Paula's Blog :): December 2008

much awaited taiwan trip pics :D
long long entry,pls bear with me.
i shall attempt not to bore everyone with my sentences lol!
but i really have alot of things to say abt the trip.
&$*()@#&_!*@_(!*!@)*@!)*@)(!@*_@
swear words btw abt the ppl on my tour.
RARHS,ppl like them shld so be banned from joining tours.

day o1: 6 Dec

spent the night packing till 3am cos i came home late.
my internet died on me and i needed to use the com to research on places to go.
cannot do during the week cos of MSTs la so went to marce place to use his com.
came home damn late liao then start packing.
super tired the next day T.T
made marce come my house the next day help me carry the luggages cos i lazy haha!
cabbed to changi to meet-up with my cousins and aunt and mum's friends.

marce and me on the way to airport

changi airport has this disney frenzy. i dunno why >.<

SQ :D :D

flight was SQ878 and left sg at ard 12.30pm.
marce and my uncle left and we all rushed to board the plane cos we were late >.<
food was horrid i tell you on the flight.
they ran out of chicken so mum and i had to make do with some weird concoction la.
in the end gave up! heng melissa told me SQ served cup noodles the day before so we asked for 2 hehehe :D
watched beverly hills chihuahua on the plane.
super boring! heng i din catch it in the cinemas.

singapore airlines to taiwan~

while watching beverly hills chihuahua. f-ing funny!

after 4 hours odd,reached taoyuan international airport.
a sense of familiarity (:
after all 3rd time in 1 and a half years -.-"

clearing customs

welcome to taiwan (:

tourguide came to fetch us and bundled us off to the tour bus.
WAH THE GUST OF WIND THAT WELCOMED US WHOA.
1st night was hell i tell you!
ppl said taiwan wasn't cold,all liars!
super cold! i was freezing in my normal jacket alr.
went to some street to makan dinner,wasn't fantastic.
headed back to hotel after that and it was OTOT for all of us.
mum's friends wanted to rest but the rest of us decided to go and walk ard.
it was only 7 plus la -.-"
quite a night it was la.
cos taiwan cabs can only take 4 passengers max but there was 5 of us.
decided to just hide within the darkness and go to the nightmarket.
(taxi driver qt scheming! charged us extra NT50 for bringing us to the atm and having 5 passengers.)
he kept talking abt ah bian and how horrid ma ying jiu was.
like wth!? yeah anw walked ard the nightmarket then went back only at 10-ish.
it was super cold! lol.

taoyuan tourist nm

hotel we stayed was called City Suites (www.citysuites.com.tw).
room was qt nice la,small?
mum and i kept getting corner rooms,i dunno why!
no pics cos i was dead tired.
KO immediately after using the com at the lobby.

day o2: 7 dec

breakfast at an ungodly hr of 7am at the hotel.
the breakfast was so blah pls. damn kns!
the mantou was as hard as a rock >.<
all of us din eat much la,esp me.
u'll find out why later on.
anw boarded the tour bus to go to the high speed rail station to go to taipei.

our tour bus

ticketing machine

kwai lun mei at 7-11

tix from taoyuan to taipei

taoyuan station :D

inside the high speed rail train

after getting off the gao tie,we switched to mrt to go to c.k.s memorial hall.
1st time here for me cos.. i wasn't very keen on such places the 2 times i visited taiwan.
anything w/o shops doesn't interest me la lol!
there was a protest at the memorial hall there.
taiwanese quite liberal la.
i think if in sg rite,sure kena fine like nobody's business and thrown into jail or smth.

c.k.s memorial hall one of the gates

protests outside c.k.s memorial hall

c.k.s memorial hall

next stop was jiufen!
i didn't see much at c.k.s memorial hall cos the guide allocated us such little time tsk.
been wanting to visit here cos marce says it's a nice place.
alas,very little time to explore again.
really dislike package tours alot.
if it weren't for mum i wouldn't join it la.
free and easy is really so much better.

jiu fen

walking at jiufen lao jie

jiufen is famous for their yam balls

we had dongfen,lu rou fan and fishball soup for lunch.

auntie selling pork sausages. quite cute la lol.

