Saturday, December 15, 2007
Yoz!!!! Hello!!!!!!! I'm back from Taiwan! And Taiwan was quite a great place!!! I shall blog about in in dis post. I might consider posing in sparate posts, cuz i noe it's gona b long. :) Lotsa intresting tings dat we saw in Taiwan, and i shall tell u in the post itself. Hao xi zai hou tou wad!! >.< Hehes! Anyways, i'm really glad dat we have got a really experienced local tour guide in Taiwan, who shared wif us alot of his experiences and told us alot of stories mainly realted to mordern history. the food there in Taiwan was simply fabulous, and the hotels there are mostly fantastic man! Although its really rushed, bt the whole trip was really enjoyable! :)
1st day:
We went to the airport at 12.30, and reached there at arnd 12.45. The flight was scheduled at arnd 3pm. When everybody has arrived, the local tour guide frm Singapore gave us a quick briefing, b4 we checked in our luggage and proceeded through the customs into the departure hall. We went to shop for a while, ate some snacks, looked at the aeroplanes, b4 proceeding into the gate. At the gate there, there were alot of ppl, mainly students in student exchange trips, and tourists lyk us. After sometime, there was 1 celebrity who entered. Wana noe who??? Alright, let me tell u he's non other dan....................drum rolls............GURMIT SINGH!!! LOL! Haha, i noe he nt very da pai la, bt gurmit sinh was de only star i saw on the trip, cuz i didnt c any taiwanese stars, so gurmit is atleast smt, beta dan nth wad! :P Gurmit Singh sat the same plce as us, and he sat 1st class de bahz, cuz i tink he's in taiwan for de jin ma jiang tingy. I'm nt very sure, bt yea... dah... his air tickets for him n his family (his wife, son and daughter) are obviously free, kena sponsored de. China airline planes are nt as bad as i've imagined. The flight dat we took towards Taiwan was quite new, and there's a game console and a tv to every seat, so it's nt dat bad, nt as boring as expected. At least it's loads beta dan KLM flights. KLM flights usually fly toward Amsterdam in holland b4 u transit to another flight to go which every country u wana go (in europe). And for goodness sake, the flight time for the aeroplane to fly frm Singapore to amsterdam takes at least 12 hrs ok? Boring sia! LOL! :P Hahas, when we reached Taibei, it was already arnd 8pm, so de taiwanese tour guide took us to Rao He Ye Shi for dinner. So sad lah, we only went there for dinner, bt didnt have time to shop. Anyways, the ramen there dat we ate was SUPERB!!! OMG de pork chop ramen was simply fantastic ok? LOL! If gt chance go back to taiwan, i wana go eat their ramen!!! Hahas! It's nt surprising to find Japanese food chains in Taiwan, and after all, one of their mostly spoken languages are Japanese. U might find it weird, cuz u tod dat they only speak chinese, hokkien, or at most cantonese. However, they do speak Japanese, cuz taiwan was being controlled by Japan for exactly 50 yrs, dats y alot of them noes how 2 speak Jap, and thete's a lot of Jap food stalls.
2nd day:
We began de 2nd day by going to an old street market called jiu fen, and we went shopping there. We didnt buy anyting much, apart from some mua chees and some souveniers. Afterall, the tings in taiwan are not cheap, so we didn't really buy a lot of tings at all de shopping areas. Then, we went to take a train to hualien. The train journey was arnd 3 hrs, and we had lunch on board, and the lunch was called a "bian dang" which meant "fan he", and it was quite nice, cuz de rice was zhen zhu mi, more soft and nice to bite. :) Hehe! Singapore oso gt sell dis kinda rice, u shud try! Hahaha! After we got off the train, we went to "tai lu ge guo jia gong yuan" A national park dat is being preserved in taiwan. The View there was really great, cuz everywhere was mountains, waterfalls and marbles. It was a fabulous sightman! Really breath taking, it worth it to live in de mountains, juz to get away from our busy livesd ones in a while. Hahaha! Jkjk! Hahas, bt if given the opportuity to climb high mountains on foot and hands, i would really like to try. Hahaha! :) Afterdat we took the busride to the main areaa of hualien, and made our way to Th Promised Land Resort for the night. Whoots!!! the hotel was really great!!! Every room had 2 double beds, and a huge nice bathroom. The whole resort was huge, and was really beautiful!!! Hahas, we ate dinner b4 restinf for de night.
