First place we went to for Day 6 was to Sun Moon Lake.. Wasn’t supposed to be in our itinerary but we decided to change the route and drop by the place for a while since we were around the area.

Weather wasn’t very good when we got there, there was a fog. So we didn’t get a very good view from the hill top. Went down the hill to the actual Sun Moon Lake area to grab some snacks and photos. Thankfully the fog cleared a little and we managed to get some nice shots.

There was this unique mochi thingy.. The usual muah chee in SG is usually just coated with peanut, but the mochi over there has fillings as well as a layer of coatings. Very shiok!

Us, shopping for mochi..

Us eating mochi!

Photo of the Sun Moon Lake tablet..

Taking photos on the bridge..

Under the pavilion..

By the lake…

Next was to Wen Wu Temple – 文武寺. Some famous temple where people go and pray for intelligence and ‘power’.

Some ‘ship’ made of ‘gold’. The belief is pushing it will help you bring wealth home..

Some lucky chain to help pray for you and your family. Just donate money to the temple and you can put your name on the ‘chain’. The monks will then pray over those ‘chains’ everyday. And when the wind blows, it is also supposed to bring blessings.

More photos of the place… Some wisdom turtle, just touch the head and the butt to get wisdom.

Back on the roads and another shot of the infamous betel nut lady..

Back to Taipei!!! Street stall with super good food!!

Us outside the train station!

Walking inside the station. Some display of artwork along the walkway.

Inside the train station. Looks very similar to SG’s MRT station.

In the train!

Their marketing campaign for a bank. All PINK piglets!!! So cute!

A statue of Einstein outside a building! Cute!

That’s all for day 6. Not much pictures cos we spent most of the time travelling from Taichung back to Taipei. There was a super heavy jam on the way back from Taichung cos of 清明节. Not sure if the ‘qing’ is written correctly, but basically the Taiwanese were travelling back to Taipei after they finished ‘sweeping’ the tombs at the other parts of Taiwan.

The jam got us stuck for about 4 to 5 hours. By the time we got to Taipei, it was already very late. Didn’t have time to go anywhere else. Wasted 1 day like this..

Anyway, stay tuned for Day 7! Our second last day at Taiwan!

Here’s Day 5 part 2!!

We went to this very nice place called “Lavender Forest”. As the name suggests, its a place where there is a lot of lavender ‘grass’. Y grass? Cos in chinese, lavender is called “薰衣草”.

This place was started by 2 girls, who decided to find some plot of land in the middle of nowhere, up on the mountains.. And started planting loads of lavender and other types of plants, grass, flowers, etc.. And created a nice attraction for both locals and tourists..

Nice business idea and they also made a lot of different products using different types of plants. Nice packaging, nice ambience.. And a lot of money spent at this place for presents..

Enough of talk.. Photos will be able to show more about the place!

Drawings of the 2 girls.. The whole place is filled with these hand drawn pictures, wordings, decoration, etc. Very ‘taiwanese’ style and done very nicely & creatively..

A sample of one of their notice boards..

Directional signs..

Outside one of their small ‘cottages’..

I so love their handwriting…

Another photo at the same place..

Their washing basin.. So cute!!!

Even their dustbin is cute!

They had these little ‘mailboxes’ for people to write notes and drop in..

Random shot at a bench..

More sign boards!

A random spot at the forest…

Another notice board.. To show the map of the place..

Wishing tree..

Another cute basin!!

Some random shot..

A miniature swing.. Looks life size here but its actually just about 50 cm tall.. Hanging from a ‘sign post’..

Benches at the forest..

A photo of their in-house café.. Looks very nice! I wish I can stay there lor!!!

Another view of the café..

Very nice place to take photographs.. So all of us had a shot here.. Nice purple umbrella outside the café..

Us with ice cream! All their ice cream were ‘flower’ / ‘grass’ flavored. So they had rose, lavender, peppermint, etc.. I had the lavender one. Was not too bad!

