for this trip, we joined the tour group and i, for one dont really like the idea of joining a tour group. firstly, i feel very restricted to the places and activities we could go to or do. secondly, i realised how those tour guides work by 'conning' tourists into buying things. i couldnt find a better word to replace the word 'con' so yup, oh well, treat it as a lesson learnt this time. perhaps im one who prefers to go on free and easy tours to explore and check out interesting places on my own. if there's another chance, i would really love to go back to taiwan again but to only taipei next time and its definitely gonna be free and easy on my own. i think taipei is big enough to keep me occupied for 5 or 6 days.
well, other than that, i visited really nice seas and mountains and got to see how friendly and polite taiwanese are. they are basically really nice people compared to err, china people or hongkong citizens. and oh! they have NO DUSTBINS on the streets! we were like complaining a lot while walking around with litter on our hands yet we cant dispose them off! this feeling is really annoying. but im really amazed that even thou there's no dustbins and no cleaners around, their streets are still as clean!
day 1 13062010
we met with a really heavy turbulence on our way to taiwan on the airplane. scary like shit when the airplane kept going up and down like as thou we're sitting on a roller coaster ride. yes its that bad. LOL. the weather was really bad when we reached.. heavy rain on the first few days.
went to sit some taiwan's fastest train service called the gao tie before we had our first meal in taipei, xiao long baos!! they have all sorts of yummy xiao long baos.
after dinner, we went to our first night market at ji long, called the ji long ye shi and thereafter, we spent the night at ji long.
day 2 14062010
woke up real early and set off to our next destination, jiu fen. there's one thing i observed from taiwan's very bad traffic system. they actually allow vehicles to pass through night markets or those streets which i thought only people are allowed to walk through. worst of all, the cars dont even warn you or horn you to move aside. they'll just wait behind you or try to find some space and squeeze through you! thats really scary and another thing, try crossing their roads. you wont need the traffic lights thou there's traffic lights there. you can just cross like this and the cars will really stop for you even thou its green light when we're not supposed to cross!
right, where was i? jiu fen. LOL.
after jiu fen, we went to visit some temple and tried ice cream popiah! damn nice!! i really miss their ice cream popiah! why shi lin street snacks in singapore never sell ice cream popiah?! because ice cream popiah is not from shi lin?! LOL.
then, we travelled to hua lian for nice sceneries and spent our night in hualian. and yes! we met with a slight earthquake in hualian! even thou its just a few seconds of shaking and vibration, the sensation was really scary!
day 3 15062010
then we travlled to tai dong and on the way, we went to some places named ba xian dong and san xian tai for more temples and more sceneries by the seaside. we stayed at some really cool hotel called the naruwan hotel where we watched some yuan zhu min performance at the hotel at night. its really fun and interesting to see and learn about their culture. they're really warm and cute people! :)
day 4 16062010
we travelled to gao xiong, and on our way to gao xiong, we stopped by hakka village for lunch and went to some temple(again) before reaching gao xiong and stayed there for the night. oh ya, we went to some really smelly gao xiong river and witnessed some dragon boat competition going on and toured the river.
day 5,6,7 and 8 in the next post!
