Thursday, July 19, 2012
school just started. i must make use of this time while i'm not flooded by work. this is to help me recall about the trip in future. pictures alone can only do that much. so i'll do this in a chronological order. it's a very very long post. haha. i may be switching between Mandarin and English along the way. (note: this post was started on 11th Jan and is still in the making.)
Oh before that, let me introduce the people who went on the trip with me. And as it happens, on the trip nicknames were given and changed from time to time. lol.
Gary: my JC classmate with many nicknames (mew, fairy goh, gary the snail and more recently, 派大星, which he vehemently denies and claims Irvin is 派大星)
P.S. 派大星 is the Chinese name for Patrick the Starfish from Spongebob Squarepants. We watched quite a few episodes in Taiwan. lol.
Irvin: Gary's secondary school classmate. I knew him and Pui Kit through learning tennis together. Heard about him (though it's his nickname) before when I was in JC. Nicknamed Nose (came from Red Nose, which he never understands why he got that nickname). Which is also why he is "the reindeer".
Pui Kit: Also Gary's secondary school classmate. Nicknamed Ham (from Hamster). I do agree he looks like a hamster, like from Hamtaro. lol.
Oh and me. Somehow I was labelled the Moose on the trip. Will elaborate further later on.
26th December, Monday (Singapore to Taipei)The flight was at Terminal 3. And just like our Penang trip, Nose and I were the earlier ones and Gary and Ham were late. Well, Gary's always late. Took TR2992 of Tiger Airways and as usual, I couldn't sleep on the plane. When we've reached Taoyuan International Airport, we were rushing to catch the Freego bus (
飞狗巴士), which would take us straight to our accomodation for the night, Taipei Backpackers Hostel at
西门.
It turned out 3 SMU students were in front of us at the counter, being highly confused about whether the bus goes to their hostel or not. It irked us, since we were trying to buy tickets for the bus which was leaving in 5 minutes time. The bus left and they still weren't done. By the time we bought our tickets, we had 20 plus minutes of waiting time.
And when we got on the bus, surprise! they were sitting behind us -.- somehow along the way, we gave them the nickname of Humpty Dumpties. they even approached us to talk to us. on retrospect, more of an amusing experience bah.
By the time the bus reached the hostel, 4 hungry animals were eager to find food in the land of cheap and damn good food. Ate 鲁肉饭 and 面线 from some 40-year-old shop. Pretty good. 打包-ed some 鸡排 and 奶茶 back.
Our room was pretty decent. Had 2 storeys, the upper storey just had a queen sized bed. But it's quite spacious and I wouldn't mind staying there if I go back to Taipei. It was then when we were discussing each other's nicknames and realised i'm the only "non-animal" there. Somehow or the other, I was decided to be the "moose". weird.
27th December, Tuesday (Taipei to Taichung to 日月潭, aka Sun Moon Lake)I couldn't sleep much on the first night there. Haha woke up at around 5 plus in the morning. Went downstairs to buy 蛋饼 for breakfast. Ate it again with the rest before we rushed off to Taipei Main Station to catch the train (自强号) to Taichung.
At Taipei Main Station, we decided to buy 便当 (bento) to eat on the train. It's a tradition to have such food on trains and the train authority (Taiwan Railways Admistration) also has a shop selling several varieties of 便当 there. There are many other shops there which sell many varieties of 便当. We bought a few sets from some random shop which turned out to be pretty horrible apart from the most expensive set. We took turns queuing for freshly baked cheesecake from Uncle Tetsu's. Didn't manage to get it as we were about to run late for our train. After rushing to the gantry, we found out the train was delayed by 15 minutes. -.- (if we were still queuing for the cake, we might have gotten it.) so we bought a few drinks then went on the train.
At Taichung,then took a bus (国光客运) to 日月潭. I planned the timings so that we could catch the bus 15 minutes after getting off the train. Alas, due to the delay, we missed that bus and so went to check out when was the next bus. Meanwhile, Nose and I went to 7-Eleven to sort out the prepaid card we bought from 7-Eleven as it appeared to not have been activated yet. Apparently, my phone kept requesting the lock code from me and when i keyed the activation code from the card package, it didn't work.
