying.

We finally reached the trail-head and got out first glimpse of the 600 m of stairs we were going to have to climb. I was lucky it was such a harrowing walk back or else I would have been climbing alone while Sonny headed back to the cafe to sit and drink coffee.

The views on the way up made it totally worth it though. I took a ton of photos, mostly as an excuse to rest (whew!)

 Hey Dad, What is this thing? There was no antenna or other connection with the outside world and we saw a few of them on the way up. They looked just like giant metal sheets?

 We finally reached the top and Sonny rested while I ran around taking pictures of the 360 degree views.

We slowly climbed back down - all those stairs were hell on both our knees! Then walked by all the tea houses in Jiufen. We were feeling full from earlier though, so we didn't stop.

I found a blog post that does a great job showing just how Miyazaki who visited the Grand Teahouse was inspired by Jiufen when he created Spirited Away.

http://www.tofugu.com/2013/10/01/i-went-to-the-real-life-spirited-away/

It was a very cool little town, and I bet it would be even more neat without all the tourists everywhere. We eventually bid adieu and tried to catch a bus back, unsuccessfully for about 30 minutes as they were all full. Eventually a local came and she explained that since she knew most of the drivers, she would help us get on a bus. She did, but we ended up riding in the stairway, crammed in with several other people! Sonny had to hold on quite tight as the bus went flying round the turns. I was up a step and was in a slightly safer position, but it also meant i had a better view of the steep drop off to the right and how close we were coming to the other buses! We decided you would be freaking out Mom, it was very scary in parts. When we arrived back in Ruifang we celebrated still being alive by eating some spicy stinky tofu soup and having an extra large bubble tea. We also paid more and got the proper tickets for the train back so we could sit and rest our tired legs (note: paid more means and extra 20 NT$ or about 1 NZ$). After that long day, we both fell asleep before 9 pm!