3rd day in Taiwan

Jerine felt better after taking my recommended 999 感冒茶, no blocked nose, but still coughly quite badly. I wasn't any disturbed by her last night since I was too tired.

We had Taiwan style cup noodles and cherry tomato for breakfast. The food tasted great, but I still prefer raw tomato. Very crunchy! JQ still had her favourite 王力宏 brand drink. haha. Too bad there's no JJ pic drink, otherwise Jerine might have gone crazy w her.

We went to get JQ a luggage at 西门町. It was initially NT2000, but after much bargaining, she got it at NT1400. What a difference！ The lesson learnt is that, we must really BARGAIN if we want to save money.

We thought 台中 is not that far, so we set out late. After noon. BUT…… bad strategy! 大错特错！薰依草花园is a last min added event, we didn't research much on that, so we were strended up in the mountains.

The bullet train 台湾高铁 journey from Taipei Main Station to Taichung took an hr and it wasn't that cheap (NT455 for single trip).

At 台中高铁站，took bus no 85 at NT49 for about 45 min until 大坑圆环 then transfer to 风源客运(NT25)。Then we realised we were lost, nobody on the bus knows about 薰依草花园，but they were extremely friendly and helpful. With the address that JQ had, they told us that it's still a far way to go. A teenage student and an old uncle suggested we go to the nearby 花海. It's a quite famous and beautiful place for 花朵观赏. We took their advice and alighted soon to take a cab to 花海。果然没错，真不愧是花海！没经费文字所能形容。不信？……有照片为证。

比比看，是花艳还是人比花娇？ 看我们都飞了起来就知道对那儿有多满意了！

我们拼命拍照，直到夕阳西下，天色黑了还不想走。可惜那儿的太阳很早下山，不到6点，就黑得伸手不见五指。见天黑了，虽然德士费不便宜，我们还是叫了德士。从花海到台中高铁原本要NT700, 经过一番讨价还价才减到NT600。其实，司机还蛮好的，天色那么暗，四处又没德士，我们受困山上，他原本可以大敲竹竿，但他并没有。我们打从心里感激不尽。

原本还想在台中买太阳饼，但是今天实在太累，我们很快都在车上睡着了。我们也确实让当地人佩服，三人第一次到台湾的第三天就用半天的时间从台北到台中乱闯。难怪风源客运上的老伯伯会啧舌惊叹。但是，能够看到MTV 中的美景，真不愧此行！

买了回的台北的车票后，我们就到Ikari Coffee (怡客咖啡)吃晚餐. 实在佩服大家，竟然可以为了看花，午餐只以面包充饥。有人出国旅行，向我们如此惨兮兮吗？哈哈！还是说晚餐罢。我叫了 spaghetti. 食物是不错，但给我留下深刻影响的是那个会发亮的Food ready “飞碟”。 真是高科技！点了少了“诊所式的”ding dong 声，也没有服务人员的叫喊声。多清静啊！在这用餐，真是人生的一大享受！

We reached Taipei at about 9.10pm. Did a bit of shopping at Taipei Main Station 的地下铁 Shopping mall. Looked at the NT200 shoes that Lixin highly recommended but couldn't find a suitable one for me.

It was still quite early so we walked around 西门町again. Jerine was worried about not getting me a birthday present, luckily I saw a quite nice looking bag, the price was reasonable too. The uncle charge me cheaper for 2 of them. U must really bargain w them. Don't worry, the sales staff all very nice, they won't get angry even if u don't buy. After much bargaining, Jerine bought for me the 2 bags. =) Thank you, my friends. 让你们破费了！heehee......

I was feeling better after the nose allergy at the Hello Kitty shop yesterday, but still had my reservation about fried food. But……Thanks to HQ lor, Jerine and I were tempted to try the 炸香菇 as well. 的确香脆可口！这还是我第一次尝到不同种类的香菇，如珊瑚香菇。我还试了凉圆，冰冰凉凉QQ，五彩缤纷，应该是太白粉（因为透明）包绿豆、红豆、哈密瓜、葡萄等。不过，有点贵。

Overall comment: The lesson learnt was that, you must really well-planned before you set off for any outing or be prepared for 冒险。还好我们是有惊无险，the FORCE was with us. Haha!!!