Taipei Trip 2008 Last 2 Days~

We wondered if the hotel buffet changes its variety, so we took a peep. Aha… it’s the same stuff as yesterday. So we went out in search for some good local breakfast. We went back to the same place we had breakfast 2 days ago and found out that there’s an even more bustling store just 2 stores down! The local yuppies were all queuing up in front of the store, waiting for their take away orders. So we hopped inside and ordered hamburger with egg....

OH!!!!! 好吃!!!! OISHI!!!!

The freshly pan fried hamburger patty, the sunny side up egg with it’s yolk still a little runny, sweet sweet onions and ketchup all sandwiched between warm, fluffy, sesame seed buns. How wonderful the day is starting to be! Haha… After the wonderous breakfast we took the MRT, changed to a LRT and finally reached our destination.



We were going to take a ride on Mao Kong Gondola!







It’s a new cable car ride up to the mountains of Taiwan. So far I've been to the one in Hong Kong, Singapore, and this is the most enjoyable one! The ride up is so high and smooth and like a train, you can actually drop off at one of their several stations along the way. We really enjoyed our ride up the mountains, it's very quiet and cooling and everything below is green.



There's a temple on one of the stops so our cable car was suddenly shared by a bunch of old grandmas and grandpas. We dropped off at the very last station at the peak where there's a little town. We took a little shuttle bus ride that takes tourist for a short drive around the area. It was drizzling abit, so I'm not sure if people can drop off or not. But the place is very beautiful with alot of little tea houses and cafes along the road, where you can enjoy a hot cup of tea while looking at the mountains. As usual, though it was suppose to be a sight seeing drive, I dozed off. Haha...



The rain has stopped when the shuttle bus brought us back to the station. So we wandered about and took some pictures.







The air is so fresh here! Must take a few whiffs to cleanse my lungs.



Lunch time! We saw this restaurant opposite the station with a huge banner. Claiming that it's beef noodles was award winning, best in Taiwan, etc.. Sure or not...! So the 2 beef enthusiasts gave the restaurant a try to see if it was really true. We strolled into the store, tummy ready for food, then Cobby slipped and slide down the staircase.



Talk about a grand entrance....



After checking that nothing was broken except for his ego, we settled down for our lunch. When the 2 bowls of their award winning beef noodles soup arrived, we were already impressed.







It smells good and looks great! When we pick up the beef into the light, you can see that the beef was very marbled.







When we ate it................



It was the best beef noodles I have ever had in my life.



BEST EVER....

BEST BEST EVER...

BEST BEST BEST EVER...!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



as I was typing this, I had to pause and relive the memories of that heaven in a bowl....



The soup is very flavorful, but it is not heavy or too salty, so you can actually slurp up every single drop. (We did)







The noodle is handmade, so it does not have the alkaline taste. And it won’t become mushy even at the later part of the meal after being soaked in the soup for awhile.



The beef ~ Oh mama~ When you put in your mouth... Oh~ its super tender, it has a very good balance of fat and meat and it just taste so good. When you put them all together, you have an experience of a life time. Makes me want to cry...



Congratulations Chef Hong, you are the best.







I wanted to hug the cashier when we were about to leave, but I opted to pay her instead. So with a satisfied grin on our face, we took the cable car back down.



We headed to the National Taiwan Democracy Memorial Hall (国立台湾民主纪念馆) which was previously known as National Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall (国立中正纪念堂). After the recent controversial change of name, we had to come back and take a picture again! Read more about this place here.







I was expecting a change of the names on the building, but I definitely did not expect the scene when I walked into the hall. Previously the hall was bare with guards, like those in the 忠烈祠, martyr shrine. You can even go close to the gigantic statue of Chiang Kai-shek as it was cordoned off. Now, the hall is adorned with colorful decorations, there were walls of posters and people can actually go as close to the statue as they wanted.



But nobody dared to venture too near except for some foreigners (including us). But even we kept our respectable distance.







So after wandering around the museum, we headed to yet another night market for dinner. Tonight we went to Huasi Jie 华西街夜市.







