New Phone!!

I got a new handphone!! It's Samsung E720C!! Haha!! The functions are great!!! My mum traded in her old Sony Ericsson T610 for this. But, I paid for it. It cost $376 after trade-in. I gave my E600C to my mum. Wahaha!! So happy!! WAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!

Day 10 - Back to Singapore, Sunny

Woke up at 10am today!! Did kicked CP a bit last night and remembered myself saying sorry in the middle of the night. Haha. Oops.

We did some fast packing and walked out for lunch around the place we stayed. We couldn't find roast pigeon in that restaurant but decided to settle for it cos' we wanted to eat steamed fish!! It was a big restaurant. We ordered steamed fish (HK$200++), cai sim fry with beef ($45) and roast goose ($50), and of cos' with rice! Total bill was HK$330. A bit expensive but was delicious. For the benefit of all, it was located at: 438 King's Road, North Point, Hong Kong. It is Metropolitan Seafood Restaurant (xin1 du1 hui4 da4 jiu3 lou2).

After that, we went to a bakery and bought la po bing. Then back to the small restaurant where we had our dinner in HK the first night to buy roast pigeon. $25 for 1. We bought 1, and decided to eat before boarding the plane at the airport, cos it was nearly time to leave for the airport. We quickly went back to the hotel and checked out. We tooked the 1300 hr A11 Cityflyer to the airport. It took an hour to reach the airport.

We checked in and needed to check in our lugguges this time. More stringent. After which, we spent all our money inside the airport. I bought Aji Ichiban stuff. JH too. CP bought some nicely packed la po bing and mi gua shu. We finished our roast pigeon outside gate 43 before boarding. We sat at 2 different sides of the window seats. As a result, we couldn't talk to each other. A bit sad. The dinner on board wasn't really as nice as that we had on our first day to Taiwan. Somemore, no Toblerone. But got Haagen Dazs ice-cream!! Haha!!

We touched down at Singapore at 735pm. We took our belongings and checked out. Singapore, we are back!! No more alien feeling, no more counting how much money left, no more alien people around us!! Bidded CP goodbye at the airport. Mum fetched me home, and JH took a taxi back from my house. I washed my clothes, unpacked, and must get ready to go Beijing. =) Tired. Must rest le.

Total expendition in HK: HK$2156.30 = S$479.20

Day 9 - Hong Kong, Sunny

We woked up at 9 plus. Then we took the tram to Central, cos' wanted to show JH how HK's wet market looked like. It was called Zhong1 Huan2 Jie1 Shi4. It wasn't very big there. I think the one at Causeway Bay was much bigger and more crowded. Anyway, JH saw the dead fish heart still beating. Haha, and the headless fish still flipping.

We then had breakfast along the market streets. I had Set B and they both had Set C. Set B was gong1 zai3 mian4, buttered bread with ham and nai3 cha2. Set C was 2 he2 bao1 dan4, 2 hotdogs, 1 bread and nai3 cha2. Each set was $20. This was considered pretty expensive huh? Somemore, that was not a tourist attraction spot.

After breakfast, we took tram to Times Square at Causeway Bay. The maids were all there for their Sunday off day. But around Times Square were the locals. It was very crowded because all the shops in Times Square were having big discounts. However, all the shops in Times Square were branded, so we were merely window shopping. CP was feeling a bit bored, so he took the hotel key and went shopping by himself. JH and I continued walking around Causeway Bay. Then we went into Sogo. There were some Roxy sales and we bought a few tops each. Along the streets, we came across In and Out which was selling cheap clothes. But I only managed to buy a 3/4 cardigan cos' most of the shops in HK do not allow trying of tops and skirts. Sigh.

After shopping for the whole afternoon, we took the MTR to Tsim Sha Tsui for dinner - Dinner with Tracy and her mum, Marvin, Peishi and Peixian. Tried very hard to exchange a $20 note for small change. Nobody had, and I changed at the customer service. In the end, the ticket machine could accept a $20 note! When we went into the train, CP was already inside the same cabin we wanted to go in. Haha, the world is small. We reached Tsim Sha Tsui and took half an hour to find the place Tracy described. It was such a concealed place! We stood outside Miramar Hotel and Tracy and gang met us there. She then led us to the restaurant. It was a Russian food restaurant. I was hoping for a Chinese restaurant. When I stepped in, the ambience was great! While we were seated, there was a man and woman playing instruments and singing to a table of guests. We thought they paid them for the entertainment. However, they proceeded to the next table! We were getting excited when it would come to our table. When they really did, the woman gave us each a simple instrument to play together with them. It was fun! After they finished with all the tables, we were invited to dance at the front. It was simple steps for the 2 dances. It was really fun! The food came. After the delicious appeitizers, Jh and I shared chicken shaslik (chicken chuan4 shao1). The food was the best Russian food I've eaten! But of course, it comes with a price.

There was a freezing room inside the restaurant used to store bottles of wine. We wore thick wool clothings in, with temperature of -28 deg C! It was freezing cold inside, and we quickly took photos inside. We left the restaurant at about 930pm.

We took the MTR to Central to go Victoria peak. It was already 10pm then. The last tram down from the peak is 1200mn. We paid $30 entrance and went up by tram. It was a very steep tram rail. I think the maximum steepness was 50 deg. When we reached teh peak, I thought it had changed a great deal since my last visit almost more than 10 years ago. There were restaurants and there was Pacific Coffee and Haagen Dazs up there! There were fencings and not so open anymore. It used to be a big open circle surrounded by low walls. We took some pictures there.

We left the place at 1145pm, just in time for the last bus to Central MTR station at 1150pm. The bus had an open-air upper deck and was the first time I sat an open deck bus!! The wind was really nice!!

Didn't proceed to Lan Kuai Fong cos' they were already very tired. So we went back to our hotel too, and bought the Crunch triangular ice-cream at 7-Eleven. Was very nice!! It was our last night together. Feel a bit "bu she de". Slept at 2am.

Day 8 - Hong Kong, Cloudy

We woke up at 6am for yum cha. We took the MTR to Mongkok. We located Grand Tower 2 but the lift couldn't go up to the 3rd level. So we walked to Grand Tower 1 to see if it was there. The security at Grand Tower 1 was pretty friendly and took us to the place after telling him where we wanted to go. And chey, it was just there, and wasn't INSIDE the tower la!

