Aloha!



I'm back from being a lazy couch bug ... time to get my ass off and do some travelling...


I love travelling, especially with different travelling companions. Why? because you discover people. not just people, but individuals - what they are made of. The most amazing thing, of course, is discovering yourself. Cliche for a travel blog? not at all. Touche.


The destination from 12 - 18 Feb 08 is Taiwan. (Notice i didn't change the blog address?).



*on the side note, i know i haven't blogged about OZ - my grad trip part I.


Back to where we were, let me first introduce my travelling companions:







He is undoubtly my favourite TC. He travelled with us in the bagpack to almost everywhere we went. He likes following us. a truly faithful dog.



He's so god damn cute he actually knows it himself. He loves the attention and he loves taking photos. Oh, did i mention his name? He's called Timbre - named after the pub with live music just beside the wonderful historical Singapore River. You will know that Timbre enjoyed every single moment in Taiwan, such an endearing one...

TC 2: Recognise her? Yes! Refer to this blog entry:

http://hobbitisineastasia.blogspot.com/2006/11/better-mood-bad-news.html

Yes! she's on my friend feature... we met back in Leeds in 2006 and reunited in 2009! Fion's the name, Taiwan's the game! She's still the same crazy Fion-san aka IwantIwant who's always so confident in front of the camera... Timbre's a little nervous though.

Look at Timbre, that's what he wore, even though he's a Husky, he's a tropical dog, so needed some clothes before he catches the cold!

TC 3: This is Karen - the smart one! My impression of her is that she's smart, the kind who's fast enough to react with wit... but Taiwanese in general are pretty witty... She really likes Timbre? Both so comfy with each other! How nice...

3 of us after 2 years. ( and of coz Timbre being new)

TC 4: Here comes the most valuable TC - RuN - travelled with me from the lovely island of Singapore! With her you feel absolutely safe and well-taken care of... being in Taiwan for the second time and armed with a relatively much better command of Chinese, she knocks the rocks and brained herself with a list of must-eat, must-haves and must-sees!

FIRST DAY!!! Timbre was so excited about his first overseas trip... he couldn't stop looking out of the window! He got his big eyes peeled at the vast skies and his curious mind intrigues me too...


and guess what were one of the first few stops we went? From Taoyuan airport, we took the Taiwan high speed Rail (THSR) down to Chiayi, and we got there in less than an hours! even the bus 190 takes longer to get from orchard to CCK! Anyway this is the second day, and we made a short visit to a 昆虫馆 (Bug museum). and speaking of a young curious mind of a 2 months old, he wonders what some bugs are trying to do...


HEhe... naughty sight! Next we throttled down to the cow farm! Correction, it was uphill up a loooong flight of steps... we were kinda short for breath by the time we reached the top... but we were rewarded with ice cream made from FRESH MILK! it had a very well mix with chocolate flavour and had just the right sweetness...


Just near the 天长地久 bridge, we sat around a while because the 天长 bridge was under repair! -_- so we sat around and decided to go a little trigger-happy!


That's myself and Timbre...


RuN's gentle touch on Timbre. He looks real, doesn't he? *p.s. he IS real.

That's us on a tea plantation excursion!



Behold the room! HUGE with a FANTASTIC VIEW!!!

Timbre's play mate.

See what I mean by Fanstastic view?

Timbre's the star TC!

Here we are at fenchihu - east of alishan. This place serves as a rest stop for train commuters who would drop by this cosy cafe -

It's also one of Timbre's favourite place and i think he found his favourite dessert here: The chinese name of this fruit is called ai yu, (Translates: love jade) which is actually the fig fruit. The inside of the fruit actually looks like a pomelo, all you need to do is to dry the fig fruit to store it for up till 1 year and when your craving comes, put the fruit under running mineral water and give it a good scrub and press until the seeds become soft and you can cook it like jelly.

ta dah! Timbre's favourite!

That's my dear boy, basking under the sun under the blooming tree....