Nothing exciting but it's quite different. So that ends our last day in Taipei.... tomorrow we have a very early flight, so we went back after dinner and packed our luggage. I'm missing Taiwan already! I've had so much fun and there's so much that I've yet to explore. It was really a great vacation, but I'm also looking forward to go home, back to the warm weather of my sunny island.



Best thing is ~ the flight home has an in-flight entertainment at every seat! So I managed to watched a few good movies before we reached Changi airport. My favourite part about coming back home was always the part when we leave the plane and step into Changi airport. I always take a deep breadth and immediately feel much lighter, cleaner. I love to travel, but the best part about travelling is always to go home after a good trip!

Taipei Trip 2008 Day 4

We’ve planned to go to 高雄 (KaoQiong) today, which is at the other far end of Taiwan. We were going to take the new 台灣高速鐵路(Taiwan High Speed Rail) but when we went to the train station the night before, we were surprised to find that the rail does not go to高雄!! But why!? It was only a few minutes ago as I was surfing for the website for the rail did I realize that高雄 station was “planned” and not even ready yet… duh…!!

So we were of course a little stunned then as we have already planned our itinerary for高雄. So we can either take the regular slow train there, or we can change the location. We opted for the latter choice as we don’t want to spend 4-5 hours in a train and we really want to experience the speed of the new speed rail. So we decided to go to Taichung台中市instead. We don’t know anything about that place, but it just sounds ok. Haha…

So early in the morning we went to buy our tickets and boarded the 10am train. The interior was like an airplane, but much more spacious.



The group of people opposite us can even request to turn the row of seat around so that the group can seat face to face! How cool is that!?




The ride was fun! It started traveling at a usual MRT train speed, then it started to go faster and faster until we were traveling at over 300km/hr!!! But the most surprising part was how smooth and quiet it was. You can have a quiet conversation over a hot cup of coffee which watching the scenery fly pass you. Best thing is, we reached台中市 (taichong state) in 1 hour plus. I mean, that’s about the time I take to get to office every morning! Amazing!

We reluctantly alighted the train at台中 and remembered that we have no idea where to go from here.



So we looked around the modern airport-like station and searched the sign boards for suggestions. That’s where we saw this signboard advertising the National Museum of Natural Science. So we just followed the sign which leads us to a free shuttle bus below the station. The bus drives us to the city, which was very much different from Taipei City. There were farms, then there were lots and lots of 2nd hand car sellers and motor workshops. Guess the people here loves 2nd hand cars? It’s definitely not as hip and modern as Taipei city. But I like it that it’s different.

The bus drops us off at the stop for the museum but we don’t seem to know where exactly it was. So we looked at the map and started walking towards the direction that seems to be leading to the museum. As usual, we were distracted by a store selling braised pork rice(泸肉饭), not as good as the one in taipei city but its ok.



We set off in search for the museum again after lunch and ended up wandering around the neighbourhood streets of 台中. Parents picking up kids from school, small shops selling your everyday commodities. It’s nice to see this side of Taiwan, a nice break from the fast paced cities and the usual tourist attractions. Hey we were not lost. We were just…. trying to figure out which road to take, that’s all. Hahaha… We were… figuring out which road to take when we passed by SOGO. Yeah! Starbucks!!! So we hopped over for a shiok caffine fix before continuing again.

After walking for awhile we finally found the junction for the museum…… which was the junction that the bus dropped us about an hour ago.

-_-

Apparently, the stupid bus stop was at the back of the museum. So instead of just turing left and walking to the main entrance, we turned right and walked a giagantic loop facing the OTHER direction and ended up at the same spot. Oh well, that’s the fun part of travelling! Hahaha… The museum was… well, boring. They have a a lot of galleries so it did occupy our time pretty well.



I’m sure that台中 is not this boring so I’m just a little regretful that we didn’t have a chance to explore the more interesting parts. We were pretty bored by late afternoon so we took the high speed rail back to Taipei for dinner. We went to 饶河街夜市 (Raohe Street Night Market) and both Cobby and I agree that this night market is the best so far when it comes to the quality and variety of food.



