Taiwan Expedition Day 4 - Guest-Blogged By 浪迹天涯小狗

别东张西望了. 依然是我这只 Bull-Terrier 来 recap 刚结束的台湾之旅.

主人正在床上benkyoo shimasu-ing, 我就乘机来捣乱喽!!

25th April 2006

4th day in Taiwan already. So fast!

JanFuShan is in the agenda today. Mistress doesnt have much of an interest in amusement parks for ur info. Too cool already lahh!!

Mistress:"Is not cool okie. Is jus not interested!"

Ok ok, watever the mistress says.

We packed our luggage, checked out of 嘉义皇爵大饭店 and pulled the luggages down the streets to the railway station, intending to take the train to 斗六 and change bus there.

Somehow or another, got one obasan approached us and started to persuade/hard sell us to take her cab, claiming its cheaper than the train and faster oso (it is lahh..). Jus that the mistress doesnt like people who hardsell so she din agree at once.

Anyway, we reached JanFuShan much earlier than we would have did if we took the rails. Entrance fee costs NT899 EACH. Dats SGD$45. Cab costs us NT1000 to and fro. Divide it by 2 means NT500 (SGD$25) each.

Dats a total of SGD$70 for an afternoon of amusement park experience. (Mistress:"Dats partly y i'm not interested in theme parks! Y do ppl enjoy paying money to scare the wits outta themselves?")


JanFuShan ticketing counters


耐斯影城. Ok Ok, we noe its NICE. Dun have to literally translate to Mandarin rite.


A travellator conceptualized system which transport customers up and down the mountain to the rides.

Mistress and RR backside itchy go n play the "Superman Ride". (Mistress:"Is RR wanna play one!") Ends up RR feeling giddy and mistress developing a rash-like patch on both sides of her shoulders due to the jacket she was wearing and knocking against the seat. The non-itchy, non-painful rash only went off after 2 days.

Mistress took me up a few rides with me hanging all the while harnessed on her jeans.


A slow train ride to relax the agitated heart for a moment.


Got Ferris Wheel of cos mus take a ride on it!


Pretty Huge Ferris Wheel


The mistress simply adores the steel structures of Ferris Wheels. Complicated yet organised. Sophisticated yet neat.


Scenery from the Ferris Wheel


Looking down...


We went to the arcade for a while and found this KTV room thing. We also played the 投篮机 which can be found in virtually any corner everywhere in TW. The mistress disgraced JSS and SP bball team by losing 2 times straight to a track-and-field athlete. (Mistress:"Real basketball doesnt have a ceiling so low to constraint the shooting path lehh!!") Ya la Ya la. Excuses.. (Mistress:"WHAT?!??!!") Nothing Nothing..

Its been a while since mistress and RR patronised arcades, most memorable of cos being the times when they slack during mugging days. Gunbound had always been a favorite, not forgetting Capcom fights. Mistress is still better at keyboard games. Haha!

We qued for a train ride which seems to be meant more for the kids, judging by the hordes of primary school kids out on excursion in the que. Even thou its a miniature roller coaster, whole trip takes 1min 30sec only, the jerking is no joke.


Taken on the miniature roller coaster

We also tried 2 more bigger roller coasters which goes round in spirals. Pretty cool rides those 2.


The 一飞冲天 ride (which is the 2 tall pillar like structure joined at the top). It is by far the best ride acknowledged by the mistress. It shoots u up dunno how many storeys in a couple of seconds and immediately drop the seat, literally floating u in mid-air. Mistress was very afraid of slipping outta seat.



Brings u to the edge, slowly dropping the angle of the carriage. Waits..


And plunges u more than 7 storeys down at super fast speed.


The hole of G5

We left JanFuShan at 2+, surprisingly early bcos there aint much interesting rides anymore.


Bus tickets back to Taipei


The mistress puts on her thinking cap again. What purpose is the emergency button in the toilet mainly for? Ran out of toilet papers? (BTW they DUN provide rolls of toilet papers in public toilets) Slip and fell into the toiletbowl? Faint bcos too pungent? (too late for the button) Squat too long cannot get up??

The mystery is still not solved to date.

While we were dragging our luggage out of the MRT and proceeded to hit the street to find our hotel, an obasan approached us and spoke to us in Japanese! OMG! Now we're Japanese. Which country's citizen will we be mistaken for next? The mistress tried to converse with her limited edition japanese but failed to do it smoothly.


华西街夜市 (Snake Alley) Really a lot of shops selling snake soup and exotic stuff in there.


米糕粥


Mixed 粥 (If I remember correctly)

Lemme clarify 1st. The above 2 bowls of 粥, are not 粥 as in the 潮州粥 kinda 粥. Its a kinda dessert thing which is terribly sweet and there's NO 米糕 in my bowl!! We got faked by the signboard. 粥 is 粥 to us but is not 粥 to them.

