I watched HP 5 on Wednesday with Bee and KC. I think it's the most exciting HP movie so far. Though I couldn't help noticing that they'd changed a few details in the story, like the dementor attack in the opening scene being in the tunnel instead of on the streets like in the story...but overall I'm quite satisfied. The fifth book was quite a confusing read, and the movie just cut out most of the confusing parts...which is the smart thing to do. People might bother to ponder over confusing sub-plots after reading, but most people straightaway get irritated and bored when the events in a movie are confusing.

But still, there were certain disappointments, all of which had to do with Sirius Black's untimely (in my opinion) death. I thought the movie failed to do justice to the death of my favourite character. The debate about which spell it was that had actually killed him (Rowling did not actually say which spell in the book; the movie used Avada Kedavra, others argue it should have been a Stunning spell) aside, the death happened simply too fast. In the book, it'd happened in slow motion and I thought that would have been the best way to do justice to the death. And I felt that in the movie, the scene was over so quickly that all the emotional buildup in the touching scenes with Harry and Sirius in front were all kind of wasted. That death scene could have been much more of a tear jerker than it turned out.

I'd also been looking forward to the scene at the end of the book when, after hearing about Sirius's death, ex-headmaster and ancestor of the Black family Phineas Nigellus's portrait walked from portrait to portrait in the Black house, calling for Sirius. That would have been a really effectively heartbreaking scene, I thought. But then again they never established in the movie that Phineas was related to Sirius.

I thought Tonks looked little older than Harry, but I'll forgive that as they got a very pretty actress to act as her (my 2nd favourite character).

Oh, and I'm still upset about them casting an actress I like for the offensive murderer. Hahaha.

Disappointments aside, the rest of the movie was done beautifully and the effects were mind-blowing. Though I would expect nothing less from a blockbuster of this magnitude. The Dementors' new look is scarier, but less accurate as they didn't wear hoods and actually looked more like Inferi to me cos of their skeletal appearance.

All in all, certainly a movie worth watching if you didn't expect a strict book-to-movie conversion.

And here it is, finally, the long-awaited, more-than-a-month-late blog post about my wonderful Taipei trip! Sorry I've delayed it for so long. I was working for a month after coming back and only quit last week. And then I was busy catching up with Slacking and wanted to wait until I was in the blogging mood to give the post the vim and vigour it deserves.

Anyway. Being a long-winded person who feels inclined to include every minor detail I can remember about what happened, it would be a very long and tiresome blog post if I don't separate it. So I cut it into 5 separate blog posts (excluding this one) for easier reading.

There are over 80 pictures in all, so erm please go to some other blog or website while they load. It'll be worth waiting for, though, I promise! So please remember to come back. And while you're at it, you can grab some cookies or whatever cos I am really very long-winded. Don't even think of speed-reading or you'll miss some exciting parts! Haha.

Just scroll down to read the first post. I've posted it in such a way that the last post is below instead of on top.

Thank you for your patience, my dear readers. Without further ado, here it is.

Labels: I-Gulliver

Day 1 - 30 May 2007

So begins the adventures of 3 girls who embarked on an exciting trip to Taipei, the capital of Taiwan. The country where many, many celebrities on the chinese entertainment industry call home. A place where you can shop till you drop, fill your stomach with delicious (if slightly unhealthy) eats and expect to see an idol or two while you're at it.

It all started, of course, at the airport. 3 very excited girls met at Changi Terminal 1 (or 2? I forget. Please enlighten me on this, my companions. In private. Do not correct me on my tagboard!), baggage in tow. The size comparison of our baggage was the first surprise I encountered (and I hadn't even left the country!). As we didn't take pictures of something so mundane as baggage, please excuse my flimsy illustration:



On the left we have a regular travel bag on wheels, which belongs to yours truly. In the middle we have a slightly bigger luggage belonging to Flora. And on the right we have a gigantic bright red hunk of a baggage who hails Jia Ying as its owner. Naturally, we laughed at the size of Jy's luggage. But in the end, its size came in very useful in storing our sizeable amount of shopping.



The 3 of us happily awaiting our turn to board the plane.



Me and JY with our oh-so-cool shades which we'd specially gone out to purchase at Far East prior to the trip.

Us on the plane during the four-hour trip to Taipei.



