the story about us

Day 1

Wait for yy wait until wanna die. (yy: I wait 4 taxi wait until wanna die) finally checked in at abt 11.20am. quite happy tad our luggage wasn’t as heavy as we thot it wld b. heez. Otherwise later we come back dunno how much will exceed by.

By the way, all our mums n xl’s dad came 2 send us off EXCEPT cx’s mum. Hahaz, guess why? She rather go 2 the market n mai cai. Hahaz, funny right, rather look at veggie den her. Hee. (cx: …)

Look at the piece of paper tad pl n xl r holding. Tads the BOARDING PASS. Looks at ntuc receipt man. Behind still gt ads. Hahaz. Bt other den tad, acty jetstar nt tad bad lah. Esp 4 the small amt u r paying. Some more on our way there we gt 6 seats 4 the price of 4. hahaz. Better den SIA lor. Coz the armrest can lift up n we juz spread on the big sofa. Hahaz. Look at how yy is slping. =p (yy:zzzzzz)

We finally reached there at 5.40pm, super on time sia. After tad we went 2 to buy the tics n take the bus 2 ximending, which is where our hotel is. At this pt, the start of the weirdest n most YIXIANG bu dao (pun intended =p) encounter of our entire trip happened. When we were waiting at the busstop, these 2 hk guyz came over n ask us how 2 take the bus 2 ximending. So qiao rite? So we kindly told them 2 where 2 get the bus tics. Den on the bus, they wanted us 2 intro them places to go at first coz they thot we were locals there. Hahaz. We kindly lended them our travel guidebk. Much 2 our amazement, they haven even booked their hotel 4 tad nite yet. N it was already like 7pm at night!!! Gungho rite, these 2 pple juz pack their bags n bk a tic 2 fly there.

We were warmly welcomed by the chamber maid at the hotel. She guessed tad we were frm sg right away. Quite nan de. A lot of pple guessed tad we were frm hk. Hahaz, den her reason was tad we look very qing xiu. Hahaz, (yy: so expected, pl,xl,cx: bu yao lian) den decided 2 go grab dinner n take a walk arnd ximending. Famished by then. It was freakin cold. 9 degrees sia. It was the peak of their winter den, tell ur sth funny kz, the pple there Chinese damn fast n they speak with their words abit slurred, like jay chou liddat. Den we went 2 eat at the ramen shop, the waitress slang was so bad tad she scared cx away. Hahaz. She wanted 2 order sth else at first den in the end xia dao. Juz keep saying 跟她一样，跟她一样!! (pting towards pl) so in the end she juz ate the same thing as pl. hahaz. den we took a walk arnd the rest of ximending n guess who we met?! … the 2 hk guyz. Hahz, quite glad 4 them tad they found a hotel in the end. By the way, ximending is acty abt at least 4 times the size of bugis village lor.

Day 2

Next morn dunno where to go sia… acty suppose to go to Sun moon lake BUT den rt, the receptionist say it’s nothing much and it takes REallie long to get dere and SO, we decided to eat breakfast first. The receptionist intro us to a shop just beside the hotel which sells typical Taiwanese breakfast. WIDE variety…thrash yakun lor. Got 汉堡，三明治，土司，厚片 etc… RoCKs mann!

Den we took a cab to Taipei railway station and enquired abt a few locations finally settling on 淡水 as our destination. Took 捷运(MRT) dere den walk around. Ate the TALL TALL ice-cream that u always see in Taiwanese food/travel shows. Buahaha (cx: it’s not that fantastic la… too little dairy) Walk and walk and walk along the place and saw a lot of shops selling the famous 铁蛋. It’s quite a nice place la. After a long long walk, finally reach Fort San Domigo. It used to be a fort for the British but now it’s just a place where you will take a lot of pictures… somehow has the England feel even in the middle of nowhere. Teehee… Saw a grp of photography enthusiasts. Damn zai, but mostly retirees ba…

Walk back to the 淡水老街for lunch. Cheap and nice sia. Acty we just went into the 鱼丸店 with the most pple… make sense rt? Cuz dere’s reallie a lot of fishball shops dere. Their specialty mah. Everyone was eating the fishball soup with 肉包 so we decided to follow suit. Wise Choice… the bao rellie rawks!!! (pl: check out the pic, cx looks like a witch trying to poison yy. Yy: HELP!! Cx: Lame.. XL: -__- poison her all the better.. mwahahahaha!)

