Taiwan - How to go to Shifen or Pingxi Line.

I visited Taiwan again!

End of November to beginning December was not cool at all. The weather was good and the sunshine warmed our body. It only felt cooling when the wind comes along. Still, it was less humid than Singapore and we did not sweat as much.

This time, I travelled with my family and was somewhat familiar with Taipei thanks to the pre-trip to Taiwan for the Princess Cruise. Before the trip, I was quite confused with how to go the popular Shi Fen and Jiu Fen. After all, there's only one MRT network in Singapore and I forgot that there are other railways other than the subway trains. 

I tried to search and found another blogger who provided me with an idea of how to go.
So now it is my turn, I will write on how I managed my way to Shifen!

The station to go to - TAIPEI MAIN STATION. 

We bought our tickets on the very day we arrived to ensure that there was availability for the next day trip. Taking the Taoyuan Airport Mrt Line from Terminal 2, we arrived at Taipei Main Station in 1 straight line. You would need to exit the gantry and walk towards the station hall, TRA/HSR ticketing area, to buy the railway tickets. It is around the middle of the station like an open sqaure.

Consult the information counter when in doubt!

We checked with the staff on how to go about getting our tickets. She said that we can just use our easycard to take the railway to Ruifang Station. The question is - Will we have reserved seats?

Once you reach Ruifang station, you have to change to another train on the Pingxi Line to go to Shifen Station. If you are keen to pack all the stations in one day, you may wish to buy a 1-day unlimited pass along the Pingxi Line. It can be bought at the Information Counter or at Ruifang Station itself. 

Going with the the standard ticketing at the machine -

We decided to get our TRA tickets using the machine in order to secure seats on the train. It would be a 40 minutes journey from Taipei Main Station to Ruifang Station! We proceeded with a few timings for the 2-way tickets because the system will prompt us if the tickets were sold out and we had to try again. However, each time the system restarts to the home page, it will load for some time.
Tip: Jump from machine to machine if there are not many people around!

Follow the instructions on the screen and select "Taipei" as the starting location and "Ruifang" as the destination. It will prompt you to select the time and the number of pax. If the time is unavailable, it will show a message and you will not be able to buy anything. Have patience and restart.

The funny thing is, our tickets towards Ruifang station were seatless! The return trip has designated seats which is really thankful since we would have been very tired after the day trip. I do not know how it went through because it did not prompt us whether we would like to continue even when there were no seats left. Our theory is that they will still sell the tickets regardless of seat allocation until the point that they reach the maximum number for each trip.

My advice: Maybe you should buy from the physical counters instead if you do not mind the queue. This would allow you to ask questions that the machine cannot answer. In addition, there is a time limit for each selection on the machine, so we were going through a rather fast paced decision making process.


On the day - Head to the TRA (台鐡) Taipei Station

We took from Ximen station to Taipei Main station via Bannan line. Follow the signs and you will reach the TRA Taipei Station, even though it can be confusing especially since it is filled with people.

Slip the ticket in the machine and collect it as you walk past the gantry. We had our 7/11 breakfast at an area of seats. There is a screen to check on your train status. We were quite early that time, around 20 mins before time.

After we were done eating, we went up the platform to wait instead. You need to take note of the train type (number), destination and time of train. They should all tally. The screen will also inform of the approximate time of delay should there be any. Since we had no seats, we could get up anywhere and stand around.

The train does not have much space to stand around and we were quite a hindrance when people want to past us. After everyone has settled down and the train moved off, we quickly took the chance to sit at those empty seats.

Our happiness did not last that long when the passengers from the next stop came claiming their seats. We stood our way throughout for the rest of the 30 minutes in the connector between the cars. It was quite warm there and we were right beside the toilet. It was quite an experience.

When we arrived at Ruifang station, we went out, went down the platform and came up again. As we exited, we had to surrender our hardcopy tickets to the staff whom asked for it. It's not a systemtic process though and it seems that some people might be missed out if it was a peak period.


At Ruifang Station - 

We bought our Pingxi line ticket here. You have a choice of a one-day unlimited pass for the whole line or to a destination. Given the time limit, we headed for 1 destination only, which is Shifen. We went back in to the platform right beside and boarded the train headed towards Qingtong. Do take care of your train tickets because it is likely that the train conductor will come by and check for valid tickets. Since nobody will check what train you actually board, it is your own responsibility to ensure you board the correct one.

Once at Shifen station, you can exit the station and give back the ticket to the staff again. Explore the lane of Shifen and walk over to the waterfall as well. There was this black dog just laying leisurely on the bridge, and apparently fighting with two dogs which came along to disturb. If it gets too tiring to walk back, you may take a taxi back to the station (for around 100 NTD if I remembered right).

Take note of the train schedule!

One very important thing to note about the Pingxi Line train - the time interval for trains is 1 hour!! (See schedule below). Even though I already knew this, we seemed to have forgotten about it and missed the previous train. Our train from Ruifang back to Taipei Main Station was at 3.25pm, while the next Pingxi Line train was coming at 2.40pm. Since the journey back is around 30 mins long, we might or might not make it. We decided to catch the taxi back at 800 NTD to Ruifang station. Otherwise, we had nothing to do for 1 hour also.

The ride back was quite nice as the driver is such a talkative lady.
Her number is below if you want to book her services. It is really beneficial to rent a car to bring you around if you wish to cover more areas.

From Ruifang station, we boarded our train at Car 11 area since we had seats this time. The car number is labelled at the station. And that was a good 40 minutes of sleep on the train with reclined seats.

