It’s gray and gloomy outside. Slept in with the comfortable Mayer Inn bed and room, but was ready for breakfast by 8 AM. We went back to Miss Croissant, for the same order for breakfast as we had yesterday. I guess we’re creatures of habit.

After breakfast, we made our way to Jiufen.

Getting to Jiufen

A local guy noticed me looking at signs for platform 4A which I read was the Ruifang-bound train stop and asked “Can I help you?” I said yes and he went ahead to confirm where we should be waiting. That was helpful since our train was about to leave in a few minutes.

First, we needed to get to Ruifang Station from Taipei. The Cowboy and I had been debating how to get there while figuring out the Taiwan Main Station mega-maze. After consulting information service, we figured we had to go to TRA.

Second, from Ruifang Station we had to get a bus headed for Juifen itself. The Cowboy had it all under control. There were information staff who provided us assistance. I’m glad they also had tourist brochures in English which were really useful.

There were a few buses bound for Jiufen. We got onto the 965 bus which stopped at the Old Jiufen Street Station. A few meters walk up around the corner, we saw a 7-11 and right next to it was the entrance to the Old Street.

Jiufen Old Street

We were quite out of place with our luggage as we inched our way through the street packed with tourists.

Diverse food stalls and shops lined up both sides of the pedestrian-only tight cobblestoned street.

Lanterns brightened the stalls’ ceilings.

As we passed by a food stall, a waft of stinky tofu invaded my nostrils. I saw several stalls selling all sorts of tea: hot tea, milk tea, bubble tea and all possibilities of tea one could think of.

Dusk comes early before 6 PM. Most of the shops are closed by then. Which surprised me… as there were still busloads of tourists coming in promising more patrons and profit.

It got busier at dark, I think it was because the place got even more photogenic especially with the lanterns lighting up the alleyways and street.

We finally saw Ah-Me Teahouse, the most popular place in town. Tourists spilt onto the steps leading to it, taking photos. Us included.

Accommodation at Kozy Stonehouse

In Old Street, we snaked through for another 200 meters or so until we reached a sharp turn to the left, with a staircase going down. From there we found our accommodation, Kozy Stonehouse, and the architecture lived up to its name and made it obvious which building it was amongst the cluster of houses down the hill.

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It’s only 12noon and check-in isn’t until 2PM, so we were thinking of dropping our luggage first and grab some lunch. However the receptionist said our room is ready. She can hardly speak English, so she had to rely on a translator device. She would speak in Mandarin, and the device would then translate both in voice and transcription what she said.

Sometimes the translations didn’t make sense. Like when it said, “Where would the genius go?” I tried not to laugh.

Our room was in the top floor, and we had to carry our luggage up a couple flight of stairs. It was worth it. We opened the door to a room with windows overlooking the sea – through some obstruction from neighboring structures. The floor is elevated by half a foot. By the window is another elevated platform the size of a single day bed. It’s a sitting area to relax while enjoying the view. The place lives up to its Kozy name.

We decided we’ll just chill for the day and so all the sught-seeing around the area tomorrow. Since we only have one day to cover the areas I wanted to see, we asked the receptionist how much would a day cabbie be. She said 3800, so we asked her to go ahead book for us.

Eating Out

After checking-in, we went back to the street looking for lunch. I had to rely on photos as most of the signs were in Chinese. We settled for dumplings, vegies and prawns.

As we continued exploring after a nap back at Kozy, I stumbled onto a fruit juice and tea stand. The soursop pulled me in and I ended up having a soursop and apple juice. I liked that they did not mix anything else with it, and there was no ice, just pure healthy goodness of fruits.

After another couple of hours walking about, we ended up in a dumpling place. This time we had buns – and they were probably the best ‘siopao’ I ever had in my whole life! To ease feeling cold, I indulged in hot and sour soup. Satisfied we made our way back to Kozy.

Along the way, we passed by a desert stall serving waffles with fruits and ice-cream. The Cowboy couldn’t help himself. He ended the night with a generous serve of mango, ice cream and egg waffle with coffee to go.

Dragons, Cats and Sad Face

Dragons, cats and the masked sad face dominated the scene, souvenirs and structures.

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I noticed a number of temples jutting out of the hills on the way to Jiufen. Most of them had intricate designs, dominated by dragons.