Okay, after satisfying our appetites, we hunted for the Longshan Temple which was suppose to be in the vicinity. On the way, we saw the ONLY indication in Taiwan that Chinese New Year is coming. Seriously lo. (pl: if you the streets of Taiwan are gg to be littered with red, and blasting w/ CNY songs, den you’re wrong!) (cx: click on the pic and check out the captions on the lingerie!! mwahahaz. play mahjong sure win like siao lor. =D) (Xl: HUAT AH!!)

In the end the Longshan Temple we found was acty embedded within the wet market… so inappropriate sia. So camouflaged that we didn’t even notice. Anyway, we realize that there were acty many Longshan Temples in Taipei. 3, if we’re not wrong…and the one we found was not the major one..

So we decided to head back to the MRT station and GUESS WHO WE MET?!?!!! YES!! It’s the 2 HK Guys AGAIN!! Spotted them in the midst of the crowds at Danshui (cuz it was Sunday) Omg, we were kinda freaked out.. so were they… Do you know how far danshui is from ximen?? Haha and Taipei alone can be seen on the map, dunno how many times the size of S’pore. Till here, this is wad we call 三面之缘… So the guys suggested that we take a photo together. Exchanged msn contacts too! Heh… quite amazing rt?

After the freaky encounter, we went to 后山埤 station where the wufenpu garment wholesale market is located. The place is Huge and all the shops were selling clothes. The NT$100 (S$5) racks were our main targets. Got us high… Shop, shop and shop… Didn’t even finish shopping the whole of wufenpu… sad ahL. (cx: it’s impossible la…) Had our dinner dere too… at the臭臭锅. It’s not smelly okay… it’s acty veri nice. Oishi!

Check out our loot for the day!=)

Day 3

Today we booked a one day tour through the hotel for NT$1000 each( abouts S$50) It was nubbad la… one big car drove the four of us around… plus one guide cum driver… buay pai sia~ haha… he’s really nubbad…know a lot of stuff n keep helping us take photos… N hor his nickname is Shi Fu. We went to the 圆山大饭店，which is the only world class hotel with an underground escape tunnel. Inside very nice lor… like pai-ing huan zu ge ge liddat… it’s really more like a 皇宫。。。 very grand indeed…

After the Grand Hotel, we went to the Martyr’s shrine which was actually a place that honours those that die in the line of duty. Actually there’s nothing much to see there except the guards who are very wa-yang… den they have to stand very still for quite a long time… they are something like mannequins cos someone else has to straighten their clothes for them… u guys have to count yourselves lucky u dun haf to do this kind of thing…

Next up was a rather long ride to 野柳… midway we stopped to take pictures by the coast and it was super windy… a really nice place to shoot MTV and we even saw a couple shooting their wedding photos... romantic!!!

野柳was a great place, geographically and aesthetically speaking… all those about wind erosion we learnt in Geog was seen here. There were a lot of amazing formation… which is rather useless describing here… u gotta see it for yourself to feel the impact… anyway, it was really pretty and breathtaking and there are tons of photos… hehe~ This is a shot of the famous 女皇头... if u have a chance must really visit this place!!!

The “nostalgic” small town located up in the mountains, 九份 was up next. How did it get its name? well, cute la… a long long time ago, there lived 9 households up in this area and as the place was very inaccessible, each time they had to get necessities, one household would make a trip down to buy back 九份 of whatever they needed. That place was freaking cold la… (cx: my heart shrunk lor… if u get what I mean… haha :Þ) Jiu fen is a tourist spot basically, with lots of foodstuff… which we sampled until we full lar!!! I bet yixiang and company will get damn high there lor!!! Hahaz…

Enough of freezing at九份, we went to 杨明山 to 泡汤(hot spring)… we chose the 小汤 and the water really had the sulphur smell… but I tell u ah… it was super shuang la… especially in the cold weather.

