Taiwan Trip 5 - 9 July

Just went to Taiwan for 5 days with Jeriel, John and Adriel. During the trip, we stayed in Paradise Hotel which is conveniently located near Ximending, the shopping area. The hotel facilities were not too bad for a three star hotel and there are about slightly over 100 channels on their cable TV (spoilt for choice)! We visited quite a few places in and around Taipei but we didn't travel out from Taipei due to a lack of time. 5 days is definitely not enough!

Taiwan is a food haven and there is an abundance of street stalls selling food everywhere. The food was really good and I found myself eating non-stop throughout the day. The people there are also really friendly and nice to talk to. I realised that most of the people in Taiwan, especially the young, know how to dress up well. In fact, most of them (especially the girls) look quite good. You can hardly find an ugly girl on the streets and about 70% of them are either average or good looking - lots of hot chicks around .. haha.

Things there are not exactly very cheap and I didn't really buy a lot of stuff. Found the clothes there a little too 'blink blink' and some are quite 'beng'. Spent most of my money on food instead =).

Well here is a summary:

Day 1: Reached Taipei in the evening. Spent the night exploring Ximending.

At Ximending

Ah Chung Rice Noodles, a must try! One of the dessert shops
Generous helping: Portion for 2 but can feed 4

Day 2: Travelled to this place on the mountains called Jiu Fen and spent the day there. Towards the evening, we went to Shih Lin Night Market.

At Gold Ecological Park, an old gold mining town

Outside the mining tunnel

The mining tunnel itself

Acting cute =)

Ancient concrete golf courseGreat scenery from the top
At Shih Lin Night Market'Smelly' Beancurd

Day 3: Went to Taipei 101 and walked around the shopping area. At night, we travelled to Huaxi Street Night market where snakes are killed for their blood and gall bladder (apparently they are very good tonics and good for health). After that, went back to Ximending again for further exploration.

Taipei 101

We took 37 seconds to reach the top of Taipei 101 taking this lift

On top of the tallest building in the world

View from the top

At Huaxi Street Night Market, the lady was going to feed the snakes with a rat. The cups in front of her contains tonics, snake's blood and juice from the gall bladder

We ran into a pyjamas party at Ximending

Day 4: Travelled to Beitou for a dip in the hot springs and later in the afternoon, travelled to Dan Shui (Fisherman's Wharf) to watch the sunset and beautiful scenery.

Indoor hot spring. You are supposed to be totally naked when taking a dip. No photos allowed but I quickly snapped a few when no one was around

Cold spring. For cooling down.

Outdoor hot spring. Here, you must put on swimming trunks =)

At Dan Shui

Taking the ferry to Fisherman's Wharf

At Fisherman's Wharf in the day

Sunset

View during the night

Day 5: Visited the historic sites in Taipei City itself. Mainly Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall, Martyr's Shrine. Chinese Temple and National Palace Museum.

Chiang Kai Shek Memorial GateChiang Kai Shek Memorial HallMartyr's ShrineChanging of guardsA photo with the guard

Chinese TempleOutside National Palace Museum (we are not allowed to take photos inside the museum)

Yup .. Taiwan is quite a nice place and there are lots of things to explore. I haven't been to the other parts of Taiwan outside Taipei and it is one place I would definitely go back to visit again.

Life after ICT

Haven't been updating my blog for the past few days. Basically I have been going out nearly everyday and spending quite a lot of money on food and shopping (to beat the GST increase .. haha). I think I need to save a bit of money considering that I have two trips (to Taiwan and Hong Kong) coming up this month and I will probably spend quite some money overseas.

Friday: Went shopping with Roy in town and bought a T-shirt from Adidas and Mizuno running shorts. After that we had dinner at Imperial Treasure at Marina Square. Spent about $70 on that day.

Saturday: Met up with some of my ex-hall mates from Kent Ridge: Loh Jie, Changjie, Wei Aun, Hongye and Cheryl for dinner at Swensons at Marina Square (again!). Before that, I went shopping and bought some stuff from Fila. Spent about $90 on that day.

Sunday: Budget day. Basically I went for Mainly I Love Kids (MILK) run at Zouk in the afternoon with Roy, Yee Ling and some of her friends. After that, went out for dinner at McDonalds but it was free as Roy gave me a treat! Yay! Thanks =). After dinner, DOTA all night.

Monday: Met up with some of my ex-platoon mates for dinner at Cafe Cartel at Plaza Singapura (organised by Tongyu). After that we went for drinks at this KTV pub called The Labyrinth at 101 Plaza. The place was quite nice and had a nice ambience, especially since now smoking is banned in pubs, so the air is exceptionally fresh .. haha. Drank 1 pint of Hoegarden. Spent about $50 on that day.

@ The Labyrinth, 101 Plaza

TOTAL spent in 4 days: $210!!! I need to cut down on my spendings!!!

Well I guess I will start saving up again after I come back from Taiwan next week. Will be flying off on this Thursday. Yeah! Hopefully I won't spend too much on shopping and also not grow too fat from eating all the delicacies over there =).

In Camp Training

Just completed 2 weeks of high key ICT. After 2 weeks .. Release from army and back to civilian life. I can wake up late everyday and don't need to book in camp so early! FINALLY =)

Well ICT was not as dreadful as I imagined it to be. It was kind of fun actually, meeting up with friends and laughing over the silly things we did when we were in full time national service (NSF). The best part is that during ICT, we (the NS men) can just take our own sweet time (the army term used to describe this is "ba long long") to do things and joke around with everyone else, including the commanders. Everyone is one big happy family, so unlike NSF days where we get punished for being slow. Basically NS man = KING and HECK CARE .. haha.

