Sunday, October 04, 2009

WOW! I've neglected this blog for more than 6 months. Lol.. that's the longest hiatus this blog had ever went. I've gotten busy (and lazy) with my life. It was a busy year, bro's wedding, exams, graduation trips etc, soooooo many events but too bad i failed to blog it down. Hah. I'm kinda lazy to go into details abt them now, guess i'll just summarize.

The exam period this year was as usual, stressful, tight schedules. Perhaps it's cos i got to study this semester together with ber that i feel much more relaxed as compared to the previous years. Those torturous periods whereby i got so stressed, panicked and every single morning i woke up i could only stared at those notes. Having a companion to study with you during exams definitely felt different. But naturally the reduce in stress causes a drop in my results as well lol.

One week after exams ended, i went Bangkok and Guangzhou with ber and his family. Travelled, shopped, ate and experienced a hell lot of things. Had been trying to find a job since then but to no avail. The 'finding job' stage is terrible especially when you hasn't received your results yet. I didn't receive a call at all every single day, it's pretty demoralising. I guess the current economy helps alot.

Gotten my results at the start of September, and calls FINALLY started coming in. I gotten 2nd lower honors. I'm not sure is that gd or bad, i think i'm pretty ignorant when it comes to the whole Uni grading system LOL. I failed one module though this year, sigh. It's a pretty important module i guess, Financial Management. I knew i'd flunked this while sitting for the paper.

I thought i was prepared for it, did all the tutorials, read through all the notes and an additional textbook i bought for the subject. But I just sat there, looked at the paper and didn't know how to answer all the questions except one essay question. Till now i'm still pretty amazed how i managed to just flunk by 3 marks. I'm quite disappointed as my final year results kinda 'pull down' my 1st and 2nd year grades in which i did pretty well.

Gotten a call few days ago and i managed to get a job at Ernst & Young. I'm pretty excited and dreadful about it lol. Working at big4, meeting new friends etc. But it's a new phase of life i'm entering. Life in big4 is certainly gonna be stressful, i definitely won't have as much free time i has as of now. Sian, but i guessed i've slacked enough. I'm kinda broke now so i seriously need to get paid! I'm starting work on 12th Oct, so for now.... i just wanna enjoy my last week before hell begins.

So i guessed for my 2009 resolutions, i managed to fulfil:

1. Get a job.
:)

2. Go overseas again!
I'm supposed to go HK with ber in November.. but work comes as the first priority, so i guess i've to give it a miss :(

3. Make my closet explode.
How can i still be clothes-deprived after going Bangkok?

4. ............
It's our 5th year anniversary tml hoho!

Some pics from the past 6 months:


One of our most hanged out place in Bangkok.


My faveee ice-cream in BKK.


Our WORST supper.


One of the best desserts there: Mango with glutinous rice


The Swensen ice-cream there is incomparable.


What we bought at the end of the trip. Used up all our $$$


Before departure.


Our favorite meal in Guangzhou: 春鸡. IT'S @#!@# GOOD!


The best drink in the world: 西瓜爽. The red portion is watermelon freeze mixed with aloe vera, the green part is a very soft and Q jelly.


I didn't managed to get the pic of the best Chee Cheong Fun there, so i guess this will do lol.


One of the best Dim Sums I've had.


The best steak, damn tender and together with the sauce it's perfect!


Night view from the hotel.
Ahhhhhhhhhh! I hoped i'd be able to go back there someday :( Despite the packed schedules in the future. Sigh. Nevertheless it was fun, and travelling sure is addictive lol. But it's also time to lose some pounds off my body. I gained a whole lot of weight lately. I also noticed that ever since internet explorer had been updated, the codings of the blog seems to be affected. Guess I'll get back to learning more xhtml. I'll leave the Mooncake Festival Celebration I had yesterday till next time :)

She added at 3:35 PM

Monday, February 16, 2009

I'm back to complete my Taiwan trip post. Sigh, it's saddening everytime i came to visit this blog and chanced upon those pics. I'M BACK IN SINGAPORE! TAIWAN I MISS YOU SO MUCH! The days there were so laxing and enjoyable. I miss the food there. Haiz. 2 weeks had passed yet.... :( (The first part of this post was done 2 weeks after my trip so.... lol)

