This is My Life......

Taiwan Graduation Trip (14 May - 25 May 2009)

After planning for almost 6 months, we finally set off for our long-awaited graduation trip to Taiwan. As for this grad trip, my choice of travel kakis are Jingjing, Jimmy and Bryan.. A very unique group.. cos jing jing is my BIE coursemate and RSP elders volunteer mate, Jimmy, my BIE coursemate, and Bryan, my RSP elders volunteer mate. Everyone plays a unique role in this group... esp bryan who really served as a great entertainer for us... his jokes and cold jokes never fail to bring laughter and joy to our trip along the way....

On the plane to tuan yuan international airport.... We took jetstar budget airline and due to my wrong judgement of the wing location, our window seat wasnt the best view... so our choice of entertainment on the flight was tai te... as me and jimmy were seating in front of bryan and jing, we had to kneel on our seat to play tai te together... 1 st time playing taite on my knees and the best rule of our game: the winner will buy the rest Chicken rice.. and the biggest winner on flight was Mr Jimmy ToH!!! altogether he had to treat us 24 plates of chicken rice~~

After we set our feet to taipei, taiwan, we took the FreeGo airport transfer to taipei city and check ourselves in to furturestar hotel.. After that we chong our way down to Ximenting which was only a 10 minutes walk from our hotel... I remembered how excited i felt during that time.. first time in taiwan and everything looks amusing to me... the shops... the people... the things they sell.. the taiwanese accent that i heard along the streets...

At Ximenting, the street was filled with lots of food stalls(ie. japanese, italian, indian), fashion wears, and also mobile stores selling taiwan sausages, cut fruits, BBQ meat. The amazing thing about these stores is that they are always moving as they have to avoid the health officers who were constantly around, but whenever we return to the center junction of ximenting, we never fail to see the same stores that just got "chased" away by the health officer around the corner.

Despite all the different resturant there at ximenting, out first meal was ah zhong mee sian and the traditional bubble tea. Following the taiwanese culture, holding a bowl of mee sian and our bubble tea, we stood outside the stall and enjoyed our first meal in Taiwan... Hmm... my honest opinion abt the mee sian, it wasnt as good as i expect it to be. The pig intestine was too chewy and mee sian taste like the one we had in spore. The bubble tea on the other hand is much better than those that we have in spore. At least for them, they have a wide variety of tea we can choose from. Their bubble tea focuses on the well brewed tea whilst our local bubble tea, the tea seems to be like a diluent for the different syrups..

After the filling meal, we started to explore Ximenting, I manged to shop for a vest and some cute cute pouch and items. Along the way, we spotted their cinema street where there are 4 main cinemas in taipei. To our disappointment, the streets went quiet after 11pm... to us, the nite was still young but then most of the shops have already closed. Aware of our early set off time the next day (to 阳明山 trekking), we decided to turn in early for our first day too. Along our way back to the hotel, we saw a line of youth equipped with mp3, poker cards, newspaper , queuing along the street.Familar scene... (hello kitty sales??!! Free gift??!!) but later that we found out that the kids were queuing for the limited edition levis jeans that will be release the next morning at 11am... WOW... Taiwanese are also willing to queue overnight for expensive stuff too~~

Day 2 (15 May)

After a heart warming breakfast, 高丽菜，鲜肉煎包 at a family style stall in front of our hotel (recommendated by the future star receptionist), we made our way to 阳明山 via bus and MRT.

Upon reaching the starting point of 阳明山, our first idea was to get hold of a 阳明山map. The signboard showing the Park reception(0.6km) was a total mislead to us. We end up trekking for 30 mins in the jungle before we could locate the park reception. I was shocked that the park reception is so inaccessible to visitors from the point we aligned from the bus. We already start trekking to get a park map!!! But i never expect tat was only an "appetizer"... The remaining trekking was indeed a killer!!! End up I think iwas th eone who held the whole group back.... the constant up steps was a true killer.... can never forget those steps.... because of me, we had to constantly stop for breaks. Thanks to the 2 gentlemen with us, Ye... dear bryan nv forget to supply us with drinks and also dear jimmy offered to carry my bag...

Following the local 林伯伯，we reached 七星主峰 after 5 hr climb... ermm... we were proud that the 2 city gals managed to conquered one of taiwan's highest peaks.. but whether it is worth it... i doubt so... maybe it is due to the mist.. the view was as fantastic as what the locals told us. AFter that we went ahead to look for 七星堆, a pile of 7 rocks stacked together, which some claimed that it was a masterpiece of the aliens... hmmm... great imagination!! haha.. Next stop was 小油坑, 為一處後火山活動地質景觀區. Along the trek, the pungent smell of sulphur was the most significant sign that we are near the sulphur mine.. Lucky for us, 小油坑 was a down-the-mountain trail.. at least it was a simpler task for me... at least I had the time to enjoy the scenery and view... So altogether, we spent 7 hrs exploring a tiny section of 阳明山.. Wohoo... i am still very proud to say that i have conquered 七星主峰 (1120m)！！

After the tiring trekking at 阳明山, we took the bus to 士林夜市 for an early dinner. We ordered 豪大大鸡扒，鱿鱼羹，蚝煎，臭豆腐，大饼包小饼, 粉圆冰。maybe we were too tired from our 阳明山之旅， the local delicancy wasnt as appetizing as others claimed to be...

