taipei

"it's all in my memory" was my reply to aifen when she asked me whether i need to record down the things we did each day during our taipei trip, hopefully my words weren't wrong and just to forewarn potential hazards ahead; this is gonna be a really long post lol~

use the hyperlinks below to ease navigation woes, enjoy~

DAY 1 - DAY 2 - DAY 3 - DAY 4 - DAY 5

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DAY 1 “陌生之地，认识贵人，结伴远行。”

we arrived in taipei after a long and boring flight, nothing much to expect from a budget carrier since everything has to be done at minimal cost. anyways, we cleared immigration quite smoothly, except for me i guess cos' the officer couldn't see my passport extension and needed me to point out to him clearly where it was.

so we were outside the airport, exclaiming at how fine the weather was since the air-conditioning inside the airport was freakin' cold, we checked our mobile and realized that only nick's and mine were able to roam local networks, yeah communications all dependent on both of us lol~

aifen called up her friend, waited for a while at the pick-up bay guessing what kind of car he would pick us all up in. the formalities began by introducing each other and his name's ren wei, loaded our bags onto his car and off we went to the hostel. he specially stopped by his house along the way but for some reason we didn't visit so we continued on.

we got lost while trying to navigate around the city but eventually arrived there, we were greeted by sophia; owner of the hostel, dumped our bags and went down for dinner. we had shabu shabu, something like mini-steamboat where you cook your own food and stuff, pretty gud but mine was spoiled by gasteric pains towards the end of the meal.

after dinner ren wei suggested our itinerary for the next day; amusement park and a tourist attraction in the mountains, both distant locations made convenient by his car. i guess we were a little tired back then so we just agreed to it and headed back to the hostel.

the one thing we really have to complain about the hostel was the bed; it's so freakin' hard it felt like we were all sleeping on the floor. anyways, we made our beds, bathed and chatted a while before trying to sleep; i woke up at 3 regular intervals in the wee hours all thanks to the bed attributing to my spinal pains..

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DAY 2 “惊险，刺激，尖叫。”

Leofoo Village Theme Park 六福村主题游乐园 [link]

woke up exceptionally early today, probably worried about the weather cos' it was drizzling and it might affect our visit to the amusement park as planned yesterday. ren wei picked us up and departed for the park despite the drizzle, we got lost again but nevertheless arrived at our destination unscathed after traveling through real narrow roads.

turns out we were driving through mountain roads which eventually led to where the park was; up in the mountains. pretty foggy when we arrived and the winds were unsparingly cold, yeah we were all in for some freezing fun lol~

paid for our admission tickets and aifen was pretty disappointed to hear that the conventional pirate ship was closed for maintenance cos' it was one of those less extreme rides she could take due to her heart problems.

Laughing Condor 笑傲飞鹰

the first highlight for the day!! we were actually standing on one end of the ride when something suddenly shot up from nowhere, yeah we knew this ride had to be taken already lol. to begin with, you'll be lifted off ground and sped off real fast to a twisted tower where you'll gradually twirl up to 180 degrees and later drop back down to another tower where you'll be left hanging there for a while before the whole process repeats itself again, of course with increased speed.

aifen waited for us outside while we queued up for the ride, i asked nick whether he was game enough for the first row, hesitant at first but when it was our turn, we took it lol, jianfei and xiang jun were right behind us followed by ren wei alone in the third row.

the ride ended with me wanting more of it and xiang jun commenting on nick's watery eyes, well he claimed that the drizzle caused them to be watery and not because he freaked out during the ride, it's up to you to guess and for him to know lol~

Sneaky Pete's Hide-out 炮轰入侵者

ren wei told us to take this opportunity to blast away at innocent parties on the big canyon rapids ride, we had 2 rounds of it and received a rude shock when one gal showed her middle finger after jianfei dealt a fatal blast to them lol~

Little Rattler 西部疯狂列车

this is a mini version of the roller coaster without loops of course, that's why everyone boarded it with jianfei and xiang jun taking the "first class" seats with aifen and ren wei, nick and i behind, short and quick ride though.

