Haw Par Villa

Can you guess where Law and i went Pa Tuo yesterday???? Haa....we went Haw Par Villa! Ahem...an interesting choice right? As he wanna go look at the 10 court level of hell (normally is the 18 level of hell, dun ask me why is there only 10 levels at Haw Par Villa), so there we went.

It was damn hot! The last time (and only time) i went Haw Par Villa was way back in 1991, with auntie Janet and her bf (now hubby). It has been 16 yrs! OMG!! Hmm..dun really much abt Haw Par Villa then, except that they have a log ride previously and we need to pay abt $15 to get in. But now, entrances fee is free, but if we wanna go into the Hua Song museum which shows us the life of the early chinese immigrants, we need to pay $8.40 each.

At the entrance

At Hua Song Museum

Hee, i quite like this pic

Haa..pretending to be a scholar..

Yucks!!!

At night, went to celebrate Xuehui, Amanda, Winnie and Eric; sep babies' birthday at a steamboat resturant at Bugis. Maybe was tired out after Haw Par Villa trip, thus didnt eat much at the steamboat.

Cool pic huh :) Done by our artistic Faith!!

Once again, HAPPY BIRTHDAY GALS!!!

Confidant?

Was on msn with a fren just now:

He: Hows your mood today

Me: Not good

He: Yeah, i guess so as well...

For a moment i am stunned. How did he know?

Me: How you know?

He: Cos you are starting work tomolo mah

Haaa.... i thought he is able to read minds!! Even thru msn. Sigh..wont it be nice if u have a fren who u can really confide in without being afraid of sounding stupid or ridiculous? Just a person to listen to you and give advise?

Snowflakes

"no. i remember thinking, one winter day, that we were like snowflakes on the sea, you and i. our love was so beautiful, so special, but, like the snowflakes, when it touched something bigger, it dissolved."he smiled, somewhat sadly, at the imagery in her statement. "snowflakes on the sea," he repeated thoughtfully, his eyes locked now with hers. "did it ever occur to you that that snow didn't really cease to exist at all? it became a permanent part of that 'something bigger' - a part of something eternal and elemental and very, very beautiful." - an excerpt from 'Snowflakes on the Sea' by Linda Lael Miller

Miss, crave, cant wait....

I miss the mee suan at Taiwan so much!!!!!!! And also Xiyue's mom's beef noodles!!!! AAarrrggghhhh!!!!!!!

Cute little gal

Tried to post the YouTube below but to no valid. Its this little gal which makes me change my background music...so sweet..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=En0A8KGMgq8&mode=related&search

23 Sep - Juliana's wedding

Just attended Jul's wedding at Conrad on Sun. I was one of the Jiemei. As Jul is my colleague, all the other 6 jiemeis are also my colleagues. The picking up of the bride is at the hotel and thus we need to be there at 7am!!

As Jul is half malay and half chinese, the tea ceremony for her mom only takes place at night in the hotel. Thus our day schedules is relatively more relax. After the gate crashing, in which we each manage to get $50+, we proceed to the groom's house for tea ceremony. Its then followed by gg to their new home and then to out door photoshoot before gg back to the hotel.

This is Jul's bedroom room. Looks like a hotel room right! Like the red and black theme. So classy and cosy

The 7 jiemeis

The dinner at Conrad is also very nice. They have a black, white and gold theme, with their table cloth black, with a gold ribbon across and white chairs. Dinner is served with individual portion and the food taste great too. Wat impress us the most is that after the dinner when we went back up to the room, the realised that the hotel staff have actually went into the room and helped them prepared a rose petal bath! So sweet!

Would upload more photos once i get them from Jul.

22 Sep - Ah dear's birthday celebration

Ah dear's birthday is actually on the 19th of sep, but today, his primary school fren did a mini celebration for him. Since his meeting with his frens is at night, we spend the afternoon shopping for mooncakes.

He came to pick me up when he is on his way back home from camp. As its a sat, we went to try our luck on the "flip card session" This is actually a Suan(4) Ming(4) session whereby youa re suppose to cut the cards and the Shifu would lay out the cards and use them to help u see your fortune. This is my 3rd time there. The 1st time i got a black card thus cannot proceed to suan ming. Need to get a red card for the first card that i picked. The second time i went there, they are not open.

