ihavepmsagain

I guess my shopping fever has not faded even when I’m in Singapore. Finally gotten myself a new wallet!! I’ve been using the last wallet for more than 4 years and thought it’s time to get a new wallet as the old one is getting a little dirty and small for all my "rubbish" hee hee….

Saw this wallet in the Aldo shop at Wisma and it didn’t cost that much and I really like the colour of this wallet so bought it anyway.

Drop by "Kinokuniya" to buy the "The Soong Dynasty" book to have a better knowledge of Dr Sun Yat-Sun, Chiang Kai-Shiek and the Soong sisters.

When I reached home with my new book in hand, I realized that I have yet to finish reading my last novel "Vanishing Acts", I’m still left with a couple of chapters more. I guess I better buck up and finish reading this novel before I can start off with my new novel!!!

Today is my last day in Taipei and I know I’m going to miss this place so much. Not only did we get a great hotel to stay in, the food is fantastic, the shopping is good, the people here are friendly, all places are easily accessible, the weather is good and did I miss out anything?

I am sure that I would visit this place again!!

To sum up my trip, take a look at all the photos I took during the trip:

http://s266.photobucket.com/albums/ii269/ihavepmsagain/Taipei%20Trip%202008/?albumview=link

Today is the second last day in Taipei and I was told by the man’s boss (who used to work in Taipei for 4 years) that there is this hair salon called "A-Square" that I should visit and look for the hair designer "Kelven". Called the hair salon to make an appointment to cut and colour my hair.

We took the MRT to Zhong Xiao Dun Lun for lunch as the hair salon is located just within walking distance from the MRT station. After lunch I proceeded to the hair salon, it’s located within all these small shops and small streets, it took us quite a while to finally find it. Even though the area is filled with old shops but the interior of this salon is pretty tastefully decorated. Kelven was very unhappy with my hair when I first walked in. He thought that my hairstyle is too boring and I honestly can’t blame him cos Taiwan is a very place where the girls put a lot of focus on their hairstyle.

Didn’t have any particular hairstyle in mind so I just told him to do whatever he thinks work best for me. But I did tell him that I would like to keep the length. In the end, he coloured my hair to this really dark red colour and cut my hair to many layers. It’s a lot like the "Rock Chick" hairdo I had at the end of 2006 but a lot more layers. I loved what he did but at this stage you probably can’t see much of the hair colour change because it’s suppose to be a little more lasting and the colour will slowly changed to red. I don’t know since when but I’m a big fan of red hair and whenever I colour my hair I’ll only colour it red. It has been a long time since I lasted coloured my hair because of the damage did to my hair the last time I coloured it. The last time, the colour didn’t last long, after about 2 weeks it became brown colour and I hate it. On top of that, the previous time whenever I washed my hair, the red colour kept staining my clothes. This time round, the last seems more lasting and after about 3 wash, the colour stopped fading and I didn’t face the problem of staining my clothes at all.

The whole process took about 3 hours plus and I was almost late for my dinner appointment with my Standard Chartered friends. Got to know them during my stay in Credit Suisse because they are our Taiwan Custodian Bank. They are really nice people and are extremely friendly!! Before meeting them, I had my doubts if I should meet them cos I’ve never seen them and what should I say to them when I meet them? However, after meeting them, I’m so glad that I did cos not only did made more friends, I also had a great time having out with them.

Did I mention that we when to the "Modern Toilet" restaurant?? Guess I didn’t and I shan’t say more but let you decide how’s the restaurant with the photos below. The only think I would say is that the food is not that fantastic but the place is really cool.

After dinner, we walked around Ximending again before heading back to the hotel. Started packing my luggage, as much as I loved packing luggage (ok it sounds crazy but I’ve always enjoy packing luggage) and took a quick a snap shot of the loot in this trip.

I have to admit, I’m getting a little lazy blogging about this Taipei trip. To summarize, went to the "National Palace Museum". Well I was hoping for more but it was a little boring.

Finally met Chelsea and her friends who also having their vacation in Taipei. Went to watch the recording of Jacky Wu’s "Guess Guess Show" recording. It’s quite an experience, we saw how the whole show was recorded and we also managed to see some of the celebrities!! We were sitted on the first row in the audience seat and you might just see us on TV if you are lucky. Hahaha

As usual, started off my day late because I woke up late. Seriously what is new and I’m not going to blabber about that again as even I’m sick of repeating my flaws. Sigh….