After finally reaching 日月潭, we checked in at Laurel Villa and decided to walk around the area before coming back for dinner. At 7-Eleven, we finally got the prepaid card to work as it turns out the lock code was due to my phone settings when a foreign SIM card was inserted. -.- so it worked perfectly well on Nose's phone. We tried quite a lot of food, most of it typical Taiwanese 小吃 apart from a small cup of mushroom ice cream, which Nose bought. 日月潭 is famous for their black tea and mushrooms. But mushroom ice cream just screams weird. And when we took turns to taste the ice cream, it confirmed our suspicions. It was just odd, damn odd. Only Nose commented it was "unique", probably because he bought it and has to finish it anyway. Heh.
After going back to Laurel Villa, we had dinner which was passable. There was a dish of vegetables which tasted quite unique as it has a sort of minty taste to it.
28th December, Wednesday (日月潭 to 清境农场）The day before, during check-in, Nose confirmed with the female boss that her husband would bring guests to scale the mountain nearby early in the morning. So, we woke up very early, around 5 plus and set off at 5.30am sharp.
It was a mountain in the area, known as 猫囒山. It was quite a hike, especially since some areas were rather steep. I felt rather sleepy in the initial part of the hike, since I hate waking up early. Along the way, many black tea plantations could be seen and there was a small shrine honouring the pioneer of black tea in 日月潭, a Japanese that brought the technology and know-how over. From the boss's explanation, it reinforced the impression I got that the Taiwanese show a significant amount of respect and admiration for the Japanese. I guess it's mainly due to the technology and advancements that the Japanese brought over.
The air was really good, and keeps getting better as we go up. Gary was highly exhausted and during the steep portions, he was literally huffing and puffing. Finally we reached one pit stop, which was the tea research facility. The boss explained that ever since PRC tourists actually climbed the fences to steal the leaves, the authorities decided to enforce restricted access for that place. The boss's family somehow got access and brought us in. The view was breathtaking and we could see a lot of mountains and the two lakes: Sun Lake and Moon Lake. I won't bother describing how nice it was because I can't do it justice. lol.
And we went even higher up to the meteorological station which was the highest point of that mountain, at 1020 metres above sea level. We were commenting that it'll be a great place to chill and even mug. The boss was explaining that people usually appreciate such places more with age and that younger people would probably get bored pretty soon.
Along the way, he was commenting that a lot of people visit 日月潭 just to see all the over-hyped tourist attractions (not without slipping in a few snide comments about the PRC tourists again. =P). However, they miss out on the true beauty just because they refuse to wake up early. I do understand his point of view and the early morning view and environment was pure brilliance.
So, after all that, we went back for breakfast, which wasn't very impressionable. Haha. After that, we took the ferry that brought us to the over-hyped tourist attractions around the lakes. We had mushroom 茶叶蛋 at some temple nearby. By now, we realised the famous produce around here are mushrooms and black tea and thankfully, they did not attempt to mix those two. They have a penchant for mixing red tea or mushroom with anything possible. Following that, we had 面线 at a place called 朱妈妈面线, which was recommended by the guide on the ferry. The 面线 turned out to have a certain Italian taste, which we determined to be pizza. Interesting. From then, we went back to get our luggage and rushed for the bus to 埔里 so that we can change to another bus to 清境.
After buying the tickets for the bus to 清境, we realised we had about 40 minutes to spare. So, Ham and Nose went to get food. Gary and I were supposed to take turns queuing for the bus. After about 10 minutes of waiting, no one else was queuing. I got bored and went to sit. Ham and Nose came back soon with really tasty bread from 几分甜 bakery and caramel milk tea for me.
And we forgot about queuing. When the bus came, there was a flurry of footsteps and suddenly, there was a long queue. And guess what, only one person managed to get up the bus. The bus was damn full. After coming back to Singapore and talking to my other friend who went Taiwan at around the same time, I realised this is because the bus departed from Taichung station and then stopped at 埔里. In any case, we decided it was pretty much no point to wait for the bus and refunded our tickets. We then took a cab up and by the time we reached, it was 3.30pm and we had around 15 minutes to catch the circus show in the farm.