The shifu said my fortune for next year would be better than this year (yippee!!!!) But he also said that i am very confuse with my future and have no confidence....he said i am those who plan as i go and dun have a future goal...hmm..i quite disagree on that...cos i actually have my goals...anyway, i feel that u cannot believe 100% on suan ming. Just trust yourself and go along!

Next we went to Taka for lunch and mooncake shopping.

Teriyaki chicken don set and curry rice set. Yummy!!!

After lunch, went to the mooncake fair at taka. There are alot of ppl and even met Danny and his gf there. Afetr a round of looking and trying mooncakes, i bought a box of crispy yam mooncake for home and law bought a box of Da Zhong Guo mooncakes for his grandma's side.

Went to his grandma's house at Toa Payoh and after that met up with his frens at the coffee shop below. Actually its very nice to keep in touch with your primary school frens and i am glad that they are still in so close terms. I barely had any primary school frens that i am still in touch with. His fren Huiping got him a suprise bday cake.

Haa..actually Huiping alr sms me earlier on when we were in the mrt, saying that she would be getting the cake. But know Law would sure say dun wan, i didnt inform him :P

Ah dear with me and his mango mosse cake

After dinner, they went on for KTV. As i am gg to be the Jiemei of my colleague the next day, i didnt join them and Bernard sent me home.

Taiwan trip Day 7 - last day

Wake up feeling fresh today (as i had almost 7 hrs of sleep) and realised that Xuehui and Bernard just came back!! And Xuehui still wanna go Xi Meng Ting with me!!! She is one power gal..no need to sleep when it comes to shopping!!! Bernard on the other hand couldnt take it anymore and he went to sleep.

Reached Xi Meng Ting ard 10am. Most of the shops are not open yet. Thus we went to look for the famous Ah Zhong Mian Xian.

The shop: just opening. Had a hard time looking for this store!

Looked delicious!!

And tasted delicious!

Had the most fulfilling shopping (since in taiwan) at Xi Meng Ting today. Bought another 2 bra sets, 1 necklace each for my sis and bil, 1 t-shirt for law, 1 little twin star calendar for sis, a my melody pouch for myself and a Fila sling bag!!!

However, good times dun last, soon its time to head back to Xiyue's home to pack up. His mom was so nice, even cook us lunch before she went for work.

Quite a feast right! Also, Xiyue's mom cooked the best beef noodles i ever ate in Taiwan!

We bought lots of Tai Yang Bing (sun cake), Feng Li Su and other snacks. We almost kenna additional charges for the excess baggages..luckily they are nice enough to let us thru :P

Look at the number of boxes!!

Taiwan trip Day 6

Overslept and woke up at 11.30am today!!!! Had a rush wash up and we headed straight to Keelung. Our aim destination today is to Yielu and to Jufeng's Lao Jie (old street).

The drive to Keelung is actually quite short, taking us abt an hr. We headed up to Miao Kuo street for lunch. Its a street with a lot of xiao ci.

Xuehui, at the street of Miao Kuo

We stopped over at one of the Jap store for jap food. Look at their huge prawns!!

They makes good salad prawns

Haa..Xiyue is so happy with his food.

We went to another shop and ate this. Forgot what its called. But its made from the "thing" as shown below.

These are actually flour that got stuck to the side of the wok when the chef cooked other stuffs. Its being scrapped off and re-cooked. Taste a bit like kway teow.

On the way back to the car, we passed by a pet shop and saw this puppy!! Isnt it cute. Just like a teddy bear!!

But the pet shop is situated beside a butchery...errr..doesnt seems to be appropriate hor...

After Keelung, we made our way to Yeliu. Its actually to see rock formation bny the coast. Nothing much..would prefer great ocean road!!

We headed down to Jiufeng Lao Jie at night. Its a series of streets with old shop house settings. As we reached there ard 7pm and most shops closed at ard 8pm, alot of shops were alr closing.

Lao Jie

And guess wat we saw???? House of condoms!!!

Bought a pink silky chinese style handbag. Ideal to go with my white dress for Jul's wedding.

