taiwan!!!

BEWARE!!!!!! long entry ahead.
if you just want photographs, visit http://www.flickr.com/photos/72419396@N00/sets/72157594191864184/

i was back from my first overseas trip without any guidance and directions from adults a few weeks ago. TAIWAN!!!!!!!!!! it is a shopping paradise. i spent every single cent i brought over on clothes, meals and snacks. i even had to borrow cash from goi. imagine how poor i was for the last few days.

day 1:

i was the last to reach the airport and i made some new friends. RUTH, ruth's friend and ruth's friend's friend. what a complicated relationship! i was too dependent on the adults, aka my parents or the teacher-in-charge when i go on school overseas trips, to settle all the administration stuff at the airport. it was nevertheless a great feeling to take control and be responsible for my own stuff. we arrived at CKS international airport in the evening. the first star we saw was our local superstar, chen weilian at the customs. i thought he was there to promote his new album but i guessed i was wrong. he seemed like he was more on a holiday trip than a business trip. the temperature there was HIGH, much higher than that of Singapore's. when i was about to step out of the fully air-conditioned terminal, condensation took place immediately on my spectacles. we took the freego bus to our hotel, the royal castle.

the room was very small!!! we had to climb over one another's luggage to get from one end of the room to the other. most importantly, we could not have all our luggages open at the same time before we moved the furniture around to have the maximum optimum space we could have. it had the proper necessary facilities like the toilet and 3 proper beds despite it being a 3 stars hotel. we could not stand the hunger and dashed to the nearby pasta food outlet. it was quite a difficult task for me to order my first meal there because everything was in chinese. to make things worse, it was the traditional chinese characters. Given my sub standard chinese, my brain took even a longer time to comprehend what i saw. after having our fill, we did not know what to do with it. they had this fast food plastic tray and ceramic utensils. how were we supposed to dispose them? we even waited to observe how the taiwanese cleared their trays. pretty dumb right?

First shopping haunt was ximenting - a happening place, filled with life. it was completely different from the streets along orchard road. everywhere was crowded with people and look at the amazing number of stalls we could find in just ximenting. furthermore, each shop is unqiue in its own way. i found some shops that sold similiar items unlike those here which are duplicate of each other. one day is definitely not enough to cover the whole of ximenting.

we saw how fantastic their party world and cash box were on television. we could not resist the temptation. when we went into the building, we could not believe our eyes. i thought it was one of the posh hotels' lobby but it was actually the party world's reception. they had many levels of karaoke rooms, like 7 storeys. when the lift opened, the waiter attending to the customers at that level received us from there. GREAT SERVICE!!!! he brought us to our room. to add on to our surprises, there was a toilet inside each room!!!! i was so happy. seriously, i think their service was much better than any of those i had in spore before. we sang till 3am, the next morning and the route back to the hotel was creepy. =(

day 2:

one thing good about free and easy travelling is that you can decide on your own iternary. we woke up around 9 plus in the morning. we took their metro aka singapore's MRT to our first stop - SUN YAT SEN memorial hall. however the place was a disappointment. It was supposed to be a tourist attraction but it was deafening quiet inside. As quoted from goi, “ people used it to walk to the other side of the road”. Furthermore, the architecture was not very impressive when he was an inspiring chinese leader. It was quite meaningless for us to visit these historical sites without a tour guide because we did not know much about the history about the person involved and place. As tourists, we just snapped some photos here and there before heading to taipei 101 and NYNY shopping centre.

Taipei 101 is the highest building in the world. We would be able to see almost or the whole of taiwan when we were at the observatory level. Strangely, we did not go up. There was mister donut at NYNY shopping centre. By looking at the colourful and yummy donuts, they just brightened up my day. =) however, somewhere else made me even happier. it was wufenpu, which is the garment wholesale centre. Clothes, pants, shorts, skirts, bags, shoes, hats, caps and belts. It was also the place where i spent bulk money there. The garments were not exactly very cheap, but they were definitely cheaper than those in singapore. Besides, their customer service was superb. They would try their best to help us and they did not show us any attitude when we asked for help or we were simply browsing in their shops. What shock me most was when they refused to let us try on the clothes. Reason was they did not want us to dirty their clothes. Imagine the amount of sweat and dirt accumulated on our body after walking through crowds after crowds.

we visited our first night market – raohe night market. We did not shop much there or try a lot of the local delights because our hands were full. All 3 of us, goi, rj and i did a lot of shopping at wufenpu. We walked so much there until we had to drag ourselves to raohe. We took a ate dinner and had red bean milk ice. It was not as good as what was described in the newspaper. The ice shavings were rougher than those in singapore. I guessed we fail to taste the orginial ice monster at taipei.=(

since day 2, we started our daily night on-our-way-back-to-the-hotel routine. We would visit the nearby convenience shops, 7-11, family mart or OK la, to replenish our vitamins by having juices and preparing our breakfast.