There aint much activity in 华西街, probably bcos its a weekday and oso partly due to the drizzle. Mistress bought a palm-sized crystal ball for NT300, dats SGD$15 only.

We past by 西昌街 also, but it seems more quieter than 华西街.

We retired to bed quite early, mainly due to the early morning adrenline rush and afternoon 奔波.

Day 5 soon. 4 more reports to go!

Rants of a qualified citizen who doesnt get to vote

I dun get to vote this time round. Again.

The last time round, I was still underaged.

Now, uncontested.

It was abt 5 yrs back when the rallying lorries with candidates gathering support thru loudspeaker systems doing the rounds at 9am in the morning.

5 yrs back. 2001. When mum and dad receive the voting forms and obediently marked a cross next to the reigning party. It was won 80-20. N I hated the lorries for waking me up early in the morning.

As I looked thru the past parliamentary election results, the west area seems to be a popular place for contests, apart from of cos, the hotspots like Punggol and Sengkang.

Right now, its under Hong Kah GRC, after running a check thru SouthWest CDC. Mayor Amy Khor was my MP (and still is), sad to say, I've nvr seen her in person b4. Even her name doesnt strike a chord in my tiny brain. The only name I recognise was Mr Yeo Cheow Tong, for being the Minister for Transport and appearing on TV ever so often to give a few comments.

If I remembered correctly, we used to be under Jurong GRC and West Coast GRC. All of which used to be popular contest spots. This time round, I have to check and double check to see if I'm under Hong Kah or West Coast, but anyway, half of Singapore is uncontested.



Cant they jus standardise the constituencies instead of splitting wards as and when they deem advantageous fit?

N the nomination fee. $13k? No wonder most of the candidates hail from the higher white collar workers, but understanding that it also serves as a form of filtering out the under-qualified, its quite a reasonable fee (althou it still seems like throwing money down the drain by going against The Higher Order).

Newspaper and news reports are overloaded with reports on the various rallies, which tend to be a wee bit biased. Every night, there will be at least one report on the proposals that the candidates present to the crowd. We dun get to see the magnitude of the crowd other than from independent sources.

As for the candidates, some of them simply do not have the flair for public speaking. Yes, u've mentioned ur point. But the crowd cannot align themselves to ur points bcos they dun find u believable/trustful/interesting/impressive enuff. The big ones expect a clap after EVERY sentence they made (mus be a lot of mosquitoes ard), the no-talents tend to rattle on their agendas with NO expressions on their face, no speech impact, no stage presence at all. The crowd will jus forget ur proposal after they disperse from the rallies.

Being a candidate is like being a salesman. U need the passion to start with. Then u start ur selling, peppering impressive quotes here n there, best is if its able to be acknowledge by the target audience(e.g. speak in dialect). Of cos, ur product mus be strong in its features. Lastly, u need reliability and credibility to encourage repeat purchase (surely u need support in future rite).

Election day is drawing closer, but it is not jus the candidates who r working like bees. Supporters are busy distributing flyers and helping in the campaigning. Bank tellers r occupied since 30th April as hordes of customers stream past their doors enquiring abt the status of the Progre$$ package or withdrawing the $$ out. Sales assistants are busy as people r temporarily more willing to spend $$.

End of the day, the Progre$$ package will be re-injected back into the economy. Quarterly finances will mark an increase in the economy growth (from the additional sales), forecasts will predict more job openings, everyone believed that the economy is going for the better thru excellent guidance. U happy, me happy, everyone happy.

The opposition on the other hand, do not have the luxury to "share" any budget surpluses. Nor r they able to introduce candidates by the truckloads. Nor is the media very willing to carry their reports. They seem to be on the losing end from the start, with no past results to show. They can only hope to convince the voters what they plan to do and that voters buy their proposals.

Thus the few oppositions who won seats have to be truly committed and represent the dropped candidates for long-term trust investments. If the opposition winner carried out his proposal and improved the standard of living of his ward, satisfying the resident's requests, people will generally have better reflection on the opposition, and not stereotyping all of them as talk big no action.

Now that Hong Kah is a walkover, uncontested ward, watching the rallies on TV seems like watching the riots happening in other countries. There's totally no sense of excitement. MPs dun do walkabouts anymore and resides back into the backseat doing work for us.

Pls come and contest Hong Kah the next time round. I propose a manifesto point for u:"Increase the security of the area and the well-being of the citizens", since this place is becoming more and more like a foreigner land. Late-returning students after mugging in school at wee hours and drunk strangers lurking at void decks simply dun go well, esp with the amt of institutions in the west area. And also, dun chance to build a block of flats on every piece of available space when eventually there's no demand for it n it became a darkened pigeon hole. Its simply a crime haven awaiting wrong-doers to venture in.

I wanna vote... I wanna be in the action..

Taiwan Expedition Day 3 - Guest-Blogged By 浪迹天涯小狗

又是我!

