Cutie boy from our tour group. Isn't he adorable? He is very obedient, never make noise during the long bus trips. Got cry sometimes la, but stop very fast. Haha.. he is very good at posing for photos. The girl in purple is his mummy. Very young and pretty mum.
Photo taken with Steven. Haha.. think i will miss his lame jokes. Del gotten his namecard, so maybe the next time when we visit taiwan again, can ask him to show us around.
Reached the Martyr's Shrine at 9am, just in time to see the ceremony of changing guards. There was a huge crowd, so it very much seemed like they were performing for the audience. The guards quite poor thing, had to stand under the sun for an hour with the super thick uniform. Cannot move, cannot smile and cannot even blink their eyes.
Next on the itinerary was the National Palace Museum. It actually showcased the priceless Chinese treasures brought in to Taiwan by CKS. Very impressed by what people in the past did, with no advance technology, they could still produce very excellent works. For example, the mini engravings which was done manually, very delicate work indeed. Not allowed to take photo. Quite a few exhibitions hall. So we just rest our feet at the first level.
Yeah!! Finally visiting the Miniature Museum that i looked forward to. The works are so cute and so mini. Simply adore them!!
The last stop on the itinerary was the CKS Memorial Hall. Photos are taken from the bus. Several reasons for not getting down : Very hot, del was slping and nothing much to see.
Ended the whole tour at ard 4 plus and went back to the the hotel, the rest of the day was free and easy. Stayed at Grand Hyatt which is just beside the taipei 101. Quite a few shopping centres nearby. Very high end just like taka, so only walk one round then come out of the departmental store.
Took a taxi to Wu Fen Pu, the street which was advertised on Channel 54. It is actually a wholesale market therefore there were many shops selling clothes. Del managed to get some cheap buys. Decided to go back Hsimenting for more shopping. Quite a distance away from our hotel, about half an hr ride.
Had our dinner at 12 midnight. Most of the restaurants were closed at that time so had to settle for the mala steamboat which is opened till 7am. Accordingly to del, it is more spicy than the ones they previously tried. The locals there can really eat alot. Mountains and mountains of meat, prawns and cockles. Think we only ate one-fifth of the price we paid. It is actually not very ex, ard $17 per person.
Returned to the hotel at ard 2am and realised the things we left in the hotel was being moved. Called the operator to check if there was any room service earlier on, but they couldnt really understand what we were talking about. Del panicked and breakdown.
Slpt at 4am that day. So many things to pack into our luggage, esp for del. Hee..Unglam photo of del sitting on her luggage.
Del and her tofu ice-cream in the tofu street. It is actually a street that sells smelly tofu. Indeed very smelly, haha.. had to stop breathing when passing by the some foodstalls. Bought 6 almond and melon biscuits, then got 1 for free. Very tasty, highly recommended by Del's sis. Think all our tour mates bought from them. 
Above are actually rock formations. Quite fascinated by what nature is capable of doing. Walked a long way under the scorching sun before the nice view appears in front of us. 
This photo is taken at the lobby of the YangMingShan Hotspring resort. First time visiting a hotspring. Totally excited about it. The best thing was that there are about 10 odd hot and cold outdoor hotsprings. So we could enjoy the scenery while relaxing in the hotspring. Personally prefer the cold one. So shiok!!
In taipei, how can we not visit Hsimenting? It is a place for shopping and tasting local snacks. The 2 above stalls are the must-try items. Highly recommended by many. U can see for yourself when u are there, all the long queues. I simply lurve the bubble tea, so did del who bought 3 cups, not consecutively of course.
It's a girls paradise. A lot of things to buy from there. Fashionable hair accessories, bags, shoes, caps.. Not say very cheap though. Must know how to bargain in order to get cheap deals.
This is how our hotel room looked like. Very small compared to the other hotels we stayed in. Not much place for 3 luggages so have to put all our shopping bags on the bed. However the location is good. Just a 10mins walk to Hsimenting. Haha.. got lost when we were walking back, thanks to the locals(3 of them) who showed us the wrong direction.
Did the most shopping that day!!
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Visited the gigantic statues of the Dragon and Tiger Pagodas. It was said that if you walked in the dragon's mouth and walked out from the tiger's mouth, you will be one year older. I cant remember the explanation to that actually.
This is another temple near to the pagodas. Din really get the name of it when Steven was introducing it to us.
Travelled 2 hrs before we reached the Tainan where we had our lunch. It is called 'Five Cent Driftwood House'. Really like the ambience there. On the left shows the utensils that we used and the right is the interior of the restaurant. Totally love the place and food!!
Look at the muah chee Del is eating!! It is so big, so soft and so Q. How i wish i could bring them home. Too bad that it couldnt be kept for long.