There wasn't a queue, but was 70% filled inside at 730am. We ordered ha kaw, siu mai, pi2 dan4 shou4 rou4 congee and some doufu skin wrapped with meat. We read newspapers and magazine while we had dim sum for breakfast. We sat inside till 930am. Total bill was $129. This restaurant is located at: 639 Nathan Road, Shop A, Grand Tower, Mongkok, Kowloon.

The weather was good and we decided to go Po Lin Monastary on Lantau island. We took the MTR to Tung Chung and switched to bus 23 to go up the mountain. Another you2 shan1 wan2 shui3 moment. Got mountain and sea. We had fun on the bus cos' the bus ride was rather bumpy. It took about half an hour to reach Po Lin Monastary. It was a different feeling altogether when I last went there when I was 15. The place was fenced up. And we had to pay $13 for entrance. However this came with a free bowl of bee hoon, dou hua and some tian2 dian3. It was quite cloudy at first, but the sky cleared later and managed to take some nice photos with the Buddha. We climbed up the 268 steps. It didn't seem as high as before leh. We finished the 268 steps at one go. We walked inside the Buddha statue where there were scriptures placed and drawings and names of different gods. After which, we walked down the steps again and went inside the nearby temple where we had our small free lunch there. We also went to look at some exhibitions of Yongzhen's and Kangxi's handwritten scriptures. But of course they were copied out, not the original. JH felt bored there. Haha.

We went back to Mongkok to shop at Ladies' Market. I bought a nice hair pin there, but wasn't a cheap bargain. Then we had Xu3 Liu2 Shan1 desserts there. It was nice! There were so many branches at every corner! Cafe de Coral (Da4 Jia1 Le4) was everywhere too!! After finished shopping at Ladies' Market, we searched for Han4 Bao3 Jiu3 Lou2. We walked for almost 2 hours. We asked the Prince Edward MTR control station personnel and told CP to exit by Exit B. When we couldn't find it, I went to asked a newstander and she immediately said,"Zap sai loh!" (meaning all shut closed liao!) Sigh. Feeling depressed, we took the MTR to Tsim Sha Tsui to look for Cafe de Coral. However, we didn't manage to even find one there!! OMG! We walked for another hour just to find it!! In the end, we ate at Yun2 Tun1 Shi4 Ji4. I had shui jiao mian. It was $26. By that time it was nearly 720pm.

We then walked towards Avenue of Stars - the end of the pier for the Symphony of Lights show at 8pm. The clock tower was there too. There were quite a lot of people there with their cameras for the light show. The light show wasn't fantastic afterall. Just on and off of the building lights with some green laser.

After the show, we sent to Cafe de Coral for supper cos' the wantan mee was quite a small portion. I shared with CP as JH didn't want to eat. Then we took the Star Ferry to Central pier. It only cost $2.20. So cheap!

We walked to Lan Kwai Fong at 10pm. There was a Haagen Dazs there!! The atmosphere there was great! Maybe because I prefer pubbing than clubbing. There were many ang mohs and all the people were dressed very nicely. The music blasted from every pub and people were everywhere, even on the streets drinking beer. Just when we decided to go sit at Starbucks down the hill, I saw TW (my ex) and gf walked up the hill. We were walked towards each other, but I didn't know if he saw me. He was wearing a black polo tee with yellow strips and pants. His gf had thick makeup, danggling earrings, green metallic jacket, short skirt and heels. Wow. Really nice, appropriate for some hot night. It didn't look like the sweet her in her other photos I've seen. Such coincidence.

Still remembered about 2 months ago in Canteen A, we accidentally sat beside each other during breakfast time. It was a surprise he said "hello" to me, cos' he never did that after we broke up. That was the first time we "ate together". We never did eat together before, can't believe right? Together with him was a guy and a gal friend. The gal was in tube, pretty sexy. When he left the seat, he didn't say bye. Disappointed. But at least, he took the effort to say "hello".

We sat at Starbucks till 1215am. CP had green blended tea, JH had raspberry blended and I had Ice tea. My ice tea was $18. The price was about the same as in Singapore. We did a lot of stupid things together inside Starbucks. And took some stupid photos. Haha.


We started with this "egg" that I turned using HK$5.




We each took a picture with it. How did JH manage to hang that "egg" there?


I pulled out a strand of white hair from JH's head. Then used it as a thread to hang the "egg".


CP was the one holding on to the "egg". Haha.

So lame!! Haha! We took MTR back to North Point and turned in at 2am.

Day 7 - Taipei to HK, Fair in Taipei, Rainy in HK

We woke up for breakfast - toast and plain porridge. Then used the free internet to check mail. Then we packed up, checked out and boarded the small bus to the airport. Halfway, we changed to the bigger Free Go (Fei1 Go3) bus to the airport. It was about 50 min to the airport. There was nothing much to buy after we checked in, but the Dior Pure Poison perfume hooked me on. However, I thought it was too expensive. So didn't buy in the end.

We reached HK and took an hour to check out. There was quite a lot of people despite our not-so-full flight. We took bus A11 to North Point where our hotel was. Then it started to rain very heavily. It was worsened by the peak jam. We took nearly 1.5 hr to get from the airport to North Point. There was heavy jam man!!!!!

We then checked into our room and the room was very very small! What a big contrast to the rooms in Taiwan!! Furthermore, there were no toiletries provided except towel and handsoap. And there was no mineral water nor electric kettle! Argh! In the end, we bought a 6-litre mineral water back from Wellcome (analogous to our NTUC). The room had a small built-in TV and mini wardrobe. Super small room!!

We had dinner nearby our hotel. We had Shao1 Wei4. We ordered half a roasted duck, you2 cai4 and 3 bowls of rice. The duck was $60, vege was $12 and the 3 bowls of rice for $18!! It was the most expensive rice I've ever eaten!! Poor JH had no choice but to finish her bowl of rice. Haha!! First time see her ate the whole bowl of rice!! Well done gal!! The roasted duck was very good. Then we walked around looking for yum cha place in the rain. Need to sleep liao. Tom need to wake up early for yum cha!!!

