Okay here goes.
Any readers, go to the loo, get a bag of chips, play your music library, hug a cushion, prepare a bottle of eye drops.
Ending the last day of 2006
(Note: refer to strawpicana's blog)
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lol. kidding.
So, the usual group went to M hotel and thanks a lot to Ah Ren Jie Jie for the arrangements, food and stuffs and snoring. =p
I think the best boo-boo-fun goes to the 7 of us staring at the non-entertaining CNA for a whole 1 min quietly.
Looking at the time, 23:59...
suddenly fireworks
然後.... aaaaAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!
Everyone in the room spent their 1st few seconds of 2007, being quiet. lol. So fun!
So it was booze and chips and yummy crackers finger food afterwhich. Chatting against the backdrop of cranes and containers, awaiting daybreak.
Balek kampong time.
然後, time for Taipei.
我爱台北
Where shall I start?
D-1 020107
First it's morning flight from our famous airport. Never had I met so many people lingering in T2 on an early 8am morning. Then its SQ-ed to Taipei. We landed in their T2. Spanking new and lots and lots of Nihonjin (Japanese i.e.) Babies, kids, young girls, students, obasans, ojisans... Therefore the queue is comparable to the infamous Hello Kitty Q. Almost an hour's Q, but thanks to a kawaii nihonjin ee-le-ben months baby girl, time passed quite fast. Weather was pretty fine. Cooling.
然後 off to wonstar hotel. The hotel was cosy clean and nice. Way better than the previous one. (Thanks to Eve's cousin's recommendation! ^^)
After settling down for a while, it's off to Xi Men Ding!
Xi Men Ding is still as ever, and we started with Ah Zong Mian Xian. Then within a while, shopping queens started.
There's lots and lots of shoes and winter clothings. Cardigans, trenchcoats, jackets, knitted trench, poncho... all kinds. Too bad Sing gah poh is summer and rainy all year round. So clothing wasnt much of a big spree there.
Evening time and we went to Shilin night market. It was brr-ing cold by then as there's a bit of drizzle. But still I managed to went through it with just a cardigan. Go Shilin of course eat lah. Eaten so many stuffs but not Guan Cai Ban and I can't find the nice Ai Yu. So tiring after shopping there, so we went back to rest and for some local tv shows. Still Kang Xi Lai Le though, haha.
D-2 030107
(Had breakfast at MOS burger next door. Yummy~ And we're supposed to place all the cups into different recycling slots.)
Rainy day.
So we've decided to change our itinery and go to some places with shelter therefore decided to go to the shopping centres type. Off we go to their infamous eastern side, Dong Qu, where Sogo reigns.
Just at a cross junction, there's 3 Sogos. One of which is the new one, just opened a few days ago. It's like... Takashimaya. The other older one is like... Metro. (We didnt went to the third one) You'll see all the big big names in both places, only that the second one, it'll make CK looked like some Giordano. Oh ya, I've forgot to mention that their Giordano are quite high class de. It's all in those black dark concept. It's over at the new Sogo that I've discovered one of the nicest cake ever.
Strawberries are in season now, so whereever you go, you'll see it. This particular shop had strawberries for ALL their choices. It's like heaven. lol.
The one on the left is a pudding with a melted caramel top. I think they burnt it crispy for the top. Like a meringue. I'm not a pudding lover but their pudding was uber nice. Chewy chewy de.
On the left is the nicest cake I've tried. It's layers of uber soft cake and pudding and strawberries. I missed it now.
After being tai tais over there, we went to the underground mall and we saw one of the most interesting incident. lol. It happened at a shoe shop. The young shopkeeper was standing outside and another late 20s guy, not very tall, not very thin, wearing a suit was talking to her. (Note: the guy is not the biz man kind, more like their local ah beng)
Guy: 那，电话要不要留一下啦?
Girl: 不要啦! 你快点回去啦!
All these happened when we are browsing in the shop and the girl was fetching us a size. The guy followed in and keep pestering. My gosh, guys here are so direct. lol.
After more shopping we went for a mala hotpot meal which is not very nice. 然後 went to Taipei 101...
Angel & Devil ala Tokidoki Lesportsac. Loving the effect of the lights between Heaven and Hell.
