Day 6 - 9 and a half friends

In the morning, we went to the botanical gardens before heading to 松山慈惠堂. Yet another huge temple with life-size statues of 金母娘娘 and 玉皇大帝. And everyone there was vegetarian! So the entire group had to join me and Mrs. Xie in eating vegetarian today! Muahahz.


Following that, we went to probably the biggest temple in Taipei – 指南宮. It was a long climb up the mountain before we reached the top. Many of the elders had difficulties climbing but they persisted on and made it up to the castle in the sky!


At the top, there are 3 great halls, dedicated to Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism. The air up there is definitely different. And the spiritual energy feels pretty strong. Really really nice. We had dinner here and I made a new friend – Xie Yu Han! The son of my thai vegetarian friend. He basically talked to me for the entire hour over dinner and even shared his homework with me! Lolz – It was to copy out the Vajra Sutra. He asked me how many friends I have in Taiwan, and i said about 9 or so, and he said, since he's only half my age, he'll be the half and so I have 9 and a half friends in Taiwan now! Lolz. Went to 淡水夜市 at night before returning to the hotel.

Day 5 - My ancestral lineage

Woke up to a good simple breakfast at the 大伯公 Temple – porridge and preserved vegetables. After days of fancy food, a return to simple cuisine really satisfies the stomach.


We set off at 8am and travel up north to 台南 to the 媽祖 temple – the goddess of the sea. It was humungous!


And there was a very adorned Guan Yin Hall with a big thousand hand guan yin statue, flanked by 108 different smaller Guan Yin statues depicting her 108 different transfomations.


Following that, we went to 代天府 which is about 300 over years old and here housed the Lord of a thousand years, and also the temple of the 5 Kings. And guess what, one of the heavenly King's family name is also Choo! I guess that's where my ancestral lineage leads to – Heavenly Royalty! Muahahaz!

We continued our journey up north to 苗栗 where we had dinner with some of the Taoist priest of the 無極 Temple. And because they are cultivators and vegetarians as well, I got the honor to sit with all the high priests. Apart from the delicious home grown vegetables, I also received advise from them on cultivation and also got an invitation to visit again and cultivate together! Cool.

Finally arrived Taipei at 1030pm. Today, we travelled from the South, all the way up to the North along the Western coast of Taiwan. It completes our entire circuit around the entire country.

Day 4 - Hell Gods, and Hell Wing

Another early day but we were greeted by beautiful sun rays. We went first to the Pangu temple in Hualian. In taoist legends, Pangu is the creator of the Earth.


Following that, we went to a 134 year old Guan Yu temple in Feng Lin. And the temple also housed giant statues of the guardians of hell! Scary... They serve as deterrence to those who want to do evil and the Ghosts of Impermanence reminds us of how feeble the human life is.


Talking about Hell, hmmz... reminds me of my OCS days - Hell Wing. Lolz. From eastern Taiwan, we took a long bus ride to Pingdong, the southern most part of Taiwan, to stay at the Da Bo Gong Temple. And guess what... for night activities, we went down to Hengchun and Kenting to walk. Sounds familiar? Those who've been through OCS will remember. Really nostalgic walking through Kenting again. Seeing the starbucks we sat in, and the McDonalds! They're all still there!

During dinner, I was invited to visit the Taoist temple in Thailand by my fellow vegetarian friend. Guess that is another place to add to my to do list... Lolz...

Day 3 - Lineage of Mediums

Woke up at 6am again. Headed to 三清宮 before heading to Yi Lan temple for lunch where I had another 10 course meal and this time it was an entire personal set of vegetarian dishes. Our arrival was welcomed by firecrackers again. Then from Yi Lan, we made our way to Hua Lian (East of Taiwan) and visited some other temples.


This temple we visited at night really reminds me of the Spirited Away anime! Lolz. Dinner was at some restaurant, and this time, i was joined by a member from the Thailand delegation. She didn't know that there was vegetarian food. Her reason for being vegetarian is that she's the head helper for the medium of her temple. And she was saying that her temple's medium is of the same age as me and asked if i was a medium as well.. lolz... Well... I do come from a lineage of mediums... but erm... no... I chose a different path. But somehow I guess by being vegetarian, I got to talk to many different people. So cool =)

Day 2 - Giants in the City

Went to the Lu Zhou Di Mu Temple and walked with their procession down the streets of taiwan. They had over 20 giant puppets of the gods and shops everywhere set of fireworks and fire crackers. Seeing the giant gods walk through the city look really cool. When we arrived at the main temple, we were receive by lines and lines of fireworks and fire crackers! Check that out!