Day 6 - Kee Lung, Fair and Sunny

I slept till 1010am today! We then toko the TRT to Gu3 Ting2 station and walked a long way to Ding3 Tai4 Feng1. We could have alighted at Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall station and walked over! It could have been much nearer. I ordered prawn dumpling la mian and we shared xiao long bao. The taste here was so much better than the one in Sg at Paragon! The pricing was comparable. But i wasn't very filling. At 1125am, I got a SMS from David. The SMS that could decide what I was going to do next semester. Yeah, results were out. Luckily I passed all my subjects. I was so fearful of my da bao subject (MS403) and was lucky to get a D for it. Phew. The others were quite good, 2As, 2Bs and 1C. Was quite disappointed in that C, thought could at least get a B for that stupid Nanomaterials. This was the best results I've ever gotten in my NTU life. Guess a fewer number of subjects allowed me to be more focused. However, I did not get any classification. I got a Pass with Merit only. Kan kai dian, can grad good enough already.

After which, we took TRT to Taipei Main Station and switched to the Railway Train. We bought tickets to Kee Lung. It took 1 hour to reach Kee Lung and we asked the tourist centre there for recommended places to visit. The lady recommended He2 Ping2 island and told us it was very beautiful. We took a bus to He Ping station and walked over to the island. We paid $60 for entrance each. Once we stepped in, I was looking forward to some good view. But to my great disappointment, the island was poorly maintained. There was lots of rubbish, broken tree trunks lying everywhere and the view was not beautiful at all to me!! I mian qiang took a photo there. Nice meh?

[img to be uploaded later]

After which, we took a bus back to Kee Lung TRT. There was a night market there. We shopped there and ate at the night market - Ji1 Long2 Miao4 Kou3. I ate guo1 tie4. It was cheap and good!! $50 for 10!! Yummy yummy!! I bought Ai4 Yu4 Ning2 Meng2 drink. It was like ice jelly with a tinge of lemon. Nice!! and I bought packet of jambu for $50. Big packet! Very sweet!! Finally got to eat my guo tie and jambu!! But yet to eat my beef noodles!!

We left Kee Lung at 740pm and reached Ximending at 830pm. JH and I did out last shopping around Ximending till 1045. Bought quite a lot of gifts for friends. I bought a set of bikini for only $150!!! And a pair of jeans for $390!! So cheap! Haha!! We also had Man2 Guo3 Bing1 and Cao3 Mei2 Bing1 at San1 Xiong1 Mei4 dessert shop. It cost $80 each!! A bit ex. But were quite big portions!!

Going to HK tom!! My turn to bring JH and CP around. Bleah. Bye Naruwan!!

Total expendition in Taiwan: NT$10129 = S$543.70

Day 5 - Dan Shui, Tian Mu, Shi Lin, Windy and Cloudy

Breakfast today was toast and plain porridge. It wasn't really nice. Then we waited till about 12pm to shift our things to a 3-persons room. However, it was a 4-persons room, a bigger room than our original 3-persons room. Hehe, zhuan4 dao4 again. There were 2 computers with internet access and checked our NTU student webmail. There was nothing important.

We then left for the TRT and bought a daily ticket with unlimited rides for $150. Then went to Taipei main station to Taiwan Central bank. JH was about to exchange her Sg notes when a man offered to buy from her as he needed Sg notes too. It was so much better than to exchange with the bank. Then we proceeded to Shi2 Pai2 and took bus R19 to Tian1 Mu3 Guang2 Chang3. There wasn't much to see there, not many shops too. We had lunch at a restaurant there - buffet twin steamboat buffet for $299+! There was also a big Haagen Dazs cafe there!!!! Though the steamboat wasn't very tasty, I ate a lot cos' I was really hungry. Had prawns, mushrooms, vege, meat, meatballs, lala, etc. Mostly the same as in Sg. The waiter saw us ate without sauces and asked,"Won't it have any taste?"

"No, we can eat it this way."

"You're aren't Taiwanese right?"

Haha... Taiwanese eat steamboat with sauces, all those yucky sauces. Heh.

At already 4pm! JH suddenly said,"Wah, it's gonna be 5pm soon!!"

"So what if it's 5pm?"

"Results are gonna be out!!"

"Oh ya! You reminded me!! Now I have to think about that!" my heart thumped all the way since this moment.

We then proceeded to Dan4 Shui3. There were so many better shops there!! Selling those cutie stuff and more things to see. We then took a ferry for $40 to Yu2 Ren2 Ma3 Tou2. It was 6pm then and the sun was beginning to set. The sight was getting beautiful. There was a suspended bridge named Qing2 Ren2 Qiao2 by Chen Shui Bian. We saw a MAT schoolmate there too!! But didn't know her name. Chatted for a while.

We stayed there till 830pm before taking a bus back to Dan Shui TRT station. Then we bought a 40-50cm high ice-cream cone for only $20! Actually the ice-cream was mainly ice, no wonder it was so cheap! After walking around Dan Shui TRT staiton, I noticed this man who could cut really well! He cut out insects using straws!! Very intricate! He could even cut out a person's side view!! Meaning the outline of a person featuring the shaped of the person's hair shape.


Can you see the green octopus and red lobster?

Last place of the day was Shi2 Lin2 Ye4 Shi4. There was even more things to see and buy there!!! CP said the crowd was unusally small. We proceeded to eat our Ji1 Pai2 (deep-fried chicken patty). See the queue?

[img to be uploaded later]

It was well.... considered tasty, but the batter wasn't well deep-fried. I think the fire was too big. Otherwise, it would have been better. We met Levin and Yue Ang at the night market!! What a coincidence! JH must have felt disappointed that her idol didn't follow them with their trip.

Results were not out yet. Handphone didn't ring. Anticipation. Legs were so tired after walking for the whole day. However, they wasn't as tired as yesterday. We reached our hotel at 12am and rested for the day. I think results will be out tom. Sigh.

Day 4 - Xi Men, Rainy

JH and I fell asleep last night around 10 plus unconsciously while watching TV. I guess we were both too tired. Sunrise was 540am. I opened my eyes for a while and saw the sky was already bright at 545am! It looked like 8am in Sg. Then I slept back again and woke up at 8am. The breakfast was the same as what we ate for Day 3.

