Day 7, Friday 22 Aug

We departed our hotel at 8.30am. Initially, the first stop was Yang Ming Shan National Park 陽明山國家公園 to admire flowers and greenery, but there weren’t any flowers during this season, so we collectively gave that a skip, in exchange for a shopping excursion to Miramar Entertainment Centre.

Obviously, shops weren’t open that early, so we headed to Tamshui to see the famous Fisherman’s Wharf 漁人碼頭, a filming site in Meteor Garden. Honestly, I couldn’t recall which part of Meteor Garden was filmed on this bridge, but nevertheless, it was a pretty bridge. We proceeded on to Tamshui old streets 淡水老街 to walk the shops.

>>Now where exactly was Meteor Garden filmed?

We bought a small packet of the famous "Iron eggs" – black eggs which have been stewed in a mix of herbs and spices until pickled. It’s a very weird and chewy texture…definitely doesn’t make me crave for it to eat seconds.

>>Super chewy things...

As we left, EK bought his milk tea while I bought Ah Gei (crystal noodles stuffed in fried bean curd, served with a mild hot sauce). I couldn’t leave Tamshui without tasting the famous Ah Gei, but I really don’t understand why it is famous. The pinkish sauce was just plain weird, and it was rather blend. I took one bite and threw the rest away.

>>The weird things Taiwanese appreciates

Upon boarding the bus, I discovered I was given a very memorable souvenir of Taiwan – sandfly bites!!! SO MANY OF THEM! I don’t know if it was at Fisherman’s wharf or was it at Tamshui old streets, but it was at one of these places I got bitten and possibly scarred for life! 68 bites on my left leg and 60 on my right, enough to scare any person away!!! URGH! And to think, just that morning, EK was commenting on how smooth and nice my legs were. And now this!!!

>>My legs!!! RUINED!!! Can you count the bites?!

So that made me all upset and I gave the next stop a miss while EK went down to tour the temple. A few others also remained on the bus and gave the temple a miss.

>>It was actually quite pretty...

Following that, we headed back towards the city for lunch at one of the themed restaurants in Taiwan called Five Cent Driftwood Restaurant 五角船板. The outside looked like remains of a shipwreck cum a tribal house. The inside had weathered pieces of driftwood, Chinese stone sculptures, antiques, welded metal, and chunky, rough wooden tables and chairs. It was truly a unique experience and our cameras, like many others, were going off like a dog let off its leash.




After lunch, our tour guide took us to another 2 commission earning places. The first stop a feng shui house to have our feng shui predicted. Practically the whole tour group ended up buying a bit of feng shui back, EK and myself included. We were first shocked at the lady’s ability of reading our personalities just from our names and birthdates, and then later impressed when she could pin-point stuff so true about ourselves. We pondered very very long and hard whether to get that piece of jade. I argued with myself that we didn’t need a piece of dragon-shaped jade to change our fate. We just need to work hard in order to achieve our goals in life. EK on the other hand fell in love with the dragon. He’s been looking for a pretty dragon-shaped jade and never seemed to find one as nice or pretty. When he was showed this black piece of jade, he liked it, but the price was also very pretty. My white dragon-shaped jade was about half the size of EK’s, and also half the price. We deliberated for a very long time, until the salesgirl was about to give-up, and I could see a look of jealousy when her colleagues were making sales (our tour group seems to be a very rich bunch). After thinking and thinking and thinking over it, EK finally bought his and was successfully persuaded by the salesgirl to buy one for me and the salesgirl did her ritual of cleaning the jade with a leaf and some “feng shui” water. “Thankfully my saliva didn’t go to waste,” thought the salesgirl.

The second stop was a tea house. Where we sat quietly like students, and listened to her talk about how special their tea was, which really tasted like normal tea. I think this was the first place no one from the tour group bought anything. Perhaps it was partly due to the fact that our wallets bore holes from the feng shui experience.

Finally, we could proceed on with the actual Taiwan sightseeing/shopping, depends how you see it, and we visited first the promised Miramar Entertainment Park 美麗華百樂園. This was the filming site for a Taiwanese drama called Why Why Love, staring one of EK’s favourite Taiwanese celebrity, Rainie Yang. So the first thing we did was to take a picture of us in front of the mall, to leave our mark!

>>Same place!

Following that, we raced up to the top floor to ride the ferris wheel! We wanted to take the completely transparent carriage, so we waited in line while empty carriages spun past. We figured since we’re here, might as well wait for the rare transparent carriage, there were only 2 transparent carriages in the entire wheel.




