It's time for me to blog about my trip before i get too lazy to do so!! Im such a pig these days.. ever since i got back from my trip, i have been snoozing at any opportunity available! *oink* seriously i dont really know how to start blogging about the Taiwan trip.. so i decided to do it in the most systematic (and yet kinda boring format)- the day to day activities/ happenings:

*the food entries would be in our Sallylovestoeat. but it will take some time before the pictures are up! =P

Day 1, 16/05 (Wed)
Flight at 1 pm.
Prior boarding- Huimei, " ey, my brother passed me a map of taiwan leh." and she took out a map from her bag. Sharon's and my eyes were fixed on that map. We found that map very familiar and I asked her to open up the map. It turned out to be Singapore's Sentosa map!! Sharon, Fishie and I laughed until stomachache.. hahaha.. it was damn hilarious, and i asked Huimei to pose with the sentosa map:

Classic Phang with Sentosa Map

We reached Taoyuan International Airport around 5 plus in the evening and went to sign up for Youth Travel Card (for age 15-30), which can help us enjoy discounts for certain stuff like sightseeing, dining, and so on. Well, we didn't use it at all in the end.

Our initial plan was to take a bus and transfer to High Speed Rail until we walked past a booth that has these two women shouting in Mandarin saying that they provide cheap transportation to hotels. Upon learning the price of their service (cheaper than our original plan), we decided to give it a try. The very first thing i noticed while on the road is that the traffic in Taiwan is in the opposite direction! i didn't know that at all. hahaha.. and it made me realised that my Chinese is not as good as i thought when i can't really read many of the Chinese characters. =( it took us a few days to acustom to the Mandarin-speaking environment. I started with my usual "sorry/excuse me" and i came back saying "Du bu qi, qing jie guo". It's just 10 days and i speak more Mandarin now. hahaha... Looks like im quite easily influenced.

Day 2, 17/05 (Thurs)
We walked down to Taipei Railway Station to get the train tickets down to Hualian in advance. We bought the the Easycard too. The Easycard is just like our EZ-link-can be used on buses and the metro. Then off we go to Wu Fen Pu (wholesale clothes area), hoping to get cheap clothes. But in the end, we did not get many stuff because the stuff aint that very cheap, they are about the same price as in Singapore. And the clothes can't be tried at all! but most importantly, most of the clothes style there dont really suit me. They are very J-pop/ Korean-pop.

After Wu Fen Pu, we took the metro down to Dan Shui. Perhaps it was near the sea, the air there was very cold, temperature at 21 deg C. Then we took a boat down to the Fisherman's Wharf. The Lover's Bridge is very beautiful at night:

Lover's Bridge

Me on Lover's Bridge

Day 3, 18/05 (Fri)
One day tour that includes Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall, Jiu Fen, Ye Liou Geopark, Part of Yang Ming Shan Park (for indoor hot spring) and Shihlin Night Market. To be honest, i think the Shihlin Crispy Chicken is not as fantastic as I imagined it to be. It's quite so-so only. yea, more will be elaborated on the food in Sallylovestoeat.

Behind me is the Main Gate of CKS Memorial hall

CKS Memorial hall

@ Jiu Fen

Queen's Head @ Ye Liou

Phang & Fishie having some fun there!

Indoor Hot Spring

Opps! it's Friday and Phang cant eat meat. I kept forgetting and offer her meat stuff. =S

We headed back to Ximending to eat Ah Chong Mee Sua. apparently, it's a must try food there! A large crowd stand around to eat the Mee Sua. While eating our Mee Sua, we saw some street vendors hiding behind the wall. They moved really fast..after a while, they moved back to the original place and started selling again.. the "hiding" was merely for show. As long as they are not selling while the police are patroling, they wouldnt get caught.

Street Vendors hiding from the Police.

Day 4, 19/05 (Sat)
Woke up early in the morning to take the train down to Hualian.. the journey took about 4 hours--that's v tiring!! And i wished i have a PSP to play with while on the train!! it was a damn cold day and I was only wearing berms! i bet it's colder than the usual air-con temp!