The only down side was that our activities were quite packed and tiring, unlike some other units who are actually quite slack during ICT. On our very first day, IPPT was held in the afternoon and amazingly I managed to get silver, which is a huge improvement from last year. This means another extra $200 in addition to my NS pay =)

Yeap, other than that, we also had 3 days of range where we tried the combat shoot (basically it consists of random targets and we can cross-fire into other lanes) for the first time. It was one of my best performance in range ever, in which I only missed 4 shots out of a total of 30. However, as we need the whole detail (group of 6) to perform well to achieve marksman award, our detail did not get marksman award as we had 2 'bobo' shooters .. haha (but anyway no one in the company got marksman award).

Other activities included a mask run, MOPP 4 route march, and equipment training. For those who are wondering, my unit is CBRE (Chemical Biological Radiological Explosive) Defence Group. So MOPP 4 actually refers to wearing the whole protective suit with the mask on.

Now that ICT is finally over, I am beginning to miss some parts of it .. can you believe it? Well, I guess I have to wait another 1 year for my next ICT. In the meantime, I should just get back on with my civilian life.

Lousy Friday and Saturday .. plus dreaded ICT for the next 2 weeks

Will be going for my second In-Camp Training at Seletar Camp for the next 2 weeks from 18 June to 29 June. The past few days weren't exactly smooth going for myself, especially Friday and Saturday.

Friday night was the start of a series of unfortunate events:
Well to cut a long story short, I paid $40 to cut my hair short and colour it black (in preparation for ICT) but I got a haircut that is worse than a $8 Indian barber haircut. Now my hair looks like a bowl and I am super pissed. And the thing that pissed me off the most was that when I told the hairdresser that my hair is too short, he told me: "It is better that I cut your hair short than you go back to camp and let the army barbers cut". What the heck! So now I have to wear a cap when I go out and I shall not be posting any photos of myself until my hair grows longer and I get another nicer haircut .. HAHA.

Saturday:
Took part in National Individuals and fenced very badly, my worst performance ever. Didn't know what I was doing and couldn't execute my moves properly. I was eliminated after the round robins. Plus a scolding from coach after that .. ZZZ. (I suspect the bad haircut from Friday night affected my mood haha).

Went to watch Fantastic 4 in the evening. Halfway through the show, some very rude 'Ah Beng' sitting in front of me stood up and shouted at me for moving my legs too much and shaking his chair. What the hell man, I don't even remember moving my legs. He was the one who kept on rocking his chair and knocking them onto my legs. In the end, I had to open my legs wide so that he can happily rock his chair for the rest of the show. Seriously, he could have just asked nicely, was there a need to shout? What an idiot!

Well, these were enough to spoil my mood for the rest of the weekend, right before I go for my ICT. Hopefully next weekend will be a better one.

Genting Trip 10/6 - 12/6

Just went to Genting Highlands over last weekend with my family from Sunday to Tuesday. Haven't updated my blog for quite a while as I was busy and feeling quite lazy. Well anyway here is a summary of my Genting trip and photos.

Panoramic View from our room at First World Hotel

Went to play jackpot with my brother on the first night and we managed to win 2000 credits which worked out to be around 200 Singapore dollars. However, we lost the money away by playing Sic Bo (Small/Big also known as 'Da Xiao'). Sad.

Our winning combination:

One important lesson I learnt from the casino episode is that we should always observe first before betting. Then follow the bets of the person who is very lucky and keeps winning. After winning for a few rounds, then change table and do the same thing. Sure win formula .. maybe somebody can try it out .. haha.

A photo of myself at First World Plaza after my casino stint

Went to Genting Theme Park on the second day. Nothing new there compared to a few years back. Well pictures speak a thousand words:

Space shot

Up we go:

One of the water rides

Group photo at the Theme Park:

Went to Chin Swee Caves Temple at mid mountain on our way home the last day. The scenery was fantastic there and there are many beautiful structures and statues around. Took quite a lot of photos and here are some.

Nine Dragon Wall

ALL OF US

Busy week

Spent the past week working at World Book Fair selling some primary school software to earn a bit of cash to cover up for my expenses. Just bought a Lumix FX-30 and Ipod video 30GB at the recent PC fair which set me back by about $1000. Coming up in July is another two trips to Taiwan and Hong Kong which means more money will be spent. I guess working ad hoc is the best alternative to ensure that I replenish my bank account.

After a gruelling 7 days at the World Book Fair, I spent the first few days of this week catching up on all the movies I missed out. Watched a movie every day from Monday to Wednesday, haha. Well here is a brief summary:

Monday: Pirates of the Caribbean 3 with Taby, Roy & William, followed by dinner at Fish & Co and soya bean for dessert

Tuesday morning: Worked at Castle Beach at East Coast Park (building sandcastles) with Taby, Roy & William then lunch at Marine Parade

Tuesday evening: Zodiac with Tian Loon, Jess, Roy, William & his brother Hans

Wednesday - Dinner at Dian Xiao Er at Marina Square then Shrek 3 with Tian Loon, Jess & Roy

Coming up: Ocean's 13, Fantastic 4, Harry Potter, Surf's Up, Transformers .. So many movies to watch this holidays!!!

Well, gotta go for training soon. Haven't been to training for a week plus .. Sirui is complaining that I am 'ponning' training too much now as I am blogging .. haha.