Taiwan trip! 4-10/12/2013
12/12/2013 09:19:00 AMSorry for the late post, I just came back from Taiwan day before yesterday ( Tuesday 10/12/12 )! And also due to some personal issues. Anyways, as my personal diary on this trip and for my readers, here's the post!
On last Wednesday ( 4/10/12 ), my family and I went to a 7 days 6 nights trip to Taiwan. It's been years since our last trip to overseas. Since Standard 6 I guess? We headed out at 10:44 am and took a white proton taxi there. The driver was a 70 year old uncle! I was shocked when my dad told me in the car. The uncle looks quite fit and healthy, still! My dad and the uncle chit-chat along the way to KLIA. We reached there around 11:30 am. So if you're wondering how in the world I know the exact time and other small details, I wrote it down. I don't have a superpower memory brain. Hahha. =] But I got lazy and only wrote about the details of the first day. So the other days are based on what I remember. ><
We met up with a young lady who was in charge of this trip. She's so so young! She has short hair, a pretty face and skinny! Her name is Jocelyn if I'm not mistaken. She's the quiet type BUT full of responsibilities! She sacrificed her time and look out for us every time. =] The worse thing I did was not taking a photo of her. Sigh. TT
So before we board the plane, we had our lunch. We went around and dad got attracted by this noodle store. I ordered kan lao mee as usual but I must say, the food is kind of pricey. =( Another food photo I took! ( Been taking a lot of food photos now, no idea why, hahaha )
Comments on the food: Overall okay, but not salty enough for me. The fried wan tan literally sent me to heaven. It was so so so so so so nice, like seriously. It's just different from any wan tan I ate. Love it so so much. Guess I exaggerated a little. xD
My mom didn't have her lunch there so we went to Burger King after that. My brother ate his second lunch too, haha!
We went aboard at 2 pm and took off to Taipei, Taiwan!
The cool thing about this plane is this:
There's a controller at the sides of the seat. But personally I preferred the plane we took on the way back. First, the plane isn't as shaky. Second, the food served is nicer ( took both fish with rice ). Thirdly, the controller was just below the screen so it's much more efficient. Fourth, the touch screen functions better. And the plane landed a little rough whereas it was a very smooth landing on the second plane. Hahah!
I watched Percy Jackson 2 , Sea of Monsters if I'm not mistaken, an anime called Pretty Rhythm or something like that and Glee's Christmas special to kill time. I fell asleep after that. The flight duration is around 5 hours.
We reached there in the evening and met up with our tour guide: 苏柏瑞 ( Su1 bo2 rui4 ) , his nickname: 小虎 ( small tiger ), Hahha! During the trip, he came up with many funny stuffs. For example:
I remember him telling us this: "上车睡觉，下车尿尿，回到马来西亚莫名其妙！” ( When you get on the bus you sleep, when you get down you pee, when you go back to Malaysia you have no idea what you did ) it rhymes for the Chinese version, haha! And also, he say pee isn't very nice to say, so he switched the word to 唱歌 ( sing ). I have no idea what's the relation to that, but it definitely sounds nicer. Whenever we reach our destination, he'll first tell us the place to sing then the small details if there's any. There are much more but I just couldn't remember, oh well. ><
Our transport for the trip was a red bus. I got all excited before because I thought it was a double decker, turned out it's a bus meant for holidays I guess. The lower deck is for all our luggage and we need to climb up a few stairs up to sit. There are a total of 24 people, 4 families. Our family, the "baby girl" family ( the small girl is just so cute! ), the funny funny family (with the lecturer dad, pretty and funny elder sister, a mature brother who later became quite close with my brother, and the smiley mummy), and the 13 people huge family ( which I only know two kids aged around 9-12 named Sunny boy and Dickson boy. Sunny boy was very funny! He always make us laugh along the trip, like his nickname, a very bright person. =] )
We took a high speed rail to I forgot where. Opps, hahah xD We headed to Xi Men Ding night market that night. 西门町夜市。Their Chinese is a little different in terms of the way we talk and also they use the tradition version while in Malaysia, we use the simplified version. But it's not hard to read, it looks similar in some ways. I managed to take a few fast snaps!
We reached our hotel around 11 something that night. And among all the days on this trip, I personally love love love the toilet in the hotel! ( lawl ) The toilet bowl ( or whatever the name is ) has buttons at the sides where you can even have it spray water after using it. There's a huge mirror and two basins. The best part, a bathtub with the water the hotel used for sauna! The water is different, it feels softer and somewhat smoother. I was reluctant to leave the bathtub because it was so relaxing! Hahaha.
One thing cool about all the hotels I stayed except the last one has free Wi-fi coverage! I heard that at Korea, you can even get Wifi connection on the road, like almost everywhere, how cool and convenient is that! So this sums up Day 1!