After the ride, we weren’t left with much time to shop around. We asked the salesgirls which shop Rainie worked in in the drama but no one knew! Weird! Seems like it was just another show to them, no one took notice. However, we did find another filming spot and took photos there before assembling.

>>Rainie was here, riding this escalator...

>>Ooops...same building, different escalator...

>>And she got her heart broken here...

>>Ooops again...same building, opposite bridge!

>>And they met here...

>>Almost...same steps, different angle! Hahaha

We proceeded to Taipei 101 (101大樓), arriving close to sunset. EK and I didn’t go up to the viewing gallery as the others in our group, but instead, we walked the branded shops: LV, D&G, Gucci, Vivien Westwood, Prada, Dior, etc. As we weren’t after any branded goods, we ended up finding Taipei 101 boring.


After Taipei 101, we proceeded for dinner at another simple restaurant before heading to Shihlin Night Market士林夜市, where we shopped and ate somemore. Shopping wasn’t great coz I found Shihlin a big mess and it was tough job searching through the different clothes hanging on the racks in every store to find something I like. After a while, I got real bored with searching. But the food made up for it, with the yummy fried and juicy chicken cutlet, the sweet and can’t get any sweeter fruits, bubble tea and so on. We left Shihlin at 11pm and returned to our hotel room to pack our luggages till 1+am in the morning. We were changing hotel the next morning and embarking on our 3 day free-and-easy tour of Taiwan!

>>The most memorable part of Shihlin...Hao Da Ji Pa!

Day 8, Saturday 23 Aug

Bright and early the next morning, we checked out, got a cab and proceeded to our new hotel to check in and leave our luggage with the concierge.

Then, we headed to Xi Men station to catch the metro across town to Shihlin station, and then caught a public bus to visit the National Palace Museum故宮博物院.
>>Buying our tickets, how independent of me!

>>Figuring out which train to take...

>>Waiting for the train...
The museum was nice and interesting. EK and I forgot about the time and walked every single floor, and every single exhibition room. We didn’t notice until it was 2+pm and our tummies were getting hungry. We decided to have a light snack at the café before continuing on with the rest of the exhibition.

>>The only pics we were allowed to take coz the museum did not allow cameras inside...sigh
To our horror, it was pouring cats and dogs outside. So we ended up taking a long tea break. When we had finished the entire museum and walked several rounds around the large museum shop, we realized that the rain wasn’t going to stop, so ever-so-brilliant me suggested we catch a cab to New York New York 紐約紐約 and shop till the rain stops. At least were indoors and also visiting a place that was on my places-to-go list. Why? It was mentioned in Meteor Garden, when San Cai went on her first date with Hua Ze Lei, they went New York New York. DUH!
>>The paper bag says all!
So shopping we went and I absolutely LOVE New York New York!!! Especially during sale season when they are trying to clear their summer collection!! United Colours of Benetton was going at 90% discount – I bought 1 top and 1 pants and had to find reasons not to buy the other 2 tops I wanted to get. Other shops were going at 50% and 70% discount! It was AMAZING. New York New York is like a large 6 or was it 7 storey department store, with little individual shops inside selling young fashion labels from all around. EK bought a shirt at 50% off while I fell head over heels for this patent leather bag going at 20% off for new arrivals, but it was still too expensive for me to afford. SIGH.

We moved on to the next big shopping mall or should I say mallS!!!! Thanks to the genius who thought of sheltered passes which connected New York New York to ShinKong Mitsukoshi新光三越, we didn’t need to get wet and found another shopping paradise. ShinKong Mitsukoshi – I LOVED it more than New York New York!! Made up of 4 massive malls side by side to each other, each mall was special in its own way. There was one building only for high fashion, with individual stores carrying brands such as Boss, BCBG Max Azria, Versace, etc. We gave this one a quick browse before heading to the other building, carrying the kind of fashion labels more suited to our tastes and income bracket such as MNG, T-Touch, Ralph Lauren, DKNY (oh, I fell in love with a gold bag going at 50% off – sob, it was still $300 after discount…). There were other local brands with awesome designs. I fell in love with a young fashion label called Poupine – designed in France, made in Taiwan (http://www.poupine.com.tw/). The clothes were cute, funky, young and had bold colours – just the kind of style I like. I ended up buying 1 pair of jeans and 1 high-waisted shorts for work.

