My Journey

Sunday, November 22, 2009 @ 1:19 PM

Welcome to Taiwan 2009

Check out the largest laughing buddha ever. And he's laughing his ass at me like literally, he doesnt want to look into the camera. -.-

Taiwan seriously rock! Especially the instant noodles, and the best thing is there are vending machines that dispense them. When i reached camp, i tried the instant noodles at once. haha NICE!

This is only one of the many flavours they have.

Check out the real beef meat inside the noodle packet. Stylo milo!

Well the weather was relatively cooling and turns colder at night but it didnt dampen the spirit! Along the way, i experienced a real earthquake or should i say its a tremor from the quake. I tot i was dreaming because i was on the bed when the tremor shook the building and i went back to sleep then my friends started screaming for me. LOL! Magnitude 5.0 on the richter scale that is.

Wonder if their building can take the tremor...

Then we had nights out and we went to the nearby town to take a walk. And guess what i saw Carrefour!

But we decided to visit it later cause all of us were hungry and we went to eat steamboat. Its around 150NT which is like S$7 and its full of ingredients which can easily cost 20over bucks in Singapore.

At the steamboat shop, we met Mr Horny:

You will know why it's called HORNY.

Chases after leow and got SEXited.

And there it goes the authentic "Doggy" style. i believe HORNY is gay too.hahahaha

And our R & R began, first stop 921 Earthquake Museum, the quake occured during the night and shook the whole town and they decided to build a museum over the debris and those collapsed building, Disclaimer: those buildings shown have yet to be touched or refurnished to show any exaggerated impacts brought about by the quake, they are purely damaged by the quake!

The broken track.

Okay i'm supposed to look shocked not sleepy -.-

Yeah and its kinda boring there so we decided to leave that place fast.

Next stop "Xiao Ren Guo", a place whereby renowned buildings over the world are displayed as miniaturised structures and we gotta take a mini train to see them.

Nice, i was lying on the operational railway track. haha

I dunno why the main theme of "xiao ren guo" is Doraemon la. But anyway just reviving our childhood memories.

And the day ended with us checking into our respective hotels and its free and easy at night. We decided to splurge at the night market and the most famous one is of course...

Shilin Night Market where most street stalls and food stalls concentrate.

Night view of shilin.

Bought some stuffs and went back at round 2330? The cabs there can flood the roads, and the cab fares are so much cheaper than singapore's. Omg taiwan is like a dream place to me! Then we had supper which we bought from shilin, the famous chicken cutlet which has the size of two of my palms. The milk tea is totally refreshing and fresh. Gosh, i miss the food there now. After supper, we headed to the nightclub in Taipei, Lava. Free flow of drinks throughout the night with just 600NT. Swee!
Second day of R & R.

We headed to the memorial halls of Sun Yat-sen and Chiang Kai Shek who are like the heroes in Taiwan. Let the pictures do the talking.

They say must salute Dr Sun. Okay lo!

And we got bored along the bus journey and started doing stupid things like this. Haha.

Next destination LeoFoo Village, where it is separated into a few different worlds. One of which is a mini zoo and the rest are the theme park rides. When the bus reached, leow and i just dashed out haha like some kids.

Screaming condor, the scariest and most thrilling ride there. I left my heart in the sky during that ride.

Flume ride, who ever said that dinosaurs were extinct?

And the second day ended like this, and we went to Ximen Ting to shop, the hunt for Onitsuka Tiger shoes began. The streets are confusing cause they linked to one another. But ultimately we found the shop! Haha felt accomplished as i bought the shoes with the design that is only available at that shop in Taiwan. Now theres two pairs of this shoes with my design, one of which belongs to Melvin haha. Coolshit. Now i understand, tigers are hard to hunt for, especially onitsuka tigers. hahaha.

The third day.
Woke up at around 11plus, still suffering from the hangover from yesterday night's. My first time drinking absinthe shots. Haha and we dressed up quickly to see taiwan for the last time before we are confined to the hotel at 1600. Went to Taipei 101 but didnt bear to go up cause its 400NT per entry. crazy sia, kinda ex but i swear next year when i return to Taipei i will go up.

The tallest building in the world as of now. I heard that when one is at the top of the tower, you can feel yourself swaying. Well its up to you to believe like that i think Yao Ming quite sad, he must be feeling dizzy most of the time.Hahaha. After the visit we went back to Ximen Ting to shop for the last time. After which we headed back to the hotel and pack our stuffs before moving off.

Reached Taoyuan Airport and en trip back to Singapore. Plane ride was 4hours long. The trip back was rather thrilling cause of the several turbulences to the aircraft. Reached Changi airport at 1234am. Home sweet home!

Zach.
See you Taiwan!

Sunday, November 15, 2009 @ 9:48 PM

taiwan is my dream place.

Finally, im free from my duties, the trainees have finished their exercise and here i am at the mess enjoying. Hmm now i cant wait for r & r to come cause its gonna be hell fun. Yeah zhu bought a bottle of some kao liang wine taste kinda awful but it kinda feels good cause it makes me warm in a cold place here. Wonder what im gonna do for the next two days before r& r starts this coming wednesday.

Well life is so fragile, i knew a friend from BSLC and he just left for a better place. I still can remember 5months ago the few of us had actually went through hardship together, laughing and suffering and now he's gone. I still can remember vividly that he was one of the few that i talked to initially in a totally new environment, he was the one the brought fun and laughter into our lives. He would always come to our beds and we will chat as if there isn't tomorrow. We will always remember you, our dear friend and we hope that you find peace in this new place that you're gonna belong to. My deepest condolences to his family members and friends, a regret in our lives that such a great guy had passed on.

Zach
Well fate has it all.

Monday, November 2, 2009 @ 11:09 AM

welcome to taiwan

Here i am in a place far far away from Singapore, okay not exactly that far but still.. Haha touched down at around 7am the day before then took another 3hours bus ride to the destination. So far everything has been cool, even the weather and i love it, no perspiration at all. The first thing i did was to buy their instant noodle and try, guess what man it tastes so much better than those cooked noodles sold at s'pore hawker centres. There are actually real pieces of meat in it and the soup is so rich and tasty. Woah woah i think i'm quite good at marketing huh. Haha. Yeah and yesterday night the villagers brought local food to sell to us. Got myself some ji pa(i think its sour plum, oh no zhiyuan's gonna get high on this) haha and some pork cutlet which has cheese in it. Omg i got stunned for a while when i put my first bite on them. Haha.

Seriously can't wait for R & R to come, im so gonna try the roller coaster which many had been talking about and the local clubs here too and the wide variety of food here. It's a place to be in!

Zach