argh~~ somehow, i am feeling like there's no energy in my body. I feel like just taking a day off from everything that I'm doing, even tho they are things that I myself wanted to accomplish willingly initially.

i felt drained of ideas, of creative juices. I felt like my brain just wans to shut down for a while.

and the way things are going in my life, it sure isn't helping too. bah~

am stuck between my parents, am stuck between what i wanna do and what i should do (in fact i can't differentiate them anymore), am stuck between what i must do and what i feel like doing.

don't understand? never mind... it's really just a rambling session...

*gah~*,
Yong

 

No offence, i totally love pixar's short "One Man Band", but this is the real thing... Actually, this should rather be called... "One Woman Band" Don't understand? jus watch... ;)



Artist: KT Tunstall
Album: Eye To The Telescope
Year: 2005
Title: Black Horse & The Cherry Tree

Two, three, four

(woo-hoo,woo-hoo)
(woo-hoo,woo-hoo)

Well my heart knows me better than I know myself
So I'm gonna let it do all the talking.
(woo-hoo,woo-hoo)
I came across a place in the middle of nowhere
With a big black horse and a cherry tree.
(woo-hoo,woo-hoo)

I felt a little fear, upon my back
I said don't look back, just keep on walking.
(woo-hoo,woo-hoo)
When the big black horse that looked this way,
Said hey lady, will you marry me?
(woo-hoo,woo-hoo)

But I said no, no, no,no-no-no
I said no, no, you're not the one for me
No, no, no,no-no-no
I said no, no, you're not the one for me

(ooooo,woo-hoo)

And my heart had a problem, in the early hours,
So I stopped it dead for a beat or two.
(woo-hoo,woo-hoo)
But I cut some cord, and I shouldn't have done that,
And it won't forgive me after all these years
(woo-hoo,woo-hoo)

So I sent her to a place in the middle of nowhere
With a big black horse and a cherry tree.
(woo-hoo,woo-hoo)
Now it won't come back , cause it's oh so happy
And now I've got a hole for the world to see
(woo-hoo,woo-hoo)

But it said no, no, no,no-no-no
I said no, no, you're not the one for me
No, no, no,no-no-no
Said no, no, you're not the one for me

(ooooo,woo-hoo) (not the one for me, yeah)
(ooooo,woo-hoo)
Said no,no, no,no, no, no, no
You're not the one for me
Said no,no, no,no, no, no, no
You're not the one for me

Big black horse and a cherry tree
I can't quite get there cause they've all forsaken me
Big black horse and a cherry tree
I can't quite get there cause they've all forsaken me

 

Happy Birthday to Me
詞曲: 張正勇

一年  就這樣過去	Happy birthday to me
後悔  還來不及	Happy birthday to me
獨自面對蜡燭吹熄去	Happy birthday to me
又一滴淚吞進心裡  我告訴自己要走下去

為何希望總會推我前進
卻在落空的時候讓我痛心
生日應該開心  心靈卻如此空虛

勸自己將不愉快的全忘記
記憶卻更加清晰
Happy birthday    Happy birthday to me

為何希望總會推我前進
卻在落空的時候讓我痛心
生日應該開心  心靈卻如此空虛

年復一年只能等待下去
希望快樂終究會來臨
Happy birthday    Happy birthday to me


Completed 15th June 2006 by 張正勇

 

I think because all of us slept quite late the previous night, we woke up pretty late that morning. I tink it was the morning that CL and I overslept past our meeting time. haha~



finally woke up and dragged ourselves out for breakfast, which is the famous 永和豆漿 (Yong He Soya Milk). The service was pretty bad in this particular outlet in 嘉義, but i dismissed it as an assumption that the owner's face was bornt to be fierce-looking, and that she did not like to talk much. The Soya Milk was interestingly mixed with 米漿, making it pretty much richer, but for me, it lost the original nice soya taste which i liked a lot. The 油條 was quite huge, but it was ok, oily and salty, tasting pretty much like what we have in Singapore.

after the breakfast, we went back to hotel to pack our stuff to check out and go to 阿里山. by the time we checked out, the sky started pouring again. according to the tv (we watched a lot of news in taiwan), the hurricane pearl has just reached the straits between taiwan and china, and so it's hitting full force at taiwan now. sounds pretty scary huh? there were even images of how the waves were rushing in, sweeping away tables and chairs in 高雄, which reminded me of the footages during the tsunami.

upon reaching the train station, we learnt that all train and bus services to 阿里山 were terminated due to the danger of the hurricane. but we booked hotel up in 阿里山 liao, paid liao, how not to go! anyway, i sure did not wan to miss out on all the 阿里山的姑娘 who are supposedly 美如水. haha~ so we took a taxi up.