Flying Horse 天马行空

got cheated of our precious time thanks to us being naive enough to believe that this ride was something interesting based on its name, in actual fact it was the least interesting ride ever taken, imagine riding on a mechanical horse stroding outside only to get blown by the piercing winds and see some mannequins strut their stuff just before the ride ends, fun? not in my opinion, lowest in entertainment value, scrape it!! lol~

Ring Of Fire 风火轮

the second highlight of the day!! as usual xiang jun and i were both very excited when we saw this huge wheel with people spinning around within it, we can never give this ride a miss, mwahahaha~

put it simply, this ride revolves 360 degrees and at certain intervals, hangs everyone upside down for a few seconds before going for another round of revolution, pure wicked stuff people!! aifen and nick gave this ride a miss though.

Ali-Ba Ba & The Forty Thieves 啊里巴巴与四十大盗

i really don't know how a simple merry-go-round ride can get such a long and irrelevant name as mentioned above, especially when i don't see anyone riding on thieves except horses and carriages lol. nothing much about this ride except for a few spins and some fanciful decorations, snapped a few photos and walked over to..

Flying Carpet 飞毯

aifen freaked out at first when she misunderstood our demostration of how the ride would be like, when we asked the personnel there, she was more or less assured that it wouldn't have 360 degree flips lol. well she actually doubted my words when i guranteed her that the ride shouldn't pose any form of health hazard for her since i saw how the whole ride was during the ring of fire ride back then, ugh hurt lol~

as for nick, he didn't join us on the basis of feeling queasy due to motion sickness, after the ride aifen commented on how not scary the ride was, how she wanted another go at it and how much nick missed out on the scenery when the "carpet" revolved at its peak.

Pagoda's Revenge 大怒神

the third highlight for the day!! surprised that everyone dared to challenge the wrath of this angry god, we went in trios with nick, jianfei and xiang jun first and the rest of us later. the ride simply drops you from a staggering height of 53 meters without warning, gives you no time to react at all though we heard someone scream out loud after we left.

Sea Serpent 大海怪

the ride with a hidden agenda for nick lol. it was nothing much, the ride just spins around with ups and downs, that's all. but nick who was then beside me said that he was beginning to feel a little giddy when the ride picked up speed, uh huh..

Mighty Mountain Flume Adventure 火山历险

say goodbye to dry clothes from here onwards lol. initially we couldn't locate the ride cos' we went to another attraction which seemed to be attached to the intended one, so we walked around hitting dead ends and an accident happened; while walking down some steps, xiang jun lost her footing and slipped. thank god it wasn't very serious, lesson learnt? be careful when walking down slippery steps lol~

when we backtracked out of the wrong attraction, i spotted the place we should have been and proceeded there pronto. wanted to purchase some ponchos to keep ourselves dry but it was kinda steep on the price tag and didn't look very nice on us, so we gave it a pass and went on ahead, what brave people we were eh? splashing into water and enjoying the shiver thereafter lol~

loads of empty boats cos' it was quite late already, anyways we have the lineup for the plunges; first up nick and i, followed by aifen and ren wei, last but not least jian fei and xiang jun on the back and front seats respectively. yeah each boat can only accomodate 2 persons at any one time, well if you include your belongings that is.

Big Canyon Rapids Ride 大峡谷急流泛舟

the fourth and last highlight for the day, also the ride where everyone could play and thoroughly enjoy ourselves. wasn't expecting a lot out of this ride since the rest we took were all shortlived but i was wrong, imagine knocking into the curbs, water splashing in and trying to dodge them, yeah it was that exciting, to the extent of us going for another round lol~

Animal Kingdom 野生动物王国

aifen's favorite place to be at among others in the theme park, we came here after lunch since the food weren't digested for more thrilling rides yet lol.

we then proceeded to the bus stop where a tour around the animal habitation area picks up from, along the way we stopped by the animal clinic where we were all fascinated at a newborn orang utan; it was so small and cute, unlike its older counterparts lol. we heard some funny noise emanating from behind a wall beside us, wanted to check it out but the panels were too tall for any of us to see despite jianfei jumping up to take a glimpse at it.

