I'M BACK! on friday, late in the night, around 11 plus, minutes away to saturday.

I ate the whole potato. Know why i call it a potato. Look at the world map closely, &you'll see taiwan is actually the shape of a potato, han zhi.
I didn't realised it till the tour guide told us about it.
75% of taiwanese know japan language. Hence, most tourists which come to taiwan, is mostly japanese.
Taiwan is a bit similar to japan, cus japan had invaded taiwan for 50 years. Holland &1 other country invaded taiwan, before japan did.

I find japanese people very polite. At the hotel's lift, i sure see some japanese people. Firstly, they will say thank you in their own language, then in chinese. Also, they look humble &soft-spoken.

&lastly, taiwan didn't exist on this earth. Not till, billions years ago, something extreme major don't know what happened. &popped, the land appeared. Before that the land was in the ocean. I wonder if it's true or not. It's the tour guide who told us.

1st day in taiwan, 16th dec'06:
Left home at around 5.30am. Uncle drove us to changi airport terminal 1.
Do those important stuff like collecting the boarding pass etc.

My boarding pass! :D
Walked around in terminal 1.

There's the reindeer. There's the carriage. But where's the santa &the gift?!!

11.17am: On plane now! Reaching hong kong soon, but there's still a distance away. Guess what?! Andrew's plane just next to mine xD

ANDREW!!!
Andrew bluff us, he didn't went to indonesia but bangkok instead. He told me only on the last band practice, which was on the 15th dec. Then of course i told him about bangkok, cus i went there when i was pri6.

The plane i'm on is taking off, andrew's one still need to wait. HAHA!

Hahs. I'm lucky. Always get the window seat.
On plane, there's the studio cx. I watched a jap movie. My dad asked me to watch snow white &the seven dwarf. My whole expression became like that -.-
The food was err okayy.



The plane i took earlier on.

My 2nd boarding pass. To taipei this time! Boohoo! No window seat this time.

The plane i'm going to take to taipei.


1.29pm: On plane again! Just left hong kong for taipei. Excited! Nearer to my idols. Haha! My hand carrier bag need to be check in whichever aiport i go. You know need to pass the security check there. Cus i took my whole pencil case too, i took out scissors, but forgotten about my compass. &because of the compass, they need to molest my bag.
Tell you ah, this flight, a bit scary. Cus when taking off, the plane suddenly drop a little. I grabbed my mum's hand immediately. Lols! Make my heart skip a beat.


9.51pm: Now in the bus, going to Yaward Hotel. Today was fun, cus went to 2 night markets, tamshui old street &shihlin night market.


This is tamshui old street.
Over there, i saw spongebob softtoy, much cheaper than s'pore ones. Too bad, didn't buy =[
Also, i saw chip &dale keychain. Didn't buy for myself &di. Cus it have a weird face, totally un-cute. It's like chip &dale haven't been fed for days. Ugh. I'll stop uttering rubbish. hahs.
I had a bowl of beancurd at the hei dou hua shop. Mine is with black pearl.
I felt much warmer after eating the hot bowl of beancurd. Cus outside was very cold, about 10 -13 degree celsius. I was shivering intially. haha. Couldn't stand the cold weather. But soon, i got used to it.
Also, at around 5 plus, it turned dark already. Again, it feels kinda weird, cus in s'pore it's night only at around 6 plus.
Now is the winter 'dong' season. Hence, it's quite cold &it's night at around 5 plus. Err but why there isn't any snow? (stop acting stupid here)
After that, we went to shihlin night market.
No pictures of that, cus i was too busy looking around &buying things. haha. It just slipped off my mind.
At there, it was extreme crowded. &the ppl over there their clothings are very style.
I bought a sweater (or whatever you call that) and some mouth mask. &when i saw the mask, i think about leon brobro &andrew. Ya' know why. Cus their mouth can't shut one. Also, it really suit them. haha.
For dinner, i had 2 bowls of the hong you jiao zi or whatever you call that.

(it doesn't look tasty from this pic, cus my i'm a lousy photographer)
&a large cup (larger than the ones in s'pore) of milk tea with pearl.

Now is 11 plus. I'm in yaward hotel (it's a resort actually). Love the tv! Cus there's 80 over channels :D


2nd day in taiwan, 17 dec'06:
7.44am: Now we're leaving taipei for hualien. The resort's room was great, 'cept for the food which looked un-tasty. Early in the morning, you can see those rich people playing golf. Wonder whty people play golf. Golf is the most boring sports i've ever seen.

