9th May, 2016
Started our day real early as we were having our one day trip to Shifen-Jingtong-Pingxi line!
Went to Taipei Main Station to grab our breakfast from the 7-11 (i loveee the Honey Tea! It's a must to drink every time I'm in TW), and to also purchase our train tickets.
I was pretty excited as it was my first time there and I couldn't wait to see the Shifen Waterfall!!
The station was pretty crowded in the morning but thankfully, C & I were able to get our seats.
The train from Taipei Main Station to Ruifang Station took about an hour, and we had to change to another platform to hop onto the Pingxi line.
The train ticket that we bought in the morning allows us to stop at any 3 stations that we want along this line, and so we chose Shifen -> Jingtong -> Pingxi.
According to C, the previous time she came, the train was packed like a sardine... So thankfully, our train weren't that packed!
First Stop: Shifen!
Even though Shifen station was 4 stops away from Ruifang, it took us quite awhile to arrive.
Everything about an old train station is just so picture-perfect.
Ahh... the railway tracks, the brownish rails, the rocks of varying sizes...
It calls for lots of photo taking time!
And yup! It's the standard-so-common kind of poses :p
Honestly, I always wonder how does people come up with like so many different poses that looks so nice, but when I try to do so, I look soooo weird!!! :/
Thank God for a good weather despite the weather forecast!
So just before the rain, C and I quickly made our way to Shifen Waterfall, that she missed previously due to the weather.
It was quite a distance away, probably about 20-30 mins walk?
But it was a very straight-forward walk, so it wasn't that bad!
Along the way, there were people asking us if we would like to rent a bike to ride towards the waterfall area, but however, we didn't know how to ride it.
Honestly, I felt really tempted to try it out, but I thought, better not. :P
And woohoo! We made it!
It was a sight to behold.
The waterfall was so gorgeous... the sound of it was so therapeutic.
And really, thank God for such a good weather, because, the sun, and the rays, allowed the rainbow to appear in the waters!!! (when there's no sun, the rainbow disappears)
So so soooo beautiful. :')
It was so beautiful, I was so tempted to climb over the fence, and sit on the edge of the cliff!!!! (well, that's because the cliff and the rocks are huge and the space is huge too, so to me it wasn't that dangerous... but C sopped me. haha. she probably saved my life too :P)
Put my birthday present- the Prynt case to good use!
And furthermore, I bought 5 new boxes of zinc papers (which is 250 sheets) to use! But it was still tooo much!
But anyhow, I love my Prynt!!! :D
God is really so good to us, because when we decided to make our way out of the waterfall, (we stayed there for an hour plus hahaah), it started pouring!!!
We were soooo thankful!!
It started raining even heavier when we were nearing the main street area, and so, we decided to have our lunch in a random shop since it was raining.
We were getting so wet on our legs!!
Had a chicken rice for lunch, while C had some beef noodles.
It was o-k-a-y, and that's why I didn't have any picture of it :P
But, I lost my umbrella at that shop :'((
This is because there's a centralised place for us to dump our wet umbrellas at, and someone must have mistook mine for theirs..
So, I was left without an umbrella, even though it was still raining :'(
Second Stop: Jingtong!
Hop onto the train and went to the last station of the line for a look around.
Thankfully, the rain lightened by the time we arrived!
Went to walk in their souvenir shop and there were so many vintage stuffs!
At Jingtong, it was quieter, and there were less crowd! Yay!
So that means, we are able to take nice track pictures without much photobombers.
I went to the extent of wiping a small part of the track, so that I could sit on it (because it's totally wet)
All for the pictures sake. But well, it was all worth it :p
Continued walking down the streets of Jingtong, and exploring the area.
We almost wanted to walk to Pingxi, as it was about 20 mins walk away...
And since the train was not gonna arrive so soon, we decided to just take a walk.
It was a straight path all the way, and we were walking along the train tracks... and there were many houses along the way too.
But halfway in our walk, it was getting too hot, and we realised that the train was gonna arrive, and that if we continued walking, we would need another 15 mins or so?
So we decided to walk/run back towards Jingtong station to hop onto the train :P
Well.. at least we walked for 10 mins and we saw some scenery already... HAHA.
Third stop: Pingxi!
Pingxi - it reminded me a bit of Jiufen!
There were many shophouses that lined up the streets, and apparently, Pingxi was the exact location where 'You are the Apple of my eye' were filmed at years ago!
Actually, it's because of this film that brought the crowd to this almost-secluded-and-forgotten land!
Likewise, we explored Pingxi, and bought some small bites.
I tried their glutinous rice roll + taiwan sausage + veggies + pickles. It was not bad!
C got the chocolate ice egg (that became famous too because the main casts of the film were eating it LOL).
We timed our journey pretty well, and knowing that there was gonna be another hour till the next train arrive that will take us back to Ruifang and then back to Taipei, we quickly went into a random lantern shop.
Actually, there's not much difference between the shops, because it was all the same price, same colours, same activities...
The only difference is - the attitude of the staffs.
It was my first time doing so (i mean in JC, during our graduation ceremony, the entire J2 cohort did something similar like this.. we got the permit to do so :P).
I guess since its such a tourist thing to do, we just did it... and I guess, it was more for the sake of photo-taking. hahaha.
Actually, to take picture with the lighted up lantern, is quite painful!!
I mean the fire is soooo hot, so it's really quite dangerous and scary, cause if you can't take the heat, you will just release it and then, the lantern, flies into the sky.
Furthermore, C and I took turns to take individual shot with it, before taking a together shot!! Haha.
Thank God it wasn't crowded so we can take a real nice shot, unlike those who do it in Shifen, and there are people all around!!
So if you are thinking of doing so, do it in Pingxi / Jingtong ;)
But anyway, it was time to leave Pingxi, and we made our way back to the main area!
After an hour plus, we finally made it back, and the first thing I bought was bubbleteaaaa!!
That cheesy glazed waffle was super yum too! While C bought her favourite cheese cake from Uncle Tetsu!
We also saw a neoprint-machine-lookalike at the station, and make the most random decision to take a picture. And to our surprise, it was super fast. We could only post 3 times, and we were only allowed to choose 1 favourite pose. LOL.
Thereafter, we make our way back to XMD, and shared one big bowl of Ah Zhong meesua for our really late dinner!
So yummy! But I really don't like all the intestines and what not.
And since it was like 9pm or so, we continued to shop a bit more in XMD since our hotel was just nearby.
Yipee! What a loooong but fun day!
I miss Taiwan. :'(
