Hello Formosa!!! (18/12 - 25/12/2010)
Here's the definitive edition of my awesome Taiwan adventure, hmm... still wouldn't call it an 'adventure' but oh wells... it kinda was hahaha.
Day 1 (18/12/2010)
Continuing from the post before, I didn't sleep before going to the airport XD
We watched Initial D until around 130am before I went upstairs to take a shower and finalize my packing, like double checking things to bring and what not. I went through that phase again where I walk around the house thinking and thinking to make sure I didn't leave anything I need behind so it wouldn't be so troublesome while I'm enjoying my time in Taiwan... so... walked around and around and still have that feeling of something is missing but yet I have no idea what =.=
... And then after I was done with everything Mum said she couldn't find the keys to her room /facepalm... so we looked for it, yeah, we LOOKED for it and it took us about 10mins or so before she gave up and we left xD
Bags in the car boot, got in the car, locked the gates, drove out... slowly xD while everyone in the car brainstormed if they'd left anything behind. And so, no one did. Thank God, we left.
Got to Uncle Henry's around 245am - 300am I think, sat around and walked around while they do their own preps... took some random photos outside... didn't know why. We stuffed our luggage into Uncle Henry's car since we're leaving our car at his place for the week, and waited for the remainder of the people to arrive... And here's how our carpooling works:
- Our family are going with Uncle Henry.
- Don't know the rest, but all the drivers of the carpool vehicles are to be driven to the airport by Uncle Jimmy, who isn't going with us to Taiwan.
So, didn't even know why, Uncle Jimmy turned up at Uncle Henry's... Uncle Henry, confused, started calling people asking how they are going to the airport... But I don't see the point in all the confusion, the plan is that everyone drives their people to the airport, drive their car(s) back to where they started and then let Uncle Jimmy pick every single one of them up to the airport and then drop them off, done.
But ANYWAYS, there isn't space left for Mum in the car... so she waited for Aunt Winnie to come pick her up to the airport, therefore we left first to the airport around 330am.
Got to the airport around nearly 4am, and by the time we got there most of the peeps were already there waiting and talking xD mini-reunion!! Met my roomie for the first time, Rica's Mr. Right, Terry.
Yeah, we still have room assignments xD
Our tour operator representative arrived after us, Maureen, checked us in.
Checking in was long xD ... and was funny at the same time. Photos explain themselves. Basically I started my photography session. Once again I thought I was on window seat but at the end it wasn't even close to me =.=
The sunrise on the plane was magnificent. It was beaut as! - Alastair had three free seats to himself on the way to TPE =.= and he slept like a beast. One more thing to note, on national Airasia flights, they have a new feature that lets you use your phone 10,000 feet above the ground! Available for Maxis users, once the "no phone" signal is switched off you can turn on your phone as per normal and use all calling, txting, mms-ing features as much as you want.
We arrived at Taipei around 915am and it wasn't long before everyone thought it was cold. So, everyone put their jackets on. And then for some reason Aunt Alice was quarantined XDXD ... no, it wasn't funny to everyone but to some of us, it was really funny. While we were walking through the heat scanner thing when we arrived, they sensed that her body temp was around fever level, hence, 38'c... so they pushed her aside and checked for H1N1 symptoms... er... but anyways, this was what her husband, Uncle Raymond said: "she's probably too excited to be in Taiwan that she's giving off so much heat" XDXD
Took some pics on arrival, lined up at immigration to get our passports stamped and...
HELLO FORMOSA!!! :D the land I've always wanted to set foot on!!! HAHAHA
Took our bags and then walked out. And boy it was awesome XD ... the first of the thou-millions of Taiwan's 7-11 we saw... is at the arrival area lmao.
Hopped on our tour bus, before that we met our awesome-hot-pretty-cute (based on the guys' standard i.e. Me, Alastair and Graham xD) tour guide, Ah-Ya. And so, we were soon on our way to Window on China Theme Park - "qiao ren guo", minaturized cities and/including the 7 wonders of the world + a Doraemon theme park xD ... it was about an hour or so drive from the airport, so we took some time to learn more about our awesome-hot-pretty-cute tour guide Ah Ya.
When we arrived at Window on China, we had lunch at Hakka Cuisine, the name explains what we ate... So no need to explain lah. But we were in so much rush lmao XD dishes came one after another and then 5mins into lunch desserts were served and placed on our table XDXD ... so rushed XD and just like hotel roomie assignments, the youths were on the same table. After lunch we proceeded on our tour, Ah Ya took us into the main gate and then just gave us some maps and a bit intro on the park and then let us off to go wherever we want, as long as we all meet at the point we were let go. I like. Tours like these are much more better, since you have your freedom to do/go wherever you want to go and do. Maybe it's cos it's a private family tour and we all know each other lmao XD ... o wells.
Had those strawberry sweet things for the first time. So nice ><
Also had Taiwanese sausages for the first time. So nice ><
Walked around and around and then for some reason everyone went on the splash coaster without me - not that I was scared, but it was kinda ma fan cos then you get wet and you don't have a change of clothes... but I went on their 2nd round XDXD ... the pictures taken before we went splash was lmao XD my hair got all wet.
After that we just walked more around the park. Basically it's a mixture of both theme park and minature displays in one place. Never been to a theme park in my life I think, so make this one a first. We were there for a long time... I think we got there around 1130 and we left around 430... Then for night market we went to Yizhong night market at Taizhong to catch our first taste of Taiwanese night market scene - lots of people, lots of mopeds to dodge, lots of things to eat, lots of things to sell. AND... I went into Taiwan's 7-11 for the first time! ... And all I did was to get my money changed into small amounts so it's easier to buy food etc.
SMELLY TOFU OMG... We were walking around and we were wondering what that awful stench hovering around + several accusations of "who farted?" and "who took a dump on the street?!"... so we spotted smelly tofu. Mum bought some, Terry and I tried it... and boy... it was nice... it does taste nice, but then... it brings some of that smell before into your mouth... so imagine what the feeling of eating something that smells so bad and yet tastes nice... Overall, my first time eating smelly tofu and I have to put it as, interesting food.
And then we hopped back on the bus after an hour or so of night market to go have dinner at a restaurant before going to our hotel. Our hotel room was small compared to the others... but it's ok, since we're only going to be in Taizhong for a night before we head down to Kaoshiung. We went to 7-11 near our hotel around after we checked in and stuff, bought Yakult XDXD ... because, to have Yakult in Taiwan makes more sense... didn't know why, but that's what I think. Also had some sausages from the stall downstairs outside the lobby.
We got back to our rooms around 1130ish I think, showered, Terry and I watched some HKnese movie "Hong Kong Bronx" or something before we crashed.
Day 2 (19/12/2010)
I honestly thought I'd left my camera charger IN MALAYSIA =.= o.m.g. I looked for it in the morning... I gave up, since Pam's got the same camera as me so it wouldn't hurt to use her charger instead. And my camera's running out of juice after all the photo taking from yesterday =.=
We got morning called at 630am... I think Terry - Rica's bf and my awesome roomie, who's an Iban-Sarawakian picked up the phone and had no idea what the person over the phone was saying, so he hung up after the caller finished xD but of course, Terry takes Mandarin in uni along with Rica XD - the fact that I was told by himself last night.
Got up, washed up, got changed. And then ready to head out of our rooms. I think we're one of the first few who'd got up early right after the morning call... packed our bags and left them in our rooms since we're gonna head back up to take them out.
Breakfast = disgusting.
Eddy, Graham, Alastair says, "NO BACON?!?!" XDXDXDXD
After breakfast = On our way to Tainan!!!
Saw someone who looked just like Rays when we arrived at Fort Provincia. And didn't know after the kids playing darts the adults joined in XD
Took our first group photo there.
