for 3 days already. Am late in uploading the Bangkok pictures. Editing is still in process.
Truckloads of picures!!
Having post holiday syndrome now.
All i could think of is how to conquer all of Platinum Mall's shop in 1 day the next time i'm there.
It is FREAKING big!!
And i missed out Khao San Road again! Nevermind, coming Apr... i die die have to go there!!
On a side note,
I PASSED MY JAP PAPER!! *shiok*
Started Intermediate 2 yesterday.
Listening comprehension practice at beginning of each lesson to prepare us for the listening test.
It was on numbers which is something that i use everyday at work.
So was pretty easy for me. No studying required!
On another note(hahaha!! i've got many notes),
I'm addicted to Sally's Salon on my DS Lite after playing with the Iphone version(Sally's Spa). I have always love games with similar genre to Diners' Dash.
Got so addicted that i didnt want BF to go home..
..with his Iphone. HAHA!
Okay! Eyes closing soon. Feeling very drowsy after my night shift.
Shall go sleep now and probably wake up at 4pm(if possible) for Dogrun with Niko at Pasir Ris.
I just booked a BKK trip for next year!! All within just 1 hr!
Total cost for 2 person: $216!!
Where to findddd!!
Luckily i opened my email last night and saw Jetstar's 24 hours madness promotion. And just right, at that moment, BF was on msn rushing his assignment. HAHAHAH!! After a round of 'forced' discussion, we settled on the date and ta-dah!!
The main point of the trip was to go for this 淋巴按摩. It's known to firm up the body(including the neh neh part), reduce water retention, ease congestion and lose weight. Most of my colleagues said it's good so i decided to tag along. haha..
Reached JB about 11am. I wanted to eat bak kut teh since i havent eaten it for the longest time, but, well, i was with 2 non-bak ku teh eaters.. So we ended up at Old Town@City Square. boo!
Breakfast @ Old Town. Love their toast!!
After all the eating, we took a cab down to Jalan Molek. It's done inside a bungalow. There were only 2 masseuses so 4 of us had to take turns.
While waiting, time to take pictures..
The place was pretty big.. 2 storeys high.
Boo!!
Waited for another 1 hr or so, finally it's our turn!!
They applied something first to open your 淋巴 then apply more oil to begin the 'scrubbing'. It was done by using a brush lookalike, except that the bristles on the brush were made of hard plastic.
It was bloody painful!! Might be due to the 'congestions' in my body as what she said. The scrubbing of my inner thighs was HELL!! Wonder how can anyone relax during this kind of massage.
The only time when i felt sleepy was when she massaged my head which.. i didnt ask for. It was shiok but my hair ended up becoming DAMN oily for the rest of the day and i couldnt wash it at a salon 'cause we had to wait 4 hrs later.
So yea.. i walked around like i was wearing a wig on my head.
Anyway, next, we took a cab down to Holiday Plaza. Had KFC before going for manicure and pedicure at our favourite Nail Studio.
That's my Etude House loots on the left!! 8 items for 140 ringgit.. Cheap!! It's a lot cheaper to buy Etude House stuff from JB since they are having a sale.. 50% off!!
My pedicure that cost 60 ringgit.
I got my Oceanus body spray from The Bodyshop!! It's always said to be discontinued but still hanging around the shelves everytime i go past. It's like my most favourite scent from there so i'll always try to grab 1 if i can. I cant bear to see it gone!! Aiming for the huge shower gel next! 40 ringgit!
Supper at Punggol Nasi Lemak after we came out of JB. Wanted to go Chomp Chomp but was packed. Xing Wang Hk cafe had a bloody long queue. It was the eve of Deepavli, that's why.
That's all for my JB trip. Can't wait to go again!! I wanna eat my bak ku teh!!
We woke up from our super cosy beds and head down for breakfast. The cafeteria was soo filled with people, mostly Japanese that we had to eat in their private room, supposedly reserved for meetings or conferences.
Then, it's back to our beloved coach for another day of traveling on road.
We went to 九分 Jiu Fen to experience the kind of different living lifestyle from the city area. Most of the houses were pretty old and was built uphill. 芋圆, a kind of dessert was their specialty. Every 5 mins you walk, there will definitely be a stall selling it.
Jiu Fen
Singapore's so small!! We coincidentally bumped into our ex colleague of Kikuzushi who also happened to be in the same tour group as us!!
After that, we went back to the coach and continued our journey to the temple.
while we're on our way there..
There's something special about this temple.
It houses 3 exact statues of the Chinese god(i can't remember what's the name). 1 on each level. Of different materials.
The first one is made of wood. 2nd one made of jade. And the last one is made of gold.
In order to see all of these, we had to climb all the way up. It's not as easy as you think. There were 2 flights of stairs for each level. So it's like climbing up 6 storeys up and down again. Plus with all the squeezing and pushing 'cause it was rather narrow, lots of energy were lost. But it was still worth it.
I love the jade one the most!!
There were stalls outside selling shredded peanut and ice-cream wrapped in popiah skin. Highly recommended by our tour guide. It was heavenly!! Cheap and good!!
When we were about to leave in our coach, there was a parade of gods on the street. I think it was an special day(either one of the god's birthday or some festive thingy going on) and the parade was by another temple who came to visit.
After leaving, we headed to 长春词. It was built to remember those who passed away during the building of some structure. I think tunnel or what.
*shit* I should have listened more attentively.
We made a pitstop for toilet break and the scenery there was awesome!!
Mum and Dad. Look at the mountain and clouds behind. I swear the real thing looks 1000 times more breath-taking.
Before we even reach the pitstop, there's one more place we had to go through first.
It was this tunnel!!
