-- train ride --

we woke up really early esp. on our 2nd day of the trip. soon it’ll be time for us to gain 1st hand experience riding on the train from Taipei city to Hualien 花莲. definitely excited about this – our very 1st “virgin” train ride in Taiwan! as we've pre-planned our journey and also bought our train tix & breakfast the night before, a stop over was made @ 7-Eleven to purchase some drinks for the train ride on 11 Jan 2007 – it was a breeze traveling out of Taipei city!

we were directed to the right platform to catch our ride and our train was on time – each purchased tix is assigned with a seat number. for our cart, it sure was pretty full for a weekday.

we were pretty much drained + medication intake the night before, we kinda dozed off while watching the scenery. hahaha. nonetheless, resting is much advisable as the upcoming attraction’s not to be missed ~ TAROKO 太鲁阁 NATIONAL PARK ~

some sights we've captured along the way :)




approx 3 hours later, we arrived in Hualien 花莲. once outside the train station, we went in search of Tourist Information Centre to confirm our guided tour (tour agency’s offering NT650 per pax for half day tour) of Taroko National Park. however, we were soon “chased” by a local – wanting to offer us personalized chauffeured service for the tour. he insisted being cheaper (his offer, NT500 per pax) and that it’s better to go with him. another local even tried to offer us NT400 per pax!





"Chased" by a local for personalized tour guide service



fellow travelers, do not be attracted by these CHEAP offers! we spoke to a local (owner of a shop) and was advised that it’s always better to follow guided tour agencies instead – mainly, they are registered companies in Taiwan and usually there’s no other hidden / additional charges as released to the public.

our "breakfast" before the trip



anyway, we went ahead with our guided tour as previously booked the night before –NT 650 per pax. as lunch will not be included in this package, we ta-bao (packed lunch) before boarding our mini-bus for Taroko National Park.



our guide, Mr. Wang was a very interesting and funny guy. he was very polite and apologetic for the late comers (yes, 5 pax were late for the tour due to train delayed~!) approx 30-45 mins later, we set off to our destination. he was informative and provided the group with a quick history of the surroundings around us – just like what a tour guide will do. we found out that a couple of the mountains (towards Taroko’s direction) were actually empty “shells” used to keep fighter plans inside! can you spot the fighter plane in the picture below?



up the hill / mountain we go. TAROKO 太鲁阁NATIONAL PARK is a natural reserve of huge marble rocks and the view was fantastic! it’s a MUST do/go site if you’re visiting Taiwan. the weather was cooling with a right amount of sun for great photo shots! check out the view and pictures we’ve got!

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we took more shots ~ candid ones!

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throughout our Taroko trip, it was mostly sunny with slight rain.
while we rested @ a café closing to the end of our tour, we came to witness the fall of a couple of small rocks from the mountains and they made a really LOUD thump!
it sounded like thunder but just way louder!
the WORKS of NATURE and this is something that we won’t be able to experience in Singapore.
unfortunately, was not able to capture this moment on picture/ video ~ sigh ~

amazingly for Grace, she found her all time favorite dessert (well.. similar to what she had when she was in Japan) in the cafe. it’s a fresh whole strawberry covered with fresh cream in a very thin layer of mochi ~



see a very happie Grace ~ satisfied with the yummy "Xue Mei Niang"!



it was around 5pm when we’re back to civilization and away from the mountains. stumped upon a shop selling fruit wine / vinegar and I got myself a bottle of honey wine.



also ta-bao (packed dinner) from the locals and they were tasty, esp HAKKA dumpling. being curious, we also purchased a box of “train food” 台铁便当. it’s hot when we bought it and tasted a little like Mom’s cooking. WOW!




-- stopping by @ Jhihben 知本 --

approx 3.5 - 4 hours later, we reached Jhihben 知本 also famous for their hot springs. took a cab to our hotel – Rainbow Resort and settled down quickly – looked around and bought us some raw eggs. there’s a sitting area near the Hot Spring pools whereby you can cook yourself hard boiled eggs with their equipment there! totally cool ~!



we were excited as it was our 1st try of tasting eggs boiled from Hot Spring aka volcanic water! our hard boiled eggs tasted somewhat similar to those cooked in water. not much difference however with a hint of sulphur aroma :P

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it was already in the wee hours of the morning when we retire for bed.... zzZzZzZ beat from all that train ride! haha ~!