after jiufen was a long long ride for us to hualien.
slept all the way there and the roads were so bumpy!
cos the old ladies said they wanted to sit in the front of the bus,we had to let them la and ended up at the back.
josh was sitting beside me and charm and auntie chris next to us.
wah almost died i tell you!
when we reached the place for the amei tribe performance,it was pitch dark.
my stomach was churning non-stop cos i din have much to eat for breakfast and lunch.
just couldn't stomach horrid food you noe?
yeah so naturally my gastric set in again.
spent half an hr in the toilet trying hard not to vomit once we reached the place.
didn't help that i had diarrhoea and all la.
missed 3/4 of the performance la!
i hate those old ladies! rarhs.
if they weren't selfish enough to push all of us to the back of the bus,so many of us won't be so sick la.
and FYI i don't have motion sickness one.
yeah so after applying tons of medicated oil i went into the hall to watch the performance for about 10 mins nia.
i was super bundled up in like 2 jackets and 2 layers of clothing.
that was how cold i was feeling.
apparantly i wasn't the only one feeling sick.
heard alot of ppl throwing up in the ladies as well.

at one of our resting stops

tribal marriage ceremony

amei tribe dance performance

after the performance ended we went for dinner.
felt so much better during dinner,eating alot of food to replenish my empty stomach.
headed to the hotel after that and it was OTOT again for us all.
naturally,we decided to venture out again (:
went to the city centre of hualien to shop ard.
managed to buy a thick jacket from bossini cos mine was spoilt.

hualien city center

stayed at Blue Sea Blue Sky Hotel (www.shiung-hotel.com.tw) that night.
fantastic hotel room!
i loved this hotel the most lol.
room was quite big and flat screen tv haha!
KO once again cos very tired lol.
every night is the same routine la.
go down use com,come back to hotel room watch ch v till 12 then KO till next morning.

day o3: 8 dec

woke up only to realise there was an earthquake that morning.
was sleeping like a pig to even realise anything la lol!
breakfast was great :D
i was damn scared of a repeat of ytd so i forced myself to eat alot of food.
boarded the bus once again to head to taroko gorge.

taroko gorge in hualien

mum and me

rocks are damn huge here!

the path we took at taroko gorge

josh and i

beautiful place this is.

temple at taroko gorge

heard so much abt this place from the forum but the tourguide only brought us to like a small area.
would have really wanted to explore this place la.
so many things we couldn't do on this tour haix.
anw tourguide brought us to some lingzhi place.
those places that scam tourists money those kind lol.
didn't buy anything obv cos all damn ex and it was lunch after that.
meals during the tour was qt standard:
1. chicken
2. fish
3. 2 dishes of veg
4. some random meat be it pork,venison,blah blah
5. soup
6. oranges and loads of oranges!
after that another long bus ride to taitung.
along the way,had this pit stop to get local bian dangs.
uber nice omg!
cheap and good lehs.
my bian dang cost NT70 only as so much ingredients and the rice was so fragrant :D
must eat when you come to taiwan k.

nice packaging for the bian dang

authentic bento box

reached our accomodation for the night: master bear resort!
staff was welcoming us at the entrance.
abit paiseh la but gotta admit that the staff very spontaneous and out-going.
took our room keys before going for dinner.
after dinner was some performance at the open space area.
they provided each tour group with 2 lanterns where everyone can write their wishes and stuff la.
the kids were busy drawing cartoons while the adults were mostly writing for good health and stuff liddat.
all in chinese >.<
joshie and i were writing damn funny stuff la.
i wrote "我希望可以見到敖犬" while josh wrote "我希望可以見到洪詩"
haha! damn funny la. charmy wrote to get 6 points for her Os.
let go of the lanterns and fireworks as well after that before going to sleep.

welcome to master bear resort!

main building

the staff welcomes us with song and dance!

rika kuma cushions

inside our resort cottage

writing our wishes on the lantern

machiam playing camp games. it's a kang le dui performance lol!

releasing the tian deng (lantern)

fireworks

the resort house we stayed in was quite cool.
machiam chalet you noe.
it had 1 room downstairs and 2 rooms upstairs.
mum's friends took the downstairs room while the rest of us took the rooms above.
toilet was super freaky!
it looked like it came out of a jap horror movie.
plus there was only 1 toilet for the 5 of us to use -.-"
bed very stiff oso and only my room had ch v.
the rest dun have haha!
after mfbbt slept till morning.