Taiwan; Keelung & Princess Cruise

Day 4 - 22 August 2018

Breakfast at Yong He Soy Milk -

We had the one at Hankou Street. It is a little distance from ECFA hotel but it was a manageable morning stroll. When we arrived around 9 plus, there was a breakfast queue.  The expectations of the food were definitely high. 

We were given the menu and told to start queuing and think of what to order while doing so. By the time it was our turn, we had to know exactly what to eat. It was highly stressful to make food decisions so quickly gosh.

After ordering and paying for the food, we waited for them to call us to the table when it was available. The shop space is small and it is quite cramped. This is definitely a fast-food place where you would want to finish the food and leave quickly. You won't be able to sit around even if you want to because I bet the people waiting for the seats will be staring at you for not leaving the table.

I must say that the soy milk that they are famous for is really awesome. It is creamy and at the right sweetness. As it is served hot, it really is the best beverage to start the day! 

I was a little surprised that the other food was quite "instant" and prepared beforehand. I was probably expecting it to be more Hong Kong style. The bun with egg and pork was so dry and just does not taste fresh at all. Same goes for the one with the sesame seed. The youtiao/dough stick was cold and tough. 

The two consolation items were the rice roll (no picture) and the green spring onion pancake with egg. I like the spring onion pancake the most as it was served hot and taste like spring onion flavoured roti prata. My bf thought that his rice roll was not bad, but I still find that some parts of the rice was a little dry and uncooked.

Based on this disappointing experience, I do not understand why Yong He is so raved upon and popular. 

Off to Keelung for the Princess Cruise - 

We finished the last of our packing and headed downstairs to wait for our driver to send us to Keelung for our cruise. He came earlier than 11.30am and so we headed to our destination earlier. 

It took about 45min to reach the cruise terminal. The space at level 1 was quite crowded and we quickly moved up to have our check-in done. 1 person could check in for all, so half of us sat at the seats looking after the belongings. The check-in part was fine, and we followed the directional guides, walked under the tents outside, and back into the building to see a whole lot of people queuing to get up the ship - Sun Princess!

We gave our luggage to the staff and started queuing. The luggage already had the Princess luggage tag which we were supposed to pre-print. When we were with Royal Caribbean (RC), they had people to print on the spot for anyone without it but this option did not seem available there.

The wait was at least 30 mins. We were actually supposed to check in only at 1pm but it seems like their rule is quite lax. We should have been earlier in that case! This Princess Cruise consists of mainly the local Taiwanese as the ship was chartered for them. Most of them have the Princess lanyard over their necks and we were wondering whether it was mandatory for us as well. We did not receive any from our local tour agency.

Lunch at the crowded Horizon Court -

When we finally went on board, it was time to have some food before the buffet closes.

Reaching the Horizon Court at Deck 14, we were surprised to see how packed the place was. It is quite a small area. It does not seem like there were enough seatings and we had to wait and eye on potential tables. The ambience was really noisy and chaotic.

Even though it is generally packed on the first day on board, we did not have as much trouble finding a nice seat on RC. The mood at that time was greatly affected because I was really looking forward to the cruise experience.

Before we selected our dishes, we had to wash our hands, and can only come in from the designated side. I think this is a good hygiene practice but it can be quite troublesome, especially when you go back for a second serving.

I would say that the first meal on board was mostly tasty!
There is a good mix of Asian food and Western food. It is catered for the Taiwanese after all.

We had our fire drill at a specified time. Everyone was to report to their muster station reflected on their room card. It was not held outside at the deckare but in the Princess Theatre. They even have a song created for the introduction and it was silly and hilarious.  


The windowless interior room - P236 at Deck 5

The room is nice and cosy. It is definitely a little crampier than a usual hotel room but that is kind of expected on a ship. Same goes for the toilet.

I finally realized the need to unpack our stuff and park our luggage at the corner beside the bed so that it is out of the way. It was also when I also realized how useful my packing cubes were! I literally just take them all out and place it in the wardrobe. And that's it, I don't have to take out every single thing.

I like how their hairdryer is rectangular in shape. How unique lol.

Princess cruises have their own on-board application which is really good for communication among family members on the ship. Just keep your WiFi on while on airplane mode. There is no notification though, so you have to keep checking the browser and refreshing the page in order to see any new messages. It even has a group option, which is really good for group communication. I accidentally drank their bottled water and realized that it may have been charged to our account, according to what the app states.

We only realized there was a formal night/captain's night on the cruise itself. I think we were advised that there were no formal nights since it was only a few days. I brought one black dress just in case and I got to utilize it. As we walked from our rooms to the Regency Dining Room at Deck 6, the ship was swaying soooooooo much! We wondered whether it was due to the level we were at or due to the choppy waters.


Dinner at Regency Dining Room -

We were brought to our table near the back. It was quite a small dining room in my opinion. Our waiter was Ray and he seems a bit funny crazy kind. He gave us the menu and introduced the specials of the day versus the permanent options on the menu.

We went for the standard 4-course meal for that day. The appetizer was creamy garlic with scallops and it goes well with the crispy bread at the side. The beef slices are tender and comes with a side of potato pie and assorted vegetables. The souffle that came with the set was okay but one can always have more than one dessert. The chestnut mouse and chocolate truffles is really chocolatey and yummy.

Our dinner started only around 8pm and we watched the "guess the lyrics (Mandarin )" gameshow after that. It was already halfway through when we joined at the Vista Lounge and we were unable to participate. By then, it was time to have a great night sleep in preparation for our Okinawa day!

And my favourite part of the Princess cruise is the bed!! It is super duper comfortable.
The second thing I love about the cruise is the TV which comes with many videos on demand to watch. The only thing is, I found it hard to keep myself awake while watching on that bed!
There goes, I didn't complete Ant-Man.