the lucky us managed to get a 7-seater taxi, and we all squeezed into it and got ourselves up 阿里山. the trip wasn't easy. the roads were windy and long (the journey took around 4 hours, or issit 5?) and there were falling stones from the cliffs onto the road. but we could really tell that the driver was really skillful and safe in his driving. he drove pretty fast altho it was windy, and whenever he had the chance he would overtake, but he would always sound his horn to warn incoming traffic from the opposite direction. then, he really kept to his own lane during turns, which a lot of Genting taxis do not do. the bad thing was that because he was driving so fast and there were so much windy turns and rocks, the trip was both sway-ish and bumpy.

i couldn't really sleep and had to force myself to shut my eyes while my head kept bumping onto the window, others tried to too. by the time we reached our hotel up in 阿里山 (around 2plus or 3pm), yeok had 暈車 while the rest of us were nearly half dead. plus! the weather was DAMN COLD! even tho we had our jackets on, we could still feel the chilling wind biting our skin. we learnt later that it was only around 10 degrees Celsius. woah! goodness heavens...

anyway, it was so cold, we didn't feel like going out at all, so after dis-baggage-ing, we crawled into the cold blankets, had our not-bad lunch (packed food from the foot of 阿里山) and watched tv. the signals were pretty bad due to the weather, and we could only receive a handful of weird channels. we watched a traffic channel (telling u which expressway is jammed and so on, and quite frequent updates on the hurricane news) and later a certain drama show starring 伊能靜. Halfway thru the 伊能靜 show, most of us fell asleep, including me.

i woke up at arnd 8pm i tink. by that time, the rest of them were awake liao. CL and yeok even went out to reckee the place. we got ourselves dressed (not that we were undressed, just that we need to put on more clothes! it was freaking cold...), and brace the coldness in search of... dinner!



we found a little restaurant and i was appointed to order the dinner. and we had... 石頭火鍋!! haha... i always have this fantasy about eating 火鍋 on a very cold night, and i really was living my fantasy that night. the 火鍋 comes with in a package with side dishes and stuff, so there's actually quite a lot of food. the warmness from both the 火鍋 and the company made the night pretty enjoyable... only if we were breathing smoke... eh... wait...

*hoof hoof* I WAS BREATHING SMOKE! woah! the temperature suddenly dropped outside, and because the restaurant door was left open and i was sitting closest to the door, i felt the cold and started breathing smoke!! WHOOT! wah~ i was *hoof*ing and *hoof*ing and the rest follow suite as well.

after dinner, we decided to have our second supper feast, and went to the nearby convenience store. besides the food and drinks, also bought beer and peanuts. woah~



remembered sleeping quite late even tho a bit tipsy. woah, discovered hp is quite a drinker. ;) the day was pretty relaxing and managed to take the day off to catch up on the sleep. guess we needed it for the second half of the trip.

[to be continued]...

 

Just watched The Shawshank Redemption. It's been on my watching list for a while and tot i ought to be getting it after last night's drama-and-action-packed The Negotiator.



For those who didn't know the existence of this movie, here's a little synopses from movies.yahoo.com: Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins), a mild mannered New England banker, is convicted of murdering his wife and her lover. Despised at first by the other inmates because of his introverted manner, Andy slowly forges an unlikely friendship with Red (Morgan Freeman), a seasoned lifer and his gang. Soon, Andy also becomes popular with the prison guards, including the vicious Captain Hadley who offers him protection against the jail's rougher convicts in exchange for financial counseling. The prison warden also takes advantage of Andy's banking knowledge by exchanging privileges for creative bookkeeping. Over a twenty year period, Andy is able to maintain his sanity and dignity in prison not by physical force but by mental force. His smarts and confidence keep him going and he is able to teach the other prisoners that hope is the ultimate means of survival.

The following scene was set in the hearings room, where a parole board decide if a prisoner with a life sentence gets to be free again. Before this scene, the character Red has entered this room twice for his parole rejected with his oh-so-cliche "Yes, I'm a changed man! Oh yes, I'm sure ready for the society... blah blah blah...". This is his third time.

274;            AN IRON-BARRED DOOR 274

               slides open with an enormous CLANG. A stark room beyond. CAMERA PUSHES through. SIX MEN AND ONE WOMAN sit at a long table. An empty chair faces them. We are again in:

INT -- SHAWSHANK HEARINGS ROOM -- DAY (1967)

               Red enters, sits. 20 years older than when we first saw him.

MAN #1: Your file says you've served forty years of a life sentence. You feel you've been rehabilitated?

               Red doesn't answer. Just stares off. Seconds tick by. The parole board exchanges glances. Somebody clears his throat.

MAN #1: Shall I repeat the question?

