Day 17 - Becoming Taiwanese

My Sg sim card died on me today. So now I have to depend on my Taiwan sim card. If anyone needs to reach me, my number is +886 983208349. Guess the longer I stay, the more Taiwanese I'm becoming. Already dressing up like them, now my phone's converted as well. I almost became a Taiwanese citizen 4 years back. No, its not bcoz of marraige. It was a job proposal that offered very high pay but requires me to give up my citizenship. In return, I'll get taiwanese citizenship. But I refused it and came back to do NS instead. Now i'm jobless =.=... Oh wellz... but i'm enjoying my life. Heez


Christina brought me to Taipei 101 today. The tallest building in Taiwan - 101 levels! And we went up all the way to the 89th floor. Took us only 35 seconds to get up! Really fast. View was beautiful as well. But NT$400 for entry is a lil ex...


This huge dome is the key behind the height of the building. They call it damper baby. It weights 660 tonnes and shifts its weight accordingly during strong winds and earthquakes, preventing the building from collapsing. Impressive. My lunch bowl was just as huge. Lolz


Took the Mrt to 後山站 and went to 五分埔. This is like the bugis village of singapore i guess... just that its bigger... and u can bargain alot. But too bad I dun really know how to bargain... Oh, and the 臭豆腐 here is really good! Not that smelly and very crispy! Finally found a good store. Went back to Richard Huang's house. Really thankful to this friend. I just got to know him 3 days ago, and he's let me stay at his house for all 3 days le. RUnning low on cash.. about time to go home

Looked after the baby for a while at night while Richard went to pick his wife up. The baby just slept soundly throughout. Really really easy to take care. And the 2 puppies too! Lolz...All so cute!

Day 16 - What happened

SO they didn't play basketball. They didn't do anything at all in the day. But at least I got Richard Huang's baby to play with! So cute right! Lolz. Finally met the rest at night and the 1st thing is everyone crowding around the baby. Lolz. We went to 東區 (Dong Qu), the most expensive shopping district in taipei. Then went to 茶街 (Tea street) for dinner.


And at the opposite club Luxy there was someone famous giving an autograph signing session. There were tonns of youngsters croweded there and the line went all the way down the street! Her name's Sora Aoi. Anybody know who she is? I didn't know who she is, so out of curiosity I checked out one of the book of those in line. Wah... nose bleed sia... Ok... so if u know who she is.. HOR!HOR! Zai Si!

The plan after was to go to Richard Huang's house to hang out. But half way on the MRT, everyone changed their minds and wanted to go home =.=. So we headed home as well and Richard's wife brought me through Lingsi night market and i got to eat veggie taco pachi! Lolz.. Oh well. At least today got to see jap star and eat taco pachi.

Day 16 - Extended Emptiness

I was supposed to return to Singapore today. But coz everyone said we might be doing something like heading south or what, so I extended my ticket. In the end? Ended up staying in the house and I heard that they might be playing basketball later =.=... boring... I'm not a basketball person. Broke 4 pairs of glasses due to basketball during my high school days. Since then, I've made an enemy out of the ball... Sigh... now I feel empty. Guess a 2 week trip is usually about right. Anything longer, things might get draggy...

Day 15: The Climb to Cheng Tian

Slept too late last night. See lah... talk to girls until forget to sleep... Woke up this morning and I had difficulties opening my right eye. But I had a lunch appointment with another girl! So I still went for it with half my eyes closed. Its just Christina.. no more new girls... lolz


After lunch, I began my journey to 承天寺 (Cheng Tian Temple). This is the temple of Master Guang Qin - one of the enlightened buddhist masters of the 20th century. Took the train to 永寧 station (NT$40), the last station of Banqiao Line. Little did I know... that was just the beginning... From the station, it was a 15 min walk to the mountain gate. Then from there, a 45 min hike up the mountain before finally arriving at Cheng Tian Monastery. It was a nice hike thou.


Entering the 2nd gate at the top of the mountain into the monastery felt as if I had entered a different world. The scenery was beautiful.


And it so happened the they were holding a 7 day Chan session! So with permission, I managed to enter the inner hall. I entered with the sun still up high in the sky. By the time we finished the meditation, the sun was already setting. Time flies... I caught the last rays of daylight and made my way down the mountain. The wind has become extremely cold. Freezing....


壇外日成夜, 壇內反無變 Outside, day turns to night. The inside has no change.
表外翻如海, 心內如如在 The exterior churns like the sea. The heart thus thus is.
~jozhade


Went back to civilization just in time to meet Richard Tsai and the rest. We went to Shilin. There were hella people there. So we decided to go sing Karaoke instead. And they have buffet in the Karaoke place! Crazy... but most of it is meat =.=. Went to stay and the other Richard's house later and had 麻辣臭豆腐 for supper. It was really 麻辣！So spicy that my tongue went numb immediately. But the weird thing was that you don't sweat that much from this kind of spice. Interesting... FInally went to bed at 4am. Another long long day...

Day 14 - Taipei

Took the bullet train back to Taipei today (NT$185). Managed to catch the off peak ticket and it was only 20 minutes from Hsin Ju to Taipei instead of the normal 1 hour 40 min train ride. The taipei train station schedule board is crazy. I wonder how anyone ever knows what train to take... Checked into the Taipei Hostel. Small place, but pretty cozy. The people there are really fun. Students from all over the world - Japan, Malaysia, Canada, Hong Kong, Sweden, Germany... all doing the same thing like me - seeing the world, traveling about with no fixed plans in mind. Pretty cool. And the ang mohs all know abit of chinese. So it was quite cool conversing to everyone in chinese.