We packed and checked out at 920am. By this time, it had already started drizzling. We took the 935am bus to Puli. We reached Puli at 1045am and took another bus to Taipei. The bus came at 1145am and reached Taipei at 230pm. Then we changed to the train (called TRT, Jie1 Yun4) to Xi Men. We walked to our Rainbow Hotel which was located in the middle of Ximending. We were given a 5-persons suite instead of our original 3-persons room because it wasn't cleaned up yet. So we got a really big room with 2 queen beds, 1 super single bed, 2 TVs, 1 toilet and a cosy corner!!

After which, we walked around Ximending. We ate Ah1 Zong1 Mian4 Xian4 for dinner.


This was the one...

CP told us it was oyster mee sua. But when I ate the first mouth of mee sua, it tasted very funny. From then I suspected it wasn't oyster, but pig's intestines (zhu1 chang2)!! OMG!

"You sure it's oyster?"

"Ya..." and continued slurping.

Then I told him it was actually zhu chang!! And silly JH didn't even know it was pig's intestines!! In the end, I only ate half the bowl. The mee sua was however surprisingly good - had a very good bite-texture. It was cooked in a big pot with ALL the mee sua inside it and cooking. It didn't even turn soft or soggy! The shop didn't have tables or chairs, everyone just stood eating with the bowl and a spoon.

After that we took the TRT to Zhong Xiao something station for dessert at Tang2 Chao2 which was said to be opened by Wu Zong Xian. It was very normal-tasting dessert, not fantastic. It was pretty expensive too. Then we walked to Eslite bookstore (opened for 24hr) and visited the World Press 05 exhibition too.

At 830pm, we took TRT to Taipei Main Station to Xin1 Guang1 San1 Yue4. From the basement, we paid $160 for entrance to Topview tower, which was 244m and 46 levels high. The lift could reach the top in 30 sec. Upon reaching level 46, the night scenery of the whole of Taipei could be seen. It was beautiful.




The night view...

We stayed there till 10pm before walking back to our hotel to rest.

Argh!! Exam results gonna be released tom after 5pm!! I'm so scared. Please, let me graduate!!!

Day 3 - Pu Li, Sunny

We woke up at 715am. We had porridge for breakfast at the hotel. Though the dishes looked simple and plain and unappeitizing, it was surprisingly delicious. After breakfast, we packed up, checked out and the taxi uncle was already waiting to pick us up from the carpark.

Throughout the morning, we toured around the whole of Sun Moon Lake. The nicest place was the Tse'en Pagoda. We had to climb up the mountain, and upon reaching the pagoda, we still had to climb up 9 levels to the top to strike the bell. It was pretty scary for me to climb the stairs up. The first strike is for the heart, second for earth and third for the sky. We took many sceneric photos on the pagoda, mostly overlooking the mountains and Sun Moon Lake.

When we finished visiting all the spots, it was nearly 1pm. We had prawn yun tun mee for lunch. It cost $80. The noddle had a nice texture. The prawn inside the yun tun was small. However, the taste was not bad. It was quite a big bowl and I slurped down all of it.

The taxi uncle returned from his lunch and continued driving. On the way, he stopped at a shop selling tea leaves and royal jelly products. And we took photos of ourselves in Shao4 Zhu2 costumes. JH bought some tea leaves there. Next destination was Qing1 Jing4 Nong2 Chang3. Along the way, we stopped by Guan1 Yin1 waterfall and the heart of Taiwan which is in Puli. We took about an hour plus to reach the homestay place. It was on top of a big mountain. We could see the mountains outline and Bi4 Hu2 (another lake). The scenery was nice. As we went further up the mountain, the air became cooler and was really soothing.

We reached our homestay place and paid the taxi uncle $3000. We thanked him whole-heartedly. I thought it was worthwhile to engage his services. Without him, we couldn't have taken so many beautiful photos and toured the whole of Sun Moon Lake. We bidded him goodbye and checked into our room. The room was big and clean!! There weren't many people in this place and we were the only guests in this homestay place. There wasn't aircon cos' the natural air was cooling enough to be aircon!! The room was made from wood and hence had a nice woody smell!! Nice!

After checking in, we walked 10 min downwards to the farm. Had to pay $80!! It was already 330pm and it would be closed at 5pm. So we didn't have much time to walk. There wasn't many anumals inside. Only sheep and 2 cows. But it was fun getting close to the sheep and running after them! Haha!!

After that, we went back to our resirt to bathe and went to the resort's cafeteria for steamboat dinner. It cost us $250 each. The soup was very sweet and there were quite a lot of ingredients in the steamboat. Then it began to rain. How nice to eat something hot on a cold weather!! After dinner, we went back to our room and watched TV. Rest for day 3. Ah, no more stairs please!! Had enough of stairs and slopes already!!

Day 2 - Shui Li, Sunny

We woke up at 845am, in time for the free breakfast provided by the hotel. It was a simple breakfast with toasts, eggs, plain porridge, dumplings and some other side dishes It was edible, phew. So far, nothing not nice in Taiwan yet. Then, we packed and checked out of the hotel.

Next destination - Sun Moon Lake at Shui Li. We took a cab to Taichung train station and cost us $125. Not cheap for that 8km ride! We took the train to Er Shui then changed train to Shui Li. From Shui Li, we took a bus to Sun Moon Lake. The scenery on the train was quite good despite that food can be eaten on the trains, they were clean!! Singaporeans, better wake up your idea!! See how people can still keep their trains clean even when they eat!

Upon reaching Sun Moon Lake, we still had to find our way to our next hotel, which was Jiu4 Guo2 Tuan2 Qing1 Nian2 Huo2 Dong4 Zhong1 Xin1. (http://www.cyh.org.tw) It was actually on top of a mountain! It was very clean there. When we alighted form the bus, a man aged 62 approached us. He asked where we wanted to go and offered us $400 to bring us up to our hotel. Actually, it looked more like those small chalet, not really hotel. It was a mu4 wu1. CP then replied him that the resort also offered transport but only needed $300. The uncle was those chin-chye type, so he accepted $300 and said could fetch us up immediately. Thinking it would be safe (CP said 3 of us could easily fight him off if he did something funny), we boarded his taxi. Btw, Taiwanese are really friendly and polite. It was really different form the arrogant and rude people in Sg, esp. those people taking MRT, they dunno what is called li3 rang4!! The taxi driver even showed us his medal for being a responsible driver for never had a summon or driving penalty. He also offered to bring us around Sun Moon Lake the next day and willing to transport us to our next destination, but for a cost of $3000. We would consider.