RED: I heard you. Rehabilitated. Let's see now. You know, come to think of it, I have no idea what that means.

MAN #2: Well, it means you're ready to rejoin society as a--

RED: I know what you think it means. Me, I think it's a made-up word, a politician's word. A word so young fellas like you can wear a suit and tie and have a job. What do you really want to know? Am I sorry for what I did?

               Long silence.

MAN #2: Well...are you?

RED: Not a day goes by I don't feel regret, and not because I'm in here or because you think I should. I look back on myself the way I was... a stupid kid who did that terrible crime...wish I could talk sense to him. Tell him how things are. But I can't. That kid's long gone, this old man is all that's left, and I have to live with that.

               (beat)

RED: Rehabilitated? That's a bullshit word, so you just go on ahead and stamp that form there, sonny, and stop wasting my damn time. Truth is, I don't give a shit.

               The parole board just stares.

I'll leave the ending of this scene for those who will be watching this film.

*quite-inspired*,
Yong

 

after a great breakfast, it started pouring again. Still, the shop owner offered to drive us to 九族文化村, and the best part was that it's totally free. we offered to pay but she rejected. omg, she's really really nice.


In 老板娘's van

九族文化村

I tink those who went to taiwan for ASLC shud have been here. it's an amusement park cum exhibition, much like a cross between our singapore's Escape Theme Park and Haw Par Villa. at the entrance is the amusement park with rides and stuff, then as u walk further upslope (into the clouds!) there are different made-up 村 (villages) to educate foreigners and travellers on the different villages that make up Taiwan and their various characteristics. at each village, there are shops selling the most significant produce of that village, like hand-woven items, wine, etc. it's pretty educating and fun, and even more fun if it wasn't raining and the cable car was working (it's closed for annual maintainence! bah!).


At the entrance


It's raining, and all of us were avoiding the puddles by walking along the side


The various made-up villages (no one's living in them fyi)


The girls learning hand-weaving using the simple manual machine


Us wearing the products from the shop at the hand-weaving village called 泰亞族村


Good packaging sells. Each of us bought at least two of these.


Breath-taking view at the top of the tower at the highest point of the whole theme park

There are also shows (like the Jurong Bird Park show) and it was pretty good, especially how a certain tribe holds its weddings. The bride will be holding onto a rope dangling from a very tall celling and the groom will have to swing the bride until the bride is almost like parallel to the ground surface. woah~

after a whole half day (from morning until around 2pm) of walking, we had lunch at the amusement park, played a few rides (the 2-storey carousel was intrigingly fun for a bunch of 20somethings) and left for 台中. we waited at a bus stop outside the park, and there were lots of... mosquitoes. i tried to write my journal there, but gave up half way. the girls started dancing salsa to avoid being stung by mosquitoes, a ridiculous but effective method.


Me, trying to write a journal with a screw-up face


Great skyviews and scenaries on the bus to 台中

When we reached 台中 (very long bus ride), it was night time, and everyone was still not awake. but on the first sight of it, the first impression was it's pretty gloomy, not much life. and the bus stopped us at a point very far away from our destination in 台中 but very close to the train station. tinking that the only thing we're gonna do here was to 逛夜市 (shop night markets), we decided to forego this city and go directly to 嘉義.


Our train trip to 嘉義, our first maiden train trip in Taiwan

The train trip was a bit uncomfortable, not saying the quality of the train. the train was GOOD! the seats were really like those in airplanes! juz that i was sitting beside a taiwanese and we all knew he happened to be eavesdropping on our conversation ever since we waited at the train station. on the train, he seemed to be very responsive to everything i do, be it, eating something, taking out something from my bag, or me writing my journal (i swore he was reading while i was writing)

嘉義, on first impression, was definitely more 'happening' than 台中. the shops were still open and the streets were still full of ppl. we roamed around trying to find a hotel and we settled for a less-sleezy one (tho the name still... well... it's the best of all liao~)


嘉義夜市

we went to the night market, and wow, it's pretty happening. the traffic WAS happening too. cars and motorbikes were supposedly not allowed to enter the area, but nobody cared, so while u were standing by the road buying ur favourite snack, a motorbike may brush by your back anytime. scary but wildly exciting.

i saw a jacket i liked (mentioned in 'My Wish/Buy List' entry... see below), but it costed S$64 (NTD$1280). it happened to be only our fourth day and i had not really started spending yet, so i did not buy it. a bit regretting that, but hey, nvm. ;p

we started having the courage to try out new food, tho strictly speaking the item i tried is available in Singapore. but, HEY, i really NEVER seen it in Singapore before and i tot it was exciting... what is it? it is...


脆皮濃湯!! (Crispy Bun Soup!!)