Ok…the day started by taking the MRT to Taipei Main Station as we had to take a train to Zhongli as we are going to "Xiao Ren Guo" today!!! We bought our tickets at the Taipei Main Train Station towards Zhongli and also gotten 2 lunch boxes from the station’s shop to fill our empty stomach.

Little did we know that we had to take a cab from Zhongli train station to Xiao Ren Guo which costed us TWD645 = SGD32.25 and the worst part was that it was an almost 1 hour drive from the station!!! The cabby was a nice chap though, he warned us that it’s gonna be hard for us to take any public transport from Xiao Ren Guo and asked if we needed transportation again after we visitation and he told us from Xiao Ren Guo to our next destination (Jaohe Night Market) is gonna cost us TWD1,900 = SGD95.00!!! I guessed we had no choice but to take up the offer in order to save us some night for the rest of the night.

Xiao Ren Guo is a pretty run down place because it was setup around 10 years ago. There isn’t really many people there but we can’t be bothered about it because it meant that we had better view of everything there. I was very facsinated with this place when I was very young and I have always wanted to visit this place.

After leaving Xiao Ren Guo, the journey back to "Raohe Night Market" was another 1 hour or so ride and both of us fell asleep on the cab. To be frank, I like this night market a lot more that "Shilin Night Market" because it’s crowded but not so crowded and the stuffs there are less expensive and we loved the food there!! The "Hu Jiao Bin" is really really delicious!!!

As usual, ate a lot of snacks as dinner before taking the MRT back….hee hee….the jeans are getting a little tight.   

Woke up late again but surprisingly the man managed to drag himself out of bed for the morning breakfast. Had a really bad cough last night and was grasping for air. I thought that I might die, it was a really bad scare. Have been having this cough back in Singapore but I thought that I’ve already fully recovered but obviously I have not. Luckily I brought along the medication to Taipei and guess I better start taking the pills.

Gotten out of bed around 11.30a.m., I guess bad habits die hard. The man was surfing the TV programs while I was getting ready and he got hooked to a Sammi Cheng’s Movie "Love for all seasons". We ended up watching this movie in the hotel room till about 2.45p.m. before leaving the hotel. You probably think that we are wasting our time and money by watching TV but then again, we are the sort who feel that a vacation is meant to be relaxing and not rushing from one destination to the next.

After the movie, we took the MRT to Dan Shui Station to explore the area. We didn’t have any proper lunch because we were snacking along our trip exploration. We had Japanese rice ball, donuts, fried chicken cutlet, Tian Bu La, Egg balls, Tou Hua, Green Tea with Strawberry ice-cream and fish balls. We visited the Fisherman’s Wharf, Bali and Dan Shui Old Street.

When we first alighted at the Dan Shui MRT station, we were not impressed with what we see. The area is mainly made up of old buildings and doesn’t appeal to me at all. However, when the night falls, it’s an amazing eating Paradise and shopping area. There are just so many stalls with so much snacks to offer and we tried our best to taste as much variety of food as we could.

There isn’t much to see at the Fisherman’s Wharf if there isn’t any concert and the Lover’s Bridge is just a very long and simple bridge. I think the main reason why this place is included as a tourist attraction is because of the concerts held and the peaceful atmosphere it provided when there isn’t any concert.

Bali is a pretty deserted place because one has to take a boat in order to reach this island. And it’s also because of this inaccessibility that makes it special. I like the simple resort like lifestyle people there had. They are still using the very old fashioned game machines and most people cycle around the area to reach from one destination to the next. It’s very much like our Marina South Park but a lot less commercialized.

The night was still young when we left Dan Shui, so we decided to go to "Shilin Night Market". Shilin night is considered one of the largest and most famous night market in Taipei City. There were a lot of people there when we reached and it’s really almost impossible to maneuver yourself in the market. It had a lot of shops but because there are so many people, you can hardly shop. You practically had to push the person in front of you in order to advance in the market. There are also a lot of food stalls which we help Ah Zhong Mian Xian, Cong Zhua Bin, Crab soup and I can’t remember what else we had…haha….Bought a few stuffs there before taking a cab back to the hotel as it was already past midnight and the MRT service for the day has ended.