day o4: 9 dec

morning breakfasted at the cafe in the resort.
bad night's sleep :(
had a bad encounter with one of the old ladies on the tour.
so kns pls!
was toasting my bread then she came to me and said " wo xian lai de,no zou kai!"
like wtf?! shit her la.
i was so pissed i almost threw my bread at her.
she only wanted to take the jam and peanut butter nia then so unreasonable!
as if i was eating her strawberry jam pls -.-"
super pissed with her and decided to piss off the entire group of old ladies cos they are damn annoying!
everytime insist we give up our seats to them and all just cos they're old.
they so don't deserve us youngsters respect cos they didn't show us any.
respect is gained,not demanded pls.
every night the head of the old ladies will find fault with everything in the hotel and terrorise the poor tourguide.
wah really throw singaporeans face la.
then they will monopolise the toilets at all the toilet stops.
we have to let them use the toilets first cos they are old.
wat logic is this?
we all have our urgent times ok rarhs.

pool in the resort

master bear resort in the morning

it was drizzling

anw left master bear resort to go to chulu pasture farm haha!
quite fun this place.
can feed cows and all la.
but as always,just 1 hour there,didn't see much.
spent like 30 mins in the shop cos they were all buying souvenirs and another 30 mins feeding the cows.

chulu pasture farm

mum and i

hehehehehe XD

check out their long tongues

cows and more cows!

after that we went on our way to kenting.
super long ride again.
everyday we will eat and board the bus then fall asleep.
after that wake up liao go makan again and then sleep once we get on the bus.
haha josh is damn amazed at how easy i fall asleep la!
i was super tired thruout the trip cos studying for MSTs and rushing FYP report before i left sg.

in hengchun city. i think this is the pacific ocean alr.

backseat of the bus filled with all our rubbish haha

i found dog dog! :D

<3 my dog dog haha

finally reached kenting liao.
lunched at some hotel's restaurant with the usual food again la.
after that it was sightseeing and more sightseeing.
everywhere is filled with cape no. 7 la!

kenting's famous beaches

sailboat rock

kenting town centre

eluanpi national park

eluanpi

southest point of taiwan

lol we act cute HAHA!

maobitou national park

some rock looks like a maobitou lol! hence the name.

went up to guan shan

sunset begins at 5pm..

waiting for the sunset at the balcony

sun is setting..

i love how this pic turned out

emo pau

twilight? LOL.

setting sun

dinner was OTOT for us cos the guide gave us 2 hrs to walk ard kenting city centre.
i finally found shorts! hahahaha.
even in winter >.<
kenting's this place where ppl go during summer cos of all the beach activities la.
so everywhere was beachwear and all.
we walked and decided to tabao kfc back to hotel to makan.
ordered our food in chinese again -.-"
must get used to it la lol.
also tabao corn soup with the bread on top back as well nom nom!
stayed at Kenting Holiday in Hengchun that night.
bed was damn hard la! omg worst night ever!
the hotel was the worstest la tsk.
pls dun stay there ever!
coms were damn lousy as well,keyboard missing loads of keys.

day o5: 10 dec

breakfast was not nice at this hotel >.<
headed towards kaohsiung that day.

temple

we also stopped at fo guang shan monastary as well but no pics cos we didn't go up.
rotted at the food area while waiting for the rest to come down la.
mum and gang didn't want to go cos our family's like catholic and stuff.
plus i wasn't that into it la so didn't go there.
damn lazy to climb the hill oso la lol.
after that went for lunch at meinong folk village.
the kuay tiao very yum! :D

meinong folk village

after that we went to some pearl place that scammed tourists $ as well and then to dream mall.
went to collect my bbt shirts and attitude shirts :D
yay! super happy but not very happy cos stupid guide gave us 1 hour nia.
whole mall super big but 1 hr :(
very very upset!
my first time in kaohsiung cos didn't go there in june.
then so little time -.-"
must come back in future lol!

hello kitty ferris wheel!

view of kaohsiung city

mum and i

kaohsiung love river

he made us go to xiziwan with the intention to watch the sunset but the sun was alr down by the time we reached there.

