A Post I could finally call The Great Escape

Well, I was back already, like a couple of days ago. But resting took up a portion of the time, as well as indulging in lame videos uploaded onto the PSP. And I went to the ZOO. It's been a long time, really.

And here are the five days:

This trip has been more of an adventure than an escape, because it didn't pass without glitches. But they were minor glitches, heh. We enjoyed ourselves tremendously, I would say, most of the time, shopping. It was the first time I took a flight out of Singapore from T3, and we spent time doing photos. I had that really cheap but beautiful vintage top on, and it made my mood beautiful. We went in early, because it was suaku Ng Wai Ting's first time taking the plane, and she yearned to see what it was like beyond the boarding gate. LOL. Well, and being the gamer that she is, she yelped when she saw the free Internet. Well, both of them were glad for the last-minute Internet, which I didn't appreciate. I'm such a "Say No to Internet" person. So I spent some time looking at planes parking, and despatchers busily sending the luggage up planes, I guess. Just some stoning.

I'd dare to say I actually like plane food, though most find it yucky. I usually slurp and munch everything, and I especially like free ice-cream, be it cornetto or haagen daz. And I'm afraid of turbulences. I sometimes get very worried, because I don't want to die early, though I know usually it's nothing serious. (We did have quite a rocky ride from Taipei to Singapore). Anyway, it was so exciting to touch down in Taipei. I still remembered roughly how it would look like, from the trip two years back. Everything's still quite vivid.

I kept "revising" the map on the coach, because I was worried we would lose our way. We got down at Taipei Railway Station and had to walk to our hotel, Forte Orange Business Hotel. We found the right road, but yoodle doo, just couldn't find the building. I got quite panicky and we kept walking around. It was the right road, right landmarks, but no hotel signs in sight. In the end, asking people were the way to go. And it became the right way throughout the trip for foreigners like us. Well, if you guys are going on free and easy trips, remember to be humble and ask for ways when you know nuts. It always helps, always. This uncle in Seven just took the map, turned it around and around and said: 好我知道了！ Whoopee. Alamak, the orange sign was damn small, that's why we missed it! Heng ah. I thought we had to sleep by the streets for four nights man.

The room was not very big, but it was clean and cosy. I like every part except the fact that me and Ng Wai Ting had to squeeze in a single bed. But, ok lah, still quite comfortable. We were really excited about shopping, so once we got the luggages settled,we set off for Ximending. It took quite some time to locate the streets, but it was our virgin walk to Ximending from the hotel. Dinner took quite long, so we did minimal shopping. But Ximending is a great place in Taiwan to shop. We almost shopped there everyday.



Excited me, beautiful top, and a glass panel in T3

We woke up early the next day. Me and Ng Wai Ying went down for the hotel's breakfast, but it was so-so. The variety was quite miserable, but I had porridge and eggs which managed to fill the stomach. We decided we were not going to have breakfast in the hotel anymore. Then, there were more "getting a bit lost" in Zhongxiao Dunhua because we did not know which was the right bus stop to board the bus for Leofoo Village. But some asking around did the trick again. MRT rides were fun, though it was almost the same as the one in Singapore. I still remembered that the Taiwanese are really orderly when it comes to queueing and stuff, so I reminded my little sisters about that.

And Leofoo Village was a blast!!!!!!! It was better than 小人国 which I tried the other time. The games are fantastic and the park is beautiful. They even had a safari/zoo/farm there. :):)

We went to Ximending again in the night but bought little. Had dinner at 蛋蛋屋 and I love the omelette. Must-try!


Getting robbed

The third day was a mistake. And it is something I must tell Ms Seow, who's going there soon. Don't be a blur-sotong like me. Shops don't open so early! We went out early, planning to attack 五分铺. And when we reached there, my sis said "你这样早带我们来看shutters huh？ 台湾的shutters 和新加坡的不一样meh？" Oops.

Hence, we sat down at Pizza Hut and discovered that they had 吃到饱 for 15 sing bucks only. They should have this in Singapore too. Value for money man. Anyway, omg, even after the heavy lunch, 五分铺 not open yet. So we decided to head back to Ximending for more shopping. And we bagged big buys on this day. 武昌店is a great place for people like us who fancy street style. And Taiwan Street Fashion is crowded man. Choices are aplenty. We went to Stage too, but nothing much. And anyway, 五分铺不怎样，the clothes all look cheap, and are cheap. But we don't like cheap stuff. LOL.


