Back to the hotel
Once I had my fill of the Shilin Market, I then plotted my way back home. But unlike Ningxia Market, I could not feasibly walk from Shilin Market to the hotel. My feet are dead tired, and it’s a decent distance away. So I whipped out my phone – now at 15% – turned off airplane mode, and asked Google Maps to help me find a bus stop. It recommended that I walk towards the right to 200 Wenlin Road to a bus stop, and ride a bus that went directly to Zhonghualubei Station, where my hotel was a few blocks away. I did as instructed, and within a few minutes of waiting, I was on a bus headed towards my hotel. The Klook transport card I bought was paying off in spades. No need to fumble in my pocket with loose change. Tap in, tap out. Easy. Singapore does it, Seoul does it, Tokyo does it, Taipei does it too. Simple stuff is universal. Well, maybe not in my home country yet.
Bus ride home was relatively quiet. I remembered from my research to avoid the seats marked “Priority”, so I sat near the middle, but close to the door so I could easily tap out and alight as quickly as possible. I just spent a good while looking out the window, seeing a view that was akin to what I’d see in Singapore but slightly different in certain ways. I kept a close eye on the app on my phone as well to check the route to know when I was to alight at the right stop. Kept it to a minimum as my phone was getting drained. Not many passengers in that bus, I observed. Four passengers was the max I saw when I was there.
Once I got off the bus at Zhonghualubei Station, I walked towards the nearest 7-11, bought a couple of 1L tea bottles, and walked towards Roaders Hotel. Ahh, back in comfort. It was past 9PM. Before I went back to my room, I went downstairs to the basement lobby/hangout area, grabbed two nougat crackers, a box of orange juice from the fridge, and went up back to my room.
And like the previous tour’s night, I just plopped onto the bed face down, and sank. Whew, tiring day. Exhaustion crash happened again. Man, I just wanted to doze off right then and there, but I had to undress. I quickly removed my shoes, ripped off the worn-out kinesio tape applications, and took off my denim pants. Changed to a comfortable pair of shorts, and sat on the bed. I took off my watch, and charged it along with my phone – whew, just down to 6%. Seems I saved just enough. I was rummaging through my bag afterwards to sort out my souvenirs, and I found the last hujiao bing I did not eat earlier, so I ate it (it’s the picture I had earlier). Kind of different texture after some time had passed. The top was still crispy, but the bottom has become soft due to the meat juices permeating it. So it was best to eat hujiao bing within minutes out of the oven, I guess.
After a long shower, I plopped back into bed again. Unlike yesterday, I had no urgency to settle first for that night. The next day’s for an old-fashioned DIY touring, so no need to wake up too early. No clothes to wash – the ones I washed earlier that day had already dried. I had enough clothes to wear for two more days. So I just spent some time in bed, watching TV (it’s all nature documentaries, peaceful stuff) until drowsiness kicked in. Turned off the lights, and left the TV on at low volume again. Set the aircon temperature at a comfortable chill degree – 21. And I just dozed off within minutes. My phone’s automatically set for 6AM.
And again, I had a wonderful day. Maybe I daresay a bit better than the previous day. Tour weather wasn’t that good, but the overall vibe of the tour was lots better.
So the question remains: was the tour worth it? Yep!
Again, this tour of Yangmingshan and Beitou, I could not imagine doing this by myself. Thank heavens for custom guided tours as a convenient option. Beitou, maybe, it does have a train that stops at the main areas. But Yangmingshan was definitely the one that the tour gave us good convenience for. Not going to be easy to manually visit those places we went to.
Our tour this time was markedly different in tone. While the Yehliu-Jiufen-Shifen tour was a heavy tourist-y activity tour, this Beitou-Yangmingshan tour was purely a nature and history buff’s tour. I barely opened my wallet to buy gobs of stuff in this one. It was a tour for the eyes and the mind. And I loved it for what it was. Also, of the two tours, I’d rather do this tour again someday, but with better sunny weather. I’d love to see the Qingtiangang Grassland with the sun out. I’d really love to see what I missed in Lengshuikeng as well. Not a slight against the previous tour, it’s just different strokes for different folks. And this is just my third tour all in all, and I’m starting to refine what I want and what I don’t want when it came to tours.
