Thursday, October 26, 2006
Germ's Taiwan travel log.
Day 1 : Landing in Taipei with a BANG !Special thanks to those who sent us off, namely Mei Yi, Jia Jia, Han Yuan, De Wei. Not forgetting Ting Ting and Li Zhen who called us because they won't be able to reach in time. Took a few photos at the airport before leaving, and more photos in the aeroplane.
After landing, took a Fei Gou bus for about 45 mins to our Rainbow Hotel. U.S. have Greyhound,Taiwan has Fei Gou. Flying Dog, pss. While we were still filled with zest and energy, we decided to get dressed up and hit Shi Lin night market and then go clubbing after that. We ended up being over-dressed for both occasions at Shi Lin and Luxy. (The girls at Luxy had very little on.) We actually didn't plan to go Luxy. Wanted to check out another club called Carnegies as I heard it was really happening, but well I couldn't bother remembering the address of the place, so we ended up walking around Zhong Xiao Dun Hua station for a few times. Reminds me of the song by Dong Li Huo Che, Zhong Xiao Dong Lu Zou Jiu Bian, but I think we only zou san bian. We ended up finding Luxy by asking a passer-by, after some rubbish Chinese from me. 
Luxy was really fun. It's name is a fusion between the words 'Lucky' and 'Sexy'. Cover charge was very expensive, girls were charge $20 while guys were charged $40, inclusive of a drink. I could smell smoke from my pockets. The club was huge, but we stayed at the main dance floor and managed to catch a pippin' hot performance from the bartenders, literally. Shan't go much into detail, but 2 things I observed in Luxy. Everyone at the main dance floor is facing the DJ when they dance. This is intriguely weird as people in Singapore dance amongst themselves in clubs. Not that the DJ was not doing a good job, he was actually doing quite well, mixing the songs around. Unlike Singaporean resident DJs where they just play another song when the current song is about to end. But well, that's something special. Secondly was that everyone really dressed to the occasion. Guys had caps on, jackets hung over their shoulders. Girls had really little on, spotted a girl with like strings behind her back and a hotpants to go with. Plus, they were lap-dancing for their friends. Bloody hell, when will we get this in Singapore. No pictures of this because we weren't allowed to take pics inside. Oh well. Managed to take some pictures after that though.
Crashed back at the hotel at about 4 AM, and the ends our first day.
Side notes :
Rainbow Hotel : 36 Han Zhong Street, Taipei Tel : 886-2-2311-9193 (Alight at Xi Men Station and ask directions from there. Should be relatively easy to find)
Shi Lin night market : Take the MRT & alight at Jian Tan Station and follow the crowd
Luxy : 201 Chung-Hsiao East Road, Sector 4 Tel : 02-2772-1000 (Alight at Zhong Xiao Dun Hua Station and get out at Exit 2. Ask directions from there)
Carnegies : 100 AnHe Road
Day 2 : Sight-seeing and a sumptuous seafood dinner.
Today, we woke up late as we havoc'ed the previous night. Nevertheless it was only our 2nd day in Taiwan and we were still full of energy. The rest of them decided to have breakfast, while Shu Zhen 25 and I opted out. In the end, she woke up the earliest and went with them. And you thought she was the pig. Heh. Anyways, we went to Taipei Main Station and tried to book our train tickets to Hua Lian as we had originally intended to leave the capital on Taiwan's national day. We thought it'll be a good way to avoid the crowd when everyone comes to the capital. Furthermore, the growing strikes and news about the 'Tian Xia Wei Gong' was worrying us. However, Murphy's Law struck again and all the trains leaving out of Taipei were fully booked. Thus, we had no choice to leave Taipei for Hua Lian on the 11th. That means our originally-planned itinery had to be changed and our accomodation in Hua Lian had to be postponed too. We would then find out that it was a blessing in disguise because it was jam-packed in Hua Lian on the 10th.
After everything, we took a train (not MRT) to Rui Fang Station. From there, we split up into 2 cabs up to Jiu Fen. It'll be a good idea if you're going to Jiu Fen not to drive up, because midway up, there're clear restrictions which only allow public transport up. So if you happen to be driving, you'd have to get down and take a public bus up, for which the queue is extremely long, at least for that day.
