taiwan trip 2010 :D
im back from taiwan!!! second time there and everything there is still as awesome. hahaha food's good and cheap, clothes are equally fantastic (though not all of them are my kind of thing though, abit different fashion sense maybe haha) and company was awesome! even though there were small glitches here and there, everything else was still great and i really enjoyed the company and the random stuff we did :)
saturday 3rd July: we were supposed to reach taipei at around 9pm tt night, but the flight was delayed for 4 freaking hours so we only reached our hotel at 12.30am. really tired by then, couldnt sleep for more than an hour on the plane but still equally excited to explore taipei. soonlong, alven, kaisiang and likkhian decided to visit Luxy, one of the most popular clubs in taipei tt night, while the rest decided to just explore the surrounding areas first. we walked for about 10 mins to the nearest Yoshinoya and it was one of the best yoshinoya meals i've ever tasted. hahaha i was really hungry then, jetstar meals are way too expensive so i didnt really want to get any meals/drinks on board. the yoshi meal looked less microwaved and was definitely much tastier than the ones i've had in sg. got back to the hotel at about 2 plus and planned the stuff to do for the rest of the trip. slept at 3am (and pretty much the same timing for the rest of the week lol).
sunday 4th July: first shopping day, and we decided to try out the departmental stores. we left hotel at about 11am, and had brunch. brunch was tradtional noodles, tasted average but yea, it was cheap :) there was this huge madagascar-lookalike cockroach tt was sitting behind ks. OMG freaked out, was expecting it to fly anytime LOL. we got our EasyCard (the one we used to take MRT trains and all buses in taiwan) at taipei MRT station. there was this underground shopping mall at taipei station and we spent about 1.5 hrs walking around. there was a breakdancing street fest going on and it was really crowded! we went to sun yat sen memorial thereafter and paid respect to the man who came up with zhonghua when he was in singapore :D brought back fond memories from the past as we talked about zhonghua and all the random heritage stuff we've visited back in sec 2. walked to taipei 101 after watching the shift handover parade (what's the name for it ah? cannot rmb liao haha). weather was great, no rain! but it was hot hot hot. according to a cabbie uncle we met during the trip, this year's got one of the hottest summers ever. :| temp tt afternoon was 34oC! (though we suspect it shld be 36oC instead. LOL) dinner was awesome (actually most of our dinners were awesome haha) cheap and good shanghai cuisine. :) after dinner, we had desserts at the HELLO KITTY CAFE! one of the cutestttttt place i've seen during the whole trip, and one of the most expensive. (once in a lifetime thing i guess. LOL) minimum expenditure of sgd15 each, so we each spent about NT330 tt night justtt on cakes and drinks tt looked good but doesnt taste as good. hahah pictures on facebook later :D we strolled along the streets of zhongxiao dunhua before deciding to K tt night! went to the nearest partyworld (they have many many party worlds there hhahaa) and sang from 10.30pm to 2.30am tt night. AWESOMEE!! 4 hrs cost about NT430, which comes to about sgd22 each. joy joy joy :) being the only girl there (joyce and aaron went shopping and headed back to hotel first) i get to sing most of the duets LOL. reached hotel at about 3am and slept through the night :)
monday 5th july: we went ximending! one of the best shopping areas i've been to, other than shilin and wufenpu (spent the most there at ximen too LOL) ah zong mian xian for brunch - TASTED DAMN GOOD. hahaha tried the duck meat thing tt didnt taste as good as i thought. think its a little over hyped and it was freaking expensive. half a duck for NT700 = sgd33 which could have gotten us 2 ducks in sg. HAHAHA but anyway, now tt we've tried it, we wont be going back ever again i guess. HAHA! got my sister her onitsuka tiger from the only branch in the whole taiwan! hahaha the shoes look great and hope she likes it *cross my fingers. haha* went to shilin tt night for dinner and all of us spent a lot a lot more. the xiao chi we got tasted great (actually come to think of it, i havent come across any food tt wasnt good - except for the hello kitty cakes i think) hahaha leslie got a really awesome looking pair of shoes for a price i thought we can never find in sg haha :) planned the itinerary for the next day - it would be Yang Ming Shan the next day :)
