Taiwan Day 1

I have to say this took longer than i thought it would. I apologize for the much much delay of my day to day update on Taiwan because i have been so caught up with school assignments and work.

Let's get down to what we want (or hope) to see!

When we first got to the airport, what we saw were pretty established airport, with friendly staff guiding you through the path to the bus station where we take a bus to their train interchange, equivalent to our own CityHall station.

 It was about 7am and the queue for bus was so long!

 This guy stood right outside the train station. It was like stepping into a scene in Wizard of Ox.

 Can you believe how BIG THIS IS!

 They have these guiding lines for the commuters to queue. How about some in our own town?

 One pattern that you see is that despite having an almost full train, you get to see seats all around. You don't see that many people rushing for the seats and Taiwanese pretty much like standing better.

 Of course, in Taiwan, they have the keep right rule that was really difficult to keep to at the first few days.

 AND YES, we have been lugging around our luggage around the place for about 2 hours plus. It was not even funny how awkward and clumsy we looked.

 

They actually have such an etiquette. If I'm not wrong, Japan has the same etiquette too.

 I don't know if any of you guys remember this scene, but these are the very first scene in the Taiwanese movie "Love". The part when there were a lot heart-shaped balloons and one of the main leads took his yellow bicycle and cycle down the street.

The coming pictures are those of Taiwan 101. I have to say i wasn't very amused at the things available inside, but i guess it was the first experience that counts, at a certain amount of monies.

 These sculptures are actually made of corals. CORALS I SAY.

 These were taken at a temple of the Dragon or something. Awesome view and atmosphere!


When you are in Taiwan, how can there not be any "Mee Sua" and "Da Ji Pai"? HOW NOT TO BE FAT? The food came in large portion and at an affordable price. Something that we probably like when we are there the entire time. There wasn't a minute that our hands were not holding food or drinks.

Some Mexican pizza with a whole lot of meat and cheese inside. It basically OOZED out in your mouth

Fried milk. It can literally melt in your mouth.

Frog Spawn. Not literally, just balls of flour with jelly in a cup of grass jelly drink. It tastes AWESOME

 I laughed like a mad when i saw this. Please read the red notice. Adult Video. Korean drama. Figure it out.

Oh yes, when you are at Shi Lin, no matter how nice the ladies selling fruits are, DO NOT BUY ANY FROM THEM! It is probably the most expensive i have ever tasted because just a small pack of sliced watermelons and honeydew, it cost us about SGD$10!

Lastly before we head back to our hotel, these were our supper. You have no idea how much we did not care about the diet plans. Chicken skin, meat balls, duck drumsticks, and random barbequed meat all at once, and then pair them up with a cup of whiskey. That was about the end of the REALLY tiring first day. I swear we covered a few miles in distance just by walking.

All these were my first experience the moment i stepped into Taiwan. I have to say it was hell of a tiring because of all the walking due to the inefficient hotel staff that didn't get our rooms prepared on time, and probably also because we touched down at 6am. I have to say, i love the weather, the environment, the services.  

The start of my 9 days affair with Taiwan.

Taiwan

 

I have heard so many good things about Taiwan and didn't have a chance to see or experience it myself, until now.

Yes i just came back from Taiwan recently and i have to say, my mandarin has improved! Staying there for 9 days gave me enough time to compare everything there with my homeland. No doubt it was a culture shock and many differences that set our group out of the locals and it was easy. From the way we dress to the way we speak, everything gave us away. So i took up a challenge to try out their accent and the way they speak, and it was fun.

That aside, Taiwan is sort of the country that anything goes. Unlike in Singapore, their infrastructures aren't as established as what we have here but, it is the older looking building that triggers the curiosity of what happened in this place many years ago. You get to see temples, street stalls and decorations you will never see in Singapore. By street stalls, i meant, street stalls. They are highly mobile stalls that move around the night market or even in front of the shopping malls. In Singapore, you will wonder if they are licensed to be food vendors.

