Tuesday, April 08, 2008

Taiwan Trip



At last, I managed to resize some of the pictures I captured in Taiwan three weeks ago. There's a lot of them but oh well.. no jumping picture ;( It's inappropriate to jump at the place like Taipei 101, imagine how embarrass I can be. lol. Overall, the trip was great; the weather was just nice, and so were the people there.


us at KLIA before leaving.

The first night was spent by walking (yes, in the pouring rain) at Shilin night market. It is the largest night market in Taiwan. We tried some must-try food there, but I like their fried mee hoon the most. haha. (u must be thinking like.. wth here also have fried mee hoon rite. But it was nice, compared with other stuff that we ate.) Well, actually others were not that bad; their oyester omelet was pretty nice, and their Aiyu Jelly (愛玉冰) and Pearl milk tea are definitely a must-try too.

Supersized chicken chop on the left


Small sausage in the big sausage..


Baked potatoes

The next morning we stopped by Yang Ming Shan (陽明山) before we went off to Jiu Fen. Yang Ming Shan is a collection of peaks of mountain, situated at northeast of Taipei. Cherry (sakura) can be seen along the road as we going up the hills and it was beautiful. Too bad the place we stopped by had less sakura and it's less pinkish than those we seen. The place was grown with beautiful white flowers which I wasn't quite sure with its name. (I know its Chinese name, but not English)


pale tiny cherry blossoming. lol.


The farm which fully planted with the white flowers (Haiyu)


Haiyu..







Next stop- Jiu Fen, a small town where beautiful preserved traditional houses can be found. The main area of interest to visitors are the town's historic commercial district which is covered by two pedestrian streets: Jishan Street (基山街, which runs along the ridge line), and Shuchi Street (豎崎路, which runs up and down the slope of the hill). I particularly like the Jishan Street very much.


Jishan Street


a typical street in Jiufen


Beef noodles..




Fishball.. they sell various kind of huge fishball.




This lady was so cute till I can't stop laughing. She was extremely good in posing!


This lady was concentrating on writing calligraphy








My man helping me with the bag and umbrella while me doing the shooting ;p

The second night was spent in Shangrila Leisure Farm. Weather was a bit chilling, but of course still bearable. We had some fun activities with other visitors in the farm, playing huge gasing, making tang yuen, and writing our wishes on the kong ming lamp before flying it off to the sky.


lesuire farm


crossing the shaking hanging wooden bridge..




They looked alike.. I mean the outfit ;p


Shangrila..


Bubbles rain


It was not as cold as it seemed. ;p


A bad example of posing ;p


A better example of posing..oh well ;p


taxi~! (there was barely anything there, though!)


Yilan Wine Center




sausages..







Third day was spent at Yi Lan Wine Center and National Center for Traditional Art. The exhibition of weaving craft was amazing. They actually used the all weaving thing to create masterpieces, like people, clothing, and stuff that you hardly believe which can be done by weaving.


Some "vintage" soaps displayed in a random shop


At the wine center.. Yushi and I..


Did some handcrafting with mosaic in a folk art shop. :))


Us at the art center.




I've got mail to post. Yea, right.


Some snacks we had..




It's Folk Art Boulevard behind me..


me the lollipop seller ;p


Guangsiao Shrine

We spent our night at Lan-Yang Spring Resort at Chiao Shi and it was the time we enjoyed dipping ourself in the hot spring! Everyone can enjoy their personal hot-spring as the water was being sent through a piping system right to their room. So I didn't go to the public ones, as I was too shy ;)


Japanese-style room with Hinoki bathroom


Eating cakes and chatting in a local cafe at Chiao Shi.

The next morning we went back to Taipei, and visited the The Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall (中正紀念堂), controversially renamed the "National Taiwan Democracy Memorial Hall" (臺灣民主紀念館) by the DPP, is the symbol of both Taipei and the Republic of China. The memorial consists of a large bronze statue of Chiang Kai-shek, which is now become "over-decorated" by DPP. The National Theater Hall (國家戲劇院) and National Concert Hall (國家音樂廳) are located beside of the memorial.




