Migration!

make no mistake, I am not migrating overseas per se (well, not that I am not, but not yet...), rather my blog will be shifting to its new location here. I'm finally converting to Wordpress! Please update your links as you deem fit.

        Victor on 11.01.07 (Thursday) @ 01:08 AM

too long, too little

it has been a very long time since my last entry. And basically, the title of this entry says it all. In the span of 1+ months, I have been pushing my limits at work, and to an extent that is a good thing. but the downside was the fatigue i felt. To describe it with an adjective like "great" might not do justice to some of the colleagues who stayed at my company much longer than I have, so I'll just keep the adjective to myself. but i guess the fatigue was partly responsible for me getting a flu, and applying for a short break in end October. i can handle stress, but too much is not good. how much is too much? for me i have no answer. just dun want to press my luck too far. enough of work related stuff, its not very healthy nor safe to chat about work on a blog.

two weekends ago, elaine and i celebrated our 3 years together with a simple stay at royal plaza @ scotts. if you have visited her blog, you would have seen a few pictures on it... basically imho the picture that represents the stay best is the mineral water bottle picture sad to say my photography skills left much to be desired. that was not the main point though. actually intended it to be a surprise, but ended as not-so-surprise as she mentioned... basically i did let her know the details, and then both of us went to decide which hotel to stay in, etc etc... basically it became a mutual consent thing. so for one day, we lived in orchard, we even watched Underdog at cineleisure and walked back to the hotel. heh. the hotel stay was great, the room was quite nicely furnished with refillable free minibar. ambience was quite good but the most important thing is that elaine likes it and we enjoyed it.

* * *

as i was saying, i was down with flu, got it on Friday. went to see a doc, it got full blown on saturday (which was yesterday), and luckily it got better today. And so that was how elaine and me came out on a bright sunday morning... with...Eugene! aka elaine's bee. bee and bee. and sponge. lol. our first stop was breakfast at Sunshine Place at CCK, had dim sum. its been a long time since i had dim sum, so i enjoyed it quite a bit. our next destination was to this jetty off Lim Chu Kang, nv been to this place...



On Eugene's Lancer - where are we going?



at the jetty off Lim Chu Kang's end. (i wish i had a polarizing filter...)



a view from the jetty itself, back to shore...



another view from the jetty.

our next stop was to this cow farm that Eugene once visited, but apparently it has become very run down and seemingly desolated. abit spooky also. so we decided to give that a miss. next tried to visit a bird farm called 欢乐鸟园. disappointed once more as the place was not open on weekends (duh?). thus, our next visit was to Qian Hu Fish farm. I didnt take many pictures there as I didnt felt like fun taking pictures of fishes in tanks (and plus it was raining). however, i would say the most interesting thing (and that was what Eugene recommended) is the fish spa. it actually consisted of dipping ur legs into a pool of fishes that "cleanses" your legs of dead skin. supposedly the japanese likes it. it was $10 for 30 mins at Qian Hu, so on Eugene's encouragement, we decided to give it a try...



before diving into the fish spa thing, we saw a turtle pool beside the fish spa pool... with some interesting turtles.



and for the spa proper. this is elaine's foot. Check out the fishes!

the fish pix were all pretty blurry coz the waves were constantly there, so the lens had some trouble autofocusing. manual focus didnt really help too, as the waves tend to throw the picture out of focus very often. but u can see the many fishes eating at ur feet. it felt tingly when they nibbled, it felt chunky when the bigger fish tried to nibble (it felt like they could take a chunk off you). if u let them clean the bottom of your feet, it would feel very ticklish. but its a fun experience. not sure how helpful the fishes are thou. lets see if my leg's skin condition improves in the near future.

We packed up and left Qian Hu for this vegetable farm up next. It is only accessible by car, and according to Eugene, it sells cheap veges. coz its damn inaccessible.



oh yea.. vege goodness... here we come! a tad overexposed thou.



sharp pic of a bittergourd.



pretty parrot. the farm owner has a few animals under his/her care as well, such as birds, rabbits and fishes.