This is the 雪山隧道. Going through it will take at least 20 mins to reach the other end. It's a lil' longer than our KPE, but likewise, there's also speed limit to follow. If you exceed the speed limit, the guards will make an annoucement through their PA system and when sound travels within the tunnel, our tour guide said it sounded like 啊飘 AKA.... ghost. *eerieeee~*
The space is really small and when our coach went in, the space seems like it is only able to allow the coach to travel with no more space for any other cars.
And the good thing about this tunnel?
It brings you directly from Taipei to Hualien. Cutting short the journey by a few hours. Reason being, it cuts right through the heart of the mountains that stood between these 2 provinces.
It was said that the former former president had invited people from many countries to come help him construct the tunnel but many of them said it's quite impossible to cut through the mountains. But he didnt gave up. He used explosives and manpower to gradually open up the 'belly' of the mountain and when he's finally done, he invited the same group of people back again and they were astonished by what he did.
ok!! 'nuff about the tunnel before i sound like a History teacher.
We reach 长春词!!
Our tour guide took us to the photo-taking spot where we took a very far(i had to zoom and take with steady hands) picture of the little house that contains the ashes of those people. She didnt bring us over 'cause it's a long walk over and to go and see and come back is a lil' bit waste of time.
Instead she brought us to the cafe that was located at the bottom of the mountain to try their 'superb' coffee.
I find it so-so and it's not cheap lo!! To pay about 5 bucks for a coffee and a slice of cake is not in my taiwan's 'dictionary' of cheap and good food.
And actually, i dont really fancy our tour guide.
Throughout the whole 7 days' tour, she only knew how to 'down-sell' Singapore. Kept criticising about this and that in Sg. Talked about our Singapore flyer and she said, 'so what?' -_-"
It was entertaining at first. Just like watching a variety show in real life. After like a day or so of hearing bad stuff about your own country, you get sian and start feeling irritated.
IMO, she's a lil' too arrogant, biased and too straightforward.
Anyway, back to the trip..
our tour guide, after seeing all of us behave so well in front of the traffic marshall(we bumped into one before going into 雪山隧道. He came up and started asking us questions about safety in the coach and to which, we must answer him like students in school. Of course, we were already well-trained by her beforehand. LOL! But i learnt something from it!! Now i know that the little hammer in buses can actually break windows during emergency situations but only at the right places of the glasses, which is the4 corners!!), decided to give a lil' treat.
freshly made mua chee!!
Because it's freshly made, its expiry date is the day after tomorrow. So there's no chance for us to bring it back. Hence, she decided to let us have a taste of it. Different from the normal mua chee 'cause of the different rice used.
Next stop, Ah mei aboriginal village! 啊美文化村!!
They put up performances for us and during the last segment, i got dragged to go up for a mass dance.
Difference between the aborigines and city people: they can sing, dance and alot darker with sharp features!!
Amazing discovery though, 徐若宣 has got aborigines background!!
Last stop.. Back to HOTEL!!!
for dinner and checking in of rooms.
dinner was served in buffet style. We were told to drink a glass of apple/grape vinegar before attacking the food in order to stimulate our appetites. Lots of variety to choose from!!
Room was huge with triple beds AGAIN!
Quite boring to stay there as there were no night markets anywhere within 1000 miles radius!! lol.. ok i'm kidding.. But it was a rather rural place so i doubt we can even go out lo.
Watched half an ep of 不良笑花(yes.. it was telecasted in Taiwan in Aug. By now it should have finished. Mediacorp now then started broadcasting it. SLOWWWW!!) before knocking out.
We arrived at the airport at 6.35 to check in our luggage as a group at Row 11. When i alighted from the cab, the feeling is like going back to work!! Morning shift somemore! Arghz..
After checking in, we did what all the departing people always do in front of our counter...
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Take pictures with the grand looking DEPARTURE GATE!!!
this is taken by one of the staff who happened to pass by.
Very shaky hands!
with flash. think without flash really need a pair of steady hands to take clear pictures. i love this!!
dad and mum. Daddy stands like a statue. HAHA!!
*
Next, we had breakfast at Toastbox.
hahah.. i already jiak ga sian liao. But my family loves it!!
Peanut butter thick toast, kaya traditional, butter sugar traditional, half-boiled egg, teh and kopi!
*
Then, we went to the Butterfly Garden, which is near Gate B.
We were supposed to depart from Gate A. But i haven't been there before since its opening and my parents read about it in the news so we headed over.
Here's some of the butterflies..
<
The butterflies were mostly black in colour. I think the last one on the floor is dead. At least it died beautifully. Some were squashed on the floor. Yucks! And the ones that were flying were really scary!!! I've been to the butterfly garden in the zoo but that is nothing compared to this! There were at least 10 times more butterflies here as compared to the zoo.
And the scary thing is, they FLY TOWARDS YOU!
While taking all these pictures, i actually had to keep bending to avoid the butterflies from flying INTO me! If you were there, i think you can hear me scream. My sis gave up after a few mins. She went out to hide from them. Now that i think about them.. *shudders* I will never step inside again. My colleagues told me that the upper floor(there were 2 levels) was worse.
*
Ok.. after going to the toilet and waited for my dad to grab his cigarettes, we were ready to board the plane!
my first SQ flight!
I chose SQ 'cause
i wanted to experience the 'very good' service that everyone raved about
to be able to depart from T3 so that i can show my parents my working environment
i want to enjoy Krisworld, SQ's inflight entertainment
the difference i had to pay between SQ and CI was only about $80
so.. why not!!
my sis and mum
my dad sitting on the same row but different block of seats 'cause maximum only 3 can be together.
the 3 of us. my face look damn fat here. =(
fooling around with the hot towel given to us before the flight departs.
me and my sis
the menu booklet
our brunch menu.. we get to choose between chinese or western style.
i had the noodles..
while my sis had the omelette.