tuesday 6th July: the trip up YMS was fantastic (die liao, im running out of adjectives hahaha) trekked up the path to the visitor centre and it was soooo breezy!! visited the sulfur springs and we spent like an hour there, enjoying the cooling wind, 811m above sea level :D did alot of crazy things (like standing on one leg and see who can stand for the longest and the winner earns himself/herself a free drink from the rest) and got scolded for climbing up the walls and over the bus stop. LOL! cam-whored a lot that day, and thank you joyce for the wonderful polaroid photo :D went to danshui tt evening for seafood! we went to yurenmatou (on a cab and hence missed the NT50 bag shop T.T) andddd my camera died tt evening. thanks for ks, if not no photos tt evening on the lovers' bridge :D
wednesday 7th July: WUFENPU!! did major shopping tt evening - bought a lot a lot of clothes and leslie got shoes for his bro and dad. hahaha no photos tt afternoon, cos i was too busy doing shopping LOL. dinner was xiao chi at RaoHe night market and we tried japanese xiao chi this time. nothing special though, but food was still not bad :D cheap and good? heh. leslie super garang tt night - carried everyone's shopping bags LOL only for a while though, but it was super funny. hahaha joyce, aaron, leslie and i spent the night eating cup noodles and playing bridge while the other guys went Lava (another popular club in taipei). fun fun fun! :)
thursday 8th July: the supposed jiufen + keelung day. brunch (maybe lunch cos we ate at 2pm :|) was japanese sukiyaki buffet! for 90 mins but it felt like we sat there for 2 hrs. showed the taiwanese people how singaporeans eat buffets. LOL it was about sgd18 per person and it felt like we ate sgd30 worth. hahah went to jiufen by bus (big mistake. 1062 took 1.5hrs to reach jiufen and still need to cab up there :|) and by the time we reach jiufen, it was 6.45pm. to our horror, despite the slogan being 越夜越美, all shops were closing in 15 mins time. we went on a crazy rampage, haha buying all the foodies to bring back to sg for friends. realised i didnt buy enough :\ but anyhow, the view from jiufen was pretty! with all the lights and old-japanese tea houses. :) didnt go keelung tt night, decided to take the choo-choo-train from ruifang back to taipei for NT50 (about sgd2.50) and the trip was only for 50mins. dammmmn. eat cup noodles again tt night heehee. decided to sleep early tonight so we can check out early at 10.30am and go ximending again for some last minute shopping.
friday 9th july, take-off day >.< : ate din tai fung!! nice nice nice xiao long bao ftw. hahaha went to ximending and did last min shopping. bought my domokun bag!! it was soo cute la. can bring to school and domo will keep my notes nice and wrinkle-free cos its so squarish. hahaha makes a good school bag :D bought clothes for my cousins (5 of them lol!) :) flight home wasnt delayed for too long (only 20mins, phew) and homeee sweet homeeee~
photos will be uploaded soon :D
saturday 3rd July: we were supposed to reach taipei at around 9pm tt night, but the flight was delayed for 4 freaking hours so we only reached our hotel at 12.30am. really tired by then, couldnt sleep for more than an hour on the plane but still equally excited to explore taipei. soonlong, alven, kaisiang and likkhian decided to visit Luxy, one of the most popular clubs in taipei tt night, while the rest decided to just explore the surrounding areas first. we walked for about 10 mins to the nearest Yoshinoya and it was one of the best yoshinoya meals i've ever tasted. hahaha i was really hungry then, jetstar meals are way too expensive so i didnt really want to get any meals/drinks on board. the yoshi meal looked less microwaved and was definitely much tastier than the ones i've had in sg. got back to the hotel at about 2 plus and planned the stuff to do for the rest of the trip. slept at 3am (and pretty much the same timing for the rest of the week lol).