Jiufen Village 九份

the trip from the theme park to this village in the mountains was quite uncomfortable for most of us, especially after wetting our jeans and well, probably underwear too lol. anyways, we arrived there with almost dry clothes, which was much needed for cos' the weather up here sent all of us cowering for shelter, wahahaha~

the main attraction of this village was just a walkway with shops selling local delicacies and souvenir, but the problem was most of these shops were closed and we were all hungry, so we settled for some warm dessert before heading back down to the city for dinner.

ate at some seafood restaurant but my gasteric was acting up again so didn't have much. today was fun, well save for the wet jeans and stuff, it would be so much better if the weather wasn't that cold, imagine cooling ourselves in the heat of summer? mwahahaha~

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DAY 3 “大雾后，登上世界之冠，观美景。”

Xingtian Temple 行天宫

freshened up and started our day off visiting this temple, about 5 minutes walk from our hostel. upon reaching, nick and aifen were ready to snap some artistic shots of the temple but needed someone to confirm whether photography was allowed in such a religious place, so i went outside to ask this policeman who stared at me from head to toe before answering my question, eh am i that foreign to you!?

anyways, we couldn't engage in any religious activities like divination and stuff cos' they were having some sorta prayer session with everyone looking really serious, we prayed to the gods and when xiang jun crossed over a kneeling pad to be with jianfei, a granny told her in dialect she can't do that, so much for superstitions eh? we soon left the temple for..

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Yang Ming Shan National Park 阳明山国家公园 [link]

after walking a long stretch of road for like 20 minutes, we finally reached the bus stop but not before stopping by NET, a clothing retail store trying to clear their spring stock to prepare for summer. aifen, nick and me each bought a new jacket to brace ourselves for the impending cold weather up in the mountains~

the bus journey took about 40 minutes where we along the way, snapped photos of our new jackets and the bus. upon reaching the terminal stop, i tried asking for directions to the visitor center from an uncle, for some reason i couldn't express my question in a conversable manner so he kept on suggesting possible things i wanted to ask but it made me even more desperate to ask in english lol~

finally xiang jun and the rest came to my rescue and he told us that the flower season was just over last week, quite disappointed cos' the gals were pretty hopeful of seeing the sakura and others, he suggested other places worth visiting so off we went, to the visitor center first!!

we followed the directions as indicated; 0.4km to the visitor center so we trekked this nature trail for like 15 minutes before stopping and thought "eh is 0.4km that long?", we continued on despite aifen's flat feet hurting. another 10 minutes passed, we met an uncle who told us that the visitor center was just up ahead, 5 minutes later we finally reached our destination, now we know exactly how far 0.4km was lol~

as usual photo snapping session took place and we proceeded for a very long lunch, i was busy examining the map we acquired at the makeshift visitor center while the rest ordered food. jianfei made a remark about the fruits-flower-tea we ordered which was pretty contagious, more about it in a while, mwahahaha~

we visited one of the main attractions recommended by the few people we met along the way but sadly it was too foggy so all we could do was to smell the dense sulphur and try to hear the spurting of volcanic liquids. we canceled 2 of planned attractions there and ended our tour here earlier than expected~

we took the same bus down the mountains and to the other terminal stop, Taipei Main Station, where we transfered to the metro for the very first time. at first we didn't know where the station was so we asked for direction from this school kid who aifen commented walked like a model, lol~

anyways we were led to the right place and here's the contagious part; when i went to change for coins, the rest of them were laughing like nobody's business, it appears that jianfei was meddling with the coin dispenser machine and when you select the english translation, it'll say:

