mY t@iwaN tRiP...day 7

Before we checked out, we took some pics in the hotel.. our tour guide told us that we can do some last min shopping at a shopping center called "Tai Mao Gou Wu Zhong Xin".. Its one of the biggest shopping centers in taiwan.. It looks like a castle from outside, quite nice..
Finally the time has come for us to go to the airport.. On the bus, Caifu told us not to cry.. haha.. as if we will.. As usual, he told us some jokes and some funny stuff.. At the airport, we took some last min pics with our tour guide Caifu and with our administrator Seetoh.. Must really thank these 2 guys for making this trip an enjoyable one..

mY t@iwaN tRiP...day 6

Whoa.. how fast time flies.. Its already day 6.. We had a long bus ride from taizhong back to taipei.. Actually we were supposed to go to Daxi Blooming Oasis where there are very beautiful flowers.. It was the filming ground for a taiwan idol drama featuring cyndi wang and ming dao.. However, we ended up giving it a miss as it is the rainy season and our caifu told us tat there is no point going since there will be no nice flowers for us to admire..

Our first stop of the day was at a place where they keep the remains of their national leaders.. there were many soldiers doing some marching thingy.. They were dressed smartly except for their weird looking tin helmets but some of the soldiers were quite cute.. haha..Just nearby was Chiang Kai Shek's home and we went there to admire his gardens and stuff.. Above is a pic of one of his cars.. I would think it is fun touring his place if not for the dreaded rain.. The rain just makes everything feel uncomfortable..
After lunch, we went to this place called Chung-Hwa Pui-Shiou Museum, its a place where they help people decipher meanings of your name and other feng shui matters.. Their shifu gave an interesting talk about how ppl's names have an effect on ppl's lives.. Later, his employees tried to convince us to buy some stuff which will enhance the quality of our lives.. But those things are very ex.. One figurine that is to be placed in the house cost about 4000-5000 bucks, sing dollars, not taiwan dollars..
Our next stop is a big shopping complex called Miramar Entertainment Park.. It has a very big ferris wheel but my family opted not to take it as we rather go shopping instead.. but it turned out to be disappointing as a lot of the stuff are pretty expensive.. we ended up juz walking around n we spotted homer simpson and his family.. haha.. My youngest bro and i decided to take a pic with them.. Anyway, i read about 2 KL college students stealing the figurine of homer simpson..damn hilarious.. How can those 2 think they can escape with homer?!! haha..The last stop of the day was at Raohe Night Market.. I managed to buy a nice bag for only NT300 which works out to about 15 bucks.. My 1st bro and i had some desserts while my mum and my youngest bro went to walk around since they both had a cough and couldn't eat cold stuff.. haha.. Anyway, dun be mistaken by the pic above, those 2 bowls aren't ours.. by the time we remembered to take a pic, we were already half-way done so we borrowed our neighbours' to take a pic.. They were HK tourists judging from their accents.. When we checked into the hotel, we were pleasantly surprised.. The hotel was the best out of all 6 nights.. After resting in the room for a while, my bros and i felt hungry so we went to a 24 hr shop called Family Mart, something like 7-11 and bought some food.. we also bought 3 bottles of Le Tea.. Channel MTV chinese keeps advertising for it so we decided to try them but its not that impressive.. Since tml morning's morning call is 8am, i ended up watching tv until 2am plus..

