sunshine through the fog

Departure: 30 May 2005
Arrival: 13 Jun 2005

30 May 2005 (Monday) ~ Sunny

Flight delayed slightly. Turbulent flight - it occurred to me at various points of the trip - should I have taken SQ instead?

Safe arrival. I recognised Weiche (almost, uncertainly) but he didn't. I changed more than him?

Lunch at Metrowalk mall food court - pork ribs noodle soup.

Went to his place, watched tv with his parents and brother.

Dinner was 夜市小吃 - 盐酥鸡, 黑轮, 盐酥菇, 卤味.

31 May 2005 (Tuesday) ~ Sunny

Morning: Stayed in while Weiche's mom prepared the ritual for the official moving in of the house.

Afternoon: Visited 新竹 with Weixiu (Weiche's younger brother). Went shopping around the train station as well as Taiwan's top 2 universities - 兴华大学 & 交通大学. So much walking. Fulfilled the week's quota of exercise. Hee...

Evening: Met up with 世晃 and his girlfriend, Joyce. Went to watch 萤火虫. As it's too late, didn't manage to see many. Saw a total of 11. Not too bad. At least not total wasted trip. My first 萤火虫 sighting. :)

01 June 2005 (Wednesday) ~ Slight rain

Today I'm staying home as online support for NSL FINC - monthend closing. Anyway, after all the walking done yesterday, it's good to take a rest.

Went out exploring during lunchtime hoping to grab some lunch. Result: nothing. There's nothing here. The "Homebox" shopping complex Weiche and Weixiu told me about turned out to be a DIY home depot. This pair of Taiwanese brothers need lotsa female education. *rolls eyes* :P

Surf net, watch crap taiwanese tv, read, nuah nuah nuahz...

Kinda like this aloneness though. It's refreshing and a welcome rest.

Must remember to buy more instant noodles to stock up.

Near midnight - my first experience of earthquake. Luckily it's a minor one in the 中壢 area - 3.0 on the richter scale. I heard it's 6.0 on the richter scale in other areas!

02 June 2005 (Thursday) ~ Breezy, Drizzle

Nuahz day again... {NSL month-end final close - I'm online support for them again}

03 June 2005 (Friday) ~ Rainy

After 2 days of life as a pseudo-Taiwanese housewife, it's about time I venture out on my own!

Agenda: Shopping!
Location: 西门町, 台北

Took a train from 中壢 railway station to Taipei. It took only 40 mins via 自强号 - the fastest line (TWD162 for return tickets). Then from Taipei station, took the mrt to 西门.

Conquests {or was I conquered? hmmm... :p}: 2 pairs of shoes (bargain!!!), 1 dress, 1 jacket, 5 tops (2 for mom, 2 for me, 1 for bro). I only had NT68 left in my pocket by the end of my shopping extravaganza. Should have charged more items to credit e.g. the NT2980 dress - regretted. Oh well, I can alway go atm withdraw, I guess.

Rained heavily from time I left the house to 4:30pm though - such a hassle, had to take a brolly while shopping around. Heard from cab-driver that it's because typhoon is coming!

Weiche said suddenly all these phenomenons arrive after I'm here - first earthquake, now typhoon. Hmmm... I hope it's not too serious, else it'd affect our weekend plans!

KTV at night with Weiche and Weixiu. Partyworld "钱柜".

Main differences between KTV in Taiwan & Singapore:-
* Huge, and I mean huge premises
* Buffet included in the price! - they charge hourly for the room as well as per pax. Included is a bugget area where you get free-flow of food and drinks. There're other a la carte menu items that are charged separately - we ordered my fav chix wings. Yummy!
* More modes of input for choice of songs - remote control, keyboard as well as side switches on the wall. Both computer selection and song books
* No analog/digital switching
* Limited English and Cantopop
* Attached toilet in every room
* Microphone covers!