脆皮濃湯 consists of a crispy (really really crispy) bread-bun stuck on top of a styrofoam cup of soup. how u eat? u use a spoon, puncture the top and part of the bun u've punctured will drop into the soup below. then, u scoop up the soaked piece of bun (and some of the soup) with the spoon and send it into your mouth while it's all warm and cosy. woooah~ i liked that feeling!

we walked and walked until the shops were all closed. bah~ had to end a day with us still energetic. watched 康熙來了 on taiwan TV and became a fan of it. wahaha~

[To be continued]...

 

It's a few more days to the golden day, and i'm not really having that mood now... u know, ppl sometimes get all excited, but somehow i dun really know how to put my mood. when ppl ask like "hey, ur bday coming, how u feeling? how u celebrate?" a honest reply is that "dun have the celebrating mood, how to celebrate?", but being the polite me, i have been going "haha, no la, not really celebrating..." i did give a few cheeky replies like "getting older than 21 liao, shud celebrate meh?" or "last year enuf liao! no more parties!"

hasn't been really having good sleeping patterns. a few days ago, i had lost all appetite, making myself stuck in hall and sleeping at weird irregular hours like 6am to 3pm and 8pm to 12midnight... a good fren told me i am having mild depression and that i shud seek help soon. i'm not sure if i disagree, heck, i tink i was like, yar! i shud! i hate this feeling! i hate getting all anti-social and no mood to work.

and so, these few dayz i've been trying to pull myself out into the sunlight. so far, met up wif sis, yh, and a bunch of other frens. it did help a bit, but whenever i get back home/hall, the feeling's always very bad, like suddenly lost something. what did i lose? i dun exactly know.

i will like to say it's like post-holiday-trip syndrome, but... dun noe, i really hope to go on a trip damn soon. i noticed i had been having good appetite everyday while i was overseas, even tho sometimes it got me very tiring and very very sleepy, but i will have to eat. it's not a conscious effort to eat, mind u, juz that, i wanted to eat. that's very weird of me, not something i will do back in singapore, and definitely not i am doing now.

i suddenly recalled one year back that two person i know past away, and the fact struck me so suddenly that i hadn't even been able to digest it. it's like... i dun noe... i still can't believe they were out of my lives for one year already? that long?

some ppl are so not helping me. i hate trivial chats nowadays, unless they're really entertaining and funny. like how england's three points in world cup was not their own effort in the first place at all, this was damn funny. others were bland and trivial and makes me hate these ppl even more... i guess it shows sometimes, and i wud be like not smiling while they were clocking up time with these conversations. it really irritates u really... like "wow, i totally enjoyed my shopping spree today! i bought this this this and that that that..." "i got this amazing t-shirt cos it's like got patterns i dun hav in my wardrobe?" "harlow, fashion is the world and the world revolves around fashion"... sheesh... i feel like turning myself into edna mode and smack them with my roll of newspaper (see The Incredibles).

at the end of all this, i really hope i can either shout out loud or scream. maybe i shud go for a cycling trip tmr.

*pointlessly-depressed*,
Yong

 

It's the GSS ("Great Singapore Sale" for the less-informed), and I am really really tempted to get some stuff... Walking past shops and shops with the word "Sale" in them is not really helping my financial pressure sometimes. haha~ and since that time of the year is coming, oh my god, the resistance to really get my frens to buy me these stuff is really thinning. haha~ and sheesh, i really do sound very materialistic and superficial here, don't i?

i've actually come up with a list for myself to pressure myself into working some temp jobs, but not really helping, so i'm still pretty much jobless. but i guess i'll be saving up some money for these items. anyway, by the time i have enuf money for these, i tink my b-day will be over, so i've put this same list as my b-day wishlist as well la. haha~

anyway, for those who's trying to read my mind to learn what i really wanna get for that special day for me, well, here it is (in order of price):

Sinful Birthday Wish #1: Clothes

I'm really hoping to buy a plain white shirt, simple enuf to go with a jeans, yet has that formal look for a wedding dinner or perhaps a dinner-and-dance thingy. i've been looking around, and the cheapest one is actually from man-studios, $19, but got a bit of pattern which i don't really like. still looking around. the next cheapest is $30 liao... haiz...

and i need some new colours and life in my wardrobe as well. hoping to get something orange (not electric orange, but still striking enuf), or yellow (i've got nil yellow wardrobe items), or ... dun noe la.

Sinful Birthday Wish #2: A Coat Jacket

during my taiwan trip, i notice a lot of youngsters there wear t-shirts and a coat, most often accessorized with a dog tag or something dangling from the neck. it's so simple, hip, yet formal at the same time. i almost got this coat in taiwan with a detachable hood, which worked very well as a normal jacket on normal lecture days, yet will work damn well with a t-shirt during d-n-d. it's S$60 and i'm afraid it will offset my spenditure in taiwan, so i didn't get it. argh argh~ how i wish i did.

now back in Singapore, i'm looking around the town for something similar. i did saw something but they cost like... $100+. bah!

