Taiwan Travel Diary + Lookbook: Day 2

On our second day in Taiwan, we actually started pretty late because we only had two things in our itinerary - Shifen and Jiufen. We got up at 8 AM and decided to start our tour at 11AM. How careless of us to think that we only needed little time.



Check out what happened in Day 1 here.

SECOND DAY: APRIL 3, 2018
11:00 AM Breakfast at 7/11
11:30 AM Commute to Shifen Old Street
2:30 PM Shifen Old Street
3:00 PM Lunch at Shifen
4:30 PM Commute to Jiufen Old Street
6:00 PM Jiufen Old Street
8:30 PM Commute back to Taipei
9:30 PM Tong Hua Night Market
12:00 AM Go back to inn

Before starting our day, we picked up some breakfast in 7/11 and also loaded our EasyCards. (Tip:  7/11 is a good option for reloading EasyCards because they give change.) 

We boarded three buses to Shifen Old Street: Shin Bus 254; Keelung Bus 1062; and Keelung Bus 846 consecutively. The last bus took less than an hour to arrive in our stop so that pretty much delayed our schedule (#FAIL)! Be sure to check the schedule of the buses so you won't waste time.  

By mid-afternoon, we arrived at the Shifen Old Street. Very hungry, we scouted for restaurants for our late lunch. There were few options so we picked the one which served rice meals. (I don't remember the name sorry!!) After filling our tummies, we proceeded with choosing our lantern. We picked a multi colored one for 200 NTD and chose the colors based on our hopes and dreams (lol): RED for health; ORANGE for marriage; BLUE for career; YELLOW for wealth. We also went and took a few photos on the famous (and crowded) bridge in Shifen.

While waiting for the train in Shifen station

From there, we initially wanted to go to Shifen Waterfall. It was 1km away from the Old Street. However, due to the lack of time, we decided to skip it and go straight to Jiufen instead. Around 5 PM, we boarded the Taiwan Railway Local Train going to Ruifang. Just spotting the bus stop (3 blocks away from us), we saw the Keelung Bus 788 we were supposed to board. After a few seconds, FORTUNATELY, the bus stopped again. Apparently, the driver needed to go to the restroom, so we took a leap of faith and ran for three blocks to catch up. We made it, after chasing the bus like what San Chai did after seeing Daoming Si (when he had amnesia). Hahaha! It was a fun experience but my knees got definitely weak after that!!!

A Mei Tea House

 @ 8PM

We arrived at Jiufen Old Street by sunset, just when the lanterns were starting to illuminate the tiny streets of the tourist-filled destination. We went to store after store exploring famous delicacies and looking for pasalubong. Around 7pm, it got really crowded as we headed to the famous A Mei Tea House, the inspiration of the film Spirited Away. By 8PM, most stalls were closing and we only managed to buy authentic milk tea and pasalubong before heading home. 

And oh, no biggie, but on our way home, we met Katy Perry. KATY. Freaking. PERRY. Turns out, after her concert in Manila, her next stop was Taipei and just our luck, we were at the same small street in Jiufen at the same freaking time! She was so nice. We were just at the corner of the street when she saw us and smiled and I just blurted "Can we take a picture with you?", and she said "Of course! Selfie???" She was even the one who approached us as I was getting my camera from my bag, like OMG??? 

With Katy Perry!

At 8:30 PM, we boarded the Keelung bus 1062 towards Taipei. We stopped by our inn to drop off the stuff we bought and walked to the nearest night market - Tong Hua night market. Personally, this is my favorite night market because there are no long lines and it's just a block away from our inn. We had little beef cubes, bingsu, and the ever so famous stinky tofu (as a tofu lover, I will give this a good 4/5 BTW) for our late dinner. I also bought another huge chicken chop for my breakfast the next morning.

At midnight, we went back to our inn, and slept with no regrets. :) 

If you have been to Taiwan, where was your favorite night market?

Today's look:

Dress from Style Genie | Sheer top from Landmark | Shoes from Nike | Bag from Mumu bags | Specs from MF sunnies