Our 4th day at taiwan, this is the day we kept eating non-stop that even i couldn't take it anymore. My stomach was so bloated and i'm on the verge of puking when i saw food. You shall know why soon. Woke up early in the morning to have our buffet breakfast in the hotel. At that time we had no idea that the first place we're going on that day is Sen Ken Tofu Street, where we'll be eating again -_-

Actually throughout the trip we don't really like our tour guide very much. He didn't tell us clearly where we're going nor is there any explicit info about the places/food. I foresee alot of complaints coming in this post lol. Sen Ken Tofu Street, as the name depicts, is famous for their 臭豆腐. Let's see, the first time i actually get to try 臭豆腐 was during our first night market at 台中. It was a very bad experience. It stinks and the whole tofu is soggy cos of the sauce. So it turned out kind of gross.

Funny thing is, everyone of us were so bloated after our buffet breakfast so we didn't really get to eat much at Sen Ken. Sad, only if the tour guide told us beforehand. That idiot. We didn't try the 臭豆腐 there too XD


This is Sen Keng Tofu Street. As you see it's a tiny street that sells alot of food. The day we first bought something to bring back SG.


A random stall we stopped by for their.... 大肠 and 肉粽! OMG THEIR 大肠 IS DAMN NICE! Sigh..


香肠 and the one at the center is wild boar kebab with black pepper sauce. Aww. The food is v nice here. If it ain't cos of the tour guide who didn't tell us that we'd be going to somewhere we can eat, we would haf eat a lot more here -_-
After this we proceed to Chiufen... to eat again. It's situated on a mountain (yes which means bumpy ride again). We didn't take much pics here cos it's superrrrrrr crowded. Full of tourists. The place is famous for their Taro & Sweet Potato Ball. They put these balls into a bowl of grass jelly (in its liquid state before it hardens into jelly). Quite a nice dessert. Another good food we ate there is their ice-cream peanut popiah lol. I forgot what isit called so let's just name it like this. Popiah skin but inside is ice-cream with bits of peanuts. DAMN NICE I TELL U! I intend to bring that back to SG and sell lol.


This looks like our normal Yong Tau Fu in SG. One thing i misses when i went Taiwan is fishball. Taiwan's fishball isn't spongy or Q at all. It's totally flour and a little chewy kind. Obviously, SG's fishball taste better XD
Our next stop is Yehliu Geopark. We came here to see rocks, seacliffs etc lol. I forgot what are these called, been so long since i last came in touch with these terms. I'm pure geog student k. Lol. Well.. this place is well-known for their queen-head rock. That's all we know abt that place at tat time. Our beloved tour guide didn't tell us that there's actually a rock that shaped like cinderella's shoe as well -_- So we kinda missed it. Sigh.


Yehliu Geopark. First thing when we reached there is to visit the toilet lol. Oh god, their toilet is full of insects. Imagine the shock i had when i spotted a whole lot of them on the roof, wall etc. Mosquitoes i think?


Nice view rite? Haha. Sadly after i reached this place, i started feeling kind of dizzy. Not sure isit cos i eaten too much that day or was it due to the ride.


Look at that seacliff behind us!


Lol.. there's nothing much to do over here except taking pics.


Anyone rmb what are these called? These are potholes. If you look closer into the hole, you see some tiny black thing moving about in the water. Most tourists there tot they're fishes and started shouting in awe at them. Don't be mistaken. Those tiny black things are LARVAE. MOSQUITO'S LARVAE. HOLY! It's damn gross seriously. Each pothole got a huge amount of them.