Sinful Birthday Wish #3: DVD burner

my trusting sony dvd burner just failed me a month back, and i couldn't burn any dvds, and that's pretty sad, considering the number of files i need to backup recently. argh~ it's terrible and i had to go around scouting for (and troubling) ppl with dvd burners to help me.

i need a dvd burner. a portable one is even better. haha~

Sinful Birthday Wish #4: Zen Neeon 512MB

my mp3 player spoilt last week. i was so damn sad! it's depressing, totally! now all my mrt/bus trips, i have to survive on books, and reading books on transport is totally dizzifying... if u know wut i mean. urgh! i NEED an mp3 player. this is my ULTIMATE BUYING PRIORITY #1!



that day i saw the Zen Neeon 512MB selling at S$198 at Raffles Place Shopping Centre, omg, i was damn damn tempted! (exclamation marks x millions) i need it, i want it! it's damn nice, damn cool! i don't want any other brands (except perhaps an i-pod). this looks totally worth it, and peeps, i'm a sucker for creative stuff (probably becos their servicing centre's service is pretty fast). please please please!! i need an mp3 player!

Sinful Birthday Wish #5: Kia Picanto

one year has past, and my driving license is like 2.5 years old, and i still maintain that i hope i get a car for my birthday. and i know it's impossible to get me a Honda, not to even mention Mercedes, so i'm happy still with a Kia Picanto. definitely still the lime green colour. i still love it. yesh. even if u can't pay the full fees for the car, helping me pay the deposit and let me finish the installments by myself is equally good. wahahaha~ i must be mad...

tho, assemble-able toy cars do work well with me now, even if u cant afford a Kia Picanto for me right now.

Sinful Birthday Wish #6: Any movie membership to allow me to watch unlimited movies

I've been watching SO MUCH movies recently, that i feel so sinful. M:i:III, The Da Vinci Code, X-Men 3, Love Story (local prod), Over The Hedge, Cars, damn! almost every movie that I wanna watch, I've watched, and hell, i spent a lot of money of them as well! bah! i need a pass...

Sinful Birthday Wish #7: any frens who remember (or know) my birthday to msg me 'happy birthday' on the golden day

it's interesting how a simple 5 cents thingy can mean so much to me, and really, this is totally priceless, hence it shall be the last on my list. not on my buying list la, only exclusively on my b-day wishlist. shall be clearing my mailbox everyday now, for that golden day. wahaha~

if u hum to me a certain song which i wished for everyone to sing at my party last year (it didn't happen), wow~ i'll just scream and faint on the spot. now, that's priceless for you. haha~ go search my archives to see what that certain song is. muahaha~



Of course, there are still things i don't really want to buy (or receive):

1) Pants (i've enuf pants)
2) CDs (er, get-able from frens. heh~)
3) DVDs (rentable)
4) Watches (got two now, courtesy of my frens, and a bit too not-worth-it i guess)
5) Shoes (mmm... tink i've enuf shoes for my mum to call me materialistic bitch liao)
6) Books (i got my sis' house as my new library, heh)
7) Doraemon figurines (wah, bought a lot from taiwan)

haha~ realized both my lists have 7 items. it's totally coincidental. oh wells. that's all i have to say until that golden day comes.

*taking-a-break-from-blogging-about-taiwan-which-i-still-have-lots-to-talk-about*,
Johnzzon

 

after 2 days in Taipei, we finally moved out to go to other areas of Taiwan. This is our first time, so it was pretty exciting, carrying our full backpacks on our backs as we got ourselves to the bus terminal.

the bus we were going to take is not public buses actually. technically, well, they are, but they are more like tour buses in Singapore that travel to Kuala Lumpur or Ipoh. Think 草原快車. ya. except that their counters (for purchasing tickets) look at freaking airport check-in counters.



woah~ ok la. this is because the terminal is new, that's why it looks freaking nice. we were supposed to go to the counter, tell the counter where is our destination, and den they will recommend which timings to take and so on, pretty much like the airport. then, on the tickets that you buy, you'll know what is the timing and where to go to to board your bus. cool huh?