Both of us had tomato juice! yummy!
*
*
And now, my most favourite view..
how i wish i'm sitting on the wings right now..
and we reachedddddddd!!!!!!!!!!!!!! =))))
the tour agency told us that the temperature will be between 24 - 31 degree celcius. Why is it 34 when we reach?!?! The chinese wordings in the scrollbar said, '小心中署' be careful of getting heat stroke. For the entire tour, it was damn bloody hot. Even hotter than Singapore. Everyone was cursing and swearing.
We waited for a longggggggg time at the belt for our luggage. Very very slow. Luckily we were watching a beagle sniffing for drugs among the bags. Cute lo! Instead of using Doberman or those big sized police dog, they used a Beagle! And it totally looked like our dearest Niko. Made mum suddenly miss Niko so much!
Then, we proceeded outside to gather with the rest of the tour group. Before we went out, we had to walk pass this counter where they put a sensor to see our temperature from a screen. As i was running down with a flu, i was called to one side to have my temperature tested. Luckily it was nothing major. Just a slight rise in my body warmth. Can't imagine what if they really want to send me back 'cause i was unwell. Dots..
Up we go and into the coach where we will spend the rest of the 7 days traveling with it. We get to put our umbrella and water on board as these will be necessities for the entire trip.
Some pictures that i took while we were on our way to 淡水 Dan Shui..
Chinese signboards everywhere!! People who can't read Chinese at all can go home and sleep liao!
Even the wordings on the road were in Chinese! Notice the opposite directions of the car? Singapore go forward on the left but Taiwanese go forward on the right!
Their cabs. Comes in sedan, hatchback and more spacious ones.
Along the way, we saw lots and lots of stalls selling 槟榔. At first i was very interested and peered into every single one that we went past. 'Cause if you've watched Taiwanese drama or variety shows, you will know that these stalls are manned by very sexy ladies wearing bikinis or bra tops. This is one of their tactics to attract more people into buying and because most of the buyers were male, hence the 槟榔西施, a name for the sexy ladies.
But as i saw more and more stalls i got very sian. My sis already told me that when she was here earlier this year, she was the same like me. But soon she realised most the stalls were operated by old ladies/aunties!! True enough, the more stalls we saw, the more aunties i saw.
Until i gave them a new name. 槟榔啊妈！LOL!
reaching 淡水!!
this sign looks funny. The man looks more like a farmer than a worker with his triangle hat.
First stop! Fisherman's Wharf 渔人码头！
Dad and Mum with the Lovers' Bridge 情人桥 behind them.
us!
Me at the bridge!
Look at the number of people holding umbrella behind me. The sun was shining with all its might!
We went over to the other side for our very first cup of Red Pearl Milk Tea in Taiwan! Shiok especially on such a hot day!!
This is their public toilet.
Here's a closeup..
look at their sign for each toilet for the different sexes.
'Lady' for the ladies and 'Gentle' for the men? I thought ladies can be gentle too? LOLLLL!!!!
So we proceeded to go to the Lady but we stopped and started laughing at this handcapped!
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not handicapped. We are not so evil. But HANDCAPPED! ROFL!
Finally, we went in to do our business. When i open the cubicle's door, i got a shock!
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the toilet bowl shifted!
hahah.. no la.. it's just a different position from our usual ones in Singapore. And surprisingly, despite being a public toilet, it is very very very super duper uber clean!
a random food stall. i think i was damn hungry when i took this. The menu has so many varieties!
Later on, we went to 淡水老街 Dan Shui Old Street to grab some small bites. There were lots of food stalls on both side of the street. Like our SG pasar malam.
But of course, their food tastes 100 times better than ours.
Since it's a weekend, there were lots of people!!
It was a complete contrast when later on in the week, we came back to the same place on a typhoon day. All the shops were closed, like a ghost town.
Barbecued squid!! You can choose between spicy or non-spicy.
hee.. There's a reason for taking this photo. Notice the 小帅哥 behind? He's grilling the squid for us. Bery muscular too! HAHAHAH!!
One of the stalls in the middle(yes!! despite being so narrow, there were actually 3 rows of stalls) was selling quail's egg. It's cooked the same way as how you cook tako pachi.
yummy quail's egg! looked like fishballs on a stick. hahah..
We had these in a shop. From top left is the must-try 啊给. It's like a chunk of meat with some veg wrapped with a piece of tofu skin. Very tasty. Followed by fishball soup and glutinuous rice.
one of the stalls selling drinks
Sweet potato balls
Don't be deceived by the plain look of it. THIS IS HEAVENNNNNNNNNNN!! Really addictive. i kept popping it into my mouth non-stop. Q like dunno what! A must-try!!
the ice-cream that everyone sure eat when they come to Taiwan. Now when i upload this picture, i realised there's also matcha and honeydew flavour! I ordered the mix(chocolate and vanilla) one. =(
on our way to 士林夜市 Shih Lin Night Market, we saw Carrefour. So it's called 家乐福 in Chinese. It's fun to see all the Chinese translation of all the shops here. Later on i saw some funny ones. Will post them later.
士林夜市 Shih Lin Night Market.
One of the biggest Night Market in Taiwan. Sorry for including the aunties's glare in this picture. Thick-skinned.. thought i shooting her? hahhaah!!
Look at the amount of people here!!
And we can't move 'cause we wanna buy the famous XXL chicken!!
Ta-dah!!
Long queue loooooooooo!!
