Condolences

We went for Edwin's grandma funeral wake at Singapore Caskets on friday night. Thankfully, Edwin has overcame his sadness and we were chatting happily so that the sad event can be put aside.

Supper at Lavender food centre was next and we brought Edwin some food as he was staying the entire night there with some of his relatives.

Saturday, Derrick, Clarence, Terence, Gs and i headed back to JB to accompany Derrick as he had to collect his new Armani spectacles. We had lunch at Secret Recipe and Terence had his lens replaced using Derrick's receipt as 10% of the amount paid is entitled for the next purchase.

We headed to Landmark Mall next (about 10 mins walk from City Square) as Terence wanted to take a look at some of the electronic stuff. To our disappointment, the mall was almost empty and only 10% of the shops were open.


On the way to Aeon Tebrau City

Our next stop was Aeon Tebrau City, the largest shopping centre in JB, and we had a 20 minutes taxi ride from City Square. The mall looked like a giant warehouse from afar and the inner premises is very new. We spent some time shopping there but only Clarence got himself a t-shirt there. The shopping mall is quite big but still smaller compared to Suntec City.

After spending about 2 hours there, we left for our late dinner at Taman Sri Tebrau again. This time round, we had a drinking competition to see who could finish the giant sized glass of fruit/sugar cane juice first. We had 7 dishes comprising of crayfish, prawns, chicken, hotplate tofu, steamed fish and vegetables for only 30 ringgit per pax. Head back to homeland after our sinful dinner.

Got to know of a piece of extremely sad news after i returned home. Samuel's mum has passed away and i went for the funeral wake today. My deepest condolences to Sam....

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Taiwan Day 7 & 8

Day 7 Hualien to Taipai (10/7/06)

We all bought lots of flavoured muah chee and guo3 dong4 at the nearby famous Magi store selling these Taiwanese goodies in the morning before we checked out of the hotel. We then got to the train station via taxi and minibus as the hotel provides free transport there.

Hualien Train Station

Photos taken in the train en route to Taipei

We headed back to Rainbow Hotel via MRT from Taipei Main Station and left all our luggage there. We then headed back out for more shopping and food.


Lunch at Ximending Korean restaurant

We then took MRT to Shipai MRT and took cabs to Tianmu Circle as the shopping belt is recommended by Terence and Peiying. We spent quite a lot of time in a big retail shop as the clothes were branded clothes rejects. I splurged my money on a pink striped Ralph Lauren shirt and Nike berms which costs slightly more than S$50.

Although there wasn't a lot of shops there, quite a number of shops were worth taking a look. We did not really have time to finish shopping the entire belt as we had arranged to meet Terence & Peiying 7.30 pm at Jiantan MRT Station.

We all then headed to Miramar Entertainment Centre via a free shuttle bus. The shopping centre there is more catered for the wealthier customers and we did not spend much time inside. Our main purpose is to sit on the ferris wheel which is the world's 2nd largest.

Miramar Ferris Wheel

Group photo

The ride is quite cheap and we all bought tickets for the ride. It seemed to be moving rather slowly as the wheel is very huge. We spent 5 to 10 minutes in the compartment and the cityscape was slightly disappointing as there wasn't a lot of skyscrapers in Taipei and 101 is quite far away.

Merry Go Round

2 extremely cute dogs we chanced upon in the shopping centre

We then headed back to Jiantan MRT via shuttle bus and went to Shihlin Night Market for supper for our last night. Most of us had the extremely big Ji1 Pa2 (fried chicken patty) for the last time.

We then played the basketball arcade game (Taiwanese love to play it) for the last few times as we were hooked onto it as well.

Only NT10 ($0.50) for an intensive 4 minutes of game and exercise

We headed back to the hotel after midnight via cabs and had a good night's rest.

Day 8 Taipei (11/7/06)

We woke slightly later than expected and missed our hotel breakfast. We had breakfast at a nearby eatery before going on a shopping spree at Ximending. We found out that there were actually quite a lot of lanes, walkways and shopping areas which we did not explore and we tried to cover those areas that we did not go before.

We bought some Tai4 Yang2 Bing3 (Sun biscuits) before we left our hotel with our numerous luggages to hop onto a ride on the Go Bus that goes to Chiang Kai Shek International Airport.

