don't tell you what it means! okay you probably know also :p
hihihi jane. free subscription for you!
Okay so I went for a 7 days route march with 11 guys, all bpians. but be warned, this is a super long photo post that might turn your mac into kfc, or burgerking :p
sunrise on the plane. I think sunrise catchers will feel sleepy, but will also be filled with the hopefulness that seems to dawn on the earth. some day, that promise will come true.
first day along the streets of ximending. Yes, that's how ximending looks like. This x 99999 identical buildings and t-junctions.
the best food of the day is 蛋饼. the rest.. err. hmm. at least they are cheap haha.
jetstar mid-night flight caused us to reach there at 7am. But the streets only start business at 11am. And the hotel is only available for check-in at 3pm. So we were forced to kill time from 7-3. z.z zombies roaming the 3 storey starbucks.
One good thing about wearing specs is that it makes the panda eyes seem less visible. I was totally a zombie then.
went to 阿毛's for lunch and this poor dog was leased at the entrance. I don't know what's so famous about this stall because the food wasn't nice and the dog seemed to be suffering from space constraint and indifferent to the likes of tourists. Poor dog. A place where swusan wouldn't patronize :p
then we split into 2 groups and wandered around the early ximending. too bad they have a lame guy in this group, giving stupid ideas. that is not ahbugek HAHA!
night of ximending. Looks exciting but actually nothing much because the things there are not cheap.
饶河夜市! Just the night market feel lor haha. A lot of people.
And I tried this thing, smallest portion ->50twd->2.2sgd. tasteless thing in spicy sauce that requires sucking. only choonboon zuokun and clar tried this with me, the rest didn't dare to haha. ok la, didn't finish then threw away alr, cos I don't "suck" :p reminds me of someone who agreed to try this kind of food with me next time?
That's the 3men bed with boon ghim and me. Not unexpected for 3 01 guys to be sleeping tgt haha. squeezy but I didn't mind at all cos it was good enough.
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yup, taiwanese stick to the right! And they're a lot more courteous than singaporeans!! I attribute that to the haughtiness of singaporean aunties and uncles. Reminds me of a silly incident too :)
and they queue in a straight line, and wait for the next train if it becomes too full. Singaporeans? chiong ahhhh!! form U shape and start to engulf the entire entrance and start squeezing.
I like these kind of housing units because they seem very characteristic of Taiwan to me. Some how they gave me a fuzzy feeling of asian homely cosiness.
Oh this place is in 乌来. We visited the suspension bridge and then it's photo time. Hair? Heck.
heck hair, really. zuokun + shades = cool. and chee + wind = dragonball z.
group shot by the water! Got the 八仙过海 feel, no? Went to the hot spring after this. No photos sorry blehhhh. And the hot spring was just hot water -.-" I want natural hot spring! Got quite giddy after dipping myself into the hot water for some time, which should be a normal phenomenon. Some how it forced my lethargy to come out; I felt like sleeping after that.
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On the third day I got rather fed up that I always don't know where I am going and leaving it to tf kun boon chee. I guessed I seemed irritating that I kept asking, and my get-dao-aura was quite prevalent too. It's very apparent that the group was always split into 2 sections: the basher and the followers. What to do? Take a photo of the mrt map and start joining in the lead. Though there were still many occasions when I just followed and ended up no where but my energy was completely depleted. One of the disadvantages of having a big group: miscommunication. One of the advantages: a noisy crap-filled bunch of guys just makes things seem fun
after visiting some cks cultural site, we went for lunch. a i-forgot-what restaurant there that costs only about $10 with free-flow rice and soup. Worth it compared to sg.
So we went to visit the museum! And got trolled real bad. We went there on Monday you see. And it was raining heavily. In fact there was not a single day when it didn't rain in Taipei.
as you can see from vballers' sad expression. Actually I don't think the museum will have anything much to look at, since I didn't even visit Singapore's? hahaha. Regardless of that, take photo first!!
either I didn't really know zuokun or I think zuokun is getting more and more funny hahaha. Look at his expression. I think his lameness will click quite well with me hahaha. But too bad, clique formed, hard to step out of each of our comfort zone. And also, the unnoticed mirror image by benjamin and me.
The famous 士林夜市! Err no, it was undergoing makeover and renovation now. So this is the makeshift version. Got to say I didn't really like the 炭烤鸡排 cos it was sweet -.-" disappointment from all the "aiya don't need to eat 鸡排 here now cos shilin's will be the best!" during the last 2 days, but supposedly the best brand "hot star". Found one Hot Star at Nex (a few days later)!
蠔煎! very different from sg's bcos it has lots of flour and they spammed the oyster like it's free and it's inexpensive. But I prefer sg's crispy version!! bukit timah~
臭豆腐 tryout! A must isn't it? This doesn't smell that bad to me haha. And, sorry I can't really tell the difference betw 炸豆腐 and 臭豆腐. I just like to see how others cringe while eating :p who dares to eat with me!? >:)
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Went to taipei 101, nothing much, it's like the top level of ION orchard, flooded with branded goods, but felt very tired from the walking. And the rain.. So we decided to go to another night market, which turned out to be ulu. While the rest were looking out for their shoes, me raymond and benjamin listened and sang 新不了情 that was played in the shop like nobody's business. Might as well take a photo haha.
