Taiwan Day 0

o well.. funny how my last post is about my first taiwan trip a year ago which i never finish blogging and now i'm blogging on another different taiwan trip. Don't be upset dear bloggie.. never meant to dump you for so long. Just that i had so much i wanted to blog about that i couldn't decide and ended up not writing anything at all :P

TAIWAN DAY 0  ~Arriving in Taiwan~
22/08/2012 

First trip with parents. 
As in me bringing them and not the other way around. 
yayyyyy

So the idea started innocently. I just thought it would be fun and nice to bring my parents on a trip before they get too old to enjoy any trips at all. It then becomes slightly complicated when we couldn't decide to really go on the trip or not. And by the time we've decided to go, it was only a month and half before the trip which was a bit too late mainly because 1) it was near my sem exams so i couldn't plan much, 2) obviously, nice hotels were fully booked already.

Yes, i'm just finding excuses for my planning skills.


We reached LCCT really early with more than 4 hours to spare... mum got shocked from Starbuck's expensiveness when we ordered 3 drinks and it costed us rm50+ (she refused to go Old Town White Coffee because no aircon over there).. let myself get persuaded by salesman to buy a filter lens and pen like thing to clean my new baby canon sx40hs (still not sure if those accessories are really necessary or not (ﾟ⊃ω⊂ﾟ)).....And then Mr Yu (the taxi driver that i've booked for a one day tour) called to tell us that a typhoon is heading to taiwan.

 *faints*

Mr Yu offered to come pick us up at the airport for TWD1200 which i was more than happy to accept because i was worried whether there'll be taxi drivers around with the typhoon coming plus i wanted to discuss about our booking for the next day.

He also asked me to help him buy 3 packs of "seven stars" cigarettes at taoyuan airport which i was a bit worried at first because we'll only reach around 22:30. If LCCT the shops are probably closed already. Turns out he meant mild seven (seven stars not be be found anywhere) and the duty free shops at taoyuan airport are 24 hours so i got them alright ^^v. 


Glad it was mr yu who fetched us. He's so bright and considerate. He had a pack of pineapple tarts ready for us in the car because he knew we would be hungry by then. He also said it's ok to cancel the  appointment with him tomorrow if it rains because it wouldn't be fun anyway. And though i've stayed at Fun Taipei Backpackers once, i still couldn't locate the exact building in the dark and he was nice enough to get in and get out of the car to search for it and kept reassuring us. 

Room quite satisfactory but bathroom not pretty so mum complained. *sigh* should have known better than to book hostel for parents trip.

Mum was eager to try taiwan food so we went down to shilin night market right after we put down our luggage. Unfortunately, most stalls were closed already because it was past midnight plus it was drizzling from the typhoon effects. 

But then mum had to stop and chat with the fruit stall lady. Then the lady just had to say "You came today?? Why come at such timing? There's two typhoons coming! You wouldn't be able to go anywhere!"  Gee, thank you so much stupid fruit lady. You sure know how to make the atmosphere less tension, huh? Mum then replies by putting on her super triumph face with a "See? I told you so" look and nudged towards me. I snapped right there and then. Fruit lady then feels super guilty and tried to comfort us and drew a map to where we might find food stalls.
  
We walked a bit but rain got heavier so we trampled back sadly and bought food from Seven-Eleven and a supermarket instead. 

I still regret that poor mum and dad had to have sandwiches after a long journey when they were eager for a good meal. Not a good end for day zero T_______________T


Taiwan Day 0
Taiwan Day 1 : Yeliu, Jiufen, PingShi, Yu Da Ge taxi driver
Taiwan Day 2 : Yongkang Jie, Taipei 101, Wufenpu
Taiwan Day 3 : Yongkang Jie, Ximending, Dan Shui
Taiwan Day 4 : Longshan Temple
Hualien Day 1 : CingShui, Taroko Gorge, Hotel Bayview, express train, Tifanny taxi driver
Hualien Day 2 : rubbish place
Hualien Day 3 : Mt Shike, Eight Fairy Caves, Shi Ti Ping
Taiwan Goodbye

taiwan trip ****day 1****

shilin night market

really.. i'm seriously getting phobic of travelling alone to the airport. almost always something happens! the last time i attempted going to the airport alone to go okinawa (some sudden school work came up so i had zhong ing went ahead of me), i rode the wrong bus and ended up at kansai airport when i should be at a totally different airport, missed my flight, hp battery went flat out, had only 2000yen in my wallet... not pretty.

