+*+Summary of my 7 days tour in Taiwan*+*
Saturday, August 13, 2005

After the long wait... Tada!! here it is! ^_^ It's a LONG LONg one, happy reading! hehe!
I think I shall juz give a short summary and my own 感想 of where we went. Heh. I’ll try to make this “summary” as short as possible (asap?!) wahaha!

7 days Taiwan tour

1st day, 30/07, Sat:

5 days notice of the tour only, but my mum and I are ready to go! Woke up damn early at 530am cuz need to be at the airport tentatively at 610. However we reached there at about 635. Keke! Checking in to the China Airways blah blah… I’ve Always liked the feeling of departure at the airport and flying on plane. As we are sitting juz by the window corner, I am able to see the outside view very clearly! Saw humongous “pieces” of marshmallow-liked cloud formations by the plane window! V cool!

Two cloud pics I took on the plane ascent to Taipei.




Reached Chang Kai Sheik Airport 中正机场, which is the international airport in Taipei. We arrived about 10 mins earlier but then need to wait for about half an hour for the stupid tour guide. Wat’s more, when we finally found him, He didn’t apologized but instead he was giving us a black face, as if that we are in the wrong! We didn’t blame him for being late very good already lor! From then on, series of unhappiness happen due to this stupid fellow. Btw, this stupid fellow got the ugliest and yellow-est thin teeth I ever seen, with this not-so-like age 40 look (cuz he claimed he juz turned 40 but I to t he’s in his mid-late 40’s. wahah!) Can’t bear to look at him while he talks due to his very ugly teeth. How on earth he can be a tour guide wif his appearance??? Hehe...

Got a lot of unhappiness due to some tour members that I dun wanna say la. Juz wanna mention this thing, that the tour members got a few very self-centered, arrogant, a show-off, not helpful and r some *bastards* and *bitches*. Heh…. The bus apparently has enuff seats (u know it’s the usual 2 by 2 type, but it’s the double decker type. Quite cool.). BUT some of them refused to seat together even though they knew each other! End up more seats being taken up and left the 1st twin which is damn cramp and the last row that haf the thrill-ride factor warranty wif it. I prefer the back row coz its really spacious n i like the rocking effect. Haha! But My mum can’t find any comfort coz on the front her ankle n knee will feel painful, and at the back she’ll get car-sick. (-.-''') When we ask the ppl on board if they can switch place, or those b&bs can seat together n let the both of us have a space they totally spaced out! Ask us to split like to share seats with them individually. Wat’s the diff rite? Isn’t it better that the b&bs who knew each other to sit together rite? Pengsang… Heng I can control my temper then, can feel the blood boiling beneath my temple. Plus that tour guide, he is like the “head” of the group mah shud say something to deal with the situation. But he juz say nah front got mah, or back got mah n he bo chap us. *Faintz*. Luckily got one kind couple, they were sitting on the 3rd row finds the normal seats cramp, so changed with us n they took the back row which I believe they find it nicer as being more spacious. Felt grateful for them. Keke.

Now moving on to the tour guide. He’s proud, and the not-sorry type. I dun think the info the tour guide gives is anything useful about the places we visited. His “talks” are about things that are pretty unrelated to this tour and wat’s worst is that, as he is a pretty long winded person, he keeps rumbling on these boring, unrelated stuff, and things that we are not interested in. Haiz!!! Also he dunno how to communicate well with us and has totally no patient wif the elders! Like they cant walk fast naturally so will be late and he can’t understand that! Also when they say they will wait for us at the meeting point n nt coming along he will show black face and said them off! We as his customer need to see his 面色 and always kena criticized and scolded by him. There are old folks n ppl who are older than him he wont spare his words de! How can he be so disrespectful rite? Especially one part he say:”我这次带团，带的很失败。。。 不知道是在带什么东西！” Wa lao!!! Peng Sang lor~~!! He implying that we are animals or wat?! First time I came across this type of tour guide that is so horrendous! So next time dun join this Focal Travel group or u will have to suffer during ur tour! Pls condemn the agency for me too k? Hahaha!