In fact, there's a queue for almost all the stalls there.
SO many peopleeeee!!
Even though the night market here is like permanent and there are so many others in Taiwan, on weekends there's still so many people. Taiwanese really love night markets!!
Since there were not much time left to buy and eat, we da-baoed everything that we can see so that we have enough time to shop around too. That's the disadvantage of being in a tour group. =( But we really got our adrenalin hyped up when we rushed for time. It's like taking part in the contest, 'Shop 'til you drop'. LOL!!
After we've got everyone back at the meeting point, it's time to head to our first hotel of the tour!
GLORIA PRINCE HOTEL
According to the tour guide, this hotel used to take in no other nationalities' tourist except the Japanese. Not sure what's the reason for it and why they are opening up to everyone now. But since it was 'made' for the Japanese, everything was so JAPANESE! The room is small and cosy. The toilet bowl is the japanese kind with lots of button at the side. And when we headed down for breakfast the next morning, almost half the people were Japanese tourists staying here.
triple beds!!
Later we found out actually this was specially arranged by our tour leader. 'Cause we had wanted our rooms to be next to each other and it's difficult to get a twin room and a king size together so they gave my parents a king size and us, a triple!
small but cosy..
the toilet.
i love that small mirror that's on the bigger piece of mirror. It actually magnified every single pore that i have on my nose. And i used that to squeeze my clogged pores!! Can see everything so clearly!
robes with a 'japanese feel' were provided.
After all the photo-taking, it's time to dig in! Called our parents over before we start the 'takeaway' feast.
yummy!
let me introduce the food one by one..
the famous 啊宗面线
There's one more stall at Ximending. I eat this almost every night when i'm staying there. It is not like the oyster mee-sua that we have in SG. This one has got pig's organs in it and it is fantastic!
Taiwan sausage in 辣椒 chilli flavour
I love how i can eat sausages in different flavours in Taiwan. Besides chilli, there's also 麻辣，蜜汁，炭烧，沙茶， 酸菜 and so on.. Everyday can choose one flavour to eat!!
Spicy Korean Rice Cake
This is something that i've always wanted to try after seeing it in korean dramas. Luckily i spotted it at Shih Lin. Somemore told the auntie i got no money to go Korea that's why gotta buy this from you. LOL!!
麻辣鸭血 Spicy Duck's blood!!
Since Stinkapore Singapore banned pig's blood, I've been craving for it like hell! When i saw Jacky Wu ordered this when he was hosting the famous variety show 十字路口, i knew i had to try this if i have the chance to go to Taiwan 'cause it's almost the same as pig's blood and it's spicy(another of my favourite!!) So when i'm in Taiwan, i buy and eat like nobody's business!! My wish is finally granted!!
the XXL chicken.
Not cut up like the ones selling in SG 士林小吃 but it's in one big piece to retain the juice. *slurp*
glutinous rice bought by my father. Nice!!
This resembles indian prata but it's wrapped with meat, like a kebab. Not too bad but a little bit too much onions. I bit into a raw one. bleahhh!!
Since the night is still young and we left on our own now, we went downstairs to explore a little. Apparently the shops doesn't seem to want to close yet, so we just took our time.
We went to Watsons first. I went crazy. Bought lots of mask, makeup from Lavshuca and Kate and some toiletries.
Then, we went into 7-11, followed by Hi-life and Family Mart to check out what's selling in their CONVENIENCE STORE!
I love their varieties of drinks..
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ta dah!!
One whole rack of milk products
I'm so happy! i bought a different kind of milk tea everyday!! Back in SG, finding a bottle of milk tea can be like finding a needle in a haystack.
This was of course before the 'Poison milkpowder' report came on. =)
The top row consists of different flavours of milktea. And so big only for SGD$1!!
S.H.E
And their advertising is goodddddddddddd!! They put my favourite celebrity on my favourite tea!
There's more!!
Rainie Yeung!!
汪東城 and 吳尊
Ended up i bought 蔡旻佑 back. haha..
Even their varieties of mineral water made me hard to decide.
i tried 鲜切水. The bottle in pink and green colours. It tasted like water but with a tinge of apple taste in it. Very refreshing!! Ambassador is 小 S. Her commercial made me laugh like mad in the hotel room.
As we continued walking, we saw Angela Zhangggggggggg
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的poster.
Posing for 1 day acuvue. That's 蔡旻佑 in my hand!
Another one on the other side of the wall.
Feeling a little hungry(hahaha!! that explains the weight gained..), we tried this! As soon as i took this picture, i was shoo-ed away by this uncle working there. Stupid me forgot to off the flashlight and it alerted him.
Nevertheless, the food was good! So it was worth the 'shoo'!
Presenting..
米苔目!!
This is something i will never have a chance to eat in SG. NEVER!! It looked like udon but it taste nothing like that or even like mee tai mak. It is very Q and the soup is fantabulous!!! The intestine and tofu is also good!
That's the reason why i had to die die also take a picture of his signboard in case the next time i'm back, i can go eat again!!
Opposite the shop is another shop selling bubble tea. My sis went to get one.
hey look!! Mini pearls! And their serving is so generous!
We wanted to go for KTV intially but it was too expensive to sing on a weekend. so we went back.
Back in the hotel..
my loot!
After bathing, we put on our robe and watched tv. But we were too bored so we started jumping.
Please ignore our messy hair and sans make up face.
we were making so much noise i bet the people downstairs wanna kill us. But it was fun!! Jumped til we were so tired then we continued watching the 100 channels of Taiwan programmes before both of us fell asleep.
for 3 days already. Am late in uploading the Bangkok pictures. Editing is still in process.
