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
