*** warning. this is a super duper long post with lots of pictures and could take zillion seconds to load. which is the reason why it is worth the wait. :P ***

it had been a long while since i last took the airplane. eugene and i are heading towards taiwan and hongkong for a "graduation" trip which had been so long over-due (more like work - graduation trip) since we had been working so hard for the past 6+ going 8 months and this is our well-deserved break for us to go for a long holiday and relax ourselves. it is the bank's requirement that we are required to go on core leave anyway. :P

the tour we joined under focal travel will bring us to the different city of taiwan - tai pei, gao hsiung, hua lien, tao yuan, tai chung, tainan, nantou, etc and we will be staying in taiwan for almost 6 days. after that we took the cathay flight over to hongkong and stayed there for two days before going back to singapore.


eugene and me on the plane.


listening to the headphones and watched the show: P.S. I love you. very nice. touching. i like.



the story is about the same as "GHOST", one of the older movie which huixin told me about.

Holly Kennedy is a grieving young widow who discovers that her late husband, a passionate, funny and impetuous Irishman, has left her a list of tasks revealed in 10 messages, delivered anonymously, intended to ease her grief. With only words as her guide, she embarks on a journey of rediscovery, exploring again the meaning of friendship and marriage but most of all, how strong love can transform the finality of death into a new beginning for life.


we headed to the shopping mall before we headed to the hotel as we are a bit too early to check into the hotel. however, didnt get anything much there except ate a lot of hotdogs with cheese inside at the 7 eleven. hee.

the hotel we stayed in the first night, howard hotel was unique as the restaurant was situated pretty far away from the hotel. we had to do a morning walk before we can head to the restaurant and in addition, we also dragged our luggage along with us as we are supposed to check out of the room (we woke up late you see.)


breakfast at the hotel's restaurant which is damn freaking far away from the hotel itself.


we gotta walk quite a bit before we reached the place for breakfast and being a camera whore, taking pictures is the priority. haha. for this trip, i bought 2 2GB memory card wor. lolz. in total i took about 877 photos.. :)


tickets from 桃园 (tao yuan) to 台北 (taipei), the Taiwan High speed Railway ticket.


Outside the train station, eugene and i took picture again. =)


the map of the places which the Taiwan High speed Railway visited.


while waiting for the train we took pictures again. camera-whoring. :P

just as we were waiting for the train and taking pictures, one of our co-travellers fell down into this track accidentally. instead of rushing to assist the aunty, the staff who was in charge of the train station safety there, just came over and shout at us saying that we are playing a fool. they thought that we were playing a fool as they had warned us not to stay near the yellow line. which is like duh? isnt it supposed to be stay behind the yellow line?

anyway, our tour guide jumped down to save the lady who was then sitting down on the floor as she had injured her leg. they even scolded us before they actually stopped the train. the lady sprained her leg and is not able to join us for the rest of the trip. she is of a certain age already and hence she decided to take a flight back to singapore. something mysterious was that til today, we are not sure how it happened, the lady was in a daze and just fell down. some people was saying that the lady had wanted to prevent blocking others from taking pictures and hence fell down without realising that there are no more steps behind her.

dangerous.

they should have some preventive measures instead of just yelling at people. which gave us the impression that taiwanese are not as welcoming as they are seen.


me @ 桃园 (tao yuan)


the Taiwan High speed Railway train (台湾高速鉄), one of their proudest railway transport.


camera-whoring again. as you can see this is the interior of the train. it actually felt like it is the airplane. haha. the man standing behind was the tourguide, alan.


the ticket machine. i was stoning when eugene took this photo. hmph.

then we went onto take another train. this time round, it is the Mass Rapid Transit (aka MRT).


waiting for the train to come. this is much more protected for the citizens where by the tracks are covered. more difficult for people to fell into the track unless they climbed over the door which means that it is intentional.


they even have female passengers waiting zone. camera are directed at this place to protect women. just like in Japan.


here comes the light rail metro line train, which looks like our MRT and it is also called MRT.


and we headed to the 中正纪念堂 (Chiang Kai-Shik Memorial Hall)


中正纪念堂 - 自由广场 (Jiang Jie Shi Memorial Hall)


me with the flowers.


国家戏剧院 (drama hall)


eugene and the 蒋介石 (蔣中正) aka Jiang Jie Shi building


台湾民主纪念馆 (National Taiwan Democracy Memorial Hall)


after climbing up the stairs, we took a view top-down.