Upon alighting, all of us immediately rushed for some scenic pictures. I heard there's some history amongst some Jiu Fen streets so I thought the picture in the Sepia mode was especially fitting. 
As we proceeded along the streets, we had lotsa food along the way again, like octopus sausage which was disgustingly black in colour, drunken chicken, huge fishballs (can't remember the names of them).
Along the way, we passed by many souvenir shops, mua chee shops, a shop selling shades and a very interesting shop which sells musical instruments. I don't exactly know what is it called, but it's something like a recorder you used to play in your primary and secondary music classes, except for the fact that they come in different cute shapes and sizes. The shop owner even demonstrated Guang Liang's Tong Hua and Sun Yanzi's Yu Jian on his instruments for us. 
Upon reaching the top of Jiu Fen, we took more pictures, none too clear though because the Sun was setting already. 
We almost lost our way going down and had to walk down many flights of stairs which were almost similar in colour under that lighting. Check this out, I had to snap a shot of this for you to believe it. Imagine many flights of these and you'd freak out just by thinking that you might trip and roll down the hill, literally. Unsurprisingly, Shu Zhen 25 struggled with them. Heehee.. 
Eventually, we managed to a main road, walked for quite a distance before we found a cabbie who was willing to accomodate all 6 of us in a single cab. Ah, the benefits of travelling with 4 girls. Off we headed for Ji Long night market for our much anticipated seafood dinner. On the cab, the cabbie also gave a 'bin lang' to Zhiyu to try. I think Zhiyu didn't like it very much and eventually spitted it out of the window. We managed to find the stall the cabbie recommended us and boy, the food was delicious. No personal favourite, but the most interesting would be the lala (as they would call it). In Singapore, I think most stall would cook them with chilli, but this store cooks it in cinnamon, which gave it a very unique flavour. I'd conclude this day by putting some pics we took during the dinner. The rest of the day went by pretty uneventfully as we strolled the night market and took the train back to Taipei Main Station and evetually changed to the MRT back to Xi Men Station.
Sidenotes :
Jiu Fen : Take a train and alight at Rui Fang Station. From there catch a cab.
Ji Long night market : Cab.
Day 3 : Sunflowers ! Glorious Sunflowers !
Today was really exciting in parts. We took the train to Zhong Li Station and got a cabbie to bring us to the Sunflower Farm, at least that's what I thought it was. Cab fare was NT$600 and the cabbie was super talkative. Kept driving around to show me 'bing lang mei', but nothing much to see also. Reach the place and we went feed some 'meh meh' first.
Now to the main attraction. Personally I was slightly disappointed because I thought the entire place would be filled with bazillinos of sunflowers, but as it turned out, only a small area had sunflowers booming. Maybe wrong time of the year. All of us had lotsa fun snapping up-close-and-personal photos of the flowers, group and individual pics. Pay close attention to the picture which had Shu Zhen 25's face partially covered by a leaf. I thought that picture looked excellent. Heehee.
I shall include more pics we took when having a break there. It's notable that they have sunflower and lavender ice-cream over there. The sunflower ice-cream was not bad, it even had sunflower seeds in it. The latter was slightly disappointing in my opinion though, tasted as if you were eating lavender oil.
With some time left, we decided to venture out of the area while waiting for our cabbie to come fetch us. The shop assistant at the Sunflower Farm initially suggested that we visit a nearby museum whose owner specialises in folding stuffs out of hay. After following her directions, we couldn't find the place. In the end, as the sky was perfect and that we had nothing else to do, we decided to take some erm, artistic photos. After we had our fun, we had even more fun playing with a toy cow in the farm. Well, at least they thought I was having fun.
The rest of the day was largely spent at Xi Men Ding. We had initially planned to travel to Ye Liu to watch seawater crash onto some rocks, as quoted by Zhiyu, and also make a trip down to Shi Fen Waterfall. Our planned was cancelled when the hotel staff told us that Ye Liu was out of the way from Tao Yuan Sunflower Farm, and that Shi Fen Waterfall was very inaccessible. Oh well, shit happens. At the end of the day, we checked out a pub which had swings as their benches. Yea swings. 
To conclude the day, I shall include a picture of a very unique flower discovered by Chris at the farm. Go ahead, drool.
