Tuesday, December 21, 2004
::Taiwan trip::
Shall give my brief 2 cents’ worth about the LEP Taiwan Immersion Trip from 5th Dec to 19th Dec, mainly because I still feel like vomiting occasionally and recovering from a sickly fever. =S (Hope you guys don’t mind as I’m seriously not in the right mental state to remember everything clearly; still feeling drowsy after bouts of medications) Having experienced the strong chilling gusts of Taipei’s windy climate, Singapore is truly a hot place to begin with. It really feels giddy standing under the hot sun now. Thank goodness the virus hit me on the 2nd last day of the trip. (Probably because I didn’t heed the doctor’s advice to take the flu jab?) –shrugs- The sickly feeling gets better when I reached home. Ahh..home sweet home.
1) Taipei is a city infested with motorbikes. Yeah..absolutely true. Almost at every corner of the “pedestrian crossing”, motorbikes swarmed the area and make fatal turns almost every instant split second. How scary that thought.
2) Mainly because of the motorbikes, the traffic condition in Taipei is quite messy and terrible too. Contrary to Chengdu’s traffic, you rarely chance upon the sight of pets (especially dogs) crossing the roads. Traffic lights only serve as reference points. As usual I suppose, cross the road in big groups.
3) Similar to what most of us viewed in Taiwan Variety shows, Taipei has a very spontaneous and hip night life. Yup.. Shih Lin Night Market has became our daily night-hunt after dinner and lessons. Triangularly shaped with many concurrent streets at junctions, it offers extremely appetizing “xiao-chi” (eg. Ji pa, guan cai ban, tang bao, Taiwan sausages, bin tang hu lu blah), clothes, accessories and many others. It’s interesting to walk in a Night Market as make-shift stalls stood in the middle of the passageway and “a sense of satisfaction” is incurred whenever we managed to SQUEEZE through the human traffic of a mammoth scale. Oh..sometime during the first week, the trip coincided with Taiwan’s elections. At one point, the politicians rallied down the street and all the stalls suddenly disappeared and appeared the next moment.
4) Oh! I must recount a “funny” incident at the Night Market. We were strolling down the streets on the last night (that was when I got very ill and wanted to vomit but just couldn’t get it out of my throat despite swallowing sour plums. Eeh) Walked past the very smelly bean curd stall. Ah..it became my stimulant to vomit! Haha… Aye..seems like smelly bean curd does help one to puke!
5) Taipei 101 is one of the tallest building around. Shopped around that area just to realize that the average price of the stuff there is practically beyond imagination. That was the day before the elections where somewhere near the open plains, the KMT made use of propaganda to mesmerize the crowd to support them. It was a very spectacular and overwhelming sight to behold. Politics in Taiwan is indeed active.
6) On the 2nd day, we took a “guan guang lie che” to Hua Lian. Was quite disappointed when I reached Taipei Train Station. Initially held the thought that we would be traveling on those old and bumpy train. The train was modern and fascinating in the sense that the seats could turn 360 degrees. Heh..we had our first “bian dang” for dinner on the train itself.
7) Must really comment that Taiwan babies are extremely cute! =P Haha..fair-skinned, pinkish cheeks, huge eyes, covered in an animal-like clothing with tails sticking out. The same comments do not apply for the primary school students. Aye, an “eye-opening” experience at Xiao Ren Guo. Hmm..they were rather ill-mannered as compared to Singapore kids, they cut queues, they push you without mumbling apologies. However, I really admire the spontaneity these kids are imbibed with, especially during lesson times. The cordial relationship between students and teachers is something definitely lacking in our society. The teachers are hip, fun, spontaneous, non-stick-in-the-mud, communicative, entertaining. This lightened classroom atmospheres and makes learning all the more interesting. =)
8) Oh yeah..Taiwanese are warm and friendly, especially stall vendors. Yup..basically there weren’t much language barrier as they spoke Chinese and Hokkien.
9) Headed towards Taizhong to the “9 culture village”. Hmm..the Maya Adventure (supposedly a G 4.5 twisted 360 degrees roller coaster was no kick..heehee. Really. Probably it’s the tremendous speed that leaves you feeling immuned. Except for the frequent hits and misses on the corners of the head.) The UFO adventure was fun too, eliminating phobia of height and the sudden drop in air pressure. Ahh..after the wild adventure at Super Tornado of Xiao Ren Guo (a game in which you are turned 720 degrees clockwise and anticlockwise and left to slide off your seat in an inverted position facing the scenic greenery many metres up: at that moment I was wondering what would happen if the strap came off. oops), hearts were exercised and pumped to the greatest extent.
10) The culture of the natives of Taiwan was interesting and fascinating where we explored their accessories, their living conditions and gained an insight to their lives.
11) Went up to the Sun Moon Lake (2000 +m above sea level) and stayed in wooden cottages (just like those dreamy ones from fairy tales) with endless bridges. The climate is terribly extreme up there, with night temperatures plunging to 10-12 degrees and day temperatures risng to 18-20 degrees. Practically freezing. Guess the best thing about it was the “close contact” with the cresent moon and dazzling bright stars above the hilltop. That was the night when we first stole a glance at the moon.
12) The next night we headed up to Xi-tou which was even worse. (I meant the temperature). Obviously, most of us weren’t prepared for the harsh climate and around 10 succumbed and were admitted to hospital. (ahh..Taiwan hospital can be quite gross: visit the toilets and you will know =S)
Ehh….that’s all for now.
Oh yes..Must really commend my bunk mates! Yup! We rock man! Behind the closed doors of 1913! wHoo.. Special thanks to Siew Hui, Hwee Hsi and Xin Yu. Yup..though we seemes so different, we truly clicked and enjoyed each other's company! =) Thanks so much for the care and concern you guys showed throughout the 2 weeks. Will never forget the times spent "bitching" together and sharing our thoughts and innermost feelings. Oh..and days of watching South Park together! Haha. Wondeful memories yeah. =)
Will continue updating..
InDuLgeD~|10:29 AM|
