second day at taipei

our second day at taipei was on a sunday. i managed to find a taxi driver who was recommended by a few bloggers. and i must say that he is very nice and very fun to talk with, and all 4 of us were very happy with his services.

and here are his personal details:

Name: 杨振银 Meeky

HP: 0921915586

Email: Meeky589@yahoo.com.tw

he also noes a bit of english, and his computer cant read chinese words, so can just send him a email in simple english if you want to employ his services. and must do it quite early, cos he is super popular right now. pple already start booking him in late april when they only going taipei in august.

and these are the places he brought us to:

野柳

九份

金瓜石

黄金瀑布

鼻头角公园

南雅奇岩石

阴阳海

基隆夜市

and his charges are 12 hours for NT3000. he will arrive at either 830 or 9 am at your hotel lobby to pick you up, and send you back to your hotel 12 hours later. he drives a 7-seater cab.

meeky really arrived punctually at 830 am outside east dragon hotel. zhenhong, kc and his gf esther are still in the hotel room settling their "business". not threesome ok, dun think crooked. haha. so i go out and talk to meeky first. i asked him whether can bring us to taiwan bank first because kc have some old taiwanese currency to change. but he say today is sunday, all banks not open, and he say can just change the currency with him, he will find another day to change them himself. wow. first impression already 100 marks. haha.

so the first place that meeky brought us to is 野柳. its a 40 min ride and throughout the journey, meeky keep talking to us, introducing taipei, cracking a few jokes, ensuring that the journey is not boring. time passes quite fast, and we reached 野柳.


野柳 is a scenic place with many peculiar stones in peculiar shapes caused by wind and sea erosion. some of the more special stones are 女皇石，cinderalla shoe, and king's throne. i still see them a few years back. but right now, only the 女皇石 exists. the shoe and throne disappeared already.

i remember taking a similar photo like this a few years back:

(how come i am not inside??!!)


the cinderella shoe and king's throne (photos from a few years back):



after 野柳，meeky fetch us to a place to make us feel ENERGETIC. yes he bringing us to see 槟榔西施! hahaha. he told us that alot of pple in taiwan eat 槟榔 to feel more 精神, and taxi drivers always eat 槟榔 so that they wun fall asleep while driving. and some 槟榔西施 are so daring that they wear 丁字裤 and 透明比基尼 just to get more business. wow.

the 槟榔西施 that we saw is not that daring, but the way she dress is hot enough to make a guy nose bleed. she even dance a bit for us to see. omg. and of course must take pic with her lah. hahaha. and seriously i nv expect that she will put her arms around me. i was damn shocked and looked pretty awkward.

meeky bought us a 槟榔 each to try. he even provided us plastic cups to split the 槟榔 out. i must say is a bit weird and i dun think i will try it a second time. haha.

listen to wat the others have to say:

2) 九份

we tried the smelly tofu. is my second time trying it, but its the first time for zhenhong and kc. we only dared to try because esther is a fan of smelly tofu, so if we find it too unbearable and cant finish it, esther will finish up the rest. haha. and true enough, its really quite unbearable.

请看 vcr!!!

3) 金瓜石

金瓜石 is very near 九份. it was a gold mining area in the past, and it has become a tourist attraction now. the admission fee is NT50 per person, but if you got receipts from any purchases at any taipei stores, you can show them the receipts and no need to pay the admission fee. of course we dun have any receipts with us but meeky already prepared some and gave us the receipts. so nice rite?


you can go inside the tunnel to find out the working experience of gold miners, or you can go to the 黄金博物院 to see some gold exhibits, which include a 220 kg gold brick, and you can touch the gold brick to make you "high" for a while.

it was raining very heavily at 金瓜石 and all of us were super turned off and low morale. we thought of returning back to our hotel room cos no point going to the other scenic places under the rain. but luckily as we left 金瓜石 area, there was no more rain, so our trip resumed as usual. :)

4) 黄金瀑布

meeky warned us not to drink the water or use the water to clean our hands at the waterfall because the water comes from the mining areas, which is very dirty and poisonous. he said some of his passengers got skin irritation after contact with the water, and he prepared some mineral water for us at the back of his car just in case we touched the water. wow really touched by his gesture.

and when we were at the waterfall, we still see some tourists drinking the water and washing their hands with the water. wow we nearly freaked out.

