I remembered that we left the hotel rather early in the morning after having breakfast at the hotel itself (I would recommend people to go to local breakfast shops 早餐店 to have breakfast instead if you have the time.. or you can even buy a 韩国手卷 which can be found at one of the shops at 西门町 which we enjoyed quite alot..).. We took a mrt to a particular bus-stop which would have buses to bring us to 九分.. (I can’t really remember the details since it was almost a year ago =X)
The bus ride was about an hour if I’m not wrong and we arrived at 九分 after going up some “mountainous” roads..
There were lots of shops that sell food and souvenirs over there.. We were particularly attracted to the food.. Along the way we bought drinks which were quite unique and good for the throat, when requested, the drink can be placed in this special baby bottle (as seen above) which you can bring home afterwards..
We also settled our lunch there.. my favorite 卤肉饭!.. simply awesome.. along the way we saw lots of food and also bought some like the famous 阿婆芋圆..
We also bought our 太阳饼 and 黄梨酥 here.. They are mostly made there by family-owned businesses, and you can test the food before buying.. But the stuffs there gets sold out quickly if you meet tour groups over there..
Along the way we also met some cute animals.. Just love to stop and take photos of them and also of the scenery..
九分 is also famous for their tea houses 茶馆.. Thus, we decided to take a rest, look at the breathtaking scenery and just chill while enjoying the 花茶..
While walking along 九分 I also noticed some 民宿 in the area.. After watching some taiwanese programs after I returned.. I found that the 民宿 over there are quite recommended and couples go there for their honeymoons.. Interested travelers can check them out =)..
After spending the whole afternoon at 九分, we took a cab back to our hotel to put down our stuffs before taking the same cab to Shiling Night market 士林夜市 (I remembered that the whole cab fare was around 1000TWD.. the price is negotiable).. We ate our dinner at the Shiling Night market food area and bought all the must-trys..
At 士林夜市.. we were kind of exhausted so we did minimal shopping (which was still around 1-2 hours..XD).. some areas are worth taking a look would be the pet shop near the street! They have all the little puppies and kittens which are uber cute! =D .. And.. almond haters beware! the smell of it is super strong when you are near the vendor selling the almond juice or soup or something.. within 100m of its radius, you can sense the strong smell.. Thus we ended the day at 士林夜市 and went back to 西门町 for a short walk before returning to our hotel..
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DAY9 TaoYuan Airport@Taiwan -> Home Sweet Home
Our flight was in the afternoon so we had some time to do last minute shopping and also plan our transportation back to the airport.. As we have 5 people in total, it was quite a problem as we are unable to squeeze into a normal cab with all our luggages.. Thus we were looking for those 7-seater cabs.. The hotel offered as such vehicles but the price was too over the budget, however, we manage to approach some taxi-driver who have such cars just right outside the hotel itself for a price of ard 1000TWD which was pretty much reasonable.. So my advice to travelers, please look for alternatives, don’t settle on one choice too quickly =)
A really long holiday.. 9D8N with this cool bunch of friends.. really enjoyed myself a lot and for almost the whole journey, we didn’t have much uncomfortable situations to handle other than the failed minsu at taipei..
So, I just like to conclude that having the right traveling partners are really important as they can really make your whole trip so much brighter or to the other extreme, make your whole holiday suck.. My experience for this trip was great! I don’t remember us having a dispute at any point of time during the trip.. Not even a small minor dispute.. All I can remember were the fun and laughter that we had all the way.. The crazy things that we did that made the trip so memorable..
I’ll definitely want to travel with this gang of people in the near future =D Our grad trip! Looking forward to it =)
kirahqi