Truckloads of picures!!
Having post holiday syndrome now.
All i could think of is how to conquer all of Platinum Mall's shop in 1 day the next time i'm there.
It is FREAKING big!!
And i missed out Khao San Road again! Nevermind, coming Apr... i die die have to go there!!
On a side note,
I PASSED MY JAP PAPER!! *shiok*
Started Intermediate 2 yesterday.
Listening comprehension practice at beginning of each lesson to prepare us for the listening test.
It was on numbers which is something that i use everyday at work.
So was pretty easy for me. No studying required!
On another note(hahaha!! i've got many notes),
I'm addicted to Sally's Salon on my DS Lite after playing with the Iphone version(Sally's Spa). I have always love games with similar genre to Diners' Dash.
Got so addicted that i didnt want BF to go home..
..with his Iphone. HAHA!
Okay! Eyes closing soon. Feeling very drowsy after my night shift.
Shall go sleep now and probably wake up at 4pm(if possible) for Dogrun with Niko at Pasir Ris.
I just booked a BKK trip for next year!! All within just 1 hr!
Total cost for 2 person: $216!!
Where to findddd!!
Luckily i opened my email last night and saw Jetstar's 24 hours madness promotion. And just right, at that moment, BF was on msn rushing his assignment. HAHAHAH!! After a round of 'forced' discussion, we settled on the date and ta-dah!!
The main point of the trip was to go for this 淋巴按摩. It's known to firm up the body(including the neh neh part), reduce water retention, ease congestion and lose weight. Most of my colleagues said it's good so i decided to tag along. haha..
Reached JB about 11am. I wanted to eat bak kut teh since i havent eaten it for the longest time, but, well, i was with 2 non-bak ku teh eaters.. So we ended up at Old Town@City Square. boo!
Breakfast @ Old Town. Love their toast!!
After all the eating, we took a cab down to Jalan Molek. It's done inside a bungalow. There were only 2 masseuses so 4 of us had to take turns.
While waiting, time to take pictures..
The place was pretty big.. 2 storeys high.
Boo!!
Waited for another 1 hr or so, finally it's our turn!!
They applied something first to open your 淋巴 then apply more oil to begin the 'scrubbing'. It was done by using a brush lookalike, except that the bristles on the brush were made of hard plastic.
It was bloody painful!! Might be due to the 'congestions' in my body as what she said. The scrubbing of my inner thighs was HELL!! Wonder how can anyone relax during this kind of massage.
The only time when i felt sleepy was when she massaged my head which.. i didnt ask for. It was shiok but my hair ended up becoming DAMN oily for the rest of the day and i couldnt wash it at a salon 'cause we had to wait 4 hrs later.
So yea.. i walked around like i was wearing a wig on my head.
Anyway, next, we took a cab down to Holiday Plaza. Had KFC before going for manicure and pedicure at our favourite Nail Studio.
That's my Etude House loots on the left!! 8 items for 140 ringgit.. Cheap!! It's a lot cheaper to buy Etude House stuff from JB since they are having a sale.. 50% off!!
My pedicure that cost 60 ringgit.
I got my Oceanus body spray from The Bodyshop!! It's always said to be discontinued but still hanging around the shelves everytime i go past. It's like my most favourite scent from there so i'll always try to grab 1 if i can. I cant bear to see it gone!! Aiming for the huge shower gel next! 40 ringgit!
Supper at Punggol Nasi Lemak after we came out of JB. Wanted to go Chomp Chomp but was packed. Xing Wang Hk cafe had a bloody long queue. It was the eve of Deepavli, that's why.
That's all for my JB trip. Can't wait to go again!! I wanna eat my bak ku teh!!
We woke up from our super cosy beds and head down for breakfast. The cafeteria was soo filled with people, mostly Japanese that we had to eat in their private room, supposedly reserved for meetings or conferences.
Then, it's back to our beloved coach for another day of traveling on road.
We went to 九分 Jiu Fen to experience the kind of different living lifestyle from the city area. Most of the houses were pretty old and was built uphill. 芋圆, a kind of dessert was their specialty. Every 5 mins you walk, there will definitely be a stall selling it.
Jiu Fen
Singapore's so small!! We coincidentally bumped into our ex colleague of Kikuzushi who also happened to be in the same tour group as us!!
After that, we went back to the coach and continued our journey to the temple.
while we're on our way there..
There's something special about this temple.
It houses 3 exact statues of the Chinese god(i can't remember what's the name). 1 on each level. Of different materials.
The first one is made of wood. 2nd one made of jade. And the last one is made of gold.
In order to see all of these, we had to climb all the way up. It's not as easy as you think. There were 2 flights of stairs for each level. So it's like climbing up 6 storeys up and down again. Plus with all the squeezing and pushing 'cause it was rather narrow, lots of energy were lost. But it was still worth it.
I love the jade one the most!!
There were stalls outside selling shredded peanut and ice-cream wrapped in popiah skin. Highly recommended by our tour guide. It was heavenly!! Cheap and good!!
When we were about to leave in our coach, there was a parade of gods on the street. I think it was an special day(either one of the god's birthday or some festive thingy going on) and the parade was by another temple who came to visit.
After leaving, we headed to 长春词. It was built to remember those who passed away during the building of some structure. I think tunnel or what.
*shit* I should have listened more attentively.
We made a pitstop for toilet break and the scenery there was awesome!!
Mum and Dad. Look at the mountain and clouds behind. I swear the real thing looks 1000 times more breath-taking.
Before we even reach the pitstop, there's one more place we had to go through first.
It was this tunnel!!
