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Jan 21, 2007

Taiwan Trip Part 2

Whew....after so long...I think I should TRY to finish blogging about my Taiwan Trip....

The previous entry was only the first day....OMG, I still have 5 more days to go...but I will chop chop (pork chop or chicken chop?) finish everything....

I delayed this entry so long that I forgot the itinerary of my trip le...but I will try my best.

Day02

The famous 中正纪念堂 - a must see for tourists to Taiwan...but, nothing much, it's just a very big park with a big open square....
Apparently, they have this coz China has a Tiananmen Square, so they dont wanna lose out...The Taiwan and China issue....

More pictures from the Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall.

Afterward, we went to Ye Liu, 野柳 to see the 女皇头, arguably a must see too....
The rocks are all eroded by the seawater, but yet unique.

Next on the itinerary was going to this place to see the change of guards. According to the tour guide, the soldiers only have to learn how to look good and stand straight for this part of their army training and they are the best looking ones...hmmm....

Oh, this place is called Zhong Lie Ci,忠烈祠.

Then it was down to the Palace Museum, 故宫博物馆。It is also one of the largest museum in the world, together with the British Museum and Lourve and another one, which I forgot. The tour guide says it has 700,000 artefacts in the museum and if you were to see every piece, it take about 12 years for you to finish seeing. And yes, it's really very big!!!!! It really shows how great the ancient Chinese were!!! I am soooooo amazed by the....er...EVERYTHING!
But cannot take pictures inside....coz they used to allowed pictures, but some pple took pictures and went to make specimens of it and sell it....so they decided to disallow photo taking.

I believe we went for the hot spring on the 2nd day in Taizhong...and this photo is taken after our short and unenjoyable hot spring. Firstly, I hate the toilet.... Totally grossed me out...so gross that I do not even wanna drink water after that. And the time we spent queuing up to change is longer than the time we actually went into the hot spring.....arghh....but the hot spring is damn good!!!!! My skin felt sooooo smooth!!!!!

Finally, SHOPPING!!!!
FOOD!!!!
EAT EAT EAT!

And we spent our New Year in Taizhong, with very nice fireworks from the Taipei 101 on tv and hearing the Taizhong fireworks...too bad, cant get to see them.....

Day03
佛光山

A very peaceful place with many beautiful Buddha statues.

After lunch, we went to a temple...it also has very nice statues and scenery is very nice. Oh, I think this temple is in Kaoshiung, 高雄。

Again, after dinner, it was shopping!!!!! FOOD! Eat Eat Eat!!!! The same old thing. So busy that I did not take any pictures~~~

On the way to Hualien,花莲。

The toilet break that my mum demanded....hahaha..took the opportunity to take a picture! The natives of Taiwan!

After the toilet break, we continued on our journey again...But, after a while, the bus came to a sudden stop....it ran out of petrol. It was a 8 hours ride from Kaoshiung to Hualien, and to add on, the petrol tank was broken!!! So suay!!!!!!

But nevertheless, we still came to 长春桥。A tunnel that was manually dug.....Amazing!

My pretty mum and me!

And we are in Hualien!!!! Performances by the 原住民。

Because Hualien is a very backward town, so there is not much for us to do in the night after dinner. The tour guide gave us a night's rest BUT we do not want to waste the night, we decided to go out for a walk. And managed to find food!!!

We embarked on our journey back to Taipei the next day and the ride, though rocky, was pretty enjoyable, because the view is spectacular!!!! It was pretty scary too...coz the road is very narrow and you can see the drop off very clearly....
Some pictures I took on the journey.

世外桃源

The western coast of Taiwan

Look at how steep the drop off is. The bus was driving along that~~~

We stopped at one of the small towns and had lunch, and also visited another temple. This temple has an emerald 妈祖 statue and also a gold one!!!! So magnificent!

I will not post the picture of the statue here...but this is a picture which I like, the lion overlooking the harbour....

Then, it was back on the roads again...and this is another side of Taiwan. The agricultural side.

Finally, TAIPEI!

Taipei 101, the tallest building in the world!

After 101, we went to 士林夜市 Shi Lin Night Market. As I was too busy looking for clothes for Elmo, there wasnt much time for me to take pictures. I even sacrificed the time to eat to look for his clothes!!! This night market is VERY VERY VERY BIG!!!!! And the tour guide only gave me 1.5hours, not even enough too walk one section lor!!! Damn!

But I do see alot of night market games...like fishing turtles, blah blah....All these games look so fun here, though we have them in Singapore too....dunno why....

Whoosh!!!!
It's my last day in Taiwan!!!
It's a free and easy day for us, coz our flight is in the night....so we had a day to ourselves, and we decided to go to 龙山寺 to pray, before going to 西门町(a place which I think is a MUST GO!!!).

Xi Men Ding in the day, dunno how is looks like in the night though, coz no time for me to go there!!! Arghh!

Some famous vercemilli....FYI, that's my parents standing and my uncle squating...hahaha.Trying to take the difference.

So good that my mum do not want to put down her 战利品。。。Her bags lah~

I did not eat this coz I dont like the taste of it....
But, I had the delicious 鲁肉饭。It's really very good!!!!!
I even ta bao back to SG!!!!
Hahahaha

And see what I've found?

Bus stop in Taiwan.

Phew! Done!!!
Anw, I really enjoyed myself, but I dont understand why my LRTs dont seem to like it....Haiz...I really enjoyed myself....So many things to see, so many things to do...maybe coz I watch alot of Taiwanese show...hmmm, high possibility....
So, to all my friends, Taiwan is a nice place!!! Visit Taiwan if you can!!!!
And I think I will go back there again!!!!

Left a note at 12:42:00 AM