Tuesday, May 22, 2007

from planning to the actual booking to having probs with the agency that resulted in us taking on the luxury package, i am glad we finally decided to go for it. that's us at the airport. and an unsuccessful heads-together shot on the bus to the plane! =p that's us on the plane. that's my first time on board SQ and the first time i took a bus and walk up the stairs to the plane instead of using the air-bridge. i love the clouds pic.
it was raining when we reached tw. our first destination is jiu fen.

we ate non-stop for the whole day!
and local delights shopping at ah xing shop where i bought my muah ji and tai yang bing!

in the nite, we eat somemore at ximenting! and drank the bifido which was the latest trend in tw cuz it has slimming effect. i think we drank at least 10 bottles in total for the whole trip. the key word is at least! =p
places we visited includes the cks memorial and the zhong lie chi to witness the changing of guards. we kept staring at the guards to check out how often they blinked! poor guys.

we also took a walk to the residence of chen shui bian and took a boo-boo pic as suggested by our tour guide. he hates ah bian!

next up is the pretty taroko gorge at hualien!
i like pretty scenaries.
nice pose at the stairs up to the pavilion at taroko gorge.
nice pics with the gers. *loves*
another tourist-y place we visited is the spring and autumn pavilion.

we took a pic with the cute post boxes. after which we head up to Alishan.


the weather at alishan is cooling, juz rite for a forest walk. the heart shaped branch is nice. i like the pics on the left when we pretended to be cold. though i am not a nature-person, i like forest walks, looking at the creations of nature. the most memorable one i had is at aust when the guide took us on a nite walk thru the rainforest to look at glow-worms at the cave. cool.
we also visited the sun moon lake and wen-wu temple. dad says it is nothing much cuz we cannot see the shape of the lake. quite true.

still, i like the blue-ness of the water. pretty. we get to eat the president fish that swims in the sun moon lake. tasty! =)

that's us at the themepark. we missed out on the aboroginal performance as we chose to try out the rides. nothing really special. the four of us tried the UFO which drops us down from abt 6 storeys ba. no kick.

the next highlight of the trip is the tien lai hot spring resort we are staying at. we played table-tennis, badminton and pool. the difference between guys and gers is we r less serious when it comes to sports. we played in slippers and continue to hit the shutter when it is out. the guys are so serious, they counted their scores and stood in position when someone is hitting the shutter.

the hot spring is burning for the hot ones and shivering for the cold ones and not forgetting the one we lie flat down on our face with sprinklers of water hitting our back. nice. the sauna is not working for me and the gers. we din sweat a lot.

the slippers are so cute. we ate a lot during the whole trip. that's one day supply of cup noodles n chips. one of the rare times we took pic in the hotel. din take many photos with the guys. while the other gers try to be funny with their under-the-blanket pics with the guys, i prefer my sit-up pic! =)
the ferris wheel in tw costs us abt 7 bucks as compared to 30 bucks in sg. but the scenary is so-so. we spent the time cam whoring.

we have at least 3 copies each of the pics at the right as we all took turns to try our zi-pai skills. i cmi cuz i have short arms!

we also visited the miniature museum.


here are some of the pretty displays that angeline took. our grp photo is shaky!
tw is a place with many nite markets. so we eat and eat.. not so much of shopping though there are many shops selling clothes as well. the others bought more than me. =pyes. we tried the snake meat soup as well. it tastes like pork lehz. the famous hao da ji pa at shilin mkt. i think we drank quite a lot of milk tea with pearls as well.

we continue to eat on our free day on the last day.

we took the train back to ximenting to eat or rather re-eat the ah zong mian xian and the ice desserts.
not forgetting more cam whoring at the streets of ximenting.
the good thing about having 6 ppl is we can share the food and try out more varieties. it was nice the way we have no qualms abt sharing food, eating from the same chopsticks or drinking from the same straw. imgaine asking for 6 sets of cutlery? we tried a few local fruits as well and our jing dian lobster eating and mango sharing! =)
random pic the beautiful coastline from the coach!

finally manage to take a pic of this shirt. i like it alot! wm is the model! i have an unspoken admiration for the beings who manage to finish the marathon.

on the way home...

we have a lot of luggages but they consist mainly of food.

after days of uploading and downloading photos, that probably sums up my tw trip. photo count of about 534 and still missing 200+ from pam and dunno how many from daph in juz 8 days. this is madness.

what i left out are the memories, the times we laughed tog, do silly things tog, feast tog, everyth.

it was great having the guys manage the finance and taking care of us! and having angeline to laugh with me and chit chat in the rooms when the others are slping! and pam who is ever ready to whip out the cam to capture the moment.


love this pic pam zi-pai on the escalator! nice. it was nice having u guys.