台北 Taipei - Day 04: 十分大瀑布 Shifen Waterfall, 十分老街 Shifen Old Street, 九份 Jiufen

Welcome to my Taipei day 04 (second last day of my Taipei trip) post! Here's the itinerary for day 04:

• 陳記專業蚵仔麵線 
• 十分大瀑布 Shifen Waterfall 
• 十分老街 Shifen Old Street
• 九份 Jiufen

As my friend had a craving for oyster mee sua (which we didn't have since the time we arrived in Taiwan), we went to have oyster mee sua (or some people called it as orh ah mee sua or 蚵仔面线) as our breakfast today! Speaking of oyster mee sua, forget about Ay Chung Rice Noodles 阿宗麵線 lah! The standard wasn't as before... Try 陳記專業蚵仔麵線 instead!

陳記專業蚵仔麵線

A very small shop among the line of shops

陳記專業蚵仔麵線
  No. 166, Section 3, Heping West Road, 
  Wanhua District, Taipei City, Taiwan 108

  Opening Hours:
  6.30AM to 7.30PM (daily)

  How to get there:
  Transfer to blue line from Taipei Main station 
  to Longshan Temple station
  Follow map on how to walk over

Went there at around 9+ in the morning, and we hardly get seats and there was a long queue! But it was a Saturday anyway... Haha! So we ordered two different small bowls of mee sua...

Top: Original oyster mee sua
Bottom: Mixture of oyster + pig intestine mee sua

I had the mixture ones as I can't stand the oyster taste after having too much. Surprisingly, the oysters don't have this weird taste or smell! They were small and chewy. The pig intestines were superb! They're chewy and flavourful! Haha! In the end my friend took half of the portion of the pig intestines from my bowl! 😞

Oh! I also tried their chilli sauce and one more (we don't know what) sauce there... Shiok man! Once the we-don't-know-what sauce was added in, the whole mee sua tasted even more shiok. Then I added a little of the chilli sauce in (as I wanted to try out the taste to see if it's the typical sweet chilli sauce), I had a shock! I didn't know the locals' spiciness level went up! I was really really really... really satisfied with this breakfast! And as I'm writing this post, I thought back about the taste and I'm hungry already! Hahaha!

After the satisfied breakfast, we headed over to 十分 Shifen, and it started drizzling~ 

By the way, 十分 is pronounce as "shí fèn" and not "shí fēn". 

十分大瀑布 Shifen Waterfall

It's a little complex getting over to 十分 Shifen, so I'm going to write a little more on this part since I have yet to see any blog post mentioning about this part of the journey.

To get to Shifen, the journey will be Taipei Main station > 瑞芳 Ruifang station > 十分 Shifen.

Getting from Taipei Main station to Ruifang station, you need to take the 台灣高鐵 Taiwan High Speed Rail (HSR). One ticket costs 76NT and it's just a single trip. As to what train to go for... Basically any train (except towards Keelung) is able to reach the Ruifang station. And you may want to choose a seat, otherwise (I heard) you'll have to stand if all seats are taken! 

You can get the train ticket via its vending machines (the 3 machines on the right) before the HSR entrance. The vending machines at the HSR area is always very crowded. You may get a little panicky and stress while using the machines... And to make it worse, the machines aren't sensitive and/or fast! But don't worry okay! Just take your time to buy the ticket(s)! It's better to let people wait longer than to purchase the wrong ticket(s)! 

Alternatively, you can queue at the ticket counter to purchase them. However the queue at the ticket counter ain't short, and it will never be short at any point of time (except when the counter's closed!). #don'tSayINeverInformAh

HSR ticket to Ruifang station

The ticket will tell you the train service provider you'll be taking (for my case it's 自強), the start and end destinations (Taipei to Ruifang) and the travelling time, car and seat numbers (Car 3, Seat 05), and the cost of the ticket. 

Once you arrived at Ruifang station, you will need to go up to the station to Pingxi platform to purchase the Pingxi train ticket.

Ruifang station - Pingxi platform

Pingxi train ticket (One-day pass)

Polo (pineapple) bun

While waiting for the train, we shared a polo bun that we bought from a convenience stall. I wanted to get this as the look-and-feel resembled the one I had in Hong Kong (and I can't find the same taste anywhere in Singapore anymore). And it really tasted almost like the one I had in Hong Kong! I felt so touched at that point of time! No joke!

The train ride from Ruifang to Shifen was long, and the train was very crowded. 

