A week after I come back, I finally have the time to blog!! Spent a good 3 hours on Tuesday uploading all my trip photos to photobucket. We took a total of 275 photos throughout the 7 day 6 night trip.
Taiwan is fun fun fun fun FUN!!!
I love that place sooOOooo much that I don't wish to come back and even thought of the idea of purposely fall ill to lengthen our trip. The people there are so super friendly and helpful. Whenever we asked for directions, taiwanese never fail to help and even if they themselves are not sure of the directions, they even took the effort to run a few stores down to help us ask! And some even walk along with you to direct you, making sure you don't get the wrong way. Not just one or two we came across, but ALL whom we have asked help for!
People there are just so different. They seemed to be so well-mannered and courteous. When you take escalator in the MRT, they never fail to go by the unspoken rule of keeping to the right (for us is keep to left), and if you are the only one standing on the left, everyone will just look at you with weird glances. Back in sg, people simply love to stand in the way on the right and block people's way. Especially those aunties and couples who cling on to each other like there is no tomorrow.
The weather there is humid and HOT. Real hot. Temperature of 36 to 37 degree everyday. Both me and skelan got tanned while visiting the Yang Ming Shan. And I got a bra strap tan mark. Damn!!! At night, their temperature is about 28-30 degrees. Can you imagine?? I wonder how those girls there can still remain so fair.
One thing negative about there is the lack of rubbish bin. It is so difficult for us to throw away the litters. You can only find one rubbish bin in like every 2.5 kilometres??? And strangely, there were very little rubbish on the ground. Skelan and me are unable to solve this mystery. What happen to them when they have litters to throw? The only thing we can think of is: Firstly, they either swallow their litters themselves, or, secondly, they simply dump everything inside their bag and then empty it when they come across a precious rubbish bin. Lastly, is, the sweepers and cleaners there are so that efficient and diligent and there are millions of them cleaning the street every second.
Ok, our precious memories coming up...
Day 1
On the way to Taiwan...

At his house downstairs, with our only lugguage.

Having breakfast before boarding the plane

At the waiting area before boarding

On the plane before disembarking

Waiting for the shuttle service to our hotel

After unpacking the lugguage and study the route

He loves this Ah Zong Mian Xian

Night at Xi Men

Pasta for dinner

Me ordered squid ink pasta
After reaching the hotel and unpacking our things, we went to Xi Men Ding to walk walk. Bought some stuffs and we searched high and low for that famous Ah Zong Mee sua. Walked till very very far, and when we decided to ask the people there and found the place, we realised that the stall is actaully very near our hotel. Haha. Shopped around the whole area after eating and we bought a couple ring! Hee hee. At 9 plus we were feeling hungry and decided to put all our new loads in the hotel room first before having dinner. By the time we haunt for an eating place, it was around 10 plus and all restaurants were closing except for this pasta cafe. Pasta ok ok lor. Then, we went back after eating as we had little sleep for the whole day. Decided to rest early.
Day 2 - Yang Ming Shan and Shih Lin Night Market(torturous day)

Breakfast at roadside hawker (super good carrot cake)

On the bus to Yang Ming Shan (My hell time is gonna start soon)

After successful conquer of one path trail to see the mountain behind, but I forgot the Mt name)

Saw this yorkshire while resting, she is super sweet looking!! But like my boy, she doesn't like to take photos...

those stupid rocky and uneven steps almost killed me

Yet another mountain(I dunno why but this pose of him reminds me of Sang Nila Utama) Wahahahahaha...

Tiring but happy

He decided to do this after discovering that we have tan lines of our clothing...

That's the fourth (or fifth??) 600ml isotonic beverage we had ever since we set foot on Yang Ming Shan

Cannot make it liao, walked very far just too admire this pond and scenery

Their so called hot spring

Me, inside the small tub

The chicken cutlet is power (just thinking about it makes my hungry)