After Fort Provincia we walked An Ping Lao Jie, old street of some sort where we had lunch. After lunch we walked the street... Melissa and I walked the whole area in a short time and on the way we bought pretzels and then we just sat on the chairs outside 7-11 eating our pretzels and our 7-11 slurpies XDXD ... ooh yeah, took a picture with the only 7-11 statue in the world. Don't know how to explain it but it was one of a kind I guess? Because while we were sitting there having our little relaxation time a lot of people walked in and took photos with it.
Waited for everyone to meet up at 7-11 before heading off to this temple near Kaoshiung, took a little break there so I went to look for my charger again in my bag, so I found it buried deep under the side of the luggage =.= ... luckily there's power plugs on the bus for me to charge. Phew. After temple we went to "Shi jue zhang yue shi" or Shinkuchan Night Market at Kaoshiung. And again, lots and lots of things to buy. I bought a cellphone pouch XD tofu monster? Walked and walked for hours looking at things ... so cheap >< and guess what I found at Shinkuchan... STAY REAL!!! OMG!!! 'THAT' shop >< I walked in, and I bought something. MAN! What an experience XDXD
Stay Real = 'that' shop I always wanted to shop in if I'm in Taiwan.
Then we all met at our rendezvous point before getting on the bus to have our dinner. Dinner was quite nice.
Eddy, Graham and Alastair says, "It was much better compared to yesterday's dinner... maybe the food gets better and better towards the last few days..." XDXDXDXD
After dinner we went to our hotel in Kaoshiung. Lee's Boutique Hotel. Checked in, and then everyone just went back downstairs to kuang jie since it's early... some of us went for a walk around the shoe shops nearby and some us went to a corner food shop to have goose/geese meat + Taiwan Beer.
Taiwan Beer = Quite nice. I really liked it. We had heaps XDXD
And did I mentioned after that the youths went out again to takeaway McDs back to the hotel...
Ordering at McDs = LMAO... we had no idea how to say "takeaway" when they asked... so the first person said "tai zou" then the rest followed. They spoke so fast, all Alastair did was nod, pick what he wants to eat, and say "um" and "tai zou" XDXD
Back to hotel, had our McDs. Regular drinks so big de? And by the way, McDs in Taiwan, are actually open 24hrs. No, not their drive-thru, they don't even have that. Walk-in 24hrs.
Had a little story time/family tree explanation-history class/family facts and/or fiction - my Mum took it. She was on her way in and was about to take the lift back to her room before we dragged her over. We talked until 1am. My childhood 'secrets' ... spilled =.=
Day 3 (20/12/2010)
The biggest buzz of the morning: "BACON!!!!" XDXDXD
Thank God, the buffet breakfast in this hotel is like... the awesomest... Terry and I got up quite early, I think no one picked up the morning call, but I had my phone as alarm... so we got up around then and washed up before heading downstairs to have our nice breakfast. Graham and co. were the last ones to come down. But... THERE'S BACON!! A LOT OF THEM!! ... never thought having bacon in Taiwan can be so over-buzzed hahaha...
After breakfast we whisked our way to the former British consulate office at Dagou/Kaoshiung, back in the days Kaoshiung was called "Dagou"... at least that's what I was told. Anyways, it was up a hill and the scenery there is quite good, can overlook the whole city at one side. And we took our second group picture there hahaha... And we came across something weird, sausages made out of squid juice? (you know, the black ones that they squirt out when they're in harms way?) yeah that... it was weird, no one tasted it. But we took pictures of it instead.
Went to Meinong Village Market to have our lunch soon afterwards, where everyone sung me a Happy Birthday song :D several versions to be honest, including Hakka XD ... ahh~~~ then after lunch we walked around the market, looking at various things to buy... and I bought quite a lot of little bits and pieces, including a big as bottle of Coke... 600mls of it. Then we hopped back on the bus and whisked ourselves to Fo Guang Shan Temple, the 'head office' of the organisation, which is also the largest Buddhist monastery in Taiwan, and it's up a hill... and we had to walk all the way up there. But honestly, there's a lot of statues including a giant one right at the top. And apparently it houses a 'college' for monks... and they play basketball!
After Fo Guang Shan Temple we went to Kaoshiung city district's huge as... HUGE AS Dream Mall, the largest shopping mall in Taiwan and also East Asia.
Suddenly got the right inspiration to buy my exchange gifts there from Sophisca, which sells mainly choc confectionery stuff, but the packaging is what matters - they come in lots and lots of varieties, ranging from normal packaging, tampons, sanitary pads, to condom packaging and even Chinese medicine packaging XDXD... I ended up buying a sanitary pad marshmellow-choc for my exchange present. So at Dream Mall, I bought a lot of things... whoever went to Sasa before should know what I bought, esp. for mothers hahhaha
Then we had Taiwan's famous beef noodle 'niu rou mien' near downtown. The whole shop's filled with pictures of the owner taken with famous Taiwanese models, actresses, game show hosts etc.
Graham and Eddy says, "I don't see how this guy's beef noodle's so awesome... it just tastes like normal beef noodles..." XDXDXD
And then the owner came around us and told us that we can add extra noodles and/or beef if there's not enough... AND... he touched Graham on the shoulders lmao... then:
Eddy and Beatrice says, "He touched you!! oh man... maybe he likes you!!... don't wash your t-shirt when you get home... frame it too!" XDXDXD
Anyways, after we all finished we took a picture with the owner. Was interesting.
Liouhe Night Market was up next, and again, lots and lots of people, food and things to buy. Had the famous papaya thickshake which was really thick =.= too thick for that matter. Walked and walked, bought some more stuff... I think a t-shirt or something. Was interesting. And then...
Graham and Eddy says, "O.M.G... CONDOM WORLD!!!... HAHAHAH!!!!" XDXDXD "Should we go in??" ... *snapped, took a picture with it*
We ended up not going in, because we had to go already.
The bus ride back to our hotel was eventful. Ah Ya, our awesome-hot-pretty-cute tour guide started going on about how there are two people's plane tickets back to Malaysia had run into some problems, and that the two people involved should hand in their passports to double check otherwise the two would not be able to catch the same flight back to Malaysia on the 25th... and the two involved:
Ah Ya says, "E-d-m-u-n-d T-s-e-n and T-e-r-r-y S-i-g-a-t etc. etc." *in a serious tone*...
And then sorta like a "SURPRISE JUST KIDDING!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!" thing she said, "particularly Edmund ho... because IT'S HIS BIRTHDAY TODAY!!!"
=.= never thought I'd get gotcha'ed in Taiwan. So... everyone on the bus sung 'Happy Birthday' again to me... man... honestly, it felt more emotional than the one at lunch... because, Maureen and Ah Ya bought me a nice as cake!!!
Got back to our hotel, cut the cake... and sung 'Happy Birthday' again, in Malay this time... and other languages echoing one after another... the cake, caramel topped cake. It looked expensive, either that in Taiwan, everything related to food looks just beautiful. Took pics etc. And Erica gave me a wooden postcard which as everyone's signature on it >< Thanks guys!!
Went to sleep ... late. No pictures were taken after the cakes. Because no one did :P
Day 4 (21/12/2010)
Morning called again. Picked up the phone, and said "huh..." then hung up XD
Everyone was tired *cough* cakeover?
Breakfast once again, BACON!!!
And since we're moving hotels again tonight, going back up to Taizhong, we packed our bags again and headed downstairs.
Long drive to Sun Moon Lake district where we had our lunch. Lunch was ok. Chicken was WARM!!! - it's been a couple of days since we had proper heated chicken as dishes, so excuse us :D didn't know why, little toilet rush after lunch. And then we went to the Sun Moon Lake scenic view area and some of us went down the Wenwu Steps of the Year where there's 366 steps leading towards the lake downhill and they each represent the dates of the year. So, the dumb ones actually went all the way to January to find their birthdates and then we all had to bear the burden by walking back up to December 31st =.= oh wells, at least as a reward we bought ourselves san ju rou sausages. They tasted so good ><
Went to watch the peacocks afterwards, we laughed at one peacock which opened its wings but then seemed like it couldn't close it back XD and it was heavy too I think, because it was struggling to walk. Then hopped on the bus again, went further downhill to Mau's House - a traditional san di ren place.