On the second day, the morning call was at 7.30 am as we head to head off at 9 o'clock if I'm not mistaken. We went to CKS Memorial Hall and witnessed the changing of guard ceremony. To me, it's kinda boring as it took so so so long. But we heard from our tour guide after that, while some were hoping that the guards drop the gun while "playing" with it, the guard will be locked up for 7 days if that happened. Trainee soldiers being locked up! How hard is military training. o.o
Some photos my daddy took.
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| I can't help but laughing. It looks like I edited the photo. It's like a holy place in ancient Chinese drama! xD And no, I did NOT edit this. |
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| Close up to the holy place |
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| The sky brighten a little after a short while |
* roller coaster slowly reaching the peak before a sudden fall *
me: Oh my gosh oh my gosh oh my gosh.
*roller coaster literally stopped at the position where you can see how high you are at*
me: GET ME OUTTA HERE!
*roller coaster accelerates down, whoosh!*
me: AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!
*roller coaster stops*
me: Gods, it was so awesome, let's do it again!
See, there's like zero time for me to think and for the "fear impulse" being stimulated to my brain.
Back to the main story here~
We safely reached this narrow but very long alley which used to be a mining place, 九份 ( Jiu Fen ). Inside, there were mainly food stalls and some souvenir shops. We tasted our first 香肠 ( hot dog? ) at Taiwan here. It was delicious! =] We also tried out some other fried and oily foods. I definitely put on at least 4kg of weight during this whole week. Ughhhhhh, food, why you so tempting? TT
Photos!
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| The one wearing a hoodie is Dickson boy! |
There were too many people so we didn't really get to see much. Mainly focusing on not being lost and getting out of there. >< We waited one and a half hours nearby that place, somewhere we could sit. I was freezing that time. There was even wifi all the way up the hill! Of course there was no password, anyone can assess it, but the connection wasn't too slow. Steady arh.
Took this out of boredom.
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| Just look at that. Magnificent. |
Anyways, we reached the hotel earlier than the night before and got some nice sleep.
Selfies while mommy's in the toilet. xD
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| Kinda like this one. =] |
Day 2 ended!
During this trip, I don't remember since which day, I started having salad and the "thousand island" sauce to go along with it as my breakfast daily. I came to love salad. Weird right? Hahahha. Since Day 3 I guess, I really can't remember, I just remember myself having salad and other side dishes as breakfast for quite many days. ><
And now Day 3, I call it, the windy-est day. You'll see why. ;D
We went to Toroko Gorge that morning. Before reaching, we stopped at the roadside and took some photos.
It's a pity we couldn't see what's inside or what were supposed to see at Toroko Gorge because an incident occured not long ago where the big rocks fell, killing a few people. There was this aunty who later said that the main point and the most interesting thing on this trip was supposed to be the scenery inside. We ended up looking around and watched a video about that place and some framed photos on the walls. I can even download the photos on Google larh, wan HD, 3D also can larh. Haix, too bad. =/
We continue our journey and stopped along the road again to take photos.
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| Look at my hair!! Hahahha xD prove of windy-est day, check one. |
We were leaving early for the hotel very early that day because there's swimming pool, spa, tennis court and all other facilities there. So on the way, photos again! This time, the hilarious ones.
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| Look at the wind!! Opps sorry, wind is invisible xD look ar my gorgeous hair! |
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| It looks like I had tied up all my hair, hahaha! |
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| Definitely better than Sunsilk commercials. |
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| Take 145046405604. My daddy and I kept getting the wrong timing. TT |
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| Look closely at the sea, and you'll find there's 2 colours! Dark and light blue. I don't know why either! |
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| Took this because I wanted to send to my friends, but I figured blogging here will be nicer xD |
We reached the hotel around 4 something I guess. Dinner was at 7. Because I hadn't swim in ages, I begged daddy to accompany me, and he did! But we didn't go swimming in the end because it was sooooo so cold >< we did went to the warm sauna thing at the outdoor though. Just beside the swimming pool. =]
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| The room I love the most. Purple themeeeeee! <3 |
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| If this was my mansion. Hahahah! |
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| Other rooms! |
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| I haven't wear simming suit in ages too. This belongs to my mom actually. I'm old enough now. =] You can't really see it's a swimsuit though, it's a dress design xD |
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| Photo I took after the dinner, after listening to songs at the Pub. |
The Pub we went to that night was nice. It was a family pub I guess. Of course my family members were with me. The singer was a Philipino if I'm not mistaken. She's pretty and has quite a unique voice. She sang some old hit english songs and even tian mi mi, Chinese song! Hahha. We went to sleep a lil earlier to store energy for tomorrow. ><
Day 4.