Look at the size of the watermelon...
As you can see, day 2 was hell suffering at Yang Ming Shan, under the scorching strong sun. We reached there at about 11 plus, and after walking just 2 attractions, we had to go at 3.30pm because last shuttle van on Yang Ming Shan is at 5pm, and the frequency is half an hour. In addition, we went down early as we did not want to squash ourselves with those aunties and uncles. Dunno why, only aunties and uncles went there. And when we were on the van down, on the way we saw so many nicer attractions that we thought were worth to visit, but too late. Like one hole on the ground that keeps emitting smoke. It's all natural. Too bad, no chance.
After getting down the mountain we wanted to go and have a nice spa hot spring. Asked around and the place where all the hot spring spas were located were quite a distance away, were too tired by then to hunt and we just settled for our only choice in the nearby area within walking distance. But erm... the place itself was quite disappointing as it look quite run down, and the so called hot spring was just hot spring water running out from the tap into a square tub in the toilet of a very run down motel look alike room. The sulphur smell from the water was very strong, but we got used to it after some time.
Then, we took a bus to Chien Tan, were the MRT and Shih lin Night Market was, and had our dinner. Snacked around and Skelan ate the Smelly beancurd. I don't like it, coz, firstly, it really smelled real bad, secondly, i took a small nib and it taste super fermented. Had our fill and started shopping. The whole night market was huge!! There was a section selling all cute puppies and kittens (and of coz those not so cute bugs). Those puppies look so awwwwww..... All carry those "please buy me home" kind of look. Buay tahan. There was another section sort of like a mini fun fair, and Skelan had a great time there with air gun. He played a few rounds and scored pretty well. Set his eyes on the Doraemon alarm clock and asked the stall keeper how many points to gain the alarm. The lady challenged him if he was able to shoot all ballons without missing any bullets she will give us the doraemon alarm clock. And my dear Skelan did it!!! My dear dear is so good!
When the stalls started packing up, we went back to the hotel by cab.
Day 3 - Tam Shui

On the MRT

Approaching train

Ham Ham on the MRT!!!

At Tam Shui eating house

Wrinkles coming out while waiting for food...

Our lunch
After walking the "old street" we took a ferry to Bali

Ferry from Tam Shui to Bali. Did his parents come too?? No! They were strangers, maybe they look pretty so Skelan decided to include them in...

Ok a better shot... Sea breeze was strong even though it's unbelievably HOT

Bali

This is the trishaw Skelan plans to import
We had wanted to go to the Shi San Hang Museum and according to the local map, it seemed very far away. Skelan wanted to rent the above trishaw for easy transportation under the scorching sun but I rejected his offer, stating that there will be no way to park the trishaw. After one hour of suffering, I could not take it anymore and relented to the trishaw. They actually offer lock for thee trishaw lor. And, we reached our destination in like 15 mins.

While cycling we saw this

Shi Sang Hang Museum

They look real

Shi sang hang tribe. A couple with their 3 children

I think he likes this pose

Mt Guan Yin
After visiting we cycled back and headed for the ferry to Fisherman's Wharf

Overlooking Qing Ren Qiao

Qing Ren Qiao

Waiting for sunset on the bridge

He sprawled on the floor to take this

Baby and me

Skinny Skelan

Me and sunset

Skelan and sunset

Beautiful bridge
After sunset, we went back to Tam Shui and had our dinner at a seafood restaurant. While walking we saw this shop which exhibits strange animals and we decided to pay entrance fee for a visit.

Rocky turtle

What's that???

A clearer look

Answer!!!

Snake attack!!!

Me and cutey rabbit

I think it wanted to kiss my baby...

Twin brothers...
The shops started closing at about 10pm, and we took the MRT back to the hotel.
Day 4 - Taipei 101, Shopping centres
For one day, we managed to sleep a little bit later coz we were going shooping centres...

Taipei 101

Breakfast cum lunch at Taipei 101 foodcourt

Nice resting area. Cosy

Us
After roaming around we walked over to another shoping centre call New York New York

Toys r us at New York New York

Eslite Bookstore
After leaving the bookstore we took the MRT to Xing Guang Shang Yie where I bought mouse for my lappy, a flashdrive and a SD card for the camera. (take too many photos until memory card full liao) Very Cheap!!!
And after that was when disaster happened. From the map, I realised that the place that we are going dinner to is quite near our present location. like 2 MRT stops away, so, smart alec Rachel decided to walk there, and even thought of going to the near by SOGO Shopping Centre first since it was still quite early for dinner time (like 5 plus??)
After walking for slightly more than half an hour we turned into an alley, and everything seemed strange. And we seemed to be lost. Walked though the alley and to another main road, and we decided to ask people for directions. Those people although very helpful, were not really sure of the place either, and we took their vague advice and headed on. walked for a little while more, and we asked for directions again. This time round, we seemed to be on the right track and we walked on, but not knowing how long more we have to walk. Skelan suggested going onto a cab, and I was afraid that we might get lost, so
I agreed. Who know, the moment we showed the cab driver the namecard of the restaurant, he told us the restaurant is only straight up and turn left. Only 5 more mins by foot. But hiya... already on the cab le... So what to do...

Finally reached!!

Glutton me

Skelan says it's GOOD!

Skelan at 89th floor of Taipei 101

Looking down

Taipei's night scenery

The object that maintain stability

Before leaving

I found Singapore!
Day 5 - Hualien Ocean Park
We woke up at 6a.m!! Coz we are going Hualien and it takes 3 hours by train! Reached the train station at 7.15.

Waiting for our train to arrive
We were too tired that both of us knock out on the train and did not take any photos of the nice scenery!