Next we went had a long drive back to Taizhong, towards Feng Jia Night Market - yet again, everything is in huge quantities, food, people, stalls, lots of stuff. Walked and walked... man my foot hurt... it's just walking and walking, you're walking, you're buying a lot of things, you're carrying things. And there's one problem in Taiwan... THERE ARE NO RUBBISH BINS AROUND!! So when you buy something to eat, plastic bags they give you, wrappers they give you, skewers from sausages they give you... no idea where to throw them... the only one place they'd put their bins is in the middle of the night market, the other places, sorry mate.
Dinner amongst the night market... before heading back to our hotel in Taizhong, we're staying in a completely different hotel room tonight. We like this one. The room Terry and I got... Japanese-style hotel room - wooden floor, sliding paper doors... boy! And then again, we all met up at the lobby to head out for a walk since we got back quite early.
Everyone says, "CARREFOUR!!!"
Everyone says, "Kinder Bueno white chocolates... CHEAP!!!"
Graham and Eddy says, "ALCOHOL SO CHEAP!!!... and every drink is oversized!!!"
Everyone says, "Everything is oversized!!" --> don't believe? check the picture of that massive as chicken wing.
Honestly, HONESTLY... Carrefour won us over for being the best supermarket we've been in Taiwan lmao XD ... Kinder Bueno white chocs cost about NZD1.50... not just that, it's for the price of 3 packs. 1 pack in Malaysia, RM6. 3 packs in Taiwan, RM6...
Alcohol, Absolute Vodka in Kiwiland, NZD45-50. Same product in Taiwan + free gift, NZD25. HONESTLY... throw a group of Malaysian youngsters into Carrefour they can be there for hours. Literally.
Carrefour = Taiwanese "Giant" (Malaysia) or "Pak n Save" (NZ).
Funny moment: Checked out with Kinder Buenos and a huge 1l can of Heineken... and I wanted to pay with my Visa Debit card. Since it was around nearly late thought I'd give it a try... who knew, it wouldn't go through and the cashier kept trying to swipe and swipe... and we were laughing, while a Taiwanese woman behind us were looking quite frustrated... so I paid in cash and we walked away laughing like idiots lmao.
After Carrefour we were determined to find some place else to hang out... we found a cake shop that opens for 24hrs... but we all ended up back into the lobby and to the basement kitchen/conference room to Facebook while the boys actually watched Robocop on tv xD
Finished off around 1230am and we all went to sleep around... late.
Day 5 (22/12/2010)
Breakfast, was once again, disgusting and no bacon =.=
We were only staying for one night before heading to Taipei. So didn't even bother unpack.
Our first destination of the day: Shenken Tofu Street at East Taipei... so 630am means that we're heading off around 8am for the long bus ride there. Arrived there:
Alastair says, "Tofu looks nice..." (actually referring to the tofu sold on the stall).
Graham says, "What tofu? I meant the chick selling the tofu..."
XDXDXD
So, a picture was snapped by me, and as always, on Facebook. Caption: "Nice tofu".
Nothing was interesting at Shenken Tofu Street... only that mum bought more food stuff.
While we waited for the bus, our little miss sunshine, Rayner performed a dance for us to see. Then the bus came lmao.
Drove the remaining miles to Taipei and had lunch...Steamboat. No joke. Food was great. Then after lunch...
TAIPEI 101!!!
- The world's tallest building from 2004 - 2010.
- Holds the world's fastest elevators 2004 - 2010. 60km/h.
- 502m.
Taipei 101 experience, awesome! :)
Oh, also one thing...
Graham and Alastair says, "We're gonna take a dump on the 89th floor... and we're gonna be the ones to take a dump on the world's 2nd tallest building!"
Eddy says, "I'm going to pee on the 91st floor, and I'm gonna be the one to take a pee higher than youse!"
XDXDXD and so we did.
After Taipei 101 we went to Wufenpu Night Market, where they only sell clothes... a lot of them. And that's when I saw the Taiwanese person of the day, Kevin CJL XDXD ... initially he saw Alastair and Graham in a jeans shop... and not me, since I was walking with Pam and Mel... then while the two girls were buying some stuff I tried to look for him and he found me first XD. Took a pic. Lol... was weird seeing someone you know in Taiwan that's... Taiwanese XD.
Anyhow, after long long long walk at Wufenpu, we went to another night market, Raohe Street Night Market. This night market is quite short, so it was ok.
Finally went to dinner. Steamboat dinner again. This time we get our own cooker.
Dinner done, went to our Taipei hotel... SLv Hotel, somewhere not near Taipei City centre.
Hotel room, AWESOME!!! It's got a sofa, a mini kitchen, coffee table, dining table, desk... it's like, a small apartment... man. So good! The best hotel room I've been so far.
Mucked around before going to sleep. No youth-gatherings tonight.
Day 6 (23/12/2010)
Morning called again, 630am... I picked up the phone, and I hung up again XD
I got up first, then after I washed up Terry got up... and I think we were a bit late, but who cares...
It's our first morning in Taipei and ... there's no bacon =.=... In fact, our bacon craze is starting to hurt, especially to the boys like us...
Anyways, after breakfast we were then hopped onto the bus again, on our way to Zhongshan to visit the National Revolutionary Martyrs' Shrine, dedicated to the people dead in the war of China. We got there just in time to see the guards change their shifts, these guards, are almost like the ones in London - they don't move at all, just... stiff like a statue. Well, let's just say, living statues that change shifts in about every... couple of hours or so. Shift changes' marching and what not, took a while... don't see the point in that, but oh wells, they put up a good show for us to watch xD
We then hopped onto the bus again, and went to some jade place where feng shui people talk about their stuff and then offered services such as "shuan ming" (life... calculation?)... yeah, not that we believe in those stuff, but out of curiosity most of us did... and the things they tell you were quite interesting, to be honest. Hmm... After that, a short bus ride took us to Miramar Entertainment Shopping complex. Walked and walked... although it wasn't as big as Dream Mall... it's still big lol...
After Miramar, we went to National Palace Museum to view the ancient arts...
The youths say, "This is boring... =.="
Our feet hurts. And nothing interests us... it's more like an old people museum...
Then we went to Chiang Kai Shek's Residential Park, to walk around... well, take a walk in the park, snap some more photos as well as that we get to see Chiang Kai Shek's house! XD ... although we weren't allowed to go in... after that we went to Shilin Night Market, according to some people, it's one of the best night markets? But anyhow, night markets have been the norm over the past 5 days so... everything was pretty much the same as the other ones, smelly tofu smell, lots of people, lots of clothes, lots of food... although... Graham actually went and bought smelly tofu all by himself, and had tried to eat it himself... and then after a few bites he threw the whole thing into the bin XDXDXD
Graham says, "How do you even eat this?!... It's just so hard to eat... where's the bin... *throws*" XDXDXD
At Shilin Night Market, we also had the Da Da Ji Pai (Big Big Chicken Chop)... Ah Ya shuo ne, it's as big as your face and recommends us to go give it a try... so we did. It's huge no doubt. Taste-wise, ok ok de... Apparently, Jasmine says it's not as nice as the other ones at Shilin Night Market... hmm.
Dinner at a restaurant called "Frogs"... and just because of the name, some people on our table...
Audrey says, "Is that a frog leg in our soup?!"
(By then everyone starts examining the soup contents... some say it's not, some say it is...)
So no, there isn't anything froggy in our soup... nor did we eat any.