Can you find the little dog? He's just standing right under the 2,300 year old tree - the sacred tree of alishan!!!! That makes him just as sacred... right Timbre?

Timbre: woof!

Of course the 2,300 year old tree wasn't the only bad boy around. We also made it up to the top of the World's tallest building (by far)! Timbre loved the surroundings i suppose... the mist was starting to gather, just thin enough for the little boy to enjoy some scenery...

Such a happy dog!

There you see almost a formation of a yun hai (Translates: sea of clouds). We needed more luck than this!

When you're up on a mountain, the sunset is a die-die also must stay and watch one.

Well, back to being in Taipei 101 - the little dog got really facinated by the big damper that is said to keep the building straight in the event of an earthquake... It moves in the opposite direction so the building won't get too dizzy... Good for us and perhaps it might have been a good marketing move - Taipei 101 has personified the lifeless big ball into cute toys that can walk and fly. comes in different colours of black and red as well - quite a grimace to me though- like how Ch*na gives silly names to 5 pandas that actually means "Welcome to Beijing". That's no wonder I wasn't too keen on getting souvenirs when I was there. Anyway, not to digress...

TIMBRE WAS HERE!!! WOOF!

You can NEVER believe that sashimi can be so much BETTER.

When you are in Taipei, drop your clothes and get to Shen Wang Hotel - all you need is a camera and a credit card.



We paid about NT5000 for 2. (excluding the dog - he can't eat human food) for sashimi this fresh, you know you get what you pay for.

The favourite - Japanese Yellow Tail Sashimi! I compared it with the Yellow Tail from Japanese Dining S*n and HELLLLLOOOOOOO.... JDS has a Looooooooooooog way to go!

Just look at the sushi presentation! We were having some troubles trying to take a photo of the whole length of the plate! Every dish that came never failed to amaze us... like part of the money we had to part was in good exchange for awakening our 6 senses...

and the most expensive dish of all..... at S$20 for this little piece of sushi.... TORO! Tuna belly with lots and lots of fish fats and being the most expensive dish of all, the Chef had to top it with a bit of gold leaf for decoration! but behold!!!! do not small see this gold leaf - The gold is a very, very thin sheet of 22-25 karat gold that is safe to eat. (Googled the facts) Scientists have claimed that eating gold would increase your IQ... which i think had some effect on both of us... coz we manage to find out way back despite the sake.

FYI: This is my 24th birthday treat. Thank you!

To all aspiring Taiwan Travellers... you'll enjoy Taiwan! Await my next blog entry till then!

Hello i'm back. refer back to my old blog, if u know the address.. THANKS FOR UR TAGS, CONCERN AND LOVE!

OMN!!!! can't wait to give u ur birthday gift!

Hihi people,

I'm right now in China. Well ya, China's big so to be more specific, i'm in Shigatse, Tibet.

Everything went well, went Potala Palace, went to various Monastaries and Temples, which were super duper magnificent. The Buddha statues can be as tall as 26m made of 1 million kg of copper. whoa... and not to mentioned, the people in tibet are pretty staunch buddhists, and i'm a buddhist myself actually, but just so clueless about my own religion. i'm still as clueless now though, but i can at least tell u the facination behind lotus flowers.

Anyway, been pretty ill these days, even my travelling companion, AKA Jiahui aka Ernie, was down with intermitted fever... and myself, same thing accompanied with cough and cold. Altitude sickness? To those who are planning to go to high altitude regions, i guess can't really stop the illness from coming, more like having to be mentally prepared with Panadol Extras and Diamox.

Alright i shall end my blog entry here. it's my mum's birthday today~ HAPPY BIRTHDAY FROM THE HOLY SACRED LAND OF TIBET!

Hello everybody!

Yes i know there hasn't been updates... the last few days / week was kinda busy...

well but i haven't forgotten the July babies birthdayS!!! Happy Birthday Yanting, Baoling, Kailing and amanda !! ahaha.. sorry. feel like actin cute here.. I got souvenir for u all la, so the next squad outing, if u dun turn up then no goodies lor!!!! =p

Ate lots of good food... thanks to JK and V.E.R.A for their kind treat and also JK for helpin me with my new gadget... =p and also the 麻辣水煮鱼 that numbs the lips.

