BACK FROM TAIWAN!!!

(warning really really long post n sorry for the long delay... too many pictures to post up... hehe)

WASSUP PEEPS! 3 weeks has passed and finally im back in sg! yay! hahaha 3 weeks is long but while i was away it didnt feel like 3 weeks has passed. yep so i cant really blog what we did in taiwan but i think i can blog about the r&r. so yeah we went during a cold front so it was like freezing cold when we were outfield... brrrr i still recall sleeping on the roadside worse than a beggar sia... amazing my feets didnt have blisters or anything during my 72... thanks to lots of preventative mesures like taping my toes, wearing toe socks, wearing another layer of green socks, anti-abrasion cream and magically counter-pain when the load got too heavy and my whole body starts to ache. well it was definaterly a walk to remember especially the 2nd last part. "just keep walking, just keep walking" *sing to the dory tune of finding nemo* hahaha yeah n there was this one part where we started halucinating. i personally thought it was the end but it was in fact another group sleeping at the roadside. -_- and at another point i couldnt feel the load on my shoulders anymore so much so that i felt that i was walking down orchard road but the only difference that it was a very very long version of orchard road. hahaha oh wells my group finally finished it in 37h36min with about 2hrs of sleep in that timing. hahaha and guess what! we were team no.7! hahaha amazing even though we went to amsterdam for 3hrs+ just to find one specific place on a map so friggin old that the map and the roads didnt tally! hahaha still we could find our way to 7th place! hahaha yep and i can recall myself struggling to read the roadsigns cos they were all in traditional chinese! hahaha but i think i managed to adapt and learn chinese along the way. one would call it circumstantial learning whereby the brain is forced to learn as it is pressed in an environment such that not knowing it would mean not being able to survive in that environment. haha yeah if not i'll probably go amsterdam while on the humvee sia... lol yeah so i think my chinese improved tremendously! hahaha and ive climbed mountains just for the view... one of which had a temple at the peak and i managed to watch a possession in progress which was quite cool. yepyep lots of monkeys as well. and 376 steps of stairs when reaching the top. hahaha all the stuff we did before the r&r was shiong! especially the 4d3n one... or was it 3d2n? i cant remember but it was charlie mike all the way. i probably only slept 5hrs in that few days sia. not to mention lots of cheong sua to do as well. hahaha and i even went down to somewhere south to some dam which was supposedly the east coast of taiwan in terms of car shaking action. LOL okok shall not talk about that le... later kena charged den die sia. =X ok change subject to r&r! haha feels great leaving the camp for r&r man! like its never gonna come and when it finally reaches r&r it feels so surreal. hahaha

yep so we had a tourguide for each bus and ours being the 4th and final bus, we had the most chio tourguide in my opinion. haha yep so first up we went to 日月潭. its some lake and its somewhere in the mountains. the journey there was long and winding and through the clouds and if you watched initial-d its somewhat similar. hahaha still freezing cold then too... hahaha silly me forgot to bring a jacket along.

okies so after tha we went to formosan aboriginal cultural village 九族文化村. its a theme park at the foot of the mountain and a cultural village at the top. so we were kinda early and almost like the whole park was ours cos we went at such wierd timing. yeah so first i sat the mayan adventure which was a rollercoaster ride with your feet dangling in the air. 2 loops too! the first suspended looping coaster in taiwan hahaha we were crazy. i was crazy. but i still went on with the ride. hahaha next ride was the UFO! hahaha its the highest freefall drop of 85m in taiwan! hahaha the ride up was i would say the most scary part and the anticipation was a killer. the view was amazing up there thou but then came the drop. OMFG! the 1st second or so was scary then the 2nd second was where i felt kinda calm then it halted. quite disappointing cos i was expecting much more. hahaha then we sat all the other rides which were not much kick probably cos we sat the rides in the wrong order... hahaha then we took the skyline (cablecar) to the top of the mountain to see the village and take more pics. hahaha the view was undescribable. just beautiful.

the rollercoaster ride... :S

the UFO... scary shit from down here... worse from up there...

the cablecar ride... absolutely amazing view

after that we went for lunch then more traveling to up to taipei city. stopped along the way to buy 太阳饼. quite nice. tastes somewhat similar to lo po pang aka 老婆饼 (wife cakes). then we went to walk down a street full of woodcraft shops. then finally we checked into the hotel called rosemary hotel. something tells me its a love hotel like hotel 81 back in singapore cos outside of the hotel is a whole strech of nightclubs. later did i realise that just around the corner was the taiwanese prostitute stretch and the street opposite it was the japanese one! hahaha yeah so anyways for the 1st night we went to 西门町. its like the orchard rd of taiwan just alot more crowded and the road is only one lane wide. haha yeah so we went around in small groups and only managed to get a t-shirt cos we shopped way to slowly and that there was a curfew timing at 2359. but the shops there mostly close around 11 or so and the hotel was just nearby so it didnt really matter. night snack was cup noodles which were superb! much much better than the ones here at home cos theres MEAT in them! yes MEAT! hahaha you can buy them at any 7-11 or hi-life or family mart. and theres like tons of them all around. take for instance the street just outside my hotel has 2 7-11 and 1 hi-life shop! its insane. there can be like 2 7-11s just facing each other on opposite sides of the road or just 1 block away. hahaha taiwan... where the no. of convenience marts is as many as the no. of temples and shrines. haha