We didn’t realize the time until the shops were closing! With 2 more malls of ShinKong Mitsukoshi to cover, we rushed over to one which was more of a department store concept, but we only had 10 minutes to browse before fatigue overcame us and the shops were closing. We grabbed a cab back to our hotel and caught a nap. Our night was not over but we were too tired, we needed to recharge.

At around midnight, we left our hotel and grabbed a cab back to the vicinity of New York New York. We were going to a club called Room 18, located at the basement of Neo 19, a building just one block away from New York New York. The club was okay, I’m not into the clubbing scene, but EK said that those who could dance danced a lot better than those in Singapore, but there was also a relatively large group who bobbed along to the music as well. It was a good experience, and we only left the club close to 4am in the morning.

Day 9, Sunday 24 Aug

The next morning, we woke up at 8.30am, rushing for breakfast. Both of us were hungry. We didn’t go back to sleep after breakfast as we wanted to make full use of our trip. Freshening up after breakfast, we went back to ShinKong Mitsukoshi to finish browsing the remaining 2 malls we didn’t manage to cover. We also had lunch at the basement foodcourt of one of their malls. The food they sell in their food courts are so much better compared to the food sold at our food courts. I say this in terms of quality, taste and also price.

>>I also had to take a photo with my New York New York during the day!
Following that, we proceeded to conquere the next mall that was nearby called Eslite Xinyi Store 誠品信義旗艦店. While we were there, it started to rain. Thankfully, there was a huge bookstore Eslite Bookstore 誠品書店, so that kept us busy till the rain disappeared and the sun came out to play.

We made our way over to the world’s tallest building, Taipei 101, paid for our tickets and took the world’s fastest elevator up from the 5th floor to the 89th floor in 37 seconds. The ride was okay, felt like a normal elevator ride. The scenery from the 89th observatory deck and the 91st outdoor viewing gallery was okay too…similar feel as Korea’s Nam San tower looking down on Seoul, and New Zealand’s sky tower looking down to Auckland City, or Sydney Tower to the city beneath. I’ve seen my fair share of towers, but it was the fact that Taipei 101 was iconic to Taipei and hence we had to visit it.
>>Purchasing the tix to 101




We stayed for a couple of hours at the observatory, watching the sun set and as darkness fell upon Taipei. We also visited the wind damper, named Damper Baby – HA, “BABY” INDEED! It was a massive steel ball. I had no clue how it worked, and no where in 101 helped me understand further. We also went to the open deck observatory, but it was so caged up, we couldn’t really see the sights.

>>At the outdoor observatory...
>>The "baby damper"...does it look like a baby to you?
Finally, we got bored and left. We visited PageOne book store in Taipei 101, and that’s where I found the last book to Hana Youri Dango! I thought my comic book set ended with book 36, but they made an epilogue!
>>Documenting 101
>>Documenting my loot from ShinKong Mitsukoshi!!
That night, we returned to Xi Men Ding for a couple of hours. That’s when we tried the famous Ah Zhong Mian Xian…
>>Definitely the BEFORE!
I was already a little skeptical when I learnt it was made from pigs intestines when I was researching about Taiwai, and I didn’t know how to tell EK. He hates intestines or any internal organ of any animal. However, he seemed so set on trying it, I kept mum. If he liked it, I wouldn’t tell him it’s pigs intestines. If he didn’t like it…which he obviously didn’t, I didn’t dare tell him I knew it was pigs intestines. EK actually thought it was Oyster Mee Sua, so he was chewing on this piece of intestine when he asked what it was since it clearly wasn’t oyster. I told a little white lie, saying I thought it was something related to pigs…not sure which part. The moment I told him about the pigs, he spat it out immediately. I took a couple more mouth fulls before putting my feet down and saying “that’s it for me.” EK, who didn’t want to waste food ate a little more before throwing the rest away. We can only blame ourselves as we bought the large bowl, assuming that since everyone liked it, we would most probably like it too. We deserved our 55NT lesson and a chewy experience on EK’s part.
>>DUH! After!
We walked the main streets of Xi Men Ding, having Mango Ice Shavings and a little bit of shopping. EK found a magazine store and we spent the rest of the night there, till they closed at 10.30pm. We went back to our hotel and crashed after a long day.

Day 10, Monday 25 Aug

We left to catch the metro to Zhongxiao Dunhua中孝敦化. It was another shopping district with Sogo department stores. We knew we were early, but though we’d just visit PageOne bookstore to kill our time before shops opened. Unfortunately, the bookstore was inside the mall itself so we ended up walking the streets like wanderers for an hour or so. 11am finally came and we went shopping again. Sogo was okay, similar to ShinKong Mitsukoshi, but not as fantastic.


