Taipei Trip 19/7 - 23/7 2007

Wat can i say about this 5 day trip??

Hot - becos we gotta endure the scorching heat under the sun over the 5 days, and the highest temperature reached was on 22/7 at 38 deg C. but felt abit blessed cos there was not a single drop of rain which could haf hindered our sight seeing schedules.

Tiring - 2 blur sotongs going on a free and easy tour alone without any help or guide. getting lost along the streets and frantically searching for the coorect directions on the map were common. 'topo' exercises more siong than wat i get at the army was a test of physical endurance and fitness as well...esp under the hot sun. Everyday i go back to the hotel, i would just lethargically dip myself into the bath tub and immersing myself in the cooling water and even dozing off for 30mins.

I tink pictures will tell u almost everything about how much i've enjoyed from the trip. Hope u will enjoy watching it:

Taipei Stay Video

here are some other highlights of the trip and some sentiments which i felt the video might not have fully conveyed:

People:
The people are generally much more helpful, friendly and polite than SGreans.

I remembered on the 1st day we got lost on the streets, and there was this particular uncle who noticed us and specially crossed the road to assist us voluntarily. Many MRT stations are also equipped with a “Tourist help center" and most of their officers are reali helpful and kind in giving us the directions to and information about certain places.

The general MRT discipline and conduct of the people had reali impressed me. People will really faithfully stand behind the yellow line while waiting for the train to arrive. and during peak timings when the station was flooded with people, people will reali faithfully queue up by the sides of the door, wait for the passengers to totally alight, then board the train orderly. People will also readily give up their seats to people who need it more than them (this applies to bus rides as well). For all these, i reali admire the general Taiwanese citizens.

I also remembered on the 2nd day when we went to 阳明山 for sight seeing, this particular almost 70 years old 阿伯 chatted with us and very happily gave us alot of advise on the places of interest in that area, and after chatting for about 15 minutes, he even offered us the red grapes he brought for the trip. We were touched by his kindness and friendliness.

P.S: there r reali many pretty ladies in Taiwan!! very pleasing to the eye "p


Food:

In general, though many varieties of food are sold there, but they generally dun suit my taste. Food there are generally very starchy, sweet.....and spicy food is reali quite rare there.

Scenery:

Nothing very beautiful or special. but juz felt that july is not a good season to go sight seeing there due to its hot weather.

We also need to conquer many high hills or long flight of stairs before we can reach certain tourist attractions. reali walk until leg super pain.

Clothings:

generally closer to japanese fashion. so the clothings which i bought r reali quite limited.

Nightlife:

It was until the last night when i wanted to visit the night places so badly. and it was reali by fate/ chance that i landed on one of the best pub in Taipei. -- ez5. y dat statement??
the initial plan was to go to a pub named Brass Monkey....but unfortunately when we got to the correct street, we still could not find the place , instead, we ended up passing by the Westin Hotel of Taipei (super high class) . So i decided to gif it a shot to inquire the receptionist about nice pubs.

I spoke to him in mandarin, u noe wat?? he replied me in english initially......but reali thanks to him that we finally got to ez5. This pub is famous for Chinese pop/ rock live band. was very fortunate to be able to hear and see taiwanese singers like 光头杰，李度，阿飞, of which i oni knew 李 before then. after hearing them sing, the only sentiment i got was: How can St James Dragonfly "七月歌台" standard hold a candle to those 3 singers????? It was reali a pleasure to hear them sing. and i secretly took a video of each singer on that day. u might want to listen:



光头杰--if i'm not wrong, the song is called 《早餐，晚餐》



李度--her 成名曲 《为爱犯了罪》. sad to say this song was quite terribly sang...seriously out of tune at the low key areas. but she did win back my respect when she wonderfully sang english songs like "because you love me" etc..



阿飞--a 原著民singer. the 1st look i looked at him reminds me of 动力火车. reali nothing to say abt his singing. it's simply splendid. the word is 磁性. was simply attracted to his voice. and i can't help but to give him the loudest applause out of the 3.


Bonus encounter

The one most worthy of mentioning muz be the "ANDY LAU" encounter. i remembered i walked towards the trolley area to return my luggage trolley after checking in, when i saw a group of women crowding around one person. initially i thought it could be some 2nd/3rd line stars cos the crowd reali wasn't alot (abt 20-30 pple). then this group of people suddenly walked past me cos probably i was in their line of obstruction due to the trolley station location. Then this star opened his mouth to speak. and i lifted my head to look at him, and was extremely surprised to see the ANDY LAU face. i cannot doubt that he still looks extremely handsome, but....abit plastic....lol...muz be the botox..


Overall, this trip is still very enjoyable and memorable. it was a good balance between sight seeing and shopping. reali many thanks to XY for being an excellent companion, without a single word of complaint from the exhaustive schedule. To all, forgive me if i might be too long winded in this post, cos it's also for the sake of being able to recall all the memories juz in case my memory was to fail one fine day.