me n yap outside the hotel... haha

next day we went to a local restaurant to have breakfast. went to another theme park called 六福村. wow the rides there are just as crazy. the circle of fire, another freefall drop and the screaming condor which is insane! i didnt have the balls to ride it... haha went to the animal section of the theme park instead... lol had lunch somewere again then another bakery to buy more 太阳饼. then went to chiang kai shek memorial hall to watch the changing of guards parade. wow i am amazed. there is a certain path the guards take for marching and with the boots with the metal plates dragging on the floor, over the years it formed a rusted track or what the tourguide calls it the railroad tracks. then they performed some fancy drills and other stuff then the new guards marched back to the positions and stood there for god knows how long. yep then we went to the national museum and since we cant take photos inside, we took them outside! haha lame pics rite? but the background totally fits the picture's theme hahaha then had dinner at another place then we went to 士林 night market! hahaha this time i went alone for most part. explored the entire place and all the little dark alleys and secret shops. lol in the end i bought 1 pair of shoes, 5 t-shirts and 1 long sleeved shirt. hahaha oh and ate lots of stuff like 鸡排, shaven ice, 水煎包, some pastry fried with an egg which had a taipei walker signboard on the shop, a potato twisted on a stick and fried and sprinkled with seasoning so much so that it feels like eating chips only difference it is on a stick and the whole potato is spiraled around the stick and many many others. hahaha heaven sia but the chicken and pork smell reminded me of all the farms we walked through while we were training. haha blea! oh yeah and the pork smell is damn strong so if i wouldnt reccomend to eat it if you cant stand the smell. yup so then we went back to the hotel and watched some porn. yes porn. hahaha and theres like tons of channels there. lots of variety shows, news channels etc. haha and porn. =X

the shrine we visited

the "railroad tracks"

the new guard after the handover parade... boy it gotta suck to be him... =X

words in the background: TITS stands for this is taiwan, stupid! adapted from blood diamond's TIA this is africa lol

haha behold! the lame kung fu pics we took turned out to be a frame by frame depiction by chance! haha pro!

shilin nightmarket

some bbgun shop... cool stuff sia...me fiddling around with my camera's effects... not bad for a newbie... hehe

final day! free and easy till 5pm... so my bunkmates and i went to 五分埔. its a nightmarket located at the eastern part of the city. it opens around late afternoon and sells mostly girl stuff but we didnt know that so ended up a wasted trip. haiz but we took the train back to taipei main station and changed to the mrt to go back to 西门町. this time i went to comb the whole area alone again. its more productive and saves time. the bad part is the creeps following you. like for instance i got followed by 2 pimps asking me if i want or not. 21 yrs old one, very good. hahaha do i have that kinda look on my face? but then again its probably cos i havent bought anything yet then and had only the camera in my hand. ya. haha so i kinda followed mekko's itinery and found the various places stated in ximending. even ventured into a shopping centre which had a basketball court inside! haha cool sia. then i had to try the 阿宗面线. damn famous. damn nice too. haha then went to the nike shop to buy a bag. very unique bag and i dont think its yet to be sold in singapore. then went to buy another pair of shoes. hahaha 2 pairs of shoes. didnt really give much thought to the packing process later but what the hell. its nice so just buy lor! haha then bought a ring for myself. then had kfc for lunch and some roadside snacks. almost bought another ring but was kinda broke le. the storekeeper was drop dead gorgeous too man. hahaha droolz! i think all the gals in taiwan dresses up really nice and their complexion is like flawless probably cos of the climate there. too bad i didnt take any pictures with any of them. :( wasted the ones in the shopping centre selling the cosmetics were even better! hahaha anyways! i gotta go back to taiwan on my own sia. maybe end of year of so. haha yep so then we went back to the hotel and watched more porn while squeezing everything into the bag. haha then went to take the bus to the airport. still had some NT left with me so i had a cup of starbucks iced latte and subway sandwich and that finished whatever NT i had left. yay! flight home was great. the airstewardess were chioer in this one than the flight to taiwan... haha watched 2 movies going to taiwan and 2 movies coming back! haha pro. watched rocky and the jacky chan baby movie going there and watched tears for you (jap movie) which was really really nice and perfume another fantastic movie. haha didnt buy anything from dfs and shared cab home with daniel. kns 2:40am surcharge damn ex sia... haha oh wells home at last! missed my bed too. haha wonder whats going on back in singapore too. lots to catch up too! hahaha yeah and i heard sue sue just came back from tw too and so did amanda. lol think end of yr i'll go again! hahaha anyone intrested?

the train ticket!

some gal across the platform with some "artistic" shot... lolme n don! my hotel buddy... haha =Xanother shot of us with the background blurred... nice effect huh :Dthe train station for the mrt which is connected to the other train... argh hard to explain la hahaanother nice effect time! hehesee... the variety of bottled drinks, particularly tea, is crazy... shot at one of the many 7-11s around taiwanBOA! on some ximending shopping centre billboard!some lame ad... look carefuly... hahayes... its a basketball court inside a shopping centre... the gal was quite chio too... another effect shot i tried... not bad though her face was blurred... OMG! JU ON! =X hahaha jkjkAH ZONG MIAN XIAN!!! to help those who cant find the place... this is their shop... lollooks yummy! dig in!