Back to hotel at around quite early, so me, Alastair, Graham, Audrey and Uncle Henry walked to 7-11 to buy stuff and then we had a little pao mien gathering in my room. Opened the cans of alcohol we bought in Carrefour the other night. Watched TV. People taking turns going on Facebook with my computer =.=
We slept quite late. Since morning call the next day, our last day, is at 8am.
Day 7 (24/12/2010)
I think Terry picked up this morning's call... not that I heard anything, most likely he didn't...
Breakfast was teh usual, before heading off to Yehliu Geopark, to look at the various geological formations from aeolian (wind) processes as well as wave processes/action on the coastline.
The bus ride there was quite long, so Ah Ya managed to play some Bingo with us XDXDXD the whole game was just so funny, the three boys at the back, Me, Graham and Alastair couldn't stop laughing. Graham needed 2-3 more numbers to Bingo and Alastair had one left - but then he lost out XDXDXD and we all threw our sheets down to the floor and went "AH YAH!!!!" really loud lmao. So the 2nd game ensued, this time it was sudden death, so whoever's number gets called out first will be eliminated. Uncle Raymond, probably didn't even listen to the instructions Ah Ya gave - which was "do not rip out the numbers on your sheets because we'll need to play again later"... he did exactly that because he 'got angry' and gave up, and so Ah Ya gave her a new sheet...
The first number goes to Uncle Raymond LMAO!!!
Eddy, Graham and Alastair says, "ROFLMAO!!! XDXDXD"
Graham says, "No use he got new sheet, still didn't help him XDXDXD"
XDXDXD man...
Then we played "Guess the Number" - where a starting person wants everyone else to guess a number he chose between 1 and 100, and whoever gets the number loses and has to get his/her face crayoned. So e.g. if the number was 76, and someone says 70, the host will say "it's between 70 and 76", so the gap closes and the loser would be determined if he/she guesses 76, or the person sitting next will be the loser if he/she calls out 75.
Who knew, Uncle Raymond hit his own jackpot and had his face crayoned. First round. ROFLMAO. Yet again...
Eddy, Graham and Alastair says, "ROFLMAO!!! XDXDXD"
XDXDXD
Of course, the boys sitting at the back of the bus escaped harm... because we had arrived at our destination.
Anyways, when we arrived, we saw quite a few attractions, Lion's Head, and oh, the most popular attraction, Queen's Head - a rock shaped just like a head with a crown by processes over ten thousand years. The fact that we had to line up just take pictures with it/of it... was an interesting experience. Never once in my life I despise Chinese Mainland visitors so much... there's a meaning towards "line up before one another", and "don't jump infront of people's photos" =.= please.
We then had lunch nearby. Seafood.
Jioufen Market was next on the menu, BUT... it was stormy weather... and everyone got drenched. And it was cold. LOL at us sheltering nearby. I regretted not bringing my hoodie jumper... instead I brought my hood-less jumper =.= walked around, Mum bought more food stuff... Mochis in particular.
Then we rode back to Taipei City to visit the Chiang Kai Shek memorial place. It was rainy... so we didn't get to walk around much, but rather, most people stayed on the bus, while others took the chance to use their toilets.
Traffic in Taipei is quite bad I guess... since it's Friday night, took us quite a while to get downtown, to visit the Vigor Kobo cakeshop. They sell lots of high quality baking stuff, like pineapple pastry thingys, to cakes. Up after dinner...
Everyone says, "SHIMENDING!!!"
Hoping to see any pop singers and idols wandering around the streets, we didn't. Instead, a couple of teens singing away Christmas carols in the middle of the street. And I had the worst pearl milk tea ever in Taiwan... no way.
Us boys had fun in Sony Ericsson store. Nuff said. XD
A couple of students ambushed Graham earlier to buy their product or something, and this is what happened...
Students: "COME BUY OUR STUFF!!! *drags*"
Graham: "Uh... uh... but I don't have any money..."
Alastair: "..."
Students: "Awww reallyyy?"
Graham: "Yeah, ask my brother *points to Alastair*"
Students rambled more and more about their product and how a purchase could mean a lot. You know, standard sales-marketing technique.
Graham: "Um, how about this, I'll go find my mum and ask her for money and then we'll come back, is that ok?"
Students: "OK!!! :D we'll wait for you right here!!!"
*runs away*
XD
So when we were walking back towards our meet up point for bus pick up, he suddenly remembered that the students are going to wait for him to come back XDXD... so, like fugitives, we walked the aisles instead of the main street hoping to avoid them. And so we did lmao...
After a long time at Shimending, we went back to hotel to finish off the night. The family's having a little Christmas Eve gathering at the dining area near the lobby, where we exchange gifts and stuff we bought while in Taiwan. It was pretty funny XDXD... but the details are not being disclosed here due to privacy reasons :) but for all we know, Terry got my gift *cough* and I got his.
There was a little afterparty after the gathering in my room, where the details too, are not disclosed :D for all we know, our morning call's at 5am and we went to sleep around 130am. We also Skyped Elaine, who couldn't be with us since she's still over in the UK.
Day 7 (25/12/2010)
Merry Christmas to everyone.
Terry and I overslept. We heard lots and lots of knocking and bell ringing on our door... so I opened the door and...
Erica says, "WHAT THE HELL?! WAKE UP!!!"
Mum (walking behind her) says, "HUH?! WHAT'S THE TIME?!"
Eddy says, "WHAT.... =.= calm down... man man lai... *closes door*...."
XDXDXD ... funny thing was when Erica screamed, her boy boy Terry jumped out of bed.
Thank God we packed everything the night before... so the only thing we rushed was putting our clothes on and washing up and packing the last few things into the bag. But who knew... we weren't the late ones =.=
Left the hotel around 6ish? Drive to Taoyuan Airport was quite long... so we had breakfast on the bus.
Sunrise soon came... and we arrived at the airport to check in our stuff and bid farewell to our awesome-hot-pretty-cute tour guide, Ah Ya.
Checking in was quite long so Graham and I teased Pam about her moles XD ...
After we bid farewell to our awesome-hot-pretty-cute Ah Ya, we had heaps of time to spare before boarding so some of us went around duty free shopping. I bought a bottle of Black Label, which cost me around... NZD35. Honestly, for a bottle that costs NZD120 in NZ... it's something to remember XD bought other stuff too... need to use up all the TWD we exchanged.
So lastly, around 930am, we bid farewell to Formosa, and returned to Malay-land.
Teh Ending...
All in all, our first experience in Taiwan was truly an amazing one. Whether is for the food, or for the culture, or for the youth culture of the country, every place we visited was truly an experience to enjoy... except the National Palace Museum (for the youths...).
The smelly tofu we've always dreamed of having... a real experience and also a real test for your tastebuds and your sense of smell. Oh, also the relationship between your tastebuds and your nose. They cannot work together if you're eating smelly tofu.
The various food of Taiwan we wanted to try out, also, makes more sense if we're having those food in Taiwan. E.g. You can always eat niu rou mien in NZ or Malaysia... but having the same dish in Taiwan makes more sense, because it's where the food come from!
The night markets of Taiwan - a lot of people, a lot of scooters to dodge, a lot of food, a lot of clothes, a lot of little bits and pieces, a lot of gift ideas to fill. Imagine you're a Taiwanese living in Taiwan... night market every night bro!
The 7-11s of Taiwan - 'that' experience of 'being Taiwanese' when you're not. Yes, we do have 7-11s here in Malaysia, but it's never as good as Taiwan ones. It means more to visit a 7-11 in Taiwan than in Malaysia.
Carrefour - Everything is oversized. And cheap.
"I pissed on the 91st floor of Taipei 101", something I'll never forget XDXD
There's a lot of things to sum up about Taiwan, but a picture paints a thousand words. Photos mean more than words. So the millions of photos I took while in Taiwan, can make an awesome photo book.
If someone asks me if I want to go back to Taiwan again, I would almost certainly say yes.
Having lots of Taiwanese friends, now I know why they always have to go back there for the whole summer.
