Taiwan Day 4 , Yehliu, Jiufen and Shifen.
Day 4 - Taiwan, Yehliu Geopark (野柳地質公園), Jiufen Old Street (九分老街）and Shifen (十分）
Hello Everyone!!!! So after three days in Taipei, my family and I left Taipei and headed towards Yehliu Geopark, Jiufen Old street and Shifen. Click here for Day 1, Day 2, and Day 3 of this trip in Taiwan, Taipei.
I initially planned to travel straight to Jiufen by bus (from Taipei) but seeing as my parents and the little bro were with me, we decided to hire a driver to bring us for a one day trip that ended with us stopping at our minsu in Luodong, Yilan. At the driver's suggestion, our trip started with us travelling from Taipei to Yehliu, then to Jiufen Old Street and then to Shifen before finally stopping at Luodong. There were other mini stops along the way and I'll tell you more about it in this post.
Before i go on, for those of you who are planning maybe one or two day trips to explore a few places in Taiwan that are pretty far apart, you could consider hiring a driver like we did. The standard price charged by one of these drivers for an 8 hour, one-day trip is TWD 4000 - TWD 5000. The price also depends on the itinerary which is for the customer to decide or if you don't really have an idea, the driver can plan it for you. The price may sound like a lot but taking into considering the price of bus and train tickets, cabs, the travelling distance and time, and the inconvenience of lugging around all our bags and goods, travelling by bus and train seemed a bit too troublesome. Aside from that, I dont think that we would be able to cover as many destinations in one day if we had traveled on our own using public transport.
OK, let's get down to business! A bit of a warning, this post is going to be pretty long so be prepared. :D There are gonna quite a few pictures too so do try and bear with me.
First up! Yehliu. More specifically, Yehliu Geopark! It was DA BOMB!!! Personally, I think that my family and I enjoyed ourselves the most in Yehliu throughout this whole trip.
The breeze, the cool weather, and the views were so picturesque. You photography enthusiasts will enjoy this place very very much. I can guarantee it :D. On the way to Yehliu, we made a pit stop, (at Mr Lin's suggestion) just to take it the sights and some photos. We were very lucky because it did not rain that day. Slight drizzles but other than that, the weather was good!
Before i go on, for those of you who are planning maybe one or two day trips to explore a few places in Taiwan that are pretty far apart, you could consider hiring a driver like we did. The standard price charged by one of these drivers for an 8 hour, one-day trip is TWD 4000 - TWD 5000. The price also depends on the itinerary which is for the customer to decide or if you don't really have an idea, the driver can plan it for you. The price may sound like a lot but taking into considering the price of bus and train tickets, cabs, the travelling distance and time, and the inconvenience of lugging around all our bags and goods, travelling by bus and train seemed a bit too troublesome. Aside from that, I dont think that we would be able to cover as many destinations in one day if we had traveled on our own using public transport.
OK, let's get down to business! A bit of a warning, this post is going to be pretty long so be prepared. :D There are gonna quite a few pictures too so do try and bear with me.
First up! Yehliu. More specifically, Yehliu Geopark! It was DA BOMB!!! Personally, I think that my family and I enjoyed ourselves the most in Yehliu throughout this whole trip.
The breeze, the cool weather, and the views were so picturesque. You photography enthusiasts will enjoy this place very very much. I can guarantee it :D. On the way to Yehliu, we made a pit stop, (at Mr Lin's suggestion) just to take it the sights and some photos. We were very lucky because it did not rain that day. Slight drizzles but other than that, the weather was good!
Isn't this gorgeous?
Near the entrance of the park. By the way, i'm actually only wearing another layer under my down jacket. I thought that a thick sweater would have been enough but it was very very windy so it did get a little chilly. Everything I wore I got from Taobao from this shop called Hstyle. The boots are from Charles and Keith (got it at 70% off.. SO HAPPY!).
The famous queen's head. (I think this is a replica). We queued up for this picture. So touristy of us. hahaha.
I think this might be the real Queen's head rock formation.I'm not very sure why there seems to be a long gash on it though.
Lots of rock formations!! pretty cool eh. :D If i'm not wrong, these stones were grains of sand compressed at really high pressures and temperatures God know how long ago. With time, erosion and all of Mother Nature's efforts...you then get this.. TADAA!! :D
There was a little coffee shop in the park itself. Couldn't resist.
Had a tiramisu latte.. the cool weather and a nice cuppa joe.. This is the life :)
Had a tiramisu latte.. the cool weather and a nice cuppa joe.. This is the life :)
Selfie!!!
