Taipei, 17th Dec 2007

The day has finally arrived. I am meeting my friend at Changi Airport Terminal 2 to check in and I could hardly contain my excitement... Hahah... it is my 1st time travelling by Singapore Airlines, considered to be a prestigious airlines in Singapore... I simply can't wait...

Fortunately, I managed to secure seats beside the window for me and my friend. I didn't even know I can check in online 2 days before my flight and secure better seats. Oh well.. at least I still got the window seats.. Hee.. Here's my first view outside from my tiny window in the plane..






After about 4 1/2 hours of flight time, where me and my friend are getting kind of bored, we finally landed at Taoyuan International Airport (TPE).



It was my 1st time arriving in Terminal 2 since last year I took Jetstar Asia which based in Terminal 1. I must say that Terminal 2 is definitely newer and nicer.. :p After spending a few frustrated minutes trying to figure out which bus company can take us closest to our hotel, I decided to trust the advise given to me by a forumer in Tripadvisor and took Evergreen bus. Anyway the Evergreen customer officer was way much friendlier than the Guo Kuang officer, although I was told that Guo Kuang bus will alight us nearer to our hotel.

Anyway, we were soon on the bus and on our way to the city. Here are some photos I took during the 60 - 70 minutes bus ride.







Neither did we know that very soon we are going to get lost on our very 1st day in Taipei. Because we did not alight at the 1st stop due to some confusion, we alighted at the 2nd stop and found ourselves at San Tos Hotel, which is where I stayed during my 1st trip. But the Silken Hotel where we are staying is 3 junctions away, so with our hand luggage we lugged our way down the 3 junctions to the street where our hotel is supposed to be. After much struggle, with reading the map and trying to figure out how the street names work, as in 东南西北 refers to which direction in English, we finally found our hotel. Sigh... seems like it is really a test on our grasp of the Chinese language.

Checking in went smoothly and we were given our room. This is how our room looks like, I must say that it is really cozy and affordable.

Preparing for my Taipei trip again!!

Haha... well... here I am.. back to Taipei for the 2nd consecutive year.. this time round I will be here for 8D7N... so cool... I can't wait to really explore around... not only inside Taipei but also the surrounding towns near Taipei city.

I booked a free & easy package with Priceline, and somehow I managed to get a really good deal. For a twin package at a 3* star hotel, our hotel is Silken Hotel by the way and a 2-way ticket by Singapore Airlines, we paid a total of SGD $1986. This includes the free breakfast provided by the hotel and the service charge of SGD $26 by Priceline. Isn't that cool? Think there is hope that I can go to Japan! Hee hee...

Anyway, this time round I bought a camera so that I can take many photos of the places that I have visited. Although I was kind of naive and was conned into buying alot of accessories for my camera and the price of the camera was even hiked much higher compared to other shops. In total I spent around SGD $1000 for my camera alone... How sad :[

Oh well.. I guess I will learn from my mistake and never buy from Sim Lim Square ever again.. unless accompanied by a friend who is more knowledgeable than me...

Another boo boo is to exchange my money late... the exchange rate I was told will decrease greatly during the peak period between late Nov to Jan... so I should have changed early... But I waited and waited until the rate dropped to a pathetic SGD $1 = NT 21.2.. how sad...

Oh well... what is done is done.. I will now focus on my upcoming trip to Taipei... waa... can't wait..

Chiang Kai-shek Memorial hall & K Mall, 27 Dec 2006

Before the guided tour ended, our guide brought us to Chiang kai-shek Memorial Hall, which was built in the late 1970s to memorialize the longtime leader of the Republic of China, Chiang Kai-shek.

The magnificant structure, with a marble facade and a twin-eave roof of brillant blue tiles crowned by a golden spur, is 76 metres high. Inside, steps lead up to a dais 3 stories high, on which sits a massive statue of the Generalissimo looking his benign best. On the ground level are exhibits related to the former personal effects.

