..:: 405. The One With Taiwan ::..

Dun be shocked. i have just changed my blog template. make it simple and i can enlarge my pictures.

well been a week and i think i left my heart at taiwan. btw, yes, i went for a holiday from 5-9 may to taipei. lots of stuff happened and i almost could not make it for the trip.

that day, my supervising officer for one of the exercise in thailand wanted me to AOP (approval of plan) to my battalion 2IC. Firstly, we didnt make an appointment so it was kinda like try our luck, if he's there then we will have AOP. Hence, i went to look for B2 but to no avail and he would only be back in the afternoon. BUT i cant wait... i have to be at the airport at 1100. Expecting the worst, i revealed that i had to catch a flight and my SO (punt intended) threw me 2 options.

1. postponed the trip
2. cancel the trip

Obviously i said 'no' to both and i guess as much he could not do anything. though he claimed he can actually charge me but he dun wan. (wah, i must be so thankful to him). I proposed to present on the 10th which i know would not be a good day cos we have lots of briefing and kit bag inspection but that's the latest day.

he reaffirmed my fears and mentioned that 'everyone will be waiting for you to AOP. you are the biggest fuck you know?'

my eyes widened. my heart skipped a bit.

then he mentioned 'your planning very good... plan your trip this time so you can siam this right?'

i tried hard to understand his point. why would i want to 'siam' the AOP, i knew i have to do it anyway.

I left after he said 'Go, go, i'll tell your OC and B2 that you cancel the AOP.'

i could not hear anymore from him. in the first place, the appointment has not been made so what's with me 'cancelling' the AOP?

i left for the trip with so many things on my mind. i thought i would not be able to enjoy.

But luckily, i had a great grp of friends with me. The day didnt start well for me, i realised i have changed for the wrong currency when i was going to pay for the hotel. i was utterly shocked at how i was so distracted at the airport when i changed my money. I remember saying taiwan when the counter gal asked me what currency i wanted to change. in the end i got thai baht but yet i didnt realise. how silly i was...

what's worse, we reached there fri night and the banks are closed over the weekends, hence i could only changed on mon. No buying of stuff for the first 2 days? i could have just died.

I love the hotel we stayed in, 内江饭店 was a great one. cheap 150 sing for 5 days and the customer service is damn good, especially one of the aunties, we always play ard with her, teased her... but she would go all the way by helping us call different agencies like 六福 village, shuttle bus services and most importantly helped me find a lady who changes currency. Lucky me i got money to spend by sun night.

Fri. 5th

our flight got delayed so in the end we reached our hotel like close to 10pm. got changed and we toured around ximen ding. hot spot, good for shopping. In the end we decided to try food from their roadstalls which turned out to be very yummy. first was to try the chicken chop. Then we went to catch Silent Hill at one of their cinemas. for 10 bucks you get a popcorn meal too. not bad a deal for a weekend movie.

the cinema quite lork kok (run down). The projector was not high enough so you can see people's head as they streamed to their seats. Sound effect lagi best, like watching two movies together... i could hear MI 3 sound effects but was not that bad, only when the scene got quiet. The movie was gross, scary but very nice. I was not keen on watching but in the end left feeling the money was well spent.

Sat. 6th



morning went shopping at ximen ding again. Their CDs were cheap! 15 bucks for latest CDs and they arrived faster! Tried their ma la huo guo. One of the waitresses looked like jolin. sweet :)



too bad she didnt look up.

it was quite common to see such signature sessions in ximen ding.



their most common transport is bike. wearing cute masks is a common sight too.



Sat night we went to club. They played a mixture of hip hop, trance and chinese songs! omg. some of the chinese remixes were gd but the hip hop ones were the same remixes as singapore. So sad many couldnt hum to the tune of 'dont forget about us' by mariah carey.

I must say the girls there are sweet. We went to a lot of shops and surely bump into a few sweet cute girls. Not like some local girls so 'stuck up'. But their jap-influence damn strong and also jolin and rainie yang fever quite hot there.

Sun. 7th

We went to 六福 village which was a theme park. damn fun rides. paid 890 bucks to go in. which is like close to 50 sing but lucky the rides no need to pay. went there ard 9am and came back abt 5+, got changed and took train to shilin night market. Shopping spree!

first thing at the village i was welcomed by a couple of horny dogs!



some interesting rides...





look at their funny spelling errors!

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after the night market we still not tired... so we decided to go ktv! their 'partyworld' damn big. it's like a hotel itself. but for 17 sing we could sing and eat. plus each room got their own toilet! so convenient. and the food is good loh.



saw this in a shopping centre...



oh also dun bother going to taipei 101, the so called tallest building with shopping centre. It's like paragon. unless you want to buy high end products then go there. cos have to take train to shi zhen station and walk like 15 mins. kinda far cos we didnt want to wait for the shuttle bus service.

their underground shopping mall cant compare to our city link.

but their customer service and discipline damn good. lol discipline? u might be wondering... i guess they are not as kiasu as singaporeans. When they go up or down the escalator, everyone automatically stands on the right, you can see a distinct clear path on the left if you decide to walk up. I never seen anyone standing one the left not moving. it was such a pleasant sight.

Also, they queued very orderly while waiting to board and they only entered after the last person came out. I left the train last a few times to prove they are consistent and it was the case!

Gosh now i miss taiwan... more pics will be up cos we took a lot of pics with my fren's camera.

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Today i went to attend a talk with my aunt on 'eternity of life' by SSA - Singapore SOKA Association. kind of enlightening... learnt that they pray to Nichiren Daishonin, a buddha who discovered the Lotus Sutra. They prayed to Gohonzon which looked like a script encased in a glass container. Not your typical figures though. They have this book called gosho where they read and chant 'Nam-myoho-renge-kyo'.

They firmly believed in cause and effect: karma. and there is life after death but not in the physical form. It's just like they mentioned, same as principle of conservation of energy, energy cannot be created nor destroyed. hence, the karmic energy just like your other energies followed the theory. The 'causes' form in the present manifest as 'effects' in the future.

It is not death we need to fear but our innate weaknesses and delusions.

Longevity is itself a treasure. How you live is more important than how long you live.

Somehow it provides me courage to face death not as terrifying unknown but as normal phase of existence.

Just felt like sharing what i have experienced today :)

In a few hours time i'm off to thailand. wish me luck.

Btw i am going brunei as auxillary instructor to the cadets. :) my wish came true.