Day 3:
We woke up late, cuz the tour guide allowed us to enjoy our time in theresort b4 leaving on a long busride to Kaoshiung. We ate a really fantastic breakfast, and walked arnfde the area, and sat a boat ride arnd a manmade river along the resort, with a length of 2.2km. It was really a nice pleasant ride, and we saw lotsa fish on de way. After dat we took a long bus ride to kaoshiung, and went to a newly opened shopping mall called "Dreamland Mall". We didnt buy anyting there, cuz the tings there are rather expensive, and most of the cloths there could be found in Singapore. There were also shops lyk Hang Ten, Giodarno, Baleno, and Bossini there, so nth new actually. After our shop at the dreamlandmall, we went to the outdoor cafe for 10mins and listened to a band jamming, den we took a walk a a place called lobve river, b4 going back to the hotel. The tour guides said dat originally dat river was really smelly, and was a place where every1 went to dump their waste. Hahas, he even said dat if any1 wana commit suicide, jump inside confirem die 1, cuz they will b drowned by de rubbish, and killed by the stench. LOLs! I dunno wether wad he said was true or nt.
Hahas, anyway dat tour guide was really crappy. he told us a lot of stories, and all the experiences of his life as a tour guide. He actually scolded ah bian every now and den. In their country they are too open, so dey can say wad dey like and even set their own citizens rule. Gt pros n cons lah. pros is perhaps a bit more freedom, bt cons is, their ppl in taiwan are really out of control, even the police cannot supress dem if they protest, however, security there is rather good lah. Dtas 1 good ting. :)
Day 4:
We continued our long bus rides from Kao Shiung to Alishan. The bus reide up de mountain was horrible, so bumpy and kp twisting n turning anrd. Man! It was really sickening. Finally after 2 long hrs, we arrived at Alishan, and had our lunch there. The lunch there wasnt as great ass all the others, bt nontherless, it was still quite ok. tell u ahh, all of us got so disgusted at the mainland china ppl. U noe their habits right? Like to spit spit spit spit spit and spit! Disgusting u noe! They spit every where they go. Right infrnt of them is a rubbish bin. They dun wana spit inside, went to spit on the floor. Everytime u walk past them, they will go "a tu!!!!" Den 1 big lump of phlegm (like a ping pong ball as accurately described by the dao you) cameflying past u onto the ground. Even worse, the best part has yet to come. After eating in de restaurant, the disgustingly unhygenic mainland china ppl actually spat in to their bowl, as they found it convient!!! OMG so disgusting lah! Dat dao you could stand it no longer, he hollered at them man! Assholes lah china ppl! They are seriously unhygenic, and i tink they are really blackhearted lah. It's universally know that products prduced in china are losing trust nowadays. Not i say 1, bt lots of reports in newspapaers sayd dat. Juz to save cost, they use lead in toys and poisoned kids, juz to save cost, they use excessive blech on cloths, can caused ppl to have cancer, there are even reports on them using washing power to fry you tiaos, cuz they say it tastes nice. OMG how black hearted can they get??? Nt dat i'm prejudiced against them lah, bt i really ting dey shud change their ways a little. very mei you ren dao 1 leh!!! So black hearted!!!
After lunch we took a walk in the woods of alishan, it was a really nice walk, and we even saw a lot of intresting tree trunks, one evern represented a wild boar, really very intresting.
After our trip on alishan, we proceeded to a fantastic resort where we would b staying at night, and that place was called Sun Moon Lke Resort. We were given a spa ticket each, and all of us wore our swimsuits and went for spa. It was really shiok man!!! Starting, we felt dat de water was boiling hot, bt after dat, it was very shuang, and kpt us frm feeling cold. Infact, there was even water massage, and made us feel so comfortable. Hehe! :) Dat little hut that we stayed in was really cozy, lyk u can really feel the feeling of living in a cozy hut, wif a fire place and a chimmney, and the hut was made up of wood. Really a great experience. :)
Day 5:
That day was preferably de most fun day of all. We started off by going to a temple near de resort. After dat we went to de peacock garden as took some pics of de peacocks. LOL dis season peacocks quite ugly de. Most of them has shed their feathers, except for a few which still looked quite presentable to us tourists. Only a few peacocks still had their feathers on. Peacocks are lyk ostriches. Why do i sae so? Well for de very simple reason, peacocks and ostriches alike, their males appear more attractive dan de female, perfectly opposite frm de majority mentality of female being more attrative den males. Their males are more attractive, becuz dey wana attract femals for mating, dats y.