Our last stop for the day was the most famous street night market in Taiwan, 士林夜市. If u think the 鸡排 in Singapore is big, then you dunno what’s huge!!! Kaoz… really twice the size fot NT$45, which is about S$2.50 only lor… SHUANG!!! For that night we tried lots and lots and lots of food!!! Got 臭豆腐，蚵仔煎，绵绵冰（yy’s fav）,酸梅汤(cx’s fav) etc… Their绵绵冰is really cotton-like… can blow one.. cx tried it and it flew into pl’s face… classic man… good work mok!!! Then in between eating, we shopped and shopped and shopped… shiok ah!!!

Day 4

First thing in the morning we did was to take neoprint at ximending. Hahaz, nubbad rite, go all the way there 2 pai. Acty their machines the same as ours one lah. Bt must take all of us in winter clothes mah, after all u dunt get 2 wear them in Singapore.

After that, we went to eat meesua! I tell u lor, their meesua stall rite, is u buy n stand along the streets 2 eat one lor. So zhuai rite, nice until they dunt bother 2 put tables. Hahaz, very gt feel lor, stand along the corridor n eat!! =p

Den went to Wulai 2 go c waterfall. Abit disappointing lah, nt as big as we imagined it 2 be. Some more it was quite along way 2 get there. I think wad was the most worth it there is tad we gt 2 try their traditional 泰雅族 food. VERY VERY nice. The stir-fried spicy bamboo shoots n 竹筒饭rawks man!! Oh, n b4 that we ate the traditional ice cream in taiwan, 枝仔冰。 The kind u always c in shi zi lu kou. After lunch at the taiya place, we took a slow walk down, pass by this place call 情人步道。Shld b quite romantic one lah, bt we so noisy, spoil the atmosphere onli. Hee!!

After tad we went 2 this place called 公馆。Acty nth much there lah, it’s where the national Taiwan university is situated. Nt very bustling, dunt need 2 go unless u r craving 4 豆花。 Muz try the one frm 龙潭。 Quite nice, jen n yy didn’t really like it though. So cx n pl devoured it. (cx n pl: hahahaha!!) so we quickly proceeded to Miramar nxt. Acty it’s a high-end shopping centre, students like us can 4get abt shopping there. The toilet’s really nice n big!! There’s even one specially 4 kids one, hahaz, so cute lor!!! Spend a long long time in the toilet man, taking photos, hahaz, abit siaoz rite!! =p went there 2 sit the ferris wheel, think it’s the second highest in the world, coz it’s a huge ferris wheel mounted on top of the shopping centre. Quite scary. Cx went weak in the knees.(cx: dunt laugh lor, Royston will b worse!) (yy: she acty forbid me frm standing in the capsule lor! Like I care!) (cx: …inside gt safety rules sae dunt stand!!) (pl:… enough hor, cannt type so fast!!) bt muz sae lah, the view really very nice frm on top, esp in the nite, with all the lights. Bt hor, in the queue were ALL couples cept 4 us. So u guyz can consider going there with ur other half, hahaz, quite romantic one. After that went shilin walk walk again, hahaz, cant help it, the place big wad! N the shuttle of Miramar end at shilin. =p

Day 5

Woke up ultra early to catch our train bound for 花莲. Woke up at 530am lo!! (the earliest person la I mean.. who is me.. the one typing now! Haha) Grabbed breakfast from the shop next to our hotel.. then chiong to the railway station by cab.. yupp and we were actually early! Hahaz.. the train is really not bad.. lotsa leg space.. v spacious.. it’s actually much more comfy than our plane! Hehe.. Ok.. it’s a 3 hours journey all the way to Hualien… caught some sleep on the train. But the view on the way is actually quite pretty ya.. can see mountain tops shrouded in mist.. blue oceans.. =)

Upon reaching 花莲, we went straight to get bus tix to go to taroko. There were many taxi drivers there trying to get us to 包车.. obviously trying to extort us one. And there was this woman who was so damn persistent la! Crap lo! Took a damn super long time to shake her off.. Ok.. her offer was really attractive.. but well.. even the tix counter lady kept shaking her head at us.. telling us not to 上当.. And wad made us more infuriated was that she made us miss our bus to Taroko!! Gosh.. and we had to wait for almost another hour to get on the next ride. Damnnn. ARghz. So we shopped around for 花莲‘s most famous foodstuff --- muacheee!! The 曾记 one is really good! Most famous in tw! Esp their ultra big muachee.. woohoo! Rawks! Damn soft and chewy!! =) there were many photos of big stars trying their muachee.. mwahz.. if u go tw mus go try their muachee ok! Esp the big big ones!