We checked in our room and changed into some light clothings. We each rented a bicycle and wanted to explore the mountain. However it was already 530pm and need to return the bicycle before the sky turned dark. So we only visited 2 places - the Butterfly Park and Shui3 Wa1 Tou2. Riding on the bicycle was so tiring!! All the slopes and oncoming cars!! OMG. My legs ached man!! The Shui Wa Tou was great. Could see the whole lake and the sunset was very beautiful. The Butterfly Park was so-so.

Hungry and exhausted, we headed back to the resort by 7pm where the sky was only leaving 10% brightness. We walked into the restaurant there and was shocked by the prices! Needed almost $380 for a meal!! Hence, we decided to buy bowl noodles. I bought beef noodles, a packet of chips and an ice-cream. Cost? $70 only!!


Came across these 3 packs of Lay's chips. See the flavour? Chicken, Sweet and Sour Pork and Crispy Crab flavours!!

Without even bathing, we cooked our mee and gobbled it down, while silly JH bathed first. While eating, we watched TV. The Taiwan programmes were really great! So many channels and different kinds of shows. The variety shows on the different channels could easily entertain anyone!

After further discussion, we decided to call the taxi uncle and engaged his services. Though much more expensive, we could actually stop at many places around Sun Moon Lake which was very inaccessible by bicycle. And Also, we need not carry the bulky luggage with us. Can put in the car mah!! Need to wake up early tom! Rest for day 2!

Day 1 - Taichung, Sunny

We woke up at 8am, checked out and had our breakfast at BK. The fast food restaurants there had breakfast and lunch menus at any time. And their prices were much cheaper compared to Sg. Then we bought Free Go (Fei1 Go3) bus ticket to Taichung. Finally saw Taiwan's sky after the long night inside the airport! Haha. It was another 2hr plus journey to Taichung. The seats on the bus were really big, and I hit my poor head at the TV box corner which left me a lot of pain and a big bump. We finally reached Gong1 Yi4 Gong1 Yuan2, the place which we gonna be staying for the night. We took half an hour to find our Hamilton Hotel, cos we walked a big detour to our hotel. The roads were quite busy with lotsa scooters, really lots of them!! It wasn't easy walking with our suitcases. Sigh, how I wished I had a big backpack.

We checked into our hotel, put down and luggages and freshen ourselves. We walked along the roads searching for some food to eat. There wasn't many people on the streets, in fact, very little! The shops were mostly closed and didn't manage to find anything there to eat. Then we proceeded to Jing1 Ming2 Yi4 Jie1 and there were more crowds. There were a few cafes there. We went into one which didn't have so many people. It had a nice ambience. We ordered our food and gobbled down hungrily with bubble tea. Whao, heaven! The price was NT$180. After the late lunch, we walked around and the things they sold were pretty expensive.

After feeling bored with the ghostly streets, we took bus 33 to Feng1 Jia3 Ye4 Shi4. It was bustling with crowd! There were so many shops and small eateries all around!!! We ate cha2 ye4 dan4, taco pochi and grilled and deep-fried mushrooms with bubble for dinner. I never ate such nice cha ye dan in my life before!! The aroma of the tea leaves penetrated deep into the egg yolk and was really irresistable! The taco pochi was cheap and nice too!! $35 for 6, unlike the $2 for 4 in Sg! Here at the ye shi, the taco pochi were bigger, tastier and comes with wasabi squeezed on top of them!! Heavenly!! The packing was so creative, in the shape of a boat!! The mushrooms were so-so only, but special.

It was another 2 hours walking around the night market. There were so many shops selling clothings and shoes. We bought a pink belt for Yuhua. I bought a pair of shiny crystal star danggling earrings and a pair of coffee-brown sunglasses. JH bought a nice green 3/4 jacket and a pair of black formal heels. CP bought some tee-shirts. Our legs were really tired by 9pm and wanted to return to our hotel. However, we came by a big bookstore with 7 levels! I bought some nice bookmarks and stickers there. At 945pm, we walked to the bus stop finally, to return to our hotel. But But 79 only arrived once in an hour! In the end, we stood there till 1030pm for the bus. Making it worse for our legs, we actually took the wrong direction back!! In the end, we ended up at the terminal, but the bus driver was kind enough to charge us for only one trip back to our wanted destination. Hehe. Btw, the drivers in Taiwan were really great! They drive really recklessly but totally with super skills. We reached our hotel finally and rested for the day.

Day 0 - Singapore to Taiwan, Sunny

I woke up at 930am to pack my luggage. Had a good night rest after the Redang trip. After that, I went to TM to change some Taiwan money and had lunch with mummy at the foodcourt. After which, she drove me to Changi airport, Terminal 1, where I would be boarding the plane at 355pm. JH was there first and CP was late by a bit. We took some photos there. JH's dad was asking me about the Redang trip and was pretty scary! Cos' it was like interrogation!! (Her dad is army's airforce something. Muahah!)

We didn't check in our luggage, cos' the officer was quite lenient. Ours were merely a little more than 7kg. So it would mean a fast checkout and less the risk of losing our belongings. We bid goodbye to our parents and proceeded to our gate. Soon after, we boarded the plane and we wat in the middle row. JH didn't request for window seats. Nontheless, we sat together and that was good enough. We were quite excited when the plane accelerated and took off eventually.

The food on Cathay was surprisingly great! I had fish rice, and it came with salad, bread, a small piece of toblerone and Haagen Dazs ice-cream!! Heaven! Besides the good food, there was also a choice of movies and shows. Each passenger had a small TV in front of their seats. Hehe, I thought only SQ had that. I watched a chinese movie - 20, 30, 40. Time plast very fast and we landed at HK airport 3.5hrs later. We had to transfer to another plane. A customer service lady led us to the next gate for our transfer flight. She walked really fast cos' the plane was about to depart. When we finally reached the gate, the announcement was saying the plane would be delayed by 15min. Sigh, all the fast walking with our lugguages. Despite the delay, we still managed to reach CKS airport on time. Speeding? Haha.