After going to de peacock garden, we chong you jiu di, went back to de resort which we had stayed over night, and had lunch over there. After lunch, de exciting programme starts. We went to jiu zhu wen hua chun, a famous theme park in Taiwan. Wen we reached there, de 1st ting dat caught our attention was the UFO. It's a ride dat resembles the one in Genting whereby u sit on dat ting n it brings u high up and suddenly drops u down. Oh man, although it's nt as high as de Genting 1, it looked really scary, n i tink nobody frm our tour grp sat it. I couldnt b dat sure lah, bt i tink so only. !st up, we went to sit de cable car on to the top of de mountains, and watched a dance performance put up by de 13 diff tribal grp members. They look very diff, cuz they are mixed blood, as their ancestors originate frm asian regions, more accurately, frm areas in Malaysia and de Phillipines region, so their race is actually partially Malay and chinese. The performance dat dey put up was nt bad. They bring us into their culture and lifestyles, which are actually an eye opener for us all. After de performance, we walked downhill towards the themepark. On the way, there were lots to c. Althouh there were some houses dat were built to let us visit and learn more abt their culture, we didnt go in n look, cuz 1stly, there wasnt enought time, and 2ndly, we wnut really understand much, cuz it's somehow more or less the same to us. We saw some wild boars dat looked quite fierce, some rabbits dat were so cute, and some other roosters and other animals. We saw quite a number of wax figures, and even saw some ppl carving statues. It's a place really rich of the cultures of the tribal ppl, really very gu se gu xiang. Den as we proceeded downwars, we went to a booth dat taught us de traditional way of weaving clothes, by using strings and two wooden planks, and crissed croosed the 2 clothes up n down, and weaving a string in between as we go to make clothes. It's quite an experience, cuz at least we get to do some hands on on tings dat we have never tried before. Den as we proceeded downwards even more, sightseeing along de way, we came accross a sign dat pointed to wards de archery ground. Wheeeeeeeeeee!!!!! My bro n i were really excited nwe dashed straight to de archery ground. De person there taught us how 2 play. At 1st it was quite scary, cuz it feels as if the arrow will hit me, bt it didnt. And mind u, it really takes a lot of strenght to puul the bow. Our aim was to hit and burst the balloons on de target. Actually, i tink it would b easier if we were asked to hit the targets. Hahas! Bt den, anyways it was fun. All of us managed to burst 1 balloon each, using 20 arrows. Wen ever we burst 1 balloon, we would get a bonus of 1 arrow. Hahas, n dat was so fun!!!!
Wen we were at de theme park, we sat the viking. We didnt sit much rides, cuz there wasnt much time left, and all de rides seemed quite scary, esp de roller coaster. Juz by overturning is scary enough. Thats nt all. Wen de roller coaster overturns, it twists itself. OMG!!! Juz by seeing, it's enough to sacre us liao!!! :P
Man!!! It was a tiring bt fun day nevertheless. All of us enjoyed ourself. Den next up. We proceeded to wards de night market. Feng Jia ye Shi for our dinner and for shopping. Man!!! Dat dinner was de longest wait we had ever experienced. We went to a restaurant which sells prok chops, chiken chops, and beef steaks, n business was bustilng. We took our seats and took our orders. 1 prok chop, n 3 chiken chops. De person said we have to wait slightly longer, cuz theres a shortage of chicken n pork. We asked how long do we have to wait. She said around 20 mins in total. Ok, de meal included a free flow of soup and drink, which is mushroom n corn soup, lyk de campell soup lyk dat, and the drinks are iced tea. We waited patienly at 1st for around 30 mins, den we ask wether our food is ready. Dad n mum's came 1st. Den after dat, we waited n waited n waited, i counted exactly 1hr n 15 mins den de food came. During dat time, we kpt asking every 10 mins or so, n their reply is always de same. "kuai hao le, qing shao deng yi xia!" WAD DE HELL LAH!!! We've waited for lyk 1hr den de fd came!!! #$%@#^$%#@*&#^!&*!#)*#&#^*@#%$^*!!!! Wad de heck lah!!! My dad say we've only gt arnd 1hr + to shop, so we were lyk suan liao, nvm, today juz eat jiu hao, shopping for a while only suan liao, cuz afterall, still gt other ye shi's coming up, so juz forget it. Hahas, bt den after dat, we juz nice came past a shop selling sweaters. I was looking for sweaters, so my mum say, theres another level in de shop, so might as well juz go n look, so we went inside. I found a jacket which i likes, as well as a long sleeved shirt which is quite fashionalbe de. My bro oso bought some shirts. Hahas, all de clothes there all long sleeved de, cuz winter mah. LOLs!!! Bt who cares, all de fashionalble clothes in Singapore mostly long sleeved de wad. Thoes long sleeved shrits dat we bought in Taiwan are quite thin, so it's alright, wunt be too hot to wear in singapore. Hahas, i guess there might b a slight change in my dressings in future. Insted of juz shorts n jeans, i might buy some more fashionable clothes to wear. Hehehe!!! :)
Day 6:
After breakfast, we proceeded back to taipei frm taichung. Wen we arrived at Taipei, the tour guide took us to a place where it sells herbal food stuff. The shop is being managed by the tribal ppl. Haha!!! Lyk i said dey are tribal ppl, yuan zhu min, bt de ironic ting was dat yeah, they succumbed to the technologies nowawdays, and use handphones n all sorts of electronic stuff. De tour guide told us dat their government forbade de tribal ppl to go down to life and set up family wif de ppl in town at 1 time, cuz the pure blooded tribal citizens are dying out. It's no wonder dat de tribes men would go and live in de cities instead of up in de mountains, becuz technology is improving down there, and up there, dey are still using primitive methods and way of life.