Sidenotes :
Tao Yuan Sunflower Farm : http://www.sun-green.com.tw (Take the train to Zhong Li Station and board a cab from there.)
Day 4 : Tian Xia Wei Gong !
Today was Taiwan's national day. There were mass political rallies in Taipei itself, so we had to 'devise' a plan to get out of the city area sneakily. There were even people distributing red headbands to people who wants to 'dao bian'. We hurriedly got into the MRT at Xi Men Station and changed to train, then alight at Song Shan Station. Today must also be Shu Zhen 25's happiest day in Taiwan. Wu Fen Pu is a shopper's paradise, especially if you're female. It is incredibly huge, with plenty of shops selling all kinds of apparel and food. It took Zhiyu and I slightly over 2 hours to finish the entire area, but it took the girls 2 hours to finish 2 streets. Zhi Yu and I had to even spend an additional 2 hours at a basketball court watching people play basketball while the girls do more shopping. Thankfully, I had my PSP with me. Zhiyu tried to approach a 'gao shou' to play with him, but appearantly that guy didn't like gays. Hehehe.More descriptive stuffs, yes. After that, we carried our barang-barang to check out another night market, Rao He night market. I hope I got that name correct, 'coz my Chinese not as fik-fiak as my Engerlish. There we bought even more stuffs, ate even more food. Their 'ou jian' was cooked differently compared to what we are familiar with in Singapore. No pictures 'coz everyone was too busy eating. And, and their 'chee cheong fun' was fantastic. My god, I tell you, the skin was flawless. Ok to end this day, I shall include some pictures of Zhiyu sacrificing his hair to the girls for them to style it. For more laughter, please refer to our videos in the DVD. Order it at $9.95 while stocks last.
Sidenotes : Wu Fen Pu : Take a train to Song Shan Station and it'll be directly opposite the station.
Rao He night market : From Song Shan Station, turn right and cross an overhead bridge.
Day 5 : Good things are meant to be waited for !
The next 2 days were the highlight of the trip for me. For me, it presented an oppurtunity to get away from the city lights and get acquainted with the sub-urban lifestyle of Taiwan. I even brought along my tripod with hopes that I'd be able to snap some pictures of the night sky. Again, Murphy's Law proved that shit always happen, and it was overcast for the whole night in Hua Lian. We woke up super-duper early today, had a rushed breakfast and boarded the train to Hua Lian. The whole ride lasted 3 hours, and most of us concussed on the train. Zhiyu & I managed to snap some pics of the scenary en route to Hua Lian. As the track was at the easternmost side of Taiwan, we were able to get an unobstructed view of the Pacific Ocean. You don't get to see such views very often.
Upon reaching Hua Lian, immediately we got approached by a couple who dressed reasonably casually. This was the only black patch in our otherwise-perfect Hua Lian trip. They started asking where were we headed for, asked if we wanted to take their cars. When we told them we wanted to take a bus to our 'min su', they told us it was too far and inaccessible, suggesting that they bring us around and offered their place for the night. After rejecting them, we tried to call someone whom our friend, Li Zhen recommended. He came down, and instead of helping us, insisted that we take up the couple's offer. When we tried spliting up, the woman bugged the girls, while the man came and nagged Zhiyu and I. It created lotsa confusion as everyone had different opinions as to whether we should take up their offer, whether we should change our plans, whether the cost was too high. Even after we told the couple we wanted some space to discuss amongst ourselves, the couple, whom we nickname 'blue mosquitoes', kept irritating us with their plans. Words can't sum up my frustration here.
In the end, we decided to walk back to the station itself and boarded a 6-seater cab to Taroko Gorge, scratching our initial plans of heading to our 'min su' first. Again, I felt that it was a blessing in disguise, despite paying NT$400 more for what the 'blue mosquitoes' offered. The cabbie was a retired tour guide and he knew many facts about the Taroko Gorge. This time, I sat in front of the cab and listen to his stories about the A-Mei, Bai-Wan, Bu-nun and Tai-ru tribes, while the rest were busy snapping photos and taking cranky videos. Refer to our DVD more some hilarious moments. I shan't bore you with too much words here, because I think the beauty of the Taroko Gorge cannot be described in words. Enjoy the pictures as we ascended the mountain.
