a day in taiwan with e taiwanese

e road trip to Yi Lan 宜兰

tats our rented ride for e day. not cheap wor, abt S$100 for e day. but it's worth it cuz of e many many gd places our hospitable taiwanese fren brought us!

presenting our master driver for e day, e veri camera-shy JinWei/Stan. tis stubborn taiwanese refused to take proper photo lorz. -_-

according to e local ground head snake, tis Hsuehshan Tunnel took 10+ yrs to build, n kill a handful of brave construction workers in e process.

some bad english in e tunnel. note e last 2 lines in 'engrish'.

after an hr's drive (n some losing of directions) frm taipei, we've arrived at yi lan 宜兰 !!~ it's v much a countryside state lorz, right beside taipei.

seriously, u cant blame e city kids for being wow-ed by padi fields. e locals were amused by how excited we'r over their vast padi fields.

Su-Ao 苏澳，Yi Lan 宜兰

i guess tis is a little-known place, cuz there's nobody there! unlike places like gu gong n jioufen, which were super crowded.

wats rong looking at?? LoL~

tat is like a seaside place, with mountains n rocks. mightily gorgeous. but purely there to take photo oni lahz.

su-ao is basically a fishing village, we saw their fish mkt (which is no diff frm ours). stan treated us to a delicious seafood lunch there (will be posted later). hoho~

Dong-Shan River Park 冬山河亲水公园，Yi Lan 宜兰

i believe tis is e park where 湘琴 n 直树 got married in It Started with a Kiss 恶作剧之吻, look uncannily alike.

stan said taiwanese flock to tis park for dragon-boat races during dumpling festival, n also in july, when e water park is up. both events we'r unable to catch. -_-

tats where i stepped on some dung. still don see why we muz pay S$3 to go into e park with dung.

tats e landmark to recognise e park frm. n tats coincidentally e oni photo we took with stan actually posing for it. told u he's uberly camera-shy.

National Centre for Traditional Arts 国立传统艺术中心

judging frm its name, it's realli hard to deduce tat tis is a fun place. but it's realli enjoyable lahz, my fav place in yi lan lorz.

we saw actors staging a sea legend scene there. tats Mdm Catfish and Mr & Mrs Lobster! LoL~

tis is like e purrfect place to film tofu street or sth, minus e 死小孩s. in there are 2 rows of ultra interesting souvenir shops!~

calligraphy brush making right b4 my eyes! it looks v ez tho.

woa tis lady is super zai. she sat there with a blowtorch n some sticks of coloured glass, n juz started conjuring up exquisite purple glass swans lorz. power~

tat is not a piece of cheesecake, it's a piece of tea soap!~ looks yummy horz, there's realli tea smell de lehz.

u can blow em! u noe, like a recorder. v cooL~ LoL~

tis shuai ge is e most famous character in their traditional taiwan puppet show. 素还真 is uberly pretty lorz, every inch is delicately n exquisitely created. all of us simply stood n awed at his splendour.

scenic place. machiam like china. oh paisey, guess e taiwanese wldnt like to hear tat. hehe~

photo entitled: e lonely old man 孤独的老人

LoLoL~

beautiful place, isnt it?

taiwanese humour at Luo Dong Night Market 罗东夜市 where we had a fantastically yummy beef noodles.

Maokong 猫空, Taipei 台北

mr taiwanese drove us back to taipei to lim teh. Stan say it's a young ppl thing to brew tea atop maokong 猫空.

there are like 50 tea houses on maokong lorz, but we settled on tis for its comparatively better scope of the taipei night view. but e taipei night view aint great lahz, too lil lights.

e hill road up maokong huh, oso v scary. narrow n rough n dark. tink stan was peeved by my constant " 有车！小心! " . but realli v scary mahz! haha~

yes it's tis kinda chee-na tea. n they realli brew it e traditional orthodox way, which means if u'r v thirsty u'll prob juz die of thirst. but e tea was uber fragrant, 金楦茶 (i tink).

we had a terrific time sipping tea n playing bridge with e hilarious taiwanese! thx so much for e wonderful time, dude!~ hehe~

a tourist's day in taipei

after a lousy bfast at e hotel, our renumerated one-day tour guide shepherded us up e tour bus n kicked-start our hectic one-day guided tour around taipei.

Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall 中正紀念堂

our 1st stop for e day. e taipei sun was shining so brightly, we nearly evaporated. bah~

tat gate looks like e NTU 'nan-tah' gate lorz.

there was some recent controversy over e renaming of tis hall to Taiwan Democracy Memorial Hall 台灣民主紀念館, but we shant go into tat in detail eh.

yep, we were juz there to take these 3 photos. move along move along~

Martyr's Shrine 忠烈祠

e tour bus rushed us there to catch e 9am guards changing ceremony.

which was futile cuz with e horde of ppl, we cldnt see much of e ceremony anyways. super alotta japanese tourists.

seriously, these poor guards are like tourist exhibits. like e ones in e bangkok palace lorz. n i continue to treat em as exhibits. oopsie~

v bizarre lorz, e tourists are like chaperoning e guards! bodyguards for e guards! LoL~

mr purpose: why u take photo with e tw flag?

me: *exasperated* for fun? duhz~ -_-

at 1st i was asking zen "why are we taking photo with e plain white stone pillar? quite dumb lehz". yuan lai e backgrd so pretty. hehe~

National Palace Museum 国立故宫博物院

mr tour guide said e great Chiang Kai-Shek secretly shipped e most precious china treasures over to taiwan when he rebelled, n these treasures are now exhibited in taipei gu gong.

we saw e famous Jadeite Cabbage 翠玉白菜 (veri exquisite n pretty), Meat-shaped stone 肉形石 (fascinatingly meat-like), n some jade mystic animal 天禄辟邪.

again, gu gong is oso packed with ppl tat hail frm nippon. hafta unleash our kiasu singapore spirit n shove our way to e front to see e exhibits lorz. gosh~

cant take photos inside, so took photos outside. hehe~

Jioufen 九份

we transferred to a public bus 公车 at tis bird dont lay eggs 鸟不生蛋 but charmingly tranquil place.

enchanting old street 老街 in Jioufen. sells alotta food n souvenirs, pretty tourist-ish place lahz. not enough time to sip tea there tho. e cons of packaged tour.

managed to take a scenic breather from e extremely crowded old street, at e bus stop.

ooohhh~ romantic wor. n hot. did i mention e fearsome meandering road up e Jioufen hill? such a relief to alight e bus in one piece. *phew*

Beitou Hot Spring 北投温泉

yes it's kinda crazy to soak hot spring in tat sweltering summer heat, but there's no hot spring in sg, so muz try!

they've arranged private rooms for all of us. 2 per room, so we can avoid gg into e hot spring naked. gawd~

e room was not wat i imagined it 2b, expected better. n who knew, they dont give out free towels there. hehz~

so much hassle for juz a 15min immersion in e hot spring water. e supposed warm fuzzy feeling n increased blood pressure din follow tho.

not particularly enjoyable lahz, felt kinda strange cuz e room has an overwhelmingly kinky feel to it. hahahaha~

tis guided tour ended when we were released at shihlin. more on shihlin in e later posts!~

taiwan! 1st look~

e taiwan gang getting ready to fly off!~ i bot e pandan cake for my friend in taiwan, in case u'r wondering.

took jetstar again. e recent no-liquid rule is realli benefitting budget airlines, a bottle of 350ml mineral water costs S$3!

after much gossiping n bridge-playing, we arrived at taiwan's taoyuan international airport!!

look who else were on e same flight as us! e whole plane was like infested with NTU and PwC ppl lahz, gosh~

surprisingly empty airport, old and pretty dilapidated. but at least they din mess up our luggage. oh, i was pretty amazed by their arrival and departure electronic board, completely in chinese! duhz~

e darlings on our land transfer coach, having our 1st looks of taipei.

there are alotta such fields along e way, we were guessing if they'r wheatgrass field. like how wld us city kids noe?? hehz~

amazed by e no. of scooters they have on their roads. alot alot!

after an hr's ride, we finally arrived at our hotel! royal castle hotel 成都大饭店, which is not 大 at all. e room is small but cosy lahz.

but e hotel is so much better than we expected, they even have water cooler in each room! hot n cold water wor. service was impeccable too.

will u stop staring at my deceivingly pudgy arm!! it's juz an optical illusion. bah~

we went walk walk around e hotel area after we settled down. e above is Easy Shop, a 4-storey ladies' underwear shop right around e corner! cooL~

ximending 西门町 is juz 5min frm our hotel. e 'it' happening young place in taipei.

i saw mingxings everywhere in ximending!

their posters lahz. mingxings earn alot frm ads in tw huh, celebrity endorsements are ubiquitous.

jj lin is v hong in tw wor. JJ!!~ *heart*

look how huge their party world ktv 钱柜 is! we din k all e while in tw tho.

rose records 玫瑰唱片 in ximending! like our hmv lidat, where singers frequently hold their autograph sessions.

we were impressed by how speedily e roadside stall 路边摊 hawker bolted in anticipation of e cops. wow~

we met shan n her tw gang (told u millions of PwC ppl were in e same flight as us). requested shan to help us take a photo of us plus e symbolic ximending tv screen tower, but turned out no tower. -_- haha~

n tats our 1st look of tw. plenty more tw posts to come!