This is the 雪山隧道. Going through it will take at least 20 mins to reach the other end. It's a lil' longer than our KPE, but likewise, there's also speed limit to follow. If you exceed the speed limit, the guards will make an annoucement through their PA system and when sound travels within the tunnel, our tour guide said it sounded like 啊飘 AKA.... ghost. *eerieeee~*
The space is really small and when our coach went in, the space seems like it is only able to allow the coach to travel with no more space for any other cars.
And the good thing about this tunnel?
It brings you directly from Taipei to Hualien. Cutting short the journey by a few hours. Reason being, it cuts right through the heart of the mountains that stood between these 2 provinces.
It was said that the former former president had invited people from many countries to come help him construct the tunnel but many of them said it's quite impossible to cut through the mountains. But he didnt gave up. He used explosives and manpower to gradually open up the 'belly' of the mountain and when he's finally done, he invited the same group of people back again and they were astonished by what he did.
ok!! 'nuff about the tunnel before i sound like a History teacher.
We reach 长春词!!
Our tour guide took us to the photo-taking spot where we took a very far(i had to zoom and take with steady hands) picture of the little house that contains the ashes of those people. She didnt bring us over 'cause it's a long walk over and to go and see and come back is a lil' bit waste of time.
Instead she brought us to the cafe that was located at the bottom of the mountain to try their 'superb' coffee.
I find it so-so and it's not cheap lo!! To pay about 5 bucks for a coffee and a slice of cake is not in my taiwan's 'dictionary' of cheap and good food.
And actually, i dont really fancy our tour guide.
Throughout the whole 7 days' tour, she only knew how to 'down-sell' Singapore. Kept criticising about this and that in Sg. Talked about our Singapore flyer and she said, 'so what?' -_-"
It was entertaining at first. Just like watching a variety show in real life. After like a day or so of hearing bad stuff about your own country, you get sian and start feeling irritated.
IMO, she's a lil' too arrogant, biased and too straightforward.
Anyway, back to the trip..
our tour guide, after seeing all of us behave so well in front of the traffic marshall(we bumped into one before going into 雪山隧道. He came up and started asking us questions about safety in the coach and to which, we must answer him like students in school. Of course, we were already well-trained by her beforehand. LOL! But i learnt something from it!! Now i know that the little hammer in buses can actually break windows during emergency situations but only at the right places of the glasses, which is the4 corners!!), decided to give a lil' treat.
freshly made mua chee!!
Because it's freshly made, its expiry date is the day after tomorrow. So there's no chance for us to bring it back. Hence, she decided to let us have a taste of it. Different from the normal mua chee 'cause of the different rice used.
Next stop, Ah mei aboriginal village! 啊美文化村!!
They put up performances for us and during the last segment, i got dragged to go up for a mass dance.
Difference between the aborigines and city people: they can sing, dance and alot darker with sharp features!!
Amazing discovery though, 徐若宣 has got aborigines background!!
Last stop.. Back to HOTEL!!!
for dinner and checking in of rooms.
dinner was served in buffet style. We were told to drink a glass of apple/grape vinegar before attacking the food in order to stimulate our appetites. Lots of variety to choose from!!
Room was huge with triple beds AGAIN!
Quite boring to stay there as there were no night markets anywhere within 1000 miles radius!! lol.. ok i'm kidding.. But it was a rather rural place so i doubt we can even go out lo.
Watched half an ep of 不良笑花(yes.. it was telecasted in Taiwan in Aug. By now it should have finished. Mediacorp now then started broadcasting it. SLOWWWW!!) before knocking out.
We arrived at the airport at 6.35 to check in our luggage as a group at Row 11. When i alighted from the cab, the feeling is like going back to work!! Morning shift somemore! Arghz..
After checking in, we did what all the departing people always do in front of our counter...
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Take pictures with the grand looking DEPARTURE GATE!!!
this is taken by one of the staff who happened to pass by.
Very shaky hands!
with flash. think without flash really need a pair of steady hands to take clear pictures. i love this!!
dad and mum. Daddy stands like a statue. HAHA!!
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Next, we had breakfast at Toastbox.
hahah.. i already jiak ga sian liao. But my family loves it!!
Peanut butter thick toast, kaya traditional, butter sugar traditional, half-boiled egg, teh and kopi!
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Then, we went to the Butterfly Garden, which is near Gate B.
We were supposed to depart from Gate A. But i haven't been there before since its opening and my parents read about it in the news so we headed over.
Here's some of the butterflies..
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The butterflies were mostly black in colour. I think the last one on the floor is dead. At least it died beautifully. Some were squashed on the floor. Yucks! And the ones that were flying were really scary!!! I've been to the butterfly garden in the zoo but that is nothing compared to this! There were at least 10 times more butterflies here as compared to the zoo.
And the scary thing is, they FLY TOWARDS YOU!
While taking all these pictures, i actually had to keep bending to avoid the butterflies from flying INTO me! If you were there, i think you can hear me scream. My sis gave up after a few mins. She went out to hide from them. Now that i think about them.. *shudders* I will never step inside again. My colleagues told me that the upper floor(there were 2 levels) was worse.
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Ok.. after going to the toilet and waited for my dad to grab his cigarettes, we were ready to board the plane!
my first SQ flight!
I chose SQ 'cause
i wanted to experience the 'very good' service that everyone raved about
to be able to depart from T3 so that i can show my parents my working environment
i want to enjoy Krisworld, SQ's inflight entertainment
the difference i had to pay between SQ and CI was only about $80
so.. why not!!
my sis and mum
my dad sitting on the same row but different block of seats 'cause maximum only 3 can be together.
the 3 of us. my face look damn fat here. =(
fooling around with the hot towel given to us before the flight departs.
me and my sis
the menu booklet
our brunch menu.. we get to choose between chinese or western style.
i had the noodles..
while my sis had the omelette.
