5May2009 - Day 1
Met Dear at my place at 5.25am. Was Raining heavily then. Brother later fetched both of us to changi Airport, reached there around 6.30am. checked in n boarded the plane near 8. (btw, my checked in luggage was 9kg then).  Started Cam-whoring as soon as i board the plane. hee. n ya! i must say that the clouds up there are really beautiful! =)

Touched down at Taipei TaoYuan Airport around 12.45pm. almost 4 hours flight. I was expecting that i would see many notices n staffs engaging in the thermal screening n events tt link to the influenza, but surprisingly, there wasnt any thing much as compared to Singapore. Headed to the immigration counter, n of course, not to forget to tk photos again. hee. 

After claiming my luggage, we went to search for the person whom suppose to meet us up at the airport n ferry us to our hotel. We were told by our travel agency that this person will either write our names or the name of the company on a poster. After which, a few of the tourists will tk the same transport, n head to taipei's few hotels stops. We spent awhile looking through all the posters, n finally saw this man who held this poster in his hand ->

He spelled dear's name wrongly! wahahah! =p Chen KONG Jie John. The man told us to wait for him at the exit. Naturally, both of us thought there were still other tourists who hadnt arrive at the airport hence we expected that we had to wait for a little while more. Meanwhile, we took another shot while waiting. The weather was really windy, so cooling. 

Then, our 1st surprise happened! The man who waited for us with tt poster at the airport came in his black mercedes. Wow~ tt was super cool lorh! He's like a personal chauffeur of ours. Just the both of us! He drove us all the way to Ximenting - where royal castle hotel was. thanks dear for this shot. =p after 4 hours flight plus insufficient sleep that night. hee.

Checked into our hotel at 2 plus near 3pm. settled down. unpacked a lil of our stuffs. planned our itinerary for that day. n finally, decided to xplore Ximenting 1st, then to Mirama Entertainment Park for the ferris wheel ride. Due to poor navigation ( that's y i dropped geography), not only my poor navigation but somebody else's too, =pp, we lost our way, walking up n down the street even with a map in our hands. but fortunately, with some friendly help from the residents there, we found our way to XiMen Mrt which is actually only 5 -10mins walk from our hotel. haha. 

We bought our EasyCard (S'pore Ezlink), n took the Mrt down to Jiantan Station. The mrt interchange is really big. we managed to get to our destination without losing our way with the help of all the big signages.

N finally, we're at Jiantan. Took the free shutter service that brought us to Mirama Park. Tried the Ferris Wheel which cost only NT$120 each for a 15minutes long ride! =) the view right at the top was awesome! there is a total of 48 cabins, only 2 of it are transparent, n the rest are coloured. of course, we chose the transparent 1. 

After the ride, we took more photos of the ferris wheel. =)

1st time in my life, i was on a merry-go-round! =p

before leaving Mirama Park, we window shop a lil in the mall. n dear saw a panda which he was in love with. hahaha! 

Took the free shuttle bus back to Jiantan station, then went to Shilin Night Market which is next to jiantan station. Ate the big chicken chop, Lu Rou Fan, n bought cute n colourful socks! =p wanted to try the smelly toufu, but the smell of it just put me off. eek. 

tt's about it for Day 1 in Taipei. =) 

6May2009 - Day 2 (tour package)

Another surprise awaiting us early in the morning! Our trip was a free n easy tour with a tour guide bringing us around taipei package on day 2. We were xpecting the tour bus with tour guide n many others tourists(the normal kinda tour la). but it wasnt! it was just the tour guide(Mr Hong), dear, me and the car! A very comfortable car! =p damn cool can! hahha.. =)) definately worth the trip. n both of us paid him NT$1000, which is only abt S$25 each for a whole day around taipei! Our itinerary for that day - 1st stop was CKS memorial, then to Martyrs' Shrine (Zhong Lie Ci) to view the changing of guard duty. next was Jiu Fen, YeLiu GeoPark, Hot Spring at YangMingShan, then to Huasi Night Market. there were some in between visit to 2 shops, which seems to be the tour guide's friend's shops. 

CKS Memorial -

Martyrs' Shrine (Zhong Lie Ci) - Changing of guard Duty is daily, n hourly. 

Next stop was Jiu Fen. while travelling along the expressway, i saw some cemetry over up on the hills. According to Mr Hong, taiwanese call cemetry as "Ye Zhong Hui" (night Club). interesting isnt it?

took some photos of the roads, tunnels as well as the patrol kiosk. oh ya, taiwan vehicals are left-hand drive. their road directions are also opposite to s'pore's. 

while waiting for Mr Hong to pump up his vehicle, we took another snap. =)

Soon after, we arrived at JiuFen. Saw the Jilong Hill - a temple in the middle of it. the view up there was amazing. photos will speak louder than my words! hee.

Next was shopping n eating at jiufen street.. bought many mochi, jelly, cuttlefish, little pouches there. n i saw this super cute doggy! love it so much man! picture of the doggy n me turn out quite well. thanks to dear! =) but the puppy seems so shy to look at the cam. hee. took our mini lunch at this fishball stall whereby the walls of the stall are fully decorated with the ladyboss's self portraits. OMG! she's super cam whore man! 