We were just in time to catch the guards changing duty. They were really uniform in their steps, even though their marching was kind of weird, unlike what we were used to in Singapore. But I guess it was still pretty awesome.


After the changing ceremony, I took time to enjoy the magnificent view at the top. The expansive Chiang Kai-shek memorial hall plaza is flanked by the massive and ornate National Theater on the south and the National Concert Hall on the north.











To end our trip to Taipei, we went to K Mall to buy Gary Cao (曹格) latest cd and to get his autograph. Haha.. it was kinda lame since we had to wait like around 1 - 2 hours before he came over to the store to sign and we had to take a queue number too. To make it worse, it was freezing cold with the wind blowing continuously until we had to seek shelter at a starbucks in K Mall for a cup of hot coffee and something to eat.
But I guess it was for the fun of it since we seldom will go to queue for an autograph in Singapore o",

Beitou Hot Spring, Danshui, Fisherman's Wharf, 27 Dec 2006

On our 2nd last day in Taipei, we decided to have a guided tour since the package that my friend's mother booked is a half tour and half free-and-easy. Well, the advantage of having a guided tour is that the tour guide will drive us around in the mini-van so we do not need to worry about getting lost. :p

1st stop is to pick up our fellow tour members, a family of 4 from a really deeserted hot spring resort in Beitou. I didn't really mind having to travel all the way in since the tour guide is driving us in and on the way we could enjoy the beautiful greeneries and not to mention the smell of sulphur from the numerous hot springs in Beitou.





Finally we arrived at the resort and had to wait for the family to check out before we could go to our 1st destination.
This is the lobby of the resort, really looks high class. Must cost a bomb to stay at this resort I guess.







From Beitou, we travelled to the Fisherman's Wharf, a long pier and harbour that has been forsaken its fishing past and become a tourist attraction.








The highlight of the wharf is its signature pedestrian bridge, an elegant suspended structure that makes a dramatic addition to the visual aesthetics of the area.

Next on the list is an old port city called Danshui which is famous for its Iron Egg （铁蛋），a preserved egg which is rubbery in texture and come in different flavours: original or spicy.
And this is where Jay Chou grew up, and this 35 year old coffee shop in Dan Shui now sells two of Jay’s favorite dishes, Wan Tan Mee and fried Chicken Legs. These dishes are now being named as the “Jay Chou set meal” 「周杰伦餐」. They are now well known and even became a tourist attraction in the eateries in Dan Shui.







Lastly the tour guide brought us to one of the famous pastry shop in Taipei, where we bought pineapple tarts and other kinds.

SOGO, Omni, MR.J Restuarant & GTV, 26 Dec 2006

Next on the list after Taipei 101 is to find Jay Chou's clothes shop named Omni. Well, why do we want to find his shop? That is because Jess is a fan of his, that's why. So armed with the vague directions from the forumers, we set off to seek this illusive shop.

We took 捷運 to where SOGO is, well, I can't remember which stop is it. There we saw the clock that was shipped from Japan. It was pretty small because we took a while to search for it.. haha... we had in mind a big clock, but it turned out to be a small wall clock.. umz


Anyways, we carried on with our search for that Omni shop and finally we found it, in some deserted alley.
To our dismay, the shop was closed for lunch break. One thing you have to get use in Taipei is that they open their shop around 12nn and so it will depend on our luck if we ever get to go into some places of interests especially shops..

However my friend insisted on waiting so we waited for a few minutes until the shop reopened again. If it is any consolation for me, there is another guy who waited with us too. Seemed like he is another die-hard fan of J Chou and heard of that shop through the other fans. By the way, he is from HK so I couldn't speak Cantonese and could only hear him talking with my friend's mum :( Hee..

After browsing through the items in Omni, we embarked on another adventure to seek out Mr.J restaurant. As you can guess from the name, it is Jay Chou's restaurant. So, after another search through endless deserted alleys, we stumbled upon the restaurant.