>>>On one of EK's fav bubble tea break!
>>>FOOD!!
The highlight of our trip was eating at Ding Tai Feng. The queue was long, but we spent the 45 minutes wait browsing books and magazines at PageOne.

Upon entering PageOne, I had a horrible realization. IT WAS EK’S BIRTHDAY!!!!! GOODNESS, I had no sense of date and time since we started our holiday, so I totally forgot about his birthday. I frantically wished him a “Happy Birthday” and he admitted last night as the clock struck midnight, he had checked to see if I remembered and obviously, I didn’t! Arrrrrrgggghhhhh, I felt so bad!!! I kept apologizing and wishing him.

To make it up to him, I said the Ding Tai Feng lunch was on me, since I’ve already given him a big birthday prezzie a month ago. The menu had a much larger selection than compared to Singapore. We ordered the standard xiao long paus and also the Crab meat xiao long paus. IT WAS YUMMMMMMM!!!!! The skin was so much thinner than Singapore’s. For Singapore, you can hardly taste the crabs in the crab meat xiao long paus, but the ones in Taiwan, oooooohhhhh! You could taste the crabs!!! I was happy coz EK was happy, and we even ordered another basket of it because EK liked it so much. Anything to make up for my horrible horrible memory!

After our late lunch and a little bit more browsing, we decided to return Shihlin Night Market for our last visit. We had to have one more of that famous gigantic chicken cutlet. It was late in the afternoon and the night market was just beginning to start business. It wasn’t as crowded as the first time, so shopping was much more pleasurable. I ended up buying plenty of tank tops and a couple of blouses. I take back whatever I said above about not liking the shopping at Shihlin. It turned out fantastic.

Around evening, we returned to Xi Men Ding and shopped till the shops closed. I thought we had covered most of Xi Men Ding in our shopping trips, but I was gladly mistaken. There were so many side alleys with small shops, small but amazing shops, EK and I got carried away walking side alley after side alley…I was in shopping haven…getting poorer by the minute, but totally worth it. What’s a holiday without shopping?!
>>>A fruitful shopping trip!!
At 10.30pm when most shops were closed, we refused to go back to the hotel. We found another shop that was still open and rushed in. The shop was owned by teens around our age, with cool and funky clothes for men. At first, we were just browsing, but the shop assistants got so carried away with chatting to EK, first about his costly camera, then about his job, then they started showing us more and more clothes. EK liked a shirt, but they didn’t have it in his size, so the owner rang up another friend of his who has another shop in Xi Men Ding. Unfortunately, his friend had already closed shop, but for our sake, he went back to his shop to check for the size. We felt so bad and really didn’t want to trouble them. We ended up trying a different top in another size but EK didn’t really find the cutting that good for him, so we quickly told them to tell the friend not to bother. We felt absolutely terrible for leaving the shop empty handed, so EK chose a belt to buy. It was a nice white belt, simple but not so much EK’s style. Nevertheless, it was the nicest of the lot so we bought it, said our goodbyes and was about to leave when I spotted another cooler belt in the store window. We swapped it then and there and finally left for our hotel…

We didn’t sleep immediately as I was busy admiring my new clothes and shoes and accessories. Then, I decided I would pack my luggage so I wouldn’t have to rush that the next day, and EK followed suit.
>>>AHHHH! We got burgled?!
We ended up sleeping around 2am in the morning!

Day 11, Tuesday 26 Aug

Our last morning in Taiwan was not let off the hook. After breakfast, we visited Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall 中正紀念堂. I thought we’d better do a little bit more sightseeing before leaving Taiwan…and also coz the shops weren’t open yet. We’re pathetic, aren’t we! So we spent a couple of hours at the memorial hall, and it turned out really nice. The exhibition, the gallery, the statue…I’ll have to say it was a good choice to visit it.
>>>The last historical visit...

>>>Mr Chiang Kai-Shek himself

>>>In rememberance of him...



We returned to Xi Men Ding at 10.30am and some shops were beginning to open. We spent out last hour in Xi Men Ding, doing our last minute shopping.

"My name is Lorraine, and I’m a shopaholic."

At 11.30am, we rushed back to our hotel for a quick shower before checking out at noon to catch our bus to the airport.
>>>On the way to the airport...
>>>With all our baggage...

WAIT…that’s not all.

As shopaholics we had to live up to our reputations, so the most obvious thing to do when we got to the Taiwan airport was to…the 4 letter word starting with the letter ‘s’.

