1/2 Wish Fulfilled- My Taiwan 6 Days 5 Nights Tour

Music: Ingram Washington- What a difference a day make Mood: sleepy

We got our travel package from MATA fair early this year, 6 days 5 nights to Taipei>Jiu Fen>Hua Lian>Kao Shiong> Tai Chung>Taipei, all for RM2015. Although we can't find the exact hardcore Taipei trip we are opting for, nevertheless, the day I've been waiting for has finally arrived- August 5 2008, Taiwan, here I come!!

Day 1

Lunch on China Airlines:

Seafood rice set


Chicken pasta set

Taste OK lor, what can you expect from a flight meal anyway :P but I think it taste better than MAS~


Our plane touched down at 7.10pm. After all 18 of us checked into our rooms, it was nearly 8.30pm. First stop at Taipei is their Bukit Bintang-西门町(xi men ding).


We definitely wouldn't missed out the most famous Taipei food- 阿宗面线 (Ah Zong Mian Xian). There're no seats in this so call 'shop', people will just stand around, finish up and dispose your empty bowl in a bucket and leave.


the noodle is short enough to scoop with a spoon, they also added enough chewy pig intestines. Nice one!


Even though it's a Tuesday, it's still a considerable crowd around here. Things ain't cheap around here either, the normal KL price. Shops and stalls that sells accessories like these are all over this area:






You can easily find figurine shops here too:


A street full of tattoo-ing services:


An old man stopped us down all of a sudden and placed a trained squirrel on my hand.


Taiwan do not have chain cinemas like TGV or GSC, they have their very own stand-alone cinemas like this:


The biggest California Fitness I've ever seen. Jackie Chan sure is smart~


Shops here closes at 11pm on weekdays. Then me and Pin had supper at a shop next to our hotel. The noodle is called 意面and side dishes are all sorts of 卤味. Taste wise is ok nia, too oily.



R-rated film shops are legal here! This is just situated next to where we were having our supper.


Day 2

Next morning, we followed the tour group to 自由广场 (Zi You Guang Chang)，which was used to be called 中正纪念堂(Chong Zheng Ji Nian Tang).




Forgot what's the name of this place. Young soldiers will have their routine march here every morning.


They are not allowed to move a muscle.


Next destination, 野柳地质公园 (Yehliu Geopark) to look at curious shaping stones caused by sea erosions.


The famous Queen's head.


Next stop, 九份 (Jiu Fen)。Hayao Miyazaki is said to have taken this town as a blue print for the ghost town in千与千寻 (Spirited Away)。


We had their famous 九份鱼丸 (Jiu Fen fish balls) and 肉燥饭 (Pork rice) for lunch.


It's like TeoChew fish balls, damn nice!


Our tour guide recommended us to buy muachi in this shop. We shop like mad here, but alas, we only found out that things here are actually more costly compared to other shops around the area. >.<

Another famous food of 九份, 九份芋圆(Jiu Fen yam balls). It's being served hot or cold like tong shui, something like 汤圆(tang yuan).


Other shops around 九份:














Next stop-南天宮 (Nan Tian Gong) at 宜兰(Yi Lan). The two 妈祖statues(Ma Zhu) here are solely made of jade and gold.



Mum prayed for both of us.


The beautiful fishing village view outside the temple.




We had a nice dinner at a restaurant in 花莲:

Steamed fish , 梅菜扣肉 (marinated pork ribs cooked with preserved vegetables)


Lobster, deer meat


shark meat, abalone


Bayam, spring roll.


After dinner, we went for a cultural dance show at 阿美族文化村(Ah Mei Aborigins Cultural Village).


Me and Pin went for a stroll after our group checked in the hotel.花莲(Hua Lian) is actually a small town, where things are much cheaper compared to Taipei. We also found out this place is famous for muachi, so much for spending a fortune at 九份 on muachi. Don't do homework somemore lah... If you are planning on visiting 花莲, remember to get your muachi from this shop called 曾师傅麻(Cheng Shi Fu muachi), it's has the most chain stores selling muachi in town.

We found a cute shop called 阿之宝 (Ah Zi Bao) where they customized everything from keychains, clothes, stationaries to food products.