The coach we took to taroko was a public bus..the bus was pretty empty la. then we past by an elementary school..and it was their 放学时间. So all of a sudden, our coach kinda became a SCHOOL BUS! Haha! Damn noisy.. and abit erm.. smelly.. LOLx. The kids are pretty adorable too ya.. and we felt quite out of place. Like old ppl among young kids. Haha.

Upon reaching taroko.. it was drizzling slightly.. so still ok. Due to the limited time we had over there, we couldn’t really see much la. Oh and actually the most picturesque area is 天祥.. but really too far le.. if u all go hualien.. must spend more than one day.. so u can see more nice nice scenery..

So we went along this path called the 砂卡砀, went thru this tunnel which cuts thru the mountain.. and got on this path which allowed us to enjoy the scenery of the gorge. The water was soooo blue lo! Yy was so damn tempted to go down to touch the water.. mwahahz.. abit crazy right. unfortunately, by the time we hit the end of the path, it started raining quite heavily.. so the journey back was ARDUOUS! Look at the pathetic state we were in.. We actually didn’t want to take out the ponchos one.. but well.. the rain got too big for us to resist the ponchos.. haiiii. And the breadtalk paper bag we brought along which had our bread in it was TORN! Eew. Terrible terrible.. damn 扫兴!.. took such a long trip to hualien yet it rained! But at least we managed to complete the path and got ourself into taroko gorge.. cos it was actually highly recommended by a tour guide we met earlier on at the san domingo fort.

Went back to Taipei on train again… then pl excitedly wanted to experience the Chinese new year atmosphere in Taiwan since we haven’t done so for the past 4 days during our stay in Taiwan. Asked the receptionist where to shop for Chinese new year goods.. found out that it was 迪化街. FAILED. After trekking there on foot for very long from the nearest MRT station, yes we did reach that street.. but damn it, it was merely 9 plus and 90% of the shops were closed! Talk abt atmosphere..Bah! none! Our Chinatown win hands down can! Hahz.. disappointed lo. But at least there was this food street nearby.. so went there to try out the food. Atmosphere there not bad.. =) tried 木瓜牛奶，烩饭，可丽饼 (crepe).. Headed back to ximen and finally tried taiwan’s 卤味! It’s good! The way the person prepared it was kinda stunning.. the way he poked at the bag to release air.. haha.. ok nvm.. dun think you’ll understand what I’m trying to say.

Now, back to hotel.. let me tell you what we’ve been playing everynight. Hahaha. It’s our nightly game.. LOL. Like monopoly. Hahz, actually no la.. we’re just settling our finances for the day.. like for meals we’ll pay together.. admission tix, taxi fares.. etc.. so every night we’ll settle everything. Yupz.. and NT sounds big.. multiply by about 20.. so we’re playing with tens, hundreds and even thousands.. so it sounds big! Haha.. even NT$5 which is like S$0.25 we’ll also calculate with one another. Hehe.. funny lo. =D

Day 6

Headed right away to Taipei 101 early in the morning. The weather that morning was misty.. drizzling too. Look at the pic.. Taipei 101 shrouded in mist! Had Mac breakfast over there.. wahhh singapore’s mac breakfast win hands down can! We’ve got much more variety over here.. they only have 3 kinds of burgers to choose.. The meals are actually cheaper la.. about S$3+ per meal. No hotcakes, no big breakfast.. =(.

After eating, we EXCITEDLY went to find our way up to the 顶楼 of the world’s tallest building.. We were showed the way.. and to our surprise.. we had to pay NT$350 (abt S$18) to take the elevator up! Muahaha. EX lor! But well, since we’ve came all the way to Taipei, we don’t mind paying that money to get us up la. To our dismay, the guy over there told us that the view up there was quite bad that day due to the mist. Omg, totally sian diao can!.. Argh.. Can only see a bit of the surrounding buildings and cannot really see far. Hai, so wads the use… we went to shop at the basement instead. Crap lor, come to a 101 storey high building end up shopping at the basement.. being 101 storeys below.. Crap laaaaaa.. How stupid… really wasted. Hai. Ok, we shopped in 7-eleven.. and I tell u lo.. 7-elevens in Taiwan don’t provide plastic bags! Hahz.. environmental-friendly lo. If you need a carrier u need to pay lo.. the small bag costs NT$1 the big one costs NT$2. mwahahz. And the office ppl really lug their stuff back by hand.. hahhhz.

