Exploring Jiufen’s Old Street

Getting to Jiufen

Today, I had the luxury of sitting down for breakfast at McDonald’s before walking to the train station.  It proved to be the right move for two reasons.  The tea at McD was awesome with two bags of Dilmah and plenty of milk.  And some food options at the station weren’t yet open around 0845.

My 0914 service to Ruifang on the outskirts of Taipei was operated by an older train which wasn’t as stable as the newer one I had come on.

After about 2h30 I arrived at Ruifang where I had 2h till the official check-in at the Arabian Nights hotel.  I was ready for some food and had some street food before hopping on the bus uphill to Jiufen.

The ride was very windy and the driver was fast.  With not many people, he zoomed past one unmarked stop after another (the information panel on the bus wasn’t working).  I held on while looking on Google Maps to ensure I didn’t miss my stop.

It was a short walk to my accommodation where I was fortunately able to get my room straight away before 1300.

Exploring Jiufen’s Old Street

After a rest, I took a walk uphill to Jiufen’s Old Street.  There was an uphill stairway past the famous A-Mei’s Teahouse, which was very pretty.  From there, most of the action was to the left on both sides of an alley that took a couple of turns.

Most of the food were savoury and sweet street food with a few cafes or restaurants.  I noted the various options as I explored back and forth before returning to the room, as I didn’t need any more food.

From my window, the outside was starting to look more miserable with increasing drizzle and occasional rain.  With a warning from the hotel that many food options close around 1800, leaving only snacks and teahouses, I took my chance around 1630 when the rain eased.

I took dinner in a couple of parts at different places, opting for something with a rare serving of vegetables in an environment of largely snack food.  Afterwards, I ruined it by having an ice-cream for the fourth night in a row, all by myself, without sharing with anyone.

As darkness crept in, the old street area that had lanterns were starting to look very attractive despite the rain and the green and black moss everywhere.

Some newlyweds were out having photo shoots in the dimly-lit streets with red lanterns in the background.  Their long dresses dragged on the wet filthy floors but wedding outfits are meant to be worn only once right?

With the wet weather, I retired to my room around 1800.  That’s quite alright but the internet in my room was poor and it wasn’t exactly the best set-up room I’ve had on my trip.

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Cashless payments in Taiwan

Since Covid-19, cashless payments have grown in Malaysia with e-wallets.  In Taiwan, the main e-wallet is Line Pay.

I had set up my card in the app so I can scan and pay, or be scanned to Altpay.  Acceptance isn’t as widespread as I had hoped and cash is still king. It’s also a little hit-and-miss.  My foreign card loaded in the app seems to be fine some places but not others.

The travel card, Easycard, is also good for small payments at places that don’t accept credit card.