Shifen station

It was very crowded at Shifen station, plus the rain got heavier than before. *sigh*

Nonetheless, it didn't stop us from going to the Shifen Waterfall! We braved the rain just to see the waterfall, and we enjoyed the scenery along the way. 

En route to Shifen Waterfall

A very shaky bridge

Us, on the shaky bridge

Please pardon my subsequent photos as the rain got heavier and heavier. My phone's camera was wet and turned foggy at some point of time.

This is, what I'd call, a preview of the waterfall...
P.S. It's so cold that my specs turned foggy

The track beside is the track that the Pingxi train passes by

This is not the actual waterfall!
The actual waterfall requires us to walk in further more!

Halfway through to the waterfall!

After walking quite a distance, we finally reached the official Shifen Waterfall... And the rain got even heavier than before... 

Shifen Waterfall

Brrr.... It was cold~ So we went to get lunch... Getting some hot soup! 

This stall owners weren't that polite and friendly... Not only to us, it's like to everyone in the shop. It's like as though they don't want our businesses like that. After we finished the first round of food, we went to get second round.

This shop sells yummy black pig sausage (no wonder it's soooooo crowded)! It's a must try! The shop is right in front of a temple!

After we're done eating, we walked back to Shifen Old Street and took a short walk... Like literally short. The street is so small-scale that there's nothing much to see, and most of the shops are like selling almost the same stuff (example lanterns). We only stayed there for around 10mins to 15mins, then we headed to 九份 Jiufen.

To get from Shifen to Jiufen, we took the Pingxi train back to Ruifang station. After which, we transferred to bus (can google for the nearest bus-stop). When we got to Jiufen, the rain got even heavier... And if you've been to Jiufen before, it becomes super crowded when it's raining. 

Upon reaching Jiufen, our first thing to go for is hot / warm 豆花 (beancurd) because we had been walking in the rain from morning till then... We had it at 九份豆花 (Jiufen Beancurd)...

My unsweetened 豆花 beancurd with barley and taro balls

Feeling a little unsatisfied with the hotness level of the beancurd, we went for this popular place for fishball soup.

A few blogs mentioned that this stall sells
awesomely delicious fishballs and 貢丸 meatballs

And being curious cats, we went ahead and try them!

There's 1 fishball, 2 福州鱼丸 Fuzhou fishballs, and 1 mushroom meatball

For people who don't know what 福州鱼丸 Fuzhou fishball is, it's basically a fishball with minced pork filling inside. For some of the Fuzhou fishballs, there'll be soup oozing out when you bite them. For this stall's Fuzhou fishballs, the sizzling hot soup will just explode out. The shop even has a signboard warning their customers about it. Haha! I had a shock because the amount of soup oozing out was not little. 

This bowl of balls was super good! I highly recommend people to try it! Another dish I'd strongly recommend from this stall is the following...

Century egg with tofu

The century eggs tasted different from what we have in Singapore! At least it doesn't have this disgusting smell and taste... It's chewy and flavourful! Yum yum yum! 😋

As the rain got heavier and heavier (my jacket was totally soaked in the rain) and the crowd got more and more, we went to have some tea to keep ourselves warm. We had to wait for about 15mins in order to get seats. 

There's a set for 2 pax which cost about 600NT+ in total. It comes with self-brew tea (you can't choose the type of tea) and 4 small plates of dessert. All the 4 dessert were really good and suitable to go with the tea, especially the green bean cake! We didn't have enough, thus we added on 2 more desserts. Haha! Super good!

We ended our day at Jiufen at about 8+ because we really buay tahan (cannot stand) the rain. Walking in the rain for the whole day with the strong cold wind blowing at you isn't really a joke. So we took the easiest but the longest path back - taking a direct bus from Jiufen to Taipei. I almost died of the coldness there; the bus aircon was like freaking cold and it was a 1.5 hours ride back. 

Before we officially ended our day, we headed to a supermarket to get beers and also to satisfy my hot instant noodles craving. Plus, I was a little hungry already; we've yet to have our dinner. Went to get this as my dinner!

TTL 花雕酒 Huadiao Wine Chicken Instant Noodle

It was really good! So good till I even bought back 2 bags (3 individual packs in each bag) back to Singapore. There's noodles, (real) chicken pack, vegetable pack, condiment, and 花雕酒 huadiao wine pack included. And it's not expensive! 

Our day 04 wasn't so smooth as it was drizzling > raining > drizzling > raining even heavily than before the whole day... And I forgot to bring my raincoat out of my hostel. 😔

Nonetheless, we still had a great time on our 4th day in Taipei! That's all for day 04!