And, of course, what plane ride is complete without a customary snapshot of the mid-air view?



At about 5 pm (there is no time difference between Singapore and Taipei), we arrived at the Taipei Taoyuan International Airport.



They have travellators too!

After passing customs and collecting our luggage, we went to take a chartered bus to our hotel, Kilin Hotel.



Jy found out about this airport transfer bus service through a travel guide. It's cheaper than riding a taxi there...only about 7 or 8 bucks per ticket (though they charge a bit more for the trip from hotel to airport for some reason).





The bus is comfortable, too! Like those deluxe coaches people take to Malaysia. There's a TV on board.



Again, the obligatory scenery snapshot. Not bad, eh? The Taoyuan airport is very out of the way from the city, which explains the lush greenery.

It took us about 1 hour plus to get to the hotel from the airport. Our hotel was a 15-minute walk from Ximending, the heart of Taipei.

We checked into our hotel, and received the key (which was attached to a long and big keychain thingy) to a very auspicious room number:



Being scaredy cats, we decided to take the necessary precautions (knock on the door, say you're sorry, etc.) in case there was "anyone" living inside.

After dumping our stuff, we could hardly contain our excitement and headed straight for the place which we'd heard so much about - Ximending. It's like Orchard Road, you know? Pinnacle of fashion, shopping and idol-spotting. We asked for directions a few times, and the Taiwanese we met were very friendly and knowledgeable about their way around. They would give very specific directions like "cross 3 road junctions, turn left and there you are" (in chinese, of course).

We reached the place after about half an hour of wandering around. And we weren't disappointed. There was a bustling atmosphere befitting that of the heart of a busy city. Even at about 8 pm on a weekday, there was a fair amount of people still walking around.



Ximending at last! Jy looks pleased as punch.

We explored the place (which is quite big, with many twists and turns leading to other side roads) for a bit, then answered the repeated anguished calls of our famished stomachs. We passed by this curry restaurant, and decided that we would have our very first meal in Taipei there.



Doesn't it look inviting and promising?

We leafed through the menu (which was filled with a large variety of interesting curry dishes), made our order and waited hungrily for the food to arrive.





And my, was it worth waiting for. Just look at the picture, and imagine how it must have tasted. Yup, that's exactly how good it was. The fluffy yellow thing was an omelette with rice underneath it. The floating bits were chicken slices buried in a sea of yummy curry. The curry there was reminiscent of Japanese curry, slightly salty but delicious nonetheless. The one shown in the picture was either mine or Jy's order, I can't remember. Flora was less lucky with her choice; she wound up with some spaghetti thingy which was not nice.

The set meal came with milk tea. Jy took a sip, and exclaimed that the milk tea is very special! We all tried it, and echoed our approval. They added some special ingredient which made it more fragrant. Over the next few days, we found that the milk tea almost everywhere we went in Taipei tasted like this. We became fans of their milk tea, haha.

As you can guess, the curry meal was very very filling and only cost us about 10 SGD per person. That was the most expensive meal we had in Taipei. Budget travellers, us. After paying the bill, we set out again to continue exploring Ximending.







Jy took a picture with this cute lion outside one of the shops. I bet you wouldn't have guessed that it's actually an advertisement for a doughnut shop! The lion's "mane" is a doughnut.

We went into quite a few apparel shops, and spent a lot of time in a department store -_- which had...erm...a surprisingly not-bad collection of clothes. Think slightly above This Fashion standard.

We shopped until all the shops started to close at around 11. Yes, the shops closed at 11 on a weeknight! Orchard road shops close at 9-10, or at the latest, 10.30. The nightlife there is so much better.

And then it was back to the hotel!



Our hotel was actually not bad for a budget hotel. It had a clean toilet, a well-lit bedroom with a double bed plus a single bed (it was a triple suite), two antique-looking chairs with a round table in between, a dressing table and a small television.

The television was the object of our affections. Why? Because it had like 99 channels, including local and cable channels. Heaven for those who love watching taiwan variety shows and dramas! There would always be some exciting talk show or variety show (which we would only be able to watch on Youtube back in Singapore) running everytime we switched it on. Not to mention I caught Kangxi Lai Le (my favourite mandarin talk show) quite a few times! So happy.

