砂漠のJeffire

Jeffirean Stories

Thursday, April 26, 2007

Ciao a i miei amici! Ogenki desu ka? Heh, I'm back from Taiwan! Ironically, as I wanted to begin this post, a call from Taiwan came. Surprisingly, it's a call from a woman... haha, it's the mother of the chap who dropped his wallet on the road which I picked up on my long journey across central Taipei. Interestingly I must had made it difficult for them as I returned the wallet at Songshan Railway Station police post rather than anywhere near where we picked up the wallet. Okie, let's begin the story proper now, to continue where we stopped from the last post.

After the last post, I went to take a short nap and then woke up pretty early in the morning to go MOM again. This time everything was ready and the permit application was just as smooth. The trouble was that I had to make my way to Raffles Place to change money for the trip and that driving to Raffles Place was not very feasible, so I took the train. The money changing exercise was not too bad, we got good rates for that day(but on hindsight, if we went later the rates would have be better too). I rushed back to Ubi and then hurried to take a bus to the nearest MRT station so that I could go to the airport as soon as possible. By this time it was already slightly past 11pm, which was our original meeting time at the airport. As I huffed and puffed, I could only at best reach the airport at 12nn. Fortunately Eileen was available to help Pika to move my luggage from Yishun to the airport as she offered to send us off. We had a hurried lunch at Popeye (a fast food restaurant at T1, just renovated) and then made our way to the boarding area. I still had stuff which I ought to have passed to my brother before leaving, but I forgot due to the all the hectic rush. So I had Eileen to help me deposit my cheque, mail stuff to my brother. Thankfully it's my fortune to have known such a great friend. Heh.

The 4hr+ flight was absolutely boring because we hadn't really prepare any entertainment. Luckily, Jetstar prepared some Today and My Paper and we read them quickly. The news wasn't kind, there was a duststorm in Taipei blown from China. Such a bad news set a worrying tone for the start of the trip (in my opinion). Time just passed boringly and then we reached Taipei in a darkening sky. The flight reached CKS Airport slightly early, and that helped to better the moods slightly. I think airlines should change their destination titles to Taoyuan rather than Taipei because the airport is in Taoyuan county rather than Taipei county. We took a Freego bus because their marketing was the "loudest" and paid 135NT for the one way trip. (I just read that if you buy a return trip it would be 30NT cheaper at 240NT). The bus trip was slightly bumpy but otherwise fast, smooth and comfortable. We watched a Taiwanese hokkien drama on the way. Haha. This Freego bus is good because it stops at various hotels in Taipei. Not knowing that our hotel was nearer to the first stop (Royal Castle;成都大饭店), we alighted in the middle of Hsimenting nearer to Rainbow Hotel;长虹饭店) After walking one round because of a directional mistake, we finally found our hotel. I tell you, my first impression was, "Oh my god". Well, this hotel we lived in is actually quite budget one, $51/wkdays and $60/wkends, but after some checking on the Taiwanese forums I decided on it because it was still acceptable. IT IS INDEED ACCEPTABLE if you don't mind their provoking logo =p. Haha, sorry I can't post a photo here yet as I can't find my cable. In actual fact, upon seeing the room, everything was good, very good. Cheap and good and comfortable. The only problem was the noise you can hear when people talk in the corridor (and we heard many SGreans) and the central air-conditioning system -> doesn't feel like there is air-conditioning as there was no wind and it was even colder outside. Lol. But they do supply a small fan so we used that for air-circulation.

The first night was more of an exploratory adventure. The main target was the areas nearby, but not the immediate XMD area. So we went across the camera street, the bookshop street and found ourselves behind XinKong Mistukoshi (星光三越) which is a Japanese shopping centre. The pungent smell of the chow tauhu was somehow unbearable for me. We tried several stuff like 继光炸鸡 (fried chicken pieces with bones),胡椒饼 (pepper biscuit), 水煎包 (pan-fried+steamed chinese bun), and a couple of bubble tea store drinks. I was looking forward to sitting down for a meal but Pika was too excited to see the cd distributor having all the Ayumi singles that he was looking for. As we walked around the area, reaching furthest the 228 Park, we had covered the area near Flowers Hotel (his aunt stayed there earlier a week ago before us) and also saw some computer stuff, which was the start of the laptop hunt.

At night we went back to the hotel, flipped through the tv and went to bed around 2am I guess. The spoils of the day were brochures and a HYSNSN magazine which I bought for Eileen... Was very tired!!

I shall continue soon..... stayed tune tomorrow!!

Me at the airport

On my left is the border of XMD, on my right is Taipei Main Station area

Pika savouring the Pepper Biscuit

Bubble tea!!

Acknowledged my existence at
10:11 PM