Coming down the Taroko Gorge, the cabbie decided to drop us at some shop selling some rose stones. Nothing particularly interesting 'cept for the world's biggest rose stone, according to the shop owner. 
The cabbie then asked if we wanted to top another NT$800 so that he'd send us to our min su, making it a grand total of NT$3,000. It saved us the trouble of finding another cab and haggling again, so we agreed. Before that he dropped us at a beach known as Qi Xin Tan. According to him, during autumn, we would be able to see the North Star, Polaris and the rest of the 6 stars. Basic astronomy tells you you'd be able to see all 14 stars of the Big and Small Dipper from Taiwan's latitude. We snapped some pics but some weren't very clear. The sky was also immensely overcast and some pictures didn't turn out as nice as we wanted.
After the sunset, we decided to head over to Nan Bing Gong Yuan, where we would be setting off our first fireworks. Excitement filled the air as we spend NT$600 on our gunpowder. We headed off to the beach, brought out Angela's trusty video-cam and started filming the entire process. For the entire footage, please refer to our videos again. $9.95 while stocks last, period. Finally after travelling through meandering and winding roads of the mountains, we reached our house for the night. As I said, good things were meant to be waited for. What was presented to us surpassed our imaginations, or at least mine. There was a double-storey house with an enclosed dinig area outside, 3 lily lakes viewable from the balcony on the second storey, and an elevated garden outside the house facing the Pacific Ocean. All these for only NT$3,400 per night. Tell me we can't get a better bargain than this ! After tucking in hungrily our dinner, Zhiyu managed to snap some pics within the house. More beautiful pics will be posted on the next day. Cheers ! 
Sidenotes
Hou Hu Shui Yue Du Jie Bie Shu : http://wendell.myweb.hinet.net/hou%20hu%20about.htm Tel : 0933-799-557 Mr. Wen
Day 6 : Freedom.
We woke up even earlier this morning hopeing to catch the sunrise at about 5.30 AM. To our dismay, clouds were all over and we failed to catch it. Nevertheless, we had our usual fun by snapping more pics of the flora and fauna around us. 
Time for breakfast, then it was more picture-taking.
Before I conclude this part of our journey, I'd definitely like to mention this dog who accompanied us during our stay at our 'min su'. His name is Bian Zhui, when translated it means 'Flat mouth'. Bian Zhui sports a natural frowning face, super obedient and follows us wherever we go, except when we're in the house. Check out the last pic.
Saving the best for the last.
That sums up our time spent at our 'min su' when we checked out at about noon. Mr. Wen then offered to fetch us to the resort where we wanted to try some river-rafting. Unfortunately, or fortunately for us (read on), the resort was closed. Appearantly they wanted to rest after the 5-day public holiday period declared by Ah Bian. What to do when we're stranded there? The cabbie Mr. Wen arranged for us would only arrive at 3 PM and it's only 12+. Then we decide to climb over the gates and take the resort as ours. *evil laughter* Not many pics taken here, so you'd have to look at our videos and watch our assault. The entire resort was ours ! Yippee !
After that it was travelling to random places. We stopped by a place where we bought mua chee, ate some fantastic Hua Lian dumplings. Also visited a house which is, supposedly, scented because of the rare wood it was made of. Nothing much to shout about and the rest of the day was spent shopping in Hua Lian city centre and travelling back to Taipei. Goodbye Hua Lian, we miss you.
Sidenotes :
None at the moment
Day 7 : Unluckiest Friday 13th.
This day has to be the unluckiest Friday 13th for me, if not all of us. I didn't use to believe this strange myth. But I do believe in it now. This is the day we visited not one, not two, but THREE police stations in Taiwan. Dammit, seldom do I visit a police station in Singapore, but here in Taiwan, I visit THREE DIFFERENT police stations in the same day. First of all, I've to mention that Shu Zhen 25 lost her handphone the night before while coming back to Taipei from Hua Lian. She didn't seem to be the least bothered because she thought she could claim some money from the travel insurance she bought. Which means we would have to file a police report.
