ARThur ::

/ Wednesday, December 27, 2006

sian.悶到爆

it has been raining since i'm back to Singapore. so no outdoor activities at all. I WANNA PLAY SOCCER!!!! otherwise i'll die or smth.

an earthquake took place in taiwan yesterday night. it was the most serious one in the recent 3 years with a magnitude of 6.7 (sry forgot what's the unit le). my hometown, Kaohsiung was quite badly affected. fortunately my family are all alright. my mom say that many wine glasses were broken, and lotsa water spilled out from the fish tank. you can imagine how serious the earthquake was.

the earthquake also affected the internet connection in singapore as (i think) singent and starhub are using internet cables from taiwan to connect to the rest of the world. now the internet speed is liek chao slow, and i can't access most websites. and i can't play my online game!!! sian. news says that it takes 3 weeks for it to be fully repaired. wdh. don't tell me that i'm gonna bare with this situation for 3 weeks.......................................ahhhhhhhhhhh. let's hope that the orientation in SA would be fun. and, YES, it's gonna be fun! I STILL GOT MY SAJC FIRST 3 MONTHS! WOOHOO.

really bored at home, cos of the weather, the internet connect, and cos everyone's away. wg's in china(coming back in 6 hours time though). rei's in japan. sam's in US. skye's back from jap with a whole new impression about jap gals. looks like he's got some new infatuation@@. heh.

ask me out lah!

born to love

penned.
11:34 PM

another chapter unfolds.

/ Saturday, December 23, 2006

Hmm juz gonna blog about some random thoughts and probably reflection of my holiday. So forgive me for the incoherent flow.

Went back to taiwan for a month, visited many places. Harold stayed at my house for about 2 weeks+. Glen was in a tour around Taiwan and he dropped by Kaohsiung and stayed at my house for a day.

I’ve always tried to compare Taiwan and Singapore in different aspects. They’re truly very very different countries. Singapore’s got a well-planned city and an environment that’s so clean and tidy, whereas Taiwan is very poor in this aspect. It’s quite messy and dirty at places. The roads public facilities aren’t as well-maintained as those in Singapore. However, taiwan’s……………

Ok I suddenly stopped here cos I fee like I’m writing an expository essay. And I think it’s getting really boring. Haha. Kk I’ll juz write in point form then.

--Singapore is clean and tidy
--Singapore is a country with superb stability and security
--Singapore has a convenient public transportation system
--Singapore is free from most natural disasters
--Singapore has got shopping malls and theatres that are so accessible
In conclusion, Singapore is boring.

Cos

--Taiwan’s got such a prosperous media that the TV has got 100+ channels that comprises of many top TV channels in the world.
--Taiwan’s entertainment industry is so well-developed
--although the streets and general infrastructure in Taiwan are not as developed as those on Singapore, most of the shops and restaurants are so well-decorated and delicate in the sense that each one has got their own style. And the shops in Singapore have NO STYLE.
--Taiwan food rocks
--Taiwan is s shopping heaven
--Taiwanese are so passionate and kind. They’re so polite and effable that they never get impatient when serving you. And I FEEL that Taiwanese are better looking. Or probably they juz know how to dress up better…
-- Taiwan has got so much natural scenery and places of interest
--Taiwan has got four seasons that is not too hot in summer and not too cold in winter. (though there’s no snow)

In conclusion, Taiwan rocks^^

Not criticizing Singapore in any sense lah. Juz stating reasons why I like Taiwan more than Singapore. But of course, I love Singapore too!

Hmm I think I have said this on my blog before…but I’m gonna say it again. One of my dreams is to go on a tour with all my friends, any place will do. It’ll will be fun regardless of where we’re going as long as I’m with this bunch of friends. I can alady imagine the fun we’ll be having. But I’m afraid that this is really a dream of mine only.

Ohoh I’m alady looking forward to my JC life. Many has told me that the first 3 months will be like the most fun experience in my whole student life. And SA is surely gonna be fun! But the sad thing is that most probably I won’t be staying in SA for the rest of the 2 years…What if I get back my O level results and I get the result that is approximately SA standard?…then I really dno whether I should be happy or sad le…

that'a all for today. cheers guys

penned.
9:47 PM

another chapter unfolds.

i'm back in singapore!!

that was a signal to those who wanna give me christmas present and those who wanna get christmas present from me ^^

and oh ya. who wanna go out together on xmas eve? the irony is that those ppl read my blog are usual the ones who WON'T go out with me, and that those who usually doesn't read my blog, are the ones that always go out for outing. zzz.

yeah so contact me if u wanna stand xmas eve with me(oh how romantic is that)

WAHAHA.

penned.
3:52 PM

another chapter unfolds.