Another unique shop here selling T-shirts, bags and caps designed by their own line of designers.


I stole a few shots here outside a re-ment shop. Cute neh??



A cup of soya bean, one steamed bun and nine steamed dumplings only cost us NT51!



No need to say, the piggy finished off everything :P


Day 3

Day time, We stopped by 太鲁阁公园 (Tarako National Park) for about 45 minutes.

The tour guide took the one and only group photo for 6 of us, and the worst among the bunch. Non of us had our eyes opened in this shot. -__- stupid idiot guide....


The view was magnificent.




Coffee+cheese cake+good view=NT150


This bridge and tunnel was built by Taiwanese ancestors with their bare hands.


Then we visited to the biggest crystal shop and factory in Taiwan.






Lunch sucks. Then we took an eight-hour bus ride all the way to Kao Shiong. After dinner, we were limited to an hour walk in this small night market- 新崛江夜市 (Xin Jue Jiang Night Market)



As usual after checking in, Pin and me went down and had supper at the shop opposite our hotel.


We ordered 筒仔米糕(Tong zi mi gao), which is made up of glutinous rice, pork, meat floss and cucumber, a great combination of a little of everything. The 爌肉饭 (kuang rou fan) on the other hand has mixed vege, pork and 臭豆腐(chou tofu). It's my first attempt eating chao tofu, and I think it's not bad at all what... not sure why do people hated it :P


Day 4

We went 慈济宫龙虎塔 (Ci Ji Gong Long Hu Ta) in the following morning. Here, everyone must enter from the dragon's mouth, and exit from the tiger's end.


A bird's eye view from top of the pagoda at 8th floor.


观音骑龙(Guan Yin qi long)


Next stop is at the famous Taiwan 佛光山(Fo Guang Mountain). Too bad me and Pin took the wrong route and didn't climb to the top to witness the big Guan Yin.






Then we had a brief visit to this pearl and Jewelry shop, a place made to tipu tourists like us.


Then, we went to a seafood restaurant for lunch.


Here's something special: 猪血糕 (Pig's blood) and 山猪猪脚肉(wild boar's tigh meat).


After lunch was a 2 and a half hour drive to our next destination- 麒麟峰温泉 (Qi Ling Feng Hot Spring) in 台中 (Tai Chong). Kononly it's one of the best hot springs in the world. It has an open air concept just like swimming pools, but if you do not bring any swim wear, it's either you are not allowed into the pool, or opt for 裸汤 where you can stay totally nekkid indoor ^^



Today, our group checked into the hotel at 5.30pm and were given the entire night to shop around the biggest night market in Tai Chung after that, which is called 逢甲夜市 (Feng Jia Night Market).

Situated right next to 逢甲大学(Feng Jia University), you can shop outdoor,


Or shop indoor.


Taiwanese are like Japs, they really have the patience to line up.


We wanted to try this famous fries but check out the queue, looks like 5KM long -__-


same goes here...


and here...

No choice, we joined the crowd to one of the best selling food here, 大肠包小肠 (da chang bao xiao chang). It's sausage wrapped in glutinous rice, then adding in around 6 different types of vege with sauces to choose from. Check out Pin in the line, we queue for about 20 mins to get here.

It's so huge I can't even stuff everything in my mouth in one go, and it's so delicious! My most favourite Taiwanese snack~

Drinks around here are very cheap, the most expensive that I can find is only at NT35.

Another famous food in this night market-地瓜球 (sweet potato balls). As mentioned, the line is too darn long~

There's this trend here where they would advertise on 'mobile'. You can find this in any night markets~




Other interesting looking stalls around here:








The most hardcore figurine shop I've ever seen~!

We spent around 4 hours here. If it wasn't because it started to drizzle, I would have wanted to shop longer. After taking a cab back to our hotel, we took a 13 min walk to Carrefour then walked back again~~ saving NT20 in total hehehe... (taxi fares here are not cheap. In Malaysia, they will charge RM2.50 once you enter the cab; here, it starts at NT85, and NT5 for every 1KM)

Day 5

Last day here. We spent the morning at 小人国主题乐园(Little Taiwan) in 桃园 (Tao Yuan).