Now comes the best part of the blog entry! HEEEEEE! I shall award myself the best photographer award! with the best picture captured during the whole trip! im sorry my dear. but i promise you that this pic will definately not be missed out. =p forgive me for this! keke..

how's that?? so cute, isnt he? heh heh.. 100points for making me laugh like whenever i look at these pictures.. i had attempted a few times helping you to put ur upper n lower lips tgt. but failed larh. hee.. =p

Next stop was the place that i longed wanted to go! YeLiu GeoPark! was super excited man! =p but my camera went flat after the abv shots. (my camera cant stand how funny was the abv shots, so it needs some rest) hee. following photos are kindly "contributed" by dear. =p

Beautiful isnt it??? All natural sea n wind eroded stones!

you saw that?? tt's the most famous stone in yeliu! it's QUEEN'S HEAD!

 US N QUEEN'S HEAD!

next few shots are all the other nice nice sea n stone pictures at Yeliu! I love this place so so much! the wind, the sun, the sea breeze! hate to leave that place.. 

More pics of a close up view of Queen's head n us.. =)

The interesting thing abt this queen's head is that u can onli see it from a certain angle. n the following picture is a view of it from the right side. it doesnt look lik a queen's head at all. n i noticed a survillence camera just right behind this spot - just in case some1 touch it n break her neck.  n there, another pic of us n the queen's head from the wrong view.

this do look like a fairy's shoe ya?

the next few photos a little lame thou. but i love our lame-ness. haha! 

saw this particular stone that looks lik a chair? it's curve in just like a seat. hee.

dear do hav a lil bit of good photography skills i must comment about. =) but of course, without the model, how can pictures be so beautiful?? heee =pp

YangMingShan hot spring was the next destination. i guess i created a joke out of myself in front of Mr Hong. but how would i know that we were really going to soak in the spring water? all i thought was just going there to see how hot spring looked like. haha! well, great experience thou. =) spent NT$100 for a miserable towel because both of us werent prepared to soak. and i've forgotten to take a photo of the place! tsk!

well well, supposingly our next and last destination was shilin night market. but because we had been there on Day1, hence we boldly requested Mr Hong to send us back to our hotel to unload our bags of goodies, n picked up to huaxi night market which is just a mrt station away from our hotel. he was so kind n agreed immediately. =) how nice! oh ya, we supposed to give NT$700 for 2 of us to him as a tour guide fee. But my dear top up another 300 as tips. not too bad thou. because it's less than S$25 each for a comfortable trip round taipei city! =) very very worthwhile! 

Had our dinner at Huaxi Night Market, followed by some shopping along the street. then headed to Longshan Temple. 

look at how cute is dear in the above pictures! haha.. 

took train from longshan Mrt back to Ximen. initially planned to walk back as it's onli 1 stop away. but we werent confident n the chances of losing our way was high! haha..

Back to ximen, while buying some drinks back, we took another few snaps.. hee

back to hotel by 11pm. and tt's all for Day 2 in Taipei. =)

7May2009 -Day 3

our 1st stop was to Nanjing East rd station to look for the famous Hong Shih Fu beef noodle. took a train down, it took us quite awhile, almost an hour i suppose, to find the shop! omg. anyway, tried the sour n spicy soup, n the beef noodle. definately worth the trip down. 

after food, planned to visit the miniature museum but looked like the map given the wrong information, hence we decided to go tk the train to taipei city hall station n visit dear's long waited Taipei 101! 

after walking a distance, finally we reached 1o1. n saw this notice. haha! shuttle bus to mrt. (faint lor) haha.. but the walking distance frm the station wasnt v far la.

got ourselves some drinks in the mall after walking.. n saw something interesting.. singapore sentosa food. a lil too small to see. can view from fb. =)

headed to the obsevartory ticketing to buy the tickets for entry to the highest part of 1o1. cost about NT$400 each. not cheap but good experience. =) 

we were waiting for the lift as only 2 lifts were for passenger service all the way from 5th to the 88 storey.

took ALOT of photos up at the gallery. for more pictures, can view my facebook account. =)

 shadow of 101  

after that, we went up to 91storey, the outdoor obsevatory of 1o1. OMG it was really windy! 

walked thru the section where the super big wind damper was. hmm din really read what's tt is n what is it for. =p took a no. of funny photos with the mascot.

snap a few random shots while leaving the 101 mall.. cam whore indeed! =p

as we were walking back to taipei city hall station.. took few candid shots again.. haha..

Took train to Dan Shui Station next.. it was 5 plus near 6 in the evening. we thought that we would b in time to catch the sun set. well, we did saw the sun when we were in the train at dan shui. but sadly, before we reached the river, the sun went home alrd. =( sigh! we even ran frm the station to the river, bt we were too slow. haha! the scenary is still very nice thou! =)) super windy..

bought ferry tickets for NT$200 each for round trip from danshui to fisherman wharf n back. the wind was so strong, tt the boat sway from 1 side to another as if it's gonna capsize. almost get sea sick frm tt. again, photos photos photos .. hee..

abt 10 to 15 mins later. that's what we saw! =) lover's bridge!

n next, i saw another super cute puppy! weeee.. 

board the boat back to dan shui old street at abt 7 plus. while waiting for the boat to set off..

tried out the delicacy of danshui old street - A Gei, Fishball soup n also the long long ice cream!

shopped alot along the street of danshui. bought many mochi n jelly again.. headed back to ximenting and had our proper dinner at 12mn. tsk tsk tsk. it's not as easy to find food tt late at night. 

back to hotel around 1plus am. tired but still hav the strength to tk photos before resting. hee.

tt's all for Day 3 in Taipei! =)

8May2009 - Day 4

to be continued...