04 June 2005 (Saturday) ~ Sunny

Drove to Taipei - actually, Weiche drove, Weixiu and I rode. :p Went Taipei 101 - nice building & food court but all branded stuff I can't afford *pout*, New York New York, Shin-Kong Mitsukoshi Dept Store, KMall - techie place a la Sim Lim. Dinner was at Shih Lin night market - junk food meal of octopus hot dog, fried chicken chop, 蛤仔煎 (fried oysters with egg), 十全排骨, grilled corn, washed down with honey green tea and 苦茶 (bitter tea).

After that, accompanied by 2 reluctant taiwanese men, decided to go experience nightlife in Taipei. As these 2 have never (yes, never!) been to a pub in Taipei, it's left up to me, a Singaporean, to tell them where to go. Didn't bring my printouts as it was a last minute impulse outing, the only place which address I can remember is Ziga Zaga at Grand Hyatt Hotel, so that's where we went. Pretty cool place, lotsa caucasians and a pretty good band. Had fun. One interesting observation - lotsa hot "ah ma's"! Accompanied by young men!!! hmmmm.... hahahaaa... Makes one's imagination go wild... Left after an hour as we're all tired and I realise it's really not their cup of tea. But pretty touched that they still went with me. Weiche even went down to the dance floor with me! Such a gentil host. Hee... This is his first pub/club outing in his life! I'm honoured. ;>

P.S. Weather was fantastic! Sunny whole day, not a drop of rain. Typhoon? What typhoon? Or is it the calm before the storm? Hmmm...

05 June 2005 (Sunday) ~ Sunny

Another nuah day. Weiche had to work {on a Sunday! Poor thing...} so didn't manage to go out much.

I cooked lunch for them - authentic Singaporean fare of curry chicken, fried eggs with spring onion, stir-fried baby kai-lan. And if I do say so myself, it wasn't bad at all! Hee...

The typhoon seems to have missed us. Nice and sunny whole day. To be perfectly honest, slightly disappointed though. Rather silly. Hmmm...

06 June 2005 (Monday) ~ Sunny

Not a very lucky day.

At ZhongLi train station, met weird guy named 小傑 - came up to talk to me and pestered me into being his friend. Irritating. He tried to convince me to spend the day with him at 桃園, go with him to his home to collect his car (think I dumbo is it???). When that failed, he offered to go with me to Taipei! I said no need but he said he's free anyway and followed me all the way. Apparently, he's a deejay, still studying, 27 yrs old, earns NT70~80k per mth, acted before in japan and hk, and is an absolute freak! Sang at the station demonstrating to me he can imitate lotsa artists - so embarrassing! Oh yea, lotsa flattery - said I'm very pretty, gentle, cute, etc. {ok. stop puking! :p} Kept telling me not to worry and said he respect girls a lot. Despite that he kept using tissue to wipe my forehead of perspiration but I don't feel hot at all! Touched my arm on pretext of guiding me along, touched my head, took my hand to read my palm *rolls eyes* I always politely retreated as I don't wanna create a scene or incur the wrath of some wacko. But the last straw was when he tried to take my hand! I just ignored him and walked on while he rushed after me apologising and looking very hurt when I said I prefer to be alone. He actually had the nerve to ask me to be his girlfriend (to "jiao wang" with him")! What kind of wacko does that? I don't even wanna befriend him. Pestered me a few times until he gave up. After that, got me rather worried - kept looking over my shoulders to make sure he's not following me. Why do I always meet such freaks? Sigh...

Wanted to go 淡水 originally. On mrt there, decided to stop by 北投 to go take a look at the hotsprings {partly my fear that the idiot is really following me since I let slip that I wanted to go 淡水 today - so thinking if really so, me going Beitou should throw him off. Hahaa...}, specifically, Hell Valley (地熱谷). Aftwe a 15 mins walk and reaching the place then I was told that it's closed on Mondays. So disappointing. But thinking on the bright side, Beitou's quite nice - can see flowing spring water on the streams and rather nice scenery. Took some photos. So not total loss.