We watched tv and talked until about 1-2 am, then went to sleep, happy and full of anticipation for whatever new and interesting sights awaited us the next day.

Labels: I-Gulliver

Day 2 - 31 May

We rose after 8 hours of sleep, at about 9 or 10 am. I felt quite refreshed (usually I need 10 hours)...I suppose it was due to the purposeful feeling of knowing that we had a full day of exploring in a foreign country ahead. It was also a nice change to wake up late while on a holiday. My parents would always wake us up at some unearthly hour to "make full use of the day". Surprisingly, I'd slept quite well the previous night, considering that I usually can't sleep properly on the first night in a strange bed.

After washing up and making ourselves look prettier (hair-waxing on me and Jy's part, make-up on Flora's part) We decided to try the hotel's free buffet breakfast.



It sucked. The food looked really oily and wasn't very nice. The selection was limited as well. But I suppose you pay for what you get...and I'm already very satisfied with the hotel room. What more can one expect, eh?

So we just had enough to fill our stomachs, and began our adventure for the day!



This is an example of how Taipei's streets look like...kinda old and dirty, I know...but it's not without its charms. Sometimes a spanking new and interestingly-themed shop would pop up in between these old shops, and we'd smile at the quaint-ness of it all.



We pass by this shop almost everyday. I laughed and said it sounds vulgar, so Jy took a picture of it. We meant to try their chicken cutlet sometime...but never got round to it. Oh well, next time perhaps!



We went to Longshan Temple MRT station. Our hotel is almost equidistant from this MRT station and Ximen mrt station (which is where Ximending is), but Longshan is nearer. The above picture was taken outside Longshan Temple mrt station. On the far right side is the entrance to the station. I don't know if you can make it out since the picture is quite small...but it's shaped like a temple. So cute right! And behind the entrance is the temple itself.



Yes, it's the famous Longshan Si. Many celebrities and their mothers have been here. We thought we'd just come by and pray for a bit to ensure that we have a safe stay in Taipei.



There was a large waterfall outside the temple. I suppose they felt inclined to make one of a size befitting its fame. Haha.

After a quick prayer, we left Longshan Si and got onto the MRT.



As you can see in the background, their concept for the trains is to maximise capacity. Fewer seats, more standing space. Interesting.

We took the train to Chiang-Kai-Sek Memorial Hall or 中正纪念堂, one of Taipei's tourist attractions. The Hall was located in this park-like place which has many buildings that all look like they could be memorial halls. We went in and out of the "park" a few times to check the map because we didn't know which one was the correct hall. It was quite a hot day too.

O which one could it be?

While walking around, we noticed that there was a huge crowd of people assembled in the middle of the "park" (they were all below the blue-and-yellow umbrellas on the right of the first picture above). They looked like they were performing some suspicious ritual. We made some guesses as to what they could be doing, but I guess we will never know.

In the end we found out that it was closed for renovations or something. Or maybe we just identified the wrong hall. Oh well. All that traipsing around the park in the heat for nothing. Onwards!

We walked back to the train station, and purchased the standard tickets required. Their normal standard ticket is like ours, just a simple thin card with some picture on top. But now they're phasing this ticket out, and replacing it with a new blue coin ticket. We all found it really cute and proceeded to act like 大惊小怪 crazy tourists by taking a picture with our tickets!

The next stop was Taipei 101, a very very tall skyscraper (Jy said it is now the tallest in the world, after the Twin Towers collapsed) built mainly for sightseeing. We took a shuttle bus there from the mrt station. You have to pay to get into Taipei 101, and it wasn't cheap (can't remember how much, I think more than 10 SGD), so we just stood outside and took photographs. The slightly stupid and tourist-trappy thing about it is that you pay the normal price if you want to go to like the 80-something storey, but if you want to go higher than that to the 90th storey, you have to pay more -_-.

There was a mall beside it called the Taipei 101 Mall.

Jy and Flora conquer Taipei 101. We took ages positioning this shot.

When we were done with the photo-taking, we traipsed over to a shopping centre called New York, New York (纽约 纽约). It's quite famous in Taipei also, I think. I've heard it mentioned many times by Taiwanese celebrities.

