Date: 15 January 2014 Wednesday
MIL, JZ and his girlfriend JX were already waiting for us at the hotel lobby when we arrived. Our Taiwan road trip starts here!
16:35 PM 金石å›
The scenery along the way was so beautiful. The thing we love about Free & Easy road trips is that you could stop anytime and anywhere you like. We stopped at a viewing point along a cliff at 金石å›. It was freezing as the cold winds hit us.
16:50 PM 黃金瀑布 Golden Waterfall
A: Cosmos Hotel Taipei
B: 黃金瀑布 Golden Waterfall
Total travelling distance | time = 40.8 km | 42 minutes
We stopped again on the way to 金瓜石 Jinguashi. It was the golden waterfall that is in my Day 2’s itinerary. It was less cold here compared to the earlier viewing point.
The Golden Waterfall got its name because of the high iron content.
JR was hungry…
Cuttlefish
å¤§è‚ åŒ…å°è‚
As we approached our destination, we had to stop because the road narrowed into a small brick road. We wondered if we could drive in because the brick road doesn’t look like a road for vehicles. JR insisted on driving in and we were lucky that he did it as it is a long long way in. We ended up at Golden 101, the minsu that we would be staying for the night.
Parked
17:20 PM Golden 101
A: 黃金瀑布 Golden Waterfall
B: Golden 101
Total travelling distance | time = 2.8 km | 8 minutes
It was my first time staying at a minsu. It was a lovely house on top of a small hill. There were only 5 guest rooms in the minus and we were given 2 rooms on the 2nd floor.
The dinning area on the 1st floor.
A cosy living area on the 1st floor.
Our room
The key
The bathroom
We took a short rest before heading out to ä¹ä»½ Jiu Fen.
18:10 PM ä¹ä»½è€è¡— Jiufen Old Street
A: Golden 101
B: ä¹ä»½è€è¡— Jiufen Old Street
Total travelling distance | time = 4.8 km | 13 minutes
The sky was already dark though it was only 6 PM. Most of the stalls were already closed or closing.
Handmade peanut goodies
We tried the famous 芋圆 yam balls.
Beautiful lights
Warm Yuzu Tea in a Doramon bottle. It was nice to drink something warm on a cold day.
More food…
Not nice… Tasted like starch.
Balls
There weren’t a lot of food stalls opened at this time and we only managed to have some small snacks which weren’t enough to satisfy our hungry tummies.
Bought a packet of fishball noodles back for supper.
20:20 PM Golden 101
Back to our room with our supper.
Our first night in Taiwan was a cold one as there was no radiator in our room. Luckily there was an electric blanket provided and we hid under the blanket the whole night.