Taiwan

What can I say? Though it is yet another place with Chinese words everywhere, the people are totally different. The girls really dress up like Japanese dolls. The guys are tall and cute. Most of all, everyone around is so polite and helpful, it feels as though I am walking around in a huge 6-star hotel place.

Tired out from traveling around. And since a lot of pple have been to Taiwan, I guess a short photo blog should be enough ^_^

Day1 – Taipei

Arrived on a very nice date, 070707.

First stop, was definitely ximending, as that’s where our hotel is.

Stall selling yummy Taiwan sausages.

Us sweating like mad after eating the famous ahzong meesua. 40NT per bowl. It’s really delicious! ^_^

I just had to buy the packet drink with wuzun on it. 15NT, full of vitamin C!

Enjoying donuts from mister donut. Ooh.. how I wish Singapore has more donut outlets.

Day2 – Hualien

Famous wanton stall in hualien, 60NT per bowl of 11 wantons.

Nice, huge tauhuay stall. Took a photo, which made me realize tt jx looked so much like tong!! >.<

Went to the biggest park, chongcheng park in hualien. View of hualien from the park.

Me enjoying steak and spaghetti for 110NT at a hualien night market

Kids playing with sparklers and fireworks.

Day 3 – Hualien Taroko Gorge

We were blessed with yet another day of good weather to visit Taroko Gorge. We followed a day tour.

Us at the entrance of taroko national park

More mountains and nature to remind me of Tibet. The mountains here are not bare, but full of vegetation though.

Took many nature shots.. butterflies and dragonflies and spiderwebs

Interesting ray-like leaves

‘zhuai’ gorilla?

Swallow grotto

Tunnel of 9 turns

Poem

Chulu cliff, which we were asked to admire upside down. Really nice ^_^

Cihmu bridge

Kids oblivious of dangerous rockfall areas

Longevity trail

Ended the trip with a nice buffet lunch, restaurant with aboriginal theme

Visited the 7-star-lake (qi xing tan)

Day4 -- Taipei

Back to Taipei, we went to the 12-storey Partyworld KTV to sing our hearts out. Each karaoke room has it’s own personal toilet! Shiokness~

Saw Taipei 101, nightview.

Day5 – Yangmingshang and shihlin night market

Visited the xiaoyoukeng, which is an active volcanic site. Lots of sulphur emissions, which got really pungent as we walked closer. (I hated the walk up though. The trail had lots of bugs and blue-tailed lizards that run much faster than the normal house lizards. So gross!)

Nonetheless, we took lots of photos while we were there. ^_^

Interesting Chinese poem to enjoy nature.

Taipei 101 in the day

More good food and shopping at shihlin night market and wufenpu

Day 6 – sightseeing and hotspring at xinbeitou

Sightseeing. Chiang kai shek memorial, concert theatre, istana

Hotspring at xinbeitou. We chose a nice, clean hotel called shuimei. 2 people room costs 990NT for 90minutes of hotspring/coldspring enjoyment. (10 min hotspring, 1 minute cold spring cycles)

Day 7 and 8 – Danshui and happening ximending

More good food at danshui

Siewmais there had more variation. We bought 10, and the auntie gave us 1 free one! ^_^ (the lady behind us saw and requested for a free one, but the auntie refused!! Haha)

Ximending on a Friday night is ultra happening. We first saw a singer-wannabe basking. Then a model in the midst of a photoshoot in the middle of the street. Then.. we caught the crystalball-fireball man. The bald guy who goes on 综艺大哥大? Saw a live performance (and caught on video! Yahoo~) and of course, took photo with him. He’s quite dao.. but oh well. Just take to show our mothers we saw him. Lol.

Saturday ximending even more happening. Early morning girls were already queuing up, waiting for the finalists of 台湾星光大道. Unfortunately, by the time we returned from lunch, we only saw the last bits of fans snapping their cameras furiously, but saw none of the finalists in person. Haha. As we walked along, we saw another large procession. The main leads of a new Taiwan serial.. something 柿子. The guys were really tall.. I think about 1.9m. Then the little Taiwan gals running behind them are so tiny.. what a stark contrast. I was so stunned I forgot to whip out my camera. So.. no photos again. Haha.

Taiwan was a good trip. Good company. And this is what I call holiday. Sightseeing, Eating, drinking, partying, watching tv, sleeping til noon and missing breakfast provided by the hotel, shopping til we’re broke.

Thanks fangers, liqi, junxiong for the wonderful trip.

