Wednesday, April 29, 2009

A day in Jinguashi & Jioufen / Goodbye

Back in Taipei, Tammy took us to this hidden hole in the wall for a Taiwanese breakfast of sweet & savory soy milks and fried things. Now with fuel in our bellies, we took the train to Jinguashi and Jioufen, both on the northeast coast of Taiwan.

We checked out the historic town of Jinguashi first, which is an old Japanese-era mining town. They've preserved a lot of their historical buildings and have a museum about the area's history. Being that it's all built on hillsides, getting lost in this town was quite an ordeal since it involved a lot of walking up and down unmarked back alleys comprised entirely of stairs. Let's just say that we burnt off a LOT of that morning's fried breakfast.

We then took a bus to Jioufen, down the hill. This quaint little town is essentially one big market alley that snakes through small shops & food stalls. The food here was amazing, and we ate things that were so entirely foreign and bizarre and delicious. We would taste, eat, shop, taste, and eat some more. Wending our way through to one end, we rested up at the Jioufen Teahouse during sunset. We later took a train back to Taipei, and had a nightcap at the Taipei Bear Bar (yes, "Bear" in the gayest sense of the word).

The next day was our last shopping day, and we met up with Tammy's sister-in-law (who was also from/visiting Taipei) to do some street market shopping. Later that night, Tammy's friend Zoey took us to an all-you-can-eat Taiwanese barbecue dinner, at which we consumed an obscene amount of meat. Still reeking of delicious barbecue smoke, we headed to In House lounge where we met up with her other friends Nina & Peggy for a last night of drinks before going home to the US the next day.

Pictures can be found HERE.

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