I have finally found some time to edit part of the Taiwan trip photos!
Day 2 itinerary was Jiufen. Initially, we planned to take the express bus. We got it all checked – bus number, boarding place, prices. As we arrived at the boarding place, we met a tour guide who was super friendly and promoted his tour packages to us.
We thought it would be more comfortable taking the car as compared to the bus and the package wasn’t too expensive. A day tour around the North-East area cost $50 each.
So we hopped on to his car! I must say it was really brave of us to do that. I mean, he could turn out to be a bad guy?
He drove us up to Jiufen, which is high up in the mountains, to our hostel.
He explained that this place used to stay only 9 households and accessibility was inadequate back then. Therefore, the 9 households took turns to go down hill and stock on groceries each time and the people living at the foot of the mountain called them “9 servings” (literally translation) over time…
Here’s our roof for the next 2 days. MJ took back brochures from NATAS fair and we decided on Windsor Hostel. They have different rooms of different views and decor.
Stepping in to our room. We were delighted at the decor and the magnificent view. It feels so peaceful, away from the hustling of the city. Initially, we were afraid that it might be a wrong choice to stay in Jiufen for 2 nights. After seeing this, we totally want to stay on longer!
Here’s the view from our bedroom! Yes, we wake up to the beautiful scenery of mountains and the sea. (:
Lovely, isn’t it!
We all loved the bathroom, especially the bath tub!
After leaving all our luggages at the hostel, we began our tour! First stop was the Gold Ecological Park, where it used to be a gold mine before the Japanese took over Taiwan. It is located at the top of another mountain.
Houses that were built during the Japanese occupation.
Parts of the goldmine park:
As we drove down from the mountain, our second stop was the “river of gold”. Over the years, the minerals from gold and other metals flow along the river and created this:
I was pretty mesmerized by the rich golden hue. Totally beautiful piece of art done by mother nature.
Guess what’s Rebecca doing!?
The tour guide suggested that the huge rock looks like a frog and therefore, we tried to “touch” it!
The good thing about having a tour guide? He takes group photos for us!! *hehe*
Moving on, he brought us to the top of a deserted building.
It had a wonderful sea view and we stood by the edge for photo! Don’t be deceived by our smiles. We were so scared squatting there!
Now, here’s the most exciting part of our trip! See that curvy road?
You might have recognized it as a scene from the movie, Initial D. This is a hotspot for car drivers who love to drift~ Why do I say this is the most exciting part of our trip? Because our tour guide brought us drifting!!! HOW COOL IS THAT~ 4 of us plus himself in his Mazda and we went drifting all the way from the top to the end. We really wondered what have we gotten ourselves into but the experience was absoutely one of its kind! And definitely, the $50 tour fee is worth every single cent. 
After such excitement, we headed to Pi Tou Jiao for a stopover and had some seafood!
Everything here for just $15? FRREAKKing cheap!! And it was so fresh and delicious. My favourite has gotta be the mini abalones. 
Tasty, juicy and tender. The grilled fish and crispy jade prawns were superb as well~
We went on to a suspension bridge after filling our stomachs.
Our next stop was the beach at the other end…
Walking through the soft flowy sand…. It has been a long long time since I went to the beach.
Mesmerized by the blue skies…
The usuals, a jump shot! This one was a failed shot by the way. 
Jump for joy~
Wooohoooo~
The main purpose of the tour guide bringing us to the beach was not for the beach. There was a sand sculpture exhibition going on but we preferred the beach instead.
Anyway, here’s a sculpture that I’m extremely impressed with!
A group shot before leaving the beach! Our tour guide was waiting for us at the other side of the beach, therefore we resorted to self-taking.
Our final stop was the Shi Fen Train Station. The interesting thing about Taiwan train stations is that you can get to collect chops! Every train station has their unique chops and there are people who specially go around Taiwan to collect the chops in a little booklet.
After stamping them onto our postcards, we started coloring them!
Our tour guide brought us to set fireworks too! Not those that we see during NDP, it’s the smaller types. These are available in Malaysia, Taiwan and China. I have played fireworks several times in Shanghai.
Last but not least, ending off the trip with a “Heaven Lantern” (another literally translation). We got to write our wishes on it and set it off into the sky….
A photo with our awesome tour guide before he sent us back to our hostel.