蔣介石 (Jiang Jie Shi)


bronze head statue of 蔣介石 (Jiang Jie Shi)


study room of 蔣介石 (Jiang Jie Shi)


国家音乐厅 (music gallery)


taipei tallest building 台北101 - it is the kind of shopping mall which sell all the branded goods which of course eugene and myself could not afford and so we aimed for food. tried one of the expensive la mian-kind of dish and it is not exactly tasty. :(


the 台北101 building - make up of 8 portions as 8 is considered to be a lucky number in the chinese term. the pronounciation of 8 tallies with the pronounciation of prosperous.


day picture of 台北 101 building - cartoon.


night view of the 台北 101 building - cartoon


mister donut - nicest donut i have eaten, even better than singapore donut factory. strongly recommended by our co-travellers.


i force eugene to do this pose outside this shopping centre. haha.


outside ocean park but we didnt get a chance to go in. =(


野柳地质公园 (ye liu geological park)


rocky scenery - the sea is quite rocky and the waves are huge as well.


potholes - it's like studying geography once again.


bridge, potholes and rock formations - learning human geography and physical geography at the same time.


rocks forming due to erosions.


eugene and the scenery.


funny rock formation which look like pig trotters. haha. perhaps we are all too hungry.


me with the greenery behind.


trying to be the sir stamford raffles in taiwan.


it is amazing how the rock formation forms after years. better preserve it as it will take zillion of years to be formed through crytalisation, abrasions. corrosions, and erosion etc.. all my geography return to ms chua le. lol. though she instill fear in our geography lessons, i still believe and think that she is a good teacher, given that i still remember all this stuff which i had long supposed to forget, given the memory space which i have. lesser than 1GB i supposed. lol


the furthest area which we went to to see the nature's formation.


toilet in the wild.



a bridge connecting two rock formations.

i enjoyed the geo park, though we have to work quite a distance. nevertheless, the breath-taking sight is a not to be missed in taiwan. (i sound like a tour guide.)

after visiting this geopark, the guide brought us to the 妈祖 temple. as the area is surrounded by the sea and most people praying to the 妈祖 to protect them as well as to wish for safety when they headed to the sea for living - fishing etc.


the artefacts of the 妈祖 (Ma Zhu) temple.


gold 娘娘 (Ma Zhu made of Gold)


jade 娘娘 (Ma Zhu made of jade)


妈祖 (Ma Zhu)


妈祖(Ma Zhu) temple


花生卷冰淇淋: ice-cream with peanut filling wrapped in poh pian skin. may seems a bit weird but it is actually quite nice. yumyum.


taking the railway train to 花莲 (Hua Lien).


ticket to 花莲 (Hua Lien).


the train we going to take.


on the train - we took the middle class one. there are 3 different types - high class which is of higher speed and the lower class which is of course of a slower speed.


when we reached Hua Lien it is almost dinner time and hence we had the bamboo rice and some other 原住民 (Yuan Zhu Min)food.


break up the bamboo into half by hitting it on the rock. rice is inside the bamboo, tasted like eating rice with sugar cane just that it is not sweet.


山猪肉: wild boar meat.


the feast we had - yum yum. this picture was taken in between our meals. haha.. which was the reason why some food was finishing.


ostrich meat


even after dinner, eugene was not satisified with what he had and we went on to look around the hotel for food and we found this shop selling tau huey.


feasting on tau-huey with ginger-based soup. i dont like ginger based food.


A-star hotel - the hotel we stayed in for the night.


welcome to taiwan =) we were greeted by this when we walk into the hotel.

on the second day we headed to Taroko National Park, one of the main tourist attraction in taiwan, to visit the beautiful scenery and greenery.


太魯閣國家公園 - Taroko National Park


the gate.


meander...


me and eugene taking pic together, taken by the tourguide.


more meanders.


more meanders again.


bridge through the mountains...


meanders once again...


me at the bridge...


meanders coming from waterfall...


more meanders...


me and eugene again.



waterfall. but during the period we went, it is pretty dry. :(


mini waterfall and a temple..


长春听涛 - chang chun ting tao, one of the carving on the stone.

after that, we then went to a factory whereby they manufacture marble. according to the tour guide, in taiwan, hua-lien is one of the leading manufacturing factory manufacturing marble for the country.


a dragon plague made up of marble.


marble egg.

after looking at the manufacturing factory and how they produce and manufacture marble, we went to a small tribal area where the 原住民 perform for us.


performance by the 阿美族


the guys in the 阿美族 - they are so united.


the pretty ladies in 阿美族


the fishing process.


small bamboo dance


the bamboo dance


the witch dance. lol . this is what i think it is. in actual fact, i think this is a ritual bfore the marriage.


marriage ritual - the man will have to carry the woman around. luckily this is the marriage ritual we have in singapore. lol. otherwise, i will have no one to marry me.. lolz... too heavy.. :X


after that, we went to a stone factory whereby they made use of stone to manufacture and make furniture.


