砂漠のJeffire

Jeffirean Stories

Sunday, April 29, 2007

AHhhh!

I was kinda depleted earlier on after playing some 45mins of street soccer and another 3hours training with the dragonboat team. I seriously doubt my capability as my fitness sucks to the core, couldn't row one entire set continuously.... sobs. Seriously I have not really begun any training regime, and this could be the source of the problem. Vice-Captain Wilson has recommended doing 100x crunches, pushups and some "superman" exercise which I know the steps but not the name. So I guess I should start with Wilson's recommendations, and add in my own variety of activities. Another negative factor is my increasing weight. I have reached the 150 pounds level! Of course this is not my highest weight ever so maybe I still stand a chance of cutting it down... my big round tummy will be a feature for the time being =x

Shan't whine anymore and get back to business about Day 2/3 of my trip to Taiwan.

Day 2 began with a walk again to the Main Station area. This time we were focused on looking for the computer stuff so we went on to the computer street at BaDe Rd Sec 1 (八德路一段). The silly thing was that we walked across Taipei central, probably about 3 MRT stops there. Think of it as walking from Khatib to Sembawang Shopping Centre. We probably walked about 2-3hrs in that area, covering Rainbow Plaza (similar to Sim Lim Square) and the computer street itself. After collecting the information, we went on to City Hall station 市政府站 where Taipei 101 was. We passed by another few Xin Kong Mitsukoshi shopping centres, and saw Taiwan Ah Cheng! They were filminf a serial. Pika asked if we should take a photo, but I saw the security personnel stopping someone from taking a photo (think it's to prevent people from filming it too) so there was no point. We continued our way to Taipei 101 (see photos at the end of post) and the main attraction there was the Sony Fair! (Taipei 101, nah) There were Spidey statues, Sony Ericsson mobile phone girls, and pretty hostesses for the exhibition segment where they introduced the latest Sony technologies. We probably stayed there for an hour because they had a "visit station, get a stamp" activity and you can take part in a lucky draw after completing the card. I wasn't very keen on it, but Pika got two of them and then seeing that he wasn't very proactive at getting the stamps, I got the rest of them. Saw the new Gundam game on PS3, very nice lei! Too bad no $$ to buy PS3. Haha. We took some photos and moved on.

After the fair we walked past Mister Donut and got a good rest there munching donuts in the air-conditioning. Mister Donut should come to Singapore!! Their donuts are so nice! It's akin to a donuts fast food restaurant. Heh.

Then without any real targets to go to, I suggested going to Shilin night market 士林夜市. This was the start of the nightmarish part of the trip. Okie, first and foremost it's my fault, so there's no doubt about it. I want to cut short this part as it brings me heart pains. Put it this way, at Taipei Main Station interchange, I walked way too in front, caught the train on a rush without Pika, and left him stranded there while I went to Jian Tan 剑潭 Station only to find to my horror that he did not board that train. It took 2hrs before we finally managed to meet up again but the damage was done. You certainly do not want to see the Incredible Sulk. It's absolutely scary. By the time we met, I had eaten the Shilin XXXL chicken chop (the 1st choice (yellow signboard, 2 row inside the food centre) was sold out at 7+pm!!, so I ate the 2nd choice one 豪大鸡扒 blue signboard, right opposite the MRT). After gathering, he sat there for donkey minutes without saying anything until I decided to take a look at the belt stall. They were selling at 50NT a belt! Woo! We bought some belts, but the mood was still icy. Then after much persuasion, we went on to the main area of the Shilin night market, which was fairly crowded, but not entirely full. There were so many stalls, so many shops but too bad there was no mood to eat anything special. One particular stop we made was the 133NT shop. Everything going for 133NT!! Who can resist it? Bought some stuff and then moved around again until the whole area was fairly covered (most of the time I walked behind the Incredible Sulk) and then we went back to the hotel. Suddenly he made his way out with the hotel room's keys but I was stunned and too tired to move (and if i go out without finding him, then how?) so I stayed to bathe and rest while he went to explore XMD. He then came back with a cd. Then that's the end for that day lor apart from some funny night tv.

The good part of this nightmare was that I learnt how to dial overseas using the public phone (need so many coins!) which was cheaper than using the pre-paid Singtel card.

The nightmare continued the next day beginning from XMD MRT station. After a series of turns, we got into XMD station without any particular place to go. I didn't dare to suggest anywhere in case I was given the cold shoulder. When he decided to go somewhere, he decided not to tell me where, after he had already passed the gates. So I bought a 30NT ticket (in case he wanted to travel far) but by the time I passed the gates, I did not see him anywhere. I went to the platform to look for him, but after walking 2 full lengths of the platform, to no avail. I was utterly shattered by this time, but I decided to go my way to find stuff around. I alighted at ZhongXiao XinSheng 忠孝新生 station and began my walk to find the famous DinTaifeng so that when he got his mood back, we could go there to eat. Ended up I turned the wrong direction and went to Da An 大安 area instead. I walked past the Da An park though and reached Da An station. I had bought a Taiwanese phone card earlier on so I dialled his mother first to file my greivances =p and then he himself on his handphone and we agreed to meet at ZhongXiao Fu Xing 忠孝复兴 (where you can find 2 SOGO shopping centres) at 4pm (which was about 45mins later). I shopped around Da An residential area, and my WORST purchase of the trip was at one of the shops there which I bought a handbag for my mother at 2000NT!!! (original price they claim is 2780NT lor) Freak. When you get emotional, there is less logic available to help you make decisions. Turns out that when we went to RaoHe St NM 饶河街夜市, without bargaining the same bag cost 1680NT only!! Imagine my siansified face lor. Anyway my mother likes the bag, so not so heart pain....

So we met again at ZXFX. The mood was still icy cold but we made our way to go find 阿婆甜不辣 (Ah Po Tempura) which should had been 4 streets away. We probably passed the Kowloon equivalent of Taipei. Haha. But still we never managed to find the legendary tempura store (on hindsight, we turned southbound instead of northbound at the correct street, sianzzzzz) but we went on to LinJiang NM 临江夜市 at the junction of Keelong Road Sec 1 基隆路一段. This NM not too bad la, quiet and filled with food goodies. Ate new stuff (can't remember what) and walked about 2hours there before making our way back, on foot! Lol.Heh. By the time we got back to XMD, it was about 10+pm. We checked out XMD area for food and yes, Ah Zong Mee Sua 阿宗面线 was still available. I tell you, this is a must eat!! Many people stand outside the shop holding a bowl of mee sua eating but this chap is clever, he ta pau back to the hotel la. Haha. I tried a mouthful and oh god, it was very nice. Except that I don't eat oysters, so I had to control abit. Besides the poor chap hasn't ate much throughout the day so I felt it was better for him to eat the most of the mee sua.

I shall conclude Day 3 here. And photos! Here you go:

Actually very difficult to write captions for blogspot photos la, you know, my friends dun like to use blogspot because the photos can't put where you want them to be put, so mian qiang i upload some 精点 highlights and you all go and self-interpret ba. But I guess I will load all of them onto my webshots account in the future, that one easier to add captions too. Heh, look out for Part III on Monday night perhaps. Tomorrow no time to blog la...

Already 3.20am lor!!! Later have to work at the library.... sianzzzz~

Hungry, miss TW food
Jeffire

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