Monday, March 26, 2007
168 hoursDate: 17th March 2007
TIME: 1506 hours
This is the time that the plane I was in, lifted off the Singapore soil at a ground speed of 238 km/h. Looking out of the window, my head was filled with doubts about the trip that I was about to embark on with my 2 grandparents and my mum. Well, the reason for this is simple, I had a really bad experience in China once but it was an experience which money could not buy. Oh yes, by the way, China Airline’s mini television is extremely lousy.
TIME: 1545 hours
Had a glass of whisky while I listened to Sara Brightman’s lovely voice.
TIME: 1914 hours
Plane landed in Taiwan. We collected our bags and followed our Singapore tour guide to the bus where we were introduced to our Taiwan tour guide. I looked around my tour group, just to find someone around my age, to my horror; I found out that I was the youngest among all! All I could see were married women, but I found a lady. She has a good body but she is still much older than me! When everyone boarded the bus, we found out that one person was missing. Guess what, we all had to wait for her! The tour guides went down to find her, and after half an hour they finally did. Guess what her excuse was? “Oh I was waiting there so that you guys can find me.” I was like… What the fuck is wrong with you? People don’t go finding you… YOU BLOODY GO FIND PEOPLE! Such an old bitch.
TIME: 2045 hours
We went to have hot pot for dinner. The food was good but some were so artificial. Crab meat was like eating rubber, fish balls were like… I don’t know, artificial I guess… so different from Singapore.
TIME: 2330 hours
After our dinner, we went straight to our hotel called ‘Four Points by Sheraton’. The hotel was lovely, the decoration and the service was excellent.
TIME: 0000 hours
In the streets of Taiwan, most of the shops were closed except a few shops that sell sweets called ‘Bing Lang’. These sweets are mostly sold by sexily dressed ladies that are called ‘Bing Lang Mei’. These ‘Bing Lang Meis’ often just wear lingerie so as to attract cheeky customers. ‘Bing Lang’ is actually a fruit that is wrapped a green leaf. It is in fact addictive after 4 or 5 tries.
TIME: 0051 hours
In bed, asleep.
Date: 18th March 2007
TIME: 0600 hours
Woke up feeling awfully refreshed.
TIME: 0715 hours
Had a wonderful breakfast with soothing music.
TIME: 0800 hours
Set off from the hotel to visit famous museums.
TIME: 1200 hours
Lunch at ‘Jio Fen Shan’ also known as ‘Nine House Mountain’. It is said that the food there is absolutely delicious. Apparently after Singaporeans tried them, they were average. This shows how good Taiwanese taste buds are.
TIME: 1400 hours
After our lunch, we shopped around the area then we boarded the bus and went for a 5 hours bus ride to ‘Hua Lian’. Those 5 hours seemed as if I was taking my O levels again. It was not only boring; the movie that was playing in the bus for us was extremely old. The tour guide said it was a comedy… I say it was a freak show.
TIME: 1930 hours
Reached ‘Hua Lian’, the place seemed like a ghost town filled with cameras on every street corner. We went straight for dinner, and once again, the food was oily and average. I guess they had to put so much oil so that skinny people like me can grow fatter in order to withstand the cold.
TIME: 2200 hours
Reached the rather plain hotel. I couldn’t wait to walk around the ghostly town so once we got our room, my mother and I headed out to the streets to ‘shop’. Amazingly, every shop was closed except for a few bakery stalls and 2 7-eleven. Oh yea! I almost forgot! There is a small ‘Ma Ma shop’ opened too. I was curious so I went in, at first sight I saw all the common groceries and tidbits but when I turned my eye to one corner I saw DVDs! I was so excited! I thought they would sell some pirated movies but as I flipped through them hurriedly, nipples after nipples of naked woman kept flashing before my eyes… I face turned red. I turned around and saw the rather cute cashier giggling at me. Well, I had nothing to say but to just smile at her.
TIME: 2130 hours
In bed, asleep.
Date: 19th March 2007
TIME: 0805 hours
Had our breakfast and now ready to board the bus.
