Taiwan Trip 2008 Day 2

The next morning, we had hotel breakfast. The bad thing about being in a tour group is that you are forced to eat with your tour mates on the same table. The hotel food was a bit of a disappointment. After breakfast we set off for Taipei Zoo. On the bus, the tour guide told us of one interesting fact, in Taiwan, you are not supposed to throw your used toilet paper into the toilet bowl. This is because the sewage pipes in Taiwan are narrow, so throwing toilet paper into the toilet bowl might obstruct the pipe ways. So they will throw it in a little bin beside the toilet bowl (actually I think this is disgusting, haha...), anyway talking about toilets, toilets in Taiwan are so clean! (Even in Shi Lin Night market or places you will expect a dirty toilet). Singapore, "The Garden City" really needs to learn from Taiwan lor. Taipei Zoo nothing interesting leh... Just animals... Can see in Mandai Zoo mar, Mandai Zoo is seriously better than Taipei Zoo...


Hotel breakfast buffet


Taipei 101



"Whacha lookin' at???"




Cute sleeping Koala Bear


Energetic little monkeys



Another monkey?


The guy next to me is our tour guide, Kevin Yu

The next destination we went to is 大溪浪漫花海, this is the filming location for 天國的嫁衣 and 我的祕密花園Ⅱ. It is a flower orchard. We had our lunch in their own restaurant there, the restaurant looks very nice but food was not very great.



After lunch, we went to a D.I.Y lesson for making our own 香草香包, I bought one for my mum too! Then we went out to the flower orchard to admire those beautiful flowers~~~


Kim Samsoon's pig! Shu Mei, sorry, I can't bring it back to you. Haha...


Different 香精 for our 香包


Making my own 香包



Lavender garden





Do I look like the lead actor??? AHAHA...

We then proceed to 士林官邸, this is the old resident of 蔣介石 and 宋美齡. They have a enormous park open to public but their house is not open to public. 宋美齡 likes roses when she was alive, so she had one park of her park planted with 1000 roses, but when we were there, the roses are not that pretty, I think its because its not spring and before that the typhoon might have made the flowers look tired.


In front of their house


1000 roses garden


The car given by the US as a present for 蔣介石 and 宋美齡, they used to use this car to travel around.


The protrait of 蔣介石 and 宋美齡



The last stop of the day was 士林夜市!!! The most looked forward destination for me!!! However the tour guide told us not to put too much expectation on the food. The reason she gave was, firstly Hong Kong is the true food paradise, Hong Kongers knows all about food, how to cook and are very picky about food, steam a fish also can steam it better than other people. Secondly, Taiwan food is more towards oily and sweet, might not be what we Hong Kongers like. The tour guide allowed us to not follow the tour bus back to our hotel, so we are free to shop and eat until late late. Since we were not hungry, we went to shopping first!!! Haha... There were so many variety of clothes there sia!!! Kai En, you should come lor. Shop until you siao. Things are quite cheap also, we did bargain and while doing that we realize a lot a lot of Taiwanese understands and speaks really good Cantonese, this is due to the fact that a lot of Hong Kongers go to Taiwan for holiday, the Taiwanese are already so used to Cantonese already. (Our tour guide is also a Taiwanese, but her Cantonese pro until... You won't even know she is a Taiwanese unless she tells you). We shopped for almost 1 hour plus lor, went around comparing prices, never felt so happy shopping before leh! At last I bought 4 clothes, 3 pants and a belt over there and guess how much they cost??? Just S$100 plus only leh!!! Haha... After that, its finally FOOD!!! There are so many food different kinds of food in the night market lor. 炸雞排 that are bigger than your face, 大餅包小餅 lar, 生煎包 lar, 花生糖 lar, 蚵仔煎 lar, Tempura lar,檸檬愛玉 lar, 青蛙下蛋 lar, 珍珠奶茶 lar, 臭豆腐 lar, beef steak lar, sausages bigger than your arm lar, 滷肉飯 etc... See until eyes tired lor. At last we ordered 滷肉飯, 臭豆腐, 蚵仔煎, fried bee hoon and the famous Taiwan mango ice just for S$6 plus!!! The 滷肉飯 super nice, 臭豆腐 not bad, but like what the tour guide said, the 蚵仔煎 and fried bee hoon is kinda sweet, I don't really like it. I still prefer Singapore's 蚵仔煎. Haha... Now I can confirm, the real food paradise is still in Hong Kong. Anyway, after dinner, we took the metro back to our hotel, when I was in the metro, I noticed a lot of funny comics of Taiwan's courtesy campaign. When we reached the hotel and entered the hotel lift, there was also a comic about the courtesy campaign. From this, can see Taiwanese are really very creative have a good sense of humor. The next day we moved to a spring resort, so we have to pack up. To be continued...




士林夜市!!!


滷肉飯, 臭豆腐, 蚵仔煎 and fried bee hoon!!!


Mango ice!!!