Great, ok so the whole bunch of us went to the police station opposite Xi Men Station. The officer then told us we needed to go to the main Taipei police station because she lost her phone at the Taipei Main Station, and that Taipei Main Station is not in their territory. What nonsense ! Then he gave us directions, walk here walk there walk everywhere. Shu Zhen 24 and I ended up accompanying Shu Zhen 25 to the main station while Zhiyu, Chris and Angela wandered around Xi Men Ding. After walking for an hour, asking directions along the way, we finally found the main police station. After some red-tape and bureaucracy, we finally managed to logde a police report at the Foreign Affairs department. Oh my god. Then when the officer showed us the way back to the nearest MRT station, it was merely a 5 minute walk away, 'cept this is a different exit from the underground Xi Men Station we were at just now. Bloody incompetant Taiwanese police officers !
Ok enough ranting for now. We took the train to Zhong Li Station again and called our cabbie who took us to Tao Yuan Sunflower Farm the other day, Mr. Deng. This time we asked him to bring us to Liu Fu Chun, a theme park we've heard of, but unsure of how fun it was. On the way, more parading of 'bing lang mei' by our friendly cabbing, not that I'm complaining. Reaching there, we managed to get a discounted price of NT$3,180 instead of NT$5,340 because of the International Youth Travel card we applied at the airport when we first arrived. The rides were reasonably ok, none too exciting, none too boring. Lunch was fairly expensive though, at about NT$120 - NT$140.
The day ended with a bang when we took some very exciting water rides in succession and got ourselves extremely drenched. We didn't forsee this, thus none of us brought extra clothes to change to, not even a towel to dry ourselves. Then we began this extremely long ride to the hot springs in Wu Lai. Had we known, we shouldn't have planned these two activities together, as the 2 places were too far away. But ah well, the ups and downs of travelling alone. We boarded a public bus to Ji An Station which lasted almost an hour, then transferred to the MRT to Xin Dian Station, costing us another 30 minute. From Xin Dian Station we had to take a 45-minute bus ride to Wu Lai, which was followed by another 10-minute walk to the hot springs. All this while, most of us were suffering as we were drenched in the air-con of the public transport. I shivered so badly that my teeth were chattering, and Angela almost puked because the bus driver thought he was playing Initial-D.
Anyway, we did reach our intended destination at the end of the day, literally at 9 PM. Paid up about NT$500+ per pax for a 6-course dinner and unlimited dipping at the hot springs. You see, here at Wu Lai, there're many different shops providing water from the hot springs. While doing so, they also provide meals as a package, and some even let you stay for the night. Apologies here, we were so hungry and tired that we didn't snap any photos here. Besides, we can't snap any photos in the hot springs because you had to be naked in here. Yeah naked ! Kinky! This was gay love at its best, and Zhiyu and I undoubtedly enjoyed ourselves in the hot waters. Stop thinking dirty, it was really good after 3 hours of shivering and a hearty meal. The girls laughed so loud in their girls pool that we could hear them from our side. And you thought the misfortune ends here? Well, we checked with the bus driver before we alight at Wu Lai what time would the last bus leave Wu Lai back to Xin Dian. Bearing in mind that he mentioned 11.30 PM was the last timing the bus would leave, we left the hot springs at 11.10 PM. After waiting for 25 minutes (do the maths yourself), there was still no sign of any bus (or soul). Then we had to make our way to the Wu Lai police station, which was some 200m away, to ask for help. Yes, third police station for the day. Check out our vids. It's a must-watch when we filmed our desperate faces at the bus-stop.
While asking for help, Angela and I decided to go back to the bus-stop and wait just in case, by some divine intervention, a bus comes. Then we could probably call the others down while stalling the bus driver. At about 11.45 PM, the last bus did really arrive ! I tried dialling Zhiyu, but he left his handphone in my bag (after spending some gay love with me at the hot springs). Tried calling Chris but I couldn't get through. I panicked, and told Angela to stall the bus driver as long as she could. It'd be dangerous leaving her alone, but well it's a risk we had to take. Part 1 of the shuttle run was to race uphill to the police station and called for the rest, part 2 was to race back down to the bus. Felt like some bloody Taiwanese Amazing Race. Eventually we managed to reach Xin Dian Station hoping to catch the last MRT, but well, I said it. It was Friday the 13th. The last train JUST departed when we arrived, leaving us with no choice but to split up to 2 cabs back to our hotel. It didn't turn out to be as far as we expected, but well, what a day.
