✈ Taipei, Taiwan x Day 4

Mid-week. It's been 8 days since I'm back from Taiwan and I'm still feeling the post-holiday syndrome/blues. Truly the aftermath of taking such a long break away from work - Residential, to CISA and vacation!
 But I guess I was rewarded with a rested self, renewed perspective and great recharge. It's definitely time to re-establish back to the usual routine till the next :)

Day 4 - 九份 - 五分谱- 绕河夜市 - Taipei 101

Back to Day 4, we started the lovely Friday morning with a hearty hotel buffet breakfast! It was nothing fantastic though, just some simple spread with assorted bread, appetizers, noodles, rice and veggies. I was disappointed because I was looking forward to having eggs but there weren't any. Anyway, our original plan for the day was to visit 九份&十份 but we ended up going to the former only because we missed the train and was also already half drained by mid-day, haha.

To 九份

From Taipei Main Station, we exited the MRT to take another train to Ruifang Station, where we alighted to head to 九份. From Ruifang station, you can either take a cab (NT180) or bus 1062/1063 (<NT50) up. The bus stop is located directly outside the Welcome shop opposite the train station and journey takes only about 15 minutes.

So excited to be here! :)

Coffee and us :)

There were many stalls selling Taros and the smell of it was overwhelming! I love Yam, steamed ones in rice especially and so we bought a bowl to share. Filled with Taro balls and different types of beans, it tastes like cheng teng. Definitely a great dessert to quench our thirst under the hot weather. 

The iconic view at the top of 九份, such a beautiful sight!

Big head selfie of us

Prior to this trip, I've read reviews that the popiah peanut ice-cream is a must-try! We bought one and I really liked it!!! All the popiah skins were laid nicely on the metal table with peanut shavings, all they do is add two scoops of ice-cream & some greens when you order. Super yums :) 

We were done within 1.5 hours and decided to head to 十份. However, back at Ruifang station, we missed the train and had to wait for an hour! The frequency of the train towards Pingxi is really low so it's advisable to check before going. We did took a photo of the timetable but forgotten about it when we left 九份. Since we were also lugging few boxes of pineapple tarts & sun biscuit, we decided to head back to Taipei and come back another day!

We dropped our stuff back in hotel and headed to Wufenpu and Raohe. Stopped by 7-11 and ended getting a bowl of cup noodle to share because the smell was really good. 

Enroute to wufenpu. There was practically nothing we both liked and we went raohe night market for dinner!

Right at the entrance, we spotted the famous Pepper Pork bun and joined the queue. Jack didn't find it that fantastic but it's definitely my favorite street food so far. I love it piping hot, finished mine and even ate some of his.

Miss this so much now! We also got few others snacks - sausages, steak, bbt before we left the night market. By Day 4, I was already quite sick of the night market food!

The night was still young after filling our tummies. We headed to Taipei City Hall station to visit Taipei 101, we didn't went up but did some shopping instead, truly appreciate air-conditioned malls there. 

Our legs were so sore by the time we reached our hotel & we ended the long day with an hour of relaxing foot massage. Not very relaxing though, my whole leg was in pain the next day!