Wednesday, September 30, 2009

so i went to see the dentist today cos the pain in my gums did not subside - i can't sleep properly and i can't even close my mouth properly.

so i went to the dentist, who's incredibly, just slightly older than me. she told me i have a "hidden" wisdom tooth - 1 that grew out a tiny bit, but can no longer grow out due to its awkward position (elsewise, it would've grown out abt 5 - 6 yrs ago). nonetheless, this tiny bit of space between my bottom right wisdom tooth and my other healthy normal teeth is where the infection is, cos thou i do all the right things like brush twice a day and rinse properly and stuffs like that, it is still an area for bacteria to grow. good news and bad news - the wisdom tooth can't grow out so technically there's no need to pluck it out. BUT. that area will simply be more prone to gum infection if i'm not careful.

SO. i went to do an xray of my teeth.. and besides that troublesome bottom right wisdom tooth, i have 1 wisdom tooth that's inside the jaw structure (no chance of coming out yay) and 2 left hand side wisdom teeth that's too far in to bother with taking them out (double yay!).

meanwhile, i just have to bear with the pain of my current infection and consider if i wanna get that troublesome tooth extracted (shivers).. i got 2 more days of MC because of it though. the dentist reassured me - "don't worry, the pain will go away in 3 - 5 days". FIVE DAYS!!!!! that's damn long!

seriously, i'm happy for the MC that i can claim back my leave from, but the pain is horrible! i'm on 2 kinds of antibiotics and i'm totally relying on the painkillers to keep the pain manageable. it's madness! in fact, i just took my meds at abt 12.30am and now (1am), it's starting to hurt again!


but ok, enuff of my teeth problems, guess it has gone on for a bit too long..

this evening, huiying, yv, leonard and i headed to Alliance Francaise to catch the Tuesday nites Cine Club screening (I had complimentary passes) - Le Scaphandre et Le Papillon. It's really a superb show, superb cinematography, superb camera angles and superb seamless transitions between scenes. Bravo.. If you haven't watched it before, try to grab hold of the movie with english subtitles, it's really a must-watch. It's based on a true story on Elle France editor Jean-Dominique Bauby, who, suffered a stroke that paralyzed his entire body, except his left eye (known as "lock-in syndrome"). Using that eye to blink out his memoir, Bauby eloquently described the aspects of his interior world, from the psychological torment of being trapped inside his body to his imagined stories from lands he'd only visited in his mind. Brilliant.


Other than that, je suis très contente aujourd'hui, parce que quand j'étais a l'AF dehors la biblothèque, je suis encore tombée sur lui! alors je lui ai dit que je lui ai rêvé quand j'étais au Taiwan! haha il m'a dit "merci" et m'a baisé encore une fois.. c'était super hehee.. ouah il est trop mignon ;p


mais quelquefois, je me demande: je peux imaginer/penser beaucoup de chose de lui dire mais pourquoi chaque fois quand nous nous rencontrons, je ne dis rien?? c'est comme j'ai donné ma langue au chat.. toujours! je peux seulement faire des banalités et puis, repondre "oui" ou "non" comme une idiote! pourquoi pourquoi pourquoi! mon français est mieux que cela arghhhh...

hein je n'y peux rien.. je dois plus pratiquer pour que la prochaine fois où je le vois, je peux parler convenablement hahaha.. not for lack of trying thou ;)


------ Monday, September 28, 2009

DAY 4 - MIAO LI COUNTY / FLYING COW FARM RANCH // DAN SHUI - FISHERMAN WHARF

Since we satisfied my preference for nature in terms of mountains and rivers on Day 3, we went on to satisfy Pearlyn's preference for nature in terms of animals. So we went to visit a farm ranch in 苗栗 - 飞牛牧场.

This time, I had no idea how best to get there cos it wasn't researched properly, so we ended up taking the morning train to 苗栗 (Miaoli), only to be told that there is a train station nearer to the ranch, 通宵 (Tong Hsiao) which will prob save us a load of money on cab fare.

The train line goes like this:
台北 --> 新竹 --> 竹南 then it splits into 2 lines at 竹南:
1. 山线： 竹南 --> 苗栗
2. 海线： 竹南 --> 后龙 --> 白沙屯 --> 通宵

So we had to take the train back towards 竹南 and could only connect on the longer regional line due to our timing and we went:
海线： 竹南 --> 谈文 -- 大山 -- 后龙 -- 龙港 --> 白沙屯 -- 新埔 --> 通宵
lol so we got a tour of west miaoli county via train.. the view was actually quite nice cos it's the sea route, but i didn't take much photos cos my view was blocked.

the only photo i got


i did manage to take photos of signs / train stops as usual.
Yilan and Luodong were on the way to Hualien, but thought I'd just include them in this collage as well hee..