Both of us had tomato juice! yummy!
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And now, my most favourite view..
how i wish i'm sitting on the wings right now..
and we reachedddddddd!!!!!!!!!!!!!! =))))
the tour agency told us that the temperature will be between 24 - 31 degree celcius. Why is it 34 when we reach?!?! The chinese wordings in the scrollbar said, '小心中署' be careful of getting heat stroke. For the entire tour, it was damn bloody hot. Even hotter than Singapore. Everyone was cursing and swearing.
We waited for a longggggggg time at the belt for our luggage. Very very slow. Luckily we were watching a beagle sniffing for drugs among the bags. Cute lo! Instead of using Doberman or those big sized police dog, they used a Beagle! And it totally looked like our dearest Niko. Made mum suddenly miss Niko so much!
Then, we proceeded outside to gather with the rest of the tour group. Before we went out, we had to walk pass this counter where they put a sensor to see our temperature from a screen. As i was running down with a flu, i was called to one side to have my temperature tested. Luckily it was nothing major. Just a slight rise in my body warmth. Can't imagine what if they really want to send me back 'cause i was unwell. Dots..
Up we go and into the coach where we will spend the rest of the 7 days traveling with it. We get to put our umbrella and water on board as these will be necessities for the entire trip.
Some pictures that i took while we were on our way to 淡水 Dan Shui..
Chinese signboards everywhere!! People who can't read Chinese at all can go home and sleep liao!
Even the wordings on the road were in Chinese! Notice the opposite directions of the car? Singapore go forward on the left but Taiwanese go forward on the right!
Their cabs. Comes in sedan, hatchback and more spacious ones.
Along the way, we saw lots and lots of stalls selling 槟榔. At first i was very interested and peered into every single one that we went past. 'Cause if you've watched Taiwanese drama or variety shows, you will know that these stalls are manned by very sexy ladies wearing bikinis or bra tops. This is one of their tactics to attract more people into buying and because most of the buyers were male, hence the 槟榔西施, a name for the sexy ladies.
But as i saw more and more stalls i got very sian. My sis already told me that when she was here earlier this year, she was the same like me. But soon she realised most the stalls were operated by old ladies/aunties!! True enough, the more stalls we saw, the more aunties i saw.
Until i gave them a new name. 槟榔啊妈！LOL!
reaching 淡水!!
this sign looks funny. The man looks more like a farmer than a worker with his triangle hat.
First stop! Fisherman's Wharf 渔人码头！
Dad and Mum with the Lovers' Bridge 情人桥 behind them.
us!
Me at the bridge!
Look at the number of people holding umbrella behind me. The sun was shining with all its might!
We went over to the other side for our very first cup of Red Pearl Milk Tea in Taiwan! Shiok especially on such a hot day!!
This is their public toilet.
Here's a closeup..
look at their sign for each toilet for the different sexes.
'Lady' for the ladies and 'Gentle' for the men? I thought ladies can be gentle too? LOLLLL!!!!
So we proceeded to go to the Lady but we stopped and started laughing at this handcapped!
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not handicapped. We are not so evil. But HANDCAPPED! ROFL!
Finally, we went in to do our business. When i open the cubicle's door, i got a shock!
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the toilet bowl shifted!
hahah.. no la.. it's just a different position from our usual ones in Singapore. And surprisingly, despite being a public toilet, it is very very very super duper uber clean!
a random food stall. i think i was damn hungry when i took this. The menu has so many varieties!
Later on, we went to 淡水老街 Dan Shui Old Street to grab some small bites. There were lots of food stalls on both side of the street. Like our SG pasar malam.
But of course, their food tastes 100 times better than ours.
Since it's a weekend, there were lots of people!!
It was a complete contrast when later on in the week, we came back to the same place on a typhoon day. All the shops were closed, like a ghost town.
Barbecued squid!! You can choose between spicy or non-spicy.
hee.. There's a reason for taking this photo. Notice the 小帅哥 behind? He's grilling the squid for us. Bery muscular too! HAHAHAH!!
One of the stalls in the middle(yes!! despite being so narrow, there were actually 3 rows of stalls) was selling quail's egg. It's cooked the same way as how you cook tako pachi.
yummy quail's egg! looked like fishballs on a stick. hahah..
We had these in a shop. From top left is the must-try 啊给. It's like a chunk of meat with some veg wrapped with a piece of tofu skin. Very tasty. Followed by fishball soup and glutinuous rice.
one of the stalls selling drinks
Sweet potato balls
Don't be deceived by the plain look of it. THIS IS HEAVENNNNNNNNNNN!! Really addictive. i kept popping it into my mouth non-stop. Q like dunno what! A must-try!!
the ice-cream that everyone sure eat when they come to Taiwan. Now when i upload this picture, i realised there's also matcha and honeydew flavour! I ordered the mix(chocolate and vanilla) one. =(
on our way to 士林夜市 Shih Lin Night Market, we saw Carrefour. So it's called 家乐福 in Chinese. It's fun to see all the Chinese translation of all the shops here. Later on i saw some funny ones. Will post them later.
士林夜市 Shih Lin Night Market.
One of the biggest Night Market in Taiwan. Sorry for including the aunties's glare in this picture. Thick-skinned.. thought i shooting her? hahhaah!!
Look at the amount of people here!!
And we can't move 'cause we wanna buy the famous XXL chicken!!
Ta-dah!!
Long queue loooooooooo!!
In fact, there's a queue for almost all the stalls there.
SO many peopleeeee!!