The performance involved quite an array of stunts performed during horse riding. Nose and I were highly amused by some white fluffy dog a few rows in front of us, which was barking aggressively at the horses at times. Inferiority complex I guess. After the show, we took a walk around the area and pretty much concluded that most animals were hibernating somewhere for the winter. Then again, it was also because we walked in the wrong direction. In any case, we saw Gary's "relatives", which were some snails kept in a tank which was quite inconspicuous. This is because of 2 rabbits set on tables in front of the tanks. We spent some time trying to take pictures of the rabbits, especially the white one, called 小白. It was then Gary and Nose started the argument about who frightened the rabbit. It involved accusations of one tickling the back of the rabbit's ears and the other molesting the butt of the rabbit.
It was still rather early after leaving the farm. So we decided to visit the 7-Eleven nearby to get some of the famed cup noodles from Taiwan (with meat inside!!). It was beside some attraction which had the theme of a small Swiss village. There was also a shop selling honey products on the second floor and a paper-themed restaurant spanning both floors. Outside 7-Eleven, there was a small booth selling postcards of different materials and themes. I was a bit tempted to send some back to friends. By the time we finished visiting those few places, it was dark outside and we decided to give the Swiss garden a miss and just buy our stuff and go back.
Back at the place we were staying (Starry Nantou, 观星园), we have steamboat (酸菜火锅). It was great simply because it was warm, as compared to the freezing temperature outside. After going back to our room, Ham decided to bathe first. The boss instructed us before that to fill the large bucket provided with hot water and bathe from there. This is a precaution as we were high up on the mountains and the water supply might be a bit erratic. Ham just bathed straight from the shower head. Halfway through his shower, we heard a exclamation from him that cold water suddenly came out instead. I was very tickled by his description that he was squatting and shivering in one corner. Lol and thereafter, none of us bathed that night. xD This was also partly due to the fact that we were shivering up in the mountains and the beds has electric warmers, which saved us.
I ate my Ah Q noodles after a while, which was rather disappointing and Gary was eating 满汉大餐, which was good as usual. The 太空面包 from 几分甜 was really impressive, even when compared to the tasty rose bun with cream cheese I had in the afternoon. Nose was feeling very cold and he was guessing he was falling sick. Too bad he was right.
29th December, Thursday (日月潭 to Hualien)
Ham woke up early to try and capture the sunrise. I woke up a short while after to enjoy the early morning view. Nose was feeling the effects of the suspected stomach flu already and didn't join us for breakfast. Ham, Gary and I had breakfast in the open facing the mountains. The breakfast was quite sumptuous and it felt good eating the piping hot breakfast out in the cold with the great view.
The driver came earlier than expected and so, we quickly packed and brought our stuff down to depart for Hualien. We departed at 9am and was expected to reach Hualien at about 5pm. Along the way, he would drive us to some attractions, including Taroko Gorge (太鲁阁) near Hualien. I can't remember was it the cab driver that brought us to 清境 or the boss of Laurel Villa at 日月潭 that told us it was a good decision to go to Hualien from 清境 by car as the view along the way would be great and there would be many attractions to visit.
But nope. Along the way, most of the time I couldn't appreciate the scenery around me. I was suffering from motion sickness pretty soon into the ride. The driver is very skilled and adroitly negotiated all the bends almost without reducing speed at all. During those bends, I was swung to the left then right and then left again. Thankfully, I was able to fall asleep after a while. It appeared that during my slumber, they were all amazed by the skills of the driver, even Gary too. He's the one who always boasts about his so-called driving skills and is very good at blaming other road users.
I woke up when we reached 合欢山. It was very windy and was as cold as 清 境. From the observation decks there, we can see the many other mountains in Taiwan and the driver was telling us that this year, as there is insufficient moisture in the air at 合欢山, it appears that there wouldn't be any snow falling on 合欢山. Haha we got a little bit disappointed. But, it also saved us a bit of money. This is because if snow fell, the driver has to install chains on the wheels to plough through the snow and that would cost us a bit more. Ah well, guess it was fated. More so in view of the fact that it snowed in the area just days after we left.
Along the way up, we stopped by an area with icicles forming on the side of the mountain. They looked very beautiful and in my haste to get a closer look, I slipped on the small sheets of ice formed on the ground and fell. And after that, back to the nauseating ride.