Formosa, we'll meet again sometime in the future.
:: Adios Formosa!!! ::
Edweenie ^^
Day 1 (18/12/2010)
Continuing from the post before, I didn't sleep before going to the airport XD
We watched Initial D until around 130am before I went upstairs to take a shower and finalize my packing, like double checking things to bring and what not. I went through that phase again where I walk around the house thinking and thinking to make sure I didn't leave anything I need behind so it wouldn't be so troublesome while I'm enjoying my time in Taiwan... so... walked around and around and still have that feeling of something is missing but yet I have no idea what =.=
... And then after I was done with everything Mum said she couldn't find the keys to her room /facepalm... so we looked for it, yeah, we LOOKED for it and it took us about 10mins or so before she gave up and we left xD
Bags in the car boot, got in the car, locked the gates, drove out... slowly xD while everyone in the car brainstormed if they'd left anything behind. And so, no one did. Thank God, we left.
Got to Uncle Henry's around 245am - 300am I think, sat around and walked around while they do their own preps... took some random photos outside... didn't know why. We stuffed our luggage into Uncle Henry's car since we're leaving our car at his place for the week, and waited for the remainder of the people to arrive... And here's how our carpooling works:
- Our family are going with Uncle Henry.
- Don't know the rest, but all the drivers of the carpool vehicles are to be driven to the airport by Uncle Jimmy, who isn't going with us to Taiwan.
So, didn't even know why, Uncle Jimmy turned up at Uncle Henry's... Uncle Henry, confused, started calling people asking how they are going to the airport... But I don't see the point in all the confusion, the plan is that everyone drives their people to the airport, drive their car(s) back to where they started and then let Uncle Jimmy pick every single one of them up to the airport and then drop them off, done.
But ANYWAYS, there isn't space left for Mum in the car... so she waited for Aunt Winnie to come pick her up to the airport, therefore we left first to the airport around 330am.
Got to the airport around nearly 4am, and by the time we got there most of the peeps were already there waiting and talking xD mini-reunion!! Met my roomie for the first time, Rica's Mr. Right, Terry.
Yeah, we still have room assignments xD
Our tour operator representative arrived after us, Maureen, checked us in.
Checking in was long xD ... and was funny at the same time. Photos explain themselves. Basically I started my photography session. Once again I thought I was on window seat but at the end it wasn't even close to me =.=
The sunrise on the plane was magnificent. It was beaut as! - Alastair had three free seats to himself on the way to TPE =.= and he slept like a beast. One more thing to note, on national Airasia flights, they have a new feature that lets you use your phone 10,000 feet above the ground! Available for Maxis users, once the "no phone" signal is switched off you can turn on your phone as per normal and use all calling, txting, mms-ing features as much as you want.
We arrived at Taipei around 915am and it wasn't long before everyone thought it was cold. So, everyone put their jackets on. And then for some reason Aunt Alice was quarantined XDXD ... no, it wasn't funny to everyone but to some of us, it was really funny. While we were walking through the heat scanner thing when we arrived, they sensed that her body temp was around fever level, hence, 38'c... so they pushed her aside and checked for H1N1 symptoms... er... but anyways, this was what her husband, Uncle Raymond said: "she's probably too excited to be in Taiwan that she's giving off so much heat" XDXD
Took some pics on arrival, lined up at immigration to get our passports stamped and...
HELLO FORMOSA!!! :D the land I've always wanted to set foot on!!! HAHAHA
Took our bags and then walked out. And boy it was awesome XD ... the first of the thou-millions of Taiwan's 7-11 we saw... is at the arrival area lmao.
Hopped on our tour bus, before that we met our awesome-hot-pretty-cute (based on the guys' standard i.e. Me, Alastair and Graham xD) tour guide, Ah-Ya. And so, we were soon on our way to Window on China Theme Park - "qiao ren guo", minaturized cities and/including the 7 wonders of the world + a Doraemon theme park xD ... it was about an hour or so drive from the airport, so we took some time to learn more about our awesome-hot-pretty-cute tour guide Ah Ya.
When we arrived at Window on China, we had lunch at Hakka Cuisine, the name explains what we ate... So no need to explain lah. But we were in so much rush lmao XD dishes came one after another and then 5mins into lunch desserts were served and placed on our table XDXD ... so rushed XD and just like hotel roomie assignments, the youths were on the same table. After lunch we proceeded on our tour, Ah Ya took us into the main gate and then just gave us some maps and a bit intro on the park and then let us off to go wherever we want, as long as we all meet at the point we were let go. I like. Tours like these are much more better, since you have your freedom to do/go wherever you want to go and do. Maybe it's cos it's a private family tour and we all know each other lmao XD ... o wells.
Had those strawberry sweet things for the first time. So nice ><
Also had Taiwanese sausages for the first time. So nice ><
Walked around and around and then for some reason everyone went on the splash coaster without me - not that I was scared, but it was kinda ma fan cos then you get wet and you don't have a change of clothes... but I went on their 2nd round XDXD ... the pictures taken before we went splash was lmao XD my hair got all wet.
After that we just walked more around the park. Basically it's a mixture of both theme park and minature displays in one place. Never been to a theme park in my life I think, so make this one a first. We were there for a long time... I think we got there around 1130 and we left around 430... Then for night market we went to Yizhong night market at Taizhong to catch our first taste of Taiwanese night market scene - lots of people, lots of mopeds to dodge, lots of things to eat, lots of things to sell. AND... I went into Taiwan's 7-11 for the first time! ... And all I did was to get my money changed into small amounts so it's easier to buy food etc.
SMELLY TOFU OMG... We were walking around and we were wondering what that awful stench hovering around + several accusations of "who farted?" and "who took a dump on the street?!"... so we spotted smelly tofu. Mum bought some, Terry and I tried it... and boy... it was nice... it does taste nice, but then... it brings some of that smell before into your mouth... so imagine what the feeling of eating something that smells so bad and yet tastes nice... Overall, my first time eating smelly tofu and I have to put it as, interesting food.
And then we hopped back on the bus after an hour or so of night market to go have dinner at a restaurant before going to our hotel. Our hotel room was small compared to the others... but it's ok, since we're only going to be in Taizhong for a night before we head down to Kaoshiung. We went to 7-11 near our hotel around after we checked in and stuff, bought Yakult XDXD ... because, to have Yakult in Taiwan makes more sense... didn't know why, but that's what I think. Also had some sausages from the stall downstairs outside the lobby.
We got back to our rooms around 1130ish I think, showered, Terry and I watched some HKnese movie "Hong Kong Bronx" or something before we crashed.
Day 2 (19/12/2010)
I honestly thought I'd left my camera charger IN MALAYSIA =.= o.m.g. I looked for it in the morning... I gave up, since Pam's got the same camera as me so it wouldn't hurt to use her charger instead. And my camera's running out of juice after all the photo taking from yesterday =.=
We got morning called at 630am... I think Terry - Rica's bf and my awesome roomie, who's an Iban-Sarawakian picked up the phone and had no idea what the person over the phone was saying, so he hung up after the caller finished xD but of course, Terry takes Mandarin in uni along with Rica XD - the fact that I was told by himself last night.
Got up, washed up, got changed. And then ready to head out of our rooms. I think we're one of the first few who'd got up early right after the morning call... packed our bags and left them in our rooms since we're gonna head back up to take them out.
Breakfast = disgusting.
Eddy, Graham, Alastair says, "NO BACON?!?!" XDXDXDXD
After breakfast = On our way to Tainan!!!
Saw someone who looked just like Rays when we arrived at Fort Provincia. And didn't know after the kids playing darts the adults joined in XD
Took our first group photo there.
