Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Hmm I don't know how to begin this post.
Anyway, I'm back :D From the Republic of China, which by the way is NOT China but Taiwan.
So I guess I'll start from the, uh, beginning.
--
We reached Changi Airport at around 8.15 am and went to the hidden underground staff canteen for breakfast because Killiney Kopitiam was full. Having a dad who's a tour guide rocks because you get to learn about all the secret hideyholes in the airport where the staff hang out :D The staff canteen's virtually inaccessible to those who don't know the way. But my dad forgot to bring his airport pass, so we didn't get discounts on the food. Sigh.
Plane ride was okay; I got slightly airsick from the smelly plane air and couldn't eat anything for lunch. At least the air pressure didn't hurt my ears that much.
We landed in Taiwan about 4 hours later and met the tour guide. He wasn't as good as my dad (because I've been on one of my dad's tours and his tour-guide persona's amazingly different from his normal self, and really professional), but pretty okay. His jokes are funny :D
Ohoh here's one.
Bill Clinton went to Taiwan for an official visit. After a long day of meetings, Clinton, Lee Teng-Hui and Chiang Kai-Shek decided to escape their bodyguards for a while and go have fun by themselves.
So at midnight, the three men snuck out of their respective hotel rooms and went to a strip club. After some time, the stripper came out and started dancing on the bar top. Just as she reached Lee Teng-Hui, her bra top came off. The man was so happy that he gave her $500 in tips.
Chiang Kai-Shek was next in line, and when the stripper reached him, her underwear came off. Feeling pressured by Lee Teng-Hui's generosity, Chiang Kai-Shek gave her $1000.
So Clinton was watching all this, and said to himself: "Damn, I'm the American president! I've got to outdo them."
When the stripper got to Clinton, her butt happened to be facing him. So in a sudden flash of inspiration, Clinton whipped out his wallet...
...took out a credit card, and swiped it down her butt. ("I'VE GOT A CREDIT CARD! NO SPENDING LIMIT!!!")
Wahaha his jokes are the best man. They're really sick la.
So anyway since it was nearly sunset (at 4.30pm, yeah) we went to the Shilin Night Market for dinner.
...Ah heck I'll just post photos and describe them.
The side entrance of Shilin Night Market.
臭豆腐 yay :D
Ximen MRT Station, near (what else?) Ximending.
Ximending again.
We were making 茶薰蛋。My dad looks happy here because he'd just proven his eggshell-peeling capabilities after my mum, grandma and I laughed at him for needing my help to peel a hard-boiled egg.
(Second day, in Taitung. I think.)
A whole fleet of campaign cars for the Saturday polls! Omg their elections are HILARIOUS. Each candidate has his/her own fleet of campaign vehicles, and some of them will have huge speakers mounted on trucks to play patriotic-sounding music. It's damn funny because the music sounds like karaoke from the 50s (and it's really loud too) and you can't tell which candidate it's for until you see the campaign posters on the trucks.
I wonder how much money they spend on campaigning.
First class train to Hualien :D
A candidate's election centre.
More tofu at Shen Keng Tofu Street. I love the spicy duck-blood version, but my mum only let me eat it once D:
We went to a restaurant called 五角船板 on the 6th day. I don't know what the theme of the restaurant is, but Caveman would be pretty close. The dish in the picture above is sweet potato rice.
My lunch. The restaurant calls its food "粗茶淡饭", but they served pork and fish and there were like 8 courses or something. Lol irony.
A piece of deep-fried mushroom. I thought it was tofu at first.
THEIR STAIRS CREEP ME OUT.
View of the interior of the restaurant from the 3rd floor! There's even an indoor river inside :O
Then we went to Taipei 101. It's really, really tall.
Another themed restaurant! It's called the 便所餐厅 wahahaha. Everything there's toilet-themed.
My ice-cream. Appetising, huh (:
And the dinner set. It's really gross la my chicken curry was yellowish and looked like, well, what you'd find in a toiletbowl.
Kay I'll blog more about Taiwan when I remember what happened. The second night was fun; we went to the Shangri-La mountain chalet :D They teach tourists how to spin tops and fly paper lanterns, and you can actually borrow the tops when you're bored and practise spinning. Dinner there was cool too. They served Taiwan beer during dinner, so I drank a glass (: It was pretty sweet. (Hah since certain seniors of mine refuse to buy me booze, I shall booze myself in foreign lands. ;P)
The side entrance of Shilin Night Market.
臭豆腐 yay :D
Ximending again.
We were making 茶薰蛋。My dad looks happy here because he'd just proven his eggshell-peeling capabilities after my mum, grandma and I laughed at him for needing my help to peel a hard-boiled egg.
A whole fleet of campaign cars for the Saturday polls! Omg their elections are HILARIOUS. Each candidate has his/her own fleet of campaign vehicles, and some of them will have huge speakers mounted on trucks to play patriotic-sounding music. It's damn funny because the music sounds like karaoke from the 50s (and it's really loud too) and you can't tell which candidate it's for until you see the campaign posters on the trucks.
I wonder how much money they spend on campaigning.
First class train to Hualien :D
A candidate's election centre.
More tofu at Shen Keng Tofu Street. I love the spicy duck-blood version, but my mum only let me eat it once D:
We went to a restaurant called 五角船板 on the 6th day. I don't know what the theme of the restaurant is, but Caveman would be pretty close. The dish in the picture above is sweet potato rice.
My lunch. The restaurant calls its food "粗茶淡饭", but they served pork and fish and there were like 8 courses or something. Lol irony.
A piece of deep-fried mushroom. I thought it was tofu at first.
THEIR STAIRS CREEP ME OUT.
View of the interior of the restaurant from the 3rd floor! There's even an indoor river inside :O
Then we went to Taipei 101. It's really, really tall.
Another themed restaurant! It's called the 便所餐厅 wahahaha. Everything there's toilet-themed.
My ice-cream. Appetising, huh (:
And the dinner set. It's really gross la my chicken curry was yellowish and looked like, well, what you'd find in a toiletbowl.