Day 10: 板橋 (Ban Qiao)

I just carried two heavy mattresses from the Communication School located half-way along the mountains, all the way to my hostel, which is at the foot of the mountains.

So, my hands are trembling now. Helpful Gwen went up with me to assist me in carrying another two blankets, and on our way back, she consoled ourselves that we'll have lower chances of getting flabby arms.. Haha, what a way to tone our arms ehh.

I requested for more mattresses cos I was practically sleeping on a wooden board. I think there's some problems with my spine, so sleeping on a hard surface was a torture for me.

Thought I could get used to it after sleeping on it for one week, but no, the pain down my spine and neck (and sometimes head) still continues. I reckoned I better put a stop to it before I return to Singapore in a wheelchair, haha (OK, maybe not that serious-- just that I'm an extremist~).

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Yesterday was spent fruitfully at 板橋 (Ban Qiao). Shuhui wanted to have her book signed by Mayday Ashin so the four of us might as well go there and see how 板橋 looked like.


We alighted at 府中 MRT station and took a few minutes walk to 誠品. There was already a super long queue at level one. And guess what-- the start of the queue was at level eight! Shuhui joined the queue, while the rest of us went to shop at the stores nearby.

When it was about time, we followed the queue to find out where exactly the autograph venue was. We climbed a few storeys of the emergency stairways, gave up and took the escalator inside the building instead.

Perhaps we were lucky, we stood in front of a block the book shelves near the exit at the eighth floor. Ashin came in from the exit, that happened so fast that I didn't manage to take a snapshot of him in time.

But we experienced some cheap thrill by placing our cameras on top of the book shelves to take photos of him.

You know, taking photos during autograph sessions is an art-- so much so it requires skill. You need to press the shutter the moment the fans in front of the artistes move, otherwise the artiste will be blocked and what you captured are the backsides of his/her fans.

Since we got nothing better to do, we engaged in this cheap thrill activity for quite a long time while waiting for Shuhui's turn to arrive. So now, here're the photos:

Shuhui's book, autographed by Ashin. She told Ashin she is from Singapore and requested him to write her name, but he only managed to write a 慧 before his manager said that no penning of names is allowed -_-"

Kudos to Gwen for taking this clear clear photo of Ashin in action!


The wide angle.


The looong queue.


This was how we took photos of Ashin. How unglam. But that's cheap thrill~


Then we got bored and took photos with the books.

Many thanks to 家豪, 家豪's friend 泰權 and 泰權's friend 嘉徽. It's through this kind of indirect friends' referrals that we got to meet bubbly 嘉徽, who grew up in 板橋. We met up with her right after the autograph session; she was a huge fan of Ashin too.

嘉徽 took us to two food stalls that were very well-known at 板橋. I had 油飯 and 綜合湯圓.

The 油飯 tasted like glutinous rice / rice dumpling. NT25.

綜合湯圓 had peanuts, red bean, yam, glutinous rice balls, and other chewy bits. NT35. Yum yum!

嘉徽 kept saying that there's nothing much to see at 板橋, the more famous sightseeing place will be 林家花園 (Lins' Garden). According to her, this huge house once belonged to a very wealthy family in the past. There were man-made mountains etc to signify their status. And now it's become a tourist destination, for people who are interested to take a look at how a rich man's place was like in the past.

Entrance fee was NT50, we didn't really want to pay to go in, so we cheapo-ly took photos outside, haha.

See the broken glasses on top of the wall? That's to deter thieves from entering the house, unless they didn't mind being injured by the glasses.

嘉徽 told us the windows were made in the shape of an opened book (書卷) to add a touch of literature feel to the building.


Nice rows of lanterns outside the Lins' Garden.


A fire engine stopped outside there too, don't ask me why, haha.



Artistes make me high. That's Cherry Boom. I think they are the ambassadors for a blood donation drive. :)

We walked around, shopped around and I bought three clothes at NT300 and a pair of sneakers at NT100. I start to envy Taiwanese people. They can get real nice stuff at such good bargain! No wonder everyone gets to dress prettily. A pair of decent looking pumps costs as affordable as NT190-- that's half of the price in Singapore!

We were walking to another street to shop more when we saw another queue outside 玫瑰唱片(Rose Records). Then we realised it was 楊宗緯's autograph session out there. Wanted to go up and take a glimpse but was stopped by the sales assistants who were managing the crowd.


嘉徽 makes a really good tour guide cos she took us to places we might not chance upon if we were to walk around by ourselves. It's really different where there's a Taiwanese to show us the places around an area. 家豪, you're damn right this time. I couldn't help but to agree with you man. :)

It was time to go return to the hostel, and 嘉徽 sent us to the metro station. Thank you so much, babe, for letting me know more about 板橋!


P.S. 嘉徽's classmate is 星光四少's 周定緯, what a coincidence! We urged her to tell us some stories about him and she did. Wahhhahaha~

P.P.S. I also told her why 板橋 had a negative connotation that's associated with mentally-ill people in Singapore a few years back. She was quite surprised when she heard of that.