The "over-decorated" statue.



Steamed pork dumplings in Din Tai Fung (鼎泰豐) were heavenly. The deliciousness of it can be known by judging on the numbers of waiting visitors in front of the shop. No pictures of that as everyone was too busy eating different kind of dumplings and etc.


random shot of the sweet couple in front of Din Tai Fung

Taipei 101, the 508-meter high skyscraper is located in the Xinyi District of Taipei. It's another shopping mall with designer brands which you can name of.



Ximending is a trendy shopping area just west of Downtown popular with local students. We had Ah-Zong Mee Suah, which is known as Oyster vermicelli (蚵仔麵線), if I was not mistaken. We finished our mee suah by standing, but not sitting. Yes. And it was so crowded that the front of the shop was packed with customers.




Wu Fen Pu.. the place where you can get cheapy clothes and also discounts.






Malaysia's taxis should upgrade to Camry too.. ;p nicer to sit on..

Friday, March 28, 2008

Time is ticking

It's ticking and I hate it.

This is one of those time that I wish the time can be stopped. How nice if I were a time controller. The time just being freeze after I stopped the stopwatch.

Assignments and more assignments keep floating in and the dateline is getting close.

tick.tick.tick.

Time's clicking. I hate the ticking sound.

And it means you are leaving me really soon.

I'm hating Sunday. so. much.

Sunday, March 16, 2008

Kampachi and Those Sweet Words

I am a Japanese food lover. For those who don't know much about me, I can tell you that my love towards the food can reach the extent of drinking miso soup in the morning, having curry rice during lunch time and taking katsu don as my dinner.

So after my boyf got back from Japan, he asked me: "Where shall we head to for dinner later?" I answered, "I'm craving for Japanese food. It's been ages since I ate sushi and my favorite curry rice and katsu don!" And then someone yelled,"Oh please, hell NO! I've had enough of Japanese food already." So, we ended eating Thai or Italian food usually. They're good, of course. But I still dream of myself swimming in the sea of various kind of sashimi and eating endless bowl of katsu don. =(

After few nagging, I finally gave in. I did not recommend going for Japanese food, when my boyf asked me every single time. Seeing him been missing all the glorious food back at home(town) quite a lot, I would generally go wherever he wants to. Yesterday was one of the sweetest days, when he tagged me into Kampachi, a Japanese restaurant which I've been wanting to go.


Toro sashimi (tuna belly) was awesome! It's milky and very fresh! A little pricey for RM30 per piece but it's all worth it.


Maguro sashimi


Curry rice that he ordered. nice!


My una and sashimi don




some chicken teriyaki. thumbs up!


Having a short break at Starbucks, the passion tea choked me up a little when I first sipped it. ahh the bitterness.

======

Norah Jones - Those Sweet Words has been on my favourite playlist currently. It's addictive. The lyrics are so beautiful that I can't stop singing it.

What did you say?
I know I saw you singing
But my ears won't stop ringing
Long enough to hear
Those sweet words
What did you say?

End of the day
The hour hand has spun
But before the night is done
I just have to hear
Those sweet words
Spoken like a melody

All your love
Is a lost balloon
Rising up through the afternoon
'Till it could fit on the head of a pin

Come on in
Did you have a hard time sleeping
'Cause the heavy moon was keeping me awake
And all I know is I'm just glad to see you again

See my Love
Like a lost balloon
Rising up through the afternoon
And then you appear

What did you say?
I know what you were singing
But my ears won't stop ringing
Long enough to hear
Those sweet words
And just simple melody

I just have to hear
Those sweet words
Spoken like a melody
I just wanna hear
Those sweet words...

I want to fall asleep in your arm, when listening to this song <3>

I can't wait for this coming Tuesday! cos I'll be off to Taiwan for a short vacation! =)
Till then~