We found the shopping centres in Taiwan quite boring...all the ones we went (we went to about 3 or 4) were like Takashimaya or Paragon. All expensive brands and very few people. We had lunch at a food-court-like place in the basement. I had a crepe...wasn't bad. Hard to eat without making a mess, though. Jy and Flora weren't hungry, so they just bought drinks. Jy went to a convenience store and bought the yoghurt drink which is currently endorsed by Ella from S.H.E.

She looks very ugly on the bottlecap. She looked like this in the TV advertisement too. Hai, how sad.

After lunch, we made our way to one of the branches of a popular karaoke chain in Taiwan called Holiday KTV. We had quite a hard time finding it as the website had stated it to be near Tonghua Street Night Market, and we couldn't find that night market.

The streets in Taipei are busy with scooters, motorbikes and cars. There are many more motorbikes and scooters than cars, though. And all the vehicles don't really give two hoots about traffic rules. They move as and when they like, and they drive anywhere they like. The motorbikes and scooters can even ride inside the night markets! We got ourselves in danger a few times because we expected the vehicles to give way to us. But over there, it's the other way round.

In the end we discovered that it wasn't on Tonghua Street; it was on some other street -_- haha. By the time we'd reached the KTV, it was already about 4 pm. We entered the building (yes, it was a building all by itself!) and the staff at the counter began to explain the charges and everything to us. For a little over 20 SGD per person, we get 4 hours of singing and a choice of either a curry rice meal or 3 snacks. We chose the 3 snacks as we planned to have dinner at the night market later on. The staff requested for our contact number (even though we told him it'd be an overseas number) and one of our passports. Pretty tight measures for a ktv, don't you think?

But the KTV there was fantastic, so we didn't mind one bit. Why did we love it? Let me count the ways:

1. HUGE room (I think can sit 8 people inside)

2. Nice and big flat-screen tv

3. Remote control for air-con temperature is included inside the room

4. Touch-screen system for song selection!!!

There were catalogs listing all the songs they have in the system, and you can either refer to the catalog and key in the correct number of the song you want into the touch screen, or you can simply search via the touch screen.

5. Exciting remote control with buttons like "applause", "Donald Duck" (it will make your voice sound like Donald Duck's), "ghost mansion" (this gives your voice a weird lingering echo), etc...

They served us chicken nuggets, some special-flavour chicken wings (can't rmb what flavour it was) and...something else which I can't remember as well. Omg my memory is seriously failing. The food was nice! And they even served us a jug of our favourite milk tea! Yum yum.

We were very happy and high customers.

4 joyful hours later (they automatically switch off the system when time's up. that's the only bad thing), we got out of the ktv and marched over to Tonghua St. Night Market.

Taipei's night markets are known for their interesting and yummy food as well as the affordable clothing, trinkets and souvenirs on sale. One of the most famous night market foods is the oyster omelette.

For only 1 dollar plus SGD, you can get this delicious omelette filled with fresh oysters. (It tastes better than it looks, says JY) They have various other fillings like octopus, crabmeat and so on.

We had a grand time shopping around the night market. I bagged a white Puma jacket and a black Puma top for SGD 70. They were having a 40% off sale. Happy!

At about 11 pm, we decided to take a cab back to the hotel. That's when we discovered that the cars in Taipei are all left-hand drives! Haha, as you can see, our trip was full of surprises at every corner.

Back at the hotel, we showered, washed up and watched more of our favourite television shows, then fell asleep talking about everything under the sun.

Labels: I-Gulliver

Day 3 - 1 June

Having learnt a lesson about our hotel's free buffet breakfast, we decided to go out for breakfast this time. Taipei is full of breakfast shops or 早餐店, which sell a good selection of sandwiches, omelettes, noodles, porridge, soya bean curd/drinks and other breakfasty fare. We selected a breakfast shop near our hotel.



They sold hamburgers, toast and noodles. I had the noodles, JY had a chicken hamburger (called ken de ji...kentucky. get it?) and Flora had toast.





The set meal cost less than 2 dollars, and it came with our favourite drink.



It was a satisfying breakfast, cheap and good haha. We then hopped onto our favourite public transport to go to Wu Fen Pu. I can safely say that we now know the Taipei MRT routes very well cos we used it so many times everyday while we were there. Hahaha.