5) 鼻头角公园

we took a group photo with meeky at the entrance of the 公园.



鼻头角公园 is like the taiwanese version of great wall of china, and you can see the magnificient pacific ocean. being to taipei 5 times, this is my first time visiting 鼻头角公园, and i must say that this is a really awesome place that is not to be missed.





6) 南雅奇岩石


another place with peculiar rocks.


7) 阴阳海


the sea is divided into two colors, yellow and blue. yellow is because of the contamination from the gold mining area.


8) 基隆夜市

nv take any pictures there. and its overcrowded because its a sunday. we can barely move an inch. super kua zhang.


finally, we made our trip back to east dragon hotel. kc and esther wanted to go to 五分浦 to do some shopping so meeky fetched them there. zhenhong and i went back to the hotel to put our things and we walked around 西门町 again for some shopping.

its been a fun day. thank you meeky for bringing us to so many places, and introducing to us the taiwan culture, and of course the 槟榔西施. hahahahaha.

snow city

today darling and i went to snow city! its just five min walk from science centre. upon reaching snow city, we paid the admission fees. the admission fees got two types, one hour of snow playing time and two hours of snow playing time. just choose the one hour will do, cos nobody will spend two hours inside the snow chamber. 15 min later u will be bored of the place already.

and then we went into the jacket room to choose our jackets. btw you need to be properly clothed. you must wear jeans and covered shoes. gloves you must rent, so if you have bring your own. jackets they will lend you, but the jackets got the geh-leng-ah smell, damn unbearable. i should have brought my own winter jacket. :(

and hor you cant bring your own personal camera inside the snow chamber. there is a professional photographer inside taking photos for us, and is up to you whether you want to purchase or not. of course must purchase lah, must keep as a souvenir mah.

ok enough of talk, here are the pics:










the snow chamber is really freaking cold!!! the temperature inside ranges from -2 to -9 degree celsius! omg man. when you go into the chamber must try the snow slide. very very fun. haha.

first day at taipei

upon reaching taipei, we were greeted by the huge crowd at taipei train station. kc and zhenhong are super overwhelmed by the huge crowd, cos kaoshiung is quite quiet and boring, and as for 埔里 dun even need to say. haha.

and at last i reach a place where i am super familiar with! although i have been to taipei for the 5th time, i am still not sick of it and i love taipei! so we went to take the 捷运 to 西门町, and wow there are alot of pple at 西门町 too, because its a saturday. and so with our luggage, we squeezed through the pple and walk to our hotel at taipei, not rainbow hotel (which i always stay), but is east dragon hotel.

so we did the check-in procedures at the hotel lobby. our room is 302. we took the lift to 3rd floor, and i opened the door... and we were like... WOW!

the room is big! really big! got a living room with sofas, for us to sit down eat supper and surf net, and also got a bedroom with beds for us to sleep. and later on we found out that the room is actually a suite, not a triple-bed hotel room. hoho. super tan dio. :)

so we left the hotel room to go sightsee, and the first place we went to is 阿宗面线! if you go 西门町, must definitely eat the 阿宗面线. if not pls knock yourself on your head (mr fen, carry on pls, haha).

throughout the 4D3N stay at taipei, zhenhong ate ah zong mian xian 3 times! the first time is on saturday, the second time is supper on sunday night, and the 3rd time is on tue afternoon for lunch.

and then we go to taipei 101, new york new york and 威秀影城.

(some outstanding mascots that we saw at the 新光三越 shopping area)

and after all these places we go back to 西门町 for shopping. and that concludes our first day at taipei.

高铁 experience from 台中 to 台北

on the 23rd may morning, we checked out of 台一 with 依依不舍的心情. 台一 has really been an awesome place to stay in and if i got the chance i dun mind staying there again. but that is for at least 5 years later. haha.

xiao ling fetched the 3 of us to 埔里总站 to take the 南投客运 to 高铁台中站. during the journey i tried flirting with her to persuade her to fetch us all the way to 高铁台中站 but she said she dunno the way there. haiz mission failed. hahahaha.

we reached 埔里总站 and took a farewell photo with her.

on the 南投客运, we took a group photo.

the bus journey is around one hour fifteen minutes. upon reaching 高铁台中站, we took another group photo. and amazingly i nv 尿急 during the whole bus journey! yes! 3 cheers to my weak bladder! but kc got 尿急. haha.