It’s time to rest. ^_^

Misc stuff about Tibet

No bathing in Tibet, is the thing i remember the most. Yeah. no bathing on the train there, then first few days to acclimatize. I bathed on day5, after which we started ascending again and i stopped bathing. Only bathed twice in my 12 day trip. But i bet we all smelt the best in Tibet. Coz people there bathe only 3 times a year!

For the first 2 days in Tibet, we followed a tour group of 28 people. From the 3^rd day onwards, we left the group, 8 of us split into 2 SUVs and had 1 tour guide to bring us on our mount everest stint! Both tour guides are pretty young, first one from Chengdu called Xiaowen, while the 2^nd is tibetian called duojie. (well, I guess only tibetians can really bear with the altitude and weather of everest. While we were freezing in layers of clothes and down, duojie was wearing a t-shirt and not feeling cold at all!! >.<)

I guess it’s coz the group size was small, thus we got along better with the 2^nd tour guide. Furthermore, he followed the SUV with sam, pris, bong and I in it. Actually, he didn’t look THAT young.. but found out tt he’s only 25!! Must be the long hours under the strong UV in tibet, plus the chain smoking that caused him to look older than he actually is. Haha. Interestingly, our tourguide is also a part-time artist, drawing tibetian paintings (thangkha) to sell in his free time.

That’s me with our tour guide, right at Everest~

Toilets in Tibet.. are.. not really existent. Haha. However, non-existent toilets are still better than smelly and gross toilets! The most tiring thing that makes me out of breathe is usually toilet visits, as you either have to hold your breathe while you’re in there, or you have to climb some hills to find some rocks to hide behind.

Pris and shu’s hiding place

My peeing rock

Bong’s rock

And since everest is an important place, I even took a VIDEO of the toilet there!! ^_^

Somehow, many people whom I’ve talked to after this trip, told me “I’ve never seen this (nature) side of you”. Well, it’s not a new side of me, but simply a side that seldom gets revealed in the midst of city life. I DO love nature. In fact, when leaving Tibet, I actually asked myself, why was I willing to succumb to pressures and remain in Singapore? Why did I not have more courage to give up everything I have and move to some remote village and lead a simple life? I even wondered if a compromise could be reached. Something like in the movie Painted Veil, where a guy risked his life to do research on infectious diseases in a village in China. Maybe I could do some cancer research in some village too. Then I’d have the best of both worlds. Whoahaha. I am just day dreaming.

This path I have chosen. 10 days a year, is the max I will be able to find retreat in some simple place from now on.

Enjoying the sky, the mountains, the view, the cold air.. together with tibetian singing.. is the most enjoyable moments..

Thanks Sam for inviting me on this trip. Thanks Bong for being my nice roomie, and being so stern with me and thus keeping me safe during the trip. Thanks to Jinghui, Pris, Anshu, Patrick and Yifei for making such wonderful company~

Nature in Tibet!!

A pleasant surprise was a complete circular rainbow above Potala Palace, even when it did not rain that day! I don’t know how that rainbow appeared, but it sure is beautiful ^_^

What else to see, but lots of mountains, lakes, valleys, blue skies, green pastures!

Mountain with many stripes. COlorful mountains were labelled as "artists' palette" in death valley, as a tourist attraction. Here, in tibet, you see it everywhere.

Of course, the main highlight of the trip.. was Everest!!

Us at Everest Base Camp (EBC), day1. Freezing cold, wind very strong, and everest (right behind me) is hidden behind heavy clouds. The tent that we slept in. Brrr..

Warming up inside the tent

Tent is kept warm in the day by burning yak dung (amazingly, it doesn't smell! Really! i had my dinner sitting right next to it! And pat even BBQ-ed his bun using the smoke from yak dung! >.<)

Everest early in the morning.

Everest at sunset

Everest after sunset

Everest at night

Reflection of Everest on a lake in the morning

Me with everest

Taking the horse carriage further up Mount Everest

At everest base camp (the old one, 5200m above sea level)

Attempting jumping shots at everest (even when we were advised not to have physical exertion due to lack of oxygen!) Diamox rules~ (medication that saved me from any form of altitude sickness! ^_^)
Utterly tired after 10 jumping shots. There is definitely less oxygen up there, despite me taking Diamox religiously

And of course, tones of videos on everest!!

Windy windy windy at everest base camp



Walking towards everest on day1 when everest was still blocked by the clouds

News reporting the sighting of Sunset everest



Taking the horse carriage up to the Old EBC early in the morning at 7am



Screaming (and fainting from lack of oxygen) at summit of EBC (Everest Base Camp)

View of everest from the horse carriage in the morning