xi zi wan sunset

after that went to liuhe nightmarket to makan dinner.
it's quite small la comparing to fengjia and shilin but still,tried the most food here!
after all,our 1st nightmarket during the tour.
taoyuan one not counted cos we didn't eat there.
just go there walk and shop only.

kaohsiung liuhe nm

view of liuhe nm

dinner: dan zai mian

i tried hu jiao bing,damn nice! must eat!

famous papaya milk store

diff varieties of hotdogs

dog from a pet store

joshie doesn't like smelly tofu haha!

cakes from 85 degree C

we wanted to act hero so we tried smelly tofu haha.
i've eaten it before in june la and i like it but apparantly the rest dun like it.
this time round didn't go crazy to eat smelly tofu like siao like i did in june la.
dunno why also lol.
anw went back to hotel after that, CU Hotel (www.cuhotel.com.tw).
used the com before going back to watch ch v again and then sleeping.
room quite nice la,way way way better than the kenting one.

day o6: 11 dec

woke up uber uber early! at 4.30 am la.
cos set off time was 7am then had breakfast damn early.
finally found a hotel that served sunny side ups! LOL.
apparantly tw hotels dun like to serve eggs la.
after that went up alisan.
another round of motion sickness,almost vomitted once again.
but didn't la,thank god for medicated oil!
old ladies being super unreasonable as always.

the trail we took..

nature's wonders

at alishan

walk walk walk...

sister pond

3 brothers tree

this treelike structure is meant to resemble a pig.

lunch at alisan as well then we started our descent.
halfway thru the bus broke down!
YES,broke down la lol.
stranded in the middle of a huge mountain for half an hr.
finally fixed the bus and off we went towards sun moon lake.
visited the peacock garden before going to wenwu temple.

lol all sitting ard doing nth

bus broke down T.T

on the way to nantou

sun moon lake in the day

haha yes i wore the same shirt twice! no no no,no smell at all >.<

map and history of peacock garden

peacocks in all shapes and sizes and colours.

entire peacock garden

peacock with his... feathers lol.

origin: artificial propogation! eeks.

damn sick! machiam chicken mix breed with peacock. eerugh!

wenwu temple,dedicated to confucius and guan gong

that joshie purposely bend down *#@)(#*@)(*@_!

sun moon lake sunset

me outside the temple

was supposed to go to taichung but not before stopping at some shao tribe's shop selling royal jelly.
we all fell scam to some products there la haha!
mum and i bought this exfoliator that's quite good la.
haven't taken it out till now tho lol.
yup so taichung after that.
along the way tour guide was being damn cheeky!
purposely stop at this bing lang shop so we could stare at the bing lang xi shi.
wah winter wear bikini and mini skirt >.<
machiam not cold de lor.
the next store's one even skimpier.
we saw 3 in total lol!
quite funny to see everyone peering over the window just to see what the girls wore to sell bing lang.
fengnia nightmarket up next!

fengjia nm

steamboat dinner

not much time to shop here as well but i personally dun quite like this place la.
the last time i came here with marce didn't find much things as well la.
so oh wells,hotel after that.
DeBao Business Hotel (www.debaohotel.com.tw)
rooms were very nice :D
joshie's room got tatami de lor lol!

day o7: 12 dec

woke up early again to set off towards taipei.
long long bus ride once more,slept quite soundly on the bus.
went to yu ren ma tou at danshui first followed by danshui lao jie.

off we go to taipei~

welcome to fishermen's wharf

lovers bridge 情人橋

in front of the bridge

up the bridge..

check out all the fishing boats

charm and i

matthew and hendrik. this 2 rascals darn cute sia.

opp of the bridge

lone artist in the early morning. the artist where marce and i did our caricature wasn't there.

this pic amuses me.

joshie's stoning lol!

danshui river. nice aint it?

danshui lao jie

we bought bak kwa from here. very nice! different from sg bak kwa.

famous food from danshui: ah gei and fishball soup

danshui ice cream! NT10 only for this. that's like $0.50. even more than mcdonalds cone pls.

