Taiwan 6D5N 14 Dec 06 - 19th Dec 06

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Back!

This tour trip to taiwan with my mum was nightmar-ish, all because of the road trip within the country. We travelled by coach and although it was quite comfortable, my butt & back ached after hours of sitting.

Casts:
* 2 tour guides, one 58 yr old male taiwanese & one mid-twenties male malaysian
* 19 malaysians
* 6 singaporeans (including me & mummy)

The Bad:
* The whole travelling via coach experience
* Two nights of bad hotel room stay
* Lousy travelling companions, the singapore family

The Good:
Day One, Night One
* When my mum & I touched down in TaoYuan, we were transferred to River View Hotel, 台北 TaiPei, near Ximenting. Immediately after unloading our luggages, we headed for Ximenting! It was a happening place and it was flooded with youngsters. There is a huge cross junction square. If i didnt see scooters & cars travelling thru’, i wont know that it’s a beautified road. Ximenting was filled with shophouses with high ceiling and they were brightened with signboards, but not sleazy looking like in HongKong. It’s a very fresh & young look. There were pushcarts of delicious looking warm food by the road, looks averagely clean. Footwear boutiques spilled out their shoes to the road side and they were almost all NT390 approx SGD20! Dirt Cheap! I wanted to buy a pair of boots but after trying on one pair, my mum criticised that my legs are not slim enough to look good in them. At least she was honest. I bought a pair of pumps that were awesomely posh looking and comfy at NT390. No regrets! heh.. Then we had this yummy dessert, in a happy looking shop, call hong2 dou4 ru3 ruo4 yi4 mi3, red bean jelly barley. There was 2 aunties eating dessert there and complimented my mum saying that she has sucha well dressed daughter. Hmm? heh.. shall upload the photo later. We had the same dessert in TaiChung but it was lousy in comparision. We shopped in Ximenting till abt 11pm and we headed back to Hotel. It wasnt hard to navigate our way and i enjoyed Ximenting most in my entire trip. My mum rocks! ahaaz.. great shopping companion. shall update more later!


Day Two, Night Two
It was a drizzling 6:30am and a pouring 7:30am. It was pouring SO hard, all we did at our first pit stop was to stay in the shelter and patheticly took some photos under the shade. It didnt stop pouring the whole afternoon. My most memorable destination was at 九份Jiu fen, direct translation of nine portions. It was the first mountain that the bus twirled up and 九份is at the top. It’s called that because there used to be only 9 household at the mountain top and everytime they had to go down the mountain to stock up on food, that particular person would buy nine portions. I didnt take any pictures of the place, except for the scenery with my mum in it. It’s reminds me of a small little clay-made town where shophouses are terraced together. The pavement was steep, narrow & sheltered. The atmosphere of the place is lively n bustling. I think the pitter-patter of the rain contributed to the rythme i felt. Everyone spoke mandarin in the taiwanese accent. It sounded cute for awhile. The rows of shophouses sold from famous fuzhou fishball, mua chi, to silk purses, handcraft clogs & hand-threaded shoes, some tonic drinks to desserts & odds. 九份 is the one place that i won’t mind being a taiwanese in. Life seems simple & the scenery of the heaps of mountains.. it’s very soothing.

The rest of the day went by while we travelled a long distance to Hualian in the coach, only stopping when we reached, just in time to watch the aboriginal tribal dance. The day ended quietly except that we saw fireworks outside our hotel window.