The airport can be compared to Changi airport. We didn't check out. We walked to the transit waiting lounge and were the only ones there. I took my bath in the shower room and was really cold after the bath. Oh ya, there was hot water for bathing. We then laid on the cushioned seaths for our sleep. It was about 1am then. At 3am, we were awakened, because it was too cold to continue sleeping! I suggested finding another resting area. Luckily for us, we found another transit waiting lounge and it had a nursery play room there! And what was inside it? There were sofa put together as beds and had exactly 3 of that! And, there were already 2 people sleeping inside! The aircon wasn't cold inside, and we were really elated to see that. We gladly occupied one each. Sleep alas!

[all the photos will be uploaded later]

Back from Pulau Redang

Day 0, 16th May

At 1pm, CP sms and said he got a friend to replace JH. Ok, whatever that friend is, I have to socialise with him/her. *Prepared myself* Took MRT to Lavendar. Halfway on the MRT, CP sms and said meet at Golden Mile instead of at the MRT station. So I walked along that dark Beach Road myself. A bit unsafe at night cos' of the lack of lightings and many indians and malays there. Reached there eventually *safe*. Haha. Met CP's friend - Bing Jie there. A tall, skinny, dark-skin and bluey-bespectacled guy. He and CP are good brothers since sec sch. By the way, he isn't shuai. Keke. We were allocated seats 3ABC and boarded bus JHJ 2624. The bus was a 24-seater and only 18 seats were filled. I sat alone, and both of them sat together cos' a row in the bus have seats in the manner of 2 + 1. We set off at 10pm.

Day 1, 17th May

The bus got very cold, made worse with the silence between us. The air-con was blowing directly into my face. It was freaking cold. Passed the customs and went onto the NE expressway. 2 hours later, we stopped at Yong Peng for supper. It was 1230am. I bought a small packet of HL milk, cost me RM$2.60. It was bloody expensive. The food they sold have quite a variety, but cost RM$4.50!! My goodness! It was then that I found out they had bought quite a lot of food for the bus trip. And they didn't include my share. And I actually brought chocolate fudge brownies I made in the afternoon for them. My heart was hurt. It was shattered when they didn't even want to touch my brownies. Obi loh, who ask you to be so good? In the end, get nothing in return. Only disappointment.

Set off again on that freaking cold bus. Snuggled in my windbreaker, hoping for some warmth, but it was useless. Cos' that freaking aircon was blowing into my face!! And I can't change seats cos the seats were allocated, and I didn't want to sit all alone at the back of the bus. Managed to catch a few winks, waking up a lot due to the coldness. The bus stopped at a number of petrol stations, but no one went toilet. So I didn't go too, cos' I was afraid the bus will leave without me. Bladder 50% full at 2am.

The coldness never left me. A HERO rescued all of us from the North Pole at 3am. Bladder 70%. He requested the driver to OFF the freaking air-con. OH YEAH!! Had a peaceful sleep for 2 hours! Then we had another petrol station stop at 5am. Change of driver. He turned ON the aircon!! Bloody hell. Heck care. We all began to freeze once again. Bladder was already 80% full.

Feel asleep again at 530am. With a quite full bladder and freaking aircon blowing into my face. Woke up at 630am. Then again at 715am. This time could not fall asleep again because my bladder was like 95% full!!! ARGH. The driver told us we would reach Merang Jetty at 730am. Ok, bear with it for another 15 mins and I shall reach my toilet. I didn't!!! There were so many cars along the road to Merang Jetty. Feeling my bladders were going to burst any moment, I walked up to the driver and requested him to stop at the next petrol station cos' I wanted to go toilet! He replied," Don't worry! 3 more mins!" I was nearly 8am before we reached Merang Jetty and I dashed off the bus to the toilet!! Before going into the toilet, I had to waste another 2 sec (considered a lot of time wasted if you have a very very full bladder!!) listening to the stupid aunty said,"Tiga-puluh sens." (meaning 30 cents for that usage of toilet) I spent a minute or two in that cubicle, emptying my filled bladders. Relieved.

We waited for our ferry till 9am to Kalong Resort. I slid on the boat and had these blue-blacks on my right leg.





A hell lot of pain. CP and BJ were already sitting comfy in the jet boat, and were expressionless and motionless when I slid on that bloody slippery stairs onto the jet boat. What type of guys?! The jet boat was super fast, half of the time flying above the waters. Think the boat was going at about 150km/h!


Jet boat

Reached Redang island at about 9:45am. Could see the bottom of the sea while nearing the beach. There were small fishes too, corals and black sea cucumbers! We checked into our room 601. Changed and unpacked some stuffs and feel asleep on the bed. We had like 2 more hours to lunch. So we decided to sleep.


Stairs leading to our room

My bed

The window

What it looked outside the room

Canteen

It was a good and refreshing sleep, after all the "hardships" we went through throughout the night. Lunch was at 1300. We finished the lunch very quickly. To me, the meals were all quite good, compared to those I ate at Pulau Tioman more than 10 years ago! After lunch, we changed into appropriate attires for the first snokelling trip at 2pm. We each paid RM$40 for the power masks and life jacket. Then we took a speed boat out to sea, and changed to a bigger boat to go deeper into the sea. Reached somewhere out there, and the malays told us to jump off! A few jumped off, and I was looking at them initially cos' I was kinda afraid of the sea! Well, you never know what is underneath right? Eventually I jumped in too, kicking water hard, cos' I wanted to kick away fish near me. Silly me. Haha. The actual fact was that the fish was more afraid of us, humans! Haha. I choked on a few mouthfuls of salty sea water cos' I never snokelled before, and didn't know how to get use to the mask and breathing pipe. (Is it called breathing pipe?) After a while, I was ok, and was happily feeding fish with bread. No more choking, and no more fear of the poor fishes. It was a wonderful sight looking at fishes of all sorts swimming around me. But the corals were not very nice, cos most of them were already dead and were brown in colour. Again, CP and BJ left me swimming alone. Felt worse, cos' I felt out of place. One of the malays blew his whistle, asking us to go up the boat. He caught a BIG sea cucumber, and letting us take photos with it. I wanted to touch it, but sadly didn't have the chance to. It was really huge and squirting lot of water. I didn't take picture with it cos' I don't have a camera. (Time to add camera to my wish list.) Not long after we were back at the resort.