after that lunch at some restaurant i dunno called what and off to zhong lie ci to see the guard changing.
quite cool lehs!
their PDS is awesome!
i've never been to this place the past 2 times cos i thot it's quite boring la.
but apparantly quite cool lol the guard changing ceremony.
everyone was chasing the guards to take pics as they marched,machiam chasing idols lehs.
damn funny haha!

martyrs shrine

inside the martyrs shrine along the parade square

me with the poor guard. marce says they get double of normal NS pay la. but still qt peanuts :(

start of guard changing ceremony

coming out of the guard room

march and do precision drills. super super cool~

PDS: Precision Drill Squad in the middle of the parade square. SUPER COOL!

marching..

changing of guards

inside the shrine after the guard changing

and then to grand hotel taipei for photo-taking.
didn't enter the hotel tho.
after that tourguide bring us to some scammer pi siou centre again la.
stayed outside the entire time haha!
damn boring la :(

grand hotel taipei 圓山大飯店

taipei 101 after that for 1 hour.
was expecting quite atas toilets u noe but apparantly,even takashimaya has better toilet services.
didn't stay long before we went off to buy pineapple tarts before going for dinner at shilin nightmarket.

taipei 101

taipei 101 xmas tree

shop to buy pineapple tarts

honey cheese cake from here is fab

shilin tourist nm

the famous shilin chicken cutlet

da chang bao xiao chang

shilin nm shopping area. look at all the heads!

lol after shilin (which was damn crowded as always) we went back to danshui cos our hotel's there.
stayed at Chinatrust Hotel in danshui.
last night for the tour liao so packed like mad haha!
tmr onwards is free and easy for us :D

day o8: 13 dec

we took our own sweet time to wake up and makan breakfast.
after that cabbed to the ximending hotel (TS Hotel).
cab driver scam $ again la! charge us extra NT50 rarhs~

from danshui to ximending in the cab. just wanted to take my new bang bang tang shirt lol.

went off to eat din tai fung at shinyi district cos sH says this outlet's food damn nice.
took mrt to guting and started walking.
bloody far la! &#@()*#+*@!)(*@)*@()_!@
reached yongkang st after ages only to find this humongous queue in front of din tai fung.
waited for about 20 mins before we got seated.

getting our easy cards

din tai fung!

after that we went to wufenpu,taking public bus cos dun want to act hero walk back to mrt station LOL.
took the shinyi shin kan sen to houshanpi mrt station and walked to wufenpu.
SHOPPING!!

cousins: charmaine,joshua and me

our 1st public bus ride in taiwan :D

wu fen pu wholesale center

hu xu zhang! lu rou fan is love i tell you. die die must eat it!

lu rou fan!

dinner at hu xu zhang to eat the lu rou fan. i had it on the 1st trip cos marce brought us here to eat so must let joshie they all try as well.
went to zhongxiao sogo to buy my jill stuart and ettusais things :D
went to kino as well to get some stuff.
along the way we saw this roadside vendor la hahaha.
bought bags from him,1 for me and 1 for mum's friend.
auntie chris bought 2 bags as well.
hotel after that to watch mfbbt and hsh.

day o9: 14 dec

wanted to go marce hse in the morning.
went all the way to kunyang alr then his mum not at home -.-"
came back to ximending to queue for show's signing.
halfway thru his mum called me again to meet me.
so i went back to kunyang alone this time to meet his mum and she dragged me go taipei 101 for tea.
spent abt close to 3 hrs with her and poor josh and charm had to queue there for show.
went back to find them at ard 4-ish after leaving marce's mum and taking all the things she wanted to pass to him.
signed the posters after 5 hrs of queuing then dinner at yoshinoya :D
shopped ard before we went back to put stuff at the hotel.
came out at ard 9pm to shop some more.
found stuff for sH's aunt and went to meigui finally!
caught twilight at 10.30pm with mum and josh.
hotel to zzzz after that.
movie was so disappointing la haix.
but nevertheless,i still like bella and edward (:

queue from day...