Upon reaching the place we are staying, the landlady, Liu Jie, helped us to plan our itinerary for that day. ( did i mention that our itinerary had been rather spontanteous from day 1? hahaha) Then off to Taroko Gorge for the rest of the day! yea.. Full of "stones" according to Phang. haha. the pictures taken at Taroko are the most Obasan because we were all holding on to our umbrellas ! Our shoes and jackets were all soaked while walking through the trails. And as the hours past, the colder we get. *brr~*

Can you spot the Red Indian Man in this pic?

Low-lying Clouds

Can you spot the Frog with the Crown?

We walked through this cave in TOTAL darkness for several metres. Pretty scary if one were to walk through this cave alone.

The Trio with Umbrellas.

Whenever we see this Sign, we fasten our pace! haha

This chunk of Rock fell down not long ago.. luckily no one was hurt. We were advised to walked near the inner walls.

One of the Tunnels we walked through

Our poor Phang's sneakers gave up on her.

Dinner was BBQ back in our "Home". Lotsa yummy food!!

The people there know that the Trash truck is coming whenever they hear the melody that comes from the truck. They throw in the trash on their own. Unlike here, we have someone to collect the trash.

Day 5, 20/05 (Sun)
We spent our day at Farglory Ocean Park. It's quite a small theme park and most of the rides aren't that thrilling.. except for water ride we took at the end of the day. Once again, it rained non-stop. Nevertheless, we enjoyed ourselves in the rain =)

My Favorite Carousel!!

Grinning like a little kid~

Like a Mermaid! hahah

Sea Lion Show

Dolphin Show

Steamboat for Dinner! Best for Cold Weather!

Day 6, 21/05 (Mon)
Shin Kong Chao Feng Ranch & Resort.
We first took the tram to go round the place. Realising that the place is kinda big and it would be very tiring to travel on foot, we hired a 2-person bicycle to travel around the place. (I dont have the picture of the bicycle currently) The bicycle is designed such that the riders are seated side by side with one of the persons controlling the bicycle and the two can paddle together. It's fun to cycle that around because we dont see that kind of bicycle in Singapore. But at the end of the day, our legs were freaking tired! That's because the bicycle has only one gear and we had a hard time cycling at times, especially up the slope! =S

Me and Sharon @ the Main Entrance

Sharon and Phang on the Tram

Moo Moo~~

My Fren- Swan!

The Lone Mandarin Duck

Yang Meh Meh~

These Deers must be thinking we are stupid, we were so concentrated on taking pictures of them that we didn't realise that our bicycle rolled backwards on the road!

Elinn's Fren- Mr Horse~ He nibbled on my sleeve while i was trying to take a picture with him! And he dirtied my sleeve.. I don't know what he ate before that.

The Noisy Geese~

Cutesy Labbit~

Camels

One of my Fave Pic! (@ Rose Garden)

One of the Roses Name- The Dark Lady, Nan Dong De Nu Ren?? haha

Later in the evening, we went to Shi Yi Da Jie ( Some Cultural Arts Village) to watch Ah Mei Tribe Dances:

All of us took part in the Mass dance at the end of the performance. Phang is still nostalgic about that! haha

Oh did i mentioned that the mozzies in Taiwan are big, fat and irritating?? Sharon and I were victims of their bites. =( but Sharon managed to kill one fat mozzie with the electric bat, heh heh, look:

Spot the Mozzie!

Day 7, 22/05 (Tues)
Liu Jie brought us to the Market for for last minute shopping since the shops in the city open up late. Surprisingly we managed to get quite a number of stuff within the one and half an hour we were there! At cheap prices some more!