After continuing on for a while, we stopped for tea at a small lodge. It was a rather small and quaint place, with photographs of 合欢山 which were breathtaking and inspired Ham quite a bit I guess. I had peach honey red tea and the peach honey was very fragrant. Such breaks were highly therapeutic for my stomach which felt queasy. We stopped for lunch at some cafe near to Taroko Gorge and the food was disappointing and expensive. Nose hardly touched his food as the stomach flu was hitting him quite hard. My appetite was quite diminished after all the swerving of the car. At one point, I ran to the toilet as I felt imminent regurgitation and thankfully, it only made its way up to my throat and a bit into the root of my tongue. Urgh.
After nearing Taroko Gorge, we made several stops to look at the scenery and somehow it wasn't as impressive as I remembered it to be. Nearing the end, Nose decided to take a nap inside the cab instead as he felt very uncomfortable by then. Thereafter, we finally reached Hualien and checked in at our hotel which was very near to 七星潭. When driving past 七星潭, the driver was telling us that what we see today at the tourist attraction is actually not 七星潭 but the Pacific Ocean instead. The original 7 lakes have already dried up and one of them was actually converted into an airbase, which we saw on the way to the hotel.
The room was quite decent and had a balcony which overlooked the Pacific Ocean. The roof was open to hotel guests to get a much better view of the Pacific Ocean. We then decided to go to 自强夜市, the most famous one in Hualien and our driver drove us there. It looked almost exactly the same as how I remembered it. We ate the usual stuff that people usually eat from there, i.e. 棺材板, 烤肉，牛排, fruit juice etc. Nose didn't eat much still and after visiting the 夜市, we called the lady who was our driver's boss for transport back to the hotel. And it turned out she called our driver to fetch us back again. Goodness, he had a really long day and still had to send us back. On the way back, we asked to stop at a clinic for Nose to see a doctor as the TCM stuff Nose and I brought along didn't help much. The visit was damn fast and everything was settled under 10 minutes. Amazing. Before we returned to the cab, we decided to tip the driver as we felt bad that he had to work for us for a whole day. Before that, he was telling us that the lady boss was very nice to us and that a two-way trip to the 夜市 would have cost us about NTD500.
Oh and I forgot to mention something. I can't remember since when, we noticed that on one of the movie channels available on cable in Taiwan, the frequency of Stephen Chow movies was very high. A scene from one of his movies we watched in Hualien involved someone taking Stephen Chow's shit-smeared hand to slap his face. It was damn hilarious and hard to shake out of the head. Random but funny.
30th December, Friday (Hualien)
Ham, Gary and I woke up early to cycle to 七星潭 and check out the 原野牧场. Nose and I were looking at any farms nearby to visit, especially since our farm visit at 清境 was pretty short-lived and sad too. We were pretty interested in 新光兆丰休闲农场, but it was quite far and we decided it wouldn't be really worth a visit as the staff from the hotel pointed out to us just how far it was from the hotel. Also, we pretty much guessed the animals would probably be hibernating or hiding somewhere much warmer. Nose decided to sleep in and rest a bit more since he was still feeling rather unwell.
Anyway, back to cycling. I'm going to give much attention to this to fully describe the epicness of the conditions at which we were cycling against. When collecting the bicycle, we already felt the extremely strong wind coming from the Pacific Ocean. It wasn't until we started cycling along the path to 七星潭, perpendicular to the wind direction from the right, then we realised the bikes were moving slightly to the left as we pedalled straight. The hood of my jacket was flapping against the back of my head. The bike moved gingerly forward with a constant urge to move left. I had to pedal extra hard to keep the bike moving forward properly. And occasionally, bushes would appear on our right to shield the bike from the wind. The strong wind, accompanied with the moist air since we were near the sea, made that cycling trip very special. Something I doubt I will experience here.
When we finally reached 七星潭, we were treated with a damn beautiful view of the Pacific Ocean. The seemingly endless beach reminded me a bit of the dream beach that I visited during my school trip to Perth in Sec 4. Haha but the weather conditions were vastly different. In Perth, it was sunny and bright, though very windy too. Interestingly, I never got to know the name of the beach. Slowly, I walked towards the waves and against the winds. I think this beach would go down as my 2nd most favourite beach, after the Perth one. I love how the sky looks dark and the how the refreshing sea breeze was causing my hood to flap wildly. Lol. Then, Gary and I saw a path of pebbles+rocks which was pointing to the sea. It looks very outstanding, compared to the haphazard arrangement of the other stones around. Gary and I went around to find some small rocks or big pebbles to extend the path. Then, Gary gingerly walked the path as Ham took pictures of the snail "crawling". At some point of time, Ham took a picture of me facing the sea. It's my favourite picture of the whole trip. I shall put the edited and unedited versions here. I personally prefer the monochromatic one.