Last but not least, this is their famous queen head. Looks like it rite? Lol. This pic was taken at a far distance so i had to zoom in to take an up-close. When we get closer to the rock...... it doesn't look like a queen head at all -_- Or rather it looks like a beehive. Or perhaps it's just the angle?
Little did i know that, our next stop...... is Miao Kou Night Market. WE'RE HAVING OUR DINNER HERE. Holy. It was here that i couldn't stand it anymore and feel like puking. So i just sat down and watch everyone eat lol. Sadly less than 15mins later i couldn't resist the temptation. Miao Kou mostly sells seafood, we wanted to try the Hokkaido Alaskan Crab here.. but to our dismay... it was too ex. So we didn't try XD We settled down at a stall that sells pig's trotter (Our tour guide brought us to the stall). Taiwan Pig's Trotter isn't as gd as SG's. Their sauce.... is more of like plain water soup. So the overall taste is kind of -_- I think we got conned or smt, we ended up paying SGD30-40 bucks at this stall just for a bowl of pig's trotter and veggy.


The octopus. IT WAS DARN HUGE. Quite a lot of stalls selling this and bbq it. Quite gross when u look at it like this. Let me think.. it's about... 15-20cm long.
There's no nice food at Miao Kou. Kind of a disappointment so we went to shop instead. Bought a pullover there :D We proceed to SOGO next! Sogo is a japan departmental store. God, that place is damn disturbing. The things they sell there is DAMN NICE. All the jap brand, clothes, bags etc. However i couldn't buy them. Cos the price is similar to Takashimaya. All 400SGD and above. Sigh...


Sogo! Another thing i found out is that the food from their food court is damnnnnn good! Moreover their serving is huge! And it's only like 5-7SGD. Sigh.


We saw this at the entrance of most shopping complex. It's to limit the amt of ppl inside the building. It's pretty gd i think. SG shld haf one of these someday, especially during sch hols. The crowd is horrible.
Since there's nth much to do so we went back to the hotel and relax, after which we go to 西门町 again. It's gonna be our last nite at Cosmos Hotel! Played the bear-catching machine again and shopped around. I did smt embarrassing in Taiwan. Seems like everywhere i go something embarrassing will happen. I entered a shop and was eager to get a leather jacket. I heard the salesperson told me that it's 850TWD. So after i tried several times, thought thru, and then decided to buy.

I handed her 1,000TWD. She stared at me and said, IT'S 1,850TWD. I swear to god i heard her said 850TWD. I totally din hear the 一千 coming out of her mouth. IT WAS DAMN EMBARRASSING. I won't wanna pay nearly 100SGD for a jacket which is cheaper elsewhere. For a moment i was thinking why all the salesperson in the shop started crowding ard me when i'm just buying a jacket. So i rejected her in the end -_- Unfortunately for ber he had to go through this as well cos he was with me this whole time lol. God.


Walked ard and spotted a long queue with many ppl eating this 面線 nearby. It was by luck that we passed by the stall. Lucky we tried. 阿宗面線 IS DAMN GD! I always tot all taiwan mee sua is a soup with noodles and oysters. IN THE END! THERE'S NO OYSTERS! It's 大肠! Holy it was damn gd. Unforgettable. Next time i visit Taiwan again i'll surely try this again!


Spot us there with the crowd? Lol. It wasn't very cold during the last few nights at Taipei. Temperature is like 19°C only. So it got pretty hot when i was wearing the pullover zzz.
We returned to the hotel afterwards and this marks the end of our 4th day.

Our 5th day began with our breakfast buffet again as usual. 5th to 7th day is more of free and easy, but still we couldn't really get to places we like thanks to our tour guide. Our first stop is Sun Yat Sen Memorial Hall, located in Taipei.


This is Sun Yat Sen Memorial Hall!


We can see Taipei 101 from here. Nice view right? Anyone wonder why isit call Taipei 101? It's quite logical seriously, there is 101 storeys.


Just when we entered there's a performance going on at the entrance. I guess this is a daily thing


This is the chinese hero whom the memorial hall is built for.


As usual very engrossed in ancient history.
Seriously, after going to the Memorial Hall i realised i don't know much abt Chinese history lol. Everyone was discussing abt it yet i know nuts abt them XD I remembered taking elective history in Sec Sch but it was only abt the communism era and by now i had alrdy completely forgotten abt it. Haha. But this is smt new, i wandered ard the place myself looking at artifacts and paintings lol.