"PLEASE SELECT A TRANSACTION"

one can guess that this phrase will reign throughout the whole trip, with aifen repeating it every now and then, followed by xiang jun. you really gotta hear it to know how funny it was, more of aifen's crazy antics later~

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Taipei Financial Center 101 台北金融大楼101 [link]

the world's tallest building is a mere 10 minutes walk from the Taipei City Hall metro station. we arrived there at around evening and as expected, were greeted by designer shops all over the shopping mall; a place i won't see myself splurging on until i earn like one million a year lol~

we went to the observatory reception to check things out before deciding our next destination, an excited xiang jun approached the people at the reception of a fitness center and we all had a gud laugh when they pointed in the correct direction. so we were done with all the questioning, we decided to walk around a while more, grab a bite and off to the observatory~

we ended up in the sony gallery where we had internet connection, so we checked out blogs and stuff and guess what? all of a sudden xiang jun asked us to turn our heads around and we spotted jason hsu of 5566 behind us!! okay to set the record straight, we are all not fans of that group so we simply ignored him and went off, wahahaha~

the architecture of the building was really marvelous so we ended up trying to take shots of it but got stopped by this security guard who looked pretty intimidating with a baton in his hand. the gals went to the washroom and the guys got a drink themselves except for me, everyone got together and we started chatting and joking around, nick shared some really funny jokes that got us laughing real bad~

we went to the nearby New York New York for dinner and got 2 towering cones of ice cream for dessert, as we made our way back to the observatory via an open bridge, the strong winds together with the ice cream made us all shiver like hell, but we seem to enjoy the experience lol~

back to the observatory, we bought the tickets and zoomed up to the 89th level of the building in like 31 seconds? yeah we just took the world's fastest elevator; felt nothing much actually but it's pretty surreal to see that we're ascending so quickly, oh yeah the whole elevator turned dark during the climb and the ceiling was a sea of glimmering stars, very cool stuff~

so we walked around the observatory, wow-ing at the spectacular city lights, checking out exhibits and snapping away at some cool angles. it wasn't until a while later then we realize that the center of the observatory was the main attraction; 1 of 3 wind dampers to stabilize the entire building when threatening winds blow. we poked fun at the mascot; baby damper, by snapping a group photo of us imitating the same pose it took, it was really funny back then~

when we were about to leave the observatory, aifen was swooning at a male stuff charged with escorting visitors to the elevator. while she was equipped with her camera, getting into the right stance to snap a photo of him, i made a suggestion to make her life much easier "why don't you just walk over and ask him to take a photo together?", she refused on the account of being shy. as we approached the queue, aifen attempted to take a snap at him when nick suddenly said "excuse me", from behind, aifen couldn't capture a gud shot while the rest of us got a shock since we were pretty focused on what she was doing lol~

oh we exchanged our ticket stubs for a limited edition bookmark, great memorabilia besides the ticket and photos!! as we walked back to the metro station, we stopped at a nearby park to take some crazy shots with passerbys staring at us. continuing on, jianfei did not give me the benefit of doubt when he asked me whether we were going in the right direction, ugh i did the transport research okay!? lol joking.. anyways, we walked back to the hostel while buying food and munching them along the way~

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DAY 4 “女人购物乐，男人饮食乐，大家摩天乐。”

Ximen Market 西门市场

the gals were the excited bunch for today, not sure about the other guys but i mentioned to the rest before, i loathed shopping and as it turned out, i was quite sick this morning lol.. never mind that, we took a direct bus down and started walking around the area, we ate the famous vermicelli and the rest later had bubble tea.

one thing we'll always remember about this place was the huge dog nick caught for aifen. i sponsered nick a hundred bucks to catch the dog hanging near the exit and he caught it in 4 tries!! once caught, the shop personnel put another dog at the exact same spot tempting us to catch it again, this time for xiang jun, we spent more money doing so but in vain lol~

while the gals were having their manicure, the guys rested their tired legs in an underground shopping facility. jianfei went to the washroom and came back with a surprise for xiang jun; a white tiger he caught with 1 try!! yeah we talked about how tired we were and it led on to things like acupuncture, went back to get the gals after chatting for 15 minutes.