I went canoeing with CP first. Then there was no more kick in canoeing, so I asked BJ to join CP while I happily could take my time to bathe. Hehe. After I finished bathing, they came back and bathed. Without realising, we feel sound asleep AGAIN at 530pm on our respective beds. Guess we were too shacked out by the torturous bus journey.

Dinner was at 730pm. I didn't finish the rice, cos' I wasn't very hungry. Then, it was free time. We played Carrom and Daidee. It was only a while, and we felt quite sian. So we turned in at 1130pm. *snore*

Day 2, 18th May

We woke up at 7am. Had breakfast of eggs, beans, fried bee hoon and fish cake. I had coffee too. The second snokelling trip was at 915am. I sat under the sun on the beach overlooking the blue blue sea. Nice. The sun was great too.





We went another place for snokelling. The fish was almost similar to those in the first trip. However, I saw clown fish (yes, Nemo) this time. They hid in the weeds and were really very cute!! Exactly the same in the movie Finding Nemo, except, they are not so orangey. Again, they left me snokelling alone.

Went back to the island, squeezed dry my clothings and baked in the sun. Didn't want to change cos' there was a third snokelling trip in that afternoon. But this last trip would be going to Marine Park, which we had to pay RM$5. We set off after lunch.

It was such a clean beach and waters! No wonder they had to collect money from us again. The fishes were bigger and more varieties. Was a bit afraid at first because the fish were really much bigger. They were aggressive too. Couldn't hold the bread in my hand like the last two trips cos' the fishes here will bite!! I tried to catch a fish holding my hands still but the silly fishes bite me instead!! GRRR! The corals here were more alive and in colours. Haha. I saw a small swordfish swam past in front of me. There were promfets (those we eat), clown fish, lots of sea cucumbers and other fishes which I don't know their names. Lucky we didn't meet jellyfish. Neither of us saw sharks too. They said if you're lucky enough, will be able to meet a shark or two, and sea turtles.

Went back to the resort and cleaned up. Then together with the rest of the people from the same batch, we walked to Laguna Resort, where the "Xia Ri Mo Mo Cha" was filmed, starring Richie Ren and Sammi cheng.





Took some photos there, and had close up with squirrels! Yes! Those shy creatures were so close to us! They were feeding on bananas and were really very very cute. By the way, their tails are not curved up like those in the cartoons. The beach at the Laguna Resort was so much bigger, sand were so much finer, and the waves were bigger, and also the crowds were bigger. So much more life there!

We walked back, just in time for our BBQ dinner. And along the way back, dark clouds loomed the skies and lightning could be seen over the horizon. BBQ dinner was food that were already BBQ-ed, so when it rained after that, we could still enjoy our dinner. It rained very heavily, and all of us were stucked in the canteen. All the games from the counter were borrowed, each group engaged in Jenga, carrom, board games and chatting. CP and BJ played Otello. I was feeling so bored watching them, I went to shop in the small gift shop. Bought a keychain that had the wordings - Redang Island. Haha. Then went to socialise with some of the trip people. Got to know some of them, but didn't get their contacts. One of them currently from NIE! Haha.


Took this while feeling real bored

It was a real boring night. The rained became smaller at 10pm. Went back to our room to play Daidee. I kept losing. Humpf. Packed a bit of stuff and slept at 1230am. Bored night but had quite some laughter from our daidee games. Also the time when I had more conversations with BJ.

Day 3, 19th May

Woke up at 7am again. Had roti canai for breakfast. Packed and ready to go. Clothes did not dry cos it was drizzling the whole night. We took the speed boat out at 8am to mainland Trengganu state. We waved goodbye to our hosts. While chatting in the gift shop on Day 2, one of them said she only started to work on the island 2 weeks ago. She had 4 days leave in a month. And she stayed in KL. Was a bit sad to leave the island, after getting used to the people and sand and sun.

Boarded the same freaking cold bus back to Singapore. I was hoping it would be a different bus, but neh, it was the same. An even more torturous journey back cos' the idiotic bus did not take the NE expressway! We were jumping on our seats on that bus with poor suspension. Luckily the roads weren't very bumpy. I took toilet breaks at every place we stopped, not wanting to test my bladders further. The bus stopped for lunch somewhere in Trengganu, which sold expensive home-cooked nasi padang. I didn't buy, cos' it didn't look appetizing and wasn't feeling hungry. It was a very very long time before we reached Yong Peng at 6pm. Yes, the same place we stopped for supper on Day 1. Hungry, I grabbed a bowl of mee soto. RM$4.50.

Then, the bus geared on the NE expressway finally. We reached JB in 2 hours. Crossed the customs and CP and BJ went off from Woodlands checkpoint together without bidding goodbye to me. Sad. Didn't see Joy and Caroline (friends made from the trip). Didn't get their number too. Sigh.

Walked back the poorly-lit Beach Road again. Reached home nearly 1030pm. Took a good bathe to get rid of all the salty smell. The water on Redang island had a funny smell, even after bathing, the smell is still there. Enough of blogging. Very tired now man! Still have the "shaky" feeling, machiam still on that jet boat! And I'm all burnt.

Going Taiwan tomorrow. I have asked JH to bring camera. CP only takes pictures that he likes. And I shall bring toothpaste cos CP said he only going to bring a small tube that is already 3/4 used. Better to depend on myself. Shan't lend him toothpaste when he runs out of it. Lesson learnt. Never be so good to him anymore again.

So did I have fun at Redang? More fun with the fishes.

Shifted home and settled

Hey, finally shifted home! Will be the last time staying in hostel.

Here are some of the photos I took in remembrance of my hostel room:

Second day of SE camp... later in the afternoon will be the last. Feel so good making music! =)

Going tour soon. Yet to pack and not yet bought travel insurance!! Shucks. In the end, I think only CP and I will be going Redang. Have asked so many people, yet all are unavailable to replace Jiehui. Been raining hard on alternate days lately. What a bad sign. Hope it will not rain at Redang, or else can't go snokelling! Sigh. Will be away for quite a while. Will try to blog though.

Finally Over

Presentation is finally over! The examiner only asked me 2 simple questions and said that the presentation was good. But he said my slides should be more "point-formed" than wordy. And I should not hold a script! Bleah, whatever. Glad that it's over!