TIME: 0850 hours
Reached Grand Formosa Taroko’s entrance. Our bus could not go further into that road as the road was too narrow.
TIME: 0955 hours
Entered Shakadang Trail.
TIME: 1122 hours
Reached ‘Ah Mei’s Tribal Community’, ‘Ah Mei’ as in the popular Taiwanese singer.
TIME: 1200 hours
Had lunch.
TIME: 1525 hours
Visited 8 deity cave, the scenery there was amazing.
TIME: 1708 hours
Visited a pit stop where they sold delicious squids. Sadly the stall wasn’t open. BUT there is a beach nearby, so we went to take a look. Astonishingly, it was very beautiful. There is an island opposite the beach and they made an unusually shaped bridge to cross over to the other side. The beach in Taiwan is extremely windy and cold, but it was lovely.
TIME: 1937 hours
Arrived at Little Bear Resort, absolutely amazing resort where their accommodations are in little houses similar to cottages. We had dinner first before going for some ‘games’ which were meant for the more enthusiastic people such as my mum.
TIME: 2054 hours
The letting go of our wishing lanterns begin. It was a lovely sight, seeing our lanterns just float up gracefully into the dark endless night sky.
TIME: 2100 hours
The games begin, there were Kara ok, basket ball matches in arcade form, and Simon says in Chinese.
TIME: 0000 hours
In bed, asleep.
Date: 20th March 2007
TIME: 0630 hours
Breakfast! Which was so absolutely lousy! But, the music played in the restaurant was soothing to the ears; sadly there was no wine to go with the song.
TIME: 0804 hours
Finally we set off to our next location.
TIME: 1212 hours
After a 4 hours drive, we finally reach somewhere to have our lunch.
TIME: 1241 hours
Visited a park that had a very nice lighthouse on top of the hill and a view of the 3 different seas surrounding Taiwan.
TIME: 1725 hours
We reached to another destination, a temple. Apparently my grandparents who are Christians seemed really turned off when they reached the gate of the temple, but when we entered the temple, they were just astonished at the huge structures of the Buddhas. The entire temple is extremely huge, I was speechless when I entered, the sidewalks of the temple were filled with beautiful flowers that looked so perfect, so plastic yet it’s real.
TIME: 1958 hours
Arrived at ‘Zhi Li Ye Shi’ for dinner. The street side food was delicious and so was the girls’ dressing.
TIME: 2229 hours
Off to our hotel called ‘Citizen Hotel’, it is one hotel that I would never want to stay again. The corridors were dark, the lift was small, the toilet lights were dim and the television was small. An absolute freak show.
Date: 21st March 2007
TIME: 0630
This is the bloody time that I was forced to walk out of the hotel with my mother to find a seven eleven store to bloody buy her woman needs… pads. Because of that I had an hour less of sleep, how unfair to me! After buying her things, I saw a ‘Bing Lang’ stall and I bought a packet.
TIME: 0806 hours
Left the lousy hotel for good.
TIME: 0855 hours
We arrived at a place filled with ancient Chinese gods and creatures but for most of the women, the shop opposite that was filled with tidbits and cookies seemed more attractive than the scenery.
TIME: 1124 hours
Went to a huge shop that sold pearls and pearl powder. They explained to us how useful pearl powder is in medical terms. Well, after all the explanation, the pearl powder was very attractive but after the price was asked, no one seemed to be bothered except one person, my grandmother. I was shaking my head as I looked at her buy.
TIME: 1608 hours
After lunch, we went to ‘Ali Shan’ where it was very foggy. The scenery in ‘Ali Shan’ was breath taking; it was like going into another world filled with mystery in every turn.
TIME: 1830 hours
Our tour of ‘Ali Shan’ was over, time to head for our restaurant and back to the hotel.
Date: 22nd March 2007
TIME: 1144 hours
Visited another temple, I was really bored; I wondered why we needed to visit all these temples…
TIME: 1336 hours
Talking about bored, I think I was really fortunate to be able to arrive at this location on this very day if not I would be bored to death. We arrived at this huge theme park called ‘9 culture village’. There are roller coasters, a 35 storey high huge pole that sends you down from the top to ground in just 3 seconds, and many more thrill rides. I tried on the 35 storey high pole which is called UFO, when the thing went down from a height of 35 storeys, my guts seemed to be in my throat and my lungs shrunk. Those 3 seconds seemed like the longest time in my life.