石之屋~~ the place of stone~~


me and the 2 piggy... cute!


eugene being the 招财猫 together with the 2 招财猫.. so cute~... lol...


this is the jade stone which 小龙女 sleep on to improve her skills.. haha..


camera-whoring on the bus again while waiting for the rest of the tour.

next we went to a mountaineous area to visit some of the secluded temples there.


we came to this moutaineous area and visit the goddess of mercy.


灵岩洞


灵岩寺


观音洞


东海岸 - east coast bridge


8 arch bridge


the wind was strong. nice beach.


me holding my hair to prevent it from covering my face.


does this look like an ape??


me and the beautiful flowers...



after that we head to our hotel and then we get to go to the spa which is within the hotel to enjoy ourselves. =) it is also one of the main attraction which we are entitled to..


丰泰大饭店 - the hotel we stayed in


spa we have been at night...


fruits in taiwan - very delicious. yum yum.


more fruits..


milk mango. sweet.


佛光山


wishing well


佛光山


???


济公


观音


不二门


灵山胜境 - 500 罗汉


eugene and the buddhas statues


宝藏馆 - treasure palace


pagoda


大雄宝殿


the 3 buddhas.


me and eugene outside the temple.


keen to be a monk? they are hiring.


the giant buddha


giant buddha with eugene. handsign seems like forgiveness and helping..


whole stretch of buddha doing the same hand signs.

after visiting the temple, we then headed to the pearl manufacturing area.


this is funny from eugene when he is at the pearl centre.

we then went to the 海洋奇珍园 to visit and see the special sea animals and the used to be bomb-shelter.


海洋奇珍园 - this used to be a bomb shelter.


lake nearby

after that, we went to another shopping centre, 梦时代 to shop..


梦时代 - i think we bought a cheese-cake here which even eugene who doesnt eat cheese cake falls in love with it.


dusk

after shopping which i didnt buy anything much, except to but food to eat..


off to take the 爱船


爱船 - love boat.


decor of the bridge which the love boat (爱船) passed by


1/2 dragon,1/2 fish - just like our merlion

after the ride on the love boat (爱船), we headed to one of the night market, 逢甲夜市 Fengchia Night Market


at shilin - one of the night market


we are such a fan of mahjong, cant get over it even when we are in taiwan


yuan zai tang - always see wu zhong xiang they all drinking. lol


chou dou foo stall


eating chou tau foo


yang ruo tang


da tu hotel


view from our hotel

and we headed to the ali shan.


ali shan da fan dian


hole in the tree


qian nian shu


stray puppy who is shy of the crowd


mei mei tan


me and eugene, a trail behind us.


the tree which look like a pig


loveydovey


sakura


me and eugene in the yuan zhu ming fu zhuang


purple sakura


supposed to be waterfall but dry up


pi xiu


the female pi siu


wen hu miao


eugene pushing the boat of yuan bao


sending fortune back


wen wu miao


ri yue tan


eugene standing at the ri yue tan


ri yue tan - too bad the weather is not good


me and eugene with the flowers


dinner for the day - buffet steamboat


at the museum where we posed as we tuned into to a special channel to listen to what our tour-guide is saying about the different artefacts


some funny restaurant we went to


entrance


utensils and the appetiser - muah chee


the dishes we had - taste weird just like the building


the interior design


more interior artefacts


cheeky eugene


wu jiao chuan ban


the architecture of the restaurant


2 lady dancing with the wind


lie zhong ci - outerior


marching soldiers


patriotic eugene in taiwan?!


eugene and the soldier on duty


lie chong ci


tai pei train station


xi men ting


chao ji da da daji pa - really good, singapore's cannot be compared to this at 士林夜市


the food we order and this is not all


when junxiong and girlfriend met jun xiong and girlfriend


guan cai ban


filling up the ingredients


smashing the tau sa pian in po pian skin


at Shi Lin Night Market




colorful tau huay - chocolate, soya and plain


snatching to eat


yu ren ma tou


me and eugene


spelling error one: gentle???


spelling error two: handcapped??


lady


last breakfast at taiwan


salmon set


leaving the executive stay hotel


on the plane once again, to hongkong