The whole of Taiwan has been shrunk into miniatures, and some of them are even mobile!

I like this one, the Feline God~^^


We had our best ever lunch here at 蒙古烤肉(Mongolian BBQ), a buffet style + BBQ by the chefs.






We went to 台湾故宫博物院 (Taiwan National Palace Museum) after lunch and spent about an hour there, too bad the place forbids cameras so I didn't shot anything from there...

Of course what is coming to Taipei without visiting Taipei 101? It's something like KLCC, but I think KLCC looks better interior wise.


Since we are boarding at 8.30am the following morning, arrangements were being made for us to stay near the airport in 桃园 (Tao yuan)。So, we're being assigned a mission impossible: to have dinner and shopping in Taiwan's biggest night market,士林夜市(Shilin night market) in one and a half hour's time.

As if we are in the Amazing Race, me and Pin rushed to the must-try of this night market-豪大大鸡排(Hao Da big chicken chop), and it looked as if there were 100 patrons queuing up.

We have to give up and choose another nearby stall, which doesn't look too better off anyway.

This stall sells both chicken chop and 葱饼(spring onion pancakes), so patrons chin chai line up. When it's finally our turn, it was already 30 minutes later. Was it nice? It taste like flour and chicken, bluek.... Pin only managed to consume half the chop and threw the rest away~

this is the 葱饼(spring onion pancakes) I was talking about.

The stall beside us makes the biggest steak I've ever seen, it occupies more than three quarter of the hotplate.

If Feng Jia Night market attracts the biggest crowd, Shilin Night Market has the most variety of stalls. There are a few specialties in Shilin including that big chicken chop, 大饼包小饼 (da bing bao xiao bing), which simply means a deep fried small pancake wrapped in a big pancake with sweet or salty fillings (red bean, green bean, yam, curry,sesame);

蚵煎 (oh jian), 生炒花枝羹 (fried sotong broth),

士林特色大香肠(Shilin big sausage) and 十全排骨汤 (pork ribs soup).

There are also stalls like these famous for being filmed in tv shows or drama series.

Taiwanese can really 卤 (stew) anything.

A nice pet shop with rather cheap pet products near Shilin.

A really cute lounge next to the pet shop, the heart shape rocks sideways~!

Nice uniforms hehe...


We did not even finish 1/5 of Shilin, so dulan!!! our flight was early and that was it for our entire 6 days 5 nights tour, more like a 4 day tour to me -__-

Oh well... remember we bought muachi from 九份 (Jiu Fen)? Here's how much we bought~ I think there are 30 packets here :P

Here's everything I bought~ took me more than an hour to line up everything. I even have to stand on a chair to get everthing in one shot :P

This little fella cost me a bomb. Fyi, it's a 貔貅 (pi xiu), a mytical creature that exorcises evil spirits and attracts fortune. It cost me a freaking NT6888 and best of all, all 6 of us got it , some even got bigger ones at NT 8888 *.* Hopefully I'm gonna kena lottery or at least a career advancement soon!

Anyone of you have a habit of collecting hotel freebies? Well I do! Freebies from 5 different hotels altogether ;)


Next time, i'm not gonna follow tour anymore, I'll choose to backpack solely to Taipei and TaiChung instead, there are so many places being left out in this trip! If not I wouldn't have named this entry as 1/2 wish fulfilled~~

Taiwan, I'll be back in 3 years' time!

Congratulations to Gary!

Music: Stevie Wonder- Overjoyed Mood: ...happy?

Congratulations to Gary Chao Ge on being crowned as Best Male Artist at the 19届金曲奖 last night! Thank you for making the Malaysians proud again ^^

Another thing worthy to take note of would be Jolin Tsai's dress on the walk of fame. That has topped my worst dressed list so far. I've never ever seen anything as hedious as this before...I know she has been one of the trend setters in Taiwan, but I do freaking hope something like this is NOT going to appear in Sungei Wang two months from now! To Shop owners, have some respect for your mannequins! To Ah-Lians, I urge your attentions to buka your mata besar besar, you do not need to be so blind all the time -_-

Do you see a resemblance? I rest my case.