So we finally reached the farm ranch at about 1pm (we left Taipei at 9am!) and off we went to do some farm activities like... feed the ducks and milk the cow and ooh and aah at goats.


in truth, i was quite scared of milking the cow cos i was totally convinced i was going to hurt her.. but it's kind of like going to the zoo i suppose, it's something u have to do to justify the zoo entrance fee? hahaha..

next we went to do some "DIY" activities. we did 2 - making ice cream and making butter.

we made ice cream out of fresh milk from the farm..

step 1- combine milk, sugar and cream and whisk well, then pour mixture into ice cream making device; then stir like you mean it! // the very milky ice cream // scoop some for myself // tada! ice cream!

We made butter using fresh milk from the farm too..

step 1 - pose with the bottle; then shake it like you mean it! // the shaken butter // we ate it with bread, then cleaned out the bottle to make a flying cow souvenir - the pink piece of paper contains my hopes and wishes and the flying cow stands guard over it! // last but not least, pose with the cute colourful sign board


After that, we took a late afternoon train back to Taipei, had dinner and headed to 淡水 area to get to 渔人码头 (Fisherman's Wharf).

dinner - 蛋炒饭 !!

super yummy!!

so we took a 40min MRT ride to 淡水 station, then changed the Red 26 bus to Fisherman's Wharf (the ferry has already ended service for the day).


this is 情人桥 (Lover Bridge) - named so cos it was opened on 14 Feb 2003. Pretty nice actually..



all the different shots at fisherman's wharf..


after which we took the 12am last train and headed back to our hotel, exhausted for the day.




DAY 5 - TAIPEI 101 // WU FEN PU // XI MEN DING

Day 5 and Day 6 yields not much photos since we were just shopping all the way.. In fact I had no photos of Taipei 101 at all, cos it was blazing hot and it was impossible to take a photo of the tower due to the super strong sun.. Here's whatever I have-


Breakfast- 豆花 with jelly!


Lunch we ate at 鼎太奉 - which was nothing different from Singapore's, but I suppose it's something we had to eat for ourselves to satisfy our curiousity.

Then we headed to 五分埔 to shop. That place is excellent for shopping! I bought sooo many things there, and I ran out of cash in just 3 hours! I actually wanted to walk back to the train station to get cash from the ATM but by the time I reached there, I cooled down and reminded myself that there's 1 more day of shopping left to go. hehe..


Dinner - Japanese/Taiwanese fusion food- not bad if u run out of ideas on what to eat

After dinner, we continued shopping at 西门町 till the shops close at abt 11pm.


This is part of my loot after Day 5 - doesn't look a lot but that's because I squeezed a lot of things into 1 plastic bag to make carrying it easier.


DAY 6 - TAIPEI TRAIN STATION UNDERGROUND MALL // EAST ZONE UNDERGROUND MALL // SHILIN NIGHT MARKET // XI MEN DING

Day 6 saw us head to shoes heaven - the underground malls at taipei main train station and at 忠孝复兴站 - shoes going at NT150 to NT200 (S$ 7 - S$9)!! Madness!! Sadly, I was already on a tight budget so I only bought 3 pairs of shoes from the whole sea of shoes.. ARGH!!!

We had a quick brunch of soup with 锅贴 (another taiwanese peculiarity) and by the time we were done at 忠孝复兴站, it was 4pm and we headed back to our hotel to deposit our loot, satisfy some hunger pangs with 茶叶蛋 and 蚝仔煎, we headed to 士林夜市 once again..



Much shopping and eating (more 豪大大鸡排， 棺材板 and 布丁奶茶)later, we headed back to 西门町 to round up on whatever shopping we didn't manage to get at 士林夜市 and for 1 last bowl of 阿宗面线.

By the time we got back to our hotel, we were left with NT5 each. No kidding. No money and no more energy to go clubbing, so we counted the damages and begin to pack to bring all our loot back home..



DAY 7 - DEPARTURE // HOME!