And in terms of costs, this tour cost me SGD 45, more or less, with the discount ticket, plus taxes, for the entire tour itself. And again, the tour cost was a steal, but as I liked this tour more than the previous one, this one I will gladly repeat and pay for again. And if I am to recommend this tour, I’d say yes, yes, and yes. Just plan for the weather, because I gambled on this one and the weather kind of sucked. Not the tour’s fault in any way, it’s a consequence of me booking way in advance.
What did I learn on this tour?
- Again, like before, check the weather and overprepare. This time it rained, so I was well-prepared with a jacket and umbrella. But it’s hard to prepare around weather when you book stuff in advance. For example, the day before was forecasted to rain in Shifen and Jiufen but it only was cloudy, sometimes even sunny and blazing hot. Yangmingshan had a fair chance of rain based on what I saw on Accuweather’s predictions, turned out to be what it said will happen.
- Don’t forget your mobile charger like my dumb ass. Thank God I didn’t get too shot-happy in Yangmingshan. Maybe it also helped that as I was engrossed with the places we went to, I barely had time for mobile gaming.
- For the Qingtiangang Grassland, I advise most city-bred folk to get used to the unique smells. I overheard a white dude remark to his companion that the air around the places where the buffaloes came to graze “smells like grass and shit”. Yeah, you got that shit right, doofus.
- Again with Qingtiangang Grassland, be mindful of where you go. Just saying, you might end up far above the hiking track, lose time, and end up underestimating your time to go back to the parking lot. I managed to catch myself at the foot of one of the higher trails, and stopped there.
- No need to bring out your wallet in Yangmingshan except for lunch. Not much to buy that’s interesting or unique. Beitou does have a few gift shops, keep an eye out for those. For me, I got a pair of nice hot spring soaps.
- Again, as this is predominantly a walk-heavy tour, being hydration. Water or cold tea bottles will come in handy.
- To repeat from yesterday’s tour, best to follow what your tour guide says. If he says 10-o-clock be back on the car, make sure you time your activities. I follow this rule and I go beyond. 2-5 minutes early too. I don’t want to be the tourist that is hauling ass on the spots because they got too photo-happy and forgot the meeting time. I did get the feeling that our tour guide Xiao Hei prepared for such scenarios, and made generous leeways in time so that stragglers in our group won’t mess up the actual time schedule.
- Yes, I knew there was an underground food court at Shilin, but I also heard 1) most stalls never reopened after COVID, and 2) a lengthy renovation is still ongoing. I stuck with the road stalls.
- The street between the Cixian Temple and the market is the busiest artery of the whole night market in Shilin, so best familiarize yourself beforehand. Get used to crowds. No problem for me, born and raised in the Philippines, I’m way used to bustling crowds pushing in many directions. Can slither in and out. But foreigners might not have the same life skills, so my advice is to be on a “reactive” mode when in a crowd like in Shilin’s. Don’t push against the greater directional forces. Go with the flow, and if the flow is in a direction you don’t want, break away, stand aside, look for alternative paths instead.
- If your tour uses a car instead of a bus, I suggest taking the sole front seat if you’re a solo traveler. I did the same, and it was extremely convenient for me.
Next part: The June 15 and 16… basically 15 was a DIY tour around Taipei – I plan to go to the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall and Taipei 101. Just two itineraries in a chillaxed day’s tour. 16 was more of a super-chill rest day, so I lumped it in that post. I had sat on this very blog post for more than a month as well, editing a lot. That one might not be as long as this one, but still fun and lots of things to recount and recollect, that’s for sure. Ain’t that great 🙂
Briathrail // Albert 2MNG 
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