The first hotel we stayed is 成都hotel. Its the SMALLEST hotel room I’ve ever stayed! Even smaller than our tiny Paris Ris chalet resort room! Wat’s more, is their toilet bowl! Apparently we, as their hotel guests, cant shit or throw toilet paper into it! Or it will get stuck!?! N it did happen! Shitified n horrified man… Luckily we stay there for 1 night only. Hah!

As the hotel is situated very near 西门町, which is a big squarish piece of funky, trendy, shopping n eating heaven, we went on a shopping and eating spree after checking in. Bought a lot of clothings at cheap bargains. There are of coz clothes and other things like bags and shoes at expensive pricing and almost most of the stuff is priced about sg $$ so we juz buy those that are selling at “sale” pricings. Gotten some good lobangs. I think after this trip I really have a new wardrobe of clothes to wear le. Keke! Tried some of their local speciality, 当地小吃, and its really nice! Like the famous Taiwan big crispy chicken steak and the breaded batter hotdog (sg haf already, apparently it’s in franchise but I somehow think sg isn’t as good as the original here.), pig intestine mee suah(this is very interesting as u have to stand up to finish the big bowl of hot mee suah, but it is really a unique and nice dish as the mee suah juz melted in ur mouth liddat! Yummy!), 王子面cum “yong dao fu” style, and some side hawker stuff which I cant remember their name. Hehe. We started shopping and eating from 3pm till about 7+ to 8pm before going back to the hotel! Shack! This day alone, we spent about NT$6k! It’s almost S$320! Steady rite? Even though this first day wasn’t wif the tour guide, I generally feel that it’s the best day out of the seven days cuz dun need to see the stupid tour guy.

Me in this small hotel


Dun get fooled by the nice “mirror-glass panels”. It is not as nice or big the room seem to be!


Naturally as the first night stay at a hotel, I cant get to zzz even though I am quite tired from waking up early and from the long shopping.

2nd day, 31/07, Sun:

Woke up at 6+, as 7­+ we need to set off le. Breakfast have porridge… yucks… Anyway today our first stop is 野柳, where we will see lots of fascinating rock and coral formation on the coast. It’s really amazing how those corals were able to form ON the land itself. Of cuz they are dried up la. How to be alive w/o water? Hehe. Also due to these corals and other evidence the scientist gets, they supposed that Taiwan is actually a submerged land, but due to a massive earthquake that they pushed some land out above the water to form Taiwan. A piece of history is that the earliest western ppl to discover Taiwan is the Portuguese and they name it Formosa. Back to the corals, they form shapes like elephants in water, fairy sandals, pearl shapes, starfishes, turtle shells, and the most famous is a queen’s head figurine. The queen head apparently only showed up if u view it on a 45degree view. Other position u can’t see it de. And its neck is getting thinner as the time goes by due to typhoon n wave strikes so perhaps one day it will be washed off! Anyway all of it is by natural formation n its pretty awesome. Took lots of pics here.

Here is one of me wif the queen’s head.


My mum n I


This couple lives quite near us n we didn’t met before! Haha! Anyway they look like nick’s parent, especially the lady, her name is Mary (while nick’s mum is Lana). But the strange thing is that the guy’s name is exactly the same as nick’s dad: Patrick!




From野柳 we went on a long journey to our last destination 花连. We travel via the 苏花公路. This expressway is smacked between the ranges of mountains and the Pacific Ocean. Yesh, it’s the Pacific Ocean! Get to see it (too bad I didn’t get the chance to “touch” it) and it’s really very beautiful!!! Shades of blue with occasional swirls on the surface, and the shimmering surface as sunlight touches it.一望无际, as the sparkling ocean surface spread wide into the horizon, meeting the clear blue sky at the end of it. Absolutely gorgeous!