We woke up earlier for the hotel breakfast (NT5 doesn't get me breakfast outside sadly), then finished up the packing and the car came to get us at 11am to send us to the airport..

SIA new regulations allowed me 20kg of check-in luggage and 7kg of hand-carry luggage- I weighed in at 20.9kg (pass!) of check-in luggage and slightly less than 6kg of hand-carry. Just made it!

So summary- I came back with 2 belts, 2 bags, 4 necklaces, 6 sets of undergarments, 7 pairs of shoes, 8 tops, and many other misc stuffs like socks, ring, hp pouch, hairband and a really cute umbrella (!!), and of cos, a year's supply of mascara and eyeshadow and a year's supply of masks. That on top of almost S$200 worth of stuffs for family and friends. Wooohoooo life is good...



That sort of rounds up my fun taiwan trip.. many photos with pearlyn, might post more when i get them from her.. till the next time then!



*update* i'm having gum infection now, OUCH. on MC during my leave argh...


------ Sunday, September 27, 2009

DAY 3 - HUALIEN CITY / TAROKO GORGE

Day 3 saw us going out of Taipei to Hualien (花连) to take some short trail hikes at 太鲁阁国家公园 (Taroko National Park). We woke up early in the morning to catch the 8am express train to Hualien. It was actually kinda fun figuring out the Taipei MRT system and the Taiwan Railway Administration systems...


clockwise- buying MRT ticket from the automated machine // taipei railways station stop // our train car on the 自强号 // train announcements inside the train car // trusty coffee to wake up to after the early morning train ride // the train ticket

and though i was v sleepy (we woke up at 6.15pm after abt 4 hrs of sleep), the scenery along the way to hualien was just too good to miss..

while surfing tripadvisor for tips on hiking in Taroko Gorge, many visitors advised fellow travellers to take the train from Taipei to Hualien cos the view itself is well worth the price of the train ticket. And it really is. Mountains, rivers, padi fields, aboriginals, small satelite towns, they were all there along the way.

When we reached Hualien, we were approached by this really friendly cabbie guide who offered to take us around Taroko Gorge for NT2200 (S$ 100). $50 was a good price for a day's worth of ferrying through the gorge so we went for it. And I guess we were lucky we had a good guide.. he told us so much about Hualien, there was hardly much silence in the cab the whole day. History, geography, politics, social life, he told us all. Well worth the money i say. We reached Taroko National Park in about 40 mins.


our first look at the Gorge. gorgeous.


The first trail we took was the 砂卡礑步道 (Shakadang Trail) - 50 mins 1 way

Guess we can never be too cautious with the warning signs.

The hike in was abt 50 mins, so we took abt 1.5 hrs to walk in and come back out (Trail stops after abt 50 mins walk. A hiking permit is needed to venture beyond and towards the aboriginal village of Attayal).
Along the way, marble cliffs, rocks and a blue-green river accompanied us-


the view is really beautiful, i think my panasonic lumix doesn't do it justice at all.


i thoroughly enjoyed the 1.5 hrs walk, it's just such a pity the trail down to the river has been closed due to killer bees nesting there-


elsewise, we could be frolicking in these waters-


Next- 燕子口步道 (Swallow Grotto Trail) - 30mins trail



We didn't see many swallows (just 2) but we did see many stunning marble formations formed by the swallows nesting and the strong river currents, including the one at bottom left that has 2 eye sockets and a nose:



Trail 3: 白杨步道 (Baiyang Trail) - 1 hr 1 way

the 1st section of the Baiyang trail was in a 400m pitch dark tunnel- we were advised to use torchlights.


clockwise- that's my torchlight and there's the light at the end of the tunnel // first view of baiyang trail // we were warned of falling rocks due to the trail being cut on the cliff face // the rocks that threatened to fall on us


clockwise- dried up rivers along the trail // the water curtains walk （水帘洞） - a series of 3 dripping wet tunnels // the end of 1st tunnel // waterfall from afar // we were warned of killer bees // river bed near the waterfall

we finally reached the waterfall after walking for abt 1 hr-



and it's really quite beautiful..



Lastly, we took the 九曲洞步道 (Tunnel of 9 Turns Trail) - 45 mins
it was thru a tunnel cut into the mountains and it was closed earlier in the year due to - you guessed it - falling rocks. but luckily for us, it was open.


all the rock formations were nice but the bottom left and bottom centre were unique- bottom left one looks distinctly like a roman warrior and bottom centre looks like a character out of pirates of the carribean lol..

