Strangely I don't feel the pre-travel excitement like I usually do. I was just kindda stressed packing at the very last minute. :P Kids please don't try this at home. Haha... Since we expected the temperature to be quite cool over there, we wore long sleeve clothes and carried our thick jackets. I feel a little stupid walking to the road in the blazing afternoon heat in our outfit. Worse ~ the taxi air-con doesn’t seem to be working to well! HOT~!
I wasn't expecting too much from the flight as my few previous flights were mostly budget. Besides, we were taking China Airlines... So.... expectations were not very high ....
But we were pleasantly surprised at how enjoyable the flight turned out to be! Taking off and landing was super smooth, the food is excellent, the plane is clean and new and the service is pretty good too! I love the bread...
The flight was about 4 hours, so we spent our time trying to out-do each other at on my DS lite. (most of the time I win of course haha... )
This is my first time flying from day to night so the view outside was spectacular too! Seriously the photos don't do justice to the colours I see outside the window...
We finally arrived in Taiwan!
The weather was pretty cool when we stepped out of the airport but it was manageable. The car that came to pick us up was a cool silver Toyota Camry! Whao first time seating in this car. Nice and very spacious! It was about 8 plus in the night when we hit the highway. Almost every radio station has their own live broadcast of some concert somewhere in Taiwan. The party has already started! The initial few minutes of being in a foreign land was very exciting, but after being stuck in slow moving traffic for awhile, the boredom and exhaustion of traveling hit me and I doze off in the super comfy car...
When I woke up, it was morning already!!!! Just kidding... We've reached out hotel (Gala Hotel) at around 9 plus. I was abit surprised when we reached cause the area looks pretty quiet as compared to the hotel that we stayed at our last trip there. But when we finally got to our room we were happy to find that the room is very clean, neat and no funny smell.
I LOVE the bathroom!!! ALL the walls, marble floor, giant sink, nice long bathtub is ALL white. And it is spotless!!! So... 10 points scored there.
Got see through window from the toilet... kinky man...
BUT sadly, the bed.... SIGH........... How to you fit two giants onto a queen size bed I ask you...... Furthermore, there were three pillows. One is rock hard (Cobby loves it, I don't), the other 2 is too fluffy to hug and too flat to sleep on. Sleep on one - too low. Sleep on 2, too high. So I practically didn’t sleep much for the 5 nights in Taiwan.
Anyway, we put away our luggage and got some directions from our reception. Apparently we can either walk or take a cab to the nearest MRT. So she gave us a map and we headed out into the streets on foot. When we were walking, we realized why its so quiet at the part of the town. Apparently the whole stretch of road consists of banks, airlines and office buildings.
We reached the MRT (finally) and tried to get on the train bound for Taipei 101 to see the new year fireworks. Like I said, the party has already started, so the first train was PACKED with party go-ers, mainly youngsters, all dressed up. We missed the first train, and when the 2nd train came, it was packed too. But hey, I've had my countdown party days too so this is not new to me. I grabbed Cobby and we ran to the back end and manage to squeeze through the train doors. We were like sardines... There was a big group of teenager boys near the doors and it was so packed they had nothing to hold on to except the train ceiling. It was so funny as they go "Whaaoooooo.... ARgghhhhh....." with the moving and stopping of the train. Then when some one needs to get off they'll shout out so that people near the doors would move out to let the people alight.
We were supposed to alight at the stop just next to Taipei 101 but it was so jammed up with people that the train announced that everybody going to Taipei 101 had to alight at the stop before that. When the train poured out all it's content at the designated station, I gaped at the amount of people flowing slowly out of the station.
I told Cobby that we can't use the MRT station as an emergency meeting point anymore as it was so crowded. Cobby coolly replied, "in that case, we just cannot be separated then" We followed the crowd toward the 101, it wasn’t difficult, it is the tallest building in the world.
We thought that we could go near the concert area but I guess we were a little naive. The nearest we could go was the 国父纪念馆, which has a huge open area facing the 101, so the route was practically blocked by hundreds, maybe thousands of people seating there, waiting for countdown. So after a few attempts to go nearer and failed, we walked around and tried to find a good spot to sit. I was quite unwilling to sit on the rough concrete floor with my brand new S$174 thigh length jacket, but I guess we don't have much options, so I hiked up my jacket and sat my butt on the cold floor (thank goodness for thick jeans). I also had to hold the back of my jacket up each time someone walked by to protect it from being stepped on. Sigh....
So it was about 11pm already, people all around were playing cards, sleeping, setting off their own fireworks, talking and eating.
We had an early dinner on the plane so we were pretty cold and hungry. So Cobby suggested that he go find some food so that we can have a little picnic. He went off and I sat there alone, waiting. By 11.30pm he's still not back yet! I was a pretty nervous and finally sms him. Thankfully he replied that he's ok, just that the queue for the food was very long. He finally came back, with much difficulty as there were so many people and the place was so dark. So we had our little picnic with grilled chicken wings, popcorn and hot tea.
Before we knew it, it was almost midnight! Suddenly people further up front stood up and created a chain reaction of people getting up in order to have a better view. Both of us had to stand up too as the people in front was blocking our view. It sparked a roar of outrage from the people behind and they started shouting "坐下!" (sit down!) with no effect. Suddenly they were chanting at the top of their voice "坐下! 坐下!坐下!坐下!坐下!坐下!坐下!坐下!坐下!..." and some started to sit down. I wanted to sit too, and if everybody decides to sit I would like to sit too! So I sat down and Cobby followed. And the crowd makes whooping cheers to the effect of their "persuasion".
But when the building lights went out, indicating the starting of the fireworks, the buggers in front of us is still standing. So we quickly stood up and countdown!
"8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1! "
A spectacle of fireworks shot out from the tallest building in the world. It was magnificent! The crowd "Waaaaahhhh...." each time there was a great big one and we just watched in awe at the beauty of it all. Happy New Year everybody!
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