After the visit at the herbal shop or wadever, we proceeded to have lunch at a really special restaurant. Dat restaurant is an artistic building, their outer structure is really unique, as it's being covered by lots of unique patterns and colours. The restaurant is called "Wu Jiao Chuan Ban". Wen we proceeded inside, it feels as if u are walking into another universe which is made up of patterns and scluptures. Even their stairs have lots of diff patterns, and de seats n tables are all made up of different colours n patterens, which make it very appealing. Even all de utensils and cutleries are very unique, as their shape n patterens are very diff. Hahas! And de meals there were nt bad too.
Following this, we went to visit a place called "Gu Gong Bo Wu Yuan", National Palace Museum. For those of u who noes, There already a Gu Gong Museum in Beijing Tian An Men, Zhi Jin Cheng, de Forbidden City. Dat gu gong museum in Beijing is really big, i went there b4. However, all de artifects there are only part of the total number of artifects originally stored in de museum in beijing before de war. Quite a number of the artefects are being shipped and safe keeped in Taiwan's Gu Gong museum, to keep them frm being stolen or damaged during the war. Hence, theres also a huge collection af artefects in de Gu Gong museum in Taipei, and most of them are still in very good condition.
We toured arund de place, wif the tour guide explaining to us abt de history and where some of the artecects originated frm. there are quite a number of artefects which gave us a strong impression, preferably it's because it's very unique. It's really amazing how some of the craftsmen are able to make some artefects so nicely, even without the help of any technology in de olden days. One of them that was really unique was de vegetables made out of jade which resembles a real one exactly. It's really so life like, dat mede me feel lyk eating it up. ANotherone was de Kong Ba made up of a kind of stone, and it's exactly lyk a real one!!! Amazing isnt it? LOL! Sure they are!!! :)
After which, we proceeded to the Taipei 101 building, which is known to be the world's tallest standing building currently. The tour guide told us dat we can take the world's fasteset elevator up to the observatory at the top of the building, bt we have to pay at our own expense. Nevertheless, my dad said juz go up, cuz he say since we are already here, might as well juz go up. Oh man, we didnt regret going up at all, cuz the money which we had paid was worth every single cent of it. The elevator was the fastest in de world, and no joke abt it, its really true. Frm de 5th floor right up to the 89th floor, it only took exactly 37 seconds. Starting wen the elevator was rising at such a great speed, all of us naturally felt abit dizzt, bt its lyk really so fast dat wen we reached de 89th floor, we didnt even noe it. The elevator was really very smooth. Wen it's rising at the fastest speed, for every second, it rises at least 5-6 stories.
Wen we reached de observatory on de 89th floor, wad cought our attention was de spectacular view which we had seen, and will stay in our minds forever. It's really breath taking, and it's such a beatiful view dat will be engraved in our minds forever. It was lyk we are looking down at the whole of taipei city frm de aeroplane at night. It's really a spectacular view man!!!