This highway route took 6 hrs, as it’s a winding mountain-cliffs route. Along the journey we stopped at Keelung, Su-Au, and Tarroko for toilet break n pic taking. Before proceeding to watch the 阿美族舞 then to our final destination花连. Oh yah, we saw the infamous 槟榔西施, u know those gals who wear the bear minimum selling 槟榔. This is actually a famous Taiwan product but I dun find it nice. That tour guide offered to us without telling us wat it is made of n it has this disgusting favour to it. I think only those smokers will like it. Perhaps it taste like their cigars tts y. say it will boost energy blah blah, but u know wat? Inside they put edible red cement! Yucks! If I knew wat it is I will NEVER lay my hands on it. So if any of u going there, dun try! But if u wanna go ahead! Haha! Oh and also, I realized that their traffic lights are abdunt there! Along a stretch of road u can find 2 or 3 liao, and most of them are flashing amber light. Dunno it actually means not in use or out-of-order? Haha!

3rd day, 1/8, Mon:

Let me give a summary cuz I dun intend to talk much on this day. Most of the plus points are that the scenic places tat we visited is totally cool! Cons are the more traveling on the road and listening to the guide talks. We set off from花连 to 燕子口, to 九曲洞, to this 灵芝/花鹿foetus factory, Grantite/Jade factory in 台东, and finally to高雄.

燕子口 and 九曲洞 is some place where we r really close to the mountain nature, seeing the mountain lakes, the sparrow caves and walk some rocks falling danger-prone areas. Weather is like ytd, hot and sunny, yet nt as humid as Singapore cuz I didn’t sweat as much.



See this pic, I strongly believe that it’s the place where one of the show’s fighting scene took its background from. Nick will know it. Haha! anyway these rocks here are actually granitite stones!


Me with a statue of the RAT Zodiac.


It's also another traveling day of 5 hrs and a far more dangerous journey than ytd. Y? Coz we are traveling via the 南回公路 that linked 台东 and 高雄. Its destroyed a few weeks ago by 土石流, and it is juz open for traveling. We saw the damages the土石流 done to the road, and saw the traces n ‘stains’ of it too. Pretty threatening on especially one part where the road is juz big enuff for the 4 wheels of our tour bus! If we cant get thr we will go down the mountain cliff! We started at 3+ n till 8+ then we can complete the journey! Ate dinner real late and that tour guide pesky temper screamed at us.

4th day, 2/8, Tues:

Set off from 高雄 to 春秋阁 [2 pavilions of statues of dragon and tiger ? which I think its nthg really. Plus the scorching sun also, damn hot lor], to 佛光山 [hot sun again, let me tell u all I am really tanned… but this place is really a big hill full of thousands of Buddha statues.], to 淡水珍珠工厂 [apparently Taiwan is the only place breeding plain watered pearls. China and Japan ones is breed in seawater. Which cannot be eaten and thus their pearl is edible, able to make to eye solutions and is better. Bought some pearl powder from here.] , To 嘉义[more traveling, forget how long le.], and checked in to this hotel 鼎川大饭店 [this hotel is the biggest I haf ever stayed! The special stuff is that it is equipped wif 2 king size bed, 4 wardrobe, 4 window, 4 big ancient type of chairs, a hot and warm water dispenser, and it is as big as my house liddat. Best is that the bathroom is as big as my master room! Hah! But cuz only the two of us got this “lonely” and quiet feeling.] after that we went to 文化路 for more shopping[we spend till broke here!! In the end need to borrow NT$3k from the tour guide till we reach Taipei before we can withdraw $$ from the bank atm to return him. Hah!].

Me at the dragon and tiger pavilions. Hehe.. can see my hat? its a "poet's" hat i bought at one of their night market there. Sg selling at 30++ i got this at S$15! hehe! Opps, my head blocked the dragonhead view. Bad pic taking my mum has. Opps! Lolx!


Me n mum of a pic taken at佛光山


The night view of the文化路 plus my new hair-do. Its like turn round n then use the 2 butterfly clips to hold it in place. hehe. Learnt from a salesman there. lolxx.

5th day, 3/8, Wed:

Wake up damn early again at 5+am! Went 阿里山 to see 姐妹潭, and 三代木. It’s a 1+hr ride to the foot of the mountain before a 3 hrs ride up and after that is a 3 hrs ride down! And best is we go there juz to walk walk around. Get closer to nature n see the old cedar tree that is one thousand yrs old!

One break-stop place on our uphill journey. Cool and nice air!


Behind is this natural formation by 2 tree that formed a heart shape!


Me walking into this man made cedar forest. Cool huh?


