We were looking for the 银座 Hotel dat TY had booked for us.
First thing about 台中, the layout of the streets is rather complicated. Once you left the train station, you see a "pentagon-shaped" layout of roads. People in 台中 are not really into rules. So even when you are crossing the road with the green man, you fear of by-passing motorcycles.
Asked a few people along the way. Some good and some bad. As our hotel was situated rather near to 第一广场 (a shopping centre which resembles SimLingSq and Lucky Plaza), there are a lot of filipinos to my surprise. There was even one taiwanese lady who kinda shoo-ed at us when we tried to ask her for directions. Are all foreigners supposed to be looked down on? Yet, there was always some kind-hearted people around. A lady who was having her meal by the side of the road even tried to ask around the shop for us.
Even 台中 people don't know where our hotel is. So, we should not expect a very good one.
In the middle of the road, an unexpected turn to the left, you see this street (or you can call it an alley):
It's called 电子街, cos it's supposed to be a street selling electronic goods. Yet, i have never seen any of them operating. So, the location of our hotel is super "ulu". Our hotel was situated somewhere in this alley.
Checked in. The hotel was supposed to be an internet hotel. But, the internet cafe section of the hotel was abolished, so it was left with only the hotel part. We went in to our room and was greeted with a cigarette smell infested room, so small that it was impossible to squeeze three people. TY said it was ok. But my aunt and I thought it was not okay.
I can say the room was only big enough to put a single-sized bed. There was not enough space for the three of us to stand. and how is three people going to sleep on that bed? there was a computer on a rocky counter near by, and the person said it was a television. Tried to switch on the TV, but it failed to work. Furthermore, the bathroom remind me of horror movies. and the room was filled with eerie orange light. I die also don't want to spend the night in that room.
So, we requested to switch/upgrade room. It was a four person room this time, so we have two queen-sized beds. Yet, the room had a creepy-feeling to me. I don't like rooms dat are dimly lit. The TV was really a TV this time, so we turned on the TV to add "cheeriness" to the scary room.
I suddenly missed 明日.
Not going to waste our time in the hotel, we leave for the streets to head to 东海大学.
Above is the street of 台中. Huge signboards and complicating road signs all around..
Bus-stops are really only a place for buses to stop. Nothing more. Just a post stating the places the bus will go. and the public buses in TW are called ‘客运’..
Was wondering how to get to 东海. TY was calling a friend who lives in 台中 for directions, and seed is trying to read the map. It was then, a young man who was eating ice-cream approached us. He asked us where we wanted to go. [He was being nice and we looked very tourist, i supposed]. Told him our destination, and he said he don't know.
Decided with the bus to board, we waited and finally our bus came. The same man boarded the bus with us. He took a seat somewhere in front of us, and kept turning his head to look at us. What's going on? =_=
Anyway, this is 台中's ezlink card. And how it works? you board the bus, you pay the fees and the bus driver will give you the card and u scan. When you wanna alight, you scan and return the card to the bus driver. So what's the purpose of the card? =_=
Had a rather long bus ride of 40 mins. Saw many fields that I did not get to see in 台北. I even saw a sunflower field! and ya, all the sunflowers face towards the direction of the sun. There were one or two abnormal ones though, back-facing the sun. XD
Finally reached the stop that lead us to 东海. and we were confronted with a scary road to cross. The students of 东海 are all pros in jay-walking. I hate crossing the roads in Taiwan, frankly speaking.
This is the entrance of 东海.
A minute's walk in, you see the sports field of the campus. It was around 4pm something, but the sun was setting earlier than SG.
The partial map of the school:
The dormitories. Look haunted to me.
Further walking in, there's this terribly complicating signboard:
Saw that there was a dairy farm in the campus, so we went in search of the farm.
Passed by this garden-y road. On the left is the canteens. (They were too boring to spark my interest in shooting them)
Out of this beautiful road, we came to the icon of the campus [路思义教堂]:
It was a very beautiful campus with a lot of lush greenery.
Walking around the campus was rather tedious. So, most of the students went on their bikes or cars. Along this stretch of road, many students sat on the grasses and blasted songs from their HPs.. I will never get to see this in NUS. People would have prefer to mug their way in the libraries or canteens.