Went to CKS memorial hall.. It’s quite a nice place.. with 古色古香 buildings. The central area is super super super spacious. Big empty plot of land. Haha.. look at the pictures to get a better idea k..

After that went back to ximen to do our last minute shopping. Went to this 泡沫红茶店
called 逗鱼.. nice setting. The seat is actually a swing suspended from the ceiling. Hehe.. Very fun! Hahaz..ordered some drinks and well, there’s really this drink called 随便 on their menu! =D Soon it was time for us to head back to our hotel to collect our big luggages and to board the bus which will take us to the airport.. On our way back, GUESS WHO WE SAW AGAIN???!!!???!!!!!!!??! Kao, buy 4D also not so accurate one lor. We met the 2 HK guys again! Omg. Just like a few hours before we leaving Taiwan we met them again. Freaky can! Hahahhz. Everyone couldn’t believe it lo. Hahaz. laugh like siao. =) 四面之缘了!

Was quite afraid that our luggages will exceed the baggage limit at the airport but good thing it didn’t.. only 60plus kg in all. Hahahaz.. still got allowance lorrr. Pl’s and xl’s handcarry was super heavy lo.. with all the foodstuffs inside! Haha.. not badddd lo.. Yupp.. then it was a smooth flight back la.. oh ya and the plane captain actually mentioned that it was 23 deg in Singapore.. abit unbelievable.. hahahhz. And he said it was misty in Singapore. Omg?! Haha.. funny… played a bit of bridge..and abit of our fortune telling game … Yup. 4 girls. 6 days in Taiwan. Over 600 pics. Haha.. immeasurable fun we had.. yeah u get the idea =).

Our impressions of Taiwan

Taiwanese are a hospitable lot of people. Everywhere we go, people are almost always ready to strike up conversations with others, and funnily enough, they always guess that we are from Hong Kong… haha… oh yeah and they are always ready to extend a helping hand, giving us directions and such. The service industry there is very impressive too. The sales assistants are always very warm and they simply love to greet us with their signature “欢迎光临!!!”, which has a special lilt and Taiwanese accent… like singing song liddat lor!!! Even the guys have no qualms about saying that…I bet Signaporean guys would say “死 GAY!!!”, but hey!!! It’s not lor!!! (cx: it’s damn cute lar!, pl: makes us feel very welcome) … the effect? It makes us more willing to buy from them… on a side note, wu fen pu is our favourite shopping venue as the clothes are the cheapest around. Just chiong the NT$100 racks…hAHAhz… And for the guys… Taiwanese girls are really cute and they really talk like Yang chen lin… hAHahaz…. Their traffic rules are not rules… haha… as in you cross the road whenever u think its safe lor.. haha… and their motorbikes ah… rule the streets man… gosh. Oh, and the toilet signs are weird la… dunno why they ask ppl not to throw toilet paper into the toilet bowl but into the bin instead lest the bowl gets stuck but well.. who cares!?

Food we tried:
炸酱面
红豆 / 奶油煎饼
凉圆 (xl: aka wonbin)
各式奶茶
土司
粉圆 / 红豆豆花
烧饼
淡水鱼丸，肉包
烤鹌鹑蛋
中国麻辣火锅
卤肉饭
醉鸡
芋圆
麻薯
炸鸡排
水煎包
臭豆腐
绵绵冰
蚵仔煎
鸡蛋糕
台湾香肠
大肠包小肠
酸梅汤
冰糖葫芦
超硬小馒头
甜不辣
超高冰淇淋
阿宗面线
饭团
烩饭
竹筒饭
炒竹笋
枝仔冰
烤山猪肉
龙潭豆花
河粉蘑菇水煎包
可丽饼
木瓜牛奶
卤味
超大炸蘑菇
蛋蜜汁
随便
情人梦
炸豆腐

[It's 11.20pm now.. haha.. look at the time we started blogging.. big project lo. Yup, hope u all had fun reading it! =) Tempted to go tw? hehe..]

4:07 PM