12 June 2008 @ 03:17 pm
I know I haven’t posted in ages, so here’s a super long series of posts to keep the reader entertained. I just returned from Taiwan （台湾）late Tuesday night, so I shall write about my various encounters in Taiwan!
Well, let’s start with my first impression of Taiwan, shall we? I arrived in Taiwan on SQ878 on 01 June 2008. The immigrations officer (or is it emigrations? Whatever.) looked at me when I handed him my passport. No smiles. No greetings. No “Welcome to Taiwan!” or anything of the sort. Not a single word. Now that’s a nice way to start my vacation, isn’t it?
That man should really think about the kind of impression he’s giving to visitors of his country, and not act like a tired man going about his duty, nothing more. The airport is the place which gives tourists their first impression of the country that they’re visiting. If he smiles a little more and appears a little friendlier, don’t you think he’d get promoted a little faster? That’s something to think about.
I arrived in Taipei（台北）, and it was already pretty late in the afternoon so my family and I walked around the Shin Kong Mitsukoshi（新光三越）shopping centers and had dinner there. It’s not really all that different from Singapore’s own shopping district. Not very interesting. :/
Oh but for dinner, I had a little taste of the renowned smelly tofu（臭豆腐）. Taiwan’s supposed to be famous for it. The locals love it, but oh man, I ABSOLUTELY HATE IT. To me, it tasted like garbage. It tasted like the dustbin with some cat crap in it. Well, not like I have actually tasted cat droppings before, but it really does give that impression for some reason. It’s probably the worst thing I have EVER eaten. Wait till you try it.
We stayed at the Agora Garden Hotel（亚太会馆）. That night, there was an earthquake. According to my family, the hotel room shook and there was this super loud sound. The air-conditioning stopped for a while and it got quite stuffy. We were all sleeping, but they all woke up… except me. And I’m supposed to be one of the lighter sleepers! Man, the first time I get to experience an earthquake and I blew it. Not like it’s good to experience one, but in Singapore we’re quite safe from natural disasters, so I did want to get to experience it at least once.
Anyway, I stayed in Taipei for one night before leaving for Sun Moon Lake（日月潭）in Taichung（台中）. This lake is apparently the largest natural lake in Taiwan. We travelled around the mountain areas and visited this place called Hsuan Tsang Temple（玄奘寺）. If you’ve read Journey to the West（西游记）, you’ll know it’s named after the Buddhist monk who had Sun Wu Kong（孙悟空）, Pigsy（猪八戒）and Sandy（沙僧）travel with him to collect the scriptures. I didn’t know this before, but this monk was a real guy. He travelled across India for a long period of time to collect scriptures. Of course, the Monkey God and other characters are fictitious.
To better view the lake and the surrounding mountains, we climbed this place with loads of steps 500m above sea level. And then we climbed another 500m to the top of a pagoda, where we got a view of the lake. Thing was, it got really misty up there. It felt like it was heaven in those old and weird Chinese drama serials about gods and demons. It felt mysterious. And it was pretty dangerous too because it got really windy up there.
After that we took a treacherous climb down and we bought some Taiwanese rice wine（小米酒）. The wine’s really not bad, so my mum bought 3 bottles of it (it was going for a low price anyway) and 2 boxes of the local tea. And then for lunch we tasted this species of fish which they named “President Fish”（总统鱼）. It’s super bony and I had a hard time eating it. But it was rather tasty, I must admit.
I fell in love with Tea Eggs（茶叶蛋）there too. I never really loved them in Singapore, but for some reason they’re really awesome there. Fragrant, tasty… Can you see the saliva dripping from my mouth now?
This concludes Part I! Stay tuned for Part II.
Current Location: At home
Current Mood: Okay
Current Music: Cavern -- Super Smash Bros. X Loving Soundtrack
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