Day Three, Night Three

Evergreen Hotel in Kaohsiung
219, Ho Ping 1st Road, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
It was only drizzling n remained as it was. I enjoyed my best moment when we were in Taroko Gorge 太魯閣. It’s a valley of marble mountains with a river running thru, and there was a ravine that but at midway of the mountain. I felt tamed and calm when i stand in awe of the towering mountains. It’s like I never felt so small before and never set my eyes of running river except on TV. Nature, God’s creation. The tour guide brought was to walk thru some caves. I wouldnt have believed that the mountains are marble, not soil, if i didnt walk thru the caves. The outer layers were corroded but the inside was smooth n marble-like.When we were returning to the bus, the tour guide stopped at this place where it’s the lowest n nearest to the river. As i closed my eyes, i told my mum, “why not u close ur eyes too?”
I took a deep breathe, “take a deep breathe now”
I relaxed myself and listened to the music of nature. “Listen to the running river…”I felt a sense of gentleness, peace & calm in my spirit trickling down my body and suddenly my mum asked, “Too bad there’s no birds chirping ya?”. When I opened my eyes, to my embarrassment, the good looking malaysian tour guide was looking at me. The 58 yr old taiwanese tour guide was there too. I felt as though they invaded my privacy and i blushed more cos of that guy. Anyway.. that was my best moment which turned embarrassing. There was no birds cos sparrows dont dare to fly into the valley, didnt hear why, but prolly cos they dont have the strength? We were told that on the summit, there are eagles. How perfectly scenic to have valleys with eagles flying around. Very Chinese Novel-ish.Mum wanted to go to bookstore to get something for second sis, so at night, we skipped going to 新崛江夜市 and headed to the nearest bookstore. Once we bought what we were looking for, we saw this BIG BOOKSTORE. It’s like Popular bookstore, except that it’s at least 4 storeys high. (: Everything was on wholesale price n i bought LOTS OF stationery. I did some Christmas shopping there, and I bought materials to make cards. I left the place hugging my SGD10 worth of gifts & stationery. My mum told me she dont know how to appreciate those materials for card-making so cant emphathise my glee. In the end we made a quite trip to 新崛江夜市 and bought freshly made crepe to warm our stomach. (:

The highlight of the day was the 逢甲夜市 which mum & i explored by ourselves in the night after dropping off our luggage. We were too late to shop in the night market, but there was lotsa yummy food. I had a roasted corn, my fav!, and mum had her oyster omelette. It is reeally the besst. That was the only hotel that has internet access. NT10 for half hour! *grins*

Day Four, Night Four
This day was the most sian for me as it’s temple visiting day. We started off at 春秋閣 where there were Hsuan Tien Shangti Temple, Guan Ying and this pagoda with a dragon n tiger standing in front of the pagoda. The 58 yr old taiwanese tour guide said that along that street, there were hundreds of temple. oh ya..

Then we went to fo guang shan. There is this huge gold plated buddah sitting on the highest level of the temple and we climbed up by stairs to the top. On the top, the perimeter of the temple was lined with mini buddahs.

We were next brought to Chi Lin Fong Hot Spring which majority didnt go in. Mainly, it was cos it’s too private. Everyone was dipping inside, from the old uncles to children. If i were in Singapore, i would probably not mind.. but it’s a foreign place and i dont like to be exposed.

The highlight of the day was 逢甲夜市. I bought more gifts there and we tried the street snacks. Mum had the smelly tou fu which was reeally smelly but she said it was nice to eat. I didnt want to try it at all! I enjoyed myself with a bowl of warm dessert which was the hong2 dou4 ru3 ruo4 yi4 mi3, red bean jelly barley, same style as the one in taipei. BUT! this was very bad. Not nice at all!

Day Five, Night Five
The last day was quite a chore cos mum was not feeling well. I think it was from the smelly toufu which she finished all by herself. Smelly tou fu is fermented. I think mummy’s stomach couldnt take the uncleanliness. So throughout the whole day, her stomach made her half dead. I think my mood was totally spoilt.

At 101 Shopping Centre, i decided to cheer up despite of her. It is like paragon with all the high end shopping centre. I had a very yummy muchi there which cost like SGD2? I think it is quite expensive but it’s worth in. In the jasons market there, i managed to get exchange gifts for office. I bought tea leaves! Absolutely yummy. I love tea.

At night, we spent it in Shilin Ye shi 士林夜市. It’s quite a huge place with a food market and the shopping area separated. It was the wrong season to shop, so there wasnt much that interest us. What we did do was to cut our hair in this salon. It’s only NT100 = SGD10! Dirt cheap. (:

Day Six
We woke up at 4am in the morning to prepare to go to airport. Our final pit stop was at this farm place where they sell all the local produce. I bought Tai4 Yang2 Bing3, Sun biscuit for pple in office. (:

I think i was never more glad to be coming back to Singapore. It was a very tough 6D5N as I had gone all the way out to be nice n respectful to my mum. I thank God that we didnt have much friction and most of the time, we peacefully settled problems. I hate it when people have to raise their voice to quarrel when things are not going smoothly, like the Singaporean couple. They were another set of problems that I had to handle with. I can’t say that i enjoyed myself very much as I wasnt relaxed at all. I think I felt more tired than anything when i came back home. If i ever were to go back to Taiwan, I would plan it all by myself and would not go with tour package. Shall I say, i will never take tour package ever again! at least in my near future. It’s good to be back.

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