Their "CoOp". Most of the multi-purpose halls they have were located here too.
Down the halls, heard a nice melody. Someone was practicing on the violin. I supposed he's playing some etudes.
and so we walk and walk and walk, in search of the farm:
It was a Sunday, so there were lotsa families who came here to spend the day. A nice meeting place for couples too.
After climbing a tiny slope, we came to 东海湖:
We need to descend a rather long flight of steps in order to reach the lake. So, my aunt decided to rest at the top while TY and me went down to explore the lake.
As we near the lake, we heard a weird sound coming from the bush. It sounds like a puppy yapping, but it seemed to be croaking like a frog. It was very loud too. The bushes were thick and tall, so we dared not walk further in to look at what it was. As we strolled pass the outskirts of the lake, and passing that bush, the noise stopped. When we left the bush, the sound came back again. It wasn't anything that I had heard of in SG, so I tink it was some unknown Taiwan Frog.
TY said it don't sound like a frog though.. When we passed by the bush again, it stopped. Kinda creepy.
"Wat is that huh?", seed asked. "Is it a sensor? haha", TY replied. "haha.. sensor.. funny thing to say."
So, we left the lake, and climbed the steps back to where my aunt was waiting. We were tired of looking for the dairy farm ourselves, so we decided to ask the students.
"The farm is closed on Sundays!"... ahhh...
Anw, we saw a lot of people drinking milk and eating ice-cream, so we asked them where did they get them. They replied "福利社".. ooo..
So we went to the 福利社 dat we had passed by earlier on and bought milk, milk ice-cream and milk yoghurt to eat.
The milk tasted superb! I love the ice-cream box deco though. So cute..
There was a convenience stall nearby so we went in and aunt bought some apples and I bought this chocolate snack. It looks exquisite, but it only cost S$1.20.
Strolled our way back to the entrance of the school.. It was turning dark though it was only 5pm plus. We were planning to move on to 逢甲夜市, the bustling night market of 台中.
Went to the busstop, but there was no buses that could bring us there. TY went to ask a young boy at the busstop if he knew how we could get there. The boy was busy snacking on this TW snack called 海带.. He tried to help us, but he did not know the way, so we said it's ok. After another 5 mins of waiting, we decide to just take a cabbie to 逢甲夜市, but the boy approached us again. "You guys ok? Need help?"
I was thinking, he's so kind la!!! In SG, do you care if someone who had asked you for directions still look lost after 5 minutes?
Anw, we told him we're going to take a cab, so he was fine with it. Finally, a cab came and we boarded.
Had been a rather tiring day of climbing the slopes of 东海 and travelling on the train...
~To be continued~
逢甲夜市其實還滿亂地。一下車, 就看到滿滿的商店招牌。
在商店圈里有這麼一條美食街。可惜, 我沒有甚麼胃口。五花八門的小吃擺在我面前, 也沒有甚麼心情去嘗試。這裡的美食大多是油炸的豬肉與滷味。我還挺不愛吃地。
就這樣, 走著走著, 來到了服飾的商店圈。
這裡的衣服都好便宜! 任何一件通常只需要新幣$12.50。隨便把一件帶回新加坡, 可以叫價$25, 還算便宜! 但是那麼多好買到貨擺在眼前, 便不會珍惜機會。結果一件都沒買到。
叫了以上的甜點。黑色的仙草呈片狀, 很像豆花。一粒一粒橘色的芋頭Mua-Chee, 摻拌著冷冷的碎冰與甜甜的鮮奶, 別有一番風味。
這裡有蠻特別的點菜方法。左邊的是呼叫器。在櫃檯點了菜後, 服務員就會給你一個呼叫器, 讓你把它拿到任何座位上, 只要你點的菜準備好了, 呼叫器就會響, 讓你去櫃檯拿菜。右邊的是Pea和HM送的隨身帶風扇。 XD
吃完, 大家都好累, 也沒有甚麼力氣走下去了。於是, 我們決定搭公車回去酒店。
在公車上, 看到的是滿滿的機車。
回到了恐怖的飯店, 又是另外一晚的掙扎。