photos at the train platform:

btw take 高铁 is really very very fast. if we take 客运 to taipei from taichung will be around 4.5 hours! but take 高铁 need only an hour. although 高铁 is much more expensive compared to 客运, but i think the price is still worth it. getting to different places in taiwan has been so much more convenient after the introduction of 高铁. if you go taiwan must definitely try the 高铁 experience. :)

and have anyone noticed some characteristics of kc and zhenhong when taking photos? kc seldom smile, and zhenhong will sometimes close his eyes. hahahaha.

cooking at darling's house

because darling did very well in this sem's examinations, i promised to cook something for her to eat. but in the end both of us cook together in the kitchen. haha.

so the dishes that we cooked are: 炸酱面，芙蓉蛋 and longan tauhuey agar agar.

i must also acknowledge mr leow chee leong for providing me the recipe for 芙蓉蛋 and longan tauhuey agar agar.

i think cooking in the kitchen is a good way for couple bonding. haha. even dr date in the newpaper column on every sunday also said that! so for the couples, if you think going out everyday is starting to become a bore (since sg is so small and you most likely been to all the fun places before already), why not cook something in the kitchen? make some nice sandwiches also can.

the 炸酱面 is quite easy to prepare. you can buy the minced meat from ntuc, then go back home marinate with oyster sauce, pepper, salt and tapioca powder. as for the noodles rite, can buy those dry maggi mee, where inside got the seasoning. fry the marinated minced meat with oil and the seasoning, then add some water, and voila! you get the minced meat gravy and can add them on top of the noodles. and then cut some cucumber shreds to add some color to the 炸酱面. look and taste fabulous! :)

the 芙蓉蛋 is quite a failure cos i intend to make it into a nice omelette but not enough eggs and too much vegetables, so in the end become scrambled eggs. haha. but overall the 芙蓉蛋 still taste not bad!

as for the agar agar, just buy a can of longan, 豆浆, and agar agar powder. get a big pot, pour the sugar syrup from the can of longan and the 豆浆 into the pot, and heat the solution. and then add one teaspoon of agar agar powder. keep stirring the solution so that the agar agar powder will be fully dissolved and wun be burnt by the heat. once the solution start to boil, the agar agar powder should be dissolved already, you can pour the whole thing into a mould with the longans and let it cool for 10 to 15 min. after that put in the fridge, and after half an hour, you got cold tah huey agar agar jelly to eat!

after all the cooking, darling and i slack and nua the whole day in her bedroom, watching 天才冲冲冲 on youtube. she laughed until damn loud when she saw the 王彩华 clip. and the 王耀庆 clip also damn funny.

he really has alot of acting talent and 搞笑细胞. haha.

the rest of 埔里

these are the other places that we went to in 埔里:

1) 台湾地理中心碑

this monument is erected exactly in the central part of taiwan.

2）中台禅寺

the biggest temple in asia. and the architect for this temple is the same person who designed 台北 101.

3）纸教堂

(i pray that i can get to take picture with 槟榔西施. but i am buddhist. so my wish may not come true.)

when nian zhu told us that will be going to the paper church, we were super excited, wondering how the paper church will look like. but when we reach there we were a bit disappointed. the front gate is made of metal, but the rest is made of paper. and just nice that was a slight drizzle before we reach the paper church, and we want to go and touch the paper walls. but to go in the church we need to pay NT50 each. we were a bit turned off and so we decided to take pictures outside.

4) 台一 flower farm

this is not the farm that we stayed at, but is a farm purely allocated to the growing and nurturing of flowers. xiao ling said we wun see much flowers in the summer. the flower season is during winter.

btw you see the pic of the 3 of us? xiao ling said our eyes very small, nv open big enough, so here's the next pic:

eyes big enough? hahaha.

yup that's all for 埔里. its a quiet place as compared to kaoshiung and taipei, with wonderful places to go to if you want to see beautiful scenery, such as sun moon lake and cing jing farm.

feeding the sheep at 清境农场

some videos of the 3 of us feeding the sheep.

kc looks the most comfortable because he has a dog at home and he say feed dog is like feeding sheep, no difference. but as for me, when the sheep is licking the food off my palm, the feeling is both ticklish and disgusting. yucks. you can keep hearing zhenhong and kc calling me lousy, pussy and hum ji. haha.