I really do wish to make a post about the Taiwan trip as soon as possible but there
is just so many things going on right now. Although we had just touched down at
midnight, we went to work, Chinese New Year is in 3 days and I have to help out
with the spring cleaning and I'd probably have no time to do last minute shopping
even if I want to.
Actually I had already wrote some parts in a notebook during the hour long train ride
to 嘉義 (Jiayi) from Taipei. That was while my other 3 companions were all fast asleep.
What a weak. ( I just realise when I use jokes or terms that only a group of friends
know, I would seem like an idiot, but yup). Overall the trip was satisfying and well,
different from my previous one with my parents. As any Taiwanese would say, 超赞的.
Ok here it goes!
Day 1 @ Taiwan
I'm back in Taiwan again and memories of the previous trip started to flood back once
we arrived at Taoyuan airport. This time, I'm here with Chua Han Yang, Woo Wei En
and Fat Wee. The interesting thing about this trip is that Mr Chua is a 老台湾 and I
seriously think that even he himself do not know how many times had he been there.
We were expecting someone to pick us up, holding a sign that says" 扬扬 and friends",
or rather it was just me, but I was not disappointed though, haha. The boar ( a guy that
has thick fingers as noticed by weien) soon drove us to his warehouse where he
supposedly made lights and lamps which we really can't comprehend how they were
able to.
The guy right in front of me is the boar. I did not manage to capture
a picture of his hands though.
The boar soon drove us to have a meal in the mountains. One would most likely
wonder are they able to do business with only a table occupied every few hours, but
they were still very professional and the service was good too. The place was secluded
and that helped enhanced how tranquil and exclusive the place is, or rather it prevented
it from being not so. Furthermore, the food here was so great, we were all incredibly full
afterwards. There was this yolk fried prawn that had colourful chocolate sprinkles on it
that looked so very artificial, but it was delicious!
We soon went out to play the tops in the mini play area while the boar needed to smoke.
I think it is really part of their routine to smoke every hour, especially since cigarettes are
so affordable there. Their government should look into this microeconomics problem.
I guess Hanyang was probable the best beyblader there, in the mean time, the rest of
us were just trolling around with the tops.
Time flew quickly with the considerable distance travelled and the heavy meal that we had
and we soon headed for our hotel at Ximen where we did some very light shopping.
Our dinner was definitely a memorable experience to all of us. We were treated to a meal
by Han's dad's friends and partners. There was the braggart, eggface，二话不说 and
Macallan ( pronounced Ma- zha- lan). Well they were just actutally just adjectives to
describe one of them only. He is a typical towkay who brags about how he can relax and
leave work to his wife and how his son must have a pretty wife, if not he will "lose face".
This here is a mazhalan. Apparently they all love this whiskey. But as to make one bottle
last as long as possible, they dilute it with around a 1:1.5 portion of water and a little
lime juice. They were actually quite insistent on us downing it together with them. I guess
it is really important to know how to entertain clients and business partners with alcohol.
The diluted whiskey was bearable i guess, but that meant one person's share is at least a
few glasses. On top of the very satisfying lunch and rather wide spread dinner, I was
bloated.
This is a picture taken at a nearby 7-eleven. The point was to show case their epic-ly red
face but the camera just couldnt capture it. Just when I was extremely proud of myself
for not being red-faced, macallan commented that my face must be very tanned and black,
thus the redness does not show. I guess it's just the genes lah. Anyway they were fighting
it out on who was "more drunk" which was very funny! haha
Day 2@ Taiwan
I'm taking this straight from my notebook:
This is not a very significant day(but looking back now, it is) as my memories of it is vague
( it is not now) and I'm requiring my photos that I took to recollect what we did!
Oh yes! We took the morning train to 九分to 放天灯. Those who had watched 那些年
would be quite familiar with it. According to Hanyang, there was 9 families in that area in
the past and when they imported necessities, it was always split into 9 equal portions. Thus
I assume it goes the same for 五分,八分, 十分 too. We arrived in a rather forested area
and we followed the railway tracks to a rather touristy area for lunch.
It should probably be the meat of a pig's cheek? It tasted nice though, but it is sadly almost
the same taste as any other part of the pig. It's quite chewy and 有嚼经。
It was still bright there, not sure why it turned out like that but I like it.