From there, we decided to cycle back and check out the 原野牧场. When we reached, Gary and I went up to check it out. We saw a cafe on the second floor of a wooden house. So, we went up to ask them where are the animals. Well, it turns out it was a restaurant with just 2 goats in a small enclosure nearby. How miserable. Though Gary enjoyed himself thoroughly feeding the goats with dried leaves from the floor and laughing at how stupid the goats were. The place looked quite boring on the whole, so we went back to check on Nose.
In the end, we decided to walk to 原野牧场 for lunch since the area looked pretty dead. To be fair, the cafe is not bad for chilling, over goat's milk though. Haha. The inner decor was pretty nice apart from the windows which looked like they haven't been cleaned in quite a well. We ordered goat's milk and Nose ordered orange juice since goat's milk would most likely not agree with his stomach. Ham had cold goat's milk while Gary and I had the hot one and ours was eligible for refill since the cup was smaller. Well, the hot one exuded a rather strong smell. The milk came with cheesecake, which had an awfully sweet layer of solidified syrup or something. Too sweet for me. I scrapped it off before having the cheesecake. In my opinion, the best thing we had there was the garlic bread Nose ordered -.- Thereafter, Gary went to feed his friends some dried leaves again, while we wondered if the milk came from these goats which ate dried leaves from stupid strangers.
In the afternoon, Nose, Gary and I went cycling, albeit under significantly better conditions. Ham said he wanted to take some photos and we were guessing that he was off to do some "dirty business". Before we cycled to 七星潭, we stopped by the 柴鱼博物馆 nearby. It used to be a factory that produced 柴鱼, more commonly seen as the bonito flakes we add to takoyaki (octopus balls). When it went out of business, one businessman felt it was quite a waste to let it be torn down. So, he went to discuss with the authorities to retain it as a cultural attraction. We looked around the place and tried some of the food they sold there. We then went 七星潭 and on the way back, one dog followed us all the way back. It was really quite cool and it stopped whenever we stopped too. Haha, in the end it followed us back to the hotel and sadly, we had to send it off. It was pretty intent on following us though along the way, even if we sped up.
After meeting up again at the hotel, we initially wanted to go to 南滨夜市, which I went to the first time I went to Taiwan. It was quite memorable among the 夜市, as they had quite a lot of games. I tried archery and also set off fireworks then. The hotel told us 南滨夜市 was almost completely closed as there was renovation going on at the carpark nearby. That was sad. So in the end, we went to the city centre to look around since we found a pamphlet which listed 10 food places we should try. Haha so we embarked on the quest to eat all 10 items.
Along the way, someone passed me a small booklet that introduced 蔡英文, the presidential candidate. I kept it as reading material for the train ride to Taipei. I think we ate about more than half of the things stated but the food there. Some of the better stuff was 公正街包子店. The 蒸饺 was very nice and we tried their 小笼包 too, which was very different from those in Singapore. These looked like normal 包s. In the end, after walking around, we went to try the food from their rival next door, 周家蒸饺. They sell almost the same items and both operate 24 hours. Highly competitive. I found both quite nice and there wasn't really much difference. After walking around for quite long, we bought bubble tea and went back to the hotel. This time, I had lavender milk tea, which tasted better than the one from 自强夜市 the night before.
31st December, Saturday (Hualien to Taipei)
We checked out pretty early to catch the train at 10.40am to Taipei. Nose's sister and friends were also going back to Taipei and was on the same train as us. When we reached the train station, someone was giving out booklets that introduced the other presidential candidate 马英九, who is the incumbent. The person wanted to give one to Gary who quickly pointed at me instead and said “给他。他要。” Nice, now I've collected the booklets of these two forerunners. There was one more candidate in the race, James Soong (宋楚瑜) but he's kind of like the Tan Kin Lian of the Taiwan elections. On the verge of losing deposit but still don't wanna withdraw. (Not sure if the Taiwan presidential elections have the deposit rule too.)