Even though the night market here is like permanent and there are so many others in Taiwan, on weekends there's still so many people. Taiwanese really love night markets!!
Since there were not much time left to buy and eat, we da-baoed everything that we can see so that we have enough time to shop around too. That's the disadvantage of being in a tour group. =( But we really got our adrenalin hyped up when we rushed for time. It's like taking part in the contest, 'Shop 'til you drop'. LOL!!
After we've got everyone back at the meeting point, it's time to head to our first hotel of the tour!
GLORIA PRINCE HOTEL
According to the tour guide, this hotel used to take in no other nationalities' tourist except the Japanese. Not sure what's the reason for it and why they are opening up to everyone now. But since it was 'made' for the Japanese, everything was so JAPANESE! The room is small and cosy. The toilet bowl is the japanese kind with lots of button at the side. And when we headed down for breakfast the next morning, almost half the people were Japanese tourists staying here.
triple beds!!
Later we found out actually this was specially arranged by our tour leader. 'Cause we had wanted our rooms to be next to each other and it's difficult to get a twin room and a king size together so they gave my parents a king size and us, a triple!
small but cosy..
the toilet.
i love that small mirror that's on the bigger piece of mirror. It actually magnified every single pore that i have on my nose. And i used that to squeeze my clogged pores!! Can see everything so clearly!
robes with a 'japanese feel' were provided.
After all the photo-taking, it's time to dig in! Called our parents over before we start the 'takeaway' feast.
yummy!
let me introduce the food one by one..
the famous 啊宗面线
There's one more stall at Ximending. I eat this almost every night when i'm staying there. It is not like the oyster mee-sua that we have in SG. This one has got pig's organs in it and it is fantastic!
Taiwan sausage in 辣椒 chilli flavour
I love how i can eat sausages in different flavours in Taiwan. Besides chilli, there's also 麻辣，蜜汁，炭烧，沙茶， 酸菜 and so on.. Everyday can choose one flavour to eat!!
Spicy Korean Rice Cake
This is something that i've always wanted to try after seeing it in korean dramas. Luckily i spotted it at Shih Lin. Somemore told the auntie i got no money to go Korea that's why gotta buy this from you. LOL!!
麻辣鸭血 Spicy Duck's blood!!
Since Stinkapore Singapore banned pig's blood, I've been craving for it like hell! When i saw Jacky Wu ordered this when he was hosting the famous variety show 十字路口, i knew i had to try this if i have the chance to go to Taiwan 'cause it's almost the same as pig's blood and it's spicy(another of my favourite!!) So when i'm in Taiwan, i buy and eat like nobody's business!! My wish is finally granted!!
the XXL chicken.
Not cut up like the ones selling in SG 士林小吃 but it's in one big piece to retain the juice. *slurp*
glutinous rice bought by my father. Nice!!
This resembles indian prata but it's wrapped with meat, like a kebab. Not too bad but a little bit too much onions. I bit into a raw one. bleahhh!!
Since the night is still young and we left on our own now, we went downstairs to explore a little. Apparently the shops doesn't seem to want to close yet, so we just took our time.
We went to Watsons first. I went crazy. Bought lots of mask, makeup from Lavshuca and Kate and some toiletries.
Then, we went into 7-11, followed by Hi-life and Family Mart to check out what's selling in their CONVENIENCE STORE!
I love their varieties of drinks..
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ta dah!!
One whole rack of milk products
I'm so happy! i bought a different kind of milk tea everyday!! Back in SG, finding a bottle of milk tea can be like finding a needle in a haystack.
This was of course before the 'Poison milkpowder' report came on. =)
The top row consists of different flavours of milktea. And so big only for SGD$1!!
S.H.E
And their advertising is goodddddddddddd!! They put my favourite celebrity on my favourite tea!
There's more!!
Rainie Yeung!!
汪東城 and 吳尊
Ended up i bought 蔡旻佑 back. haha..
Even their varieties of mineral water made me hard to decide.
i tried 鲜切水. The bottle in pink and green colours. It tasted like water but with a tinge of apple taste in it. Very refreshing!! Ambassador is 小 S. Her commercial made me laugh like mad in the hotel room.
As we continued walking, we saw Angela Zhangggggggggg
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的poster.
Posing for 1 day acuvue. That's 蔡旻佑 in my hand!
Another one on the other side of the wall.
Feeling a little hungry(hahaha!! that explains the weight gained..), we tried this! As soon as i took this picture, i was shoo-ed away by this uncle working there. Stupid me forgot to off the flashlight and it alerted him.
Nevertheless, the food was good! So it was worth the 'shoo'!
Presenting..
米苔目!!
This is something i will never have a chance to eat in SG. NEVER!! It looked like udon but it taste nothing like that or even like mee tai mak. It is very Q and the soup is fantabulous!!! The intestine and tofu is also good!
That's the reason why i had to die die also take a picture of his signboard in case the next time i'm back, i can go eat again!!
Opposite the shop is another shop selling bubble tea. My sis went to get one.
hey look!! Mini pearls! And their serving is so generous!
We wanted to go for KTV intially but it was too expensive to sing on a weekend. so we went back.
Back in the hotel..
my loot!
After bathing, we put on our robe and watched tv. But we were too bored so we started jumping.
Please ignore our messy hair and sans make up face.
we were making so much noise i bet the people downstairs wanna kill us. But it was fun!! Jumped til we were so tired then we continued watching the 100 channels of Taiwan programmes before both of us fell asleep.
I'm back!!
Breakfast @ Old Town. Love their toast!!
The place was pretty big.. 2 storeys high.
Boo!!
My pedicure that cost 60 ringgit.