Anyway.. we left Taroko National Park at abt 4pm and headed to 七星潭 (Seven Stars Pool), a geologically formed beach just outside Taroko National Park.



gorgeous piece of scenary, i'm lost for words.


And so concludes Day 3 of the trip, I'll continue with Days 4-7 tomorrow, i'm so tired now and my mouth hurts like hell..


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back from taiwan!! and it was fun, fun, FUN!!! so much fun.. we did soooo many things in 6plus days in taiwan! it's been sometime since i did a photolog post.....


my travel buddy for 1 week- pearlyn! who's been very tolerant of my odd behaviours, including taking photos of road signs and notices, difficulty falling asleep on the 1st nite, stoned behaviour before coffee in the morning, and of cos, trying to speak in the taiwanese accent.

DAY 1 - ARRIVAL
flight out of SGP on an SQ flight, which we agreed, was just so-so. lots of turbulence enroute, food was just ok (i liked the cheese n crackers thou). landed in taipei taoyuan airport at around 5.30pm, transferred to our hotel at ximen (excellent location). by the time we were ready to head out again, it was around 8pm, so we just checked out ximending （西门町）.. checking out the prices for comparison and of course, zooming straight for 阿宗面线.


yummmm the mee sua was fantabulous man! then we headed for ice desserts (no photos yet)

西门町 was crowded even on a sunday night so the only decent time i could take a photo was ard 11pm when the shops are closing for the day:





DAY 2 - TAIPEI CITY TOUR / SHILIN NIGHT MARKET
we went on a complimentary day tour which brought us to some taipei landmarks. it was not too bad, except for the fact that the tour guide sucked totally- on the bus rides, all he did was try to sell us products like deer placenta, royal jelly and various talismans of sorts- things that he will get a commission out of if we buy them when the tour bus takes us there.

but we did get to see some interesting things thou-

中正纪念堂 (Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall)

monument erected in memory of the former president of Taiwan, 蒋介石 (Chiang Kai-Shek)


自由广场 (Liberty Square)


Next up - 忠烈祠 (Martyr's Shrine)

a shrine dedicated to the war dead of Taiwan

A changing of the honor guard is conducted in the temple complex-


and of cos, who could resist a photo with the guard, buckingham palace style..



And then we hit 故宫博物院 (National Palace Museum)

Taipei art museum with a collection that encompasses over 8,000 years of Chinese history, with many Chinese national treasures brought over from China to prevent them from falling into Japanese hands.


View across the museum- the 3 buildings have excellent fengshui with the 阳明山 (Yangmingshan) behind them. many big names live there.


After lunch, we went to 九份, a mountain town in Taipei County near Keelung.

many quaint little shops dot the pathway up the small mountain

and when u reach the end of the pathway, nice views surround u..





thereafter, we went to 北投 for a soak in the sulfuric hot spring..
which was shiok in spite of the fact that it was an indoors hot spring so it kinda feels like a sulfuric jacuzzi instead. but still, that was my first hotspring experience, thou it's not like japan where hoardes of naked people soak in the hot springs together. hahaha..


at night, we were brought to the world famous 士林夜市 (Shilin night market)


mymy... all the yummy taiwanese street food!

left to right- bubble tea, all sorts of bubble tea! 青蛙下蛋 is the best bubble tea by far, the pearl milk tea is Yummy! // The famous 豪大大鸡排 // The last bottom right one is called 棺材板 - deep fried bread with the centre filled with the fillings of your choice. prawns for me, and some other filling.. yummy, way better than toast box!

then we headed to the shopping district, where i spent about NT2000 (S$95) on the first shopping day on many accesories, belts, shoes, gifts etc...

was a wonderful first 2 days.. next 2 days we headed out of Taipei to the neighbouring counties- will continue the post after a shower and some green bean soup with barley! (need some cooling stuff- too much heaty food in taiwan! i'm having an ulcer near my jaw area now, my jaw is swollen and i can barely talk). be back in a bit to continue!


