Taiwan Spring 2018 : Jiufen and Shifen

This is the first time that I experienced hiring a personal driver for a tour. Usually, I prefer using public transport since it’s cheaper plus you learn a lot about the country when you commute.  I’ve been to Taiwan twice already so I’m okay with having a driver to tour us around.  Plus we’re kind of running out of time already and we wanted to go to a lot of places that day.

We found Jason online and I’m really thankful he’s a super cool and nice guy! I’m going to split this post in two parts : (1) Jiufen and Shifen (2) Yehliu Geopark, YinYang Sea, and Taipei 101. 😀

Three Taiwan trips later, Jiufen still remains my favorite of them all 🙂

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Jason arrived around 9am to pick us up.  It took around an hour to go to Yehliu but that will be for another post (also, lame excuse because I haven’t sorted out the photos yet).

Anyway, we arrived at Jiu Fen by lunch time.  It was the first time I’ve seen the place in the daylight and I kind of miss the lights already.  It has definitely a different vibe without the lights (but still pretty!) but I would suggest going there before sunset so you can see it with the lights on.  Maybe it’s just me, but I find it more magical at night. I have a photo diary here 🙂

I’ve posted this twice but the Jiufen Tea House (where the Bath House from Spirited Away was inspired from) still remains breathtaking even in broad daylight.

I didn’t have a lot of pictures in Jiufen because it was a bit hard to shoot with a lot of people around.  I did took video footages, tho!  I posted it here on my youtube channel 🙂  Sadly, I have no pictures where we ate lunch, but at least we took photos in the strawberry mochi place? 🙂 It was super cute and tasty, too.

I mean look at these strawberries! ❤︎

If you’re wondering how we take our photos and videos, I posted about it here. 😀

Next stop: Shifen! Thank God we hired a driver because the last time I went here we got lost and the commute was a bit difficult— the trains were old and we had to transfer a lot.  The lines were pretty long too because some of the trains only arrive after every hour.  Funny how it’s super easy to go to when you use a car 😉

Shifen is another favorite of mine.  There’s just something about old places in Taiwan that warms my heart.  I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of these places.

We tried the fried squid (yum) and the yakult shake (yuuuummm) while walking around the area.  If you’re hesitating on getting a driver because you thought you’d never have time to stroll around don’t worry because it will not be like that at all! Jason gave us an ample amount of time so there really is no rush 😉 Unlike when you book a tour especially if you’re with another group, I hate it when we’re pressured to eat faster or to go back earlier.

Of course this trip wouldn’t be complete if we didn’t write our wishes on the lanterns.  Jason also assisted us in choosing which store to go to because there were so many options!

We chose the lantern with multiple colors– each color has a different symbol: blue for career and promotion (writing this months later, IT DID HAPPEN SO YAYYY), red for health and peace, yellow for money and wealth, and pink for love and happiness.  The lanterns cost NTD 200 each (around Php 360).

Despite the heavy rain (which isn’t unusual– I’ve never been to Taiwan WITHOUT experiencing rainfall hahaha), we still got to fly our lanterns up in the sky.  Hopefully our wishes come true someday.  I’ll get back to what we wrote a year from now and update you 😉 Hee.

Oh and mind you, Jason’s not just our driver, but our photographer as well.  Look at this cute souvenir he gave us! 🙂

We went straight to Taipei 101 after this but I’ll be posting about it later.  Haha, sorry I should have posted about Yehliu first but oh well, I should be more organized with my photos next time.

If you want to book Jayson when you go to Taipei, you may contact him through the LINE app: Jason18909.  He gave me his card but ugh I think I lost it.  Will surely update this when I find it 🙂

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To read more about this Taiwan Spring 2018 trip, click here ❤︎