At Chiang Kai Shek International Airport before leaving for Singapore

To wrap up this Taiwan trip, it has been quite a well balanced trip with sufficient shopping and visiting scenic places. People who love shopping will love Taiwan for the abundance of clothes located at Ximending, Underground Mall, WuFenPu Garment Wholesale Area, ZhongXiao Fuxing to Zhongxiao Dunhua stretch, Tianmu Circle and Shihlin Night Market. People who like healthy food may not enjoy Taiwan food as the good food are normally fried, oily or sweet. Also, Rainbow hotel is a really good hotel to stay in due to its new and spacious looking rooms, free internet access computers, good service and central location. To add on, the people in Taiwan are definitely more well dressed compared to Singaporeans. Almost all of the guys wear sneakers instead of slippers (unlike Singaporeans) , the guys & gals have more hip and funky clothing and accessories, and the gals often are seen with make up. The service is also better and the MRT is a very convenient form of transport there.

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Extremely Hectic Week

It had been quite a long time since i last exercised. Work is a chore but studies is horror. Don't want to study all the hard modules that will be coming up in year 2.

Tue was spent outside and i've been doing data entry at home tonight and yesterday night. Each record that i key in equals to an extra $0.40 and i've got a total of 600 records to convert from hard copy to soft copy. Extra pocket money! 400 more to go.

I've also been planning for the batam trip which has hit some unforeseen circumstances. My condolences to Edwin's grandma who had just passed away.

Back to work!

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Movie

Finally watched Superman Returns after nearly a month of release in the theatres. Superman returns from Krypton after 5 years and saves the humans from plane crash, traffic accidents, toppling buildings, explosions, fires and drowning waters. Lex Luther plans to form a new continent using advanced crystals that will replace the entire north america continent. Superman saves the day once again and the plot is quite predictable. However, Bryan Singer proves his worth in the storytelling as it is often engaging despite the length of the movie. The plane + satellite sequence is heart-poppingly exciting, visually stunning and eye-poppingly spectacular. As a result, the ending climax gets overshadowed and it is seemingly tame in comparison. Another gripe is that the romance between Clark Kent and Louis Lane is underdeveloped in my opinion. Despite that, Superman Returns is a highly enjoyable blockbuster and a special effects extravaganza.

3.5/5

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Taiwan Day 6

Day 6 Hualien County (9/7/06)

Breakfast was served to our room at 7.45 am and we had pre-booked a trip to Taroko Gouge. We set off on the trip and sat on the minibus to the famed 'touristy' destination.


Abundant mountains en route to Taroko Gouge


At the entrance of Taroko Gouge


The background looks so perfect that it seems fake, but it's 100% real!


Group photo at the tourist/visitor museum/gallery building


Another view of Taroko

The minibus then picked us up after our initial view of Taroko Gouge near the entrance. Taroko Gouge is gorgeously beautiful indeed!

Our next stop is at a bridge where some of us climbed all the way down into the river! Quite a number of Taiwanese were bathing and children were playing in the shallow river.


5 brave souls who ventured down the steep slopes to get to the river


------------------Love the view!----------------------------The route we came down from---------

We spent around 15 minutes enjoying the rush of cool and refreshing mineral past our feet and took quite a number of photos at the riverbed.

We stopped at each nice scenery spot and took hundreds of photos in total.


Mineral rich pool


-------------------Falling--------------------------------------------Nice shot---------------------


By the river stream


Very nice pebbles strewn all over the riverbed


----------------Suspension bridge-----------------------Structure within a mountain---------

After our whirlwind tour of Taroko Gouge, it was around 3 pm already. We headed over to Qi 1 Xing1 Tan2 (7 Star Lagoon) next.


Beautiful beach!


Beautiful background on the other side of the lagoon!


Structure by the 7 Star Lagoon

Our last stop was at a winery where we tasted Gao1 Liang2. The taste was definitely too strong for my liking and i just had a few tiny sips of the liquor.

We headed back to the hotel next and washed up before heading back out for dinner. We walked over to Nanbin Night Market and we a bit disappointed by the size of the night market after visiting Taipei night markets.


Dinner at Nanbin Night Market

We headed back to the main shopping district and had our last shopping trip before we head back to Taipei the next day.

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JB and Movie

Went to JB with my jc friends for some shopping and seafood. Derrick was late and we crossed over the customs first, meeting him later at Vivo Restaurant in City Square.

We had our lunch there and walked around in City Square browsing spectacles as Clarence and Derrick were interested in getting a pair.


Me acting cool in a spectacle shop

I noticed a pair of specs that i liked but the price was definitely way over budget. It's a plastic transparent frame by Ray-Ban that costs RM799 (not inclusive of price of lens). Derrick was choosing between 2 branded specs and he eventually got an Emporio Armani specs that costs over $400 in total.

We then spent some time browsing clothes shops before heading to Taman Sri Tebrau for seafood dinner. The meal costs each of us RM28 only.


Seafood at Taman Sri Tebrau

After our dinner, we then headed back to Singapore and sat on Terence's lorry as we were going to watch Pirates of The Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest.