24th April 2006

3rd day in Taiwan. We dragged our asses outta bed at 3.30am to prepare for our sunrise viewing trip. We wrapped ourselves in multiple layers of jackets, utilised our umbrellas, and wandered ard looking for the pick-up point. Once again the guide obasan found us without much difficulties, packed us into the warm minivan and drove a few rounds looking for other lost sheep. The temperature was less than 7 degrees as measured by the guide and any attempts to wind down the window would bring the cold air blowing into the van, turning it into a mini igloo.

As the sky slowly brightened, we're still not at the peak of the mountain. Anxiety shrouded the mistress as the guide was still navigating the peaks and showing us some historical spots along the way, all the while tokking to the windscreen which muffled most of the voice.

We saw no orange, red and purple combined skies as the sky changed from black to light blue in a matter of minutes. No eggyolk-shaped sun hanging in the skies.


Foggy morning


Mountains yet again

We descended from the peak back to the hotel area for our breakfast at 7am, even thou it seems like we've been gone for half the day.


Very Teochew-styled breakfast. Cant forget the lovely taste of the cabbage. It jus complements the plain porridge so well. And.. NO GARLIC!! Dats perfect for the mistress! Mwahahahaha!


高山青 Hotel.


The marketplace.


The sun finally made its appearance from the bright but cloudy sky.


Walked this torturous path which took us an hr+ after breakfast. Its full of stairs and trees and of course fresh morning air.


神木??


Rock Structures


Mountains somemore


We're at cloud's level!


Looks like a howl


姐潭


The whole place is so mistified.


Dreamland~


The air is very very fresh there. Filled with 芬多精 that soothes the nerves.


Being covered by the towering trees.


Somehow, all the toilets there are called 化妆室. U mean guys makeup too?


One of the temples on the mountain


A little waterfall


Small stream


Thats how high we were. 2138m above sea level


Zoomed in at the village on the opposite mountain.

We got a short trip back to the hotel on motorbike by the guide obasan who was on her newspaper rounds. 3 ladies on a small scooter (+ me of cos!). Kinda cool other than the bumpy back seat which the mistress was complaining abt and the exhaust which stained her jeans. We spent too much time climbing the stairs n were late for the journey down the mountain. Made the other tourists wait for us in the minivan for a few minutes while we packed our luggage and checked out.


Some stupid locked up Taiwan bear which we stopped our journey for. There's a lot of tea plantation ard there.


Its very foggy along this stretch of road.


奋起湖

After an hr's van journey, we stopped here for the next hr and dispersed for our lunch and shopping. The rain persists to irritate us. We bought 6 boxes of biscuits here, for a total of NT500. 5 boxes 1 free. Its kinda heavy for BISCUITS only. Its like.. 5 kg? Made the mistresses' arms ache in pain.


An antique train on display at 奋起湖


Its still misty even after the rain.


The defunct railway tracks.


Express 铁路便当!


花生冰?? I forgot the name already but its very nice! And long-lasting! I placed it aside while eating the 铁路便当 that came at an inappropriate time n it still din melt after I finished the bento.


铁路便当 with 竹笋汤. NT200 for 2 bentos and 1 large bowl of soup. The black pepper ribs is yummy! Not forgetting the tender bamboo shoots. Even the rice is nice. *drools*


Another temple while we're on our way back to 嘉义.


地久桥. We din see any 天长 thou.

After arriving at 嘉义, we psychoed the driver to bring us straight to the hotel. Hee Hee. Checked into 嘉义皇爵大饭店, 3rd floor, 2321. Its like the grandest hotel we've stayed at thru'out the 8 days trip. For a 3 star hotel, it has a huge lobby and good service.


The hotel room of 嘉义皇爵大饭店.

Almost immediately, we wandered out of the hotel room and explored the area. Walked 中山路 and 文化路. Chanced upon a few bookshops and of cos, the mistress started acquiring her collection. Mangas are already cheap there(NT85), and with 10% discount(NT77), its costing only SGD$3.50 per book!


Funny names for a place. 蒜头!?!?!


UFO catcher filled with birdies~~


Baked potato with cheese. Nice but sinful.


BBQ corn. Gets 腻 after a while.


蛤仔面线. Its like the only bowl of orrh arh mee suah we had in Taiwan.


The milk there packed in a powder container. Its not as thick as Singapore imported milk.

We bought 豪大大鸡排 also, but it wasnt captured on camera. The 鸡排s there comes with bones! Very difficult to struggle with the bones and the meat. And the seasoning is TOO SPICY!!

After the numerous times we walked up and down the streets, accumulated to the countless flights of stairs ascended in the morning, the mistress was complaining abt her sore legs in the evening. Useless fella. Some basketball rep she is!

OH no Oh No! The mistress is coming with a cane! HELP!!

Day 4 in a while's time!