We ate so much food that night! Stinky toufy (best), fried mushrooms, beef noodles, mutton rib soup, red bean pancake, luo han guo drink(super nice), chicken wings, so much more! So next time you go Taipei, 饶河街夜市 (Raohe Street Night Market) is a must-go destination! So that ends another day in Taipei. Not the perfect trip at another city, but what a great end to the day!

Dinner Party for 6 and a half

Got lots to do on Saturday so we were up and out of the house by 8.15am!


This year we would be expecting to give ang paos to the little ones during Chinese New Year, so we'll need to change new notes at the bank before we have breakfast. We were shocked when we arrived just 15min after the bank opened - the bank was so full, people were queuing outside of the bank! Later we realized that if you drew cash from the ATM and exchange them for new notes inside the bank, the queue is actually shorter. So we managed to get our new notes pretty quickly. Ha!


Had a quick breakfast at the coffeeshop next door before moving to Carrefour at Suntec. Usually I would buy my fresh produce from the wet market, but we had some vouchers, so I thought that it would be a great opportunity to use it. So we were happily piling up the trolley with food, detergent, shampoo, blah blah blah... Wah we ended up buying so much we have to fork out an extra S$95! no money liao...


By the time we reached home it's around 12 plus, so I cooked Korean instant noodles for Cobby and I for lunch and we watched "The Longest Yard" DVD while we ate. I have got to get that DVD because it is super hilarious.


After the movie we started cleaning up the house because it was not in a state to meet guests... Hahaha...


It was great; they were one of the first few people that we invited over to our home for dinner. Russell, Ting Ting's 19month son was the most handsome little boy I know. And of course, two of my closest friend was FINALLY getting engaged, so Ting and I were super happy for the couple. They were great for each other right from the start, but like most things in life, sometimes you have to walk a big circle before coming back to the starting point and settling down with your one true love.


We had a great time eating, drinking, chatting and playing. I love watching people eat the food that I cook, it's very satisfying. Unfortunately the fresh food that we bought from Carrefour was not very good. Overall, dinner was ok... But I think I will stick to the wet market next time. Hope we can do it again before Ting goes back to Australia in Feb.


When they left, I took a long hot shower, relaxed on my sofa and fell asleep around 11.45pm. Hmm entertaining guests can be pretty tiring! But I'm really looking forward to entertaining more friends and family in the near future!

Taipei Trip 2008 Day 3

We decided to give the hotel breakfast a chance on the morning of day 3, anyway it's free, so why waste? Fortunately for us, the food is pretty good, so we have a good hearty breakfast before going out into the freezing cold weather again.



Our first destination was Yang Ming Shan mountain 杨明山, it's suppose to be a very beautiful place with grassy hills and flowers blossoming everywhere. But that's in spring time. I really dunno what to expect in this time of the year. So we took a train nearest to the area and took a bus from there. That's the best thing about Taiwan. We just look at the tourist map to find the nearest MRT station and when we reach, we just look around for signs on which bus to take. You definitely cannot have these kind of experience when your following a tour guide. Anyway, we took the RED 5 Bus up to yang ming shan.







It's fun, there's a cultural university up the hill so the bus was full of university students. Chatting about their holidays, some are barely awake. So we had to stand until the students all drop off at the university bus stop. We seems to be the only tourist there. The bus dropped us at the bus interchange had to take a separate mini bus shuttle services that goes higher up the various spots on the mountain.







We wanted to skip the first few stops as there don't seem to have much to see, but apparently the bus route on the map wasn't very accurate, so we ended up dropping off in the middle of nowhere!!







SOooo... after some unhappy moments, we can either wait for the next bus - which only arrives in another 30 minutes, or we could follow the road sign and walk to the next bus stop. Oh well, why waste time waiting for the bus anyway, so we just followed the sign and started walking.



The little mistake turned out to be the best idea to see the place! The route we were walking on turned out to be a beautiful little trail along the side of the mountain. It's a little narrow, some places only enough for one person to walk, but it was very nice. The air is cool but not cold as the woods shelter us from the cold wind. The sun is shining through the trees and bamboos that lined the path. The air is so fresh! It is just so rustic and beautiful!







