This day is started with visiting StayReal at XiMenDing! Trust me, this is one place I wanted to visit the minute I reached Taipei, XiMenDing, I duno why we waited till Day Four~ lol.. Thanks to Ruyi’s intuitions, we located the outlet in no time.. haha! but it’s not opened yet!! Erghh..

On the way, I grabbed a fruit juice for breakfast~~ can u believe it, they had 32fruits&vege in a fruit juice pack! I feel so healthy drinking that~ lol~~

As we raised up our head, we saw MAYDAY!!!

Fine, BRUNCH then. I always like eating bento, japanese ones. Taiwan also have their own local railway bentos, known as 铁路便当. There are two that caught our attention lah.. one is a Hakka restaurant, 馨记 serving hakka food.. and the store seated beside is selling railway bentos~! Hohoho.. mai tu liao.. its location is on the way too, cos our itinerary for the day will need to go Taipei Station anyway.

We really experienced what is 赶火车.. what are Singaporeans complaining about a 6-min-mrt-interval?? Railway trains only have one train to that one destination at that one timing!! You miss it, you missed it, and it’s gonna be at least another hour’s wait!! Heh.. and because we spent too much time shopping in Watsons, we only have time to settle for the railway bento instead of Hakka food! Hohohooh.. it’s just as GOOD and CHEAP!!! For NT$69 i.e. only SGD$3, I got this traditional classic original bento~ well packed with no extra space in a wooden bento box, brings an extra touch of retro feel. Hee.. Very amused by their shopfront, playing railway track sounds in the background.. and pictures of old railways on their walls in the very low ceiling on the 2nd level.. lol..

I also bought the StayReal 滚！magazine for myself~ heh.. got a freebie bag again! =p

Bought the train tickets to 瑞芳火车站, u can see we are still so happy camwhoring on the train. Who knows, there we coked up again. Ok, I am gonna simplify this incident as simplified as I can.

《两个笨蛋历险记》
Time: 2pm
Location: 瑞芳火车站
People: Suki, Ruyi, Very helpful 站长 (we call him 伯伯)
Itinerary: 瑞芳 – 十分 – 菁铜

Due to the timing restrictions, there are no trains heading 十分 at 2pm from 瑞芳. 伯伯 says we have to take a train to the next station, to catch the 2.36pm train there. Meanwhile, he chatted with us, knowing we are from Singapore.. he even admired our new acrylic nails.. lol.. He repeated many many times we MUST alight in the next stop to catch that particular train, else it would lead us to somewhere else! Ok, NOTED! Haha..

We followed his instructions very closely. We bid goodbye and boarded the train, seated beside me was a passenger ah pek. He also very helpful! Perhaps he saw my train ticket lah, so he reminded me to alight at the next station. Haha.. See what I meant by everybody is so helpful in Taiwan?

Ok lah, we alighted! Phew! Here comes the super stupid cok-up of the day.

PAY ATTENTION, are u still with me?

As I was busy looking into my viewfinder, Ruyi quickly pulled me to board on the train at the opposite platform.. I wasn’t sure what train we are boarding, so I kept questioning her with many questions she couldn’t answer at all.. I even asked the guy seated beside us.

Me: “How you know this is the train?”

Her: “Ah boh still got which train?”

Me: “Hmmm.. where is this train heading?”

Her: “Err that ah pek told me to board this train!”

Me: “Which ah pek????? Is it the one seated beside me just now?”

Her: “No.. is the ah pek at the platform”

Me: “Huh! How he know where we heading? Why he ask u to board this train?”

Her: “Err duno.. he just say faster board faster board this train”

Me: “You anyhow board train when you duno what train is it?”

Her *starts to worry now* “or wanna alight to ask?”

Me: *hears train boarding whistle*
“Aiyah too late le.. train start moving liao.. let’s ask the guy beside us”

Me *taps mister seated beside*

“请问一下，这班火车开往菁桐吗?”

Mister: *cheeky smile* “Heh 我也不知道也!”

Me >.< "没关系，谢谢你" Mister: "你看，这是我在路边捡的猫，可爱吧？" Me: *gasps* "是喔?" *roll eyes* That fat irritating pet is in a basket on his lap, and he says he picked it up? LAME!!!! Ruyi: "Eh very cute leh.. i want to take picture of it. *takes out her camera* Me: WHAT, tats a CAT?! *Suki, RUN FOR YOUR LIFE~*
“You still want to take picture? Bye bye! I am changing seats!”