The next stop was Sun Moon Lake which is said to be the largest lake in Taiwan. Also travelled along the winding road of the mountains before reaching there. Magnificent view i must say. There is also a temple known as the Wenwu temple. Paid our respects to Confucius, Guan Gong and Yuefei.
Went shopping at Feng Jia Night Market. Quite big too but again we had too little time. Was nearly late to meet the rest of our tour mates, so we ran all the way from the inside of the market to the place that was set to meet at. It was quite a distance.. very rush indeed!!
We had mala steamboat for dinner. Del and Dora had the mala soup base but i requested for the non-mala. So my soup base is actually made from sugercane. Not bad actually. According to the both of them the mala steamboat is not very mala.. but to me, it is already very spicy. Steven say one cant take too much mala cos the person might lose his voice. A very good example here is Dora.. hee..
Really love the hotel that we had for the night. There was a big WOW when we all saw the room that we had. It was very big, there are 2 rooms in a room, european style somemore. Looked like a 'mini suite'. There are different themes for different rooms. There is japanese style, chinese style, and british style. Very nice and beautiful deco!!
Went out for late night shopping on our own. Dun quite like the fact that there are so many strays hanging ard at night. Very scary!!
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Above photos were taken in the Hakka Village. It is said that the Hakkas has a traditional way of making durable umbrellas that's why the umbrellas u see above costs about 40 to 80 bucks. Haha.. but it is those traditional umbrellas, doubt any singaporeans would bring it out when it is raining. Think it will just be an ornament in the house.
Our next stop was the Sin Jiao Jiang Night Market. Din take any photos from there cos we were too busy shopping. The place is quite big but we were only given less 2hrs to shop. Dinner was on our own expense but we din manage to buy dinner from there, cos we were already running late. Luckily there were some small night markets near the hotel that we stayed in.
Took a taxi to Liuhe Night Market for more shopping and dinner. We tried their 'guan cai ban' which is a direct translation of 'coffin'. It is actually a french toast with some paste inside. Very delicious but very oily.
Tried their grilled meat too. Waited quite long but i think it was worth the wait. Their chicken and beef is so tender and juicy.
Bought mineral water on our way back. Find the brand (多喝水) very interesting so i just took a photo of it. Guess which belongs to who?? Quite easy to guess actually. Haha..
The distance from Taipei to Chiufen is very far. Took the whole morning to reach there. We had to travel through several mountains along the winding road. Quite unbearable at times, luckily i got no car sickness. A bit tough on del and dora though.. One good thing is we could enjoy the nice scenery while travelling.
Nothing much at Chiufen actually, to think we travelled all the way up the mountain. It is actually just a street that sells food and traditional stuffs. Bought fishballs from there to eat. It was so hard that you could hit someone with it. Haha..
Above photo was taken at Taroko Gorge. Only managed to upload this photo cos the rest is still with dora. Nice view and cool weather. The water flows very rapidly and so Steven warned us never play with the water there.
At evening time, we went to the Ami Aboriginal Village to watch their performance. Dun really enjoy their performance cos they all dance so unwillingly, except for one. Cant blame them actually, cos they have been dancing non stop for the whole morning and afternoon. This is the result of having it commercialised. At times i even wonder if they are real Ami people or not..
Returned to a 5* hotel at Hualian for our buffet dinner. It was real good. Room was good too. Had 3 larger than super single bed and it was still very spacious. Too bad that there wasnt any shopping items for us to pack. Really had a good night rest there..
Flew China Air this time round. More comfy, more leg space and better food. One good thing i like is that each of us had a personal TV to keep us entertained for the entire 4hrs. Before taking off and landing, the screen showed what was happening outside, just like what the pilot was viewing.. so cool!!!
This is our tour guide, Steven who kept us entertained throughout the 7 days. He wore a suit to fetch us from the airport. Looks young and is very humourous. I find him very interestinｇ. He talks in a funny way, for example, toilet = 歌厅，going toilet= 唱歌.. So at first when he told us that there is a 歌厅 at Starbucks, i literally thought that not bad ar, starbucks can also sing KTV. haha..
This is the view of Tamshui Old Street. Took a photo by the riverside. A lot of 小吃 but din get to try much cos our dinner is going to be served soon.
Had our dinner at Xiaolong Pau for dinner. Not very fantastic though. But i think better than the ones at Din Tai Feng. After the early dinner, we are all ready for shopping at the Shihlin night market, one of the largest in Taiwan.
Above is del and her bubble milk tea. In taiwan, bubble tea is a must try item. Their pearls are so Q.. The 3 of us simply love it. *very fattening though* Here are our shopping bags after 2 hrs of shopping. Quite little time given as we only managed to cover a small part of the night market. Ta pao quite a few snacks to the hotel and they are so yummy!!