Wu Fen Pu is a place with many wholesale retail shops selling clothes, bags and some accessories. It looks exactly like Bugis Village in there, except less hot. But maybe cos it was a rainy day that day.

The selection of apparel is wide, the clothes look good, and the prices are low and (usually) bargain-able. The only downside is that you cannot try the clothes on. We had a fun time shopping in there. Jy got rather pek cek though cos they only had free-size for most of the ladies' cut t-shirts. Which among us only Flora can fit into.

I decided to take a risk and bought a pair of 3/4 jeans. Amazingly, it fit perfectly when I tried it on back at the hotel room. Lucky me!

Before leaving Wu Fen Pu, we spotted a small cart selling Xiao Long Baos and decided to see if they tasted any different in Taiwan. They were just as nice, but cheaper. Wahaha. Which reminds me. Next time I go, I shall visit Ding Tai Fung.

Our next destination was Ximending. We decided to walk around there and have a light dinner. We saw this curious teahouse, and couldn't resist its charms.



The teahouse had swings for seats, and Egyptian motifs on the walls.





After having our dinner and taking another quick look around Ximending, we made our way to the Miramar Entertainment Park, another of Taipei's attractions. Our target? This huge ferris wheel:



I love the ferris wheel. The lights on it are really very beautiful. They change color! If you find this ferris wheel familiar, it's because some idol dramas have used it as a backdrop. I wonder if our ferris wheel will be nicer?

Anyway, we paid the very cheap entrance fee (like 5 SGD?) and got into one of the many air-conditioned cabins on the wheel.



Inside the cabin

I was excited until the point when our cabin started lifting itself towards the top. Then the acrophobia kicked in. Haha.







Luckily the view wasn't anything to write home about, so I didn't miss out on a lot while I was busy feeling nervous and wondering when we would start descending.



Five stars for the ferris wheel! I officially name it my favourite attraction for its prettiness and cheap-ness.

Besides the ferris wheel, the Miramar Entertainment Park had some arcade games like the basketball-shooting game (which we had a whale of a time playing). You could even buy popcorn. I think there was a theatre there as well. The ferris wheel and all that was on the top floor, and the lower floors were shopping centres.

There was a posh toilet befitting a tourist destination.



A special room for make-up beside the washing-up area.



Their taps, like those in the VivoCity toilets, also work via sensors located on top of each tap. However unlike those in VivoCity, these had stickers on top of every tap telling you that the sensor is there. If VivoCity's taps had such stickers, I wouldn't have hit my hand on one of them and cried out in pain and embarrassment. Hahaha.

Upon exiting Miramar, we discovered that there was actually a shuttle bus to and from the nearest MRT station. Earlier, we'd panicked when we couldn't find the place on the map outside the MRT station and ended up taking a cab there. No wonder the cab driver seemed hesitant when we told him our destination and asked him how far it was! Haha.

So we took the shuttle bus back to the MRT station, which was very near the most famous night market in Taipei, Shihlin Night Market. It was very crowded and to our slight disappointment, they only sold food. There were only a few shops selling other things located at the extreme end. It also looked different in that the whole place seemed to be a wet market by day, while other night markets we went to were located along streets.

The food was impressive though. We bought an XXL Chicken Cutlet from the stall with the longest queue, and to this day I still miss the taste. I can't really describe it...it's slightly salty, pepperish and just absolutely delicious. And huge.



Just look at the size of that!

A steal at only 2 SGD, though beware, it's all bones at the bottom.

We also tried another delicacy, the 大饼包小饼. Erm...I'm not sure how to translate it into English...it's kinda like small-biscuit-in-a-big-biscuit. Hahaha.





It's actually made by smashing a curry-puff-like shell containing the desired filling, and wrapping the crushed bits in a popiah-like skin. Quite nice. They have various fillings like peanut, taro, and so on. 4 pieces for about 5 SGD.



Naturally, the stalls there are all very competitive. We were ushered into this stall selling shaved ice. They even had an air-conditioned area for customers seeking reprieve from the humidity. Their shaved ice was marvellous! Its texture was like ice cream, and they added many delicious fruits to make it the perfect dessert for anyone with a sweet tooth.





After we'd finished abusing our stomachs with all kinds of oily and unhealthy food, we headed back to the hotel to relax and unwind from the long but fruitful day.

Labels: I-Gulliver