Our last destination was Farmart. When we reached there, it was past noon, not many people there already, and we proceeded to walk around. There were a variety of things to see, such as prawn fishing, live seafood (you can buy them), organic foodstuffs, pets, etc. I bought a bottle of organic manuka honey for my mum for $19. Wasn't the most expensive but its good stuff. anyway, its only $19 and its for my mum. not considered alot ba. if i had carried more cash with me, i would have bought the better one. they only accept cash, thats why.



a beautiful lotus flower in the afternoon sun.



we saw quite a number of animals at Farmart. This parrot was one of those...



hello again!



this poor chap looks like a chipmunk, or pirarie dog, but its not. its a rabbit whose ear seems to be cut off. poor thing.



there were 2 goats there too. This is a rather candid shot of one of them. Looks like it needs to brush more often. ok, i know im lame.


And that was the end of our Sunday adventure. Eugene sent us to CCK Lot 1 where Elaine and i had lunch, and then we went home after that, tired. it was a nice and fulfilling sunday! (ok, sounds like a primary school essay ending...) thanks to Eugene for organizing this trip, it was really fun. and eye-opening (Even thou he has seen them already); thanks again!

        Victor on 10.07.07 (Sunday) @ 11:37 PM

Taiwan tour 10-19 May 07 - Day 03

---==== Day 03 ====---

Maybe it was because of Yeliu the day before, but exhaustion seems to have set in somehow. didnt allow this to set us back for the day, which would be our last day in Taipei, before we set off for Hualien tomorrow.

As usual, we had our breakfast at the same eatery (see Day 02). After which, we took the MRT to Longshan Temple:


the outside of Longshan Temple.


there is a Koi pool in the temple, with a small waterfall. Doesnt look like its inside a temple at all.






The bustling activities of the temple. Always full of people, it can be compared to our Si Ma Lu Guanyin Temple


The people here are praying to God Wenchang. Supposedly praying to him will bring students good luck in examinations.


an outside view of Longshan Temple.

After visiting the temple, we went for a short walk around the temple. There were some small stalls set up along the street corners, which sold stuff such as vegetables and preserved fruit.





After walking around for a while, we finally went to the next big destination: CKS memorial hall. It was nearly 1pm when we reached there. Lunch was a quick one, with us polishing off some sushi we bought from the CKS memorial hall MRT station. After the meal, we set off to explore CKS memorial hall...




an attempt at an artistic shot


inside the memorial hall proper. the Guard of Honour was standing at attention facing Mr CKS's statue.


the solemn atmosphere of the hall is emphasized by the signboard.


we were lucky enough to catch the Change of the Guard, which is held every hour, if i remember correctly


next up on our list is to Jacky Wu's sister's dessert shop at Zhongxiao Dunhua. Walking out of the MRT station, we saw this signboard. 中孝东路走九遍?

Unfortunately, when we reached the location, there was no dessert shop around. We did ask a few locals but no one had any idea of a dessert shop around. In place of the dessert shop, it was now a Hong Kong dimsum restaurant @_@ so those of you who wished to visit the dessert shop, please change your agenda accordingly the dimsum restaurant seems too expensive for us to eat at, but we were hungry, so we sought out a cafe to have a bite. There was a Starbucks there, but it was a fullhouse crowd, so we went to this cafe called Dante. There was barely a space inside, but we were lucky:


2 slices of cake, and 2 drinks for 10 SGD. thats rather cheap, compared to what we have in SG!


an outside view of the cafe

Satisfied with the food, we set off for Sun Yat Sen memorial hall via MRT at about 5pm. Luckily for us the memorial hall was open til 7-8pm today.


Mr Sun Yat Sen, looking on at Taipei 101. What would the father of modern China have thought of the situation between PRC and Taiwan now?


an oil painting inside the memorial hall, depicting Mr Sun and the various characters involved in the establishment of modern China. Apologies for the reflections, the actual painting was very grand to behold.

Finally, we set off for Taipei 101. We were quite excited about going up to the Taipei 101 observatory and getting a magnificent view of Taipei city. Again, we took the MRT to the station closest to Taipei 101, and there was supposed to be a shuttlebus service to fetch us to Taipei 101.


waiting outside the MRT station for the shuttlebus


omg! its Taipei 101! it was so tall that i couldnt see all of it when i peeked through the shuttlebus window

Taipei 101 feels like a very high class version of Takashimaya. It was on the same level as Central Plaza of Bangkok, except much bigger. We saw many boutiques and restaurants once we stepped in, such as Coach and LV.