oh we decided to get ren wei a gift for all the trouble we imposed on him during our stay in taipei, so the 5 of us bought him a zippo lighter~ the salesgirl provided a free carving service so aifen called up ren wei to ask for his name and yeah, the inner shell was engraved with his name and the date we bought it~

basically the gals were shopping while the guys merely followed them around and bought food to eat whenever possible. the frenzy ended with xiang jun emerging victorious as the shopping queen!! nick left empty-handed but with quite a full stomach lol~

me? haha even though i said that i loathed shopping, i bought a very interesting block calender i fell in love with at first sight!! the other thing i bought was some chocolate and sweets from a retail store selling such stuff in funny packages like condoms, band aids and stuff~

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Shilin Night Market 士林夜市

it's food fiesta for the guys again having eaten quite a lot back then, we bought a wide variety of food including choice favorites; fermented tofu and honey bitter gourd drink. nick tried a bit of everything and decided it was best to go western, so he and jianfei bought some expensive western food and shared around~

dinner was pretty fulfilling for me, especially the fermented tofu!! oh well, i'll be back for more next time i fly to taipei again. we took the underpass back to the metro station and then again, jianfei doubted me by asking whether we were walking in the right direction, uh i look pretty blur to depend on for directions eh? ah forget it lol~

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Miramar Entertainment Park 美丽华百乐园 [link]

the shuttle bus from the metro station dropped us right in front of the ferris wheel, not a very gud place if you ask me cos' all of us took out our cameras and started snapping away at the magnificent structure lol~

and as expected, the photo snapping hype continues as we made our way up and around the shopping mall to where the ferris wheel was. it didn't stop when we reached our destination though, all those fancy lightings and a merry-go-round made the hype live longer, so i gather that around 20 minutes were spent snapping photos from the moment we arrived to the moment we got inside the cabin of the ferris wheel, wahahaha~

we purchased the tickets from the cinema box office, which was weird since the ferris wheel was the biggest attraction there, why ain't there a dedicated booth selling its tickets? anyways, we were told that the tickets could be exchanged for a popcorn and drink, so here's the crux; no food and drinks were allowed inside the cabin of the ferris wheel, so what's the point of it when you can't enjoy the view together with the food and drink? go figure~

jianfei was feeling uneasy; he commented that he was really scared and felt insecure and aifen was rubbing in on that, while nick was feeling a little queasy during the revolution of the ferris wheel, we talked and joked around to ease their uncomfort. we tried to wave to the people in the cabin behind us when we reached the peak of the revolution, they pretty much ignored our friendly gesture initially; probably excited at the height we were all at, but we caught sight of their not-so-enthusiastic waving back when our cabin slowly descended lol~

back down on sturdy ground, while xiang jun was exchanging for the popcorn and drink, we meddled with the ticket kiosk and here's where aifen's crazy antics kick in again. when choosing the number of tickets to purchase; strangely 2 was the maximum, the kiosk would normally prompt for error, aifen repeatedly pressed the button and the result you get will be:

"E.. E.. ERR.. ERR.. ERROR.. ERROR.."

so there you have it, 2 phrases to spam throughout the trip though tomorrow is the last day. we had a rude encounter with a policeman when asking for directions back to the hostel, apparently he was busy checking something out on the roads so he couldn't be bothered to give complete answers.

