Travelogue - Taiwan Day 2, Taipei Day Trip

Day 2 of Taiwan saw us taking a day trip out of Taipei. We decided to spend the day exploring northern regions of Taipei.  Our first stop was Jiufen to explore some mouth-watering Taiwanese delights. We took a train down to RuiFang, and headed on to Jiufen by bus. 

We were immediately greeted by this lovely view upon alighting.

For lunch, we had some yummy beef noodle soup before heading to explore the old streets of Jiufen! There we found so many different kinds of food ranging from seafood to deserts, fried snacks to soup.

After Jiufen, we decided to explore more townships. Bought a day pass for the railway line so that we could hop on and off anywhere we wanted. Our next stop was HouTong, which is also known as a Cat Village. A definite must if you love cats! Although I will admit the cats there weren't very entertaining. They mostly ignored humans and we just lazing around when I was there. 

The trusty train that brought us around the whole day!

 Houtong is also has an abandoned old mining shaft which totally captured my attention. I was more curious to seek that out to be honest. This was probably due to my strange fascination for abandoned places/things. There, I also found a gorgeous view of a little stream passing through the town. 

We headed to the end of the line next, for a short visit to Pingxi! Really small town where people go to set off lanterns (you can do it at other places too!). We originally wanted to release lanterns at Pingxi, but got there too early. So we settled for exploring the town, and snacking instead. 

 I really like how to rotting bamboo plays in juxtaposition to the newer ones. It's sort of like lost hopes and dreams, in comparison to new dreams. Innocences vs despair.

And finally, the last stop for the day! Shifen! We got there in the late evening and roamed around while waiting for the sun to set, so that our lantern would stand out more in the night sky. ;) It was so difficult to get a nice shot of the lanterns in the sky. Particularly because only a few were let off at a time, and it was drizzling. 

After a long day of getting on and off trains, and exploring small towns, we headed back to our hostel in Taipei, weary but content.