After Fort Provincia we walked An Ping Lao Jie, old street of some sort where we had lunch. After lunch we walked the street... Melissa and I walked the whole area in a short time and on the way we bought pretzels and then we just sat on the chairs outside 7-11 eating our pretzels and our 7-11 slurpies XDXD ... ooh yeah, took a picture with the only 7-11 statue in the world. Don't know how to explain it but it was one of a kind I guess? Because while we were sitting there having our little relaxation time a lot of people walked in and took photos with it.
Waited for everyone to meet up at 7-11 before heading off to this temple near Kaoshiung, took a little break there so I went to look for my charger again in my bag, so I found it buried deep under the side of the luggage =.= ... luckily there's power plugs on the bus for me to charge. Phew. After temple we went to "Shi jue zhang yue shi" or Shinkuchan Night Market at Kaoshiung. And again, lots and lots of things to buy. I bought a cellphone pouch XD tofu monster? Walked and walked for hours looking at things ... so cheap >< and guess what I found at Shinkuchan... STAY REAL!!! OMG!!! 'THAT' shop >< I walked in, and I bought something. MAN! What an experience XDXD
Stay Real = 'that' shop I always wanted to shop in if I'm in Taiwan.
Then we all met at our rendezvous point before getting on the bus to have our dinner. Dinner was quite nice.
Eddy, Graham and Alastair says, "It was much better compared to yesterday's dinner... maybe the food gets better and better towards the last few days..." XDXDXDXD
After dinner we went to our hotel in Kaoshiung. Lee's Boutique Hotel. Checked in, and then everyone just went back downstairs to kuang jie since it's early... some of us went for a walk around the shoe shops nearby and some us went to a corner food shop to have goose/geese meat + Taiwan Beer.
Taiwan Beer = Quite nice. I really liked it. We had heaps XDXD
And did I mentioned after that the youths went out again to takeaway McDs back to the hotel...
Ordering at McDs = LMAO... we had no idea how to say "takeaway" when they asked... so the first person said "tai zou" then the rest followed. They spoke so fast, all Alastair did was nod, pick what he wants to eat, and say "um" and "tai zou" XDXD
Back to hotel, had our McDs. Regular drinks so big de? And by the way, McDs in Taiwan, are actually open 24hrs. No, not their drive-thru, they don't even have that. Walk-in 24hrs.
Had a little story time/family tree explanation-history class/family facts and/or fiction - my Mum took it. She was on her way in and was about to take the lift back to her room before we dragged her over. We talked until 1am. My childhood 'secrets' ... spilled =.=
Day 3 (20/12/2010)
The biggest buzz of the morning: "BACON!!!!" XDXDXD
Thank God, the buffet breakfast in this hotel is like... the awesomest... Terry and I got up quite early, I think no one picked up the morning call, but I had my phone as alarm... so we got up around then and washed up before heading downstairs to have our nice breakfast. Graham and co. were the last ones to come down. But... THERE'S BACON!! A LOT OF THEM!! ... never thought having bacon in Taiwan can be so over-buzzed hahaha...
After breakfast we whisked our way to the former British consulate office at Dagou/Kaoshiung, back in the days Kaoshiung was called "Dagou"... at least that's what I was told. Anyways, it was up a hill and the scenery there is quite good, can overlook the whole city at one side. And we took our second group picture there hahaha... And we came across something weird, sausages made out of squid juice? (you know, the black ones that they squirt out when they're in harms way?) yeah that... it was weird, no one tasted it. But we took pictures of it instead.
Went to Meinong Village Market to have our lunch soon afterwards, where everyone sung me a Happy Birthday song :D several versions to be honest, including Hakka XD ... ahh~~~ then after lunch we walked around the market, looking at various things to buy... and I bought quite a lot of little bits and pieces, including a big as bottle of Coke... 600mls of it. Then we hopped back on the bus and whisked ourselves to Fo Guang Shan Temple, the 'head office' of the organisation, which is also the largest Buddhist monastery in Taiwan, and it's up a hill... and we had to walk all the way up there. But honestly, there's a lot of statues including a giant one right at the top. And apparently it houses a 'college' for monks... and they play basketball!
After Fo Guang Shan Temple we went to Kaoshiung city district's huge as... HUGE AS Dream Mall, the largest shopping mall in Taiwan and also East Asia.
Suddenly got the right inspiration to buy my exchange gifts there from Sophisca, which sells mainly choc confectionery stuff, but the packaging is what matters - they come in lots and lots of varieties, ranging from normal packaging, tampons, sanitary pads, to condom packaging and even Chinese medicine packaging XDXD... I ended up buying a sanitary pad marshmellow-choc for my exchange present. So at Dream Mall, I bought a lot of things... whoever went to Sasa before should know what I bought, esp. for mothers hahhaha
Then we had Taiwan's famous beef noodle 'niu rou mien' near downtown. The whole shop's filled with pictures of the owner taken with famous Taiwanese models, actresses, game show hosts etc.
Graham and Eddy says, "I don't see how this guy's beef noodle's so awesome... it just tastes like normal beef noodles..." XDXDXD
And then the owner came around us and told us that we can add extra noodles and/or beef if there's not enough... AND... he touched Graham on the shoulders lmao... then:
Eddy and Beatrice says, "He touched you!! oh man... maybe he likes you!!... don't wash your t-shirt when you get home... frame it too!" XDXDXD
Anyways, after we all finished we took a picture with the owner. Was interesting.
Liouhe Night Market was up next, and again, lots and lots of people, food and things to buy. Had the famous papaya thickshake which was really thick =.= too thick for that matter. Walked and walked, bought some more stuff... I think a t-shirt or something. Was interesting. And then...
Graham and Eddy says, "O.M.G... CONDOM WORLD!!!... HAHAHAH!!!!" XDXDXD "Should we go in??" ... *snapped, took a picture with it*
We ended up not going in, because we had to go already.
The bus ride back to our hotel was eventful. Ah Ya, our awesome-hot-pretty-cute tour guide started going on about how there are two people's plane tickets back to Malaysia had run into some problems, and that the two people involved should hand in their passports to double check otherwise the two would not be able to catch the same flight back to Malaysia on the 25th... and the two involved:
Ah Ya says, "E-d-m-u-n-d T-s-e-n and T-e-r-r-y S-i-g-a-t etc. etc." *in a serious tone*...
And then sorta like a "SURPRISE JUST KIDDING!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!" thing she said, "particularly Edmund ho... because IT'S HIS BIRTHDAY TODAY!!!"
=.= never thought I'd get gotcha'ed in Taiwan. So... everyone on the bus sung 'Happy Birthday' again to me... man... honestly, it felt more emotional than the one at lunch... because, Maureen and Ah Ya bought me a nice as cake!!!
Got back to our hotel, cut the cake... and sung 'Happy Birthday' again, in Malay this time... and other languages echoing one after another... the cake, caramel topped cake. It looked expensive, either that in Taiwan, everything related to food looks just beautiful. Took pics etc. And Erica gave me a wooden postcard which as everyone's signature on it >< Thanks guys!!
Went to sleep ... late. No pictures were taken after the cakes. Because no one did :P
Day 4 (21/12/2010)
Morning called again. Picked up the phone, and said "huh..." then hung up XD
Everyone was tired *cough* cakeover?
Breakfast once again, BACON!!!
And since we're moving hotels again tonight, going back up to Taizhong, we packed our bags again and headed downstairs.
Long drive to Sun Moon Lake district where we had our lunch. Lunch was ok. Chicken was WARM!!! - it's been a couple of days since we had proper heated chicken as dishes, so excuse us :D didn't know why, little toilet rush after lunch. And then we went to the Sun Moon Lake scenic view area and some of us went down the Wenwu Steps of the Year where there's 366 steps leading towards the lake downhill and they each represent the dates of the year. So, the dumb ones actually went all the way to January to find their birthdates and then we all had to bear the burden by walking back up to December 31st =.= oh wells, at least as a reward we bought ourselves san ju rou sausages. They tasted so good ><
Went to watch the peacocks afterwards, we laughed at one peacock which opened its wings but then seemed like it couldn't close it back XD and it was heavy too I think, because it was struggling to walk. Then hopped on the bus again, went further downhill to Mau's House - a traditional san di ren place.
