Taiwan Touched Our Hearts

It has already been 2 week since I came back from my trip to Taiwan. The trip was superb and everyone had a great time, I'm quite sure. All thanks to our organizer and planner Miss Ting Shing Yee and Mr. Ng Zee Kim, our beloved classmates who made this trip mission possible. They did everything from booking the plane tix, ground arrangement tour, booking the homestays, getting us youth travel pass and all. Really thankful to the both of them for making everything so easy for us. And thanks to our Driver and Tour Guide, Peter. He was awesome. To not also forget, the 21 other classmates and trip members who had made this trip so joyful and memorable. Thank you is the only phrase I could think of saying right now. So thank you.

Below are the pictures from my trip which I have selected from a total of 700 pictures. But I had only chosen 180 pictures for this post. So, I'm very sorry for this long picture-based post. BEWARE, cause it's going to be REALLY long. If you don't want to get bored, can just close this page right now. But you could also opt to scroll down quickly and get mesmerized by Taiwan. So, lets begin....

Day 1 (2/6/11)

Group photo before boarding at LCCT

Our first destination after touching down was actually our first homestay in Feng Jia(Taichung)

This picture was taken in front of Feng Jia Night Market

The boutiques in Feng Jia looks nice but too bad we did not have time to shop there. Things are also cheaper in Feng Jia compared to the night markets and shops in Taipei city.

The famous "Big sausage wrap small sausage"

It was just ok for me.

Express manicure for only NTD 100(RM10)

Feng Jia University

Top Left: Big sausage wrap small sausage

Top Right: 6 inch ice cream

Bottom Left: Huge Takoyaki ball

Bottom Left: Sweet potato balls (yums)

Day 2 (3/6/11)

Mine and June's room in Feng Jia Homestay

Breakfast with the girls

Our first stop on the second day is a shop(Chun Shui Tang) which is famous for their pearl milk tea

So lucky to take picture with 2 leng luis.. June and Shing Yee

Second stop was Formosan Aboriginal Village

They have indoor & outdoor theme park in a cultural village

I think I was at the last row >.<

Eventhough I had the rain coat on, my whole face was drenched because I sat on the sides

The hut was very small, and since I was the smallest in this entire trip, Peter asked me to go up there.. haha

Bamboo rice(yums)

Then we took the cable car to go over to Sun Moon Lake

Ok sorry, this pic was supposed to be before the cable car pic..

In the cable car with SY, June n taikor(Min Whu)

We have arrived at Sun Moon Lake

The romantic scene from Titanic

Me n Hui Yue on the boat

Sun Moon Lake Fighting Stone

I was told that people fought with each other just because they wanted to take picture with this stone.. hence the name.

Famous Tea Leave Hard Boiled Egg in Sun Moon Lake

And the famous Sun Moon Lake Black Bubble Tea

Day 3 (4/6/11)

Wen Wu Temple @ Sun Moon Lake

The temple was just opposite our hotel(Chin Sheng Hotel)

Wenwu Steps of the Year

Kwong Hing Paper Mill

hand craft fan

Yeah! Success.. This is my souvenir for my Grandma

Group photo

At Puli Winery (boring place)

This is a souvenir shop in Small Swiss Garden/Ching Jing Farm (Nantou County, Taiwan)

Everything in the shop is made of paper or cardboard. Very creative.

Cardboard Eiffel Tower

Dutch windmill

Jumpshot (boys)

Jumpshot (girls)

Jumpshot (Beaty n the Beasts)

Me, Min Whu, June and Bear(as Tat Wei)

Me n Renukha

Me n Chui Heng

Me, Shing Yee n June

The sun was blazing, could hardly opened my eyes

Renu, Onn Sein, June n Me

Stupid telescope which almost ate my 1o yuan. Luckily it didn't cos it was not working.

Bubugaushen Trail.. We hiked up the hill

Quite a long journey but it was all worth it to see the sun set..

Yaepudah kuchi?

Thanks to June's pro camera I got this mesmerizing sunset picture.

Woohhh.. Komawo Juney.

Err this ugly one is from my camera.. LuPy .. hehe but it was very helpful with other pictures with good lighting. This trip would have been meaningless without it. =)

This photo is credited to our Tour Guide who was also our Photographer (Peter)

Formal Group picture, the reason why we held our hands together was because it was Peter's tour group's logo or smtg like that.

In order for me to not forget my lovely classmates of 4 years and also tourmates, I will name each and everyone in this photo.

FROM LEFT

FIRST ROW(SEATED) :June, Shing Yee, Hui Yue, Winnie, Me, Renukha, Onn Sein, Syly, Mei Kwan & Ying Yuet

SECOND ROW : Kim, Chern Nam, Zee Kim, Chui Heng, Cin Cong & Sheue Fei.

LAST ROW : Eng Yee, How Han, Nya Yau, Han Xiang, Min Whu, Kim Meng, Ah Hua & Chi Shern.

View from our hotel balcony.. Breathtaking?

Brown Husky ( Shirou) so pretty...

Restaurant food which could barely fill our hungry tummies. =(

There were more, I was just too lazy to take pictures.

This was at Wen Wu Temple from Day2 (night shot)

Sorry..

Day 4(5/6/11)

View from our hotel before leaving

Sheep Show @ GreenGreen Grassland

The sheep was smiling... =))))

I ♥ This

So cute the sheep.. Arrrgghhhh

Second stop of Day 4 was Leofu Themepark. Not many pictures.