Ruyi: “Aiyah ok la ok la~~ *laughing at me*

TRAIN ANNOUNCEMENT~ “Next station 瑞芳”

*gasps again*!! “We took a train back to 瑞芳!?!?!” BIANG EH~ this meant we missed the correct 2.36pm train!!! *slaps forehead*!!!

DUHZ!!!! The very helpful station master 伯伯 saw us O_o (he probably thinks he 鬼了~~)

伯伯: “你怎么还在这里?!不是叫你搭2.36分的火车吗?”

Me: “伯伯，对啊，我们下了车，可是上错车啊，所以又跑回来啦~”

伯伯: “哎哟！不要紧~来，我带你去楼下买下一班车票，
可是要等一个钟头了喔！哎呀，你们怎么会搭错车~~~~~

*mumbles to his colleagues we walked past*
不用查她们的票了，我带她们去买票, 她们搭错车啦~”

By then, I think the whole station staff recognises us already >.<" 伯伯: "那，你们去对门吃点东西~ 不要担心，一个钟头后再回来搭车~ 去吧去吧~"

We thanked him and walked away.. feeling dejected… and silly.. and idiot.. and ergh… where got mood to eat or walk, we sat down at a bubble tea shop to WAIT and laughed at ourselves.. hahahaa.. headed back after an hour’s wait, this time, the platform is much more crowded.. because this train goes directly to 菁铜. Haha.. ok lah.. saves all the trouble!! If only just now we had a direct train~ Sigh, 我只能说，我们是理所当然的新加坡人，被方便的交通宠坏.

Ok, thats the end of our 笨蛋历险记. Following up, 潮落必定潮起! Thereafter, our moods lightened and cheered up! We decided to give up 十分, and heading over to 菁桐 instead. Hohoho..

Oh.. is that sunset I’m seeing? Beautiful, isn’t it?

Arriving at 菁桐, I saw a beautiful railway tracks.. and old retro signboards. I knew we’ve come to the right place..

Railway tracks.. always liked the idea of shooting there. 不知道，旧铁道就是有莫名特别的感觉.. There was a signboard saying FINE $2000 for going down to the tracks. A young boy pointed at his mum, “妈，你瞎啦?” Haha.. see gin nah, lidat tok to his mom. She still kept urging him to go down take pictures, insisting it’s ok to go down. I remember seeing Odin&Yan’s pictures, and am sure the next train wouldn’t arrive so soon. So we took the lead and started photo-taking…. and we see the rest of the monkeys-see-monkeys-do.. wahhahaaa…

The old shophouses along the streets..

Next, we are gonna look for the famous teahouse, that appeared in 周杰伦.. 梁静茹’s MVs. 《皇宫茶坊》!! However, the very friendly lady boss had a strict principle, NO PHOTOGRAPHY allowed. So, no pictures lor.. too bad. I was merely trying to take a picture of the fridge at the door while removing our boots.. I got warned by her. >.<"

But being seated in there.. I could understand why photography was forbidden. It’s not supposed to be a tourist spot where you snap and snap, it’s a place where you sit down quietly, peacefully.. sipping the LAVENDAR MILK TEA (that was recommended by Odin), eating waffles prepared by the lady boss. I even saw someone sketching pictures in there on his notebook. Times flies when you are sitting in there… we better get going, it’s getting dark.

On the way out, we saw people putting up 天灯.. Hee.. we didn’t really had the urge to make any wishes, so we didn’t give it a shot. There’s this stall, the ah ma is selling very cute mini天灯s, which we were quite attracted to, spent a real lonnnnng time picking and choosing and analysing every design and color..

hahaa, the ah ma basically took out ALL her stocks to show us, even after I told her I’m only buying three. She didn’t mind at all.. and she kept telling everyone “阿嫲星期六要上电视介绍这个天灯啊！要看幼幼台啊！” LOL!

Waiting for train to get back to the city…

On the way back, we decided we are going to 忠孝敦化’s STAYREAL outlet to try out luck.. by the time we found it, it’s CLOSING again! ARgh.. but heh heh heh… you should already have read about my encounter with 阿信? Kekeke.. you can read it here again. 😀

HMmmmmmmmmmmmm.. we have walked a LONNNNNNG way the whole day. Last of all, this is how quiet and peaceful Xi Men Ding looks like at night.

and our shopping hauls for the day! Haha! 满汉杯面！里面有牛肉喔！YUM!!! =D

That’s about it… sweet dreams.. ^.^

Tomorrow.. 兔子听音乐!