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Taipei 2014: Rail Trails
posted : Saturday, November 15, 2014
Reserved the day for a day trip out of Taipei city for some of the most classic destinations - 九份 and 十分. Both I have visited before, and have missed so a revisit is definitely on the cards. Expanded the 十分 trip to the entire 平溪 line this time round though.
Contemplated getting breakfast first but was running a bit late so ended up heading straight to 台北车站. Bought tickets for the next train that stops at 瑞芳. The alternative is a bus ride but train ride just seemed a lot more comfy.
Was getting lost underground so decided to come up to ground level heh.
Black tea = 红茶?
瑞芳车站!
Straight to the old street!
And started off almost immediately lol. 芋圆豆花, have been craving these for a while.
Another one of 九份's specialties, shaved peanuts and ice cream wrapped in popiah skin.
九份's hilly landscape
 
The classic 阿妹茶楼.
Up and down the stairs. Tiring.
Could have spent some time chilling out at one of the many tea houses..but had more to do. So long, 九份! Was good to be here again. Caught a bus heading back to 瑞芳, hung around outside the station while waiting for the next train for 平溪 line. Bought a one-day ticket which allows me to get on and off at any station unlimited times each day, though I suppose one can get away with tickets to just one station since the officials hardly check anyway due to the volumes of passengers. Trains run at almost an hour intervals, and there are quite a number of stations I wanted to visit, hence needing more time for the entire trip.
Back at 瑞芳车站 where I suddenly realized they have underwent renovations since the last time I was here.
NT$64 for the full day ticket.
超大杯 yums!
The train station was famous for its old school facade. And I am not in luck. Renovation works ongoing so all I see is scaffolding.
I think there are only two trains running along 平溪 line!
 
Pretty nice souvenir shop.
Tourist trap: write your wishes on the bamboo pole and hang it up.
Bloggers typically recommend to walk between 菁桐 and 平溪 stations. It's about half an hour walk, and there's about 1.5 hours gap for trains from the time you arrive at 菁桐 and the train that leaves 平溪 in the opposite direction, which works out to an hour to spend at 菁桐 and 平溪 combined...follow me? And if you aren't intending to spend too much time at 平溪 on 天燈 like me (I reserve that part for 十分), it's pretty doable. 
Off to 平溪! Wont really get lost, just follow the train tracks.
Except that its a really hot day for a walk like this.
Arriving at 平溪!
The old street.
Train tracks above.
The station has underwent renovations too, seems a bit modern looking now.
Next stop, to arguably the most popular tourist spot on the line, 十分. Also intended to spend about an hour here and hop on the next train to 猴桐. Idea was, to pop by 十分瀑布 and also release 天燈 if time permits. What I didn't realize from my research was, 十分瀑布 was about half an hour by foot from 十分車站. So heck it, decided to give up 猴桐 and spend 2 hours at 十分 instead. By the way, 猴桐 was more famous for being a cat village and I guess I am not missing much since I am really more of a dog person.
Where most of the crowd converges. And the train stops here for a good 15 minutes or so, because of its popularity.
A really cute souvenir stall.
Look at those sky lanterns go!
Train runs in between two rows of shophouses.
Tourists both foreign and local releasing their sky lanterns.
Rented a bike to cycle to 十分瀑布! And another thing I did not realize - 十分瀑布 was closed FML. Because govt is in the process of taking over from a private company that used to run the area. Urghh.
Never mind then. Back to 十分 to write and release my own 天灯!
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Away it goes!
Night falls, and a different sort of charm took over.
Pretty!
Almost didn't realize that the train was leaving already so hurriedly board the first carriage. Then thought, hey, it's a pretty good idea to be at the front of the train. And there's still some space, so why not?
Agenda for the night was to pay a visit to 基隆廟口夜市. This was something I wanted to do in my previous trip but we cancelled it in the end coz it was too rushed and we rather spend more time in our "splurged" accom in 九份 heh. From 瑞芳, caught a bus to 基隆 which took about 45 minutes.
Alighted near the harbour. Pretty nice place to chill at night.
View of the harbour.
About a 10 minute walk to the night market
One of my favourites from the place.
The night market, now the result of merging of two different night markets.
The temple which the market was named after.
Was intending to catch a bus back to Taipei, but realized I didn't know where to board the bus (and online research didn't seem very helpful). So ended up at the train station and decided to ask how to get back to Taipei by train (because in my earlier research via Taiwan Rail website, I couldn't find any direct trains). Turns out there is one that is leaving in like 2 minutes? Hurriedly bought the tickets and sprinted to the platform and boarded the train in time heh.
Was supposed to go for midnight book shopping at 誠品 and maybe spot some celebrities LOL. But legs were begging for mercy already so gave up on that thought. Decided to pop by nearby night market which my host recommended, but yeah, no space for more food so ended up just browsing for fun nia.
And that's a wrap for Day 2!
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