mY t@iwaN tRiP...day 5

Today's breakfast was a little better.. They actually had sushi.. Though it wasn't tat gd but at least it was something different.. After breakfast, it was a long bus ride along expressways and hills to taizhong to a place called Sun Moon Lake.. Its a beautiful place with mirror-like calm water and there is also a big temple called Wen Wu Temple there as well.. There were 2 very big red lions guarding the gates of the temple.. quite unique as we dun see coloured lions guarding gates often but our tour guide Caifu told us its gotta do with feng shui.. In the temple, we managed to catch the mins of the spurs vs cleveland game.. haha.. the temple staff were actually watching the game too.. Anyway, happy that spurs won the 4th and last game.. Go SPURS!! After lunch we went to a place where they are famous for their royal jelly.. My mum ended up buying some.. After tat, they allowed us to put on some traditional costumes and headgear to pose for some pics.. Dun we all look cute? haha..We were supposed to visit a peacock park after tat but it was raining very heavily so we decided to give it a miss.. Everyone didn't mind so our guide juz took us to our next destination which is the Lu Fong Earthquake Museum.. The museum used to be a secondary school but after an earthquake , the govt decided to convert the school into a museum.. Of course, some parts needed repairs as the destruction of the building was quite severe.. See the pic of the track below.. It was raised to a height of about 2metres.. After the visit to the museum, we went to the Feng Jia Night Market.. Caifu told us not to eat so much as we were going to a fabulous restaurant after that.. At the night market, we saw a pet shop with lotsa cute dogs inside but we din dare to take any pics..

Dinner that night was at the strangest restaurant i've ever seen.. Its set up by this lady with big dreams.. i would recommend everyone who goes taiwan to visit her restaurants.. She has 1 in taipei, tainan,xinying and taizhong.. Every restaurant looks different.. one really has to go n experience it yourself.. I checked out her website and it is really cool.. Her site is http://www.five-dime.com.tw/


After the fufilling dinner, we went back to our hotel to take a rest.. tml morning's morning call is 6am.. but i din sleep until about 1am.. haha..

mY t@iwaN tRiP...day 4

this morning's morning call was even earlier.. 6 am.. woah..!! Today we are leaving Taitung for Kaohsiung.. The bus ride was about 3 hours long.. The tour guide played a movie on the bus for us to watch but in no time, more than half the bus was sleeping.. zzzzz... Along the way, i managed to capture some beautiful pics of the sky and sea along the expressway..

We finally reached our first destination.. the 'Mei Non Hakka Village'.. We had our lunch there and it was not too bad.. they had a dish called 'ban tiao' which is a little like our 'kuay tiao'.. Its simple but very tasty..After lunch, we were given time to walk around the village.. This old man in the pic can make music with all kinds stuff.. like here he's juz blowing into a bottle of mineral water but he makes nice music.. He was on popular programmes such as Guess 3 and the Zhang Fei show..

After leaving the village, we made our way to Fo Kuang Shan Monestery.. They had a very big gold statue at the peak.. we had wanted to take more pics but unfortunately, we ran out of battery and the spare was on the bus.. damn.. Anyway, the temple was huge, there were lots of stairs and slopes to climb and my mum's legs were really killing her..

After tat, we went to the Spring & Autumn Pavillons where we saw the Dragon and Tiger Pagodas and the Xuan Tian Shangdi Temple.. Some parts of it are being renovated so we couldn't go in to see everything.. We also went to buy some food stuff around that area.. bought quite a lot of muah chee.. initially wanted to buy lots of 'guo dong' but its expensive so we din buy much.. On the bus, on the to dinner, we passed by an english-learning center ran by a guy called 'tony chen'.. He's a damn hilarious and weird guy who never fails to make me laugh when he is on those brainless taiwanese variety shows.. Anyway, dinner that nite was great.. We had a japanese bbq and steamboat.. For the 1st 20 min, we had a pretty waitress who helped us bbq our food but later her irritating supervisor asked her to let us try it ourselves so she left us.. boo hoo hoo.. The food was so good that we forgot about taking pics.. we juz kept eating n eating.. See my youngest bro enjoying the food..After dinner, we went to the Sin Jiao Jiang Night Market.. I din manage to buy anything from there but my youngest bro bought a ring which is very nice.. He had wanted to buy a bracelet but my 1st bro and i told him tat his wrist is to fat n he wont look good wearing one.. haha..

We were made to report to back to the bus at 8.30 if i din remember wrongly.. But before we went up the bus, we went to get some donuts.. They were so pretty, so colourful.. My bro took a pic of the donuts without realising that he was not allowed to do so, luckily the sales asst. was not too fierce..
We had a 2nd round of pigging out when we went back to the hotel room.. The room was quite big and comfy and i had a good nitez sleep..