Tried meeting up with Christina but unfortunately she was busy, so I wondered about taipei myself. Walked quite alot today. Hopefully its enough to burn all the weight I've gained over the past few days. Went to the SIA building to extend my ticket, went to the Taipower building, went to Xi Men Ding, walked all the way back to the hostel and basically explored the area around. So on tuesday I 泡泡泡，today I walk walk walk.

Went back to the hostel at about 11pm and just chilled with everyone else. And the malaysia group bully me sia... coz when they tok english i understand, then they talk mandarin I also understand, then the use hokkien i also understand then cantonese, I also understand... then finally they came out with the ultimatum - all malay... I tatau (don't understand)... Lolz, but they were all very fun people! They're actually a group of teachers traveling together to relieve stress from all the si gina (evil kids)... lolz. So I told them then I am gonna go try apply to be a teacher as well! And they all said i'll fit in more as student... =.=....

Everyone is very fun to hang out with thou. And as the night went on, people started retiring to their rooms one by one. I stayed on and chatted with Jia Luan till about 3am. Too bad they're flying off tml le. But this time i got get msn! She's a thai-chinese. Not bad hor... Come taiwan get to know taiwan girls, malaysia girls, thai-chinese girls... lolz... ehem... must set things right... my intention was to see temples one k... the girls... are a bonus. =P

Day 13 - Big Bro

Went wandering about 竹北 this morning, then went to Hsin Ju in the afternoon to walk about. Hsin Ju center is place where all the students in hsin ju hang out after school. Circled the area for almost 4 hours before finally meeting up with Grover and Richard Tsai! Our 大哥！Been years since we met! Had dinner together and 大哥 treated me to milk tea! Lolz... so Kim Vinh, if you're reading this, Richard says the milk tea deal is still on! Running off to taipei on my own tomorrow. Gotta pack!

Day 12 - 泡泡泡

Couldn't really sleep so i woke up early and planned my trip for the day. At 0630am, went down for breakfast and guess what, there was a vegetarian buffet spread for me and me only! Lolz. I feel like a king. Muahahaz. And what's even better is that the cute waitress who served me last night, was the one serving me this morning as well! So I took a picture with her and immediately the Ah Sao who was sweeping the floor said "哇！來到那麼遠為的是來泡妹妹喔！“ (Come so far just to "pao" meimei) Make me so paisei sia...

Unfortunately the taxi came too fast. I forgot to take down her msn! Argh... sad sad sad... I sat the taxi back to 埔里 and from there took 客運 to 廬山 (NT$99). A 1.5 hour journey. And can you believe that that's the bus station? I'd never have recognize it had the taxi driver not told me. It looks just like some other street stall =.=...


So morning I 泡妹妹，afternoon I went to 泡溫泉. So today's theme is 泡泡泡！Lolz. 廬山 is one of the main areas in Taiwan known for Hot Springs. However when I got there, the place was extremely run down and dusty. I later found out that the last typhoon that hit the area basically left devastating effects. Nevertheless, not wanting to waste my 1.5 hour journey, I still found an alright place to try out the hot spring. The public pool was NT$200, and the private pool - NT$500. I decided to go private. Lolz.


Tried looking for lunch later and guess what they offered? The menu writes - flying squirrel's meat, wild boar's meat, wild rabbit's meat... erm... not very appetizing to me... So I ended up having mochi for lunch. Took the 客運 back to 埔里(NT$99), and then another one from 埔里 to 台中(NT$150). Finally from there, took the train back to 新竹 (NT$198). A total of 3.5 hours of traveling. Hungry and tired...

Day 11 - Chung Tai Monastery

So I ran away. Lolz. Took the morning 自強 train from 新竹 to 台中 (NT$198). From there, I took the 客運 bus no. 999 to 埔里 (NT$150). Then from 埔里，took the taxi to 中台禪寺 (NT$200). A total of 3 hours spend on transportation, and a whole lot of money too. But it was worth visiting at least once. Chung Tai Monastery is huge! And I was lucky enough to attach myself to a group of high ranking guests from China, and thus got the opportunity to visit the inner chambers. Unfortunately no pictures were allowed in those areas. One of them stored the entire Tripitika set carved on woodblock under the directions on Emperor Qian Long. Pretty crazy.


There were giant statues of Buddhas, Bodhisattvas and Dharma Protectors every where. Check out that statue of one of the 4 heavenly kings! Its about 12 meters tall! And the statue of Weitou (center). In the old days, if the Weitou Bodhisattva statues hold the vajra sword horizontal, it means that you can stay in the temple. Those that hold it to the ground means there is no temple lodging.


There were lots of stairs to climb... And lots of Arhat statues as well. I got to go all the way up to the 38th level. The wall of the top few levels is all made of glass and the glass is made to be able to withstand extreme winds during typhoon season, and earthquakes up to 7.8 on the scale.

The architecture of Chung Tai Monastery is indeed impressive. But despite all its grandeur, there is something that I feel is missing from the piece. Cttb on the other hand is no where comparable in such decor, but it has that missing something, the something that makes me always want to go back... the feeling of family. I miss cttb...


After the tour, one of the nuns helped me to reserve a place at the nearby hotel. It cost NT$1680!!! Freaking expensive. And not only is there nothing else to do around there, there was also no one else in the hotel but me! So i guess NT$1680 to book an entire hotel is not that bad. Lolz. Had dinner alone as well and because there was almost no one else, I kind of had my personal waitress. Not bad not bad. The only thing is that... I was given a room on the 5th floor, and knowing that there is no living soul other than me on the entire level, and in fact, the entire hotel except the reception counter on the first floor does make it kind of scary....