5th day was the day we bought the most food to bring back home. 10 黄梨酥 and 60 太阳饼. I really regretted not buying more 黄梨酥. IT'S SO NICE! But 60 太阳饼 is abit over, i eat till kinda sick of it lol. After shopping for food we were brought to this 'tea-house' by the tour guide. It was a compulsory location for us though we didn't feel like coming. Oh well. At first we tot the tour guide arranged this to earn some commission but later found out that it was to help a tribe. I think they're facing extinction or smt XD OH GOD. I CAN'T RMB. This is bad, i shldn't blog so late.


We were advised to buy some products here such as honey, 当归，ginseng etc. HOW WOULD I HAVE THE MONEY TO BUY THEM?!?!?! I din buy any in the end lol.
Proceeded to Taipei 101 after this. The building sure is tall seriously. Whatever they sell inside is just like our Ngee Ann City / Paragon. All branded so we didn't spend much time here in the end.


Taipei 101! So tall that u have to lay flat on the floor in order to take a full picture of the building lol.


At the entrance with Ber and his Ah Ma.
There were some Pasar Malam nearby, played some games before we go to our Hot Spring. Before we reached there, my idea of a Hot Spring was like those we see on TV. Big pool, you sit in it with drinks served, smt like jacuzzi. IN THE END, INSTEAD OF LOOKING LIKE THIS, IT TURNED OUT TO BE QUITE LOK POK. Jacuzzi became... public swimming pool bath. Smt like that. To think i spent almost 70 bucks to buy a swimming suit for this T_T


Our hot spring is located on mountaineous areas again. The building at the background is a university. Imagine travelling up a mountain everyday for sch. Holy man.
The most funny event of all is that, we were only able to spend 15mins in the spring due to health conditions. So we stuck this ball thing into the hole to prevent the water from flowing out and also to fill up the pool. Somehow or rather halfway thru the ball got loose, so water flows out without us noticing. Until the water level dropped to our feet level then we realised! By the time the water finally reached our shoulder........ ppl started knocking on our door to call us out. So in the end we din 泡 much. T_____________T MY 80 BUCKS!

At night, we went to Shilin Night Market for dinner. Seriously, this is one of the best Night Market we had went, in terms of food quality lol. It's damn crowded at night, i can understand why it's so popular.


LOOK AT THAT CROWD! Notice why most ppl are crowding at the right corner stalls? There's a very popular 鸡排 stall, super long queue. We went to buy one, actually it's nth special. Just that it's so huge that if u dun hold onto the top, half of the 鸡排 will drop off lol.


We had 蛤仔煎,牛排,鸡排,蒸包,炒饭,香肠 etc here. Their 蛤仔煎 is one of the best!
We were standing outside the Night Market when we heard some guy shouting, in search of a kid's parents cos he had gotten lost. Seriously, most ppl in Taiwan are very helpful. I don't think you'll find anyone here who shouts on a crowded street to search for the kid's parents. After dinner we proceed to our new hotel, 大顺酒店. The hotel was... quite bad lol. Our room kinda stinks. Intend to change room but the whole hotel is full. So we had to keep troubling the staff to come over and take a look. After awhile the problem was finally solved.


This is our new hotel's lobby! The staffs here are very friendly. We were asking for directions to 五分浦, where u can buy a lot of cheap clothes and bags etc. The tour guide told us it's damn far from our hotel, in the end it's pretty near. So i actually don't know what is he thinking.
Things at 五分浦 are... quite cheap i guess. It's smt like Far East? Sad thing is they are selling mostly winter clothes, so there's nth much to buy really. SG is so hot, how can i wear long sleeve out?! So i bought 2 jackets in the end, including the leather one which i intend to buy at 西门町 lol. This is the first time i bargained at shops, managed to get them at a cheap price. The place is damn huge. There's like a total of 4 streets for u to shop, we only went down 1 street and were tired out. Settled down at a 牛肉面 + 大肠 (Yes again ❤) store before going back. THIS IS THE FIRST TIME I HAD 牛肉面, SO I CAN'T JUDGE WHETHER ISIT BETTER THAN HERE IN SG. BUT IT'S REALLY DARN NICE! Oh~~~ their soup is the best.