As today is our last night in Taiwan, Xuehui and Bernard went on to pub and KTV. I am already "half-dead" due to the lack of sleep from the previous few nights (those who know me would know that i need to sleep how many hrs per day in order to stay awake for the next day), thus i didnt join them.

Taiwan trip Day 5

We set off early from the motel at Hualian to Rui Fang as car ride takes abt an hr and we need to be at the shop for water rafting at 8am. On the way we saw ppl selling watermelons and decided to get 1.

Taiwan's watermelons are long not round!!


Went to 7/11 to buy breakfast. The cold noodles. Tasted not bad..a bit like the Japanses cold soba

Look at the boxes of milk and jucies. Arent they cute?

The owner's dog; Xiao Bu Dian. Haa.. like happy, Xiao Bu Dian is also a greedy dog. Keeps on coming up to us when we were having our breakfast.

Its actually my first time doing water rafting and i totally LOVE it!!!!!!! Its fun. The whole journey which includes lunch break takes about 4 hrs. There are 10 of us in 1 boat and our boat consist mainly of females. We are suppose to paddle the boat when there is no rapids and hold on to the boat when we are at the rapids. There are altogether 4 boats from the rafting company which we went to. With the 4 boats, there are 2 more instructor cum life guards who would follow us throughout the journey. Their job is to save us when we are stuck at certain shallow part or to save us when we fall into the water and is unable to get back to our boat on our own. While paddling through the calm waters, knowing that we would be bored, each rafting boat are equiped with water shovers...haha its for us to play water war!! We can also used to paddles to splash water. There are certain part whereby we are stuck at the rapids and water are pouring into our boat like nobody business and at that pt of time we tot we are gg to sink. But miraclously we didnt!! haha..wanna sink also cannot.

Haa..can spot me in the photo (hint i am one of them with the victory sign :P)? From the photo, u can see that we must keep 1 leg in the boat and the other one outside..as a results, both my legs are badly bruised from the bumping!

After the rafting

While on the way back to Taipei, we stopped over for a late lunch.

Hnmm..cant remember what this Bing (ice) is called..but tasted not bad.

All the tasty food

Its was alr abt 9+pm when we reached Taipei. As its still early, we went to Xing Meng Ting to shop ard. Hee..manage to persuade Bernard to pierce his ear!

Ta-da! Nice right....not painful at all....

Also at Xing Meng Ting, there is this very famous 3 story high bra shop with glass walls, called Easy Shop. Its a MUST GO when u r at Xing Meng Ting. Their bra sets are very nice and prices are quite reasonable. Too bad the salesgirl doesnt allow us to take photo...Me bought 2 bra sets from there.

Taiwan trip Day 4

We practically only slept for one and a half hrs before setting off to Rui Fang at 6am. Xiyue is driving. The whole day is basically a road trip.

Us in the car with Xuehui sleeping

Breakfast : Taiwan is also famous for their beef noodle. This is our first beef noodle in taiwan and it tasted horrible!!

We stopped over for a break...

Our main aim of the day is to go to Rui Fang for the water rafting. But when we reached there at abt 1pm, they told us the last grp for the day had just left!! We were too late and have to go back the next day..sian..thus we made our way to Hualian, Tarako George.

On the way we were lost..hehe..asking ppl along the way for directions.

Tarako George is actually a series of mountains which magnificant formation. Roads are being cut thru the mountains so as to allow access from one side to the other.

After dinner tat night, we decided to go for 2nd round of prawning in Hualian. This time round i caught 4 prawns!!! Hehe...

Our catch - total 21 prawns by the 4 of us with me - 4, Xuehui - 2, Xiyue - 7 and Bernard - 8

After that, we checked into motel Di Bao. Its a relatively new motel in Hualian and cost only NT1800 per night. As we were staying lesser than 1 day (from 12 midnight - 6am), they only charge us NT1600. Its actually very cheap, considering NT1800 ~ S$90 for 1 day/night for 4 person. The room is huge and there are 2 double bed in the room!

The toilet is huge too with separate bath tub and shower area. The walk from the toilet bowl to the basin takes abt 5 foot steps.
In the room where the normal coffee and tea area is found, there is also a mini basin for you to get water..just in case someone is in the toilet and there is no access to the basin. So thoughtful and convenient right!

The 2 double bed

Look at the size of the room!

And so comfy