Daddy helped me took these before leaving the hotel. =]
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| Prefer this one out of the 3. =] |
We went to 高雄 Kaohsiung, Taiwan's 2nd largest city. To be more specific, EDA outlet mall. That place is quite big. There's an amusement park next to the shopping mall. And just by looking at the rides there gives me a heart attack. No roller coasters spotted though, maybe there is but I didn't notice. ><
I don't know what was my brother doing. Well that's a rare scene. Hahhahaha. If you know me well, you'll know which ride I'd never wanna go on on even if you offered me money.
The insides of EDA shopping mall!
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| It's a lil blurry TT |
We went to a temple after that. In Taiwan, same as Malaysia, there are different beliefs. And one of it, is that when going to a temple, 左入龙口，右出虎口. Go in on the left ( into the dragon's mouth ) and go out from the right ( out of the tiger's mouth ). There's this idiom saying about tiger's mouth, and if you came out of the tiger's mouth, it means you are save from danger. But the position varies. If there's no 神明 inside the temple, refer to your left and right. But if there is, refer to theirs.
The first temple we went in this trip.
It's sorta like an exhibit inside, different from normal temples where you pray. Hahah. And I must say, since this day, I've encountered many many dogs on the street. As in with their owners. Some even have their clothes on. Every dog is just SOOOOOO cuteeeee! <3 <3 I remember there was this tiny little toy poodle, and this very very big golden retriever, hahaha xD Gahhh, I want a puppy so much TT
We went to Leo Ho night market after that. Unfortunately, no photos taken. >< We went to the hotel after that.
Day 5
We went to Jiji. A train station.
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| The train I took wasn't this of course. Hahhaha |
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| Fire! |
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| There's a small signboard there saying 集集 ( Jiji ). The boy putting his hand up is Sunny boy! No idea what he was going too, getting arrested for being too funny? Hhahaha xD |
I did NOT enjoyed the ride to the place we wanted to go. Why? I can hardly breathe in there, everyone was like tuna in a can. It was supposed to be a scenic ride. Keyword: Supposed to be.
I'll prove it to you.
If you still couldn't get what I meant, get your eyes checked. I took this when I got out of the train to the opposite. ><
Buffet le Soleil. Sorry, I don't understand the meaning. But inside, is one hell of a food heaven. Heaven and hell, hahaha. You can actually choose your own fish and have the cook steamed it for you. There are crabs and sushi!! All the normally expensive ones. I finally tried out Salmon sushi. It's okay okay. Maybe I'm not a fan of sushi. >< But a huge fan of Japanese culture =]
We went to Feng Jia Night market that night. Of course we didn't buy any food at all because we were all full, till the extent that I feel like my stomach may just burst any moment. The good memories of the night market was that I bought my first, FIRST, cheongsam! =] It's gold in colour. Will definitely wear this on the coming Chinese New Year. Thanks to my cousin sister, Soo Yee, she set a law that all the girls are to wear cheongsam and the guys, tang zhuang. Hahhaha. Maybe it'll turn out to be a Lim family tradition. So so excited. =] We took taxi back to the hotel. There's no bathtub in the hotel that night. This I remember. xD
Day 6
We went to Wu Fen Pu clothes wholesale market for shopping. Like I stated before,the clothes are not suitable for us. Sigh. =( And the amount of wholesalers there are just terrifying. There were too many people. We ended up coming out an hour earlier and sit at the park opposite to it and just enjoy the breeze and relax our feet. We then went to this themed restaurant called Five Cents Drift Woof Restaurant. I took photos but it's better to google them up. It was too dark in there. Number 1. Secondly, the food was not satisfying to me. Even the chicken tastes bad. 3, you will feel like going to a cave or a horror movie when you go to the toilet. I did not camwhore in the toilet so I don't have a photo to show you. When you close and open the door, it's like in the movies where they open the door to a old haunted house. Eeeeeeeeek. 4. I don't get the artistic statues there.
Anyhow, I managed to snap a photo of our bus after that! This is it!
And finally, the famous Shilin night market. Also the last night market and last destination of this whole trip.
We tried out a variety of food there. Well, it's its specialty after all. Not forgetting the famous 豪大大炸鸡排. Boy were we lucky that we lined up fast. The queue was insane within a few seconds. And I was very, extremely satisfied with it. First it the fried chicken chop was extremely big! It's also damn tasty. That literally sent me to heaven. It was freaking nice.
The thing that disappoint us was the motel we stayed that night. It's a motel, not a hotel. And it was wayyyy to creepy when you first stepped in. The lighting was a little dark and all. The only, ONLY good thing about it was this:
All the photos I posted in this post is taken by my iPhone 4. Not a dslr or a digital camera, hahaha.
Then we walked a short distance till my mummy's most excited place, the place where we eat the wooden bento lunch. 木桶饭. My mom agreed on going holiday with this tour mainly, 99% because of this. The main point is that you can bring back the wooden bento. And now it's safe in the kitchen at my house now. Boy you wouldn't believe how happy she was, hahaha!
