野柳, 十分老街, 九份老街
Country: Taipei, Taiwan
Itinerary: Day 5
No trips to Taiwan is complete without the mandatory activity of releasing sky lanterns at the Shifen Old Streets. However, we were convinced that the transport there is not the most easy thing to do if we wanted to check out the Yehliu Geopark and Jiufen Old Streets as well. Hence to make our life easier, we booked a tour at KKday.
*While the basic transport and insurance fee is covered, meals and other shopping expenses such as the sky lantern were not included.
Getting to the tour
Booking was easy online and instructions were very clear on the reporting time and location. There should be many other tourists waiting around as well so it was hard to miss. The tour guides would come on time with KKday vests so you could identity their staffs. They will then split everyone to each tour guide based on your booking number and set off to their bus.
Yehliu Geopark
Our first stop was to Yehliu Geopark where one of Taiwan's best-known natural wonders - the Queen's head, is located. On our way there, we were given maps of the place and our guide went through the various zones in the Geopark. With the iconic Queen's Head in Zone 2 and other smaller types of rocks scattered in Zone 1, my friend and I prioritized the Queen's Head and went there first.
Everyone was given strict instructions to be aware on where we are walking. Most of it was to stay on the boardwalk where the queue for this Queen's Head was at. Thankfully, everyone was respectful on staying in line and waiting patiently. Of course, there were tourists behind the circle of rocks to capture the Queen's Head from other angles without queue. Hence, I photoshop-ed the photos to remove all the tourists in the background.
If we had not went to Zone 2 first, I doubt that we would make it in time as we were only given about 60 minutes at this stop. Once we were done in Zone 2, we headed over to Zone 1, hoping to find the other iconic types of rocks. Somehow, it was more crowded than when we first arrived so we just took photos from afar and went back to the bus.
Shifen Old Street
Our second stop is famous for all the IG-shots of people releasing sky lanterns on railroads that run through an old street.
One thing to highlight was that our tour guide helped to reserve sky lanterns on the bus. Basically, she mentioned that everyone is selling at the same price so reserving via her would be faster in terms of the transaction as the shop could prep our orders. I cannot guarantee if it was more worth it as it was quite messy in getting everyone's order. We still had to tell the shop assistant ourselves on which sky lantern color we ordered.
Every shop pretty much have the same set up - one lantern clipped to a rack. Once you're done with two sides, the shop assistant would flip to the other two sides so you get all four sides to write/ decorate.
When we were ready, the shop assistant helped to light up the fuel cell and it was ready to fly in no time. The staffs are pretty much trained to take photos for tourists, teaching us how to pose and helping to take video as we released it.
We also had extra time to explore around. Take more photos, shop around - you name it. To avoid the crowd, we went to towards the end just because.
While we were walking around, there were some mascots namely Iron Man, Spider Man and Kaonashi. The latter was the most friendly and kept playing around with my camera as I was taking videos of them so that was fun.
Before we left for our next stop, we collected this "rice in chicken wing" that everyone pre-ordered from our tour guide on the bus. It was interesting to see how they stuff the rice without the chicken wing losing its shape.
Shifen Waterfall
Our third stop was actually quite short. We all felt rather misleading as after crossing a long bridge, we thought that's it as our tour guide disappeared down the flight of stairs at the end of the bridge without any further instructions.
Thankfully to my curiosity, I "discovered" and dragged my friend down to see the ever so majestic waterfall.
Unfortunately, as mentioned that time allocated to this stop was very very VERY limited, we did not have a lot of time to stay to take photos. I saw that there was a trail down to the bottom of the waterfall, which i believe that the view would have been stunning.
Jiufen Old Street
Our last stop is a mountain town, known for their narrow alleyway of old streets, filled with teahouses, street-food shacks and souvenir shops. Additionally, Jiufen holds Ah Mei Teahouse, a landmark that is famous for resembling the one in the movie "Spirited Away" by Japanese director, Hayao Miyazaki.
Wayfinding in this area is not the easiest as this area is made up of several levels. Some of which, stairs are not directly connect from one flight to another so we got lost a few times. At one point, we accidentally wandered into the residential area. Luckily we found a pathway to the rest of the stalls and made our way back.
Despite what you see in the photo above, I felt that there wasn't a lot of tourists that it was hard to walk around. I've seen my friend's IG-story showing that the place was fully packed so - damn. Upon walking around, the place might not entice you if you're not into buying anything. Slowly, every souvenir shops just seem to be selling the same thing. But I guess the street-food shacks are worth a try if happen to see anything unique.
Ultimately, I would say that this tour was great to check out the four places within a day. The time allocated to each site is reasonable, unless there are many tourists on that particular day. Not sure how true it is but our tour guide mentioned that it is hard to go around these tourists attractions. As the cabs in the area would probably be your only solution in terms of transport, you would not have much option if they were to charge at a higher rate.
Check out my Taiwan video below!
Travel Period: March 2019
Next Stop: Ningxia Night Market
*Kindly note that all information are correct as of date of publish. Always do your own research prior to heading down to avoid disappointment during your trip! :)
**All photographs are taken by myself unless stated. Hence, please do not use without permission. Thank you.
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