Our new toy

I had wanted to buy this long time ago.
Lar Lar was anti this for a long time.
In the end he bought it almost one month ahead of me!

Yes it's the much raved about iphone. Although he got it way before me, he didn't use it till I got mine as he had problems transferring over the contacts. Nonetheless, it is a road of no return for us as we simply can't get our hands off it as we just can't get enough of it :P We will discuss about the applications and trying to beat each other's scores in games. Apple is indeed a genius to come up with such a phone! If I lag behind in my updates in the blog, you will know the reason now.

CNY

Chinese New Year has always been a festive season that I look forward to every year, besides Christmas. Other than receiving ang baos, it is the time of the year where families and friends get together and catch up. However, this year is special as I am now the giving end! This is our first year giving out ang baos and this being our first year, we did receive some ang baos too. It is a strange feeling, as I felt that I am now a truly grown up adult. My nieces and nephews queued up patiently for my ang baos and all the new year greetings came flowing smoothly out from their mouths. They were truly well trained and prepared for it!

Valentine's Day happened to fall on the first day of CNY, so it kinda dampened the spirit of Valentine's Day. Nonetheless, we had some time in the afternoon and we caught the show 'Valentine's Day'. It was a heartwarming show and was especially meaningful to watch on this special day. But this year, I did not receive any flowers :'( Does this always happen after marriage??

After the show, we settled our dinner at Kenny Roger's as not many places were open for business on the first day of CNY.

Me & my darling bao bei



The four pretty flowers in the Tai family :)

Day 5: TPE - SIN

On our last day, we (or rather I) decided to sleep in as I switched off the alarm the first thing it rang in the morning. We woke up at 11am, just in time to pack up and check out by 12 noon. As the transport to the airport would only come at 1pm, we decided to have a quick lunch at Ximending. Certainly before departing, we took pictures at the hotel entrance.

After days of taking street food, the Asian in me longed for rice. So after roaming around, we settled in a Japanese restaurant, eating my favourite curry katsu, yummy.....

For someone who doesn't put Taipei high as a choice holiday destination, sometimes I wonder why I decided to go there. I guess as a short shopping & dining destination, this makes it an ideal choice. Shopping and food is great and cheap, coupled with the cool weather, I certainly didn't regret coming here. Furthermore, great scenery and nature is not far away from Taipei city for nature lovers like me. Personally, I like Jiu Fen and Yang Ming Shan. Both are away from the hustle and bustle of the city and one can enjoy the serenity and scenery.

But I guess it will be a long while before we would come here again as to Lar Lar it's too hectic a trip for him! To him, beach resorts would still be his all time favourite destinations! This being the case, perhaps we can consider Maldives this October :P Deal?

Day 4: Yang Ming Shan, Taipei 101 & Wu Fen Pu

This being our second last day in Taipei, we already felt beaten, after days of walking and walking AND walking. As if that wasn't bad enough, we chose to go to Yang Ming Shan since the weather was pretty good. We walked to the main road near to Ximending for a bus to the foothills of Yang Ming Shan, without realising that the frequency of the bus was on an hourly basis after 10am. So we waited more than 30 minutes out in the open, weathering the strong and cold winds.

It was a relief that the bus finally came and it took us about one hour to reach Yang Ming Shan. We then took another shuttle bus within Yang Ming Shan to Xiao You Keng. It was one of the more popular routes and when we were there, we spotted the spouts of sulphur smoke emitting from amongst the rocks. I believed another characteristic of this place would be the steep flight of stairs, that seemed to be never ending.

Halfway through, my ears were hurting, so were my knees and ankles. I nearly wanted to give up. But Lar Lar used reverse psychology and said "It's so unlike you to give up halfway!" So ahead I went and brought my tired body up to the top of Qi Xing Feng! I was glad that I didn't give up halfway as it definitely felt good to reach the top after overcoming all obstacles.

All in all, it took about two hours to complete the route. And after the long walk, we made our way to the next 'must-go' destination which was Taipei 101 and did the usual touristy stuff. By evening time, the cloudy sky musked much of the sights from the vantage point.

We then took the cab, which the locals named them as Xiao Huang, to Wu Fen Pu. It turned out to be another shopping haven but I actually left empty handed! Nonetheless, it was an experience and definitely an eye opener to see so many shopping destinations and late night markets. It definitely lives up to its name of a city that never sleeps!

Day 3: Yeh Liu, Jiu Fen and Keelung Miao Kou Night Market

We were greeted with a sunny weather on Day 3 of our trip, which brought us a big smile to our faces. We took a slow walk from our hotel to the Taipei Intercity Bus Terminal to board a Kuo Kuang bus to Yeh Liu. After slightly more than an hour, we reached Yeh Liu. We headed straight to the Yeh Liu GeoPark, where the scenery was awesome.

It was a shame that the section of Queen's Head was under renovation and we only managed to take a picture with it at the common display area.

After being out in the sunny weather, the cooling 'Dan Zhu Shui' was a great thirst quencher.

We took the Keelung bus back to Keelung, before transiting for another bus to Jiu Fen. It was an old quaint gold mining town. Blessed with good weather, we got a good and clear aerial view.

