6th Anniversary

Time passed and we are celebrating our 6th years of friendship, love and companionship. Been through so much fun, joy and sadness, yet our love remained strong or even stronger. It reminds me of the song sang by Jason Mraz. Lucky I'm in love with my best friend.

Juliana is my best friend indeed. Providing me the support when I need help, cheering me up when I was down, giving me priceless care and showered me with love. Her smile and laughter bring the sunshine back from rainy days. Her strong character in fighting for her love ones is amiable. Her non-materialistic personality ignites jealousy from my peers. She's different. So different from other ladies out there. She believes that crystals and gems will give her more happiness and the peace she needed than those designers' bags. She loves the decisions I made most of the time and always supporting my ideas and objectives in life. Her patience is what I admired the most. She never gets angry over silly things I did and just laughs with me.

I'm so fortunate to be with her and I would like to thank God for giving me such a fantastic and beautiful girlfriend, partner, soul mate, buddy and fiancee. She's like an angel sent by God to take care of me and heal those ill patients in the hospital.

6 years.. All I have to say is' Juliana, I love you always! Thank you!'

Our first date was a movie date. But it was our second date that brought us closer and more memorable.
In this 6th anniversary, we went back to the place that brought us together. It was pretty much the same and we love the place.

Taichung

The ride to Le Parker hotel in Taichung was a thrilling one. It reminded me of the rides I'd taken in Six Flags California only there wasn't any shouts and screams. Maybe there were inside our hearts. We were way ahead of our schedule when we reached our destination and were left wondering around Taichung in the noon. We hopped by a typical Taiwanese food stall to settle our lunch. Everything was like the rest except for the washroom that looked like a house for dwarfs as I had to dodge the short ceiling to do my business.

Bubble tea is the same everywhere in Taiwan. They were just so nice that you would have more than one in a day. Any drinks from the menu was just fantastic. I was suffering from sore throat since morning when we left Cing Jing. It got worse after drinking a big cup of icy cold yam milk tea but I never regret it. While waiting for the night markets to brighten up the night, we went to a nearby hair salon for some good hair massage.The service was excellent but I just couldn't recall the name of the salon even though we had a hard time looking for it.

Yi Zhong Street was highly recommended by Taiwan variety shows for its street food and shopping. It was our first identified location to visit in Taichung. As recommended, the street food were delicious! We just couldn't stop buying all the food we saw along the main street. The politeness and courteous street hawkers I believe was why their business was doing so well. It was not really an ideal time to shop in Taichung as the clothes on sale were mostly for autumn and winter. Despite the rare clothes available, I managed to get a pair of shoes for Lunar New Year.

As we were only spending a day in Taichung, time was not on our side. Our next destination was Feng Jia Night market. The most popular night market in Taiwan and was well known for its street food and size. If you had been to Taiwan, you will notice that all the night markets look similar. Maybe the food taste a little different from those talented street hawkers. Our second day in Taiwan was as tiring as our first day. My sore throat got worse after having some fried and barbecue food in the night market. Lozenges had lost its effect and seemed to fight a losing battle. Juliana gave me some flu medicine and I knocked out. That night, I felt really cold and was emitting cold sweat. I was having fever. I felt so sick and terrible. I woke up to had a mouthful of water and took the flu pills as instructed and returned to bed.

Next morning, I felt a little better. We had breakfast at a decent looking food stall and I could only had won ton noodles. It looked almost the same as those sold in Singapore and tasted great! My voice box was blocked by phelgms and I had to keep going to the washroom to clear my throat.

The high speed train to Taipei was quite costly. NT375 each. To save time for our vacation, that was the fastest transport available. 90 minutes was all it takes from Center Taiwan to the north. We rushed to the platform hoping to be able to run to our assigned cabin.As time was running out, we had no choice but to hop onto any cabins. Juliana looked pissed as she had been telling us to board the train first before finding our seats. Her look was as adorable as a little girl feeling angry with her parents for not paying attention to her fairytale. Taipei, here we come again..

Cing Jing

From Pu li Brewery to Sunnydale House, the car ride took about 45 minutes. All of us couldn't wait to check in to the 'min su' for a good rest. As I was sitting beside the driver, I decided against napping on my way. My decision paid off as I was able to catch some beautiful scenery while on our way to the hill top. I was a little frightened to catch the driver dozing off. It could be some parallax error or maybe his eyes were just too small. My instinct told me to keep talking to the driver so that he could stay awake.