In the full backpacking spirit

the bus was very good as well, comes with tv. the only thing lacking is meals, but we bought 便當 for lunch on the way, which tastes great. it's amazing how cheap stuff in Taiwan can taste great at the same time.

oh yar, i haven't talk about our destination, 日月潭 (Sun Moon Lake). it's a preserved lake, like a national reserve. anyway, after the disappointing 漁人碼頭, i wasn't really expecting much though, thinking it's just another of those tourist sight-seeing. Being a typical Singaporean, well, tourist sight-seeing locations aren't very attractive and mostly reminds me of the Singapore Zoo.

the journey there was freaking long. initially i tried to stay awake and admire the scenary as the fields there are really vast and 遼闊, and also to chit-chat wif JH, but after a while (especially after boring hong kong films on the tv), i fell asleep...

...and when i woke up...



... it was raining quite a bit, but when i looked out of the window, woah~ a great lake was in sight and the gloomy sky made the whole picture very... is 'serene' the word? the whole picture was grayish, and you really cant see the left or right edges of the lake, making it like a great magnificent dragon sleeping. and immediately the first sound that came out of my mouth was...

FWAH!

yesh! i 'fwah'-ed very very loudly! i tink even the bus driver and other taiwan passengers got a shock from my 'fwah'. my frens all laughed out loud sia~ so paiseh!

after we checked into our 飯店, the rain stopped and we went out for a walk around the lake. woah, the view of the lake while standing at the edge of it was... breathtaking!


Just have to take panaroma for this! Look how small yeok and cl are inside the pic!!
Do click to enlarge and enjoy the full magnificent picture!

日月潭 is a very secluded area, not much ppl are here. it's like 桃花園 you know, even the 飯店 owners havent been really heading to town for years. they are damn courteous and nice as i chit-chatted wif them that night.

anyway, back to that afternoon... we walked arnd part of the lake (the whole lake wud take days~!) and everything here is pretty much very countryside, as u can see in the pictures:




This one's for display, but there's a really working one as we walked further



as we walked, we could hear the water ripples padding softly on the lakeshore; the leaves rustling lightly with the wind blowing. woah~ it's like a total zen environment. i wished i could be here to study for my semestral exams everytime!

we walked back to the little town after that, and it started raining again. after having dinner, we went back to hotel, praying for the rain to stop so that we could go see fireflies.

wait... wait... wait... and woah, our prayers were answered.

it was pretty scary, cos on the way, the locals kept telling us it's very dangerous and advised us not to go. but the craving to see fireflies was so strong, nothin was stopping us. and anyway, most of us brought torchlights too. (we're damn clever, aren't we? wahaha~)

it was night and it was pretty dark already at 9something. we walked up this slope and followed a trail without any street lights, so we really had to rely on our torchlights. and suddenly, in the distance we caught a single firefly floating around in the air above us. it was pretty eerie, but nice. kinda reminds me of my firefly experience in ubin, except this is more ghostly... haha... as we walked deeper into the woods, we saw more, and the gals were thrilled. ok, so was i too. it was kinda nice to see a whole bush full of twinklings. :)

sorry no pictures. this blogger bo skill at capturing these kind of pictures... haha~!

anyway, after that, we safely returned back to the town and went to the convenience store to buy supper. whoot! our first night feast! there's beer, cup noodles, tidbits, etc etc. feasting time!



the night went well, altho i must say sharing a toilet with 5 other ppl was quite troublesome. i was the last to shower and by the time i came out, all the gals were asleep.

[to be continued]...

 

You can tell i've been really procrastinating for this entry. haha~ i guess basically most of my frens hav asked me how was my trip, and i'll start dominating the whole conversation with how much i enjoyed and how interesting the place is. hopefully after blogging this down, the excitement of the trip will start to sink down (that is to say, i still cant get over the trip. haha~)

time to reveal the secrets which i've kept: my trip was from 14th to 22nd may 2006. Nine days. My destination was 台灣 (Taiwan), the whole of Taiwan, that is. for the record, within these nine days, we took 1.65GB of photos!! from myself, i tink i took up 1.1GB of space in my comp liao.

as i've previously mentioned, we took a jetstarasia budget plane to Taiwan, and i wouldn't call it one of the best plane trips i ever had. the seats were pretty crammed together like those seats on a Singapore bus, so there wasn't much leg space, especially if your bags is already occupying half of the space available for your legs. furthermore, we were positioned right at the back of the plane, so our seat-backs cannot be lowered due to the wall behind. and the whole plane is so darn small, that when we look at those big commercial planes from SIA or QANTAS, ours is like little chick looking at mother hen.


This is the whole plane, yes, it's THAT small


From left: Me, Mich and HP


From left: JH, Yeok and CL

In case you're asking who are they?, haha, yeok is my jc classmate, the guy is her bf and the rest are yeok's graduating frens. all of them are from WSC, er... i'm not. mmm...

after a bumpy 5 hours ride (there was turbulence), a mere 1 hour of sleep (due to turbulence and no leg space), and lots of rubbish written in my journal, we finally reached Taipei's CKS Internation Airport!