Just set foot on the Park

And Skelan caught the big shark!

Gigantic lobster kiap me but he never come and help

Strange looking eel tried to kiss him

What if the upper jaw dropped?

Mermaids of the ocean
After the mermaid performance we wanted to watch sealions performance, still got abit of time and we decided to go for lunch

Fried chicken sandwich

After filling our stomachs

Sealion show

Photo taking with the clever sealion

I fed them!!

Seriously I pity the horse...

Skelan on merry go round

Cute octopus

Us at Ocean Park

This is my castle

Resting

He conquered this lion head fish tail creature

Looking at map hor

Farglory Ocean Park

At Ferris Wheel

Us on the Ferrids Wheel

View of Pacific Ocean. It's true!!! It's OCEAN!!!

Skelan, under cable car and behind is the magnificent ocean.

On cable car

Can you find my baby??

Map of the whole park

As the night approached...
We found this g00d spot to settle and watch the fireworks. I love fireworks!!! Fireworks starts at 7p.m, but before that, people had already started chopping seats to get a nice view of the fireworks, so we also cannot lose out. From our conclusion, everyone loves fireworks, regardless of nationalities. In conjuction with their 5th year anniversary celebration, they are displaying fireworks every night. So we went at the right timing! Everyone started dispersing once the fireworks ended.

Going back to Taipei

Me on the train back to Taipei
The whole day was tiring!! Spent 7 hours on travelling to and fro but al the hardship is worth it because we really enjoyed ouselves looking at sealions, dolphins, entertaining performances, and scenes you will never get to see in sg. After reaching back the hotel at 12 midnight, I insisted to take a shower before going down for our dinner. (Yes at midnight)
Day 6 - Xi Men Ding, Wu Fen Pu, Rao He night market, Long Shan Si
Woke up slightly abit later, and went for breakfast at World of Curry. Wanted to eat that the very first night we came, but it was closed. But erm... frankly speaking the food is not very nice...

He think he still not enough sleep

While waiting for our food

His curry with chicken

my curry with beef
After eating we went to buy some local dry food for our families and friends back in sg, and we headed to Wu Fen Pu. The place is something like our Bugis street, but like 20 times bigger. I like it there so much because it's a shopping paradise! Clothes, bags, shoes, accessories... But suddenly I found Skelan very gloomy and it somehow dampen my shopping spree mood and not really dared to go into shops anyhow unless I really saw something I liked on the mannequin. Coz I scared he angry. Asked him why and he said he felt bored coz it's all gril's stuff shops after shops. Wahaha. Then, we went passed this shaved ice shop and I suggested resting awhile and let him feel better. My plan worked, after eating the ice and chatting for awhile he was back to normal. And we engaged in a shopping spree!!

At the dessert shop

Our loads
He also bought about 6 tops and a few things here and there, from those guys stores which is like one shop out of every 6 shops there. So, it's always better to be a woman than man... As night falls we walked over to Rao He night market which is very nearby, we had our dinner by snacking around.

An ugly shot of me gobbling

Rao He Night Market
The night market were not as huge as we thought, unlike Shih Lin. We were done with the night market by 10p.m, and since we didn't want to go back so early (coz next day going back sg liao boo hoo hoo), we decided to go Long Shan Si.

Eating at a roadside hawker at Long Shan Si
At 11p.m, all the stalls started packing and we knew it was time to go back.
Day 7 - Bye bye Taiwan
Woke up at 9 plus and wanted to go down for breakfast but, stalls there opened late, so we only have choices like MacDonald's and the roadside hawker we ate on Day 2. We chose the latter. After buying the breakfast Skelan said we wanted to bian bian, so no choice, we had to go back to the hotel.

Me, eating riceball

I dunno why he wanted to take photo while I still had food in my mouth

Came with one, back with 4

One last look at our hotel room

Outside the hotel, waiting for our shuttle bus to airport

What does shapoo means??

At Taoyuan Airport

There is a story behind this sandwhich

The plane that we will be taking

Bye bye Taiwan!! We love you. Will be back again.
I think Skelan's Chinese improved. Haha. the first few days, I did all the necessary talking. After awhile, he finally got the courage to speak with his Chinese although there were alot of er... Coz he dunno how some words were said in Chinese. But very cute lar!!! Also, there were so many toy catching machines there. All along I have liked to catch stuff toys, and the moment we stepped into one, we were bound to put coins in for a try. and we caught so many stuff toys back. I like Eeyore the most!!! Dunno why, those toys were so much easier to catch as compared to sg. And I had a great time catching them, though sg ones are bigger and look more expensive.
Skelan like Taiwan alot too. Perhaps next time we will go back in March or April, when the weather is much more cooling!!!
Gosh I cannot imagine that I actually spent 3 log ins to compete this post!!!