Ok. I'm getting lazy to type lol. Let's shorten the post a little. During our 6th day, OUR LAST NITE IN TAIWAN, we woke up early for our breakfast as usual. After which we moved on to our first detination, 自由广场. This is where ppl usually go on strikes, saw them sitting in tents with banners all up. Didn't manage to take a pic of it though XD


自由广场 - Our 1st destination on the 6th day


CKS Memorial Hall, our 2nd destination. There were many tourists outside the entrance waiting to enter. Apparently we reached kind of early so had to wait for quite awhile. Look at that crowd -_- We weren't very excited to visit this memorial hall this time round as compared to Sun Yat Sen's
To be honest... i don't know what should i blog about with regards to this place. I'm kinda bad at chinese history lol. I got no idea wat exactly happened in the past so... i actually don't know who this guy is XD Even after i went there i still got no idea what had he done to be called a chinese hero LOL. Ok i'm not really a history person. Maybe i need to read more.


Took a pic with ber and his sis before we left.
Our 3rd destination.. wasn't a place we intended to go. It's kind of planned by our lovely tour guide. We were kinda unhappy abt it cos we'd rather spend the time on places we wanna go but in the end, he told us that it's compulsory etc etc and brought us for some fortune-telling. It turned out quite interesting la haha. First time doing this. Spent like 1-2hrs there, we were advised to buy some ornament ( i forgot what's that called) that will help improve our life. One tiny one costs around.. $200-$300SGD+?

Of course i didn't buy lol. I was told that i'm a straight-forward person, stubborn & determined at times. I'll 旺夫 (LOL@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@) and there will be 血光之灾 in 2010 and 2011. In the future i'll also have some foetus problem. My whole life there will always be someone that will help me, whether is it car-eer-wise or studies etc. Thus i won't have much worries. LOL omg seriously, don't know how true is it but the character part is pretty good. We were asked to touch this statue near the entrance before we left. There's some procedures that you had to follow, but the main aim is that you have to choose either u wan more intelligence or money. Well... of cos i went for the..... :)

Off to Fisherman's Wharf! This place is famous for its scenery and seafood. When we reached the place, it was damn windy. God i had to wrap my hands around my scarf to stop my hands from freezing. Only during our last 2 days in Taiwan then the weather starts to get real cold. I was wearing the thick pullover the day before but IT WAS SO WARM! Ok let the pics do the talking:


The bridge. Isn't it beautiful ^^


Ber and his sis. It was soooooo windy that even my face started feeling numb.


Together with Yiguan.


Group photo. A nice tourist took it for us. Haha.


We spotted an arcade nearby. This is the thing that we're sooo addicted to during the trip. Had been playing this whenever we spot it.
We didn't stay for long. After this we proceed to 淡水老街 for some snacks. I FOUND MY 杏鮑菇 HERE ONCE AGAIN! IMAGINE MY HAPPINESS. But sadly it doesn't taste as good as when i had it at 台中. This place is famous for their 铁蛋. Nope i didn't try any.. cos it doesn't look very nice lol. Iron egg, does it sound appetising to u seriously haha.


淡水老街. Super crowded and the food aren't that bad


I forgot what's that thing on the right. Some seafood thing but i remember it doesn't taste very nice lol. (Look at that universal sauce) THE ONE ON THE LEFT IS THE 焦点. IT'S CHEESE PORK CUTLET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was sooooooooo excited when i spotted it that i queued quite long for this.


LOOK AT THAT CHEESE OOZING OUT! WAHAHAHAHA! Omg we got so excited eating that that we were screaming on the street. Some taiwanese were staring at us as they passed by.
Coincidentally, it was Celest's bday that day. We intend to bring her to a good place for dinner that night.. but the tour guide.... didn't manage to give us any good recommendations (he sucks). He brought us to 永康街夜市, we walked around for quite long but couldn't find a suitable restaurant. So we just told him to bring us to this shopping mall (I forgot what is it called -_-) and drop us there let us free and easy. We kept searching but to no avail. So in the end we just settled down at a foodcourt lol. Bought a choco bday cake and went to the rooftop of the building for a small celebration. It's quite a nice view at the top as you can see Taipei 101 quite clearly.