Lego Mindstorms is sold in Taipei! A product collaboration between National Instruments and Lego


an auto-play piano residing on the lower floors of Taipei 101. It was quite amazing to look at the piano play by itself.


at the ticketing booth of the Taipei 101 observatory.




we are ready to set off for the 89th floor observatory!

the trip in the lift up was a big thing in itself, basically we took about 30+ seconds to get up from the 5th floor to the 89th floor. We could feel the vertical speed and the pressure in our ears. Once we reached the observatory, there were usherers and guides who were walking around to assist the visitors. Unfortunately it was getting dark, and it started to get foggy high up. It was certainly not the best time to get a view of Taipei, so after a while, we went over to the souvenir shop to get something for our friends and relatives. Ultimately we were tourists buying overpriced stuff at souvenir shops but there were some nice gifts there la. There was a 3D puzzle of Taipei 101, which we were tempted to buy but eventually we didnt. But we got a lot of keychains and notebooks and they were equally great. Unfortunately, this was where exhaustion caught up with me, i started sneezing and feeling really unwell, and dear had to accompany me back to our hotel room to rest. The trip back to the hotel room was the worst, i felt a running temperature and my throat was extremely itchy and dry. There went our plan to visit Shilin later that night -_-. I popped a few panadols and took a hour of rest back at the hotel room, and luckily felt abit better after that. To make up for the loss, we went down to Ximending to take a walk and grab some food:


Xu Guang Xiang Xiang Ji! popcorn-chickenish bites that taste great when hot


lots of nice food on the streets of Ximending on a Saturday. check out this lady making dumplings. This and the later pictures were taken by my 50mm f/1.8.


fruit stall lady. I asked for a helping, in which she sold me 2.5 guavas: that was a pretty big helping! A check with our Hualien guide Vivian (more on that later) revealed that if we want to buy fruits, we should just specify how many guavas or how many slices of fruit we want, not how many "helpings"




my favourite shot of Taipei - this family of 4 on a scooter. the warmth and sweetness of a family could really be felt here.


of course...who can forget the infamous Ah Zhong Mee Sua...we bought a helping as well! but i guess i didnt really appreciate it coz i still felt sick.


a peep into one of the many alleys in Ximending. Lots of stuff can be found here, from food to UFO catchers to tattoos to accessories


And that marks the end of Day 03. We retired early for the night, coz we had to take an early train the next morning to Hualien. i felt slightly better, but it didnt really get much better. Being sick while on a trip really sucks but I did what i could. The next day we would be going to Hualien to explore the beauty of this coastal city.

        Victor on 08.19.07 (Sunday) @ 06:28 PM

Taiwan tour 10-19 May 07 - Day 02

---==== Day 02 ====---

Day 2 was going to be our first action filled day in Taiwan - rather, a tiring one as we were going to find out. The places to go were Yeliu and Danshui. Yeliu is famous for its rock formations and ocean park, while Danshui is famous for its Oldstreet (淡水老街 and its Lovers bridge (情人桥. Since both of them are in the northen part of Taipei county and are rather famous places, they were on our list of to-go places.

And so the day started off at about 9am... The first concern was that our accomodation does not include breakfast. So we had to settle for something at a nearby eatery...


the eatery where we had 2 days of breakfast.


food for the famished soul.


the 贡丸was simply delicious! we ordered the 贡丸 noodle, but it was so good that we ordered another ¹±Íè set. 25NT for 2贡丸. so crunchy, bouncy and juicy!


The eatery from the outside. With the 老板娘.

Breakfast was rather filling as we were both not big eaters for our first meal of the day. We then proceeded to take the MRT to Taipei Main Station (railway) to collect our railway tickets we have booked previously. We also bought the THSR (Taiwan High Speed Rail) tickets from the same location.


moving through the early morning Ximending to get to Ximending station. All was empty on the streets...


Inbound train. There were lights on the platform that blink when the train is incoming. Its a good feature which i think our own train stations could use.


Taipei Railway Main Station!


a view of the traffic near the Taipei Railway Main Station.

After getting the tickets, we went to take the bus to go to Yeliu. The search wasnt as easy as we thought it was, basically we had to search 2 bus interchanges to get to the (final) one. Along the way got bugged by a few taxi drivers who wanted to fetch us for 1000NT. lol. Anyway, the interchanges of the three bus services were situated close by each other: 统联 (green)，飞狗 (pink) and 国光 (white). Colors stated are generally correct for the bus services.


on the bus! remember to prepare some coins and small notes (100-200NT) for long bus rides like this. esp if you are not boarding from the bus interchange.