Published

Was suprised to see my post being published on this week's i-weekly magazine.
Well, my real intention was not to plainly criticize the one and only tv station in SG, but rather to express my true sentiments about my thoughts while watching their so called "Production of the year". No doubt the published article differed slightly from wat i've originally writtened, but it's better than nothing after all.

I left the magazine at office today, so i'm going to post wat i've originally sent to them abt 2 weeks ago:

近期看了新传媒重播的《新兵小传》和《金枕头》。再看了新剧《手足》，感触形成了两大强烈对比。

早期的剧集制作严谨，剧情合理，演员演技精湛，让观众容易引起共鸣。相反的，新传媒在秉着制作电视25年的标语制作出的近期作品，剧情千篇一律，尤其是长寿剧《荷兰村》，《喜临门》，《同心圆》到最新的《手足》。都是换汤不换药的叙述一个家庭，一个家族生意和一群兄弟姐妹的故事。而且一部不如一部。最让人看不下去的《手足》，简直就像一场闹剧。演员木讷的演技暂且不谈，剧中几乎每五分钟就有一个吵架镜头，再加上荒谬的剧情，让人非但不能从观看节目中得到娱乐消闲的效果，反而让人一听到那些吵杂的吵架声就反感。
希望《新传媒》能有所检讨，制作出真的能够让人引起共鸣的"长寿得奖剧"，不要让观众觉得"戏剧情牵二十五"已足够让制作组江郎才尽。

So, to people who think or used to think that i can't speak, understand or write Chinese, I swear that this post is 100% original and written by myself. If you happen to buy this week's copy of the magazine, you might want to compare the editions made with the original.

^^

Taiwan, my 1st overseas vacation out of south east asia after I started working, will be my landing zone 2 days from now. hope everything turns out smoothly

;)

青春123

A grp of 4 'too old to learn' roller blading went to ECP for a 2 hr blading session. Of which 3 out of the 4 are almost complete amateurs, including myself....I'm not shy to admit that last sat was my 2nd time blading....after about dunno how many years (at least 4-5).

I'm also not shy to admit that i've fallen at least 4-5 times.

But so what? Somehow i felt like a kid learning how to walk again.

I value this experience and somehow i gathered some reflection about life through this incident...

It's about overcoming the skeptism in one's self, to gather the courage to take the first step to do anything. It's common to fall at times, and it's important to stand up by yourself, and for yourself. And you might be surprised yourself by the unexpected achievements you might gain.

"So what if pple laugh at this UNCLE who fell on his butt?"
"So what if pple laugh at this UNCLE who blade sooooo clumsily??"


So it was a day full of action and activities, with this grp of old JC frens:

Cheesecake Cafe after blading

YX: she and I could have been a pair of TWINS. Born on the same year, month and day; our time of birth is only about 1 hour apart

Ah Khim: a common target for all of us to tease and make fun of...even after so many years. Check out her bag..and also the shot. Does she look like someone who goes around selling pirated VCDs??? BTW, the bag was made from the material as the "red, white, blue checker" 麻袋 we always know.

Maybe it's a good time to post this song...a classic from the 1980s; 1986 to be exact i tink. I was still in my kindergarden then. And i felt so youthful cos i indulged myself in the youthful activities...haha.

青春123 原唱着：颜黎明

嘟。。青春123。。啦。。青春123。
我将年少的日子，谱上美丽旋律，
在悠悠的琴声里，流过款款的笑语。
我将青春的日记，写成浪漫的诗集，
让盈盈的泪水洗去忧伤的字迹。

我也曾经来编织属于梦幻的彩褛，
但我会珍惜所有真实的回忆。
我也曾经任性地挥霍亮丽的光阴，
但我从来不曾忘记踏出向前的步履。

让我永远拥有永远拥有纯真的心灵，
在我平凡的生命里不断创造奇迹，
让我永远拥有永远拥有阳光的笑意，
在我成长的雨季里耐心等待天晴

Click here to watch "qing-chun-123"

如果爱

It seems that this activity has becum our favourite ar office almost a few times a week...But this one was reali a good buy...$10 bucks per kg for the so call best durian from malaysia...and cos of our good relations wif the stall owner, we were fortunate to get 5 similar durians FOC on top of the 5 which we paid for!! Juz check them out...the taste--- marvellous; bitter; sweet; rich; thick; small seed..oops i'm drooling again...






Juz quite keen to share a psycho test result which i saw over a magazine recently...its something about my perception on love. here's the interpretation:

你是一个很注重隐私的人
特别保护自己的私有空间
与外界划清界限
让想了解你或认识你的人为之反感
就像隔着一面透明的墙
你把自己关闭在爱情外
转而专住于生活中的其他事情

So how far do u tink it's true abt me???


and cos of dat, i tink i shld post some song, which i've not done for quite some time. in fact, this song has always been my fav, be it in my i tunes, mp3 player, ktv must sing list. though after abt 2 yr plus, this song still managed to remain in my TOP chart. i juz simply like the lyrics, melody, and singing or i shld say everything about the song. I dun tink i've posted this song b4. So do enjoy. It's something related to the topic i've posted abt love though :)