They can be spotted outside the entrance of the shopping mall. Streets in Taipei are kind of happening. On such a freezing weather we spotted a lady wearing sleeveless, low-cut and belly-showing top together with a mini-skirt. It's some kind of cosplay.


See Taipei 101 behind us haha. IT WAS FREEZING AT NIGHT. Seriously, really damn cold.


The bday cake. The candles are nice right. In SG you've to pay for such candles, but in Taiwan they give it for free when u buy the cake -_-
After the small celebration we went off to Eslite Bookstore. It's a hugeee version of Kinokuniya. The collections there are amazing, and they sell reallyyyyy nice stuff. I bought several xmas cards back for decoration lol.


Xmas decorations along the street while we're on our way to the bookstore.


Eslite bookstore. The whole building! Yes. If i didn't rmb wrongly lol.. Looks pretty cool right.


Outside the bookstore together :)


This is the last photo taken with my camera. Apparently it had reached its max capacity. It's supposed to be a really lovely picture. But there were some workers nearby setting up some stuff. So that straight line in the middle was due to that. JUST RIGHT BEFORE WE TOOK THE PIC!
Ok. We went to a small night market near our hotel afterwards to have supper. IT'S OUR LAST NIGHT! HOW CAN WE SLEEP SO EARLY! I tried the best 蛤仔煎 and 蔥抓餅 there. IT IS REALLY THE BEST! BUT WE ONLY DISCOVERED IT DURING OUR LAST NIGHT! ARGH! Also had our first 卤肉飯 here! It was fun, going around trying the food there. I actually bought a bowl of 港式 porridge back to the hotel. It turned out.... full of 中药味. I didn't mentioned that the chicken from Taiwan is really different from SG's. Theirs is.. drier. I think 海南鸡饭 is still the best afterall.

This trip in Taiwan, i actually slp pretty late every night. Cos i would be watching TV in the hotel till 2-3am lol. And it always happen that i left the TV on and fell aslp. Next morning... is our departure back to SG :( There's a little time before we go off to the airport so we shopped around on our own. Went to have some food at the foodcourt, back to Eslite Bookstore again, den me and ber wandered off to try some 卤肉飯. Two of the most famous stalls there are Moustache Zhang and 大三元.

The first few 卤肉飯 stalls we tried, including Moustache Zhang, was damn fattening.. there's like no meat at all.. it's just the saturated fats with rice. But the last stall we tried, in which we've to 打包 to the airport due to lack of time..... 大三元卤肉飯 (Not so much of fats but mostly meat) IT'S DAMN NICE! The stall is actually located near our hotel.. so it's kind of saddening that we only found that out on our last day.

Ok, what's more to say, just a normal flight back to SG. No vomit this time round since i took my pills :) I managed to have a great time on the flight LOL! Not to forget the haagen dazs ice-cream LOL. I actually had my first flight meal :') The flight to Taiwan i didn't even get to eat :')

Oh ya i recalled smt embarrassing. I just woke up after the bus ride to the airport so i'm feeling kind of blur. There's this checking pt where you have to place down your bag to let them check before entering. Apparently i ran past with my bag on. I got stopped and seems like they see me as someone suspicious, thus they gotten mi (only me) to take off my shoes to check. I was asked to put on a temporary slippers (those ppl wore in bathroom) first but.... i didn't notice so i was stopped once again T_T In the end after checking and realising i've got nth suspicious on me they let me through LOL. Oh god.

Alright i finally sum up everything lol. TOOK MI 2MTHS TO POST XD First time went overseas, experience is really fun haha. On the day i just got home.. there's this.. overwhelming sian-ness.. like a strong unfamiliarity with the house. Guess it's normal huh? Took me quite long to finally get over the fact that taiwan trip is over -_-

Cos this post took me 2mths to complete.. so i actually didn't blog abt events such as my bro's wedding, CNY etc. Exams are around the corner.. this time round.. it's my last yr.. i started my revision 1mth earlier.. i can't believe this period is here again.. time seems to pass real fast during this 1 yr. Maybe the earth's spinning is accelerating or smt and no one notices it LOL. Ok. I'm gonna start mugging tml :(

She added at 4:20 PM