Day 7 Itinerary
- Ruifang (瑞芳)
- Shifen (十分)
- Shifen Waterfall (十分大瀑布)
- Jiufen (九份)
We decided to go Shifen and Jiufen.
As we woke up late, and I only found out the ZhiQiang (自強) train leaves at 8.50am (next one is noon), we made a mad dash for the 8.50am without breakfast. It was around 8.20am when we leave our hotel. We rushed to Taipei train station and quickly purchased 2 tickets to Ruifang train station (瑞芳火车站). The ticket cost NT76 each.
We made it! But with our empty tummies :P
Ruifang station
Quite a big crowd at the platform trying to buy tickets.
At Ruifang station, we bought day pass for Pingxi line. Adult day pass ticket is NT52. Very affordable.
As the Pingxi (平溪) train will approach only at 10.59am, we exited the train station to hunt for our breakfast.
We headed to the nearby Ruifang food street to look for our veg breakfast. However, the only veg stall inside the food street was not ready for business :(
We headed outside again to look for food. As luck would have it, just outside the food street, we saw one uncle with a pushcart selling veg food! So happy to see him!! What a great timing.. haha
‘YouFan’
We placed our order for vermicelli ‘mian xian geng’ (NT30) and ‘you fan’ (NT20), we could see that the uncle is quite passionate with his trade. He carefully prepare our order. :D
Both item are nice! We enjoyed the food a lot and were very happy to gobble down everything.
We walked along the way and saw someone selling ‘Fan Shu Guo’, so we ordered one to eat as well. Quite nice and it's piping hot.
We thought of eating our lunch at Shifen so we did not get more food.
As we still have about 20 mins before boarding our train, we decided to venture to the other exit of Ruifang station. The other exit points to Ruifang old street. We spent about 15 min exploring the area which is basically the back lane of some old residences. I felt like a papparazzi photographing people's home :P 
Walking to the other exit of the train station towards Ruifang old street
Finally our train came at 11am and the platform is already very crowded! To make matters worst, there were only 2 carridges! -______- I felt like some illegal immigrant trying to cross the border to another country with people jostling to get on the train. 
We reach Shifen station about 30 mins later. Tonnes of people exploring the street and some lighting up their Tian Deng. We thought of doing the Tian Deng at either PingXi or JingTong (QingTong) later on.
We walked towards the direction that says Shifen Da Pu Bu (Shifen waterfall). It was drizzling a little and I didn't realised that the waterfall is that far. About 20-25 min walk. We even rejected one cab driver's offer to send us to the waterfall. Big regrets lol. 
Entrace to the waterfall cost NT80. I thought the area is a little too commercialise. A bit weird as it didn't look like that on TV lol. 
We missed the 1pm train by 3 minutes and had to wait 40 minutes later for the train.. Isn't it weird that Taiwan Tourism board tries to hard to promote the area and yet, even with the influx of tourists on weekdays, the train frequency is a little undesirable. We were a little upset as we couldn't find our veg food at the area :( 
Look at the crowd trying to board the train!
We decided to skip our original plan to visit Pingxi and JingTong as we worried we couldn't get any veg food there. We headed back to Ruifang station and board a bus to Jiufen. Yay!
Our mood immediately got better as soon as we reach Jiufen! Food! Here we come!! :)
We ordered ice cream pancake as it looks appetising with the shop owners busily making them with care.
We walked along the streets and randomly found another corner with a flight of stairs and stumbled across this famous yam balls shop. ho ho. So happy. We just randomly ordered the 'zong he' mixed flavour and follow the crowd in front towards the rest area to eat our yam balls and enjoy the sunset view. Happy ^^
Gorgeous golden sunset
We back tracked towards the entrance of Jiufen old street to order the veg rou yuan :) Was already quite full after the yam balls so we just shared one portion. 
After visiting the old street, we headed to the bus stop oppo 7 Eleven. It was drizzling and weather turned a little cold in the evening. We boarded a bus towards Ruifang station.
By the way, I did find it weird that the driver of the previous bus which goes to Taipei was not willing to fetch us to Ruifang. When we asked if the bus goes to Ruifang, he looked unhappy and said 'no'. A few more people asked, some he replied 'no' , others, he told them to wait (what??). I thought he was being really unprofessional as this is a public bus service, and tonnes of people wanting to board. He only allowed those going to Taipei to board the bus. Only when the last person asked did he unwilling say 'yes' before the passenger boards. Quite annoyed at the bus driver trying to pick and choose his passengers on a public bus!
Back at Ruifang station and bought the ticket to Taipei.
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