Taiwan Trip 2008 Day 1

I really experienced God's blessings during the whole Taiwan trip. Especially the weather, as you all know, typhoon Fung Wong was already approaching Taiwan few days before we set off. My aunt and I were following the news closely and to our dismay, the typhoon OFFICIALLY hit Taiwan in the early morning on the day we were supposed to set off. Typhoon Fung Wong was directly above the whole of Taiwan, covering it completely if you look at the satellite images. I remembered we were filled with uncertainty that morning, we kept on watching the news and checking the airline's website for latest updates. When we reached the airport, we were relieved to know that the flight will be taking off as scheduled (We learnt that a few airlines actually cancelled their flights to Taipei). When we touched down in Taoyuan Zhong Zheng International Airport, the typhoon was already slowly leaving Taiwan. By 2.00 p.m. that afternoon, the typhoon OFFICIALLY left Taiwan for China, Fu Jian. This typhoon took away 1 life and left 6 injured, but that was in Yi Lan, Hua Lian area. There were small drizzles during the first 2 days, but besides that, the rest of the days' weather was in great condition, completely different from the weather forecast, if it wasn't for God's blessings, then what was it right?


Olympic games is drawing near, this is the famous China runner, 刘翔

Anyway, we became paparazzi at the airport when we were having our breakfast at a restaurant, we heard a very familiar voice at the entrance and turn over to find us looking at 陈小春 coming into the restaurant. His face super cool and as usual, ugly. A minute later, his rumored girlfriend 應采兒 wearing sunglass (does that sound familiar?) came in and sat at his table. Had a impulse to call the paparazzi, ahaha... Just joking, so this isn't rumored, its real. Don't know why 應采兒 will like him, so ugly lor...


Have you ever seen such a long chang fen before??? It tastes really good too!


Thats my breakfast

This is the first time I am on a tour package (to be correct, second actually, but considering that was when I was 3 years old...) So the experience was quite refreshing for me. Whats good about going with a tour group is that you don't have to worry about transportation and accommodation.


Our trip starts!!! Anyway Hong Kong Chep Lap Kok International Airport won "Airport of the Year 2008" again! Congrats!!!


He is so tall~~~ And I am so short~~~

We flew with Eva Air this time. This is the first time I am flying on Eva Air. Eva Air is a Taiwanese airline, its strongest competitor is of course China Airlines. However, China Airlines always loses out to Eva Air due to poor safety records. Every time they has an accident, Eva Air's business will shoot up. For your information, Eva Air has a clean safety record. Eva Air's flight attendants on average is so much prettier then Cathay Pacific and even Singapore Airlines. They are mostly of the same height. You can see how strict they are with their selection. Their service is above average (Malaysia Airlines to date is still the best) and you know Taiwanese girls has this cute accent (like Lin Zhi Ling, you know what I mean, haha...) However, due to the short flying time (1 hour 40 minutes), the airplane meal is refrigerated so the food is cold especially the Char Siew bun given, it is the worse airline food I have ever eaten. The flight was rather bumpy when we were approaching Taiwan (due to the typhoon, of course), especially during landing, my heart nearly came out of my mouth during a few sudden descend. Thank God we landed safely.


Eva Air B747-400 Combi, Eva Air has a fleet of very interesting B747-400s, the front part of the plane are passenger cabins, the back part is cargo container



Boarding pass







Boarding time!



We took off in good weather



The sub standard cold char siew bun...


Took a photo with a pretty flight attendant!


Landed in bad weather, entered the typhoon...



Landed safely after a bumpy approach


At the new terminal 2's immigration hall, only Eva Air and Dragonair uses this terminal, so its quite spacious, empty and comfortable!

The tour guide told us once we settled down in the tour bus that we cannot go anywhere on that day, it has been 7 to 8 years time since the whole Taiwan closed for business, the reason being the typhoon positioned itself right above the whole of Taiwan. There was one day of free and easy included in the tour schedule, the tour agency will give us a one day metro (train) ticket to go anywhere we want in Taipei. However, since we can't go anywhere on the first day, they changed our schedule and treat the first day as our free and easy day. So they refunded the train ticket money to us. Anyway the tour guide told us some very interesting facts about Taiwan. There are 三 多 in Taiwan, 山多, 7 Eleven 多 and motorbike 多. 三 少, toilets 少, police 少 and rubbish bin 少, haha... We stayed at 福 朋喜來登飯店 for the first 2 nights, its a 4 star hotel. It has computers for its customers (thats how I got online). We had our lunch there and went to 全家便利店, family mart to buy our dinner. In Taiwan, they are so good in 环 保, they don't provide plastic bags for you in any shops, if you want one, you have to buy, this is what i am very impressed with. They are really serious about saving the environment. (I am not going to support Hong Kong in this area. Hong Kong is by far the most wasteful place I have ever seen). In the late afternoon we went to the gym to exercise. The cup noodles and 飯 团 from the 便利店 is super nice. Haha... We went to sleep after that looking forward for next day's activities.


Motorbike 多. Haha...


Free computers with free internet access!



Woho!!! Exercising before we chiong the oily food in Taiwan!



My delicious dinner!!!


The beautiful night view outside our room!