sunday 4th July: first shopping day, and we decided to try out the departmental stores. we left hotel at about 11am, and had brunch. brunch was tradtional noodles, tasted average but yea, it was cheap :) there was this huge madagascar-lookalike cockroach tt was sitting behind ks. OMG freaked out, was expecting it to fly anytime LOL. we got our EasyCard (the one we used to take MRT trains and all buses in taiwan) at taipei MRT station. there was this underground shopping mall at taipei station and we spent about 1.5 hrs walking around. there was a breakdancing street fest going on and it was really crowded! we went to sun yat sen memorial thereafter and paid respect to the man who came up with zhonghua when he was in singapore :D brought back fond memories from the past as we talked about zhonghua and all the random heritage stuff we've visited back in sec 2. walked to taipei 101 after watching the shift handover parade (what's the name for it ah? cannot rmb liao haha). weather was great, no rain! but it was hot hot hot. according to a cabbie uncle we met during the trip, this year's got one of the hottest summers ever. :| temp tt afternoon was 34oC! (though we suspect it shld be 36oC instead. LOL) dinner was awesome (actually most of our dinners were awesome haha) cheap and good shanghai cuisine. :) after dinner, we had desserts at the HELLO KITTY CAFE! one of the cutestttttt place i've seen during the whole trip, and one of the most expensive. (once in a lifetime thing i guess. LOL) minimum expenditure of sgd15 each, so we each spent about NT330 tt night justtt on cakes and drinks tt looked good but doesnt taste as good. hahah pictures on facebook later :D we strolled along the streets of zhongxiao dunhua before deciding to K tt night! went to the nearest partyworld (they have many many party worlds there hhahaa) and sang from 10.30pm to 2.30am tt night. AWESOMEE!! 4 hrs cost about NT430, which comes to about sgd22 each. joy joy joy :) being the only girl there (joyce and aaron went shopping and headed back to hotel first) i get to sing most of the duets LOL. reached hotel at about 3am and slept through the night :)
monday 5th july: we went ximending! one of the best shopping areas i've been to, other than shilin and wufenpu (spent the most there at ximen too LOL) ah zong mian xian for brunch - TASTED DAMN GOOD. hahaha tried the duck meat thing tt didnt taste as good as i thought. think its a little over hyped and it was freaking expensive. half a duck for NT700 = sgd33 which could have gotten us 2 ducks in sg. HAHAHA but anyway, now tt we've tried it, we wont be going back ever again i guess. HAHA! got my sister her onitsuka tiger from the only branch in the whole taiwan! hahaha the shoes look great and hope she likes it *cross my fingers. haha* went to shilin tt night for dinner and all of us spent a lot a lot more. the xiao chi we got tasted great (actually come to think of it, i havent come across any food tt wasnt good - except for the hello kitty cakes i think) hahaha leslie got a really awesome looking pair of shoes for a price i thought we can never find in sg haha :) planned the itinerary for the next day - it would be Yang Ming Shan the next day :)
tuesday 6th July: the trip up YMS was fantastic (die liao, im running out of adjectives hahaha) trekked up the path to the visitor centre and it was soooo breezy!! visited the sulfur springs and we spent like an hour there, enjoying the cooling wind, 811m above sea level :D did alot of crazy things (like standing on one leg and see who can stand for the longest and the winner earns himself/herself a free drink from the rest) and got scolded for climbing up the walls and over the bus stop. LOL! cam-whored a lot that day, and thank you joyce for the wonderful polaroid photo :D went to danshui tt evening for seafood! we went to yurenmatou (on a cab and hence missed the NT50 bag shop T.T) andddd my camera died tt evening. thanks for ks, if not no photos tt evening on the lovers' bridge :D
wednesday 7th July: WUFENPU!! did major shopping tt evening - bought a lot a lot of clothes and leslie got shoes for his bro and dad. hahaha no photos tt afternoon, cos i was too busy doing shopping LOL. dinner was xiao chi at RaoHe night market and we tried japanese xiao chi this time. nothing special though, but food was still not bad :D cheap and good? heh. leslie super garang tt night - carried everyone's shopping bags LOL only for a while though, but it was super funny. hahaha joyce, aaron, leslie and i spent the night eating cup noodles and playing bridge while the other guys went Lava (another popular club in taipei). fun fun fun! :)
thursday 8th July: the supposed jiufen + keelung day. brunch (maybe lunch cos we ate at 2pm :|) was japanese sukiyaki buffet! for 90 mins but it felt like we sat there for 2 hrs. showed the taiwanese people how singaporeans eat buffets. LOL it was about sgd18 per person and it felt like we ate sgd30 worth. hahah went to jiufen by bus (big mistake. 1062 took 1.5hrs to reach jiufen and still need to cab up there :|) and by the time we reach jiufen, it was 6.45pm. to our horror, despite the slogan being 越夜越美, all shops were closing in 15 mins time. we went on a crazy rampage, haha buying all the foodies to bring back to sg for friends. realised i didnt buy enough :\ but anyhow, the view from jiufen was pretty! with all the lights and old-japanese tea houses. :) didnt go keelung tt night, decided to take the choo-choo-train from ruifang back to taipei for NT50 (about sgd2.50) and the trip was only for 50mins. dammmmn. eat cup noodles again tt night heehee. decided to sleep early tonight so we can check out early at 10.30am and go ximending again for some last minute shopping.
friday 9th july, take-off day >.< : ate din tai fung!! nice nice nice xiao long bao ftw. hahaha went to ximending and did last min shopping. bought my domokun bag!! it was soo cute la. can bring to school and domo will keep my notes nice and wrinkle-free cos its so squarish. hahaha makes a good school bag :D bought clothes for my cousins (5 of them lol!) :) flight home wasnt delayed for too long (only 20mins, phew) and homeee sweet homeeee~
photos will be uploaded soon :D