This is what our hotel look like. It is actually a golf resort. Travelled about an hr from Shihlin to the hotel.
That's all for day 1. No night shopping cos the hotel is quite ulu. There are no stores nearby.
The black bag belongs to my dad and the grey one is my bro's newly bought bag. So cute right?? It is so mini.. it is actually a pencil case which my bro bought at the Aviva Open.
The one on the left is actually a mini shuttlecock keychain. A gift from my bro's badminton mates when he left JC.. So sweet of them.
Haha.. now then i know my bro also like mini stuffs.
This was how my desk looked like before i started packing. Took ard 2 hours to sort out my notes and file them nicely, for easy reference in the future.
Tadah.. This is the current state of my table. Not much difference actually. Just that it looks neater now and i'm all ready to pass back my friends the notes that i borrowed from them.
Sneezing all the way while typing out this entry. Must be the dust that has accumulated all this while.
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Our flight arrangement on Jetstar. My first time flying budget. I find the seats a little crampy and due to it being a small sized plane, it was not very stable. Luckily it only takes ard 3 hours to reach our destination.
This is actually a indicator on the airport express which shows how far away you are from your destination. As the name suggest, the ride from airport to town takes only about 40mins.
4 passengers in the back seats.. so where am i??
At the front seat of course. The taxi here can take up to 5 ppl. The front seat can accomodate 2 ppl.. interesting ar..
This was our first meal at a 'cha can ting' near our hotel. Their noodles are quite 'Q' but the soup too salty.
We were lazying around in the hotel room. It was not that we dun wanna go shopping, it was because the weather dun want us to do so. It rained throughout our stay. So spoiler.. =(
Went to Harbour City for shopping. It is where those high end boutiques are, just like Taka. Had KFC for dinner. Quite tasty i would say. They have baked rice, egg tarts and corn as their side dishes. What i like about the KFC there is that they provide gloves and wet tissues. No more dirty and oily hands. How I wish the S'pore outlets could incorporate that.
This is the night scene of HK. Too bad the photo cannot really capture the beauty of it. Our initial plan was to go to Avenue of Stars where there will be handprints of those famous artiste along the streets. But too bad, the rain spoil our plan. So we moved on to Mongkok for shopping. It is quite similar to Far East and they have a street that particularly sells sports apparel at a reasonable price.
Day 2 : Causeway Bay, Times Sq, Langham Place
This is a typical breakfast set in the cafe. Looks so appealing!!
Shopping, shopping and more shopping. Haha.. think SL was the biggest spender for that day. Let's see.. She bought a Chez bag, Toni & Guy products and cosmetics from Benefit (not selling in s'pore). As for the rest, we din buy much cos the things there not say very cheap.
This is the food court. The deco is quite similar to ours. An interesting finding is that they even have Toa Payoh chicken rice. Though i am not the one eating, it sure doesnt look nice. Right, ZP?
Day 3 : Sha Tin, Wong Tai Sin Temple, Po Lam, The Peak
Woke up extra early for the dim sum cos it was further away from our hotel. It is at Shatin, Maxim Restaurant. Yummy Yummy!! I must say that it was quite worth the trouble. The hongkongers actually have their own way of 'yum cha'. For eg. they will eat using the bowl and put their unwanted stuffs on the plate. Luckily SL taught us before we started eating. If not, we'll become a laughing stock. Haha.. at times, we even had communication breakdown with the staffs there.
Our next stop was at Wong Tai Sin Temple. It was said to be very 'ling' so we specially make a trip there to pray. Above was the view we got after 'pa shang shan' under the rain. SL conveniently sat there and so we all conveniently took photos with her one by one. haha..
Went to Po Lum for more shopping. It is located right at the end of the MTR line.
No kidding. Shan is the new owner of the 5 shoes captured above. Nice and cheap shoes i must say. Comfortable level?? Still testing..
Went up the peak via the tram. The weather is very much like genting, so cooling. Magnificent view!! A must visit place for first timers to HK.
Day 4 : Mongkok, Airport Express, Changi Airport
Went back to Mongkok for last minute shopping. Going home soon le but still had quite a lot of money left. That means that i have a shortage of souvenirs. Here are some of the stuffs i bought.
Packing our newly bought stuffs into lugguage at the Airport Express. Action have to be fast, if not the train would be arriving.
At the check-in counter. Can u see the difference between a budget airline and a normal airline?? So interesting!!
My overall HK experience : The country is very much like Singapore just that it is not as orderly and systematic, esp their traffic and signboards. Food there on the average is quite tasty. Think we would enjoy ourselves better if not because of the rain. So next time, must go HK at the right time.
PS. Can view all my photos under Visual Memories - My Photo Gallery
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