Anyway, so we got on the train and as usual, I couldn't sleep much on the train. Instead, I was listening to my iPod and reading 马英九's election campaign booklet. It includes some stories by people close to him, as a whole portraying him as a down-to-earth and caring leader. I think it's undeniable he has brought about in change in Taiwan politics in which it is no longer as fiery and unruly as it used to be. I still remember watching a piece of news once about the parliamentarians throwing rice packets at each other in parliament and hurling very well-chosen profanities at each other.
And so we reached Taipei Main Station and had to find Purple Garden Hotel, which Nose's sister and friends were also staying at. Initially, we decided to follow them and we realised the one leading them doesn't really seem to know the way. So, we decided to just find the place ourselves and see which group would reach first. The hotel was situated very near to 中山 station, which was just one stop away from Taipei Main Station. Those two stations are not very far apart so we just followed the general direction with the help of the compass on Ham's iPhone. We took about 20 minutes I think and we checked in and deposited our stuff in the cafe at the lobby. After I changed and was walking out to the cafe, I saw the delegation of Nose's sister and friends arriving at the hotel, looking very defeated and with a hint of frustration from some of them. Haha it turns out the one who led them got lost and they got a bit sian of walking for so long. We decided to go for lunch then proceed to the 市政府 station where the countdown concert would be held at.
We couldn't decide where to eat and ate at some fast food outlet called 牛乳大王, which sells Chinese cooked food and their star items are the milkshakes. It was quite interesting since it was the first time I was eating at a Chinese fast food outlet. When we got to 市政府 station, we exited at the basement of some shopping centre at a Uniqlo store. There was a crowd there, which suggested a sale and Nose and I saw that the jeans were going for NTD999, which is around $45. We told ourselves we'll get it if we see another Uniqlo store on the trip.
We reached the area at around 2 to 3 plus and so was still pretty early before the concert starts. And so, we visited the Eslite building first to look around Eslite Bookstore (诚品书局). If I'm not wrong, it's the biggest outlet in Taiwan and spans several floors, with each floor selling different things. I remember the last time I went to Taiwan in 2009, the floor selling music CDs and DVDs also sold posters. But this time, I didn't see any. Damn, I was planning on getting some if they sold them. But then again, transporting those would be highly troublesome.
I was looking at the books displayed on the bestsellers shelves. Before going to Taiwan, I was already planning to buy the 那些年，我们一起追的女孩 book. This is because my brother's copy was still on loan and i had been queuing for quite long and also, my friends (Nose, Ham, Gary and another guy called Yongjie aka Yogi) bought the movie production book for me. So, I was thinking might as well collect the book too. In any case, we spent really quite a lot of time there and that was just the first of our many trips to 诚品书局. And I mean it when I say many and it was not restricted to just Taipei. I guess the place is really nice.
I digress a bit here. Going to Eslite got me thinking about the state of bookstores there compared with those here, i.e. Borders and PageOne. I'm not a business student but just offering my two cents worth. I feel the main issue is the insufficient land space we have, which would result in expensive land. For a bookstore that appeals to the masses, there must be a critical mass of books to attend to the varied interests of the masses, which would require substantial space. Of course, other things would come into consideration, like economies of scale and operating costs. But, if we just look at the space issue and compare to the rise of niche bookstores nowadays, it's not really hard to see the link. I'm guessing here that the sales to size of shop ratio isn't very high for most of these bookstores. Having a niche makes it easier to survive I guess since a niche is likely to allow you to be able to price your books higher and would most likely require much lesser space. Kinokuniya is one chain that seems to be doing pretty well as I feel that while it caters to the masses, it has a niche of Japanese books and magazines which would cater to the Japanese expatriates in Singapore. I don't know much about Harris so I can't really comment on that.
Anyway, back to the trip. We left the place without buying any books since we didn't want to lug them around for the whole night. At around 4 plus, we set off to find the concert venue. And we got lost. It was surprisingly hard to find the venue and there were so many people around the 市政府 area. Well we bought some snacks along the way to fill our stomachs a bit before going for the concert. We couldn't really decide on what to eat for dinner yet though.
By the time we got to the concert venue, it was already quite crowded. There was still about 45 minutes to the start of the concert when we arrived. There were a few warm-up acts there, presumably to test the sound system out. For one of the last few acts, the singer was wearing a lanyard with a tag around her neck and looked just like a staff member from the technical crew. I was commenting to Nose that she sang pretty well and was pulling off tough songs from Ah Mei. Near the end of their performance, when she introduced her band, I got a shock. I was kind of expecting the lead singer of the warm-up act to dress less like some random technical staff. Haha.