The curious incident of the accident

Music: Glenn Frey- The One You Love Mood: Relieved

"Your sista just called to say she's in an accident!" Said my mum in an alarming voice after I opened my door to a series of rushing knocks.

I didn't think much but to get dressed simply and rushed out of the house after waiting for dad to speed back from TaiChi in Bangsar. After much argument as a result of getting on the wrong route, it took us more than 30 mins to get to Damansara, the LDP highway opposite The Curve.

There were three cars involved: the first idiot, a new black Saga, (kononnya a lady driver -__-) slowed down suddenly, forcing the 2nd car, an ancient grey Arrow- back Saga to stopped as well, then resulting my sis's bf to punch on the break. You see, what happens is when you wanna break and the old tyres don't want to, akibatnya kemalangan berlaku.






The front two cars got off without much damage, but the best part? We just sold sis's black Wira two days before...and yes, that's my car you are looking at.

Oh, here's an even better part, mum found out that the insurance that she bought will only cover the possessing owner of this car, which is SIN KIT HWA sahaja, I ended up being the driver who caused the accident in order to claim the damn insurance.

Luckily we have a really smart Malay fella from the car tolling company who helped us through everything. He was beside me in the police station the whole time, chatting up with all the polices like they are his close buddies and helped the front desk sergeant with our essay report.


"ah moi pakai kereta apa?"
"Wira hijau…"
"No wonder lah, kereta Proton…"
I laughed nervously at his joke. Heh.

Then we approached another sergeant in a closed up office for another report.

"accident tu dekat mana?"
"LDP highway dekat The Curve dan IKEA,"
"lane yang mana? Ada berapa lane?"
"lane pertama, tapi tak ingat ada berapa la,"
Amazingly, he turned his flat screen monitor to us, then googled onto google Earth.

"dekat sini kah?"
I nodded and pointed at the first lane from the google earth's bird eye view. (Google Earth weiiii...I'm pretty impressed at this point.)

"so aku perlu bayar berapa ya?" I asked stupidly.
"leng lui belanja kalian makan malam aje laaa~!" a fat one joked from a desk behind me.

I laughed nervously again. Heh.

"aiyo, lama tak ade leng lui masuk sini, jom yamcha sama-sama laa~!" another one joked.

Heh. -__-

"where are you staying?" a sergeant spoke to me in CHINESE. I was stunned for a second, then answered him promptly.

"lama tak dengar Ah Hong cakap Bahasa Cina, dia tanya apa??" the sergeant whose interviewing me asked curiously.

"Tanya ah moi tinggal dekat mana lah," Sergeant Hong answered.
"Tengoklah,tanya tinggal mana baru guna secret code!" joked the sergeant.

As if road accidents are the most cases that happen here, he eventually stamped a statement that says 'Kemalangan akibat kecuaian memandu' onto my report.
"Ingat kami yaaa~!" the fat sergeant waved to me before I left the office.

I'm so darn lucky to have the toll company guy to accompany me the whole time, I would have freaked out otherwise.

After settling almost everything, we reached home at nearly 10pm. Of course not without nagging to the accident causer on our journey home.

There goes my 2nd post about car accident. (here's a link to the first post, in case you wanna compare the damages of both cars -_- http://angelkithwa.blogspot.com/2005_03_01_archive.html)

What a day, what an experience.

Guess who i interviewed??

Music: none Mood: watching 24 season 4 last episode

You wouldn’t believe whom I interviewed two days ago.

Recognize this fella?



You bet, that’s Astro on Demand’s spokesperson and that picture was his latest appearance on Mother’s Day promotion package.

Can’t recall? How bout this ad?


Bingo! The pirated DVD guy!

And I’m rather surprised that he’s even a year my junior~

He’s pretty much the same on screen and in person, voice-wise and big-sized, he even has that fringe-flipping-with- pinky feat, exactly what he did on-screen. Oh yes, his name’s Brendan.

