had been back for a day liaozZ... and now i'm finally in front of my comp... typing my blog while i arrange my pics... i have lot of photos to arrange... it's a good thing... hehee... the trip had been fun... spent my bday there... unforgetable experience they have given me.. taiwanese have given me a very good impression... i've met many frenly pple and their service attitude has really put us to shame...

<29/05>
first day, we reached in the early afternoon... waited a long long time for our bus to arrive... we hung around at the airport for almost 2 hours before the pink "pin guan" bus came... we were quite happy with the bus.. it was huge and spacious... although it wasnt really new but it was good enough i guess... i din hear anyone complain.. hahaa.. first nite we went to a nite market near NTU (National Taiwan Uni)... din buy anything that nite... just walk walk see see... some of them had their first taste of local food.. like chou dou fu... i warn you, it's nice... nothing much for the first day... went back to the hostel quite early den started playing games... played mahjong initially with shengli, choonfu and ben... bad idea.. lost money... not that enjoyable also... after that played hay's version of heart-attack.. it's very fun... wanted to join them while i was still playing mahjong cos it really looked fun... realised my was reaction was ultra slow cos i always lost... played thru the nite cos next morning going to hualien... gonna take 8hrs of bus...

<30/05>
the journey was long and torturous... my head was spinning most of the time... but thanks to my "wu hua guo" i managed to survive and was able to enjoy the beautiful scenary along the way... hualien is literally cool... and i din bring a single warm clothe at all... dinner there was at a local stall... not too hygenic but i think not many of us bother about that... bought rice wine to try... rather disappointing... hahaa... played mahjong at nite again... although i won... i still find it boring... luckily no more for the next few days... also becos of mahjong i missed the nite walk that some of them went on... guess i miss a lot of fun on that one...

<31/05>
after one night at the hostel at hualien, we took another 8 hrs ride back to taipei... but this time we made a detour to "ye liu" where we visited the legendary rocks... i was there before... so i was a partial guide to them... that nite was more exciting... went to "hua xi" street.. haven been there before... it feels kindda like hongkong.. a lot of shops selling tonic soups and providing foot massages... fung, kaiyang and me ate an interesting snake tonic... it consists of snake soup, glass each of snake blood, snake bile and snake poison... not that bad.. they all just taste like tonic wine that's all... nothing too scary... but really felt hot after the "cuisine"... walked around the area and we found HERMIT CRABS... i bought 4... pretty active... hahaa. and they are now alive and kicking in front of my tv... whahaaa... my sis and yanli are pretty excited about them.. hahaa... it was ms ang's bday and we could only hastily get a tub of ice-cream as present for her... but i think she's happy with the surprise... hahaa... made her drink quite a lot of jim bean also.. hahaa... the yr 2 gals came to our room that nite... din really know why... guess they din want to be on the 4th floor alone... so i shared bed with bryan... haha and i survived his snores... ahhaa

<01/06>
woke up rather early cos i was freezing... esp after i bathed... so i went to the lobby area there where there's no aircon... we went to "wu fen pu" that morning, not the place for me.. i'm really not there to buy clothes... so went with fung to "guang hua shang chang" taiwan's version of sim lim sq... the stuff there really cheap... so i bought my mp3 player there... 1 GB with almost every function u can think of for only S$200... yah.. fung bought more stuff there... he really is go there to pack himself with electronics one... went to Taipei Main Station to look at train schedules cos we may be taking it to go somewhere further... but in the end din materialise cos dunno where to go... hahaa.. den it was nite liaozZ... off to shilin we went... and here comes my super big fried chicken... hahaa... bought 2 singles and 2 tshirts there.. quite cheap so still ok... ate a lot of stuff... after awhile i was walking alone liaozZ... den i saw jass, she told me she couldnt find ZZ... den came rach and alison saying the same thing... so we walked around looking for her... den saw hay... he got into the search too... everyone's anxious abt losing her... somehow i was still relax.. still stight-seeing.. not that i'm not worried she may look a little naive... but i believe she's better that how she looks... definitely smart enuff to take care of herself... i stopped to buy some fruits while the others continue the search... after buying the fruits i tried to ctach up with the search party and i saw ZZ at the next bend... hahaa.. wat a joke... while they were looking so high and low... she just appeared in front of me after i bought some fruits... hahaa.. i said there was nothing to worry rite?? hahaaa... felt EARTHQUAKE close to midnite... scary feeling... first u get a dizzy feeling... den things starting becoming wavy, including the walls, bed and doors... unlike wat we always see in movies where things go jerky... scary!! guess i was quite calm... when we evacuated to the lobby... it seems like we are the only ones who evacuated... but i really discourage their indifference... if something worst was to come... will they be able to leave in time? i believe we could be the only one in safe grounds...

<02/06>
this morning we took the MRT all the way to e end station at "Dan Shui" it's a port... we went to the famous "yu ren ma tou" interesting place... nice scenary.. took a lot photos there... there was this bunch of kindergarten kids who turned up... and the yr 1s just went gaga over them.. haa.. kids going crazy over kids.. hahaa.. wat a sight.. hahaa... after that went to "dan shui lao jie" to buy "tie dan" bought a lot of it... hahaa... also ate the local speciality "ah gei"... on the way back on the MRT.. there was this kid.. very active.. very cute.. and he's simply crazy abt choonfu.. hahaa.. he even chose choonfu over this parents... hahaa.. went to KTV... kindda lost at first cos din know how it works over there... but after a while got used to it liaozZ.. sang a lot of songs.. cos i kept hogging onto the mike.. hahaa... think the service there is very good... much better den in singapore... almost the same price as in singapore... yah.. sang till 11plus before going back to the hostel... i got into a cosy position and i fell sleep quite early...

<03/06>
it's my bday... but i wasnt expecting anything much except some handshakes and greetings cos i was hoping at least some ppl remembered... it was a free and easy day... so we went to bookshop area near "xing guang san yue"... but i wasnt interested in books so i walked to "ximenting" from there... ron and shengli followed me... so we walked around.. but the 2 of them felt sick and tired soon and went back to the hostel themselves first... while i waited for the rest to come to ximenting.. brought jass to go buy posters while the rest continued shopping... me and jass went to see see look look at the arcade and we saw a super accurate hoop shooter... and we took a vid of him strutting his skills.. super zai... we went to a cafe that has swinging chairs for a bite... nice place... order some cakes and they sang birthday song for me... i was happy... really touched... as the day creeps away i tot i would have spent my bday with on some greetings... shopping has not ended.. went back to NTU nite market there... to shop again... hay finally bought the gifts he wanna get... while i got a shoe bag... alison's the cute one, she wanted to buy a pants but she din have enough money so she called me to help her.. hahaa.. super funny... but i was glad she called me for help... she's always a sister to me... we went back to the hostel after that... i bought noodles from 7eleven for supper... and was packing my stuff on my bed when everyone walked in with a birthday cake... i was super touched... it's been years since i had pple celebrate my bday with me... hay got me 2 vball books... i like them very much cos there's a lot of pictures.. hahaa... i just wanna say thanks to everyone for giving me this memory... for making my bday more den ordinary...

<04/06>
last day... wanted to take a lot of photos with everyone... but somehow it din materialise also... really wanted to take photo with everyone but it seems like not many of them were interested... yah.... that's the end of the trip... a week just past liddat... like quite sad... but i had fun...