We were famished from all the walking, so it was nice to be able to sit down and enjoy a meal. This is how the interior of the restaurant looks like:

The ambiance in the restaurant was great, by my standard and the price of the meals were reasonable. It is a Italian - French cuisine and it was quite delicious.





Lastly, we rushed down to GTV building to wait for a glimpse of 小猪 and 小鬼 because they were having a live show for 娱乐百分百.
Well my friend was in luck because 小鬼 came down after the show and she was able to pass him the file she made for him and even got a picture with him.
For me, 小猪 was in a rush and didn't even come out from the main entrance. How sad :[

Overall, it had been an exciting day for me although I couldn't meet any stars. I wonder what would be in store for us tomorrow....

Taipei 101, 26 Dec 2006

After we had our breakfast which was being served from 7.30am to 8.30am, we head out to Taipei 101, the 1st destination on our itinerary. The moment we stepped out of the hotel lobby, we were nearly knocked off our feet by a gush of freezing cold wind. Poor me, I did not have a windbreaker, just a normal worn-out sweater from Giodano, my face nearly got frozen. Haha.. But I guess it was better than having a heavy down pour, while will mess up our itinerary.

So after getting directions from the hotel front desk, we took a 2 minutes walk to Jian Tan MRT station. We had a difficult time adjusting to the way the Taipei people refer to the different modes of transportation. For the MRT, they called it Jie Yun (捷運) but we sometimes say MRT and they can still understand it. Haha... Because if we say Di Tie (鐵路), which we singporeans think is no different from MRT, since both are trains, but to the Taipei people Di Tie refers to the Railway trains. Very different, as the railway trains cater mostly to the areas outside of Taipei, the suburban areas. Whereas, the MRT network is only for inside Taipei area.

For buses, there are 2 types: the normal ones is referred to Ke Yun, the other one will be referred to Gong Che (公車). I think the difference is the company that owns the bus, I have no idea since I didn't really ask.

Anyway, we alighted at City Hall MRT (wow, they even have the same MRT station name as we do :p) then we took a shuttle bus to Taipei 101. The shuttle bus stop is just outside of the MRT exit, there are signs that will lead you around and many of these signs have english words on them too.

Upon our arrival at Taipei 101, we took the lift to the 5th floor to purchase the admission ticket, which costs 350 NT for adults. From the observatory tower, we had a clear view of the whole city including the Ji Long river and the mountain ranges on the outskirt of the city.

1st trip to Taipei, 25 Dec 2006

Taiepi!! This is my 2nd dream destination after Japan. Yeah... too bad Japan is too costly for me to visit. Maybe a few years down the road, after I have saved enough and even grasp the Japanese language, I can visit my dream country.

Anyway, on my 1st ever overseas trip, I am visiting Taipei and Hong Kong simultaneously, how cool is that. Haha.. I joined my church friend Jessica and her mum for a 4D3N stay in Taipei before we meet up with her brother and friends in HK.

I took Jetstar Asia to Taipei, where I will then meet up with Jessica and mum since I did not take the same tour package with them. It was slightly more costly but this is my chance to travel overseas, I do not care so much for the cost. Hee.. I can always eat little and spend more..

We reached Taipei International Airport around evening, due to delay for the China Airlines flight, which is Jessica's flight. In the end, they arrive at the same time as me. Haha.. The tour guide picked us up from the airport and drive us to our hotel, actually he picked Jess and her mum from T1 while I waited at T2, until we discovered the mistake. Manz.. what a way to start my trip. How exciting.. c",

Since we arrived late, we decided to drop our luggages in our hotel room and head off to Shilin NM for dinner and exploration. The hotel we were staying in is San Tos Hotel, which is like 1 stop away from Shilin NM. So Shilin NM will be our regular eating place throughout our stay in Taipei. I did not manage to take a lot of photos since I did not have a camera at that time, I could only depend on my handphone camera which has very little memory space.Well, the above picture is the only one that I took at the NM. The lady is selling some crab meat in the NM itself. Too bad we already had our dinner at the food center near the NM so we had to pass up on this one. It looks delicious though. Hee..