对不起啦! I know I've not blogged about my Taiwan trip as promised so after looking through other people's travel-log, I felt kinda guilty and decided to do one here.

Well, one thing about travel-logs is that it takes a freaking long time for me to do plus like a zillion photos to upload lah. Something I super dread which caused me not to finish my Beiijing one. Anyway, since I'm already here so I guess I'll just do a speedy one about my trip to taiwan.


Overall, the 8 days in Taiwan was okay in my opinion. I mean for someone who has already went to Japan several times, Taiwan cant be compared to Japan at all. So my suggestion is that if you're only in for the shopping, then Taiwan is a good place for you (tho i think now Korea is getting cheaper too). Otherwise, just pay abit more and enjoy Japan/Korea. Overall rating for Taiwan? About a 6.5/10.

I joined a tour agency (CTC) which I later quite regretted when I actually had time to do my own research on Taiwan. I've came to realisation that majority of the people go to Taiwan on free and easy unless you're super into seeing monestaries and nature stuff (which isnt too great either). Should you be considering to go to Taiwan, I think just going to Taipei is good enough for shopping/eating/scenaries. Any futher down the country, would just cost you more as travelling is definitely not convinient.

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So Day 1,
Took the afternoon flight to Kaohsiung. The aircraft was SOOOO small lah. Of course, ever since the last time I took China Airlines, I dared not put too high hopes on their services anymore. No TV, No fanciful games etc. But boy, did they entertain us on our 4 hours ride.


The journey was SOOO bumpy (plus i was sitting at the last row next to the toilet. -.-), so shaky and so many freefalls. I felt as though we were on a rollercoaster ride okay. It was so annoying cause every say 5 to 10 minutes they would have to put on the safety sign, announce the turbulance warning announcement (in 5 languages somemore) and the head bulldog airhostress would be screaming her head off to make sure everyone sits down.

*sigh*

Well, lets just say the only compensation was that in front of us were a WHOLE BUNCH of NS guys. Say 80+ of them? HEHE! Some of them were quite cute lor. :P

Upon arrival at the dodgy Kaohsiung airport, we headed for a nightmarket. It was Liu-something but anyhow it wasnt too fabulous lah. Being the suaku us, we tried everything we wanted to try (which in the end was a better stategy), spent a bomb and got damn full.

Tried the smelly tofu. HOHO. I tell you, someone should try selling it in Singapore as prank food. DAMNNNN funny when you see other people's reaction the moment they sink their teeth into the tofu. Honestly, I think its okay just that at first whift, it stinks. My mum had phobia of it after she place the first piece into her mouth. Her reaction was priceless okay. Look look!


She couldnt believe I ate more than half the plate of it lah.


Oh, not to mention she laughed damn loud when she saw other's people (another daughter&mother combo) ate it. So mean can. I didnt even laugh that loudly when I saw her reaction. Yup, they had phobia of Smelly tofu after that too.
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Day2.
Headed down to Kenting. My favourite place in this trip. Very beach like. Went there to see some stones, camwhore with them and enjoy the atmostphere. Breeze there is VERY VERY strong tho. My mum's umbrella overturned quite a number of times.

The hotel is to die for. It is brand new so facilities there are still quite good condition. Say bowling alley, pool, internet room, spa, arcade, jacuzzi, water slide etc. Our rooms? 2 king sized beds for the both of us, outlooking the sea. (:

Compare the size of my heartshaped sunnies with the beds!

Would have enjoyed my stay even better if I could go kart at the nearby "stalls".
Enjoyed the facilities in the hotel and then headed down for dinner and jalan-ing along kenting night street. Admittedly that was the day that I bought the most stuff lah. Could have bought more tho. Me likey the stuff there! (: The girls also quite pretty okay.

But then again, the stuff there are not the cheapest. Where to get the cheapest stuff? Tell you later.
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Day3.
Left the beautiful hotel to go back to Kaohsiung (wth right?) and further up into middle of Taiwan. Okay, this was prolly the most boring day of the trip. Really. All I can vaugly remember is like golden budda statues and native people and argh, long long bus rides.

My mum and her favourite fat onions.

Everytime I get on the bus, within 15 minutes I would doze off already. Amazing talent huh. Oh, and salty ice cream from the salt mountain. (and no, its not a mountain at all! its just some crystalised sodium chloride on rocks).
Night was spent at the dodgy hotspring resort. The resort was like completely empty can? When we went up to our floor, the corridor lights were all off and we had to on them by ourselves. 0.0 No need to compare with Japan's onsens la, okay?
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Day4.
Another long bus ride out to see the Sunmoonlake. Cruised around the lake and heard like 101 legends about that place. The water's REALLY REALLY nice tho. Very clean but not to the extent that I would want to go swim in it.