At night, we stopped by the Keelung Miaokou Night Market for more food. Glad that it wasn't as crowded compared to the Shih Lin Night Market.

Taipei Day 2: Beitou, Danshui and Shi Lin Night Market

I had initially planned for a trip up to Yang Ming Shan on Day two but due to weather conditions, we gave it a miss and decided to head out to Beitou for our skinny dips instead. We took the train to Xin Beitou station, which was about 30-40 minutes journey from Taipei Main Station. Over there, it was like a congregation of hotspring hotels, offering day stays as well as overnight stays.

We decided on this hotspring hotel, which looked quite high-class and decent.

The interior of the hotel room, which looked so much better than the one we were staying at East Dragon Hotel. But we had a change of mind after discovering trails of ants at the side table!

After Beitou, we headed to Danshui, which was a few stations away from Beitou. It was a flurry of activities there too, with rows of shops selling an array of food, toys and sourvenirs. We didn't realise that evening was approaching but luckily we got the last ferry to Yurenmato.

At night, we braced ourselves to the Shi Lin Night Market, half expecting the crowd to get crazy as it was on a Sunday night. Indeed, it was so crowded that it felt more like the crowd was pushing me than me walking on my own! Nonetheless, for the food and shopping, we went along with the crowd. As the saying goes, if you can't beat them, you join them!

Taipei Day 1: SIN - TPE

We started our day extremely early (at least to me) and we reached the airport by 8.30am for check-in. Excitement probably got over me as I didn't manage to catch much sleep the night before. We had our breakfast at Delifrance after we checked in and off we went to catch our plane.

After 4.5 hours of plane ride, we arrived at Chiang Kai Sek Airport. Transport had been arranged beforehand so we didn't take much effort to travel from the airport to our hotel. The driver motioned us to head straight to the pick-up point. Once we stepped out, slight drizzle and cold winds greeted us. The weather reminded me of Seoul. So did the buildings. It was a complete grey and beige, which looked quite depressing for me. It didn't help that it was a complete chaos as everyone was trying to board their transport with loads of luggage and the drizzle meant tt everyone was trapped in the sheltered area too.

After a long while, we caught sight of our driver and he whisked us to the car. Due to the weather and traffic conditions, it took us about an hour to reach our hotel, East Dragon Hotel, at Ximending. We wasted no time and headed out straight to Ximending for shopping and food despite the drizzle.

We tried the famous Ah Zong Mian Xian. It was piping hot and it felt good especially in the cold weather.

The streets of Ximending.

Home sweet home

We just got back to Singapore a few hours ago and we are both exhausted. We have just finished our laundry and he's fast asleep beside me. The bug has gone to him and it has dampened his spirits in Taipei. Especially with the amount of walking we do everyday. That definitely doesn't help in his recovery much. Poor Lar Lar still has to go back to work tomorrow.

Just before our shower, I asked him how did he find our trip and he only had one word for me, that was 'hectic'. I guess we did too much shopping and walking, which to him was 'too packed' a programme. I must also admit that it took a toll on me too as I came back with aching back and legs. Maybe shopping trips are really not our cup of tea and beach resorts are still our top destinations. Nonetheless, we spent a great time together and I will update more on our trip together with the pictures. Watch out for this space :)

The persistent bug

On the last day of our Genting trip, I caught the flu bug. Fortunately I recovered the next day but unintentionally I passed it to Lar Lar. So he was kinda sick the whole week after we were back. Just as he is recovering, now it is my turn!

Yesterday I went out with a sore throat with Von for our 'much-missed' yearly affair, which is to queue up for Lim Chee Guan ba kwa. Out in the open and under the heat for two hours, it took a toll on my already weakened immune system. It didn't help that I was in the freezing cold kbox room for another 3 hours. With the mixture of two extreme temperature, I ended up a rudolf, with a coarse and sexy voice.

It took me a long time to get to sleep last night. Lar Lar had to get up twice to take medication for me so that I could get some beauty sleep. I hope I can recover soon and be all ready for my Taipei trip this Saturday!

Jackpot!

The reason for the title is our trip to Genting Highlands, but sad to say we didn't hit the jackpot at all! Nonetheless, we had quite a fun time there, with a different experience for me as it was his agency trip. First time with his new colleagues and I am glad to say that they are a bunch of nice and fun-loving people. It is nice to be surrounded by truly good colleagues at work and I feel happy for Lar Lar.

It is also our first time together to Genting Highlands. And my first time there missing the theme park. I recalled my younger days at Genting and the theme park was always something I look forward to. But now, it is off to the casino we go! We tried the horse racing, Tai-Sai (Big/Small) and roulette. After a few rounds of games, I can totally understand how people can stay up all night to gamble. It can get pretty addictive and it is the moment after you placed your bets and before the results are out that makes one miss a heart beat. But for us, it is purely out of fun and experience and for that, we donated a few hundred dollars to the casino.

Some of the few pictures that we took while shopping around. I must say that shopping is disappointing, even when we travelled down to Kuala Lumpur. So I came back feeling so unaccomplished. Hopefully, will come back with more after my Taipei trip!