The path was quite deserted except for one auntie that passed us by, but it was not in anyway creepy. We even took some candid pictures!







Just when we were at the end of the trail we saw a few buckets of flowers and a sign next to it that says "fresh flowers at 50NT, please place the money into the mailbox, thank you"







Whao people here must be really honest. Hahaha... To be truth, I was a little sad when the trail ended. We found ourselves in a little rest area where the bus stop was and we hopped on the next shuttle bus and headed further up the mountain.





Man.... the lady driver have balls! The winding roads were so narrow and yet they can drive with such skills (and SPEED), scary and yet very exciting. We dropped of the stop named 小油坑 where there is this huge gap on the side of one of the mountain and sulphur gas was actually coming out of the mountain! So amazing and stinky! I never saw / smell sulphur in its natural state before - it stinks...







Then we saw this little winding path at the side that leads to a little observatory, so we just started walking up. The wind is unbelievable. IT WAS VERY COLD LOH.....!!! By the time we got down we were half frozen, so we took refuge in a little canteen and ate instant noodles for lunch. The steaming hot noodles was just the thing to thaw our frozen face...







After lunch we bid farewell to the old ah mah at the canteen and hop on the bus again. The next stop was like a wide open plain - the we looked around and realised that there's actually people hiking at the very far end of the plains! SO we followed. Apparently this area was used as grazing ground for the Taiwanese cows, but I guess the only people out in this weather was only the stupid humans from another country and unbelievably fit old grandmas and grandpas.







The view was stunning and the path was very easy to walk. I would love to come back during the warmer weather, put on my hiking shorts and walk the whole mountain.








But we cannot stay for long because it was really cold. But what an experience it was! On a side note - we were wearing about three layers of clothing and we couldn't stay there for too long, and yet, I see old aunties and uncles walking way further into the hills! Are we that weak? Or maybe they are robots in disguise or something....



So we hop on the next bus and went back down the hill. The hiking, the weather and I dunno, the thin air? made me so sleepy I slept all the way back to the bus interchange. While waiting for the bus to go back into the town Cobby went to the gents and came back with a piping hot bowl of sweet potato soup! Whao what a treat!






The sweet potatoes are huge and so so sweet, and the soup as a nice tinge of ginger, and it really warms the whole body as we ate by the bus stop. And just to confirm my suspicion, suddenly an old uncle jogged passed us with nothing on except his running shorts and shoes.



-_-"



Wah he may be old and wrinkly, but he's tanned and fit loh! I told you they are robots...

Next stop was 忠烈祠, martyr shrine. There you'll find thousands of tablet bearing the names of soldiers that has given their lives to the republic of china (Taiwan).







It's also a famous tourist attraction as the guards would execute a very fancy "performance" when they change shifts. And the guards would not move an inch when they are on duty.


Ironically, most of the soldiers there died during the war with Japan, yet, most of the people visiting and happily taking pictures of the guards there are Japanese tourists. DO they even know what place is this? Do they even bother going into the secluded halls lined with dead soldiers tablets? Or are they just there to take pictures of handsome man in uniform? Hmmm I think they seem to have missed the point of the place.



Of course, I couldn't resist a man in uniform too. They are so manly!







So shy taking pictures with them... Hee hee heee....






By the time we left the place, it was already evening. So we went to 寺林夜市(shilin night market) for dinner. We settled for a hot pot (steamboat) dinner at this Champion Stone Hot Pot & BBQ restaurant. It's like our steam boat buffet, but the bowl is made of stone. Then the staff would ask what meat you like even before you go choose the food. Confused, we just said beef and went off to choose our food to cook.



When we came back, we were abit lost at what to do as the bowl is empty. Apparently, they will put in some oil into the hot stone bowl, fry the beef in it with garlic and onion till it's nice and fragrant, fry the cabbage abit, then pour in the soup stock.







Then they'll put in the food we choose into the soup and let it simmer. So interesting! And the beef they gave us was so tender! We had a great dinner. After dinner we ended our day with a walk around the night market before heading back to the hotel.



