this photo is dedicated to my beloved Xiao di, Luwei Tan Xiao di cos he loves subway sooo much. it's no longer Subway, Eat Fresh! over in Taiwan. it's qian ting bao, sha la! haha. ok lame. but seriously! the FIRST thought that came into my mind was, XIAO DI~!!!!! when i saw that sign. heh. gan dong ma, xiao di?

this is the ticketing machine! it accepts cash more readily than Singapore's. and you can purchase more than one token at a time, a feature that my family appreciates. we need to buy 4 tickets at a go, you see. so it saves time! another thumbs up! i would like to add that the Taiwanese are generally very civic-minded. they have seats set aside for "people who need them more than you". and the Taiwanese really abide to that rule - they will really stand up if they see "people who need them more than you". also, they will usually not seat at those priority seats even though the train is relatively crowded. w0w~!!! on top of that, they will REALLY keep to the right of the escalator. the left is STRICTLY for climbing up / walking down. if you stand on the left, you'll get scolded. cool right? Singaporeans? sigh... although the right is the express lane, many still stand there, obstructing the flow of passengers. Civic-mindedness, Singaporeans, civic-mindedness~!!! there were also many empty spaces for wheelchair-bound passengers as compared to Singapore's. sigh... *shakes head* and did i mention that Taipei's MRT is voted the world's best for the 3rd (or 4th, i cant really remember) time running?! they beat places like London, paris, shanghai, and us~!!! sigh... i was really impressed with their train system.

me and my xiao long bao. i loooove xiao long bao-s. i can drool, just thinking about them. FYI, our xiao long bao-s gang is EXPANDING~!!! w0o ho0~!!! the current members include, shuen, huiyi, henson, marco, and me~!!! haha. we must have a tim sum outing someday. must invite tim sim along. maybe can have discount. WAHAHA~!!! anyway, this photo was taken at the main Ding Tai Feng branch in Taipei. so c0ol~!!! we didn't even know it was the main branch until later on during the trip. apparently, there were 6 levels. but we didn't know cos we only went to the second floor. their service was really good~!!! it was efficient and they were really always smiling. their questions were really questions. and they asked them really politely. unlike in Singapore where their questions seem like commands. sigh... Singapore better buck up!

we went to Xiao Ren Guo. here's me and the ships.

this is some building la. cannot really remember what. haha.

haha. ok. i was laming about. i am your superstar!

ok. i know this! this is the Forbidden City~!!! wahaha...

a random shot i took of my dad. don't you think it looks artistic? wahaha....

cos i can't help falling.... ok, was feeling a little bimbotic.

a self-portrait of myself on board the free shuttle bus from Taipei 1o1 to the nearest MRT station.

ha. a cool picture. the girl in green in the background is my beloved sister =)

another self-portrait of me on the plane back to Singapore.

i kinda like this photo although my eyes appear SUPER SMALL~!!! haha. that's dad in the background, sleeping.

i love this shot too~!!! Szern, the great photographer. haha. that sentence just reminds me of Kongsheng. lolx. but yea, i got my sis to pose for me for this shot. keke. emo mei. haha. nice, right?

a few more random incidents:

- there was NO muah chee... can you ever believe it?! no muah chee-s in all the night markets that i went to~!!! CRAP~!!!

- we walked for about 5 MRT distances (think Admiralty to Choa Chu Kang, or Admiralty to AMK) from the Ding Tai Feng main branch to our hotel, which is near Taipei 1o1. from Ding Tai Feng, 1o1 looked so near. but when we walked... goodness~!!! we walked from tian liang dao tian hei. from daylight, to night fall, with all our barang barang-s. CRAP la~!!! once we reached the hotel, we were all quite seh... walking such a distance in that weather was ok. but cos we were carrying our purchases, we were all drained.

- Ding Tai Feng Taipei NOT equals Ding Tai Feng Singapore.

- i love the weather in Taipei when we went. about 15deg. quite cooling. but when the wind came, it was just another story.

- i couldn't get much clothes cos they were selling winter wear. the baby clothes were soooo kawaii~!!! my ma kept saying that she wanted to buy them for her grandchildren. i kept thinking of buying one set just to keep at home cos it was soooo cute~!!! but, dad stopped us. men are usually the more composed and rational ones when it comes to shopping. heh.

- pastor mentioned today that free and easy is much better than guided tours. i agree with him. free and easy allows more flexibility to plan my own itinerary. i can decide to spend more time on places that interest me and cut down time on boring places.

- i love their night markets... just eat and walk and shop. eat and walk and shop. eat and walk and shop. man~!!! i simply LOVE it. heh. their food is nice~!!! their tako yaki arh... 3 boxes for NT$1oo (~SG$5). there were 6 inside each box. this works out to SG$0.278 per piece as compared to Singapore's $0.667 per piece. and it tasted much better over there. their desserts were also super nice, especially their red bean soup. *yum*yum* i love red bean~!!! hong dou, lv dou, dao dou, cha cha cha.... ok lame.

- i love their milk tea with pearls. the nicest store is in Wu Fen Pu. their pearls are springy and chewy. i love their fried oyster. the nicest store is in Rao He Night Market. big oysters, crispy, large portion. i love their bitter gourd and honey juice. the nicest store is in Xi Men Ding. it's NOT gross! haha. yea~!!! *drools*

- i was looking for a Jolin Welcome to Taiwan poster but could not find one. i wanted to take a photo of it. haha.

- we were the LAST ONES to board the plane back to Singapore. my parents thought the flight was at 2.30pm. but it was 2.10pm~!!! so we were still dilly-dallying our way to the gate, thinking that we were still early. but it turned out otherwise. we were soooo late. we had to DASH to the plane. the ground crew and the plane crew were all waiting for us. oh man. sooo paiseh. really sooo paiseh... *covers face with hands* thank God as well. any later the plane would have flown off without us, and we might have to countdown at Taipei International Airport. haha.

so that's about it. for more photos, please click on the picture below. after being redirected, please click on the "Slideshow" button at the top left of the screen, just above the thumbnails of photos. please read the comments as well. happy watching! =)

Taiwan 2oo7 pictures