We r standing on this one thousand yr tree! Its massive isn’t it?


Next we went to 受镇宫[some temple place, prayed especially to the Kong Zi there.] and then to 孔雀公园[see peacocks and chickens. Hah!] then to 日月潭 and our hotel is juz by the side here! Its really foggy already coz we r actually halfway up a mountain, and by this pond. Also due to the typhoon coming that bring lots of low clouds around. Sung outdoors ktv, most of the songs my mum sing de and I can see she enjoyed herself a lot. Old songs I dunno so didn’t sing, but was insisted to sing so I sung 2 songs by Ah Mei lor. Heh.

6th day, 4/8, Thurs:

Thurs can say it’s the last day at Taiwan coz the next day mainly is waiting for our plane. Wake up pretty early too and went to 台中 via 南头线[saw the Taiwan straits along side this road]，忠烈祠，故宫博物院. Saw the damage ruins(like the temple ruins, sch ruins, church ruins, road damages etc…) inflicted by the 921 earthquake in 1999 that is the biggest recorded in Taiwan. They wanna keep a remembrance of the incident so kept these ruins aside. Really diaongz, haha! Luckily Sg won’t have any natural disaster. It is really quite scary and horrible.

Went to the 101 plaza, which is the tallest Taiwan has for it is 101storey high. Apparently China is bu shuang of the 101, being the tallest in Asia so they r building a 105 building to retaliate. Hahaa! It’s an expensive ride up to their observatory place as its $15 up! So we didn’t go la. Heh. Also been to Mei Na shopping centre n sit Taiwan’s biggest ferries wheel!

Here I am in the air-coned cabin of the ferries wheel. It’s already up to the highest point and down le. And yes, it’s raining. Heh.


The 麦沙台风 is affecting Taiwan already n the whole day we experience rain and the 时不时的强风和暴雨. Luckily for us that we left 花连 earlier! Coz the situation by then its really bad with deep-water displacement, heavy rain n stronger wind, and 土石流 also. If we were delayed by 1 or 2 days, we will be stuck there le. Very heng! Was worried for our plane flight. Went to the 士林夜市 that is a makan place. Ate a lot of their local specialty tat we didn’t eat one our first day. Like 棺材包，苦瓜juice, smelly bean curd, tonic soups, and a lot of others I cant remember. Hehe.

And… our last day 5/8, Fri:

Today can wake up slightly later at 7am. Btw, the morning sunrise is at 5+am daily. Geez… so early… haha. Through out these days here, I’m quite sick of eastern food. But the rice here is actually those Japanese rice coz they havest here de! Wasabi also grown here n imported to japan one! They got miso soup here but wif the Chinese taste in it. Hah! Also all of their morning breakfast surely got porridge n do-it-yourself toast. Not really nice but aiyah wat do to rite? Anyway the last day’s breakfast is the best wif lots of variety to choose from and finally some western style of food! Bacon, hotdog, scrambled egg, buttered bread and fries! Hah they got Japanese cold noodle and sushi too. Best le! Haha! I totally skip the Chinese dishes. Heh. And Yup our plane is delayed from its actual 12.30 flight to departure at 5+ pm. The airport wasn’t anything near to our Changi airport, nothing much to shop around also. We arrived at Singapore at 9.45pm. Also v funny, they announce that the loading mechanism is spoilt, so our luggage will be delayed. Waited for half an hr so we shopped longer at the liquor area. Bought the Irish cream liquor! Yay! Can get to try it soon le! Heh! K~ I think that’s all le. Hope u all dun see till “cock-eyed”! Haha!

In a “exhibition” village, showcasing the famous Taiwan oolong tea and other specialty food from all round Taiwan. Here I am wif the longevity statute. Haha.


Sunset views from the plane




And this one! So CHIO~~~!!!

~~**End**~~

Footnote: The card selling we had negative income, cuz didnt earn any n spend alot on our expense. but like nick says: "I'm never gonna do sales again." Hahaa! N my mum sick again. she doesnt seem to be well even before taiwan. Been coughing badly, and now she kena fever n diahheoar. Poor thing. Worried abot here. Haiz...

Tata for now >þ
10:15 PM
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