------ Sunday, September 20, 2009

aujord'hui (samedi) quand je connaisais le nouveau salle de notre classe, j'étais heureuse. parce que c'est près de sa "chambre". pendant la pause, je ne l'ai pas vu mais ça va, je ne m'attendais rien d'autre.

puis, j'ai eu besoin de partir un peu plus tôt pour un dîner avec ma famille donc je suis partie vers à 17h, et voilà, il était dans la "chambre"! c'était super.....

je lui avais dit que je vais à Taiwan pendant une semaine pour une petite vacance, donc il m'a dit de bien manger et m'a souhaité une bonne vacance.. et....
lui: penser à moi...
moi: absolument
lui: ah excellent.. je t'aime

c'était la meilleure partie de ma semaine. ou peut-être mon mois.. :)


------ Friday, September 18, 2009

on my compliance leave now.. meeting the girls for another nite out tmr, flying to taiwan for 7 days on sunday, 3 more days of leave when i come back to detox, recharge and most importantly, nua.... life is good. for now.


------ Saturday, September 12, 2009

M- tu me manques beaucoup et je ne veux que te voir, mais il n'y a rien que je peux faire. je ne sais pas si c'est encore possible d'y penser.
je ne comprends pas... pourquoi quand je rencontre quelqu'un qui j'aime, c'est toujours si difficile? pourquoi moi?


------ Wednesday, September 09, 2009

just checked out stereolounge at pan pac hotel to meet an ex-colleague who's back in s'pore.. it's a really good place for ladies! free flow drinks (includes bellini and lychee martini!) and comes with mini beef burgers (which are quite nice according to my colleagues).. other drinks at 25% discount, all during happy hours from 6 - 8pm! def a keeper if they keep up with the free drinks.

anyway. last wed when we met with zhilin, somehow we started to talk abt the movie "love actually" and the joni mitchell song - both sides now. so i went to take a look at the lyrics and wah, quite cheem man.



Bows and flows of angel hair and ice cream castles in the air
and feather canyons everywhere, I've looked at clouds that way
But now they only block the sun, they rain and they snow on everyone
So many things I would have done but clouds got in my way

I've looked at clouds from both sides now
from up and down, and still somehow
it's cloud illusions I recall
I really don't know clouds at all

Moons and Junes and ferris wheels, the dizzy dancing way that you feel
as every fairy tale comes real; I've looked at love that way
But now it's just another show And you leave 'em laughing when you go
and if you care, don't let them know, don't give yourself away

I've looked at love from both sides now
from give and take, and still somehow
it's love's illusions that I recall
I really don't know love at all

Tears and fears and feeling proud, to say "I love you" right out loud
dreams and schemes and circus crowds, I've looked at life that way
Oh but now old friends are acting strange, and they shake their heads, and they tell me that I've changed.
Something's lost but something's gained in living every day

I've looked at life from both sides now
from win and lose, and still somehow
it's life's illusions I recall
I really don't know life at all


------ Monday, September 07, 2009

i gotta say... butter is over-rated and supperclub is well, not bad at all.
can't fathom the music at butter (is it r&b? hiphop? retro? pseudo-house?), hate the public toilet there. the only nice thing about it is that the layout is actually very decent (although it's quite stuffy inside!).

now supperclub... is quite cool. like the sofas to lounge on for drinks/pre-drinks, not too crowded, and the house music is actually decent. a tad pricey but erm hmmmm probably might go back someday. conveniently located too..

checking out stereolab tmr then.. 6 more working days to compliance leave!!


------ Thursday, September 03, 2009

i had the best crêpes yesterday over dinner at Crêperies des Arts, and it's really good. like really good! don't believe the reviews saying the crêpes are just ok, or even not so good.. it's Good. very reminiscence of brittany, very authentique. it's rather pricey for crêpes (at $20+ for a savoury crêpe), but if you are the kinds who think it's worthwhile to pay for good authentic food, then crêperie des arts is as good as it gets.

doesn't hurt that the owners are really really friendly, customer service is so good. they came over, spoke with us in french, it really feels very cosy and homely, very nice. i'll definitely go back there someday.


other than that.... dept team building at ecp last friday turned out to be pretty fun. doesn't hurt that dinner was excellent (seafood buffet at tunglok) heh.. and our intern has ended his internship so we went for satay as a farewell dinner.
so after 2 highly fattening meals (not to mention the weekend drinking), it's back to the gym and a low carb diet to burn it all off. i finally gathered enough determination to try and run 10k on the treadmill, and let's just say my timing was shameful. hahahahaha... it's so bad, i won't say how long i took, just that it was over an hour (sheesh),


other than that... nothing much i suppose. looking fwd to compliance leave definitely!! less than 2 weeks to go then :D


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