From Jiufen Old Street, we veered off into another alleyway of staircases going up the hill. At the top was the Elementary School still lit up with Christmas lights. I could hear noise and chatter coming from the building not too far from the school, and noticed there was a temple. Curious, we checked it and found out there was one main temple, with two smaller ones on each side. They’re all open. The façade are decorated with dragons. Inside were exquisite paintings and sculpture from ceiling to floor.

Along the same staircase alley was a Cat Shop. They seem to love cats. Our guesthouse has a cat. Restaurants have cats lazing by their doors. Street art were all about cats.

Meantime, souvenirs were inundated with the masked sad face. I read that Jiufen was the location for the movie “City of Sadness”, so I assumed the masked sad face had something to do with that. I wanted to buy a trinket but the Cowboy refused, “It just looks sad, I don’t want anything to do with it.”

Exploring the North Coast:

Bitou, Long Dong, Nanya and Yehliu

On day three, we packed most of the adventure for today.

Chen picked us up at the bottom of the stair-alley from Kozy Stonehouse around 9AM. We have him for 8 hours at 3800 and we can go anywhere.

He spoke a little bit of English and that helped. The Ruifang brochure I got from the Ruifang station was helpful in pointing out where I wanted us to go: Long Dong rock climbing area, Beitou trail, Nanya Rock Formations, and Yehliu Geopark.

It was a lot to pack in for the day!

Bitou Trail

Chen gave us two hours to explore the trail and be back at the carpark.

The map from the carpark provided us with a starting point and directions where to go. Curving from the road footpath was the elementary school which wasn’t hard to miss. What a school! Imagine growing up with an ocean view from your window. The location couldn’t have been more breathtaking for someone going to school day in and day out.

It wasn’t hard to miss the trail as it was well-paved, snaking alongside the school.

With overcast weather, it wasn’t too cold as I expected and it wasn’t warm either, making it very pleasant. The views were simply breathtaking and I couldn’t stop taking videos and snapping photos.

It was the kind of coastline I love, rocky with waves crushing into massive sprays – similar to New South Wales but a little bit more rugged. While the landscape is reminiscent of Batanes, Bitou is more accessible.

Further along, was like a roller coaster of green hills and endless views of the ocean. At the end, you get a view of the ocean on both sides of the trail, on your left and on your right.

We didn’t need to backtrack where we came from. From the peak and final last viewing point, there were stairs going down a path that then led back to town, with the road connecting to the carpark. It was a pretty easy walk back.

Long Dong 

I told Chen that I wanted to see Long Dong, and showed him the photos from Google maps. He recognized it right away.

Long Dong rock climbing site was only a few minutes away from Bitou. From where Chen stopped there was a clearly marked sign pointing to paved trail just like in Bitou.

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Nanya Rock Formation

The site was easy to spot as it was along the highway.

Off-white, coral, pink with tinges of copper, ochre, maroon colours of sand swirled themselves into solidified structures of rock formations.

We stayed just long enough to enjoy the view, soak it in and of course, take photos. It wasn’t such a big place so we were done in a few minutes.

Yehliu Geo Park

Chen asked if we wanted to have lunch as he had a friend who ows a seafood restaurant. Unfortunately, running out of time arriving at the park at 2PM with only a couple hours to explore, we only had enough for a quick bite of fresh fruits and 2-min noodle at 7-11.

On hidsight, after seeing Yehliu, I thought Nanya probably wasn’t a must-see.

Yehliu topped it all… rock formations jutted from the coral limestone, looking like mushrooms, candles, queen’s head and princesses.

The Cowboy was determined to go all the way to the tip of the park, the highest and most northern point, since he missed out on seeing the lighthouse in Bitou. “But it was closed, there’s nothing you can do about it.”

“Still… I’m not satisfied so this time we have to reach the tip.”

And we did!

Back to Jehjiu

Chen drove like he was in a car race, which made me wonder if that’s the norm of driving here in Taiwan. I couldn’t complain though, we got back right on time around 5 PM at Jehjiu Old Street.

This time, The Cowboy and I took our time to explore more of the shops. When I saw a noodle house, we jumped on the opportunity. Noodles had been our staple for our trip here in Taiwan, it’s such a comfort food!

We went back to the desert place where The Cowboy ordered exactly the same thing last night: mango and ice cream on egg waffles plus Americano. The people at the shop recognized us and were so delighted we came back, that the owner gave us a free cuppa “This is milk tea with Baileys!” and he brought along the bottle of Baileys to emphasize. “It’s really good, enjoy it!” And it was!

I loved our travel in Taiwan so far, not just because of the landscape but more so because of the people. They are simply courteous, helpful, and nice people.