3rd day in Taiwan

Fresh start of the day and today we're gonna embrace the native roots of the Taiwanese.

We were taken to this place called Formosan Aboriginal Cultural Village which in my opinion is just another tourist trap. Where have all the real natives gone to? The pressures of life have definitely made them conform and many have moved to the city so i guess we tourists have to just make do with the man made cultural village.

Welcomed by the group "Natives" and boy the guys are really eye candies with 6 packs!

This was just outside the washroom and mum and i decided to be chained in punishment for entering the sacred washroom!

here i am, what can i do when nature calls ?

Walked past this stack of skulls which is believed to be said that whenever a tribe kills their enemies they would behead them and preserve their skulls as a warning to the enemy tribes. Gave me te creeps.. Im glad im not ancient but a modern human being.

I was pretty intrigued by the boars as i have never seen such hairy, grunting, enormous pigs in my entire life! I just stood there taking photos and watching them and mum was annoyed and told me not to go near them in or else i shall be as fat as a boar next time!

My friends the boars!

We were taken to a peacock garden and boy peacocks are really proud creatures. Can you imagine 40 people gathering around the enclosure waiting patiently for them to oepn their feathers? We oohs and aahhed when they open their feathers.. Boy boy, kinda shameless and a little degrading for us humans to be excited over their feathers! I mean there feathers are useless as they cant fly and i realised that male animals tend to be more beautiful in appearance than female ones as they have to attract them. But this of course does not apply to the homosapiens! I strongly believe that the females outdo the males in terms of physical appearance!

Showing off his glory:

Later we were taken to a street where of course we did some shopping but mum and i went to eat this taiwanese dessert where they pound the tapioca and sweet potato, mixed them with some flour and add a little of red beans, grass jelly, ice and syrup and wallah, you got a new creation. But it was really great, the tapioca thingy was chewy and i just liked the texture and the ingredients paired up nicely with the bland tapioca flour. Love it! What a nice complimented dish.

The tapioca flour dessert:

I cant remember where we went next but haha there will be more posts of food coming up! drool drool!

Day 2 in Taiwan

As i look through the pics i cant imagine my face looked so puffy in Taiwan. Talk about pigging out. The tour guide warned us about putting weight in Taiwan and everyone in a jolly mood agreed to worry about the extra pounds on our body and not to mention luggage when we reach Singapore.

2nd day and we took to the mountains called "Jiu Fen" which in the 1930s had gold buried in the ground until the Japanese dig them all up. So now resting in the high mountain of this tiny little village of a population of 200 depends on tourists business to survive. In reality it's just a dinghy, long alley and from the starting point to the end takes only about 20 minutes to cover so you can imagine how small the place actually is.

Standing on the path of "Jiu Fen"

A rare skill that one master possessed caught my eye as i was strolling down the black trodden path. This master has the niche to use just a tool the size of an eraser to create art works that capture the passersby attention. Well, it sure caught me in rapt attention that mum and be bought 2 artpieces which i have no idea where to hang them.

Here's the master writing my chinese name with the artistic stroke of his hands:

After which we took a 2hour journey ride to Hualien to see the spectacular nature that God has provided for us. Through the thousand of years of high tides washing the mountains, they have been polished and polished numerous times that the mountains in that vicinty are all made of marbles. Pure Natural Marble.

This was followed by a cup of flower tea at the mountain top overlooking the panoramic view and it was indeed breathtaking. How nice if Singaporeans could slow down their pace of life and just enjoy an afternoon like this? The feelings of a tai tai runs through my head and i must be elucidating awe from you guys yeah?

We were transported to our five star hotel resort which was kinda a new kind of experience for me. The vibe that the resort emitted was different. We wre the only Singaporeans there as people who stayed over were mostly Taiwanese looking for a place to let their hair down.Can you imagine the owner of this resort used to be a mechanic and he slowly amassed his fortune and build this whole resort from scratch. Talk about amazing people.. Even the ordinary can become extraordinary.

A Snapshot of the resort

The highlight of my stay in this resort was that we could "fang Deng long". The olden type of lantern where people of the past used to write wishes on the lantern and let it fly away, with the light piece of plastic lantern carrying everyones big ambitions and hopes. It makes one ponder that no wonder the lantern will fall when it carries the hopes of so many individuals and yet it flies alone up un the dark sky.