While waiting for the mrt at 新北投 Station (as it's a side track, the train comes every 15~20 mins), reread the brochure and realise most tourist attractions, including those I wanna visit at 淡水, are closed on Mondays! It wasn't mentioned that Hell Valley's closed on Mondays though. Hmmm... So changed plans and went shopping instead at 忠孝东路. I walked from 忠孝复兴 station to Sun-Yat-Sen Memorial (国父纪念馆) station and back. That's a total of 6 mrt stations' distance - 3 stations to and fro. My exercise for this week. Would've continued walking to Taipei station if Weiche had not called me to tell me he knocked off.

Weiche cooked dinner for me. Dry mee Sua with spring onions and canned tuna - not bad, nice and light.

07 June 2005 (Tuesday) ~ Sunny

Woke up feeling lazy - not in the mood to go out again. So ended up leading another "pseudo taiwanese housewifey day". Accomplished the following:-
* Found the wet market (walked very far - my exercise quota for the week fulfilled :p) and did some marketing. Bought pork ribs, broccoli and green leafy vegetables - wanted to get prawns too but still no fridge, not sure whether it can keep well, so have to make do with 2 kinds of veg.)
* Washed clothes
* Vaccuumed
* Called B&B in Taroko Gorge to check room availability
* Cooked dinner - bak kut teh, broccoli, stir-fried vegetables

Rest of the day watched more crap tv and read comics - KeNan the small detective. Leisurely day. Hee...

08 June 2005 (Wednesday) ~ Sunny

Shopped around Taipei train station area. Hoped to buy cheap flash memory cards but realise it's not that much cheaper anyway. Wandered around the area but found nothing fascinating.

Proceeded to 淡水. Finally.

My luck re tourist attractions seem really really bad. The first place I wanted to go - Red Castle "紅毛城", supposedly "the main reason to visit Danshui" according to Insight Guides - is closed for renovation until October 2005! And I only knew it when I reached the doorstep. Sheesh...

Toured 淡水 老街. Lotsa 小吃. I had prawn rolls, ah-gei, sotong balls and plum juice. Niceeee... Bought back fish balls, 鐵蛋 (eggs) and lotsa preserved plums. But buying the preserved plums from an over-enthusiastic ah-ma caused me to miss the sunset. So didn't manage to go Fisherman's Wharf (漁人碼頭)as planned to watch the sunset... Sigh... I really not fated to do touristy stuff...

Went 八里碼頭 and 左岸公園 too. Nothing much. Quite nice place, but nothing especially fascinating. Oh well, the boat trip was only NT36 to and fro - so still go-able. Hee...

The fridge finally arrived! Went Tesco with Weiche and bought lotsa stuff to stock up his fridge. Hahaaa... Quite fun sia. With the living room aircon installed too, finally his home is complete. Hurray!

09 June 2005 (Thursday) ~ Sunny

Decided to stay home and rest. Was pretty tired after yesterday's excursion.

Realised too that I'd have no time for rest after I arrive back in Singapore. So will take these 2 days to nuahz some more while I still can. :>

Oh yes. Today's Weixiu's birthday.

We're gonna have bbq dinner tonight to celebrate. The 2 guys said they usually don't celebrate unless got girlfriend. I said at least must have dinner. I bought a Body Shop gift set for him too. Happy 29th Birthday, Weixiu!

10 June 2005 (Friday) ~ Sunny

I'm getting younger and younger! Today woke up at 10:45am! Hahahaaaa...

Didn't think I was going to go out again. Wanted to rest well for this weekend - going 花蓮 and Taroko Gorge! Woohoo~

But around 2pm I got real bored of staying cooped up at home again. So I picked my lazy bum up and headed to 中壢 Sogo for some shopping. That's the only respectable shopping centre I know of here and I figured, where Sogo is has got to be centralised! And clever me was right! Hahahaaa... There's Sogo 1 and Sogo 2. Took a cab to Sogo 1, had nice afternoon coffee at the UCC cafe there, walked to Sogo 2, discovered lotsa small shops around the area, shopped around, reached Sogo 1 again, shopped some more along the alley ways, somehow reached the train station (?!?!?!!) and then walked back to Sogo 1 to take a cab back.