TIME: 1802 hours
This is the time where I get my first glimpse of a girl. Don’t tell me that my mum’s a girl or my entire tour group has girls. No, they are not, they are old noisy woman. At this time, we arrived at a ‘Bing Lang’ shop and my nose almost bled when I saw the girl. She was cute and hot! Sadly, the photograph that I took with her was blurred, the damn tour guide didn’t know what ‘stable’ meant.
TIME: 1830 hours
The entire tour group popped a piece of ‘Bing Lang’ into their mouth for the first time, but for me, it’s my second time.
TIME: 1905 hours
We arrived at the most expensive restaurant that we are eating for the entire trip. The restaurant’s design itself was a masterpiece and so was the food.
Date: 23rd March 2007
TIME: 1036 hours
Visited a huge hotel that was established by a very famous person.
TIME: 1503 hours
Visited Taipei 101, the tallest building in Taiwan.
TIME: 1644 hours
At this time, I stepped into a spa room for the first time in my life. The spa was awesome!
After spa, we went to shop in the night life of Taipei while my grandparents went to visit their old friend in Taipei.
TIME: 0000 hours
My Taiwan trip officially ends.
artificious ' 8:37 pm
Saturday, March 17, 2007
Good morning! Haha...in theoretical terms it is the morning... In about 12 hours, I will be embarking on a journey to another world. Will touch my keyboard once again after 8 days, I sure will miss this computer... can't imagine 8 days without internet.
artificious ' 12:16 am
Wednesday, March 14, 2007
TIME: 0800
I got out of bed feeling dizzy, a common symptom to me. My eyes were sore by the glaring sun that shone mercilessly through the tiny gap of my closed curtains. “Chi Bai…” I swore softly. Then I walked to the toilet. In the toilet, I simply stared at the mirror, looking at myself. As time passed, I slowly day dreamed, just by looking at my own face, rather disgusting to think about it, but yea, I might have a fetish for myself. It was only when I smelt the scent of fried eggs did I suddenly realize that I had an appointment with Chester. By the time I did, I was horrified to see that it was already 0815 and I only had 15 minutes to bath, eat, dressed and pack my bag as I had no idea how long it would take to reach Newton MRT station. My appointment was at 0920 hours which meant that I only had 45 minutes to get there if I managed to finish my 4 tasks in 15 minutes.
TIME: 0845
this is the time I left my house for the bus stop to take a bus, 200. I checked the timing of the bus before I rushed out, it was supposed to reach at 0850 hours but instead, while I was walking out, on the way to the bus stop, I saw the bus leaving. I wondered, ‘God, you sure know how to make a good start of my day.’ At that moment, I had no choice but to take a bus to harbor front then take the train to Newton. The moment I reached the other bus stop, bus number 30 came and I thought, ‘Well, that’s a change! Lucky me.’
TIME: 0914
this is the time when I am already in the train, staring at a JC girl that kept blowing her nose noisily, and sadly she caught me staring at her. At that moment I decided to ‘stare’ at something else, I looked around and caught the map of the train stations. I was surprised to see that the route that I was taking to Newton was a lot shorter than the route that I was supposed to take. I thanked God for letting miss bus 200.
TIME: 0934
this is the time when I reached Newton and came out of the control station to find none of my friends there, and when I took up my phone to reach Chester, I turned around to realize that he was in the same train as me, walking slowly out of the control station. Chester, Isaiah, Ryan and I were about to do something really lame, to go to Ryan’s JC to crash. His JC is Catholic Junior College.