Sidenotes
Liu Fu Chun : http://www.leofoo.com.tw/village/index.htm (Get a train ticket to Zhong Li Station and grab a cab from there)
Wu Lai hot springs : http://www.hot-springs-association.com.tw (Take a train to Xin Dian Station. Directly in front of the station, board a bus with name 'Xian Dian - Wu Lai - Tai Pei'. Wu Lai is the last stop. A seat on the right gives a view of the river.)
Day 8 : Waning energies.
We woke up slightly later today, and headed for Dan Shui in the afternoon. More shopping for the girls, more walking for the guys, more eating for everyone. Dan Shui has everything for everything, sight-seeing, shopping, eating, and even a bit of history. It used to be a busy port, but now the port has shifted further up north-east, I think. Appearantly during our time in Taiwan, we simply couldn't catch a sunset or sunrise in full. If you'd recall, we'd previously missed the sunrise in Hua Lian before the sky was overcast. This this, there were some clouds just above the horizon which prevented us from viewing the complete sunset. What's more, just when everyone wants to watch the sunset, a rubbish truck comes along. In Taiwan, rubbish trucks play musical tunes when they go around collecting refuse. It was new to me and Zhiyu, because we had previously saw another one when we were waiting for the girls at Wu Fen Pu. Heh.
We'd orginally plan to visit the world's-almost-biggest ferris wheel, a.k.a. Miramar Ferris Wheel, on the first night when we visited Shi Lin night market. Due to time constraints and our dress code, we had to postpone this to today, not that we were complaining. Everyone was rather tired, and Shu Zhen 25 felt a slight sprain in her ankle already. Heh, too much shopping. Maybe 9 days is an ideal length for a holiday. There was nothing much to shout about regarding the world's-almost-biggest ferris wheel, 'cept that it gives you a good night view of the Taipei city. As mentioned by Zhiyu, we should've gone to Taipei 101 instead, it's free entry for all whereas you'd have to pay for the ride at Miramar, plus it gives you a much higher view. Maybe only couples would love taking the Miramar, just take heed not to shake the cabin too much. You don't want to be caught 20 storeys up there with your pants down. The pics included are those that we took during the ride, include a group photo which was attempted many times through trial and error. 
Our last dinner was concluded at Tamago Ya in Xi Men Ding area, where we had our dinner on the 3rd night too. It was simply too good to resist it again. This restaurant specialises serving rice coated with scrambled eggs. Hard to describe it here, but hard to resist it when you see you for yourself. 
The rest of the night was spent on packing our luggage for tomorrow. The thought of it saddens me...
Sidenotes :
Dan Shui : MRT to Dan Shui Station. Idiot-proof.
Miramar Ferris Wheel : MRT to Jian Tan Station. (Take a free shuttle bus from there. Comes at intervals of 15 minutes)
Tamago Ya Resturant : Opposite Xi Men Station. (Exit at 6 or 7)
Day 9 : All good things must come to an end.
Today was our last day in Taipei. It was also the last day for us to buy some presents for our friends, if we had not done so for the past 8 days. Heh, dear friends of us, please forgive us if we had left you out. We started the day by playing Zhiyu's favourite game, basketball. This game is unbelievably popular in Taiwan. There are machines all over Taiwan for people to play this game, there are plenty in arcades all over the cities, there were some at Nan Bing Gong Yuan, there was even one at Tao Yuan Sunflower Farm
Then, lunch was at this stall along Er Mei Street called Ah Zhong Mian Xian. The 'mian xian' they sell is absolutely fantastic and comes it 2 different servings. That explains why there're so many people standing outside the stall to eat. Yeah, standing. There're no tables, no chars, no benches, not even stools. You just stand outside the stall, gulp it down, then throw the bowls into the allocated bins provided outside the stall. Chris noted that if you add chilli, it brings out an extra flavour to the 'mian xian'. Have a go. Unique food and a unique experience intertwined.
After a little more shopping, a bus ride on Flying Dog (Fei Gou) again, and dinner at the airport, soon we were on the flight back to Singapore. Hopefully, this travel log has gave one more information and a better insight of our trip. Any thoughts, criticisms, comments, suggested can be brought forward to me, either in person or any other means desired. Cheers !
Germ a.k.a. Gen Ben Ying Jun