Next we went had a long drive back to Taizhong, towards Feng Jia Night Market - yet again, everything is in huge quantities, food, people, stalls, lots of stuff. Walked and walked... man my foot hurt... it's just walking and walking, you're walking, you're buying a lot of things, you're carrying things. And there's one problem in Taiwan... THERE ARE NO RUBBISH BINS AROUND!! So when you buy something to eat, plastic bags they give you, wrappers they give you, skewers from sausages they give you... no idea where to throw them... the only one place they'd put their bins is in the middle of the night market, the other places, sorry mate.
Dinner amongst the night market... before heading back to our hotel in Taizhong, we're staying in a completely different hotel room tonight. We like this one. The room Terry and I got... Japanese-style hotel room - wooden floor, sliding paper doors... boy! And then again, we all met up at the lobby to head out for a walk since we got back quite early.
Everyone says, "CARREFOUR!!!"
Everyone says, "Kinder Bueno white chocolates... CHEAP!!!"
Graham and Eddy says, "ALCOHOL SO CHEAP!!!... and every drink is oversized!!!"
Everyone says, "Everything is oversized!!" --> don't believe? check the picture of that massive as chicken wing.
Honestly, HONESTLY... Carrefour won us over for being the best supermarket we've been in Taiwan lmao XD ... Kinder Bueno white chocs cost about NZD1.50... not just that, it's for the price of 3 packs. 1 pack in Malaysia, RM6. 3 packs in Taiwan, RM6...
Alcohol, Absolute Vodka in Kiwiland, NZD45-50. Same product in Taiwan + free gift, NZD25. HONESTLY... throw a group of Malaysian youngsters into Carrefour they can be there for hours. Literally.
Carrefour = Taiwanese "Giant" (Malaysia) or "Pak n Save" (NZ).
Funny moment: Checked out with Kinder Buenos and a huge 1l can of Heineken... and I wanted to pay with my Visa Debit card. Since it was around nearly late thought I'd give it a try... who knew, it wouldn't go through and the cashier kept trying to swipe and swipe... and we were laughing, while a Taiwanese woman behind us were looking quite frustrated... so I paid in cash and we walked away laughing like idiots lmao.
After Carrefour we were determined to find some place else to hang out... we found a cake shop that opens for 24hrs... but we all ended up back into the lobby and to the basement kitchen/conference room to Facebook while the boys actually watched Robocop on tv xD
Finished off around 1230am and we all went to sleep around... late.
Day 5 (22/12/2010)
Breakfast, was once again, disgusting and no bacon =.=
We were only staying for one night before heading to Taipei. So didn't even bother unpack.
Our first destination of the day: Shenken Tofu Street at East Taipei... so 630am means that we're heading off around 8am for the long bus ride there. Arrived there:
Alastair says, "Tofu looks nice..." (actually referring to the tofu sold on the stall).
Graham says, "What tofu? I meant the chick selling the tofu..."
XDXDXD
So, a picture was snapped by me, and as always, on Facebook. Caption: "Nice tofu".
Nothing was interesting at Shenken Tofu Street... only that mum bought more food stuff.
While we waited for the bus, our little miss sunshine, Rayner performed a dance for us to see. Then the bus came lmao.
Drove the remaining miles to Taipei and had lunch...Steamboat. No joke. Food was great. Then after lunch...
TAIPEI 101!!!
- The world's tallest building from 2004 - 2010.
- Holds the world's fastest elevators 2004 - 2010. 60km/h.
- 502m.
Taipei 101 experience, awesome! :)
Oh, also one thing...
Graham and Alastair says, "We're gonna take a dump on the 89th floor... and we're gonna be the ones to take a dump on the world's 2nd tallest building!"
Eddy says, "I'm going to pee on the 91st floor, and I'm gonna be the one to take a pee higher than youse!"
XDXDXD and so we did.
After Taipei 101 we went to Wufenpu Night Market, where they only sell clothes... a lot of them. And that's when I saw the Taiwanese person of the day, Kevin CJL XDXD ... initially he saw Alastair and Graham in a jeans shop... and not me, since I was walking with Pam and Mel... then while the two girls were buying some stuff I tried to look for him and he found me first XD. Took a pic. Lol... was weird seeing someone you know in Taiwan that's... Taiwanese XD.
Anyhow, after long long long walk at Wufenpu, we went to another night market, Raohe Street Night Market. This night market is quite short, so it was ok.
Finally went to dinner. Steamboat dinner again. This time we get our own cooker.
Dinner done, went to our Taipei hotel... SLv Hotel, somewhere not near Taipei City centre.
Hotel room, AWESOME!!! It's got a sofa, a mini kitchen, coffee table, dining table, desk... it's like, a small apartment... man. So good! The best hotel room I've been so far.
Mucked around before going to sleep. No youth-gatherings tonight.
Day 6 (23/12/2010)
Morning called again, 630am... I picked up the phone, and I hung up again XD
I got up first, then after I washed up Terry got up... and I think we were a bit late, but who cares...
It's our first morning in Taipei and ... there's no bacon =.=... In fact, our bacon craze is starting to hurt, especially to the boys like us...
Anyways, after breakfast we were then hopped onto the bus again, on our way to Zhongshan to visit the National Revolutionary Martyrs' Shrine, dedicated to the people dead in the war of China. We got there just in time to see the guards change their shifts, these guards, are almost like the ones in London - they don't move at all, just... stiff like a statue. Well, let's just say, living statues that change shifts in about every... couple of hours or so. Shift changes' marching and what not, took a while... don't see the point in that, but oh wells, they put up a good show for us to watch xD
We then hopped onto the bus again, and went to some jade place where feng shui people talk about their stuff and then offered services such as "shuan ming" (life... calculation?)... yeah, not that we believe in those stuff, but out of curiosity most of us did... and the things they tell you were quite interesting, to be honest. Hmm... After that, a short bus ride took us to Miramar Entertainment Shopping complex. Walked and walked... although it wasn't as big as Dream Mall... it's still big lol...
After Miramar, we went to National Palace Museum to view the ancient arts...
The youths say, "This is boring... =.="
Our feet hurts. And nothing interests us... it's more like an old people museum...
Then we went to Chiang Kai Shek's Residential Park, to walk around... well, take a walk in the park, snap some more photos as well as that we get to see Chiang Kai Shek's house! XD ... although we weren't allowed to go in... after that we went to Shilin Night Market, according to some people, it's one of the best night markets? But anyhow, night markets have been the norm over the past 5 days so... everything was pretty much the same as the other ones, smelly tofu smell, lots of people, lots of clothes, lots of food... although... Graham actually went and bought smelly tofu all by himself, and had tried to eat it himself... and then after a few bites he threw the whole thing into the bin XDXDXD
Graham says, "How do you even eat this?!... It's just so hard to eat... where's the bin... *throws*" XDXDXD
At Shilin Night Market, we also had the Da Da Ji Pai (Big Big Chicken Chop)... Ah Ya shuo ne, it's as big as your face and recommends us to go give it a try... so we did. It's huge no doubt. Taste-wise, ok ok de... Apparently, Jasmine says it's not as nice as the other ones at Shilin Night Market... hmm.
Dinner at a restaurant called "Frogs"... and just because of the name, some people on our table...
Audrey says, "Is that a frog leg in our soup?!"
(By then everyone starts examining the soup contents... some say it's not, some say it is...)
So no, there isn't anything froggy in our soup... nor did we eat any.
Back to hotel at around quite early, so me, Alastair, Graham, Audrey and Uncle Henry walked to 7-11 to buy stuff and then we had a little pao mien gathering in my room. Opened the cans of alcohol we bought in Carrefour the other night. Watched TV. People taking turns going on Facebook with my computer =.=
We slept quite late. Since morning call the next day, our last day, is at 8am.