Another boring day looking at monestaries. Wah, especially the monestary we went this day was freaking huge lah. They said the construction itself costed 21 million. 0.0 Its DAMNNNN huge! Like totally unimaginable? Ohoh! And its like bigger then the Emperor's palace in Beijing. Bigger than expo. Maybe twice the size of the entire Expo. What a waste of money lah.
Night was spent at a mosquito infested nature farm resort, chalet-over-water style. God, I hate mosquitoes. Its like the worst living creature on earth lah. I had to 包 myself like 粑粻 (okay, it should be BaZhang) to prevent them coming near me. Everyone was like laughing at me lor. ): AND!...In the end, I still got bitten. WTH?
The nature farm has no animals, just plants (and mosquitoes). Best for those plant lovers (like my mum lor).
For me... well, all I can say is that I would have enjoyed it more if there wasnt any mosquitoes. Yes, mosquitoes play THAT big a part. The rooms were... well... quite bad lah. About 2star? Oh, but dinner was better than usual. :D
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Day5.
Had a star struck morning. Not that I know them but they were from discovery channel. Left the place about noon for some amusement park which no one exactly played. I think the most adventurous thing we played (meaning with some others in the tour group) was like indoor viking ship. I thought it being indoor would mean that it would not go very high, nor very fast.

But OMG. It was freaking scary lah. It swung OMGWTHISH fast and the middle seats when as steep as 80degrees. Imagine the backer seats? (Haha! there was this auntie whom was already a grandmother who choose to seat at the back with her husband. In the midst of the ride, she was saying she's going to die ald. LOL.)
Tabitha, if you're reading this, you'll still never be able to persuade me into riding this kinda rides with you.



Oh, but the night was the BEST SHOPPING EXPERIENCE I had in the ENTIRE trip. I love this place to bits. Kenting had nice atmosphere. But it cant beat FengJia Night Market. FJ is located next to FJ University so the stuff there are trendier plus cheaper than the other night markets located in Taipei. FYI, FJ is in Taichung, center of Taiwan.

I regretted not spending more time there or getting more stuff there. I got a few tops at 5bucsk which are really really nice. One of which is a blue-white dyed top, one of my faves now. 5 bucks leh! Accesories and shoes are cheap there too. 2.50 for accessories. Very worth it right. Sg sell about 8 bucks leh.

Man, I would have spent more if I knew XiMenDing (XMD) would be such a letdown lor.

Oh! And did I mention that there were like illegal pushcart vendors along the streets? They are DAMN funny. Dawn told me about them before I left for Taiwan but its much funnier to see them at it real life. There would be one person on a watchout and once the police comes (wah the police damn good life lah, can go shopping one), they (about 50 to 100) of them would pack up within seconds and disappear into a small alley. DAMN FUNNY. Seconds/minutes later, they would appear again. Cute right?!
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Day6.
Woohoo! We're headed for Taipei! Ultimate shopping~!


Saw the guardchanging ceremony (no cute guys), some historical presidentish place and Taipei 101 was nothing fabulous at all. Tho we didnt manage to go up to the see the sceneary (which was ex like nuts just to stand there for awhile), the shops downstairs were like too ex to even get anything lah. It just looked like our Raffles City, period.

I was curious tho, how the cleaniest toilet in Taiwan (real one!) would be like. I was expecting like some high tech Japanese like toilets but no... this was all i got.



Afternoon was spent at WuFenPu. Huge like nuts but not say as great buys as FJ leh. We walked until we had to change shoes cause our feets were aching like hell. It felt worse than PT sessions in NP camps lah. Its THAT bad. Evening was spent at the even worse Raohe Night Market. Nothing there worth buying, really. Food wise, I quite liked the 胡椒饼 (i think)。Anything else, Urgh.

Went back to the hotel not being able to walk properly anymore.
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Day7.

XMD in the afternoon which was a total letdown. Went to have a meal at 便所餐厅 (modern toilet) which was some highly raved restaurant. Quite affordable lah, just for the noverty's sake.

Etude house & Skin food-ed after that. Plus the much awaited Ah Zong Mian Xian. I was very disappointed okay! Sg's one is nicer to me. (Yes, ought to be slapped)


Went to Shihling Night Market. THIS, it SOOOOO much better than XMD. Should have skipped XMD and straight head for Shihling lor! Food there is good. Tried all the highly raved food, like the DAMN BIG Chicken Cutlet (direct translation from their signboard), which is really DAMN big cause each cutlet was at least the size of a A4 paper.


Had Mango ice as well. Yums. :D Tastes DAMN good after tiring shopping.


Oh, did I mention we only ate dinner after 3 hours of shopping at Shihling, which was about 11pm. Shopped till about 12-ish, going 1 since it was already our last night there. Shiok-ness. Another place to reccommend to shop after FJ.
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Day8.
Woke up early to attempt going to Danshui. In the end didnt go to see the Fisherman's wharf cause its just too far and came back to the hotel to pack up and go to the airport already. The airport is EMPTY ONE okay! Now i totally love Changi Airport. There was only like 5 stalls inside and all they sold was those kind of duty free stuff. -.-
Flight back was GOOOOOODDDDD. Airplane was new so there was movies and new games. Even newer than SIA's okay! Touchscreen one! :D


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Yup, so that pretty much wraps up my trip at Tw. I found my newly loved drinks, 木瓜牛奶 and 红茶. Both rocks socks man. I know both can be found in Sg but they arnt as good as the ones in Tw. Missing the beef noodles as well as the chicken cutlet. :)

AND... THE SHOPPING~! And illegal pushcarts. Omg, so cute!

One point there: its dangerous to shop in foreign currency. You dont feel the real pinch.