Looks very china and old school hor?

the six of us were really taking our time walking to the check out counter, asking security guards to help us take pictures and me taking weird videos (of yeok and jh running because the airport's aircon's very cold).

my butt was painful and my legs were numb from the plane ride, but we still hav to endure 1.5 hours of bus to the taipei city itself. oh gosh, my legs~~ but once the bus got to taipei, fwahh, all of us got overwhelmed by the lights! it was like... city of lights! the rest of the 0.5 hours was spent with our eyes glued to the windows trying to digest the different different stalls that are whooshing past us. i can't wait to check in to hotel, put down my bags and rush out to embrace this city of lights!!


This is just another ONE of the streets in taipei! whoot!

finally got settled down at our fan dian (hotel for u non-chinese speaking ppl) and rushed out. our hotel was at the edge of 西門盯 (ximending) so it was very convenient for us to just walk there. 西門盯 is like our bugis junction? the roads are blocked out and there are shops are the road side. the differences are that 西門盯 (1) is not sheltered (2) have natural wind blowing at us like air con which made the shopping experience very enjoyable (3) there are occasional motorbikes and scooters whizzing past us even tho the roads are blocked out to traffic.


The famous plaza at the entrance to 西門盯

The houses in taiwan are pretty amazing. They are so different from each other, yet, when u look at them altogether, there seem to be a certain style you can almost call the taiwan style. For example:



Doesn't the picture above look like the house is from Hong Kong? riight riight?

Anyway, we ate... and we ate. We were that hungry. No food served on budget airline lor! and so we indulge ourselves first with taiwan food! There's 阿宗麵線 (Ah Zong Mian Xian), which i didn't really enjoy until i started eating the organs (the sauce is weird, the Mian Xian is ok, the organs were heaven... everything has to be eaten together to enjoy that wonderful combination of flavours!).

Then, there's Taiwan style pasta. Ok, there's this Ah Beng looking guy who's serving the customers at the door, and when we walked in, he screamed out in the most boyish voice i've ever heard: 歡迎光臨！ woah~ that was damn scary! we were totally not used to this. the next few days sort of taught me that all young guys in Taiwan all spoke the same way... mmm.

And we had 奶茶! oh my god, i took a risk to order a drink that looks very foreign to me: 統一布丁奶茶, and it was fabulous. 統一布丁 is actually a kinda of jelly that is like half coffee and half dun noe what, and then it was added inside the 奶茶 to create a blend of taste that is something like a cross between mocha and fruit punch. damn weird! BUT damn nice!

ok, now that we're full, our eyes shifted from food stalls to other shops. the cd shops in taiwan are incredible, each one of them is like a HMV with so much variaties of music, and most prob due to the fact that each shop has the space of 3 storeys as well. haha~ i tried to find my "McDull" movie, found it in one vcd rental shop, but cannot buy it. argh~! oh oh, the vcd rental shop right? it is a shop that is like karaoke, where you book the room to watch the vcd you rented! cool hor?

then, there are shops like...



THESE! oh my god... you see them scattered all over the place in singapore, but in taiwan, they actually have stalls that operate these machines alone! at the back of the shop are speciality items for different anime/manga characters. and there are LOTS of doraemon stuff, plus many other anime/manga characters. i started my spree and bought doraemon figurines... tsk tsk, not a good start. i may end up buying more doraemon stuff than clothes and food.

we walked around a bit more, but discovered we were going around in circles. proceeded back to hotel to plan the next day and... rest! my legs started to complain by the time we were walking back, argh.

[to be continued]...

 

On my goodness, the previous entry was damn long hor? gosh gosh~ i'll try my best to make it brief... but then how to fully bring out the enjoyment of the trip liddat? gossshh~ bear with me kay? 8 more entries to go...

2nd Day morning: we took the MRT (also stands for Mass Rapid Transit in Taiwan) (or rather known as 捷運 [jie yun] there) to 淡水 (DanShui).


Pretty much like our own MRT stations

The MRT in Taipei is pretty much similar to what we have in Singapore, but somehow more organised. when ppl go up and down the escalator, they do keep to the right, like it is some social moral rule that everyone should follow, and hey, it's a damn good system! if you're rushing for time, you can really use the extra space on the left to whish past ppl who can afford to slow down. and at the waiting line, people do line up behind the drawn white lines. the white lines are drawn in such a way that they do help to ease up the human traffic flow, allowing ppl to alight from the train more smoothly. It's all these little little moral systems that Taiwanese have that makes me realise Singaporeans suck.

it was pretty early in the morning, like 9+am, so none of the shops along 淡水老街 (DanShui Old Street) were opened yet. so we walked along the coast line, hoping to reach 漁人碼頭 (Fishermen's Wharf). It was quite a nice and quiet walk, just too bad the shops on the way weren't open. :(


Nice coastal view~~


Us having fun on a small stage for special performances on weekend nights


A lot of nice places and sceneries along the way. This is just but one of them.