Doesn't this look like a pig's snout? :D
I can't really tell what this looks like but you can see that the waters were pretty rough. So be careful. Don't wander out too far. There are lines drawn that curbs visitors from venturing too far out so just adhere to that and yall will be fine. ;)
I think a DSLR here would have really done this place justice so like I said, all you pro photographers, go forth and snap!!..hahahaha. On another note, another great thing about our driver was that he did not rush us through the attractions. He let us take our time so that we could enjoy ourselves thoroughly at each stop. We did not go to ALL the attractions he had in mind but we didn't mind and he was more than happy to oblige. It was just relaxing and it really did feel like a holiday. Oh did I mention that he provided us with portable wifi as well? So if we didn't feel like sleeping, we could definitely surf the net.
We left Yehliu Geopark for Jiufen Old Street (九分老街). There are buses that brings tourists to and fro. There were sooooooo many people there that day!!! Really reminded me of China. Must be because of the end of the year holidays. We actually hadn't eaten yet so we just stopped at a restaurant and had a meal before continuing our stroll through the street.
So many people -.-
Buying oolong tea here.
Just for reference purposes, here's what the Mr Lin's car looks like. All the tour cars are similar to this one. No worries if you're travelling with a larger group, there are vans that can accommodate more people as well.
After Jiufen, we made a few mini stops. One of them is this beautiful waterfall called the Golden Waterfall (黃金瀑布). I have seen pictures of this waterfall on a sunny day. It's a lot prettier when there's more light but this is pretty good too.
Next mini stop. I'm not sure what this mountain is called but it's pretty unique. Can you tell me what it looks like?
Looks like a sitting gorilla right? look carefully.. see it see it??
I don't think that the buses stop at these places so that's another plus point for tour drivers like Mr Lin. Anyway, after these mini stops, we headed to Shifen (十分). There was another waterfall there but we arrived a little too late and it had already closed (closing time is at 4.30pm). So, we went to watch the night lanterns. Glenn wanted to light one so mummy and daddy let him light one. These neatly folded and stacked paper looking things are the lanterns btw.
And off it went.. Bye bye..
We left after lighting the lantern nd Mr Lin sent us to our minsu in Ludong Yilan. Our minsu was actually pretty far from Shifen (two hours). We were so tired after being out and about the entire day so it was great that we got to rest in the car.When we got to our minsu it was already dark so i didn't take any picture of the minsu yet. I will tell you all about the minsu in the next post so just look out for that ok?
Imma end this post wit one final pic. Just to give you a glimpse of what to expect from my next post. It says Jing Xiang Hua Nong. That's the name of the minsu. I think it's called Flower Street Bnb on tripadvisor but anyway, next post ok? Next post. That's all for now! :P BYE!!!!
Good news! Those of you who are planning to travel to Jiufen yourself soon, I have a promotion that might just suit you.
Round Taiwan Round recently started a new tour package that costs USD30 per day per person called Tripool, a revolutionary way to enable travelers to enjoy the cost-benefit of carpool, but also have the luxury to customize your itinerary for the scenic areas chosen (its like a shared tour except you can customize where you want to go!
For example, if you choose Jiufen, you can select up to 6 awesome tour spots around that area. You can check this tour package out in the link below:
https://www.rtaiwanr.com/jiufe
The best part, from now until the 19th of December, you can use the code BittyBits to be eligible for an attractive discount on this tour package. This code can be used from now to the 19th of Decemeber 2017
I have also been given the opportunity too give away 3 FREE TOUR PACKAGES. The first 3 to leave a comment below will receive those giveaways. Good luck!
Imma end this post wit one final pic. Just to give you a glimpse of what to expect from my next post. It says Jing Xiang Hua Nong. That's the name of the minsu. I think it's called Flower Street Bnb on tripadvisor but anyway, next post ok? Next post. That's all for now! :P BYE!!!!
Good news! Those of you who are planning to travel to Jiufen yourself soon, I have a promotion that might just suit you.
Round Taiwan Round recently started a new tour package that costs USD30 per day per person called Tripool, a revolutionary way to enable travelers to enjoy the cost-benefit of carpool, but also have the luxury to customize your itinerary for the scenic areas chosen (its like a shared tour except you can customize where you want to go!
For example, if you choose Jiufen, you can select up to 6 awesome tour spots around that area. You can check this tour package out in the link below:
https://www.rtaiwanr.com/jiufe
The best part, from now until the 19th of December, you can use the code BittyBits to be eligible for an attractive discount on this tour package. This code can be used from now to the 19th of Decemeber 2017
I have also been given the opportunity too give away 3 FREE TOUR PACKAGES. The first 3 to leave a comment below will receive those giveaways. Good luck!
Hi,
ReplyDeleteI was looking for a driver to take us around Yehliu Geopark, Shifen, Jiufen and Shifen Waterfall. Thankfully I stumbled upon your blog. �� May I ask if the driver meet you up in Taipei or is it elsewhere? And does the rate per pax?
Regards,
Merz
Hi, we are planning to go to Taiwan this July,I am just wondering your driver can speak English?
ReplyDeletehttp://itsbeyondimaginations.blogspot.com/