There was a ribbon cutting ceremony and my dad was one of the officials. Check out that picture, looks as if some light is shining from the heavens over him. Cool huhz! Lunch was at some restaurant where a wedding was happening as well. I sat at a different table with 3 other vegetarians from Ping Dong and we had about 10 different dishes. I'm stuffed =.=...

Between 2 – 5pm was free and easy and so I went about exploring. I guess i can pass off pretty much as a local as I was approached by a lady who asked if i was a student, and approached by a family who was asking for directions and surprisingly i knew the directions. Lolz.

At night, went back to the same temple for dinner, and it was yet another 10 course dinner for a table of 12, with only 5 of us eating there... I'm exploding... One of the lady even packed the left over food for me. Went to Si Da Night Market at night and walked till about 1am before returning.

Taiwan Day 1 - Iron Man, Fear Keepers, and my "wife"

Alrite, here's the long awaited update on my ventures.

Day 1 in Taiwan. Our tour group was combined with another group from Taoist group from Singapore. We were later joined by other Taoist groups from Thailand, Philippines, Malaysia brining the total tour group to about 200. In the next few days, we are to travel throughout Taiwan, visiting all the famous Taoist temples of Taiwan.

Food was all meat, so the 1st restaurant cooked vegetarian special for me and i ended up having 3 person's share of food as he wanted to offer variety =.=... I'm so gonna grow fat...

Taking the taxi, one of our drivers was really interesting. He is a martial artist and also a famous fortune teller. When he told me to hit his arm, I felt as if I had hit metal. It's crazy. Then he asked for my dad's name, then my uncle's name and read their lives from the element of their names. It was dead on.

Then he asked for mine and talked about how at the age of 24, I will reach a dilemma as to what should I do? To study, to work or to travel the world. Dead on again! That was scary as all I told him was my name. I didn't even mention my age. Then here's the part that was weird... He said according to my elements, I'm supposed to have a wife who is extremely beautiful... Lolz... And he's not the 1st person to have told me that. Unfortunately I don't... and he said i might have done something along the way that changed my destiny... =P



Went to Ruo He Night Market after and paid our respects to the Ma Zu Temple before proceeding. On the way home, we met another taxi driver who said we had to visit the Xing Tian Temple. As if our journey was planned by some unseen force, we were directed to our next destination. This was a Guan Yu temple and the interesting thing about it was that there was a sort of Aura healing event that goes on in this temple where a older lady will used incense and do what they call 收驚 (Keeping/Calming Fear).

We finally walked home from the temple to the hotel. A crazy day of “fated” meetings – the different taoist groups, the iron man fortune-telling taxi driver, the Fear keeping mediums, and my beautiful “wife” whom I never met...

事事都有理
果報都有因
前世業種，後世生
因果熟時，在相會

For everything that happens, there is a reason...
For every effect, there is a cause...
The karmic seeds planted from lives past shall bloom in the future...
When the conditions ripen, we meet again...
(Another lousy attempt of mine in writing poems... =P)

The Jonathan Forecast - Windy

Met up with Alvin Lin and Alvin Lee today for lunch. Hung out around town till evening before watching Saw V. Lots of blood and gore but surprisingly, our stomachs didn't churn. Perhaps the 4 years of Saw I - IV have desensitized us.

Met Weiye for dinner after. He treated me to Swensens and a 300g bag of Famous Amos cookies! Lolz... thanks thanks!

Received a call from Aaron at 12:40am saying he's around my area, asking if i wanted to go out. Lolz... Reminds me of the time when Jek, Desmond and Jiayuen just rang my door bell at 2am in the morning and crashed over at my house. Yup... this is Jonathan Choo, available 24/7 a day... lolz. Too bad I'm flying in a few hours time.

Flying to Taiwan at 6am. Exciting. This is the first time i'm travelling alone with absolutely no plans. Well 1st week with dad, 2nd week I'm off on my own. Previous trips alone have hotels booked or friends place to stay at. But this time, its totally impromptu. I think its gonna be an exciting 2 weeks exploring and trying to find places to sleep in.

The Jonathan Forecast looks pretty windy for the next few months... Nov in Taiwan, Dec and January are currently undergoing discussions for a Japan and US trip, Feb is set for Australia... March, who knows where the wind will blow me to next... All these and more in Jonathan's world today. And this is Jonathan Choo reporting live from JBC... lolz

Endless conversation...