After that, daddy took some photos for me again at Sun Moon Lake I guess.
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| I did not take this from Google. I took this myself. Proud photographer, hahahah! |
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| Currently my fb profile picture. This is my favourite pose when taking photos I guess. =] |
There was a little time left before we gather so we went around to see some wood crafts.
This tree was there where we gathered. There weren't supposed to be any flowers left since it's Winter. This is just very heartwarming for some reason. A hope in a hopeless situation. Somewhat gives me the strength I need now. =]
We went to the peacock garden thingy followed by Wen Wu temple. Said to be able to make your wish come true most of the times. My brother bought keychains as souvenirs for his friends here.
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| The carvings on the wall. |
It's actually a wishing well below the sign, my family get to toss coins given by daddy. I failed at the first try. TT But I got it in on the second attempt! Hahah =]
We then went to the coolest eating place on earth.
Buffet le Soleil. Sorry, I don't understand the meaning. But inside, is one hell of a food heaven. Heaven and hell, hahaha. You can actually choose your own fish and have the cook steamed it for you. There are crabs and sushi!! All the normally expensive ones. I finally tried out Salmon sushi. It's okay okay. Maybe I'm not a fan of sushi. >< But a huge fan of Japanese culture =]
We went to Feng Jia Night market that night. Of course we didn't buy any food at all because we were all full, till the extent that I feel like my stomach may just burst any moment. The good memories of the night market was that I bought my first, FIRST, cheongsam! =] It's gold in colour. Will definitely wear this on the coming Chinese New Year. Thanks to my cousin sister, Soo Yee, she set a law that all the girls are to wear cheongsam and the guys, tang zhuang. Hahhaha. Maybe it'll turn out to be a Lim family tradition. So so excited. =] We took taxi back to the hotel. There's no bathtub in the hotel that night. This I remember. xD
Day 6
We went to Wu Fen Pu clothes wholesale market for shopping. Like I stated before,the clothes are not suitable for us. Sigh. =( And the amount of wholesalers there are just terrifying. There were too many people. We ended up coming out an hour earlier and sit at the park opposite to it and just enjoy the breeze and relax our feet. We then went to this themed restaurant called Five Cents Drift Woof Restaurant. I took photos but it's better to google them up. It was too dark in there. Number 1. Secondly, the food was not satisfying to me. Even the chicken tastes bad. 3, you will feel like going to a cave or a horror movie when you go to the toilet. I did not camwhore in the toilet so I don't have a photo to show you. When you close and open the door, it's like in the movies where they open the door to a old haunted house. Eeeeeeeeek. 4. I don't get the artistic statues there.
Anyhow, I managed to snap a photo of our bus after that! This is it!
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| I sit with kor kor all the time on the left fourth row. Daddy and mummy beside us. =] |
We then went to Taipei 101 said to be world's tallest building. The time was only enough for us to walk around a little and go to toilet.
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| Taken by mummy! |
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| The short hair girl wearing the black stripes shirt is Jocelyn! hahha. Our tour guide said that Jolin is staying at the middle buliding there! Omg! ( 3rd form left ) |
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| Here I bought the souvenirs for my friends! |
The thing that disappoint us was the motel we stayed that night. It's a motel, not a hotel. And it was wayyyy to creepy when you first stepped in. The lighting was a little dark and all. The only, ONLY good thing about it was this:
This jacuzzi bathtub with a TV! Touch screen to control the channels and all. Get to watch back some of the cartoons I watched that I forgot its existence! I prefer the old cartoon so much more than the ones nowadays. =(
We woke up at 3.30 am on the 7th day, the last day. Are you insane?! Yes, yes I am.
We departed for the airport at 4.30 am. Along the way, I kept thinking back what we did on the past week. It happened so fast. It has been a week away from home already. We had some pau and an boiled egg as breakfast. I didn't eat much tought. TT And when it was time, sayonara. Ohh and just for a record, the last song I listened to at Taiwan was Taylor Swift's Mine at the departure hall. <3
Was only able to take this. This was before going to the departure hall.
Xiao Hu. Our tour guide. Thank you so much. =]
Jocelyn continued to take full responsibilities of us, by making sure everyone got their luggage when we reached Malaysia. It was around 1 pm. And everyone said bye and went off. We took a cab back to our home sweet home. =]
Overall experience: Okay, quite fun. =] Would like to thank daddy for this trip <3
I wouldn't know when's our next holiday trip as I'm having SPM next year. ><
I wouldn't know when's our next holiday trip as I'm having SPM next year. ><
All the photos I posted in this post is taken by my iPhone 4. Not a dslr or a digital camera, hahaha.
And thank you to you for reading alllllll the way here! Don't blame me for not updating for so long. =] <3
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