/ Wednesday, December 13, 2006

yes you know wad i'm gonna say.

come on say it out loud with me!!

"haven't~~blogged~~in~~ages~~"!!

yes ppl that's right.

harold's back, so i'll be back to crap from on onwards. sorry lah have been slacking and playing online game for the past few days, so didn't bother to blog. haha. hmm so i'll still let the picture speak for me as usual.

had a family gathering with most of my relatives in taipei!! we haven't had a chance to meet up and have a meal for like 3 years alady?? went to eat this 酸菜白肉鍋 (steam boat) which was super delicious. and the food is UNLIMITED!! so i alone ate like 4 plates of meat. shiok

my(younger) cousin which obviously developed better than me, his younger brother, my another younger cousin, me with new clothes and harold.

ya dno wad to put...GUYS!

yay whole family picture! so warm, as in touching.

yup, so another day harold and me went to this amusement park in the central region of taiwan. it's not say the biggest one in taiwan but it has quite alot of new rides.

this one was quite fun. it spins you upside down and hang you in the air.

some family ride thingy

this is a super big ferry wheel not the biggest one in tw though. heard from harold that singapore's building the biggest one in the world now.

and some photos of us.

free fall ride. shiok. i conned harold into taking this ride without him realizing that that was one of the most scary one...haha

it's like 10+ storeys high? the scenery was nice from that height.

harold actually didn't wanna play this one, but i forced him to choose between this one and G5(another ride which i will mention later) as the last ride before he go. he chose this, and he absolutely made the right choice!this was the MOST fun ride throughout the theme park. it's chao fast and exciting. it makes like 4 360 degree turns and it wasn't scary!. chao fun

so after that "last ride", we were on our way walking to the exit when we passed by G5. haroes didn't FEEL LIKE taking the ride, so i told him that i would take it alone. so he was like "ok...i stay here wait for you lo..." but i again i attempted to sway him into atking the machines which supposedly look the most scary. it was claimed that you can explain a force of 5 Gs when taking this ride(which proved to be overrated afterwards).

i was like " come on lah, this is de last ride le. after this then you can say that you've played everything here and you won't have regrets. and you should overcome your fears!!" and all that crap from batman begins(lol). so ya as u can expect, i managed to persuade him with my superb influence.

yeah so G5 wasn't even as exciting as we thought it would be. it's definitely more awing when you see it than when you're actually taking it. it felt juz like that free drop machine only.

ESCAPE THEME PARK IS BORING.

oh ya PAE results are coming out tml at 8am. you can visit www.moe.gov.sg/esp/schadm/pae
to check your posting． GOOD LUCK GUYS!!! hope can see you in my JC.

when you say nothing at all.

penned.
11:38 PM

another chapter unfolds.

/ Sunday, December 03, 2006

prepare for long entry. sorry for the incoherent organizaion, lack of content and explanation. the photos will speak for themselves.

We went to Tainan, which is about an hour's drive away from Kaoshiung. We met Arthur's cousin and went for a university lesson on Roman architecture. I knew most of the structures in Rome because of my prior experience playing Caesar 3. What a joke right? HAHA. See, that shows that playing computer games isn’t such a bad thing after all. The university that we went to is supposedly the best in the southern side of Taiwan.

After the 2 hour lecture, which was really quite interesting, we left on motorcycles. Arthur's mom drove back to Kaohsiung and his cousin’s boyfriend came to bring us around.

Being on a motorcycle is really fun because of the cool wind blowing in your face. The bad thing is that it stinks. It really does. Its fun probably because the weather here is nice. I know I wouldn’t want to be riding back in Singapore because it would be so so so hot.

harold and weiwei

arthur and sheng ge

We went to a first class national cultural heritage center in the whole of Taiwan and the place is a bit eerie because of the lighting. The place is beautiful at night.

some statues with words written on them.

blah~

this is viewed from the back

sheng ge, harold and weiwei

me and harold! EH? why i so short

We rode to eat and eat and eat. I believe one of the favourite Taiwanese pastimes is eating. First, we ate guan cai ban which is a toasted bread with corn soup. I think. It was fried. If you haven't found out yet, Taiwanese food is mostly fried or deep-fried. Following that, we went to a back alley to eat some noodles, which smelt like wanton mee because of the lard. We ate the fried chicken too. I've given up on saying that Taiwanese food is nice because it's obvious. It’s either because Taiwanese are good cooks or we're going to all the best eateries. Haha. I think it's probably the latter. I forgot to mention that there a lot of roadside stalls in Taiwan that sell good food. The food is hygienic too. oh btw i found a proof of Taiwanese's sub-standard english.