Preparing for the lantern's take off

This was my second day in taiwan and what an indelible imprint it left in my mind especially the lantern. Funny how write their dream 4D numbers on the plastic and hope to strike and how others hope for health and widsom. For me, hope is in believing my Saviour and my friend Jesus.

My first Day in Taiwan

Imagine the amount of calories consummed during this trip and it would be enough to sustain me for a month without eating.

Truly and surely, Jolin Tsai did a really good tourism advertisment which showcased the finest of Taiwan and so we headed to the all so popular Shilin Street which is more like a hawker centre filled with stalls the size of 2 office tables.

Seriously, the stalls are basically carts with their stall names brightened up my neon lights.

Just like any our typical Singaporeans, good food = Long queue and queue i did for this famous chicken cutlet stall.

Taiwan has a speciality dish that is close to every Singaporean heart. I mean who can resist succulent, fresh juicy oysters fried in an egg and flour batter right? But their version is slightly different from Singapore's as the orh luak contains more flour batter as compared to ours and threre's is the soft, chewy version while the Singapore one is crispy.

Floury orh luak, not the best though

We all know about the bubble tea craze that exploded in Singapore a few years back yeah? Bubble tea was created in Taiwan and the tour guide said now Taiwan has a new kid on the block which is this -- Bittergourd juice with honey. I tasted it and it kinda has 2 dimensions to it tase, when the juice enters your mouth, it taste well, tasteless then before it enters the throat there is the kick of bitterness and lastly followed by a hint of sweetness. Hmmm, talking about a happy ending huh.

Bittergourd juice with honey:



Walking around Shilin evokes the feeling of being packed in a sardine can and having to endure the stink of smelly tofu and Taiwan is famous for there fatty sausages! It kinda scared me to see the long, red meat embedded with speck of white fat in intestine skins hanging on the metal rails on the stalls. Taiwanese people seem to be in love with the internal parts of animals as can be seen by the large display of lungs, pig' blood, etc in front of the stall.

Well, that's the food part for shilin and Mum and me ventured into the clothing side which is a long stretch of road with roadside stalls selling a wide range of stuff. It was a wrong move to enter that zone as we we stuck in the human jam for 1 hour and mum was so fed up that she hailed a taxi and headed for the hotel the minute we squeezed our way back onto the main road.

HA, what a day. So packed that i couldnt whip out my camera to photgraph the scene!

Idol chasing experience : Linda Chung and not Rain is here!

Hey y' all! It's my first official post and i decided to post about today autograph session where TVB artistes Linda Chung, Kevin Cheng and Linda Chung they arrived and touched down on our lovely Singapore!

What an eye opening experience! As a total greenhorn in attending autographing session (its my maiden journey after all!) i met a fellow Linda fan at, guess what? 11.30am although the event starts at 3pm and we totally stoned for the first 2 hours. Yeah i travelled all the way to the other end of Singapore because the event was held at VivoCity, the much hyped about new shopping mall.

But the rush was evident when it hit 2pm and the fans of these artistes were crowding around the stage. Boy, there were really lots of young adoring fans of Kevin ready to chomp down the stage and of course i was also all pumped up for Linda.

Tension was oohhhh so high cos only the first 50 fans could get an autographed photo of each of them. Courtesy of TVB =) So the 50 of us were packed like canned sardine and TVB magazines were whipped out like weapons. Look like it was truly a well- prepared defence force we have here to defend ourselves from the charms of the handsome dude and the pretty ladies!

But obviously it failed as everyone whipped out new weapons that came in the form of cameras! the flashes and the lights flickered on and off immediately when the stars emerged! There were the usual shrieks of course and i contributed to the screaming too but im not ashamed of that!

All three sang a song each and Kevin seemed to captivate most of the audience but Linda and Angela fared well too! Then we had the usual autograph and we gotta take pics with them! And Linda gave me a call on my cell phone on my way home! It was shocking really and we chatted really really long. I saw three trains passed by and we ended our conversation on a happy note.

What a day and a call from a Hongkong star? Hey, that's kinda hard to forget.

Here are some of pictures taken:






Linda serading the crowd with her melodious voice




the two gals are electrified by Kevin's charm




he is one season pro =)




her rendition of Leon's Lai song (the one she sang in the modern ah wang show)

WELCOME

hellos! i'm trying out my new blog! :) enjoy your stay! xD