Afterdat, we paid again to go up to de open air place where we could look down at de city, frm de 91th story. It was quite windy, and we felt very relaxed being at the top of the building. WHEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!! Wad a great view dat was!!! It was such an opportunity dat we had!!! :) Man!!! If u ever had a chance to go up and take a look at the observatory at the top of Tai pei 101, u better go!!! Best is dat u even go up to the open air viewing area lyk we did!!! :)
Hahaha!!! Tell u smt really funny abt taiwan. Admist all de important buildings in de taipei city, u will c such a queer and hilarious sight. There are actually FARMS with FARMERS PLANTING VEGETABLES AND REARING CHICKENS AND DUCKS!!!!! OMG!!!! DAT WAS SUPER FUNNY!!!!! HEHEHEHEHEHEHE!!!!!!! De tour guide told us dat the farmers are actually very rich! Most of them are millions or billionaires. U wana noe y they are so rich? It's really no joke, and let me tell u y. They own lots of lands last time, and wen their government are in need of land, to build buildings, and to develop their country, they bought huge pieces of lands which de farmers once own, frm the farmers demselves. Without saying, all de land prices are really high, bt at dat time itself i'm nt so sure, bt naturally, de farmers have losts of lands, and huge pieces somore. So, with the lands being bought frm dem, they are naturally rich. Wen asked y dey still dressed so shabbily, and y dey still work on farms, and live in rundown farmhouses in de middle of such a huge and mordern city, de ans would b dat, de farmers possess too much money dat money doesnt mean anyting to dem already, and furthermore, dey dunno how to enjoy their wealth, and dats y.
For dinner, we went to eat xiao long baos!!! YUMMYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!! Whee!!!!! It was a really nice meal, and i'm inlove with xiao long baos now!!!!! :)
Day 7:
We set off frm de hotel to go do some sight seeing. The 1st stop was to de government dunno wad place. I tink its a place where there's a rich historicla culture or smt. We went to c de changing of guard dat happened every hr. It's an hourly shift. They swap ppl every hr, and during dat hr it self, de soliders dat are on guard will stand at their places and not move at ll for 1hr. I tink dey dun even blink. Man, standing without moving is lyk during cca, smt which is really hateful n irritating. Haiz, dose army guys are guys mah, shud be able to withstand de heat and de tough hours de. After all, dey can tink dem selves as models, cuz losta ppl take photos wif dem, bt we are nt allowed to touch dem. Wen u touch de, dey angry, dey will bang their rifles against de ground. LOLs, dey look a bit lyk wax figurings, bt is a tough job, really. LOLs, its training oso lah, wadever. :P
Next we moved on to c a place whereby ah bian change de name which was once so honorable, Zhong Zheng Ji Nian Tang, into Zi you guang chang recently. Losts of ppl protested oevr it. dat place is a place rich of historical value, as it's a place which is built to serve as a memorial hall for Chiang Kai Shiek, de 1st president of Taiwan. Wah lao eh, de name is so stupid lah, it sounds lyk wad everyone is joking abt, a shopping center. Man, dat ah bian is really dumb, and i tink he did dat out of purpose. LOL!!! No wonder so many ppl protested over it.
Next, we headed to de fisherman's wharf near a place called de love bridge for a super scrumptious and delicious BBQ lunch!!! Wheeeeeeee!!!!!!!! YAY!!!!!!!!!!! :)
We ate alot, and truly had a great time eating. :) Hahas, after lunch, we went to take a walk at de love bridge, before proceeding to de Dam-shui lao jie, to do some shopping. Actually, for de rest of de day, we spent it shopping. After shopping at de lao jie, we proceeded to shi lin ye shi, and den after dat Ximenting to shop til we are really shiok and happy!!! :) Wheeeee!!!!!!! Dat was great!!! We bought some clothes, and shopped and looked around. Hahas, it was such a great night!!!
After our shopping, we went back to de best otel ever dat we have ever stayed in b4. It was an ajoining room, which has a hugh living room, and dinning room, as well as a kitchen. Wah seh, it was really spacious and great man!!! Hahas, too bad we have to wake up early and leave for de airport de next morening, bt nevertheless, we had a good time, and a good sleep there in de great hotel room!!! :) Hahas, so shiok!!! Wheeeee!!!!!!!!!!! :)
Day 8:
We left the hotel early, and left for de airport to catch our flight home to Singapore!!!!!! Wheeeeee!!!!!!! Home sweet home!!!!! Hahas, SIngapore, we are back!!!!!!!!! :)
Man, Taiwan was really fun, and we had a great time there. Hahas, if u all ever had eny chance to go to Taiwan, mark my words, u will truly enjoy ur trip there!!! :)
Hehe, finally i've finished posting dis long long post. Haha!!! :) Hehes, i gtg le. LOLs!!! Cya ppl!!! Bye!!! :)
11:18 PM