"a tea of chain shop" lol. there're like 3 grammar mistakes there

After that, we went to the most famous dried fruits shop in the whole of Taiwan. I'm not sure if it's called dried fruits. Usually, that back alley is packed and the road leading into the area is jammed with all the tourist buses going to that shop. Luckily, we went on a Wednesday, thus it was pretty much empty. Arthur's cousin said that the owners were grumpy old people and temperamental, which is mainly because business is so good. They sell sour plums and dried fruits in all sorts of flavours, including milk and coffee. Then, we went to another night market. Taiwan is full of night markets.

these photos are taken next to some street arts which i thought was quite nice.

retro stuff

arthur's cousin and her bf

harold says he doesn't know wad he wanna say about this photo...

We woke up and caught the 10 a.m. train to Taipei. The train is clean and the seats are comfortable. I slept for a while and read The Historian. It's really a good read. I'm almost halfway through the book. The train ride was four hours long and we reached Taipei at around 2.

the seats~~

the railway side scene

some agriculture

I followed Arthur to some immigrations place to make some… erm I'm not so sure what we did there. Actually, I was reading my book and listening to music, so I really didn't know what Arthur was doing there.

After that we took a cab to Ximen, which is another shopping area. We met with Jeremy Huang and his mom at the place. They came here for holiday, so Arthur and Jeremy planned to meet up.

The weather here in Taipei is great. It's about 19 degrees and it's cool.

we bought a chao big bag so that we can put everything in

ppl mountain ppl sea. this is REALLY flodded with ppl

After Ximen, we went to the famous Shilin Street, which is well known for its food (duh) and shopping. It's a vibrant place and it's really crowded. I ate chou tofu. It actually tasted good when I chewed it, but when I swallowed it, oh my gosh, I smelt the chou wei dao. It really smells like bad breath. Ugh, it’s not that bad but it;s not something I would enjoy eating. This street is where the shop in Singapore gets its name from and the shop really doesn't do the food in Taiwan justice. It tastes much better here. (arthur shouts taiwan rocks)

taiwan BIG sausages!! and yes my fellow frens, don't doubt about the question of MY taiwan sausage.

After Shilin, we went to Arthur's Ah Ma's house in Tian Mu or something like that. It's an old high class residential area. There are many foreigners that stay around this area, mostly Caucasians. This area has everything, including food and shopping.

The next day, we went to eat breakfast downstairs. There was a kind lady who helped us to get to Taipei 101. We had to change buses twice. Hmm so Arthur tells me that Taiwanese people are really warm and helpful. He said that the passage in the higher Chinese exam is true. I guess that’s true, because people here are generally friendly.

Taipei 101.

The tallest building in the world. It really doesn't look that tall when you stand below it. I really feel that KLCC is taller. Arthur says it's the antenna at the top that gives it the height. According to him, that “stick” is about 10 storeys tall. We had to pay money to go up and the elevator is really super duper fast.
It runs at 1010 m/min and we reached the top in 37 secs to be exact.

You can hear you ears popping. Arthur was continuously praising the female workers at the observatory. He says they're pretty and they can speak 5 languages, including Japanese, Chinese and English. Personally, I think they mugged their lines, but Arthur says he heard a Japanese talking to one of the workers and she was able to reply. The view from the top is spectacular.

Everything is pretty much very small. If you stand still and concentrate, you can really feel the tower moving.

jeremy

arthur

harold

The indoor observatory is at the 89th floor and we had to pay more money to go to the outdoor observatory on the 91st floor.

It was freezing outside. The temperature was 13.3 degrees and it was really windy.

The paper Arthur was holding onto flew away. Haha. I think I should let the pictures do the talking.

i believe i can fly~~

buddies

it's really cold up there...

some other photos~~

tickets!

oh this is the shopping mall inside taipei 101. the roof design was superb.

whereas this is taken outside 101. there's this LOVE thingy which took like 10+ photos

ohohohoh look at this. harold's superb action capturing skills!

At night, we went back to Tian Mu and ate shabu shabu, a sort of steamboat. Then, we went shopping. Jeremy and his mom left and we went back to Arthur's Ah Ma's house.

Today, we woke up and went to eat breakfast and walked to the church, to find out if there are any churches in Taoyuan, which is the next destination. After that, we walked back and looked at clothes and shoes along the way. Later, we’ll be going back to Ximen to shop again.

i guess that's about it for today....took like 2 hours+ to edit de photos, upload, and blog....oh ya harold narrated most of the content of the post, while i add some comments here and there. sorry for the lousy organization again. there're like 100+ photos can!!

penned.
2:10 PM

another chapter unfolds.