Fetched my elder sis to work today, then went to buy books for my younger sis. I'm the errants guy these days... When i got to the school's book store, the sales girl stood up immediately and said "Hi! How can I help you?" and the lady boss said "哇！一看到帥哥 service 就那麼好啊！小心不要看帥哥看到錢都算錯 hor！“ Lolz... it was so hilarious.

Went for a short swim after as well - 30 laps. Slight improvement. Before heading home for lunch with Grandma. Then at night, my uncle called from Australia... and he talked and talked and talked! And he talked for 3 and a half hours!!! Gheez... Its nice to catch up once a while thou.. but he just talked to me 3 days ago for 2 hours! Oh wellz... I wonder how much is the phone bill now...

And Edison! Hmph! Cook... I'll make sure you don't get a share of my cooking next time! Hmph! Bleaaahhh!!! You can have all the cold dishes! And Weyman, u wan souvenirs rite? Ok... I shall buy you key chains! Lolz!

Escapade

Went with my dad to a buddhist temple this morning. He had just acted as a middle person for some donors to donate a 400kg jade Buddha statue to the temple. Took them 8 years to do it, and surprisingly, 8 people showed up today. And the most funny thing is that the Buddha finally arrived only on 19 Sep 2008 - My birthday... Lolz

Bought a new back pack today for S$35 from beach road. Ready for my taiwan trip starting this friday... And guess what... I have not found any accommodation from the 2nd week onwards... Probably sleep in some bench in some park.. Lolz

Dropped by school after to settle my application. Settling for the 7 year Guang Zhou University course... But the lady said i mite be able to complete it in 5. We'll see...

Met Jeffrey at Causeway point afterwards. Had dinner and then we started planning our great escapade to Australia next year! Got the tickets all settled as well. Exciting!

And my home printer cheated my money!!! Bought a new black ink cartridge for it today. It cost S$50!!! So crazy... And when i finally got home to print my stuff, guess what... the printer said it needed the color one as well. Wth rite! Cheat my money! Pui! Sigh... now i have a big big hole in my pocket for naught...

Moms

WEnt out with both my mothers today. My god-mum, and my mom. Lolz. Think they were friends since high school, or maybe even before that. Its nice to see such long lasting friendship. Well I guess me being the god-son does help in some part... lolz. Kudos to me! Lolz.. But really... I'm not sure how many of the friends I know now will still be with me 20, 30 or even 50 years down the road. But I hope so... that no matter what, our friendship will last.

Back home, Charly's mom was chatting with me over msn and telling me that Charly really misses me... and then next thing i knew, I got to chat with Charly over msn! Ahhh!!! I miss u Charly! Lolz... thanks for always being so sweet! And i promise to be back soon... miss u so much!

Lemon grass Tofu

Its been 2 days since Jolanda's gone to the US... and poor puppy has been sitting by the stairs awaiting for her return all the while... poor thing... he doesn't know she's gonna be gone for a month...

Cooked lemongrass tofu - Berkeley monastery style - for my grand mother to eat today! The taste was almost similar just that i put too much salt.. Oopz... Lolz... But my grandma still said it was really good... I don't know if that was just to console me... Lolz

Received a call from Uncle Ramon from Australia as well. And he talked for 2 hours!!! Its nice to catch up once in a while... but 2 hours was a lil toooo long for an oversea call... But we're talking about a potential visit in feb! Should be cool.

Met up with Jeffrey later for dinner at PS, and straight after dinner, we went for supper... Lolz... And this time it was the Selegie Tofu place. Been eating Tao Huey and You Tiao for the past 3 days... And if the old saying that says eating tao huey makes your skin smooth is true... then my skin should be very smooth by now! But i dun see it happening.... lolz...

3 SIR

Woke up at 6:30am to send my youngest sister Jolanda to the airport.
Went back home for a while, then out to city hall with my elder sis at 11am.
Met Aaron for lunch and we went to PS to do some shopping. Sat on his motorcycle. Pretty scary zig-zagging through all the cars and all... but carrying the helmet at the mall makes you look really cool... lolz. There's us wearing our new shirts.


Went over to his place to rest for a while before heading to St. James Power House for 3 SIR's end of year celebration! Crazy... every other battalion does it at Sentosa... Only 3 SIR man... Only 3 SIR... 600 over guys squeezed into 1 club... Lolz. Lots of different games, performances and lucky draw prizes. Pretty Crazy...