Halfway, we realised 漁人碼頭 was very far, so we took the 公車 (public bus) there. 漁人碼頭 was disappointing, there's nothing much there expect for a couple of buildings and a bridge called 情人橋. It felt so tourism-oriented and fake. Very commercialised. Yeok and CL looked like they enjoyed taking pictures there tho. haha! the wind was very strong tho, my hat almost got blown away.


The boring and nothing-to-see Fishermen's Wharf

After half an hour there, we decided to go back to 淡水 for lunch and took the 公車 again... and realised it was the EXACT SAME one we took there. (the graffiti on the bus is the same!) the bus driver must have found us familiar. haha~


Taiwan is full of shops with cheeky names. This one is a seafood restaurant.

we roamed the 小巷 for a food stall, and saw one that looks like someone's house and we just went in. whoot~ the food was cheap and good! the service in taiwan is always not bad, even for a little food stall like this! while we're eating, the children of the owner of the shop came back from school, he looked pretty cute and kept smiling and running around.


Nice little cosy shop. I like~

After lunch, we went to CKS Memorial Hall and it started pouring. bah~ but anyway, there's nothin' much. I don't really like these "memorial" places 'cause perhaps i'm not a very historical person. I did enjoy looking at CKS's own personal letters and his handwriting. :) CKS Memorial Hall is built very symmetrically, and it just felt very out of place with the rest of the places in Taipei. Too neat, too 刻意...

Oh, and looking at the soldiers marching up and down for the changing of guards was fun too. but their guards had an electric fan position behind them to cool them... so un-army-like. so welfare...


The mini-model of CKS Memorial Hall in the Memorial Hall

it was evening when we left the place. it was still pouring and we were almost soaking wet. took the MRT again and went up north to 士林 (Shih Lin). Woah~ 士林 is definitely a shopping paradise, for both food and other stuff. We went to eat first and gorged down all the interesting looking food!! food is definitely one of the greatest assets of taiwan!


The Shih Lin Food Market


豪大大雞排 - is really 大!


芒果刨冰 - 溶在口裡，不溶在手裡! Literally!


大餅包小餅 - Interesting concept, nice taste!


官財板 - A weird sounding name, the most delicious thing i've ever eaten!!!!!!

The Food Market is really packed with a lot of food stalls~ u can see the stall owners fighting for customers and literally grabbing them. so, a tip for those who is going. take a quick tour around the market first, do NOT stop outside ANY of the stalls, come out of the market, decide what food you want to eat and which stall to go to, take a quick second tour to confirm which stalls you've short listed, come out again, confirm which stall, then go STRAIGHT to that stall! if not, you'll end up being pulled by the stall owner into the stall, and you start to regret when u see the next neighbouring stall seems more popular.


A lot of food stalls... hell lot of people as well!

Then, it was 士林夜市 (ShihLin Night Market) where the streets are filled with fashion shops. It's definitely more happening than 西門 and the traffic flow is more dangerous (i'm talking abt motorbikes and cars). there will suddenly be a "poot poot" behind u and u'll see motorbikes coming ur way while you're looking at the clothes. pretty scary, but in a way, fun as well. haha~ clothes were ok, our singapore queensway standard, but not very cheap either, all around S$25 to S$60. not really worth it. almost tempted to buy a doraemon polo tee, but dun hav size and colour. haiz, too bad la. fated one. haha~


Not a lot of people 'cos it juz rained

the whole night market is actually made up of a few streets of stalls, and the whole place is like a blardy maze. by the end of 2 hours, our legs were giving way and most of us were walking in weird manner that makes the donkey dancing in Nanny McPhee look terribly normal.

and so, we got ourselves into 星巴克 (Starbucks), ordered black oil (aka coffee and caffeine) and rested our feet. whoot~ i love the chinese translations of the international favourites, which includes Giordano, Watsons, etc.


Resting at 星巴克

After that, we're all too tired and went back to hotel. this day was packed, and rushed, but totally fun. Looking forward to tomorrow as we move out of 台北.

Trivia for the misinformed
台灣 (Taiwan) is really the whole island (plus a few outside island). 台北 (Taipei) is just one of the states that make up Taiwan, and so is 高雄 (GaoHsiung) and 花蓮 (HuaLien). Then every state has a state central, like a main city, and is most often the place with the word 市 (Shih) added to the end the state name, like 台北市 (Taipei Shih). Don't get too confused over this.

[to be continued]...