...to night

finally reached the stage~

yoshinoya chicken and pork set! nom to the max <3

ximending night view

support local singers pls! i love both of them :D

day 1o: 15 dec

woke up feeling really exhausted la.
skipped the hotel breakfast and we went out to makan lunch at this jap restaurant.

bento box menu. only for takeaway tho. looks yummier -.-"

look at all the flags they have here

they'll ask you which country u're from and give you flags from your own country and taiwan's.

was really tired that's why my hair was so >.< i woke up late that day so anyhow blow my hair until fringe split into 2. sian.the fish was kinda salty but overall still nice! nom nom nom~

headed to far eastern hospital to collect the i love hometown tees with josh while the rest went to taipei main station.
reached there then we went to taiwan storyland.

taipei train station! it's HUMONGOUS! even harder to navigate when walking in citylink.

taiwan storyland entrance

taiwan storyland signboard

someone clearly hates ah bian. alot.

fishing using the 'xuan' zhi (not you la chen xuanzhi!)

haha not 惡犬 lor,it's 敖犬! LOL.

joshie my private shoe cleaner! haha.

HAHAHA!

dessert store where we attempted to use up our coupons.

red bean with minitang yuan. damn funny cos we were expecting the big ones like we have in sg,then we asked the server where's the tang yuan thinking it'll come seperately or smth. then he just said "li mian (points to the bowl)" LOL!

joshie is shocked by his red bean ice lol! look at the amt of red beans omg.

my very very very very plain peanut ice.

all of our desserts.

ta-dah! after adding choc sauce. tasted so much better but still very >.<

old school tap in the ladies at storyland

went to this wholesale place near Kmall and i found lollipop shirt!
HAHAHAHA SO HAPPY :D
after that we headed to shilin again cos that day din walk finish.
mum and i split from joshie they all.
i had stickers done with my name on it and for joshua as well.
also made this chop thingy with woodstock :D
so happy with my buys lol.

sheng jian bao from shilin nm! very nice (:

tired alr so we went back ximending cos charmy wanted to buy the candy josh and i bought the day before.
we couldn't tahan alr so we tabao back to hotel again.
from the same jap restaurant lol!
the bento like very nice la~
and it is nice ^^
cheap too.

display of candy apple. looks delish but i'm super scared to eat apple w/o cutting it cos it made my bracket come out when i had my braces. every since then i never eat apple w/o cutting it up.

candy apple variety from sophisca

bento box from the jap restaurant

pork cutlet bento~

packed like crazy as usual.
went with 2 luggages,back with 4 la.
but not so bad liao.
i didn't buy much clothes except for my outerspace and fever things la.
can u believe i went wufenpu and walked out with 4 shirts and 2 shorts all under NT500?
unbelievable. marce was stunned haha.

day 11: 16 dec

morning spent doing last minute packing again and settling the transport to airport.
after that we walked ard ximending again cos charmy and i wanted to do manicures.
walked ard but all the manicure shops were still closed.
in the end found one open at wan nian there.
but she was super slow! i let charm do first cos i couldn't decide on my design.
in the end when she finished charm's it was time to go back hotel to go to the airport.
so no manicure for me haha! save NT500~
took the van to taoyuan airport and checked in our luggages.
tried to get rid of all our coins after going into the airport.
managed to clear them all and we boarded the plane back to sg (:
food was yum! i had the oriental and surprisingly it tasted nice.
when they were serving the beverages,i decided to get a singapore sling.
damn cheapo i noe haha! but it's $15/cup in pubs ok.
i can get it FOC on the plane! i even bought the duty free singapore sling to drink at home hahaha.
cheaper than going pubs to drink la.
touched down at 10.30 then dad came to fetch us.

at taiwan airport. my new OS cap :D

pardon the bad lighting,was using the phone camera lol!

KO after that cos dead tired.
didn't even unpack hahaha.
my taiwan trip was quite alrite la,i've had much more fun ones.
the only good thing abt joining package tours were that they really bring u ard to places that are quite hard to get if u travel on ur own.
the old ladies were a nightmare tho. eeurgh.
anw,that concludes my trip la.
now i want to go korea (:
LOL mum's screaming at me cos i spent alot in taiwan.
oh wells,she made me go there not my prob la.
ok i'm uber tired,typing this is qt tiring.
i shall go and sleep.
my ds lite charger exploded omg!
who noes where to buy a spare one let me noe.
bye (:

Friday, December 26, 2008

I HATE ROBERT!

Thursday, December 25, 2008

Merry X'mas!

Saturday, December 20, 2008

Taiwan Dec o8 Trip!