After a quick bite, we went ahead shopping in 士林夜市. Shopping!!!! WooHoo~ As know by many, when girls are shopping they will alway bored the guys who accompanied them to death... well, that was pretty true... the stuff that me and jj were shopping for were totally different from the guys... and therfore we end up losing each other in 士林夜市。。。haha... jj and I continued shopping till near 1am while jimmy and bryan turned in early at 9pm... the guys were complianing that we gals can really shop despite our constant complains during the 阳明山 climb. Well, i have to admit, when i am shopping, the adrenline rush in me somehow numb my brain from the lactic acid ache in my legs from the earlier 阳明山 climb。哈哈~

Day 3(16 May):

We started our day early as we were advised by the futurestar staff to eat our train ticket to hualian in advance as the next day was a saturday and tickets would definitely sell fast. After getting our tickets we had our breakfast at the taipei train station.. where i got the cooked snacks from the hotpot of soup in 7-11. Then the trains stamping chops caught our attention and there we go... transformed into a group of kids constantly stamping the unique train chops over our newly purchased wooden postcards. hehehe.... little that we know that this stamping is a common practice in the tourist spot in taiwan. And I was lucky that i bought a souvenir notebook at the train station and started my "stamping activity" throughout our taipei city tour.

The next place we went to was 国父纪念馆。。 Groups of teenagers welcomed us at the doorstep of 国父纪念馆.. it is a common sight to see these teenagers gathering together and practicing their hip-hop dance together. The youthful atmosphere surrounding the museum indeed brings a new life to the museum. Museum is therefore no longer label to be "old and boring"

Next stop of our taipei city tour was: Taipei 101. From 国父纪念馆, we can easily spot this magnificent building . It is only a stone throw from 国父纪念馆. The interior of Taipei 101 is equivalent to our Takashimaya.. High-end shopping district.

After consulting our trust-worthy map, we decided to visit 新光三越, a common shopping district where the taiwanese artists would have their 签唱会。Jing jing and bryan were both keen to catch a glance of the taiwanese artists. And yes, we were lucky to see some models(unknown) promoting perfumes there. One culture shock I experienced was the "friendliness" of these minimally dressed gals.. especially towards guys and those weird uncles who were constantly snapping their cameras at them ( from all the unusual angles). U can imagine youself. There was one particular incident that i remembered about these weird uncles was when the host offered free perfume which was given out by the models. It was exactly like bees flying to their honey.. jing jing too when ahead to get her free share of perfume while i stood behind. But from the 狼狈look of jing jing trying to squeeze her way out of the crowd, my instinct tells me that the weird uncles are not squeezing to get the free perfume but just to have a close skin contact with the girls... OMG... gross~~~

On the other hand at the other stretch of 新光三越, it was utterly different feeling that welcomed us. Art was the word to describe the main activity there. There were buskers and, handicraft stalls. There was one particular busker that made me stop to listen to him play.

After the whole day of sight seeing, it was again time for us to do shopping... so we went over to 五分铺 and 师大夜市, 2 of the cheapest shopping area to go in taipei. 五分铺 is a wholesale district where the shops often offer cheaper bargain if their customers buy in bulk. But for us... able to get our hands on NT 150-250/ apparel is already a great bargain.. and most of their stocks for the stalls are very much similar so it will be up to us to do a basic "market research" before any purchase. Most the apparel are from korean and are of the latest street wear trend in taiwan... and yes yes.. by the time this trend comes to spore, i already own them and most importantly i got them at a pretty low cost... hehe... shopping therapy... i think i was pretty swift with all the shopping over there... it is only S$7.50-12 for a blouse... why not!! haha... jimmy was commenting tat I have 收获不少... haha.. i always used my oversea shopping trip to stock up my clothing supply for at least half a yr..

As for 师大夜市, it is near to their national Taiwan university, therefore their target audience are poor students just like us!! haha.. but there wasnt much to buy over at the portion that we walked.. we later found out from david that 师大夜市 is one of the biggest 夜市 in taipei, we have probably missed out the biggest area of it whe we shopped that day.. well... we can always go there again... hehe...

At around 10pm, we slowly made our way back to the hotel via taxi and we were lucky to catch the sight of the preparation work for the 175 游行 near their city hall. Roads were closing for the locals to go on strike regarding the unhappiness they have over their current president, Ma Ying Ju..

Back at the hotel, we waited for David, our nantou homestay boss to pay us a visit... well, actually to have a meet up before we see him at hualian. He was pretty nice to share with us what to expect for his part of the tour and to find out what our expectations are... then also he lent us his mobile phone so that it will be easier for him to contact us and also more us to contact the hualian homestay in charge... very nice of him!!! hehe.... David was pretty shocked that we are turning in so early that nite... it was a saturaday.. there were alot of parties available that he said that we should go... but having our early train schedule the next day, we decided to give the wild party in taipei a pass.....