day 3:

it was a sightseeing day. We agreed to wake up earlier but it did not happen. We must be too shagged after all the walking we had on the day before and i think goi and i stayed up to watch a world cup match. Was it the portugal vs netherlands? It was close to noon when we left for YMS national park. Stupidly, we hiked our way from the bus terminal to the visitor's centre. It did not seem to be that far on the map but it took us around 30 to 45 minutes to get there. The weather was burning hot and it definitely slowed us down by a little. When we arrived at the visitor's centre, we had came to our senses that it was impossible for us to hike the whole of YMS within a day. So, we planned our route and decided to go to the nearby juan si waterfall. It was only then when we asked for directions, we knew there were bus services within the park itself. So it just meant we had wasted our time and energy to hike to the visitor's centre. Irritating!

When we alighted at the le shui keng stop, we asked for directions again to hike to the waterfall. See, lesson learnt while traveling like this is to always ask for directions. Orientate ourselves first so we would not be lost. The directions given were “ walk across that bridge and follow the landmarks along the way”. Ok, that did not sound too tough. We walked and climbed but the road was tougher. It became narrower and more rocky. I nearly sprained my ankle when i missed my step. If i did, i did not know what would happen to us. We were very deep in the forest and we did not see any medical sites along our way. How are we going to get help? Luckily, none of the above happened. All we could hear were the calls from insects, waiting impatiently to make their first move on us. I could not hear any water sound, so we were nowhere near to the waterfall. When we finally found our dear waterfall, we were relieved and proud of our achievement. However the waterfall was far from the word “majestic”. Three 19-years-old girls ventured into the unknown grounds without any self defense but a donut and a packet of drink for brunch.

Our night activity was tamshui. We were supposed to catch the beautiful sunset but we missed it. We spent too much time hiking at YMS but it was an experience. The lover's bridge and walking along the old streets of tamshui to find the famous tie dan. It was when we had our first unfriendly encounter. Poor customer service because they treated us like dirt. FRUSTRATING! Besides their local tie dan, we bought boxes and packets of mochi. They were freshly made and yummy, esp the black sesame and peanut mochi.

Quickly, we made our way to shilin night market, the largest in taipei. It was true to its name. First, we went to the food area, where we usually see on television to buy the famous ji pai. It was delicious except for the chili powder. It was so spicy that rj and goi could not stand it. They were the people who can take spicy food. So poor karen then! We did not manage to cover much of the night market in 2 to 3 hours because we had to rush for the last metro train. So we agreed to return to shilin night market the next day.

day 4:

we went to CHIANG KAI SHEK memorial hall. It was totally different from that of SYS memorial hall. It looked like a typical chinese palace. There were 3 buildings within the compounds. Out of the 3, i only knew one was the national threate, unsure about the other 2 names. as tourists, we took many photographs again. I wanted to stay a little longer there but the heat was simply unbearable. Our second proper meal in taipei here we come!!

it did not take a very long time for us to get our seats at the main branch dintaifeng. Are you envy of me? Their streaming hot xiaolongbao is a MUST-HAVE on the table. The skin was just nice and the soup. !!!!! it was heaven for me. Once again, they had great service again. Rj said they bowed 90 degree to greet us when we entered. Uncountable welcomes were heard.

After filling our stomaches, it was time for more shopping!!! we went to yuanling street where we could find a entire street of shops selling nothing but shoes! It was not a fruitful trip because the shoes were generally more for the working class.=( after that, we went to guanhua night market, which was just opposite one of the taipei's universities. I thought i would be able to buy something there since the place was for the students but sadly, i just tried the smelly toufu and some chinese dumplings. The smelly toufu wasnt smelly at all. I am certain my nose was perfectly normal then. I will give it another shot when i travel again. Our next stop was the uncompleted shopping trip at shilin night market.

on our way back to the hotel, we saw our shooting going on just outside ximenting. so we rushed back to our hotel to put our shopping bags down and went out again to see the fliming. not sure who the stars were but they are taiwanese.

day 5:

it was our last day at taipei. We did some last minute shopping at ximenting. We bought some local delights, more mochi and plentiful of jimi collectibles. Soon, we were on our way back to singapore.

Our days seemed very packed and rush but i truly enjoy myself there. Great shopping place for me. I will be back sometime in the nest few years for another shopping spree. Great company, goi and rj. Most importantly, this trip made me realise how horrible i am in singapore. Taiwanese are very friendly and helpful when we asked for directions from any passers-by. They are very orderly people too because they actually queue behind one another automatically when boarding the metro. Something that i think we should be ashame of is they allow all the passengers to alight before boarding. Come on, learn from them. They are able to achieve it without all the constant announcements over the public address system.

Yes! I love travelling and i want to travel all my life.

To view photographs, visit http://www.flickr.com/photos/72419396@N00/sets/72157594191864184/