Well he got lost finding my office, went to the wrong building and eventually reached 20 mins late. Bringing him into the office was like a walk down the Hollywood red carpet. There’s a wide-eyed guy examining him at the waiting area, then we got nearly half the office’s atmosphere down to a murmur and weird freezing actions when we walked past cubicles.

You want his details? :P

His SPM results are 7788, started off his career as a technician in Tan Chong Motors. He sounded really comical and ah beng-ish during the interview.

Me: ‘Why didn’t you complete your Diploma in Car Technician?’

Brendan: ‘I finished the course, but did not go for the 2-year apprenticeship, that’s why I didn’t get my cert.’

Me: ‘what’s the reason?’

Brendan: ‘My skin ah, when I touch the grease will become very itchy. *scratches his hands* I cannot tahan 2 years, that’s why I left lor.’

After that, he worked with his father as an assistant site supervisor at the site’s canteen/ store.

Brendan: ‘Actually the place that I need to supervise is something like a mini market, I tok to a lot of foreign workers because they will go to the shop to buy food.’

Me: ‘Why did you left?’

Brendan: ‘The site’s in the middle of the jungle, very boring-lah hehe.’

Then after a few part- time jobs as a sales assistant, he completed a Diploma in hair styling and worked as a ‘Stylish’ (that’s what’s written in his CV) in Miko and QQ Cut.

Me: ‘why a sudden change of career direction from a technician to a hair stylist?’

Brendan: ‘I still young mah, can try different things hehe.’

After that he was a marketing exec at an online company, promoting services to handphone dealers mostly.

Me: ‘why did you left in less than a year?’

Brendan: ‘The Company like cheating people like dat, the customers cannot download a lot of things. Then when I ask my boss, he said ‘this is marketing tactic~!’ Wah, it’s like pyramid scheme like dat. I dun wan to continue cheat people, so I left loh.’


After that he went for a casting then started working as a freelance spokesperson for Astro last year.

Me: ‘please be reminded that you can’t have a part time job if you are working in a Bank.’

Brendan: ‘Ooo really ar…*thought for awhile* actually some advertisement was being shot d but haven’t come out yet.’

The interview went on for around 30 mins, then ushering him out was another strut down Kodak Theatre Red Carpet.

‘So, how’s your pirated DVD guy?’ a colleague chuckled.

Hmm, I guess he'll come in handy during Annual Dinners. ^^

To Dear Friend: 加油！

Music: Kenny G- Fly me to the moon Mood: fat >.<

Dear Ying, I feel really guilty to confess that I've not been to any of your gigs YET, always missing them by the day >.<

The least I can do is to update myself through the media, eyeing for both your names to appear in the papers everyday.

At least I know you've attended the charity auction at Sungei Wang last Saturday night ( around 8pm right? I was there at 2pm pulak >.<):



And will be one of the performers and hopeful nominees in the upcoming 娱协奖 in November:



I'm proud of you! *huggzz*

The Winner!!

Music: none Mood: Contented



One David has 54% votes, another David has 56% votes.



Winning by just 12 million extras, I give you the winner of American Idol Season 7-





DAVID COOK!!!!!!!!!



AHHHHHH!!!!!YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Farewell to our sweetheart, Samantha (*sob*)

Music: Earth, Wind & Fire- After The Love Has Gone Mood: Quite Heavy

Till date, I've known you for around 11 months, this is my 1st job, and I never knew I would get to know someone that is as adorable as you are; and the past incidents that came as coincidence? uncountable~ ^.^ It was a memorable night at Tony Roma's:


Deciding the orders...








Happy and crazy faces...(hmm...uncle seemed to appear rather frequent in my photos ^0^)







Utterly amazing food


Uncle: sapu...sapu...I'm having fun with the butter+corn ^o^


Khoo: hmm, where do I begin??



My moment with Sam


The ladies' moment with Sam


and uncle's er...moment with Sam


Here's Sam with our special dedication


and she obviously loves it :)


And finally, the potrait of the day. (As usual, horns will grow out mysteriously whenever the coconut poses behind me -___-)

Here's my final dedication to ya, dear Sam. Pls bookmark this page to your computer desktop and open it once a day before you go to bed, it's a charm ya know ^^