I'm not sure of the following statement, but the few bus drivers we met (with the exception of the one that fetched us from Yeliu to Danshui) are not very friendly. They felt grouchy to me. When i tried to ask them questions they typically replied with grunts. so when i asked this driver to tell us when we were reaching yeliu, he just grunted. And he did so again when we reached to signal to us. luckily two other ladies were heading to the same destination.


Yeliu Yeliu... finally we are here. Still gotta take a 15 min walk into the rock formation park...


Taken by elaine, loved by elaine, coz it featured many types of textures. throw in the blue truck and it seemed really good.


temple with elaborate deco.


at last, we reached...it cost a token sum to get into the rock formation park. I can't remember the exact sum but the "Friends of taiwan" thing helped us to get a discount.


the vast Pacific ocean and the sea breeze makes for good therapy. My first refreshing experience.


another view of me.


why is this even here? go figure -_-


there was this statue of a man, staring out to the ocean. Maybe some great leader who once helped taiwan...


another magnificent view of Yeliu. It really feels good to be out with the ocean just beneath your feet!


The Queen rock. Formed by thousands of years of erosion, this rock looks like a queen with her crown. The symbol of Yeliu rock formation, if you havent seen this then you havent seen Yeliu. Please go check it out and take a picture of it.


a postcard-ish snap. Yeliu is not just rocks and water, its rocks + water + nice arrangements and textures!


小桥流水.


wide angle view of the park.


climbed a small hill which was located at the far end of the park. man, it was a tiring climb...


and back down again. on our way back we met Siyun and her mum. Siyun is an NUS friend of mine, actually a freshie i knew when i was an OGL during uni days. Such a coincidence to see her here, in Taiwan, in Yeliu!


we had an ice-blended drink before we left Yeliu. Look at someone's attempt to recreate the Queen rock. -_-

and with that we left Yeliu. Waited at the same place where we dropped off the bus just now for a bus to Danshui. It was about 4pm now. Traffic was sparse, and when we saw the bus coming (finally), it was really something worth cheering, because the frequency of the bus was like 1 hr. if you missed it, you missed it. cabs were hard to find in these parts of taipei and it'd have cost a bomb to take one, anyway. The driver was quite nice, he smiled (the first one to do so!) and it was really a pleasant 1 hr ride to Danshui, driving along the Pacific ocean with the sunshine filtering in.

And finally, when we reached we were quite drowsy... but the town really had something special to it that made us wake up:


if i only had one photo to represent Danshui, it'll be this...


a less dramatic shot


walking along 淡水老街

There were plenty of eatery and stalls, selling things that range from food to games. my first BB gun game was held here, and we won a balloon toy hammer for elaine (see the 阿给 photo for its appearance). Anyway, we went to take a boat to see 渔人码头. Another famous attraction of Danshui...

there are two ferry services that can fetch u there, so dun worry

it was dusk when we got off the ferry, and the sky quickly darkened. one thing nv changed: the wind was damn strong...so strong that i could have been blown off. this was how it was on 情人桥. and at night, the wind was not only strong, but cold. better have some nice clothes on if u wanna come at night. the lights were beautiful though. and they changed colors every now and then.






nice lines

hunger got the better of us, and we took the ferry back to 淡水老街 to taste the famous 阿给 here. Not very hard to find the place, as the restaurant was practically overflowing with people. We think its the genuine one because of the big crowd:


outside view


the 阿给 is the one that look like tau pok. its stuffed with tang hoon, covered with handmade fish cake and the gravy is sweet. good stuff! we had some handmade fishballs too. the hammer i won from the BB gun game sits in the picture too.

there were a variety of performers on the streets. after our meal, we saw this guy drawing caricatures and so we sat down to try. took us 20 mins of sitting still and a lot of looks from passerbys, and its done! cool stuff.


on the whole, it has been a fulfilling day. Yeliu did not disappoint, with the ocean and beautiful scenery, it was really a must-go. Danshui made a big impression too with its laid-back atmosphere. The day ended when we took the MRT from Danshui back to Ximending... my body was aching. and a telltale sign of what was to come on the next day. stay tuned for the account of day 03!

        Victor on 08.10.07 (Friday) @ 12:16 AM