About an hour later, we finally reached Sunnydale House. It is a sweet and beautiful little 'min su'. Elmo, Mich and I were looking around and taking pictures while Juliana was in the washroom. The owner was friendly as he managed our luggage. As we were too early for check in, we decided to visit the most popular attraction, Cing Cing Cao Yuan, a farm on the hill top. Overhearing about our plans, the driver decided to give us an incentive trip to the farm and told the owner to pick us up instead. Usually, the owner of the 'min su' only provides a single trip to the farm which differ from what I read in Tripadvisor. 

It took only a few minutes to reach the farm and it wasn't as cold as we expected. Still, all except me wore their jackets. I was in love with the weather except for the occasional windchill! The entrance fee cost about NT200 per person and I thought it was reasonable with all the promise it had in the farm. The initial view of the farm was amazing as the scenery was breathtaking and everything looked perfect with the fresh air surrounding the farm. As a farm, the activities there were quite limited. There was a sheep show scheduled at 2.30 pm but our fatigue minds instructed us to skip the show. We did enjoyed ourselves while feeding the sheeps and  standing close to horses to take some pictures for sweet memory. The sheeps weren't allowed to run freely as it was too cold. Well, we moved on to the market nearby to have a late lunch and some street food. <pictures to be uploaded>

As lunch was a little too heavy, a short walk might helped us a bit in digestion. The walk to the main plaza in Cing Jing was about 2km away. In this walk, there was a road comprises of 400 steps stairs called "Bu Bu Gao Sheng'. Luckily, we were walking down hill which was easier. The 20 minutes walk was a tough one for the girls and we had a rest at the plaza sipping Starbucks coffee with some crepes and ice cream. The owner kept his promise and fetch us back to Sunnydale House. Their service was excellent as our luggage were already placed in our room. We quickly made our way to the room feeling excited to find out how the room would look like. To my surprise, the room was smaller than I thought. There was no heater in the room like the hotels in US. There were only two blanket heaters for the two queen sized beds. Without any hesitation, we figured out to turn on the heater as the room was too cold! While the beds were warming up, we were preparing for a short nap which almost costed us our dinner. Kudos to the service yet again as the owner woke us up to make sure we didn't miss the simple yet delicious dinner prepared by them. The dinner gave me a sense of home and I would love to stay there as long as I wanted. As the room was so cozy, we fell asleep almost immediately after we got back to our beds. 

You can just imagine how comfortable the room was when we needed another  morning call for breakfast which would end at 10. We rushed down to the dining area which was also the reception area for breakfast. Everyone turned their heads to look at me as I wore just a pair of shorts in the extreme cold morning which I though was great. The mixture of warm porridge and American breakfast was brilliant! The coffee though thin, was enough to satisfy my daily dosage. Sunnydale House was a wonderful accommodation. Everything was excellent. However, visiting the place in spring would be highly recommended.

We checked out at 11 to catch the 11.10am Nantou bus to Taichung. Elmo and I were on the opposite side of the road to wait for the bus when a van approached us which left us dumbfounded. The driver got out of his van and offered to drive us to Le Parker hotel in Taichung for NT300 each.That's a  steal! With the amount of time saved for travelling, this was the best bargain of the trip. Well, we had to share the van with two other tourists whom were known to be Singaporeans. The husband kept pestering us to make a trip to Sun Moon Lake with them so that they could save some money. He tried too hard which left us quite annoyed. Fortunate for us, the weather was not good to view the sunset as advised by the driver.

The ride to Taichung was a fast but dangerous one. The driver was speeding and we could feel his van was rocking. We just closed our eyes and prayed to reach Taichung safely. 

Pu li Brewery, Taichung

We were 45 minutes from Taichung and already felt lethargic and hungry. Luckily the Taiwan HSR allows food and drinks to be consumed on board. Juliana was quick to finish her breakfast and the next moment, she dozed off. As I had some rest in the flight, I wasn't as tired. The feeling being away from work and sipping coffee while traveling on the train with beautiful scenery was so relaxing. No phone calls, no stress and no need to see bosses' faces.

45 minutes was like a breeze as we reached Taichung station and met up with Elmo and Mich in Starbucks. Elmo as usual, could generate some laughter even though we were all tired. As we were on our way to take the bus to Cing Jing (supposedly we were taking Nantou bus service), a local approached us to offer us a ride which costed about NT1800. It costed about NT300 more to take his taxi. Well, with the amount of time saved, we decided to go for it. 

What else will you do while traveling for about 90 minutes in a MPV? Of course, we dozed off after 15 minutes. While we were enjoying replenish the energy lost, the driver woke us up and introduced a place called Pu li Brewery, see below. We were a little frustrated at first on why this man drove us to another location. With negative thoughts, we were half-hearted while shopping around the brewery. I tried a traditional Chinese wine called Nu Er Hong. I only heard of it in the movies but had tried none. My feedback on the wine was it tasted like fermented herbs. Lots of herbs and and it is very strong. I hope this is healthy.After a short walk and some food tasting, we decided to return to our original itinerary, Sunnydale House, Cing Jing.  As introduced by the driver, this place is very popular for tourists and it is also the birth place of Taiwan Beer, Shao Xin beer. This place deserves a second look.