this time i got in the right bus making sure i had hours to spare,  had a nice decent sleep in the bus.. and maybe a little bit too decent. i was still drowsy when i got off the bus that i didn't realize my laptop wasn't hanging on my shoulder like it should be.. until the bus took off.

damn..it was so frustrating.. i realize my laptop was missing the second the bus took off so i had to try very hard to suppress the urge to scream and run after the bus.
it's times like this that i really thank god that i'm in japan.
all i had to do was tell my situation to a nearby staff, and voila! my precious baby returned to me within the hour.

i turned on my heel, walked to the 4th floor, met up with jj and ps who had just arrived like nothing ever happened XD.

taiwan trip hasn't even started but i'd already used up all my adrenaline..

finally... ～*TAIWAN*～

destination: taipei

members: puisan(ps), jiajie (jj)、me (yes, i know what you're all thinking.. it's ok, it's ok) 

origin of this trip: one evening, me and ps were chatting like usual on msn...

"hey, my senpai say he bought taiwan to-and-back tickets for only 12000yen(rm400) le!!"

"walao! so cheap??? let's go!"

 and thus this taiwan trip was born

since this is like ps's 4th(?) time, we didnt have to waste time researching where to stay, where to eat, where to go, where not to got..etc all the tedious work we usually have to go through whenever we decide to go travelling 

it was already 8pm plus when we arrived at taiwan, stomach growling since the low-cost airline jetstar, as we expected, didn't provide us food.
 and we were worried that by the time we reach shilin night market area (where our hostel is), all the food stores would have closed already....

which proved to be unfounded worry when the locals told us the market opens till 2am on friday nights, and 1am on other days.
2am!!! can you imagine?? even seoul isn't that lively till 2am!

anyway we called kevin who's in charge of the place we stay, Fun Taipei Backpackers and met up with him. he wasted no time in showing us our room which is an apartment furnished for nearby university students to rent.

if kevin was surprised to see 2 girls and 1 guy sharing 1 same room, his face didnt betray him and he calmly passed us the key, had the courtesy to tell us where we can eat for breakfast, and left.

randomly bought food cause we were starving already. this tasted normal 

so did this....

hmm.. nope.. cant remember the name.

shao bing maybe? 

anyway, though i don't have a photo of it,  we got to eat the most delicious chou toufu i've ever had in my life and cheesy potato in shilin! 

 fyi, i didnt put the cup near the camera so that it'll look bigger like i do with other food photos... this drink is almost as huge as my head!

lookie what i bought for lulu =). 200yuan(RM20) and i bought around 3 different boxes? a decision i deeply regret when i found out other places sell two boxes for 150yuan *faints*

o well, at least other places didnt sell this kind of mixed all-in-one! my only comfort

we didn't have our watch with us and when we asked around for time, they told us it was 12++am

and we went "what??!! already??"... but continued to wander around a weee bit more before  finally heading back to rest

end of our long loonnggg day 1.

Cruise

dear bloggie,

i know you haven't had much visitors lately...
so sorry >.<
dont be angry ya sayang
mummy promise will try to make u prettier and update u more often ^^


Cruise

okay.. this story kinda take place sometime ago, 28 february, after our final exam finished.
i went on the kobe meriken cruise!

during the new year party with host family, we played bingo and the winner gets 2 free tickets to this cruise, worth 3500yen each!
we all went 'aaahh.. what a waste!!' when chitta won it ==
everyone was poking fun at him cause since his gf is in laos he can either go to the cruise alone twice, or give the tickets to us =P

anyway, he waited till the noon of the last day(the ticket had expiration date) when realization finally dawns on hi that he has no one to go with.
his hp was broken and for reasons i cant fathom, insist on only buying a new one the following month ==

guess who happened to be on facebook that time and got asked to go ^-^v

to sum it up, the trip was kinda funny. we were both like gazing at the harbourland, at the warm red light glowing from kobe tower, feeling the salty breeze in the air and ..

  "why the hell am i here with you"

XD

  i wouldnt recommend to take kobe cruises btw. not worth the money and not really interesting. the harbourland night view is nice but the moment the ship leaves the port, its just total darkness all the way till u reach the famous akashi bridge..

then the ship turns around and makes its way back to the port. the end. 

fyi, the darkness isnt exactly the romantic type? its just plain creepy and scary.

 this is my 2nd time btw. 1st time went with jun hao them all when they came kansai to play during the first summer here. we rode the cheaper ship that time though. and i thought maybe it would be slightly better if its the  expensive ship but.. it doesnt really differ much

the interior of the ship.
love this kind of two way stairs

next time i want to marry at a place with this kind of stairs XD!!