Happenings @ TPE Day 1

Friday, January 26, 2007 ♥

-- Taipei, here we come! --

it's the 1st day of our trip, the very beginning and we were pretty hyped up!
Simon was really sweet to send us off to the airport and by 6.15am, we're off to Changi Airport. we checked in quickly once there and met up with Jinny, whom just returned from New York and was waiting patiently for us for breakfast. it's been such a long time since i saw her .. erm, in uniform! we had BK breakfast and boy do they serve great croissants with egg ~ yummy ~

we bided our goodbyes with our dear friend and off to the gates --> err, not exactly straight away but abit of detour here n there along Changi DFS shopping. hahaha! kinda lost track of time and we were late entering the gates to the plane. luckily we were not the very last ones to arrive. phew!

-- on the flight --

our flight to Taipei was “eventful”. had a bit of an "accident" along the way and in returned, we picked up 2 boxes of chocolates instead. hahaa ... here's how it happened :P

Ros spotted a box of chocolates under the seat in front of her and we thought that it belonged to the guy in front of us. she wanted to inform the guy but instead got her pants wet --> her hand hit the cup stow and the cup filled with plain water spilled onto her pants. poor gal. luckily for her, it was not hot tea or some liquid in colored else it would've been terrible. on flight crew as helpful, they brought us paper towels and a fresh blanket to keep Ros warm.

however, little did we know that the chocolates do not belong to the guy sitting in front of us. from a single box of chocolates we found 2 instead. oh well, guess it’s gonna be finders keepers!

-- on our way --

we arrived in Taipei approx 4 hours later. picked up our luggage and made our way to the hotel via bus - which dropped us off @ Taipei Main Station (joint station for both MRT and Train). We got kinda lazy with the thought of dragging our stuff via MRT hence we popped into a cab and made our way to the hotel instead. Our hotel is along Chengdu road (nearest to Xi Men MRT station) - Chengdu (Castle Royal) Hotel which is fairly near. Our cab far cost NT 100. Cheap!

once there, Chengdu's staff (Ms. Huang) checked us in and we didn't know we have been upgraded to a 2 bedroom suite until laterz! Ms. Huang has been really helpful during our stay – provided us with ample of support and advice as to where to visit / do what etc in Taipei. after some rest, we headed out to venture around Xi Men Ding. it was a weekday hence the streets of Xi Men Ding was kinda deserted. just right for discovery and shopping at the same time.

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while we waited for Simon & Grace to ETA Taipei, we made our way to try 阿宗面线. hmm, i won’t exactly say that it’s the best mee suan ever cos’ seriously, I think the one in Geylang (Yong He 豆花油条大王) is better ~! shared one with Ros, without chilli. Both of us ain’t in good health to take too spicy stuff! coincidentally, while tasting 阿宗面线 for the 1st time – both of us were greeted with a surprise! the nice SQ staff recognized us and said hi ~ which we couldn’t at 1st sight as they were out of their uniforms :P

as we walked along the many streets of Xi Men Ding, we found a cute little store selling yummy crepes from plain to ham & cheese to chocolate stuffing to …. WOW, just too many to describe!after filling our tummys with yummy crepes, we went in search of the tourist information counter. this has got to be my favorite spot while traveling in Taiwan!

the staff was really helpful and courteous! she helped us searched the net / called the agency with regards to our 花莲 trip (what to do, where to go, which train / time to take from Taipei) and gave us directions around Taipei city. really GREAT service and i was amazed!

how come Singapore standard so different or maybe only to tourists ?!!!

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finally our “lost” companions, Simon & Grace (well, not lost but just different flights lah~!) ETA Taipei, gave us a call and we agreed to meet them @ the hotel. Grace was telling me how HUNGRY she was and she can’t wait for dinner! luckily for them, we found 御膳, 刷刷锅 which is similar to “Sabu Sabu” steamboat that’s very near to our hotel – approx 10 mins walk.

their soup base was fantastic, tasty and brings out the best flavors of the meats and side dishes that we ordered ~ yummy ~ unfortunately, there ain’t that many pictures to share with you as we were famished and too distracted by our yummy dinner to take that many pictures :P





Unlimited ice cream served as dessert~ imagine that! Simon was "STRONG" enough to "TAHAN" the weather to go for it!

we proceeded for some sight seeing to end our 1st day in Taipei.

龙山寺 (Long Shan Temple) one of the oldest temple in Taipei. it was a very grand temple with gold plated figures however a bit too “smoky” due to the incense for my liking. 华西街 (Hua Xi Street) is another sight - also known as Snake Alley. Many tourists / locals will actually go there for a taste of snake’s gall. We saw a HUGE and ALIVE python sliding around an hawker’s leg while the hawker tried to entice us by patrolling his shop.