TIME: 0945
we took a bus to CJC, and apparently, we did not end up at the place that we should be. Well, all thanks to a ‘very good’ navigator, Ryan Choo. Ryan was supposed to lead us to his school but instead he alighted us at the wrong bus stop and instead of walking to the school, he made us hike. It was an utterly tiring but funny one, just like the movie, ‘Without a paddle’. He brought us back and forth on a pavement outside the old police academy, and then when we reached the gate of the old police academy, Ryan saw his school which was situated across the academy. Ryan then said, ‘Hey, we just cross the police academy then can reach my school already.’ The others were quite doubtful about his comment as they did not know if crossing it was allowed. So I said something stupid, ‘Eh, what if they shoot you down, how?’ Well being Mr. Precautious, he went to asked the lady security guard, ‘Aunty, can we cross this place?’ The aunty nodded. ‘Do you understand what I am saying? (Then Ryan spoke in Chinese) Can we cross this? Will we get shot down? [Raising his arm to a rifle position and pretending to fire.]’ The aunty starred at him and startled. The rest of us, well, we couldn’t help it but laugh our heads off! Ryan was just so, cute.
TIME: 1000
this is the moment when we meet a ‘junction’. One road leading out of the academy and the other was a road Ryan thought that could lead us to an over head bridge. Seeing Ryan having such enthusiasm in finding his ‘other road’, we agreed to let him lead. As he led, our votes for him to lead fell tremendously. We discovered that there is an over head bridge but, it was outside of the academy which we had to walk through a gate to get there. Sadly, all the gates that were near the bridge were locked. ‘I’m sorry Ryan, you sure do have the same fate as the character in Band Of Brothers, same name, same fate.’
All of us were perspiring like we had just gone through hell, and we all were blaming Ryan. ‘Ryan ah, we were supposed to go see girl, instead you bring us here to see men in uniform, and you sure have turned gay. Do you suppose Ryan has a fetish for policemen?’ In the end, we had to make a big round, walk out of the front gate of the academy, through a mini forest, and for the first time in our lives, be led to walk on an expressway filled with hundreds of speeding vehicles by Ryan Choo. Thanks to Ryan, we all had an once in a life time experience.
TIME: 1030
we met Venkatesh on the bridge and walked with him to CJC. As we entered CJC, I was just disgusted at the school’s old and unmaintained building. The ceilings were extremely low, the air was stuffy, the toilets had no fan, the vending machine was screwed up, and it was like walking into a prison.
TIME: 1100
this is the time when we entered for the economics lecture. I did a quick scan, gosh; the boys here were rather nerdy, the girls were worst. Only a few brightened my eye but damn, this is a boring school.
TIME: 1200
Lecture ended and we left CJC, feeling as if we had wasted our time. Then we decided to take a bus down to Orchard to catch a movie. We all voted for ‘Music & Lyrics’. First stop, we went to Shaw Centre to get Isaiah’s uniform and at the same place, we met a girl that looked like Tiffany Neo, wearing ACJC shirt. After a few minutes as we were walking in the TOPSHOP, we met the real Tiffany! What a weird incident. Then we headed down to McDonald’s to eat. After that, we headed to Cineleisure. On the way there, Chester decided to do an awkward post with a poster of a lady with enlarged breasts. I couldn’t resists, so I took a picture of it..jpg)
TIME: 1455
we entered the cinema to watch Music & Lyrics.
TIME: 1655
we exited Cineleisure and decided to go Clementi to have dinner before going to Fairfield.
TIME: 1835
we reached school, and we thought we were half an hour late, we then realized that the Chapel starts at 1900 hours.
Location: Auditorium
Singing: Average
Sound Quality: Deafening
People’s dressing: Good (except the 4 of us, we were just plain.)
Final Verdict Of Chapel: HAZARDOUS TO THE EARS
TIME: 0004
The time I finished typing this, this is the longest day that I had been out of my house in the past 2 months.
artificious ' 12:08 am
All of us were perspiring like we had just gone through hell, and we all were blaming Ryan. ‘Ryan ah, we were supposed to go see girl, instead you bring us here to see men in uniform, and you sure have turned gay. Do you suppose Ryan has a fetish for policemen?’ In the end, we had to make a big round, walk out of the front gate of the academy, through a mini forest, and for the first time in our lives, be led to walk on an expressway filled with hundreds of speeding vehicles by Ryan Choo. Thanks to Ryan, we all had an once in a life time experience..jpg)