Cats and Anime are on the agenda today!
I managed to get on the train ok, but there was only standing room all the way to Ruifang, where I disembarked to change trains for the valley ride up to the cat village.
After checking the map I noticed that it was the same train to the waterfalls that I had been recommended to visit, so I noted that for later, and got off at the Cat Village.
This is an old mining town, with a big temple, and is now famous for al the cat models on the main street.
It was an overcast day, with light spots of rain, but I enjoyed walking around and exploring the area, and bought some souveniir cat cookies.
I almost only stayed in the information area as it wasn't clear where the cat street itself was, but I fllowed some signs to the coal museum, which I failed to find, and headed back to the station where I realised I had t cross the tracks to get to the main attraction.
After getting my fill there, I started to get nervous about time so headed to station again and got the train back to Ruifang.
I got the bus to Jiufen as per google maps, and ended up walking further than I needed to as I went round 3 sides of a square!
By the time I got off the bus at old street, it was raining, but forttunately the old street was ostly covered. This of course meant that it was also very crowded with people also trying to escape the rain though!
My purpose for visitting here, is because this street is the inspiration for the street in the famous Anime "Spirited Away".
I took l ots of photos, and came across a guy playing ocarina in his shop selling the same. There was a giant Ocarina on display and I joked with him that he should try playing that one.
I made it back to the bus stop after getting to the other end of the street, and it was starting to get dark by this point.
A local taxi driver was trying to tout business to Ruifang, but nobody was buying as the price he was quoting was far too expensive!
The first two busses that came by were all full and didn't stop, but the third one finally had room, and I made it back to the station.
Once I was back in Taipei, I met up with Seray and Nixson at Ximen station.
I had met them way back in Johor Bahru, months ago, and we had agreed to stay in touch.
We headed to the night market at Ximen, where we had some pork rice, and then on to a street seller offering beef cubes, and then headed to a bar near the station and chatted about language and tourist attractions over beers.