Frankly, it was a rather long and boring wait. When we were planning the itenary for the trip, we were deciding where to go for the New Year's Eve countdown. Nose and I were trying to find out the artiste line-up for the concerts at the different locations. If I'm not wrong, we saw that Mayday was performing at Taipei but the rest of the line-up weren't very appealing. For the other concerts, the line-ups were just average. So, we chose Taipei mainly for Mayday and for the famous Taipei 101 fireworks. Exactly 2 years ago, I was at the exact same location to watch the countdown concert too. It was very painful for my legs, having to stand for so long and I watched all the way till midnight for the fireworks and Mayday was one of the last few performers I remembered. In fact, their performance was the best for me that year.
And finally, after a long wait, the concert started and Mayday kicked off the concert. They sang about 1 or 2 songs before they got to chatting with the hosts. It turned out that the reason that they had to start off first this time was due to the fact that they were having a countdown concert at 台北小巨蛋 that night. Apparently, Ah Mei (张惠妹) was also having her own countdown party that year. No wonder, it seemed that across the whole Taiwan, the line-ups for the countdown concerts looked kind of lackluster.
In total, Mayday performed about 5 to 6 songs I think. Damn good. Just like how it was a few years back. They can really work the crowd up. But, unfortunately, the instant they left, the whole event felt like it kind of flopped. The singers that followed were either unknowns, or quite famous stars singing new songs that felt like they weren't up to the cut. After a while, we just decided to leave the place and go to Taipei 101 to find dinner.
We had a rather long dinner while I was busy letting my dear legs recover from the prolonged standing. Nose was spending most of the time checking out one of the girls selling ice-cream from Cold Stone Creamery. Amazing how that took up quite a bit of the dinner conversation. And at around 11 plus, we hurried to find a strategic spot to watch the fireworks.
By "strategic spot", I'm not just referring to the view of the fireworks. Frankly, to me, that was secondary. The issue at hand was the proximity to the MRT station. Two years ago, after watching the fireworks (that contained a technical error -.-), we walked to the MRT station and to our horror, the crowd outside it was scary. And we had to walk the length of quite a few MRT station stops before changing to take a bus. So this time, we checked the map for a prime location with a rather good view and very close proximity to the MRT.
We were good. Heh. We walked through the crowds (standing and sitting) and finally got to the middle of some small park near 新光三越. As we were walking to the location, I caught a glimpse of 马英九 on the huge screen showing the scene on stage. I was wondering if it was lucky of him to be able to get some "extra coverage" during his campaigning period or was it just sian for him to have to attend it still.
The fireworks started a while after Ham gave up trying to set up his DSLR on the tripod. Our view was pretty good and only the lower floors of the building was obscured. The view was magnificent and from the start, it already looked like it would surpass the one I saw in 2009. 4 minutes of well-choreographed fireworks were captured on my camera and despite its awesomeness, we did not forget to take flight the moment we kept all our stuff. But, eh it turned out we kind of didn't really know the way. We followed the general direction of where others were running towards and thankfully, we got to one of the entrances of Taipei Main Station. It was very crowded but still wasn't as bad as the crowds outside MRT stations that I saw 2 years back.
In the wake of the several MRT breakdowns in Singapore in December last year (of which I was almost caught in one of them), the professionalism of the Taiwan staff was very impressive. Commuters were released in batches to enter the station, following which, they queue up in front of the gantries where they were again released in batches to go to the platform. It sounds really simple but the effect is really good. After entering the station, there weren't any squeezing already and even inside the trains, it was a comfortable journey. We were really impressed by their meticulous planning on New Year's Eve itself where comprehensive information were provided and I remembered from the previous trip that they requested everyone to allow the elderly and the young to enter the stations first. Graciousness. Maybe it's in their culture. People queue up orderly to enter the trains and everyone stays on the right on the escalators so that people who are in a rush can take the left side.
We reached back at the hotel room quite early and was watching the humongous crowd outside the MRT on the news. Thankfully we were quick enough. And then, I noticed a short news snippet in the ticker at the bottom of the screen. It was snowing at 合欢山. -.- wth. Ah well, though we missed the chance to see snow, at least we escaped the trouble that comes along with snow.
rotted-1:30 PM