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DAY 5 “快乐时光，圆满结束，记忆永存。”

Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall 中正记念堂

let's see, more than a decade ago during my first visit to this place, it was pretty rundown and badly maintained, my second visit just last year saw 2 new buildings beautifying the entire area; the national theatre and concert halls. today? nothing new except for an on-going exhibition about taiwan.

as the rest of us were busy snapping the scenery, jianfei and nick went to the nearby mos burger to grab some fries and drinks. aifen said the fries were very nice and wanted to get more on our way back but i didn't see that happening lol. we looked around the exhibition under the scorching sun and had a rude encounter, yet again, this time with a woman who accused us of stepping on the map of taiwan with our shoes on.

duh first thing we are bilingual and can read and understand the instructions very clearly, we followed the instructions, took off our shoes and walked all over taiwan, as if conquering the whole country lol. then she came later after we put on our shoes and started accusing us, obviously we couldn't take it lying down and rebutted in english, ren wei told us that she said that she understood english cos' she's a graduate from some university, tsk big deal. ren wei then told us to ignore such people and left.

oh it doesn't stop here actually, turns out she wasn't very happy when we just took off and started stalking us!! as we made our way up to the memorial hall, i could see her following right behind us, hiding in between the exhibits whenever we turned behind. the last time we saw her, i pointed straight at her with a cold, hard stare, LOL~

headed inside the hall, the usual routine took place but this time, a japanese duo approached us to help them take a photo; we unanimously pointed to aifen so yeah, she took up the task. when aifen asked them how they wanted the photo to be taken in japanese, they replied with hand gestures; we figured that they were handicapped or something.

we proceeded down to the exhibition halls to check out some stuff pertaining to the founding father of taiwan; paintings, cars and some furnitures. there was a table manned by an uncle laid with chinese brushes and a roll of writing paper, well he told us to write our names even though we were not skilled in calligraphy, so we kinda spoiled the other writings on the paper lol~

exited the hall from the other side and we ended up seeing a really long dragon made of recycled bottles!! yeah we snapped some photos again and off we were to..

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Danshui 淡水

our last destination in taipei!! the first place we visited here was a gallery where they displayed all the freaky things around the world, the admission price was reasonable given that the place itself wasn't very big. before we went in though, we played around with a lizard free for anyone to touch as long as you dared to, aifen asked around if any of us dared to touch it, well i suppose i was quite bored so i went on ahead and initiated the touch, nothing much really. after everyone had their go at it, i went back and lifted the lizard off the platform from its tail and dropped it down, so much for entertaining myself eh?

we left the gallery and i bought a really tall ice cream, much taller than the one we had back then in day 3, had a hard time with it cos' everybody just took a bite and it was dripping like nobody's business. nick had another go at catching toys but failed so we proceeded to have some local delicacies for lunch.

went to the seaside walkway behind the main street we were at after lunch, the gals proposed taking a neoprint since it was a rare opportunity for them to do so back home, and perhaps it would serve as another form of remembering our trip here. disfiguring and vandalizing might be part of a woman's forte, after all they did a pretty gud job on our first print.

we walked down and found something interesting; a booth equipped with air guns and crap loads of ballons, all waiting for you to shoot at them and accumulate points in exchange for toys and even guns, well toy guns that is. the guys had their first try at it and we had enough points for a white seal, chosen by xiang jun~

ren wei had plans to bring us to a harbor; which i been to previously, nothing much there just some scenery and sea breeze, but was abandoned partly due to my blunder of an earlier flight time and the addiction to the air gun game lol. everyone played during the second round and the gals surprisingly fared better than the guys, with the exception of ren wei cos' he had a perfect score!! actually the guys were trying to hit the ballons on a spinning wheel that's why we underperformed but hey, xiang jun exchanged all our hardwork and the white seal for a big green frog~

aifen and xiang jun wanted one last round of neoprint before leaving, it was pretty much uncalled for since the first one was badly disfigured and vandalized, but i thought maybe the second one might be a little more normal and boy was i so wrong!! it was as bad as the first one but come to think about it, when we look back on this in the future, we should see a side of us that has left us already; think young, wild and childish lol~

ren wei drove us to the airport, snapped some photos with him and as a group, finally accomplished my mission of buying books for my mom and yeah, we bid a final farewell to him before we walked through the departure gate.

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took me very long to get this post up, details need time yeah? take care and peace people~