Then Liu Jie sent us to the Railway station. She's a very nice lady who took care of us like her kids. There's another bigger-sized Liu Da Jie who drove us around for the Taroko and send us to and fro the Ocean Park. She made a nice guide too! Both the Liu Jies often treat us to nice food.. scared we will "yaw tio" like that..haha

Back to Taipei around 3pm.
After putting our stuff down at our hotel, we head off to Sun Yat Sen Memorial Hall. Then we went look for the Microphone Distributor Shop that Fishie needs to find at Ren Ai Road. We took quite some time to walk there. We had our dinner at Din Tai Feng. The food served there are the same but it taste better than then DTF in Singapore. yum yum!

We then decided to take their public bus down to Taipei 101 Building. We couldnt afford the stuff there since it's like our Paragon.. so yep.. just took a few pics there to show that we were there before! hahaha

In their Public Bus

@ Taipei 101

Puppy for sale at Tong Hua Night Market. Poor puppy was yakking at every passers-by, hoping that someone would buy it home.. =(

Day 8, 23/05 (Wed)
Started our breakfast at KFC and head off to shop in XiMending.
After that, we crossed the street from Ximen Station and went into Red Theatre to take a look.

Hong Lou Ju Chang

The Performance Theatre

Outside the Theatre

Next, we took the metro to Long Shan Shi. Went in to pray pray for a while then went to hunt for lunch. Walked down several streets hoping to try the food Fishie's fren recommended but it had closed for rest after lunch. =( No choice but to settle for something else.

Right after lunch, we went to look for GinGin's and Love Boat where I could get my Pride goods!! Was kinda excited when i went into the shop.. It's so Rainbow! hahaha.. Well, thanks to Fishie, Huimei and Sharon for helping me pick the souvenirs! My fastest record ever! Went in for about 15 minutes and i spend NT$ 2000 ++. haha.. i had fun doing such kind of speed shopping. I'm afraid if I were to stay any longer in there i would be totally broke! Hahaha

Inside Long Shan Shi

Outside Love Boat! Rainbow~~

We then walked into National Taiwan University (NTU)- one of the top Universities in Taiwan - to look around. Initially wanted to buy their canteen food but we didn't do it in the end because we think we could not pass off as the students there. The campus have so many bicycles that they got to park their bicycles in this manner:

Actually they have numerous scooters too.. not only in campus but on the roads too!! you can spot many pretty girls riding their scooters on the road.. cool uh?

Spent our night shopping at Gong Guan Night Markets. I like the shops in this night market beause they give a better feel than the shops in the other night markets we've been to. Most of the shop layout are quite nice and they sell quite alot of nice stuff. Perhaps this area is close to NTU and they cater to yougsters more. I managed to get a new sleeping mate from there! His name is Xiao(3) Bian(3).

(left to right) Xiao Bian with Cheer Bear and Humei's Pa Di.

Day 9, 24/05 (Thurs)
We went down to Taipei Main station specially to take the High Speed Rail down to Tao Yuan, just to experience the speed of the train. haha.. We reached there realising there's nothing much to walk about nearby so we settled out lunch and head back to Taipei Main and went shopping at Taipei Underground Mall and XiMenDing!

High Speed Railway

XiMenDing

And we were kinda addicted to the Basketball machines:

Totally Addicted!

As for the Last Day, 25/05 (Fri),
We did some last minute shopping in the morning while there's some more time.. But we headed back to the hotel lobby quite fast... that's because i had ran out of Vit M. The night before, Fishie, Huimei and I went to refund our Easycards so that we have some extra cash to spend..hahah...we were so happy to have that little some of extra cash! Imagine the Classic face when u realise you can have more money to spend! hahaha.. Only Sharon managed to keep her card as Souvenir. well, Thanks Sharon for treating me to the Sushi and lending me extra cash! *wink* And thanks for treating me to BBall game too! We had fun, didn't we? =P

Then back to Singapore! Finally a picture that feature the four of us( many of the group pics aren't with me as yet):


And thanks to those who came to receive us! I love all of you gals - my taiwan "travel-mates" (Taiwan could never be that fun if you all are not around to add to my joy and laughter!) and my "pride" gals! hahaha