Havent been blogging much....
I'm one of those ppl who gets alot of ideas but because I use too much energy letting my mind wander (Hey, it's hard work okie.. >=|) and end up not putting in any of those ideas into action..
I belong to the do-half-sian-half species in the homosapien family.
I've actually wrote an entry for my Taiwan trip earlier this year (okie 1/4 only actually) but never publish it. It's really hard work to blog and I tend to give up when I get bored of it. So I left this particular entry untouch for like almost 6 months without continuing and abt a month earlier I decided to do virtual scrapebooking for my Taiwan trip (which was also 1/2 in my opinion).
Here's my scrapbook:
Here's my 6 month-old unfinished entry:
Initially I was just planning to go for a short trip to KL or somewhere nearby on a First Class coach during March BUT.... I couldnt get the couple seat I wanted even though I was checking the website everyday for them to release the bookings for March -_-"
So instead, my bf and I decided to go for a trip to Taiwan. I've actually wanted to go there last year but thought it's not really my budget yet. Once we've decided on the dates to go, I went to book our flights with Jetstar and bf went to look for hotels in Taipei. Armed with our flight and hotel bookings for the first two and last two days in Taipei, we're all set for our trip to Taiwan!!
We did not plan much (I never go for trips tat I didnt book all the accomodations beforehand but bf say he always go for holidays like this) but we did have a rough itinerary of where we want to visit.
It's a 9day-8night trip, so we planned to stay two days at 台北, two days at 花莲, two days at 墾丁and then back to 台北 for the last two days for me to SHOP!
Bf asked me to pack light since we are going to move around Taiwan. I swear I've packed the lightest I ever could but still my 30litre pack is filled up to the brim (okie okie... I've brought games I never play and books I never read plus one free rider, Ah siao, for the trip). Anyway, I met him at Jurong East MRT to take train down to Changi Airport together lor. Wah, his bag is like so empty one lor (but give me the credit, I brought all our toiletries cuz I dun trust a guy to pack for such things >=| hehehe), so he took some load off from my bag on our way to the airport.
The flight to Taiwan is 4 hours but it feels like eternity to me -_-" (even a two-hour flight to bangkok bores me to tears). We reached Taiwan at around 6plus and took a cab to our Hotel - 儷萊大飯店. The cab we took was really good, there's TV inside, car is new, it's fast and quiet, the cabby is wearing a suit too! Good things don't come cheap, the cab fare was 1200NT (around $55) which is not cheap considering it is a 30plus 40min ride.
It was around 8plus when we got out of the hotel and went hunting for dinner. The famous ximending was within walking distance and while my bf was looking for a non-crowded place to have our meals, I was very distracted by all the shops there. Anyway, we found a small hawker-center-like place to have our meals. It was not bad and the price of the food is similar to Singapore.
Had a good time checking out the place but I think I need a map to navigate myself around the area. The first night in Taiwan, I found THE ONE snack that I love --- Honey Coated Strawberry...it's even better than the usual sugar coated strawberry I eat at home! It's interesting to see chinese words everywhere (my bf likes it that way I think)...They also have lotsa interesting names for their shop!! I saw one salon call 乱剪 (translate to singlish should be anyhow cut) and there's many more la. We walked till most of the shops close before heading back to the hotel.
I'm suppose to save all my shopping till the last 2 days but I bought this on my first night in Taiwan (hehehe....)
I saw these miniatures online but couldnt find it in any Singapore Toy shops. This is quite an old edition so I guess it's hard to find so I MUST get it!! hahaha, I love that pig rice cooker (sadly it was not in the set I bought, I got the "secret" set instead =< , I will continue to look for this pig set!!) This set was 800NT which is around $37 and it's cheap as compared to those sold in singapore where one set typically cost around $50 to $55 for a set of 10. I've been waiting to go taiwan to buy the miniatures (I almost cave in a few times to buy these in Singapore before my trip!!)
So the itinerary for the next day is to visit 淡水 in the day and then go 士林夜市at night. We went to Danshui by their MRT, this is the first time we are travelling on Taipei Metro (台北捷运）.
Not everyone uses a card for this Metro, those one way trip uses some plastic coins. When you enter, you place the coin near the sensor just like how you would with EZ-link card but when you are exiting, you drop the coin in the coin slot. Save us the hassle of going to the GTM (General Ticketing Machine) in Singapore to get our refund back. Something for SMRT to think about? *bleah*
Take a closer lookAs you can see from the MRT map above, 淡水 is all the way at the end of the red line. It's a pretty crowded place and the weather is nice, around 16 to 18 degrees.
Lots of makan there and I found another Heavenly Invention "salted mushroom". So we just walk and buy snacks lor.