...where I was greeted by the friendliest LV boutique personnels EVER. She was so friendly that she even told me there's a price hike and converted the amount for me. Too bad it isnt cheap or not I'll be a happy shopper there then. On the other hand, Gucci gals were actually chitchatting in a group when we enters, and gave a stuck up face. NND. The peeps here in SG are better.
Hmm, after being fake tai tais, checking out prices, we went back to rest...
D-3 040107
Off to Wu Fen Pu. Their wholesale market which also meant Big Spending Time.
It's where all the clothing and bags gala reigns. All the clothings you can find over Taipei are found here. Not exactly super duper cheap but all varieties are here. After combing for a few hours, we went for food.
Nice...
Then its back for more shopping but we're already half shacked and the weather is getting colder. By nightfall we reached Rao He Night Market.
It's food, food and food. Cold, cold and cold! There's more food than Shilin. Everyone is eating herbal mutton soup and smelly toufu.
Deepfried golden mushroom. It's so deep fried you dont taste the mushroom. The original ones are very pretty. We're busy gobbling it up that we forgot to take pics of the original form.
Then, we went to birkies and brought away 4 pairs and it's balek kampong.
D-4 050107
I'm getting tired at the typing... ^^"""
It's yong he dou jiang for breakfast and off we go, to Dan Shui.
Okay, this time I managed to go to the lao jie aka old street. Nothing there except games stalls. Didnt went to Fisherman's Wharf though. Dunno why. But we bought lots of food.
After roaming there til dinner time, we went back to Xi Men Ding for some bbq meal.
There's grooves beside, so all the smoke are sucked away. Then time to time, the waiter/waitress will come and change the burnt grill. Their meat are very thinly sliced so it's nice too. That's something stinky s.garden must learn from.
D-5 060107
The roaming day starts. I'm most excited about today cause we going to take train to Jiu and Keelung. Out of Taipei city and to a place I've never been before.
Buying e-ticket is fun.
We took the best train. (Not the bullet train) They had 3 types of train. The best one had lesser stops, faster, provides allocated numbered seats, nice cushioned seats, announcements on stops now and then, free drinks and selling of 便当 on train.
Cost SGD3 for such a big pack of chap chye baeng.
I love this pic. Call me artistic photographer. lol. Or at least praise my camera. The background is clear and stationary but the foreground is in motion.
By right we'll passed by 暖暖 station. Remember the MV and the song? But being the 自强, it skipped smaller stations and went straight to Ruifang, where lots of Nihonjin and Hongkie dropped off as well. Then we took their local bus to Jiu Fen. Up the slopes of the mountains that's scarier than Genting, coz the ojisan drive the bus like drifting hachi roku.
Finally we reached Jiu Fen. It's uber cold.
First we settle our stomach with some huge fishballs.
Then off to shop.
Afterwhich we took an hour fast and furious ride to Keelung.
It's kinda boring and we are tired and cold. But still we managed to grab food at their 庙口 night market. We realised all the night markets are located near temple. We think the people must be bored after visiting the temple and so they roam around the place. And so people set up stalls there. See, it's unlike SG, where all we got are muah chee sold under a candle light or 'bird's nest' drink.
Beautiful 冰糖葫芦。
Then we took train, the cheaper one, home to Taipei city.
D-6 070107
Flew back home to SG.
Had a entertaining flight. First, the pilot ask the cabin crew to take their 'landing' position before take off. (Which resulted in chuckles from the crew itself) Then, we are greeted by a uber friendly stewardess who chit chatted. A taiwanese girl who lived in Singapore. Her chinese and english are so sub-Singlish sub-Taiwanese. lol. Thirdly, the flight we took had the old KrisWorld, where the controller sucks and there's no movie on demand. The flight we took to Taipei had the new Krisworld where you can choose your own movie/tv drama, play it as your like, forward, rewind, pause. Change the language. More games. Choose the songs. It's like iPod in it! Oh, then lastly, I'm greeted by the most friendly homecoming greeting ever. SQ greeting all Sg-reans and PRs, "welcome back home."
Awww... Nothing beats it.
Hmm, the whole trip was fine. But it wouldve been better if my mood is better, though I almost dread coming back to SG, to work, to reality. It's not so bad though, cause I get to see shuai ge from Jap and Taiwan, and people thinking I'm living in Taipei. lol.
K, that's all for now. I'm tired.