We headed over to Jubilee for the midnight show at 12.10 am. The movie is rather long, with a duration of 2 hours 30 mins. The story is quite convoluted and people who have not seen part 1 might be wondering what's going on in a few parts of the movie.

Generally, the film is rather entertaining and funny although i feel that the film could be better with more editing. Johnny Depp is again smashing in his role as Jack Sparrow but the story does not live up to expectations. There are some kinks in the storyline which remain unresolved and the pace of the movie is underwhelming at times.



***/5

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Taiwan Day 5

Day 5 Taipei to Hualien (8/7/07)

Went woke up really early in the morning as we have to catch a train to Hualien at 6.50 am at Taipei Main Station. After having instant noodles as our breakfast, we brought down all our luggages and many of us left our 'barang barang' at the concierge. We then headed on a 2 and a half day trip to Hualien county via train.


In the station waiting for the early MRT to Taipei Main Station


------------------------------In the train carriage-------------------------------------

We had bought standing tickets as the sitting seats were sold out. However, we were allowed to sit on the seats if no one is sitting there. Thus, we squeezed ourselves at the back of our carriage and hoped that no one will ask us for our seats.

Gs and Edwin were the unlucky ones and their seats were taken up by people who boarded the train before Hualien. They spent almost half the 3 hr journey standing up while the rest of us slept like pigs.

After 3 hours, we finally reached Hualien City and the temperature is hot! A cloudless, bright and sunny day with the noon temperature around 35 degrees celcius i guess. A person from Anhwa hotel was at the train station waiting for us to fetch us to the hotel as we had booked 2 rooms before our trip.


Less crowded Hualien streets

We checked into our hotel and almost all of them except me had a bath and dived into bed for a short nap. I was not too tired and watched tv while the rest of my roommates had an hour of sleep. Woke them up for lunch and we all headed to the nearby shopping area to search for food outlets. Went to KFC for lunch and we headed back to the hotel after that as a minibus was waiting for us at 1 pm to fetch us to the Hualien whale watching ferry terminal. We had arranged for this whale watching activity with the hotel's help and the price of the whale watching activity is NT800.

We made our way to the ferry terminal in time and boarded the rather small ferry.


-------------------------------On the ferry----------------------------------


-------------------------------------------------Hualien Port----------------------------------------------------


---------------------------------Passing Ship-----------------------------------------Lighthouse------------------------


--------------------Difference between deep and shallow water--------------------

The sea was very choppy as we headed into the Pacific Ocean. The ferry was rocking and swinging like nobody's business and the walk around the ferry without grabbing onto something is like we were drunk. However, the initial feeling is quite fun as we get the feeling as if we were on a thrill ride.

But after 5 mins, the thrill is replaced by nausea instead. I immediately regretted not taking motion sickness pills prior to the ride. I sat down after feeling dizzy and tried not to look at the surroundings by closing my eyes. My face grew paler and the nausea was slowly growing and growing.

When the tour guide using the microphone exclaimed that there was a huge whale in sight, many people rushed to see it and i had to open my eyes to see the giant creature as well. I caught sight of a huge tail near the front deck and quickly closed my eyes as my movement to view the whale had escalated my dizziness and i was feeling quite terrible.

Jimmy had got me 2 plastic bags and i puked after several minutes. The tour guide was encouraging us to take plastic bags at the beginning of the trip as he knew the choppy sea conditions would affect quite a number of people. Several people in the ferry followed suit and the dustbin was filled with several bags of vomit.

It was a rather wasted whale watching trip for me as i did not enjoy the ride and didn't really had the chance to view the whales. Actually there were only very few whale sightings during the entire ride and the whale tail was the most obvious one.

After the 1 and a half hour ride, we were back on land and spent some time at the souvenir shop. I was feeling much better after 15 minutes and we then took the minibus back to the hotel.


Back from the ferry ride at the exit

After asking the hotel staff for some good food recommendations, we walked along the streets with a map they provided us and had dinner at a local eatery. We had a very full dinner as we had ordered too many Xiao Long Baos. Their Xiao Long Bao was very different from that of Ding Tai Fung as the ones here were like meat buns whereas DTF's was small, dainty and juicy meat dumplings.

Shopping was next as we explored the Hualien City's main shopping district.


At Hualien City main shopping area


Monument for the old railway that used to pass through the city centre


Puppies on sale at an outdoor hawker

Taiwanese people seem to like dogs quite a lot and we can see more people walking their dogs. As a result, there are dog vendors like the one above.

The shopping here at Hualien is slightly cheaper compared to the upmarket shopping districts in Taipei. A lot of Muah Chee and Guo Dong stores here as well.


Back at the hotel lobby after our shopping!

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