So there's this touristy train line you can take to several little towns up in the mountains just east of Taipei. It's called the Pingxi Line, and you take this little old fashioned train out of a city called Ruifang. So first we had to get to Ruifang.
This was a new adventure, because last time we were in Taiwan I stuck to the MRT and buses. But to get to Ruifang we had to take a train. We went up to the ticket agent and I said Ruifang? And the guy sold us our tickets, so that wasn't hard! (And I'm pretty sure I mispronounced Ruifang.) But the tickets? All in Mandarin. No info we could use!
Looking at signs and such around the station we figured out what platform we needed to be on, but not which side. So we asked this girl who spoke a little English, and she told us one side. But then we figured out that it was actually the other side, so we found a seat to wait. And then that same girl came back to tell us she had been wrong, which I thought was super nice!
The train ride to Ruifang took about an hour and cost about $2.80. Crazy, right?! It was neat to see the countryside.
Then we got to Ruifang and figured out pretty easily how to get tickets for the Pingxi line. (As I said, it was pretty touristy.) We were lucky enough to get on the train early enough to get seats. As you can see, it was pretty crowded!
We decided to get off at Shifen. We had some friends who had been in the same place a couple of months earlier and they said it wasn't worth going all the way down to Pingxi, and that Shifen was basically the same as Pingxi only less crowded. Sold.
Trip tip - I'd take pictures of the train/bus schedules so I could check them as needed. Came in handy more than once!
Shifen is just this little coal mining town up in the mountains. It wasn't much until the Pingxi Line became all touristy. Now it's thriving!
The line runs straight through the middle of town.
Like, literally through town. When the train is not there, tourists do the whole paper sky lantern thing. It's cool to watch, but I didn't want to spend money on something that would just trash up the neighboring forests. (Let me just step off this high horse now... but seriously, lots of trashy paper lanterns around. Sad.)
We hiked out to the famous Shifen waterfall. Taiwan is all about random art installations in random spots. I tried to pull off the peace sign everyone flashes when taking pictures. I did not pull it off.
We got to cross a couple of pretty cool suspension bridges. Scenic!
Prayer ribbons in the trees. So pretty! Could I pull this off on my trees in the back yard? Probably not.
The falls were maybe a mile or two away? All I know is that my Chacos sandals, which I had worn all the previous summer with no problem, suddenly started giving me grief. They gave me grief the rest of the trip, much to my dismay! Lots of blisters and rubbing. I still can't figure out why. Ouch.
Anyways, the falls. They're known as the "Niagara of Taiwan".
I mean, they're pretty and all. But comparing them to Niagara might be a little... grandiose. :)
Also. It was HOT. So very hot. Even up in the mountains!
Lance and I wandered back into town and found this little hole in the wall place for lunch. So in Taiwan and lot of these mom-and-pop places have the kitchen out front by the street and then a room to eat behind the kitchen. There was this older gentleman cooking out front and two little old grandmas seating people and serving food. No one spoke English, so we just pointed on the menu. We ordered a bowl of rice with pork on top and a plate of fried dumplings. We had been so hot and the room we were in was deliciously air conditioned. We shared a table with a Taiwanese family. (Looked to me like a mom and dad, teenage daughter, and grandma.) They kept looking at us with interest. This whole atmosphere, plus the fact that we had lunch for two for a grand total of $3, made the food taste all the better.
We walked around Shifen and bought some souvenirs, and then bought something I had read about and really wanted to try.
I'm not sure what it's really called (the English always said something like "Peanut Ice Cream), but it was basically a thin crepe with a healthy sprinkling of shaved peanut brittle. (See the block there by the guy in red? That's the peanut brittle, and the thing on top shaved it.) On top of the peanut brittle was 2 scoops of ice cream and then some chopped cilantro. It was all wrapped up into a neat little dessert wrap.
Sounds weird, but it was DELICIOUS. Rivaling the mango snow ice, and that's saying something. SO YUMMY.
After a couple of hours in Shifen we decided to head back to Taipei.
We especially like the cartoons used in public service posters. Taiwan really likes to use cute cartoons for stuff like this! When Lance mentioned "Press, Push, Run", I thought he meant if there was an emergency you should push people out of the way and then run to safety. We were definitely the stereotypical loud Americans laughing over that on the train!
We made it back to the Taipei Main Station. I took a picture of this sign because it took me a while to figure out what they were advertising here. (Not sugar. Cell phones.)
The thing I've learned about traveling is that you have to have down time. You can't just go-go-go all day or you won't have fun because you'll just be so worn out. So each afternoon we'd head back to the hotel for a little siesta. A couple of hours in the AC dozing while watching terrible American movies always did just the trick. (Seriously, the English movies were almost always super stupid. Oy.)
That night we decided to hit the famous Shilin Night Market. There was this super cool building under construction right by. I still don't know what that building is, but I really like that ball coming out of it!
Sometimes I take good selfies. Sometimes I don't.
The thing about Shilin Night Market is that it is HUGE. Most night markets are a couple of streets at most. Shilin is blocks of streets and alleys, all jumbled together to make a huge maze. We got turned around and "lost" more than once!
Lots of delicious food, lots of weird t-shirts.
This was new - I'd never seen a whole suckling pig at a night market before!
I knew my kids would appreciate a dabbing dog.
I tried my first peppery pork bun here. They're cooked in these giant, ceramic, tandori-style ovens. Lava on the inside, crispy bun on the out. Once it cooled down it was delicious! Ground pork, peppercorns, scallions, and secret goodness on the inside.
*nom*nom*nom*
We also got some bao bing, or mango sno ice. It was good, but not as heavenly as we remembered. (Later in the trip we realized that this was because this one was just made with regular ice. What you want to get is Milk Ice. So much tastier!) Still, it's not like this was gross - anything with huge chunks of fresh mango, sweetened condensed milk, and mango ice cream can be bad, right?
We also had some beef chunks, cooked on a really hot stove and with a blow torch. Pretty tasty!
The "shoes" sign made me giggle. There's actually a lot of shoe shops in night markets, and often the shoes are shrink wrapped, I'm assuming to keep them clean and dry.
The arrow on the sign is pointing down because Shilin actually has a basement level, which is unusual.
It was a fantastic way to end a fantastic day!
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