2.41pm: We haven't reached hualien yet. Earlier on, we went to jiu fen. Over there is super cold, there's sea &it's a bit mountainous. In the past, people who lived at there, used to give out things in sets of 9 (or something). That's how the name derived.
Also, leung chao wei had a house at there. Cus in the past he filmed a movie called 'sad city', &stayed at jiu fen for about a month.



Some mountains taken from jiu fen.



Jiu fen is famous for this delicacy. Didn't try it, cus it's made of yam.



Most of the people who goes jiu fen will definitely buy this wooden shoes. Especially japanese.


It's famous for suan mei too. The shop name is mei da mei xiao. Hahs. That's interesting.
In chinese, mei da mei xiao means no manner/ rude. Chinese characters is different, but the pronunciation is the same.


This is the pacific ocean.

During lunch, we went to Yilan to have our lunch (obviously). Almost all the dishes were seafoods. I had prawns & fish only.
At the restaurant, i bought a cow's tongue biscuit. At first, i thought it was made of cow tongue, &was reluctant to try. But after that, the owner of the restaurant explained that it's made of honey &sugar(i think). It's called cow's tongue biscuit because it's resemble the shape of a cow's tongue.

After lunch, we were brought to ma zu temple.

The tour guide, gimmy, could talked a lot, about the history etc. Of course, he can speak a lot, or else he'll be sack long time ago.
At there, it was my first time seeing bian pao (fire cracker?). I got a shocked when i heard the bian pao went off. I thought what happened &didn't know it was that. It was seconds later then i realised it. Luckily, there's a 2nd time.
I had snack, ice-creams with peanuts floss rolled in a popiah skin. YUMMY!
Then it was hours to drive to hualien. Took almost the whole morning &part of the afternoon. Travelled past many tunnels &the roads which are on the mountains.
According to the tour guide, the tunnels were built by the taiwanese armies in the past. About 200 died &majority had hurt themselves while building the tunnels.

On the way..

Another pic of pacific ocean. (hey, i'm not a lousy photographer actually)

Around 3 plus, we finally reached hualien. Went to taroko. Surrounded by mountains. A bit scary. Haha.


We could go look at the temple, if not for the 921 earthquake. People can still go up to the temple, but it's rather dangerous.

Me &my mum =]

A dark tunnel we're walking through. Luckily, it's a short one. Around there, it's kinda eerie.


Next was to Ami Aboriginal, it's all about different tribes &their dances. There's about 9 different tribes in taiwan. Ya' know singers like zai zai or vivian hsu are from some tribes.
Some pictures of the performance:




Here's the pictures of how the aboriginal people have their wedding ceremony:





One of the performance can shake his butt dang well. Bootylicious?
If you see how he shake his butt, you'll be like this O.O

After the performance, we went to Parkview hotel. Had our dinner at there. BUFFET! Food was great =D
No night market at hualien, so ended the days with watching tv till i fell asleep.


3rd day in taiwan, 18th dec'07:
Ya' know, last night there's a slight earthquake in the hotel i stayed. Too bad, i didn't felt the earthquake, cus i was sound asleep.
Today, we headed for koahsiung. It took the whole morning to reach from hualien to koahsiung. We had lunch at taitung. Not yummy at all!
Our tour guide, gimmy, treated us fruit &vegetable juice. It turned out to be nice. I thought there might be those vegetable taste, cus it's fruit &vegetable juice. But the fruit taste beat the vegetable taste. Haha!
Along the way, i saw many plantations, mostly fruits. Plus a herd of cows. &chickens (as in living ones). (We were in the bus, when we saw those)

This is taiwan strait sea. Can swim back to s'pore. hahs

I was literally shocked when i arrived koahsiung. From a farm type place(taitung) to a busy/modern place (koahsiung).
Upon reaching koahsiung, we were brought to 85 building. We took a lift that takes 43 sec to reach the 75th floor. It's super fast!
As it goes up/down, the lift will turn like this *points down*


Up at the 74th floor, you can see almost everything in koahsiung.


Next, we went to cijin island. We need to take a ferry in order to reach there. FERRY RIDE IS TEH LOVE!

Passengers on the 2nd floor, while motorcyclist &their motorcycle on the ground floor.
The ferrry ride wasn't that long, enjoyed the breeze.

In cijin island, we went to mazu temple(i think) before we had our dinner.
There's a wishing pond, &i wish that i can get good results for O's. &toss a coin into the pond.
After that, we cross over this little bridge.

To be cont'