We walked from one terminal to another and then to another, killing time. The shops weren’t fantastic, but what can I say…we love to browse. After a couple of purchases, we returned to our boarding gates, where our Taiwan holiday official came to an end.
THE END...

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Departing

Welcome to Taiwan!!

The shopaholic's diaries to Taiwan begins today as she embarks on her journey to Taiwan.

Not a smooth start, her airlines was delayed by 1 hour 45 minutes, and there was a minor crisis when she couldn't find her passport last night (it was still in the luggage she had brought to her trip to Penang several weeks ago).

But apart from that, after a free breakfast from the airlines for the delay, she's ready to go!

See ya!

8 August vs 9 August

After watching the Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremony on 8 August, our Singapore National Day Parade on 9 August seemed so…what’s the word…miniscule/ insignificant/ pathetic/ dull…

But of course, who couldn’t do wonders with a $40million budget, as opposed to a cut off our taxpayers money.

And you’re also talking about selecting cream of the crop performers from 1.3 billion people, as opposed to selecting from 4 million people, with performances by students, social clubs, etc.

The difference in the quality of performance is inevitable. China had 7 years to prepare for this once in 4 years event, while Singapore had less than a year to prepare for this yearly event.

Therefore, as a Singaporean, I am proud of its efforts. Perhaps I’ve outgrown it. I’m not sure if one can outgrow the national day spirit, but these past few years, I’ve taken less interest in it. It wasn’t such a big hoohah as it was years ago when I was a little girl. You won’t find me religiously watching the parade from start to finish, and I’m not as excited about the fireworks. Perhaps it’s the result of seeing the same old thing year after year. There’s the procession of armed forces, the entry of the PAP followed by the president, the shouting of commands, the firing of the cannons/ rifles, then the performances and the songs (which seem similar to the year before’s), the closing fireworks followed by the leaving of the president.

It’s always the same old routine that it seems dull, but on the other hand, it is also about familiarity and tradition. Isn’t everything?

080808 @ 8:08

What’s up with that d8?!

Chinese and their 8s.

China has been anticip8ing for this day since who knows when!

Nurses and Gynaecologists will celebr8 the hospital rush.

This d8 will mark the anniversary of many newly-weds.

It’s another gr8 trick for advertisers, event companies, etc.

And though I told myself not to make a big deal out of it, I fell into its b8.

Amidst the Busyness…

With the launch of one new line of fragrance to organise, and another launch of a new perfume, I’ve been busy planning, organising, and executing. This is my first launches and I finally understand the amount of effort that needs to be put in for a successful launch! THE COORDINATION!

And my boss suddenly decides that we should also manufacture vials instead of buying it from the brand, so for the past few weeks, we’ve been sourcing for quotations, and just today, the production run has started. The coordination of this project is extensive, due to the production chain. It involves the manufacture of the empty glass vials (China), the production of the vial cardholders, the delivery of the glass vials to the filling company (Malaysia) at exactly the same time the delivery of the bulk fragrance is sent to the filling company, as well as the same time the printing of the vial cardholders are sent to the filling company. Then filling & packing occurs, before having to send it back to our warehouse (Singapore) for distribution purposes. I can’t wait to see the final product, but somehow, I doubt it’ll arrive on time. Oh well.

On top of this busy couple of months to come, I have taken an 8 days tour + 3 days extension holiday, effective next Saturday, to Taiwan. This means major planning, not only at work to ensure everything goes smoothly while I’m away, but also major planning for the last 3 days of our trip, to make full use of this extension. It’s going to be my last holiday for the year – whoohoo! I’ve exhausted all my leave till 31st December!

However, during this chaotic time, I still managed to put on a horrible tummy. Yes, a little bulge that no matter how much I suck in, it still remains there. A horrible little tummy, visible to me. So what do I do? I try to exercise. The operative word being “try”. And yes, admist the busyness, this one, I can proudly say, I fail terribly at.

So, I’ve started eating healthy again. It’s back to salads for me. This means having to buy ingredients for my salads, having grumbling tummies in the late afternoon when my tummy has digested all the greens I had consumed. Then I drink a nice glass of milo and put the calories back on. BAH.

And amidst this busyness, I tell myself I must try not to take chocolates (the comfort food that I crave for 24-7), and and and COFFEE!!! COFFEE or CHOCOLATES? I don’t know…it’s a tough choice, but MOCHA has both doesn’t it? YUMMMMMM…

So…? The moral of the story is…amidst the busyness, I’m still alive. And better still, I have the time to write this entry. This goes to show…