Big bags of buys. Envious?

Our sort of last day in Taipei was my favourite. The walk in Danshui was fabulous. Beautiful sights and quirky shops which sell those childhood toys. And great FOOD. I had 阿给，鸟蛋，铁蛋，巨无霸冰淇淋 and a lot more. Then we went to Shilin for more food! I missed the 鸡排 I used to have everyday when I lived near Shilin for nearly a week. 蚵仔煎 was yum yum too. Shilin is a shopper's paradise too. I spent every last cent there. And we barely covered one-third.


Impressive scenery, Kuso face, and my glorious Zara Sundress

And we had to grudgingly pack for the next day's flight, because we couldn't bear to leave behind the shopping. But we know mummy and daddy misses us. Gosh. The bags we had to lugged back.

And we ended the first great escape. I'm waiting for the next one. Who knows when that might be?

P.S: I'll put the rest of the photos on Facebook and Deviant.

Life?

This has been a weird week. For the first time, I truly realised how hard it was to lead life without talking to my mum. We were trying hard to spite each other and the feeling was unbearable. It came to the stage when I wasn't even angry at her anymore, and I knew neither was she, but nobody wanted to take the first step in mending the faultline. But, I'm glad it's over and we're better than before after a good talk. Ha. Since in the first place, it was a really small problem.

I went out alone on Tuesday, for a perfect day out and was disappointed when it started raining on the train ride. Twas hoping for the rain to stop and it did! Voila. The movie, Black Book, showing at the Picturehouse was superb. The plot is really good and I was totally absorbed in the show. And for 6 bucks only. Reminded me of Lust, Caution, it was as audacious as Lust, Caution and I even thought it was better than the Chinese version coz it went all out. I'd said catch it, before it's gone from the big screen. There's another new one coming on in June starring Rupert Grint and I might be watching that too since the tix is so cheap.

Bought two vintage tops from a shop in The Cathay and they were goddamn cheap. One was 20 bucks only. Gosh. They look oh-so-suitable to wear on my next big great escape, TAIWAN! (Can't believe so soon!) Then, I walked to Bugis, hoping to exhaust my Oktomat's film on the way, though I failed. Wasn't much to take. Walked around Bugis Junction. Shopping was ok, but food was good! A lot of new food outlets and the food junction has so much variety. Love there just for the food! Wootx.

Anyway, these few days, have been making some last minute planning for Taiwan, doing some currency exchange and collecting my tickets. :) Have been paying attention the Chees vs Lees case too, and me and Yi Ling had a fervent discussion about the saga at our lunch yesterday too. Well, if I have to take sides, I'd stand by the Lees, cause they appear too intelligent to fault them for anything, if I look at it objectively as a court case, and not from a political standpoint. But, well, I derived my stand from a narrow perspective derived from the Strait's Times daily reporting. Well, oh, well.

My Birthday Gift with Additional Wafu Sauce

Me and Ms Lai have been great friends for "use all the fingers also cannot count" years and we kinda got bored of getting gifts for each other. Our Orchard venture ended up with her treating me to Jap food and me getting two tank tops for her. We both agreed that mutual gift exchanges help save money, give us the illusion of not having to pay any money and that we both like the idea, hence we're going to stick to this every year. :)

But, she got disgusted with me and my sesame ice cream. Well, you see, long long time ago, we made a bet. She betted with one sesame ice cream that my "hair-growing" attempt won't endure and I swore she said she was going to eat one with me if my hair got long. Now it's long, and she's not honouring her word!!!Because she thinks the colour of sesame is like tar. And i say sesame is my favourite flavour for an ice-cream.



She had Mango with sorbet and I had sesame with red bean. Hence, she concluded that my choice was very "ah pek" and her choice was "modern". Gosh, and I'd say "ah pek" is the new word for "indie" and "unique", yeah?

Anyway, the highlights of the day had to do with boys. She was goggling this cute guy that I didn't see at Depression@Far East, and she kept gushing that that guy was "her type" "her type" lol. Then, we ventured to Heeren and saw another cute NewUrbanMale. Ah, this one was cute, also "her type" "her type".

Oops, i'm sorry, those weren't the highlights. The highlight was that she embarassed herself by getting on the wrong escalator because she got too busy looking at the NewUrbanMale, and he must have noticed. Damn LOL.

By the way, Ms Lai said this over dinner "黄伟曼，你越来越mean了!" and it was all because of all the balding heads in the world. 我会mean meh？