Day 7 (24/12/2010)
I think Terry picked up this morning's call... not that I heard anything, most likely he didn't...
Breakfast was teh usual, before heading off to Yehliu Geopark, to look at the various geological formations from aeolian (wind) processes as well as wave processes/action on the coastline.
The bus ride there was quite long, so Ah Ya managed to play some Bingo with us XDXDXD the whole game was just so funny, the three boys at the back, Me, Graham and Alastair couldn't stop laughing. Graham needed 2-3 more numbers to Bingo and Alastair had one left - but then he lost out XDXDXD and we all threw our sheets down to the floor and went "AH YAH!!!!" really loud lmao. So the 2nd game ensued, this time it was sudden death, so whoever's number gets called out first will be eliminated. Uncle Raymond, probably didn't even listen to the instructions Ah Ya gave - which was "do not rip out the numbers on your sheets because we'll need to play again later"... he did exactly that because he 'got angry' and gave up, and so Ah Ya gave her a new sheet...
The first number goes to Uncle Raymond LMAO!!!
Eddy, Graham and Alastair says, "ROFLMAO!!! XDXDXD"
Graham says, "No use he got new sheet, still didn't help him XDXDXD"
XDXDXD man...
Then we played "Guess the Number" - where a starting person wants everyone else to guess a number he chose between 1 and 100, and whoever gets the number loses and has to get his/her face crayoned. So e.g. if the number was 76, and someone says 70, the host will say "it's between 70 and 76", so the gap closes and the loser would be determined if he/she guesses 76, or the person sitting next will be the loser if he/she calls out 75.
Who knew, Uncle Raymond hit his own jackpot and had his face crayoned. First round. ROFLMAO. Yet again...
Eddy, Graham and Alastair says, "ROFLMAO!!! XDXDXD"
XDXDXD
Of course, the boys sitting at the back of the bus escaped harm... because we had arrived at our destination.
Anyways, when we arrived, we saw quite a few attractions, Lion's Head, and oh, the most popular attraction, Queen's Head - a rock shaped just like a head with a crown by processes over ten thousand years. The fact that we had to line up just take pictures with it/of it... was an interesting experience. Never once in my life I despise Chinese Mainland visitors so much... there's a meaning towards "line up before one another", and "don't jump infront of people's photos" =.= please.
We then had lunch nearby. Seafood.
Jioufen Market was next on the menu, BUT... it was stormy weather... and everyone got drenched. And it was cold. LOL at us sheltering nearby. I regretted not bringing my hoodie jumper... instead I brought my hood-less jumper =.= walked around, Mum bought more food stuff... Mochis in particular.
Then we rode back to Taipei City to visit the Chiang Kai Shek memorial place. It was rainy... so we didn't get to walk around much, but rather, most people stayed on the bus, while others took the chance to use their toilets.
Traffic in Taipei is quite bad I guess... since it's Friday night, took us quite a while to get downtown, to visit the Vigor Kobo cakeshop. They sell lots of high quality baking stuff, like pineapple pastry thingys, to cakes. Up after dinner...
Everyone says, "SHIMENDING!!!"
Hoping to see any pop singers and idols wandering around the streets, we didn't. Instead, a couple of teens singing away Christmas carols in the middle of the street. And I had the worst pearl milk tea ever in Taiwan... no way.
Us boys had fun in Sony Ericsson store. Nuff said. XD
A couple of students ambushed Graham earlier to buy their product or something, and this is what happened...
Students: "COME BUY OUR STUFF!!! *drags*"
Graham: "Uh... uh... but I don't have any money..."
Alastair: "..."
Students: "Awww reallyyy?"
Graham: "Yeah, ask my brother *points to Alastair*"
Students rambled more and more about their product and how a purchase could mean a lot. You know, standard sales-marketing technique.
Graham: "Um, how about this, I'll go find my mum and ask her for money and then we'll come back, is that ok?"
Students: "OK!!! :D we'll wait for you right here!!!"
*runs away*
XD
So when we were walking back towards our meet up point for bus pick up, he suddenly remembered that the students are going to wait for him to come back XDXD... so, like fugitives, we walked the aisles instead of the main street hoping to avoid them. And so we did lmao...
After a long time at Shimending, we went back to hotel to finish off the night. The family's having a little Christmas Eve gathering at the dining area near the lobby, where we exchange gifts and stuff we bought while in Taiwan. It was pretty funny XDXD... but the details are not being disclosed here due to privacy reasons :) but for all we know, Terry got my gift *cough* and I got his.
There was a little afterparty after the gathering in my room, where the details too, are not disclosed :D for all we know, our morning call's at 5am and we went to sleep around 130am. We also Skyped Elaine, who couldn't be with us since she's still over in the UK.
Day 7 (25/12/2010)
Merry Christmas to everyone.
Terry and I overslept. We heard lots and lots of knocking and bell ringing on our door... so I opened the door and...
Erica says, "WHAT THE HELL?! WAKE UP!!!"
Mum (walking behind her) says, "HUH?! WHAT'S THE TIME?!"
Eddy says, "WHAT.... =.= calm down... man man lai... *closes door*...."
XDXDXD ... funny thing was when Erica screamed, her boy boy Terry jumped out of bed.
Thank God we packed everything the night before... so the only thing we rushed was putting our clothes on and washing up and packing the last few things into the bag. But who knew... we weren't the late ones =.=
Left the hotel around 6ish? Drive to Taoyuan Airport was quite long... so we had breakfast on the bus.
Sunrise soon came... and we arrived at the airport to check in our stuff and bid farewell to our awesome-hot-pretty-cute tour guide, Ah Ya.
Checking in was quite long so Graham and I teased Pam about her moles XD ...
After we bid farewell to our awesome-hot-pretty-cute Ah Ya, we had heaps of time to spare before boarding so some of us went around duty free shopping. I bought a bottle of Black Label, which cost me around... NZD35. Honestly, for a bottle that costs NZD120 in NZ... it's something to remember XD bought other stuff too... need to use up all the TWD we exchanged.
So lastly, around 930am, we bid farewell to Formosa, and returned to Malay-land.
Teh Ending...
All in all, our first experience in Taiwan was truly an amazing one. Whether is for the food, or for the culture, or for the youth culture of the country, every place we visited was truly an experience to enjoy... except the National Palace Museum (for the youths...).
The smelly tofu we've always dreamed of having... a real experience and also a real test for your tastebuds and your sense of smell. Oh, also the relationship between your tastebuds and your nose. They cannot work together if you're eating smelly tofu.
The various food of Taiwan we wanted to try out, also, makes more sense if we're having those food in Taiwan. E.g. You can always eat niu rou mien in NZ or Malaysia... but having the same dish in Taiwan makes more sense, because it's where the food come from!
The night markets of Taiwan - a lot of people, a lot of scooters to dodge, a lot of food, a lot of clothes, a lot of little bits and pieces, a lot of gift ideas to fill. Imagine you're a Taiwanese living in Taiwan... night market every night bro!
The 7-11s of Taiwan - 'that' experience of 'being Taiwanese' when you're not. Yes, we do have 7-11s here in Malaysia, but it's never as good as Taiwan ones. It means more to visit a 7-11 in Taiwan than in Malaysia.
Carrefour - Everything is oversized. And cheap.
"I pissed on the 91st floor of Taipei 101", something I'll never forget XDXD
There's a lot of things to sum up about Taiwan, but a picture paints a thousand words. Photos mean more than words. So the millions of photos I took while in Taiwan, can make an awesome photo book.
If someone asks me if I want to go back to Taiwan again, I would almost certainly say yes.
Having lots of Taiwanese friends, now I know why they always have to go back there for the whole summer.
Formosa, we'll meet again sometime in the future.
:: Adios Formosa!!! ::
Edweenie ^^