The hiking really tire us out, but it was great fun. Mountains, men in uniform and a big bowl of beef steamboat.







What more could a girl ask for?

Lunch time inspiration

Just came back from lunch with my best pal Colene. Meeting got abit late this morning so by the time we finish, most people have already made lunch arrangements. Anyway, it's been awhile since I've had lunch with her, so we head to YI. Err... For those readers that are a little slow, Colene is none other than me. Yes, I have lunch alone today. Hahaha...


Alot of people seemed shocked that I would have lunch alone. Then pity would follow after that, "Oh poor Colene, no one to have lunch with..." Actually, I chose to have lunch alone. In fact, I truely enjoyed it really. Guess I'm one of those wierd individuals who are perfectly comfortable being alone.


Anyway, I had a crazy craving for pasta, so I ate pasta with meat sauce at Munching Monkeys after settling my TV licence at the Post office at YI. It's not mind-blowing delicious, but it's not bad either. :) Read the New Paper while eating - man that paper have so many interesting articles! Tabloid news that you seldom see on the more serious newspapers, so I was totally engrossed in it even after I've finished my pasta.


After lunch I decided to take the longer route back to office. My office building is located within the premise of National University of Singapore (NUS). The university has been around for about a decade, so all the trees around the area are all very big, old and so beautiful. The stroll back to office was very nice, it's so peaceful looking at the trees in the afternoon sun.. The sun is bright, but the shade from the huge trees provide a lovely shade. There's a warm breeze blowing, the crickets were chirping, the birds were singing... Sigh... So comfortable! Feel like lying down on a grassy patch and take an afternoon nap. (the ants would probably eat me alive though..haha..)


Passed by a gardener weeding the shurbs, and we greeted each other hello. He seems happy even though he's working in the hot afternoon sun... Even saw a pair of spotted neck pigeon just before I reach the building. I think they are a great representative of fidelity. Spotted neck pigeons seldom hang out in a group like the other pigeons, usually they are alone, or in pairs. So next time you see one, you'll probably find another one nearby. So sweet right... Kindda like Cobby and I. We don't have a big social group, but we have each other :)


So it's a nice thought as I strolled back into the air conditioned building and got back to my cubicle. I feel more refreshed and ready after some good-old fresh air. Now back to work I go!

Pink Dots

Look at the picture below... you see the moving pink dots right?

Look at the cross in the middle instead and you'll see a green dot circling the pink dots...

Now focus on the black cross and the pink dots will slowly disappear!

Amazing!

Wonder what happens inside our brian when this happens!?

Ode to Heath Ledger

I was on my way to work as usual this morning when I heard the news on the radio that Heath Ledger was found dead and his death may be related to drugs. When I heard the news I stopped. "did she said Heath Ledger was dead??" Then I paused and thought. Heath Ledger.... the Brokeback Mountain actor??!! I was absolutely shocked as he was only 28 and was one of my favourite actor!

Apparently he was found dead and they suspect it may be due to drugs. They even suspect suicide! He didn't looked someone who abused drugs so that's another surprise to me. It's so sad as I always see him as a good actor who starred in good power movies. I wonder why this happened...

These are the movies that I've watched starring Heath Ledger:

10 Things I Hate About You (1999)

The Patriot (2000)

A Knight's Tale (2001)

Monster's Ball (2001)

Brokeback Mountain (2005)

He's also starring as the dark and sinister Joker in the upcoming Dark Knight, a sequel to Batman Begins.

Strangely, the photos of The Joker is a eerie reminder of the late Brandon Lee, the son of Bruce Lee who died on the set of the movie of the Crow...

Maybe it's just inauspicious to make up your face to look like a dead man..?

Anyway, rest in peace Heath Ledger...

Read more about the case here

Miss CoCo's new look

I'm bored with my hair...

So on Sunday night, I grabbed a scissors and started snipping away my hair before I hop in the shower. Haha... sounds like some psychotic woman.

So this is my new look for the next few months!

This morning the hair not very cooperative, so I got one of my cutie hair rubber band that I bought from Taipei and tied it up. Super cute right!!??

Another new look...!