Now the people. For the smokers out there, good news. You get to smoke anywhere as long as they are not indoors. If you are not the bike kind of person, you are in for a rude awakening. You get bikes coming at you even when you are walking by the shopping streets, dodging every one of them every 10 minutes. Then they have those who dress really well, and the minor part of the population, not so well-dressed.

I think i will just stop here in case my muse refused to appear in the coming days. I will be posting my day-by-day pictures up soon as long as i get the pictures into the computer. Stick around! :)

Innocence

I left for work today feeling like any other work day. Groggy, annoyed and tired. But that's not the point.

As i entered the lift, this grandmother who was holding on to a kid, no more than 2 years old, looked up. Like how a few grandparents would do, she introduced me to the kid, simply saying, "kor kor." Then i smiled to the kid, and he was casually smiling and fidgeting within his grandmother's arm.

When we reached the ground floor, i held the lift for them to exit and followed behind slowly.

I walked slowly behind them looking at the kid slowly hopped a step at a time down.

When they both reached the end of the stair-case, he turned back giggling and hopped up and down in a way like somebody was chasing behind him.

He thought i was chasing him, playing with him.

I smiled my widest smile.

My heart melted.

Time Travelling

Time Travelling. Whoever said it was not possible?

No i am not Albert or anything near that kind of inventive mind, but all i need is the companionship of a few good buddies.

Meeting up with 2 of my good buddies whom i have known since i was in primary school was the best decision i made today. We can talk about anything under the sun, about our lives, our futures, and definitely our similar past. As the conversation goes, our memory banks became our instant movie theatre showing us who we were, who we are, and who we will be.

Started from Primary School when we were all puny and small. Standing at 140cm, i was one of the shortest in class and i was that skinny boy with a little too much baby fats to spare around the waist. While talking about how we were in school, names started to pop up and experiences that we have never talked about arises and soon enough, it became an entire episode of our early school days.

Then we moved on to being in secondary school, the subjects we took, the things we hear others did, the awesome teachers, the not-so-awesome teachers, the nerve wrecking period when we had to study for O levels and while receiving our results, and last but not least, the ecstasy of knowing how well our individual class did as a whole because of the unique subjects combinations we took. How we spent the best days of our school days in school uniforms, escaping from the eyes of the discipline master and hanging out in town that seemed like a cool thing to do. Best days.

As we moved on to being in poly, being in army, and what are our plans for the next 2 to 3 years, i have to say we have definitely grew up. Whatever it is, a friend of mine, my best rollerblading buddy, my height-weight rival since secondary school, my unique friend who doesn't quite like crowd, my friend who is poor in mandarin, is going to go to Boston to study Music for 3 years without coming back. I would definitely miss this dear friend of mine.

 This one above is Yilong. Not exactly a wonderful shot of him but at least it is a shot of him. He has been a real good friend whenever i needed help in anything! And well, he's a lot more artsy fartsy than i am.

And then we have the buddy who is going to Boston. The brutally honest but kind friend. Also, you all are looking at the next top musician/composer in the near future. (:





Time Travelling.
Has always been possible.

Something to share:

American Pie, The Reunion

If you have seen the previous serial-movies of this highly X-rated comedy, then this should not be surprising to hear.

It is funnily awesome with a meaningful under-lying purpose and a pinch of porno to add in a certain awkwardness in the already mixed emotions.

With all the sexual innuendos, compromising positions in more ways than you think, and sexual habits beyond your wildest imagination, you can definitely expect a whole lot of laughter and mind-bothering images etched into your mind (like how one guy had a relationship with his buddy's mum).

However, they do have the meaningful part whereby the reunion back at their high school 10 years after. It will give you all the nostalgic feeling near the end of the show because of the photo collage they put together. Which leaves me wondering why does Singapore not have such reunion in neighborhood schools?

If you really want a light-hearted film that gives you a good laugh and works your mind in more ways than 1, watch it.

Good night world.