3D at San Agustin

Jeepney

San Guillermo Parish Church

Tagaytay

Angeles City

Milk Fish

Backdated

Thought I'd update my blog now that the critical moment is over. Just want to blog. Had had enough of my dissertation proposal.

Click here for my backdated posts. Will slowly update this blog.

Rich and Poor

My Taiwan trip has been a journey rich in:

sight - of the MTR rush, night market culture, and the daily routine life of its people,

taste - the tantalizing textures of every bits and bites of the variety of local food, delicacies, street food, desserts, etc,

smell - the aroma of gluttony and the smell of rain,

sounds - the inviting calls from the vendors, "Huan ying guang ling. Qing kan kan oh." (Welcome. Please have a look.).

Of course, my wallet was a lot poorer...

Our last breakfast in Taiwan: Xiao long bao

Oct 22: Another nondescript but busy stall

I hope one day when I've saved up enough, I'd visit again you again - but minus the rain.

Rainy Day

For the most part of our trip, it was raining nearly everyday except on the first and second day where the weather was gloomy and there were the occasional light drizzles which stopped just as suddenly as they've begun. I was saddened by the fact that we had travelled so far to a different country only to see its dark and cloudy weather, but it did not deter me from enjoying myself.

Next to my traveling companion, the umbrella was my most reliable friend.

The second last day of our trip saw us travelling in a taxi to the county of Yilan. Yilan is well known for its natural volcanic hot springs, fresh seafood, beautiful beaches with brown volcanic sands, homestay farms and panoramic views of mountain terrains.

Alas, it was also the day with the heaviest downpour of rain - non-stop, from the previous day until the next day. 

 Rain, rain, go away...

Oct 21: Yilan

Nevertheless, we ate fresh seafood, dipped in jacuzzi tube filled with clean hot spring water in the privacy of our rented motel units, were treated to some local food by our taximan, tasted Yilan's oolong tea and bought lots of local biscuits and products from Yilan.

We were oblivious to what was happening to the rest of Taiwan as we travelled snugly in the comfort of our chartered ride. It was only towards evening as we were heading back to Taipei that we saw the current news on the mini satellite TV in the taxi.

There were flash floods in the lower parts of Yilan only 20 minutes away from where we were enjoying ourselves the whole day, strong gusts of typhoon wind tearing through Taipei city centre and landslides in the mountainous tourist region of Hualian which  had trapped many groups of tourists in the mountain and took the lives of a whole busload of visitors from Hong Kong.

I was very thankful that we were safe and spared of all the unfortunate events that were happening on the very same day that we travelled the furthest from the county of Taipei to Yilan.

It was just so ironic - there we were enjoying ourselves and there were others who had their holiday, and lives, cut short...

Quaintness

I thought the streets of Taipei are most charming. Rows and rows of shops, with their colourful and unique goodies attractively arranged in the shops. 

The quaint but clean alleyways between the shops are very different from those at home too - but then again, I was an easily mesmerized tourist in my holiday mode.

Alleyway

Oct 20: Danshui

This exudes a sense of peace and calmness - with almost a nostalgic and melancholic feeling to it. Maybe it's  the lanterns. I was most drawn to this specific alleyway.

I Love Wasabi!

Succulent, lip-smacking, taste bud-tantalizing salmon!!!

Oct 19: Wasabi, Taipei 101

=D``````````

These thick slices of salmon were just so, so, so good. Smooth, melt-in-your-mouth goodness!

Had these at a buffet spread at Wasabi Restaurant, in Taipei 101. Apparently, this joint is so famous among the locals and tourists alike. The queue was nearly 30 metres long, snaking along the wide corridor. And that's for diners who have made reservations. I doubt those who just show up without prior booking will be able to gain entry at all.

Lunch time buffet was from noon til 2.30 p.m. at RM57 per person. Service was quick and efficient. Friendly staff.

So classy and exclusive that they did not allow any photography of their impressive buffet stations. There were different stations for sushis and sashimis, tempuras, soups, makis (rice hand-rolls), roast meats, veggies on skewers, drinks and ice-creams.

*BURP!!!

Mighty Rock

On the second day in Taiwan, we ventured out of the city centre and visited a few scenic tourist spots: Jiufen, Yehliu, Jinshan and finally, Shilin night market.

My favourite spot is Yehliu, a seaside geopark. It's a place where unique and natural rock formations were crafted by the forces of wind and waves.