OMG ~ NO WAY am I stepping foot into that shop ~!!! ‘m not a snake lover!!!

i HATE snakes!

i HATE all SCALY stuff!

another sight to mention was the death of many, many, many turtles 山瑞. along the same stretch of华西街(Hua Xi Street), there was a shop displaying many of these creatures, still alive but WITHOUT their shells!!!

photography was prohibited therefore I cannot share with you any of these HORRIBLE scenes that we’ve witnessed within that short 30 mins! talk about cruelty to animals and i think CHINESE are one of the worse kind ever – i wondered if any activists ever protested around that area!

running along, we roam around one of the night markets near华西街(Hua Xi Street) – it’s our 1st experience of Taiwan’s night market and very much like Singapore’s “Pasar Malam”. on a cheaper price tag but bigger scale in size!

there were food stalls, game stalls and shops selling clothing and accessories. another “annoying” sight were the bikers riding along the night markets, the same walk way as the pedestrians. c’mon seriously ~ is it legal for them to do that?! oblivious to the safety of pedestrians or maybe i’m just not used to their culture?

perhaps i’m just too pampered / used to Singapore roads!

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m back~!

Sunday, January 21, 2007 ♥

my 1st entry after coming back from taiwan...
my 1st thought .... i'm missing the cooling weather of taiwan!!!
~ hahaha ~

we were a lucky bunch, even the locals told us that!
the weather was extremely cold before but on the 1st day we docked, every local was telling us how lucky we were --> well, we simply brought the sun to taiwan for those 7 days :P coincidentally, our home ground - Singapore was wet, wet, wet!

in summary, our trip was fairly interesting and enjoyable with a few ad-hoc decisions aka change of travel plans --> we popped by KaohSiung! unexpectedly but we had fun, shopping and overall a pretty good experience for a rather haste decision too! hahaha.

more updates to come ;)

:: 4 more hours to Taiwan ::

Wednesday, January 10, 2007 ♥

yippie~!!!

counting down to Taiwan in less than 4 hours!
hahaha.. and m still awake! LOL
been a rather hectic TUES as i was still trying to recover from my sore throat, blocked nose - flu and cough hence was on medical on MON. by the time i'm back to office on TUES; hardly much time to clear my emails and off to attend a meeting with my CHN counterpart. by the time i'm done it's lunch time :(

ate in for lunch and its off to quickly finish up my presentation and to also complete my "secret manual" for my dear colleagues - Darren & Iris who will be backing me during my absence :P
*phew* luckily managed to complete it ard 6pm otherwise i might just need to bring my thinkpad to Taiwan liao. pressure~!!!

was suppose to start on SPEED however due to incomplete information, i couldn't do much hence poor Darren will most prob have to back me up on this one too~!
feel so bad.. hv to get Darren BIG present liao. ahaha!

anywayz, my planning for Taiwan below :-

xi meng di
taipei 101 * for beautiful sights
hua xi jie night market - long shan si (oldest temple)
hua lien - tai ru ge (taroko) park
jhihben - hot spring
east rift valley national park
kee lung night market
rao he
wu fen pu *more shopping
tian mu
dan shui
yu ren harbour
yang ming shan * more sight seeing
mei li hua (miramar ferris wheel) park
shilin night market

unfortunately, we're not able to view in person Guess *3 live recording as there's no screening except on 8th & 22nd Jan 2007. darnz~! either it's already over or 'm already back to SIN liao leh!

nontheless, 'm definitely looking forward to flood ya' with pic of my travel with the guys in Taiwan :)

welcoming 2007

Wednesday, January 03, 2007 ♥

countdown @ Thumper

the band was dressed so smartly, music was good and the crowd was great fun.
i drank a little too fast (not alot, mind you~!) but the effect was pretty much ehh... immeidate?! *wahaha*

overall experience still very much enjoyable and ohh, we took a couple of pics that day however will need Ros to d/l it and once i got it, i will share it with ya soon, ok ~ have patience eh?!


movie marathon - Death Note

i like this movie. i like the dark side of human nature~ esp. Light's character!
part 2 has more humor in it esp "L" character - the funny mask, his "weird" eating habits and the way he carrys stuff er.. using only the thumb and index finger! hahaa. really funny!!!




driving

i wonder if i should drive leh~ seriously! i still like being a passenger but for the sake of a better looking CV *sigh* guess wat, my instructor kinda doze off during lesson. wah lao..!
so far, 'm still weak in my U-turn leh *sianz* bends still ok but i have to keep my coolz cos one will never know when the nervous bugz gonna kick in eh? wahaha!

still need more practice.


sleep

've been sleeping alot (i think or at least i hope... ) but not at regular hours, hahaha.. well.. all those late nights are definitely not good for health. then again, it's the holidays so ENJOY while it lasts!