Lost a white sock to the washing machine!! CAn't seem to find it anywhere inside, or near the machine. And it wasn't tangled within the clothes. URGH. Irritating.

Jiehui said got 10 people failed Nanomaterials, 5-10 failed Adv Characterization, and Alex said 4 failed QC!!! So scary!! I hope I ain't one of them!! *_*

Oh ya, forgot to blog on Mother's Day!! What did you guys do? I whooped a simple yet delicious meal for my mummy. Her fave - plain porridge with side dishes. Wanted to treat her to Pearl River Palance at Suntec, but was fully-booked. And two idiotic brothers didn't seem to bother. Bish.

Finished watching 2 HK serials - Jing Zhi Yu Nie 金枝玉孽 and Qing Chu Yu Lan 青出于蓝. Nice!

Going to start camp this Friday. *Weeps* I wonder how disastrous I will be like.

Yummy

I had Haagen Dazs triple scoops of ice-cream for lunch today!! Finally I got to eat Haagen Dazs ice-cream! Yummy!! I had Belgian Chocolate, Cookies and Chocolate and Toffee Creme! So Yummerlicious!! But it cost me $7.90! So much for the satisfying, hormones-soothing chocolate!! HAHA!

Tom's my FYP presentation!! Examiner called and changed the timing to 230pm instead of the usual 9am. Sian, thought could get over it fast!! Now have to get tortured for a few more hours. Shit.

Saw CB in JP today. Forever in that stupid bluey Hall 4 t-shirt. Must ask him one day why he always wears that!!

Packed the stuff in my hostel today. Threw a lot of stuff!! Haha. Going to drive to sch on Wed or Thur to shift back home. Hope the car is available.

This Samsung phone (SGH-720C) is so cool!!




- Multimedia with style
With the Samsung SGH-E720C mobile phone, you not only have a fully fledged MP3 player with intuitive controls at hand, but also a megapixel camera with a flash, Bluetooth and 88.5 MB of memory. The classic, timeless design of the SGH-E720C encapsulates the sign of the times, but not at the expense of essential business functions.

- Technology meets taste
The SGH-E720C is cutting-edge mobile communications technology combined with tasteful design. Its slimline shape, subtle colours and the 262,144 colour TFT LCD are a feast for the eyes. And what's inside is just as impressive-tri-band, Bluetooth" and a megapixel camera with a flash.

- Let the music play
With the music control keys on the outside of the SGH-E720C, you will have easy access to up to 20* stored MP3 songs. Simply download your favourite tunes onto the 88.5MB of user memory with Bluetooth" or via the USB interface and enjoy listening to music in MP3-optimised quality wherever you are. *4MB per file.

- No half measures
When it comes to connectivity and business functions, the SGH-E720C is just as accommodating. With Bluetooth", e-mail client, vCard and vCalendar, you can now get away from your desk without losing touch.

Don't the specs sounds attractive?!!?
It costs $638!! How I wish I can own it!!! Hey Jiehui, don't get it!! Haha!!

What is happening to my interpersonal relationships lately? Sigh. Seems like there is more than one person spreading bad stuff about me. Haiz. Why does all these kind of things always befall on me!??!

A Perfect Boyfriend

A perfect guy:
1. Knows how to make you smile when you are down.
2. Tries to secretly smell your hair, but you always notice.
3. Sticks up for you, but still respects your independence.
4. Gives you the remote control during the game.
5. Comes up behind you and put his arms around you.
6. Plays with your hair.
7. His hands always find yours.
8. Is cute when he really wants something.
9. Offers you plenty of massages.
10. Dance with you, even if he feels like a dork.
11. Never runs out of love.
12. Is funny, but know how to be serious.
13. Realizes he's being funny when he needs to be serious.
14. Is patient when you take forever to get ready.
15. Reacts so cutely when you hit him but it actually hurts.
16. Smiles a lot.
17. Plans a romantic date full of cheesy things he wouldn't normally like to do, just because he knows it means a lot to you.
18. Appreciates you.
19. Helps others out.
20. Drives 5 hours just to see you for 1 hour.
21. Always gives you a peck on the cheek when you depart from each others company,
even when his friends are watching.
22. Sings, even if he can't.
23. Has a creative sense of humor.
24. Admire looking at you.
25. Calls for no reason.
26. Quits smoking, chewing, drinking, or drugs - just because he loves u that much to quit it.

Shop

Went shopping today!! But alone, as usual. I prefer to shop alone cos' can save more time. Hehe. Bought a skirt and a few tops that I really like and bra. Spent quite much... There is this skin bra that is really really nice... but it's $80!! So didn't get it.



Getting ready my bags for my trips. A bit kiasu rite? Haha...

Been doing my fyp presentation slides and script these nights. Never realised it is so tedious to do the whole presentation myself. In the past, the presentations were divided into 4 or 5 people in the group. Now, I have to do the whole thing. My script now is 8 pages long. Hope to finish it fast.

Relax

Never had such a good break ever since IA days. However, been still busy going to banks (never knew had so much bank stuff to settle), doing presentation slides, coming out with HK itinery, practising violin, going out... seems like time is not enough!! However able to relax at the comfort of my home is so good!

Went to KTV with my friend. Realised I could not sing anymore! How long have I not tuned in to YES 93.3?? I can't even remember! I think it has been 1 year already!! And have not played the chinese mp3s in my laptop. In the end, I could only sing those super duper old songs, eg Teresa Teng's and old duets, and most of the time, I was listening to my friend. Duh. Has FYP ripped my life apart?

A New Look

Hey guys, how's the new outlook of my blog? Finally have the time to refurnish it. Haven't had the time to redo it since that idiotic incident that the old appearance just vanished into cyberspace.

Exams are finally OVER!! I was feeling a bit melancholic on the day I had my last paper in Hall F. Didn't realise I will have that feeling till that day. Now left FYP presentation on the 10th. Haven't started to prepare my slides!!! OMG!!

Going for a really long trip overseas. Had booked all the air tickets for Taiwan, HK and Beijing. Will be back on 15th June. Just in case you need to find me, here is my itinery:

16th to 19th May - Redang
19th May - Singapore
20-28th May - Taiwan
28-30th May - HK
30th May - 3rd June - Singapore
4-15th June - Beijing

You can contact me on my handphone for immediate matters. Otherwise, email will do. =)