Wish I had more time to slowly explore the place. It is really beautiful!

Stormy waves

Oct 18: Yehliu

My favourite pic of the place. Love how the waves are hitting against the rock. But this is a poor composition. Should have captured less land, more ocean.

Bitter Better?

I was falling sick just two days before my Taiwan trip. Falling - because all the tell-tale signs were there.

It was a trip that I had really looked forward to. Not willing to take any chances, I went to see Dr C to get my bag of medicines, just in case. Didn't want my trip to be ruined.

I really fell sick on the day I arrived in Taipei and the medicine came in handy.

And this was my poor attempt to quell my coughs, the Chinese way - drinking bitter herb. Just too bitter.

Bitter, bitter, bitter drink

Oct 17: Herbal shop, Wufenpu, Taipei

Did it work?

Of course not. Not with all the interesting fried street food, cold drinks and ice-cream that I was pigging myself with as I explored the streets of Wufenpu and Raohe.

QQ & Family

After staying at Elaine's for four days, I moved over to my uncle's place. He's Ma's youngest bro and has been working in KL for the past 12 years.

Am grateful for QQ and his family for hosting me. QQ has been most kind and loving by sending me to Central every morning before going off to work. Aunty has been cooking delicious dinners for us and bought me breakfast when I couldn't walk for two days. Ivan has to sleep on the floor in the living room coz I have taken control over his bedroom and Laine has been bringing in my laundry while I'm still at the library. And I'm blogging now thanks to Yvonne's David's broadband coz he's out working.

QQ and Aunty J

Yvonne, David (her bf) & Ivan

My couzies Laine & Yvonne

Laine's birthday dinner @ QQ's fav restaurant in Brickfields

Nom nom nom

(minus Aunt J coz she's in KK, visiting)

Bak Kut Teh dinner (minus Ivan who's gone outstation)

July 10: Nam Seng Restaurant 

Thank you all so much!

Sick

Just got back from my trip to Manila last Tuesday and was immediately assaulted by a mild cough and sore throat the very next morning. I thought that I am coughing and sniffling more this morning. Hopefully it won't turn into a full-blown coughing frenzy.

The trip has been a very enjoyable and eye-opening experience for me. I am still missing the sight, food, culture and shopping - not that I bought a lot. There are just so many things to look at since it was my first trip to the Philippines after all.

Will try to update my quiet blog soon with more pics from the trip. For now, here's a pic of Philippines' famous food - Lechon (roast pig).

Lechon on a pit

June 5: Laloma Street

Gallivanting

So I'm just a very undisciplined, lazy bum. Instead of finishing up the proposal, I went on a day out with Sim; first for Sim's belated birthday lunch at The Hut, Damai, before we took off to the newly opened Suria KK. The parking is free for the first two hours before they start charging at RM1 per hour, I think.

It was a barren mall at the moment; with construction workers still carrying on works and renovation. The over-powering smell of new paint and dust greeted us as we stepped into the mall.

Only a handful of shops were open such as Eu Yan Sang, GNC, Reject Shop, Voir and a boutique or two.

I love this tiny black thing and the masquerade mask in the window at Voir! Suitable for a Christmas party!

The much anticipated Metrojaya is in full-swing operation.

It was good to walk through the department. It brought back so many memories of my student days in KL, when I was so much poorer where I had gone through the sections during sales to hunt for cheap stuff but I found out then that Metrojaya could never ever offer the best price compared to Parkson Grand.

It was, however, good to see some familiar labels such as Somerset Bay, Laura Ashley, Passage, Arthur Yen and Emmanuel.


And on this floor, I saw Strudel which was tucked away in a corner! Tired patrons can grab a quick bite and at the same time enjoy the scenic seaview.

We were there for less than an hour so we went to Wisma Merdeka. The last time I was here was sometime in June. Sim introduced me to the most delectable and scrumptious bite-sized goodness of Takoyaki, a Japanese snack. It was heavenly!!! So much better than the one in Damai.

I also managed to buy some outfits for myself *happy*

Before we left, I went and bought myself two sets of Takoyaki. I just could not get the taste out of my mind. They are just too delicious!

Yums!!!

My very valid concern now is that I'm afraid I'd get this sudden uncontrollable urge for Takoyaki and may drive down to KK just to satisfy my cravings!