After the theme park, we traveled to Taipei city and resided in XiMenDing, our home for the remaining days.

Top: Famous Ah Chung Mee Suah in XiMenDing (it doesn taste like our mee suah but it was delicous)

Bottom: Left is a huge beauty departmental store(MeiHuaTai) and Right is a cute shop(Sophisca) which sells candies and chocolates. They have manybranches. Please visit to go grab some cute souvenirs.

Day 5(6/6/11)

I actually don't know what this place is. Sorry.

At Yang Ming Shan, very very windy place

This Yang Ming Shan is famous for this flower which I don't what is it named.

Those papers were filled with people's wishes

After that we went to this place, Siouyoukeng, it's a non-reactive volcano

Stolen from Peter

There was a trail up to this place which was even more windy.. I was almost blown off... No kidding.

Group Photo, Yeah!

JUMP

Next destination was Yehliu Geopark.. It was soo hot.. I had my sunburns from this place =(

Fake Queen's Head

Real Queen's Head. You need to queue up to take picture with this stone. They even had a guard there.

I saw a peanut

Slipper?

Hippo????

The stones behind us represents 2 gorillas kissing. But I couldn see any resemblance.

Taiwan map

This is our next destination, Jiu Fen.

Eating and souvenir shopping (mostly food)

The famous Jiu Fen Stairs..

Food from Jiu Fen.. Sorry I don't remember all the names

Err.. I don't really know what's the name of this place. Some waterfall I guess. =(

Cant blame me, Peter speaks Mandrin and my Mandrin is like 1/10.

I don't quite remember where I took this. Must be another sesat picture from the BuBuGauShen Trail from Day 3.

Day 6 (7/6/11)

Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall

After this place we went to Underground Mall and WuFenPu for shopping. So I didn't take any pictures.. WuFenPu is like Sungai Wang Street but they do wholesale. So, they don't really entertain shoppers like us who only buy 1-2 pieces.

Raohe Night Market

Top: Rainbow Bridge

Bottom: Peter brought us to this very secluded hilltop place to view the Taipei city for free. We were suppose to go to Taipei 101 but it will cost us at least RM35 just to see Taipei. So Peter suggested this place and brought us for free in taxis.. Haha.. Day 6 onwards was free and easy but Peter was kind enough to bring us to this place for FREE in TAXIS.

Miramar Ferris Wheel

Look at the lights.

Me with June and our famous and kind tour guide, Peter. He brought us to this place for free too in taxis.

Group photo with the Ferris Wheel. According to my friends, this Ferris Wheel was featured in some Taiwan Drama. I had no idea. I'm a K-drama addict. Not T.

Day 7(8/6/11)

On this day, everyone was tired, so we slept till 11 and had steamboat buffet at 12. We ate so much till the waiter was so afraid of us. Even the chef came out to see how fat we were to have eaten all their supplies. Ngek Ngek Ngek. In Malaysia, you can constantly see people getting up from their seats to go grab a plateful of food, but in Taiwan, we were the only people who keep getting up and stealing all the food. RM40 for all the food we ate was very worth it.

We then went to Danshui Old Street after the buffet by MRT.

And took a boat over to Fisherman's Wharf

A good place to see the sunset. Recommended for couples to have romantic evening. You can even dine there.

The bridge behind us is called the couple's bridge

The sunset was very nice but my camera could not capture the nicer picture of it. Need to wait for June's camera. Hee..

After this, we went to Shilin Night Market by train.

Please go to Shilin Nightmarket earlier so you could enjoy eating the famous street food and shop like crazy. We sacrificed our yummy dinner because shopping in Shilin was rather reasonable too. FYI, the nightmarket is divided into 2 sections, 1 mostly food and 1 mostly clothes. All the famous food are in the food section, so I suggest that you should eat first and then shop. If you are a guy then shop only eat also can. HAHA. Even our group of boys spent a long time at Nike/Adidas.

Day 8 (9/6/11)

We spent the entire day shopping in XiMenDing area for its called the city of fashion. Smtg like Japan's Harajuku and Shibuya. A famous spot for youngsters to hangout and shop. The shops sell mostly Taiwan/Korean/Japan fashion clothes. All free size and no trying like Sg Wang. When I mention Sg Wang, you should understand how shopping is like in Taiwan. There were many Adidas/Nike outlets in this area too. More designs than Malaysia with cheaper price according to the boys. I was suppose to get myself a pair of sport shoes but I just didn't have enough time.

In the evening we stopped by at LongShan Temple and then quickly went to Shida Night Market because Peter told us that there were more clothes in Shida.

It was indeed shopping heaven for us girls. The guys were bored and so they went back earlier.

So that was all, about my Taiwan trip. Definitely looking forward to go back there for shopping and the food that I've missed in this trip. But I was told that shopping in ZhuHai(boarder of Macau) is even cheaper. MUS GO THERE =)

Our Homestays and Hotel for the entire trip

1st: Feng Jia Homestay (all the rooms had different theme. Me n June had Antartic theme)

2nd: Hotel in Nantou County, I forgot the name in English.

3rd: Babyhome @ XiMenDing

The missing hotel is Ching Shen in Sun Moon Lake

Its a cute Hello Kitty Nursery in Taoyuan Airport. Omeegee..

Pink is NOT my colour but this is too cute for a building.

Hello Hello

Ok Bye Bye

Good Bye Taiwan. You will be missed.

TAIWAN TOUCHED MY HEART!