Taoyuan to Taichung

"Ladies and gentlemen, we are glad to inform you that we are 30 minutes ahead of our schedule. We will be landing in approximately 5 minutes..."

That was a piece of good news for us as we were arriving early at Taipei. We were so anxious to get off the plane and board the HSR to Taichung to kick off our holiday. At the same time, we were feeling tired and hungry, especially Juliana whom did not really sleep well in flight. After the plane landed, we could feel the cold weather in Taipei as we stepped out of the plane. It was just 16 deg C in that early morning.

Something seemed to have gone terribly wrong as we waited for about 20 minutes to get our luggage. The waiting time was compensated by the early arrival. We were deemed to miss our schedule when there was a  long queue to purchase the shuttle bus tickets to the HSR.(Ubus no. 705, NT30 each)

The bus ride from the airport to the HSR was about 20 minutes and the bus was extremely cold! It seemed that the bus did not have a heater function in it. Once we reached Taoyuan HSR station, we found ourselves in the QUEUE yet again and this time was for purchasing the HSR tickets. As we were going to Taichung, each ticket costs about NT540.

After acquiring the HSR tickets and breakfast, we were just 45 minutes away from Taichung to meet up with Elmo and Mich. 

Scoot Our Way to Taipei (Scoot Review)

The last time we flew to Taipei was via Jetstar Airways. It was an Airbus A320-200 and the comfort level was moderate for people like us whose average height is 1.8m. Back in 2009, there wasn't any offer for in-flight meals. Overall, for a budget airline, I'll give Jetstar 3 out of 5 stars.

Scoot is the latest budget airline to be introduced in Singapore and most significantly, it is the subsidiary of Singapore Airlines which is a world class airliner. As there was sales going on last November, we managed to purchase two tickets for approximately SGD920 with in-flight meals included for return tickets.

1. Service   
Being a new budget airline, our expectations were quite high for Scoot. Service was pretty good in the beginning of our flight from Singapore to Taipei. 30 minutes into flight, their service standard dropped slightly when we had to press the call bell thrice before an air stewardess attended to us. In addition, their serivce was inflexible as we couldn't exchange our soda for plain water. Therefore, we had to spend an extra SGD 4 (that's so expensive!) to purchase a bottle of mineral water. Besides, the in-flight food was not appetizing at all. The picture below shows the Beef Curry set. (Yucks!) 

Rating: 2/5

2. Comfortability
As our seats were upgraded to Scoot Stretch, our seats were spacious and comfortable. However, one of the seats was badly stained with some ink. (See picture below)

Rating: 3/5

The only plus point for the flight was the early arrival in Taipei. It arrived 30 mins earlier and hence we managed to buy a bottle of white wine even though it was 5 in the morning.

 Overall rating for Scoot: 2.5/5

Our Trip to Taiwan (28 Jan - 3 Feb): The Itinerary

Elmo: Hey! There's a sales for Scoot Airline to Taiwan. Wanna go?

Me: (still feeling sleepy) Huh? From when to when?

Elmo: When can you guys make it? I'm planning to go on 26 Jan.

Me: Hmm.. Cannot. Juliana's leave only starts on 28 Jan. 

Elmo: Never mind. I can go there with Michelle first and you guys will join us two days later. So I'll proceed to book your tickets departing on 28 Jan and returning on 3 Feb. Alright?

Me: (calculating while half-awake... 3 Feb - 28 Jan = 5 days) Ok! That's great! 

Thereafter, it was too late for me to realize that 28 Jan to 3 Feb is actually 7 days! This is going to be our first time spending a WEEK in Taiwan. 

Here's our itinerary in Taiwan:

28 Jan 13: Cing Jing

- Singapore to Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport via Scoot Airlines

- Taoyuan to Taichung via Taiwan High Speed Railway (HSR)

- Taichung to Cing Jing via Taxi

Highlights: Cing Jing Veterans Farm. 

29 Jan 13: Taichung

- Cing Jing to Taichung via Taxi

Hightights: Feng Jia Night Market, Yi Zhong Street

30 Jan 13 - 3 Feb 13: Taipei

- Taichung to Taipei via Taiwan HSR

Highlights: Ximending, Jiu Fen, Shi Fen, Yeliu, Wufenpu, Raohe Night Market, Shih lin Night Market, Tamsui

In the next few posts, we will be sharing the places we visited during this trip.