Retreat: Oct 17 - 18

Waking up at noon last Saturday, I pottered about at home and took my time packing up my clothes for an overnight AWLT retreat at the Beringgis Beach Resort. It was the team's 13th annual retreat and my tenth! I only left home at 1.30 p.m. while the rest had gone up earlier at 9 a.m. for a game of paintball.

Here are some pics of the paintball session from Debs' and Wun2's cameras.




























Craving for really fatty food, I made a stop at Burger King and bought a BBQ Double Grilled Onion Cheese burger set that comes with free onion rings! The onion rings were superb! The crispy crunchers sent me down an aromatic memory lane. I think it has been more than 10 years since I last had BK's onion rings. The burger was delicious too.

Yummy! Nom nom nom...

Confession: I ate all of them while taking a leisurely drive to the venue, hence the turtle-paced journey. Definitely not recommended for fast-driving and amateurs. Note to self: Will not eat and drive, again...

I arrived just in time for the 3 p.m. indoor games session handled by Debs, Fifi (labeled by James) and Wun2. It was a smaller group this year compared to previous years' but nevertheless, we had great fun.



Yup, we found out that Uzbekistan is a country name that is hard to pronounce under stress and the three female musketeers thought that San Francisco is a country ;)



At 4 p.m., it was free time. Tradition has it that the boys and men will be in the shallow pool for a game of water basketball.

The boys warming up

Bel2 and Mel2 in the kiddie pool

Aww... cute Bel

Fifi's failed attempt down the water slide

The girls, as usual, snubbed me for a decent photo of them :P except for Wun2 :)

I went for an evening walk along the beach with Susie. It was windy and cooling. The cloudy sky protected us from the harsh glare of an evening sunset.

Serenity

A jet plane cutting through the sky

I returned from the walk to find that the girls had also joined the boys for water basketball. It was definitely a first for the team! They gave the boys a run for their money because they could play really well! Bravo!

Every year, someone is bound to be a victim in the fun but violent game because of kiasu-ness (fear of losing). One would think that the men would play and behave more gentlemanly since it was the ladies' inaugural participation, but no!

This year's first and thankfully, only casualty was Victor, who suffered a long, unsightly but fortunately, superficial scratch on his chest... *painful*


I had a dip in the pool too and stayed on with Wallace to shoot some rings long after the rest had gone. He was the runner when my shots strayed because this aunty was just too lazy to move much. Warning: You may call me aunty only if you are young enough to be my children :P

As I made my way to the function room after dinner, I passed by the lobby and saw this simple flowery decoration.

Samson led worship before we had another round of gelling time. It was a round of Michael's famous stretching and massaging exercise before Debs took over.










We found out that some of us are quite poor in relaying visual and audio messages but are decent 'actors and actresses' ^^ We capped the night session with some hot beverages, courtesy of James.

But the girls were not ready to call it a night as they visited Debs' and my room on the pretext of studying for school exam. Fifi and Nana actually brought their Maths books to the retreat for revision -.- Of course their noble intention failed miserably as they were soon enticed by Wun2's (the 'too free' post-PMR student) suggestion to play guessing games - white magic.

Debs and I also chipped in and introduced some games that we used to play when we were young from ages ago... black magic, 9-squares, Johnny woops, Mrs Pearson, pencil trick, blah... blah... topped with potato chips and more jokes before they left our room at midnight.

I dozed off soon after but woke up sometime in the night and couldn't go back to sleep. There I was tossing and turning for nearly two hours, I think, before sleeping soundly again. Both Debs and I overslept and only woke up around 8.30 a.m., with just another half an hour to spare for brekky. We made it nevertheless.

Sunday morning saw Samson leading worship, Michael sharing his sermon, all of us taking a groups photo and yours truly facilitating the group sharing. It was the time where we shared what we have learned for this year, how we can contribute more and our hopes for this team. It was also a short time of encouragement and I hope, openness.

After a buffet lunch, it was time to go home. The short retreat had come to an end.

Here, Wun2, the 'entertainer' held her audience captive with her black magic.

 
I was to send Nana and Wun home but the 'post PMR student' was itchy to make a detour to somewhere else, anywhere, before going home. We ended up going for roti canai. Surprisingly, Nana could finish what's before her and took another bite from Wun's plate! It was also Wun's first roti canai -.-

Nana finally posed for a pic. No choice, or else walk home ;)





Girls, sedap right?

Though not all of us went, those who did had a jolly good time. I know I did...


Something old, something new;
Of the past but mostly present;

Something revisited but not pining;
Not bitterness, only memories.