We finally visited the Olympic stadium that's still under construction. The new stadium is called 鸟巢 coz it looks like one... well pictures will be up ... some time soon i guess.

For you guys info, we'll be back on 13 aug... when lessons have already started... early already ok! considering that we almost wanted to plan to go back just before tutorial starts. So, travelling starts on Saturday ~ can't wait!!! can't wait can't wait! can't wait for panda, valley, monks, mountain, train, laksa ( if there's still a chance), k, ocean and mickey mouse.

Life is really about challenging yourself. 越飞越高越寂寞 ~ Gambate Ang Dau ~

Refer to : http://www.the-rebel-in-me.blogspot.com/ for GREAT WALL pictures

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LINYAN, WENHUI and WANSEAN! FROM BEIJING~!




just a quick blog here and a couple of pictures... to keep my parents updated...

Here's me and my attachie (aka atapchi) up on the great wall of china!~

That's another of my colleague, he's called "Another Lee". There were 2 Lees in the office, hence the name to prevent confusion. Anyway, Great Wall rocks! lots of them!

And yea, it wsa exhausting along the way!!! We went to Simatai/Jinshanling, where the great wall is unrestored, and left as it's orginal state after weathering for 500 years. So the road was pretty tough to walk up and down.

Ok that's all my folks and my friends! Hope all of u guys have a wonderful day..

yay. received a parcel from adeline and gang. not for me but for my dear attachie aka jiahui aka chao sun ( her pet name) . she got alot of presents wor! she's so loved! but i had my little share... thanks miss WONG CHUHUI! so sweet!! I miss both u and kennichi!!! i miss networking sessions thru the night at amk 24 hours macs!!! hehehe...

talking about macs, i didn't have appetite to have dinner. but i think she remembers my mum's words to her : "take care of XXXXX ah!" she went to take a walk downstairs and tabaoed macs!!! YAY! i'm so loved too!! haha!! and she got like happy meal and they gave us a silly watermelon hello kitty. =/ hahahaha... it's now hanging on the door with a stupid expression in a silly green costume.

Yesterday was a little emotional day for me. which added on the my countless mood swings here in beijing. why do i have such extremities? but dear joshie went like " don't be afraid to show ur weak side". ah. u have no idea how much that means to me. my team leader even asked me what happened to me but i brushed it off with a "mid-intership crisis". haha! it must be i think! that's why. but i guess it was mainly just some internal struggle regarding some personal issues that sparked off when a somebody finally nudged me over msn from Denmark. and when i thought i could be cool and strong, i broke down eventually. but i guess i'm fine now. that's always what it's like when i'm alone, esp when out of singapore. so it's just peak and trough of my stay here in wonderful beijing!

Finished tender report. Finished estimation. Went for tender interviews. Went for client's meeting. Went to look at site. Learned Pre-qualification report. and coming to end of week 6. Aiyah!!! So fast! i don't want to go home!

Doing tender report here at work. Went Tian an Men on Saturday. Lazed in bed on Saturday and later headed to the huge sports warehouse!!! Cheap backpacks (those super big kind for 6 months travellin up the mountains and caves or for permanent migration for 1300 RMB = S$260) and shoes and sportswear, winter sportswear... going gaga!

Later we had farewell for richie the pm-in-china-but-engineer-in-singapore in this nice courtyard restaurant... first time the 2 swakoo kias ate beijing roast duck... which i overestimated it's taste... and buddha jumps over the wall... then went to hagen-daaz for ice-cream and chatting away....

Just yesterday, after work, YM and JH and I went Lido for a bowling session and after the bowling, we went crazy running around, singing out loud on the streets and waving our socks around like siao cha bors.

okie, this entry is just for record's sake. i need to go thru the tender report which has been leaving me puzzled for the past 2 hours. cheers!