Back to ximending for dinner and had another fail try. Seriously, my attempts to "try" food always end up as failures. 麻酱面 super salty. Maybe that's why people rarely trust my decisions..
The night seemed young. What to do? Take photo first :)
Because we've been singing a lot these days while walking, we decided to visit the 10+ storeys high partyworld ktv. Super worth it. $10, room toilet, free flow water, 800 worth of food/beverages to be ordered (in the $10), spacious room, 1030-5. Disadvantages? slight smell of cigarette smoke, presence of mosquitoes (some how disappeared in the middle of the night, or maybe they found a really delicious guy to feast on and ignored me), and no hanyupinyin function.
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then the next day, yeliu! don't know how to write the name ps. And the rocks there look disgusting. Goosebumps. Choonboon was telling me how much jane would dislike this place.
so many shrooms rocks
At night, we went to another night market, dunno what name again. We had our facepalm 鸡排, tastes so great, you feel like facepalming yourself with the 鸡排! okay actually there are big 3 points to facepalm. 1.we saw them cut the chix. by right our impression of taiwan 鸡排 is that they don't cut the chix, diff from sg. 2.there was a stall just beside it that sold 鸡排 too but we failed to notice, and the price is cheaper. 3.the girl was frying a 鸡排 and we thought it was for us, then she started eating it. Fun with ray and boon hahaha.
photo with 台妹? a 3 men mission but zuok was cool and lucky, so he joined in haha.
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early in the morning without boon at our favourite family mart. what to do? hahaha. really sorry.
and we went to the zoo.So you might ask what the difference between a Singapore zoo and a taipei zoo. Not much actually. But we do get closer to the animals. Amazing how the tiger in sg is so far apart from tourists, yet ppl die, but the tiger in taipei zoo is only a glass pane away but no one died. So, nothing much to capture, except maybe butterflies that could be one of the reasons why raymond fell sick later.
future 台妹! So fascinated with butterflies.
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The next day, some of them chose to slack in hotel, so only 6 survivors for exploration. Went to 淡水 and the scenery was pretty good!!
At night, the elephant mountain. Climbed like mad, along with a raymond who's not feeling well, only for rain to pour all over us and force us to descend. Some of us were wearing new apparels bought in Taiwan some more. Soaked from top to toe and I felt a lil sick at night :( That didn't stop me from visiting the night club after that haha. But urgh. Smoky sleazy poor katy perry music. But it really is a place where "i want to touch" and "i want to get touched" meet, like a fair place for transaction. Sorry but I think of my gf and this is what I did:
going along with my slight sickness and acted uncomfortable, so went out to chill with benjamin, who also didn't like it. hehe.
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last day in taiwan, but just can't resist myself from buying a bowl of 阿宗面线, which I said was ghim's wife and everyone agreed ah hahaha. Sad that they have to break up on this day.
Overall a nice experience in Taiwan, led by vballers, accompanied with vballers. It's an awesome feeling to visit new places of different cultures. Looking forward to the promised frying session :)
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The very next day, I went to run 21km. x.x Of course I didn't have enough rest! Still slightly sick pls. I wanted to run, and I just couldn't bear to collapse for fear that others' heart might break. So I ran slowly, and completed it hehehe. A new experience I must say, that my leg actually tightened up so much at 16km, that I had to drag my whole body to 21km, plus my insistent refusal to walk. Kudos to jeremy the olympian for zooming through it like a breeze :)
Yes, sorry, I decided I'm not gonna run more than 10km next time thanks. hahahaha.
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Went to kushinbo to celebrate yongchee's belated birthday! Expensive ahhhh. Ate like 20 fresh prawns and 4 alaska crab legs haha. What a hassle to eat the alaska crabs. And there, all of us caught a glimpse of our future uncle bodies. Present later yongchee!
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Back at work, my email inbox was flooded. 80+ unread messages. Had to spend 3 days to clear up every single email and follow-up all the shits. That's work life for everyone I guess. You can't go on a holiday in peace. And you can't go on a holiday with your colleague either, because he/she will have to cover up for you while you're on leave. He/she might even curse you for dumping them the work and going off for enjoyment. Just joking, my aunties are very nice people :)) It's just a sad fact. How I admire those companies that organise work holiday vacation so that no one is compromised!!
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Maybe the average rate is 70. Some 100. But mine shot up to 200 at least, I'm sure.still can't believe but am extremely elated. *skips around happily like jane.
there is just one kind of silliness that has the power to move me.
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the song that vballers kept singing in taiwan:
再给我两分钟
让我把记忆结成冰
-周杰伦 最长的电影 -
because that is the last thing I will want to forget.
like El nino, I'll warm you up
weijian