Cooked dinner with Weiche. Too tired to venture out again. :p

I cooked: rice, fishball (bought from 淡水 yesterday) soup with veg, fried egg with onion

He cooked: chicken salad thing with onion, spring onions, parsley and lemon

His one dish took more time and effort than all of mine together! Hahaa... Ended up we only ate around 10pm. But it was pretty nice. Something different. Light and healthy. Too much though - kept leftover in fridge. The danshui fishballs were nice!

Oh yea... Joo said,"ur blog so long and no mention of moi". So here's to Joo: I love your entry tonight! ;)

11 June 2005 (Saturday) ~ Rainy

Woke up at 8:40am, thinking Weiche sure cannot wake up so early. He was actually already awake and waiting half-asleep at the sofa! Made me feel so guilty. Hee...

Set off at 10:20am. By 1pm, it started raining heavier and heavier. And we're less than 1/3 of the way there! Who said it takes 2~3 hrs to reach Hualien must be joking! Insight Guide's info needs to be re-verified. :< Due to the heavy rain and impending long distance (as it's driving along the winding hilly roads, speed can only be 20~40km and according to the GPS there's another 140km to go!), we decided to turn back. Stopped at a resort villa (明月山莊) for expensive lunch then drove back. So basically, we spent most of the day driving along 北橫公路. Hahaaa... It's still not that bad for me as I just sit there. It's poor Weiche who's all tired out from a whole day of tedious driving along those hell roads a la Initial D. One day wasted... Seems like I really have no affinity with Taroko Gorge. Been to Taiwan twice but failed to be there at all. Sigh... I seem to have general bad luck with tourist attractions (pls refer to previous Hell Valley and Red Castle visits).

12 June 2005 (Sunday) ~ Rainy

Weather report this morning: heavy rain yesterday resulted in flooding in Tainan and traffic jams in Taichung.

Raining this morning too. So decided not to go Taipei since Weiche said there's some activities going on so there might be a jam on the highway. Think he's pretty tired out after a whole day of demonic driving yesterday. Hee...

Went Metrowalk for lunch. Wanted to go Friday's for his favourite pork ribs but it's too crowded - need to wait 45 mins to get a seat! As we were both famished, decided to eat elsewhere.

Came back to watch movie after shopping for a while. Watched "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind". I've wanted to watch this movie for ages (ever since I read about it in Jo's blog) and when Weiche mentioned he has it, we decided to come home to watch. It's nice! I liked it.

For dinner, decided to try Friday's again. Again, no seat (need to wait 20 mins) and quite a few of the main courses, including the pork ribs, have run out. Another thing I seem to have no affinity with - Friday's. Sigh... Had quite enjoyable dinner at this korean bbq and steamboat place eventually.

It's been a nice, relaxing holiday. Just what I needed before starting the new job. Many thanks to Weiche for his hospitality and taking care of. Hee... But I am starting to feel rather homesick. Looking forward to being back tomorrow...

13 June 2005 (Monday) ~ Drizzle

Woke up at 8:30am - the anticipation of being home? Hmmm...

Left house at 12pm. Reached CKS Airport by 12:30pm. Over-estimated journey time. Singapore Changi Airport really is the best airport I've ever seen - in terms of facilities, maintenance, efficiency, shopping available. Hahaaa...

One observation: whenever I travel alone on planes, the person seating beside me always sleep for the entire trip, waking up only to take meal. Am I so sleep-inducing? ... ... ...

These 2 weeks seemed to have flew by now that I'm at the end of it. It's been a fantastic and much needed rest.

Glad to be home though... Very very happy to see Joo waiting for me at the airport. Thanks, sweetie! For everything. You've got good taste! ;)

Looking forward (albeit with apprehension and butterflies wreaking havoc in my stomach) to starting new job. Keeping my fingers crossed. Hee... Wish me luck!

P.S. This has to be the longest blog entry ever for me! Hahaaa...