The following is a little embarrasing, but actually I dont have to be! Anyway while making our
way to the 瀑布, we encountered a japanese man who enquired about some rail service that
was apparently closed that day. As a self-proclaimed beginner in Japanese, I only picked
up the most basic words that we said like " this, that". Had to end up ending the conversation
after awkward gestures that were made from both sides; him trying to ask for help; we just
pointing in random directions. At least my phrases for " I do not understand" that I used during
work was put to use, where he seemed impressed ( I think, haha)
We made a U-turn when we reached the 瀑布 ( waterfall ) as there was an entrance fee and
we can see it from the outside anyway, which it looked rather small anyway. Unfortunately by
that time, my socks were wet as I did not realise my shoe had gaps. sigh.
Random "house" that we stumbled upon
He refused to come up, I think he was afraid
(I realised i can create a lot of bullshit, since it's my blog, muahaha)
We soon returned to the train station and we decided 放天灯!
Each coloured lanterns holds a different meaning to it and we settled with red because it looked
the most appealing. The "meanings" were different in every store anway, so to me, red is to
wish for handsomeness and awesomeness in all aspects of life.
We got to work quickly and while only Eugene was taking it seriously, hanyang was wishing a
whole load of rubbish very plausible goals such as SM entertainment recruiting him.
Weien and I were just writing random stuff here and there and we drew us onto the lanterns!
I still firmly believe I did a good job to draw Eugene and Weien. Though I was initially
disappointed with weien's doodle, compared to my masterpiece, when I look at my portrait,
我真的越看越像. Hanyang thinks he look like his picture too, so good for him! haha
There are actually 4 sides to the lantern where 2 were the rather serious one and 1 of them
should only remain in my Taiwan folder, undisclosed for eternity. Sadly, the picture we took
with that side was actually very nice! Oh man! haha.
Really hope we do well for As!
Eugene totally revealled to the whole world our identity of being a Singaporean or a non
Taiwanese because of his bermudas. Firstly it was cold and secondly they all have great dress
sense, such that barely anyone wears short pants there, besides some girls who just wanted to
show off their rather nice legs.
Bye 天灯！I think it probably did not even make 5 minutes of flight time and it would have
just dropped into the 瀑布! Anyway this was also when I felt handicapped and helpless
because my Chinese standard had obviously took a plunge and I could not even write some
things I wished I had.
Not bad right?!
Our 导游 wee kinda failed us on our way to 基隆 night market and we took ages to find out
how which train to take and to finally walk there, where it was near some macdonalds.
our seats. Wee mentioned something about his parents will not eat from a stall where the
cook doesnt wear glove, but I think the trick is just to observe which stall has the longest queue!
That day was also the eve of the 2012 Taiwan elections, and everyone was hyped up about it.
This is some pictures of last minute rallying and they set off fireworks every few streets!
Day 3 @ Taiwan
Hanyang woke up especially refreshed as he claims he had insomnia the past few nights.
The plan for the day was to change to a hotel in 北投 and explore 乌来 for the day,
which HY and Wee had both been to before. Thankfully we had 小谢哥to chauffeur us
there, together with our luggage.
乌来 is a nature's paradise. It is a mountinus area in the North that has fresh air, a scenic
view and plenty of rather steep slopes. To think that my mum wanted to go there during
our previous trip. She wouldn't have been able to even make it to the entrance. That day
was also the day of their presidential elections, you can see some of the photos I took
below!
The guy on the right was skewing and barbaquing some meat and was jumping around
acting "hyper" to probably attract attention. He kind of stopped during the evening when
we were on our way home. Haha, so practical.
One of their polling stations
the cable car / gondola where we made our way up the mountain. Where do they get
their ostrich from right? How many ostrich can you even fit into a farm, haha.
Here is where everything truly begins. There was this "haunted house" ride where we can
take right at the entrance and of course we took it with much hesistation. This was also
where i totally laughed hysterically, because it was just too funny. You see, Weien was
infront of me ( I was the on the second cart). Just when the door opened, I expected
all of us to move in together but only Weien's cart jerked and started to creep into
the haunted house by itself. I'm not sure if it was the suprise or the anticipation, but
the laughing did not stop.
Here I was, trying to take photos of the rather stationary figurines that are suppose to scare us, but my camera's motion capture really suck and all i captured were these:
But when I turned on the flash, it just becomes hilarious, HAHAHA
I threw them continuously for 5min and I couldnt even get a single one of them. After this, we
followed the trek upwards to just soak in the cool and fresh environment!