Had supper with my fellow commanders after before finally heading home at midnight. Another long day... 18 hours out...


The commanders... The officers...

21 hours...

Had a really long day today, starting from 4am on thursday to 1am on friday! Crazy... Here's what I did today:

4am - 5am : Morning ceremony
5am - 7am : Pack room
7am - 8am : Jogging
9am - 10am: Breakfast with Grandma and Aunt Eeleen
11am - 2pm : Lunch with Samuel Teo. Missed my stop as I overslept in the bus.
2pm - 6pm : Movies and Arcade with my son Keith. Watched High School Musical 3.
7pm - 8pm : Dinner with Grandma and Uncle Ivan
8pm - 11pm: Hair cut and hanging out with my god parents and Uncle Ah Gu
11pm - 1am : Supper with Aaron Soo and chilling out at his place.

Missing the bus stop due to oversleeping just reminded me of my high school days where i'd always miss the stop and end up being late even thou I caught the early morning bus. Lolz...

And High School Musical 3 was pretty good! The story line was better than 1 & 2. But HSM 2 has better music i think. Love the Waltz in 3 thou. Oooo! And Troy Bolton goes to UC Berkeley! Woo Hoo! Lolz

At my god-parent's place, we just chilled out at the roof terrace and spent the night chatting away. It was nice to be back in the group. And my hair, I only allow 2 people to cut it... my god mum... and myself... lolz.. but this time she cut it a lil too short...

It was nice hanging out with Aaron again and dropping by his place. When I first returned to Singapore back in 2005, I probably spent months staying over at his place. Lolz... My 1st friend since homecoming in 2005... Thanks bro =)

21 hours of straight activities.... I'm worn out... but it was really enjoyable thou. Sending my youngest sis to the airport tml... she's flying to usa. Lolz... One come, one go... Oh wellz...

Tricked...

After successfully tricking me into coming back to study, my dad now wants me to work instead. It is all as predicted by Rev Heng Sure... Sigh...

He suggests working at his farm... but dealing with lives, and drowning in the smoke and alcohol of the customers just isn't my thing... I can only compromise that I'll prob go look for a job, and pay my way through the TCM college myself. Not sure what to do.. probably be a teacher in the day, and then a student at night... its gonna be a long long journey...

School Application

Not sure which school to apply to... Nanyang Technological University? Or the neighborhood chinese med school? Had to scan all my transcripts and send it to the schools and I realize I've taken a whole bunch of classes that are practically useless... lolz... The things school puts you through... And i still can't get over the fact that I missed by 0.03 points on my GPA to get an honors from BERKELEY! Sigh...

Obama Won!

Yes we can! The slogan of the Obama campaign and the epiphora of his speech! The 44th president of the United States - Barrack Obama!

It has been an inspiring journey, following the entire US presidential elections. The speeches, the debates, the wonderful spoofs by SNL.

There is hope for change and there is hope in dreams. Watching him win the election and listening to his speech really gives you hope, that if you persevere, you can live life according to your dreams. That anyone can achieve the American dream. And that I have hope in returning to a better america! Lolz

Guess that's the only good news of the day... other than that... nothing much happening... I'm bored... why did I even decide to come back to Singapore? Haiz...

Tried to check out about being a UN volunteer.. and guess what... I'm underage! Can you believe it? I never thought that old me can still be considered underage for something! Sighz... sux...

Singapore

Arrived at 2am, picked up by mom, and dad bought supper.

Slept till 8am and the next thing I knew, I was out swimming with Gerald and got the all so familiar sun tan again. Did about 20 laps. My son said I was not human, to be able to get up and running straight away the very day i land.

My grandmother just got her 2nd operation last month and can't walk for 3 months, so she's been staying at home, eating porridge everyday till she got so sick of porridge. Other foods are too toxic for her condition. So I introduced vegetarian! And even though she said she was not hungry, she finished 3/4 of the packet of noodles I bought. Lolz. Sometimes she's just like a kid. You gotta coax her into eating

In a way, I'm glad to be home. In another... I miss everyone in USA...

Good bye USA

Alritez... this time its for real... good bye usa... still can't really believe I'm back in Singapore for good...

Anyway, was really surprised when almost the entire boy's school showed up at the airport to send me off! All the way from Ukiah! Sandy said they look like a bunch of puppies. Lolz... I agree... hahaz... Anyway, Really really touched! Have to thank Dm Tsung for allowing that to happen as well... Thank you so much! I'm going to miss all of you! Argh... sob sobz