{Thursday, December 31, 2009} 8:30 PM


the flight to taiwan was a smooth and enjoyable one because we got to occupy an extra seat to ourselves :) i love it when i don't have to hold on to the pillow and blanket when there already isn't extra leg room. anw, i left sis' new moon on the seat beside me and this steward saw and went,

him: did you watch the movie? it was good!
me: yup i did.
him: i know you girls only want to look at the guys inside right?
me: haha!

what a random chat! the service was so much better as compared to last year.

i think i seriously need to change my passport photo because the guy at taoyuan international airport couldn't match my face with the photo.

him: -looked at passport, then me, then passport, then me- PAR-MEH-LA? (that's exactly how he pronounced it)
me: 嗯.
him: 怎麼不像妳啊?
me: 那是5年前的照片.
him: 喔好, 來玩嗎?
me: 嗯.

was deciding whether to take the high speed rail or just the normal coach when the words "桃園直達台北" attracted me so we decided to just get tickets for the evergreen bus to 雙連 shuanglian station.


then we proceeded to 五分埔 as planned since sis wanna get her boots. had the famous 鬍鬚張魯肉飯 *slurps.



this was the ONLY day we had breakfast at the lobby. left for taipei main station 台北車站 till 3pm before we went back to the hotel to unload our shopping bags because it definitely would not be a wise choice to lug everything down to danshui 淡水.

bought mister donuts and 50嵐 back to our room before embarking on our long journey down to danshui. my 雙層抹茶波提 (doughnut) was damn good.


it was still drizzling when we were at danshui. it was so windy and cold but i love it! ate and shopped along the way. it's a pity many of the shops were closed by the time we arrived.



bought some local goodies for our friends and family. while we were paying for our stuffs, the shop assistant suddenly asked:

him: 你們不是台灣人對吧?
us: 不是...
him: 那是新加坡人嗎?
us: 對阿.
him: 你知道為什麼我知道嗎? 因為新加坡人都戴這個. -pointed to my mouth-
us: 喔對阿.

then he went on to ask about how much braces cost in SG and commented that braces in TW cost at least SGD$5k, WOW what a rip-off!

we, the gluttons went back to XMD for more food. i finally got to eat my 黑砂糖烤麻糬 (mochi). yummerzxz.





we overslept! :x settled our brunch at mister donut and 爭鮮 (sushi).





off to zhongxiao fuxing 忠孝復興's sogo to get sis' onitsuka tiger shoes. from there we went to 敦化 > 光啟社 > 東區地下街 > 東區 > 劍潭.



before we even reached miramar shopping mall, we overheard evanyo's voice. apparently there was a christmas concert there but the number of fans/onlookers was pathetically small so we assumed no big shots would turn up. we left for our ride when evanyo left because the next performing singer was some lousy one :x

then i happened to see this really big concert schedule somewhere near the stage so i stopped and looked. i was on cloud 9 when i saw the name 黃鴻升 (小鬼) :D i wasn't able to step in AES earlier on but was able to see the boss later at night. whoohoo!


since we still had around 3 hours to go before xiaogui's performance, we hid inside starbucks because it was freezing cold outside. couldn't help that it was raining as well. we then braved the rain and went across to get some fingerfood before heading back to miramar.


THEN.... AN EARTHQUAKE TOOK PLACE, but i couldn't even feel it at all.

host: FUN4 (xiaogui's junior), 是你們在晃舞台嗎?
FUN4: 不是阿! 是地震!
xiaogui: 啊啊啊... 摩天輪倒了! -pointed to ferris wheel and all the fans turned to look-
me: like real huh :P
xiaogui: 哈哈騙你們的啦! 如果摩天輪真的倒了會怎樣?

FUN4 & xiaogui's performance was superb! everyone around was damn high, except me as usual :P then it was back to shihlin for dinner and shopping.



planned to go get breakfast from JSP. we wore shorts down because it was a short distance there and 2 men commented so loudly that we must be crazy. none of their business anyway.


roamed around XMD before heading to the legendary TAIPEI 101. boring place but i suppose it's a must-go for every tourist?




took the train back to taipei main station soley because we wanna get stuffs from 光南批發 again.


next stop was:


back to XMD in an attempt to look for outerspace. spent like more than 1 hour just looking for it. some people didn't even know it existed.



we overslept again! no itinerary for the day so we just went to places our legs brought us to. had 阿忠面線 for breakfast. omg, i'm craving for a bowl of it now :<


went around XMD getting last minute stuffs like local goodies, masks and everything that was still on our to-buy list. i think we went abit overboard because the stuffs were really damn heavy and once again, we lugged everything to outerspace. found out that it wasn't opened yet so we waited outside because i didn't want to make another trip down.


before going back to our room to unload our bags, we bought bubble tea again! doesn't help that the shop is along the hotel where we stayed.

hello kittty sweets was next.


the food was bleh! i had some lavender custard thingy that tasted like the air purifier i have at home. over-rated place - only for serious hello kitty lovers.

wanted to get a porter wallet from the sogo nearby but they only had the display piece left in the store, so we asked for directions to another porter and WE FOUND IT. so street-smart, like seriously, haha!


we went in and asked for whatever we wanted almost immediately. the shop assistant found it amazing and asked if we've already seen the stuffs elsewhere.

headed to shuanglian in search of the smelly tofu we saw on TVBS super taste but we couldn't find it, so we went back to XMD to get snacks for dinner.




headed to carrefour to get stuffs that we wanted to bring back to SG (snacks, drinks and whatsnot).


woke up earlier this time round. washed up and all and headed down alone in an attempt to get bubble tea but i was a tad too early. checked out early because we didn't want to rush back from elsewhere afterwards. roamed around our favourite XMD before settling down for lunch at MOS. sis had curry pork katsu rice burger while i had tasteless prawn patty burger.


off to carrefour next to get my luggage strap because i'm afraid my luggage will burst open because there was something wrong with the lock. then we got our final bubble tea :(

we were on the way to the airport when i remembered that we still had stuffs at the counter so the uncle made a detour back. he didn't even mind a single bit! he went into the hotel lobby with me and told connie that i couldn't bear to leave the place (which was 110% true). connie told the uncle, "沒關係啦. 她常常回來啊!" i nodded and told them i'll be back in 2010, which i DEFINITELY WILL :)

slept throughout the journey to taoyuan. the man at the immigration counter looked so grumpy i thought it was a wrong choice to queue there, but i was wrong!


him: 哇你的字好小喔! -referring to my immigration form-
me: - smiled-
him: 好可愛喔!
me: :D

fell asleep when the plane took off, woke up for dinner then went back to sleep again till we were almost reaching SG. so much for the lack of sleep the past few days.

I WILL BE BACK IN TAIWAN IN 2010, YES! :D