We kind of tackled just half of them after we realised it wasnt really worth it and everything
was coated with moss and rain. Well, as expected it was Eugene who helped us took the
photos for obvious reasons.
Tried a jumpshot using the camera, but my shutter speed really suck.
Hanyang is just too handsome for the camera.
With the princes.
We kind of all took photo with this girl, but I cant be bothered to post the rest. haha
During the trip, we encountered many fortune telling token machines.
Well, we didnt try any because it may very well just tell us
we're going to fail A levels or something.
and we made our way back to the streets of 乌来 by taxi. Just before that though, we
bought this crazy head massaging gizmo thingy that is totally crazy. You guys shld ask me
to use it on you someday. All my relatives who used it during Chinese New Year went crazy!
Anyway we soon realised that we were scammed as we could have bought it slightly cheaper
elsewhere but oh well.. Anyway the results to the elections were out not long after the polling
centres closed!
It was a rather satisfying day I would say with it just being mainly sightseeing. We had a meatless
dinner to end the day that was treated by 小谢哥 again and he ordered some sick giant plate
of oysters which I totally didnt mind, unlike weien ( below). They really manage to farm them into
three time the size of those you usually find in oyster omelletes in Singapore.
similar. Of course there was a 碳烧味 tofu icecream that really tasted burnt. Of course we
continued of eventful day in our hotel rooms ;)
Day 4@ Taiwan
(I was intitially very lazy and reluctant to finish this blog post,
but I'll explain why I'm here later on)
I think Day 4 was very very exciting, even recollecting about it and typing letters by letters
is getting me all hyped out. This is because...... we went to 嘉義 ( JiaYi) 's 剑湖山
is a AMUSEMENT PARK! HAHAHA. Anyway we packed whatever we needed to
stay over at 嘉義, which is near 台中 in the morning at we took their speed rail!
While everyone was sleeping, I actually made the effort to pen down the details of the first
two days. Weien suggested to me that I should just take a photo of it and post them but the
scribbling are so illegible, I rather have it done again! The ride was almost 2 hours and
I barely finished the "posts". Here I am, toogling and experimenting with the functions of
my camera and I finally found out how to have only a colour stand out from a black and white
photo! Failed attempt at acting like a lone man, deep in thoughts, trying to solve poverty and
prevent nuclear wars in the future.
Everyone seemed refreshed after the ride except me and we soon got on a cab that was part
of the package. The side here is rather cute, too bad there is no colour to it.
two rooms with 2 king size bed and of course we gladly accepted it, we made our way to
the Amusement park! The beds were really freaking huge, I really think all four or us can easily
share it.. ok maybe not, haha. I guess 3 could still be plausible.
I was totally in despair and =(( when we entered the toilet and saw this.
But at this point I guessed I was starting to regret. HAHAHA. There was this theatre
that would first screen a 2 minute "horror movie" and you would have to walk through this
maze where random monsters pop out at various corners ( which all turned out to be the
same person all the while) to scare us. This was during Day 5 though. Frankly speaking,
I found the place totally lame and that they were not even trying. But of course this was
LARGELY due to me stilling having the rides in my mind. I mean, the adrenaline rush
from a 3 minute ride would easily be more than going through this stupid place 10 times.
Still happily walking. haha. haha...
We were walking up the hill and we finally saw this...
this Taiwanese woman which we saw her a few times later on at the entrance of the park...
My heart kind of melted, as in dissolved when we waited and observed the lab mice who went
up first!
see his face there. It was like all squished and he had his eyes closed for almost the whole thing.
I'm not sure if you noticed but there was barely any screaming during the drop which we all
agreed that it probably wasnt THAT scary. But it turns out....
during the fall, but I just couldn't manage to summon anything at all. Couldnt even utter a sound.
It became all better after the ascend and I think most people screamed then, which was a littlle
too late? haha. I really wanted to capture the ride on film though. However, after taking my
sweaty palms into consideration, it'll probably end up in the bushes somewhere, hahaha.
( P.S My palm sweating is like as normal as you wiping your as after shitting.)
Oh shit. I really I sound like a faggy piece of shit in the videos. Damn. HAHAHA.
Anyway I finally decided to post this because I just spent the past hour watching
rollar coaster videos and it's strangely gratifying. It's like getting high by just sitting in front
of the computer, if you get what I
It's very similar to this ( with just the first drop). They should have really extended it. It was a tad too
short.
( under construction)