Another random shot..

Some photos of their products inside their shop..

The dolls of the 2 girls who started the place..I figure they like purple a lot! Haha.. A lot of things at the place were purple!! I so love the place!!!

Photo of the shop from outside..

Very nice place right!? Super love the place!! I think besides all the shopping spots, this was the other place that I super super love. Makes you feel like you’re in some ‘toy’ land.. Couldnt bear to leave the place. If only I can replicate this entire thing in Singapore and stay there! *haha*

End of Day 5!!

Went to a lot of places for day 5.. I don’t think I can finish posting about it in 1 entry.. The entry will end up being super super super long and flooded by pictures….

Shall start with a shot we took on the road.. This is how their go-kart circuit looks like. The luxury of having more land.. U can have all sorts of activities everywhere..

Another shot taken on the road.. nice little lake along the roadside…

Shall start with the second place we went to cos the first place has too many photos, shall save it for a single post later on..

Went to this place called 内弯. Not sure if its the correct ‘writing’ but its around there. Another street famous for tourist stopovers + foooood!!

Food!

And more food!

And loads of fooood…

Cow themed ice cream store.. the ice cream from this store is SUPER EXTREMELY milky.. A bit too strong for my liking, but still not too bad..

Greedy Kiki…

Cute doggy also tempted by all the good food I am guessing…

Ballooooooons!!!!

The “Movie” themed area.. one of the few shots we took..

One store had this tortoise ‘fishing’ activity.. U can bring home whatever you catch! Very fun!!

Catching fish with flat nets? The kids are damn good with it!

On the way out…

Next to a pretty cool place.. Apparently very long ago, Taichung people got rich via mining.. So there were alot of mines around in Taichung. This is one of the mines that was preserved and later converted into a tourist attraction.

There wasn’t much to see there, some of us were pretty disappointed at the place.. But the café there served good food and very unique drinks. Made up for the lousy place.. Entrance of the place… Looked promising..

Near the entrance.. Looks pretty promising toooo..

On some bridge inside the place..

The best shot of the place… Shall not bore you guys with photos of the place. Not worth going in my opinion..

Last stop of the day!! Feng Jia Night Market!! The BIGGEST night market in Taiwan!!!!

1 day is DEFINITELY not enough for this place.. We only had a few hours here and Kiki literally had to drag me out of the place at 1+am… There were so many so many so many things to shop for!!!!! I couldnt bear to leave.. and we only had 1 night…..

Here’s some pictures of the place! This picture has a meaning! The poster in the background has “He Jun Xiang” !!!! My hubby!!!!!!

Us at Macs recharging before we set off for the shopping quest!

More shots of the place… Just to illustrate exactly how BIG it is… and we didnt even cover 1/2 of it. We were walking on a few very long stretches of shopping area and then we came to this part.. And we saw the sign “Feng Jia Ye Shi”.. Then we realised that the last few places we shopped were just ‘outskirts’ of the night market and not the actual night market…

A junction of the shopping area..

Another photo of the place…

Street stalls… Very cheap and nice clothing. My sister bought loads here…

Some cute cakes…

Cute doggy!!

Cute T-shirts!!

My sister forced him to pose with the t-shirt.. Carrying all my shopping… Hahaha…

Them… dying from the walking and waiting and carrying…

Them.. Looking shocked when we told them we will shop a while more..

Us coming out of the shop victoriously with all our shopping loots!

And the final picture! Carrying all our shopping!!

Shall conclude my Day 5 for now! There will be a part 2 to it cos of the nice place I saved for 1 separate post on its own!!!

Yeah! I kept my promise! Day 4 is ready!

Here’s the view from our room in the day!

Not bad right? After breakfast, the resort still had more activities for us. Relatively fun..

We spent some time playing with tops. And there was a HUGE top that wasn’t very easy to play. Very tiring to carry & throw..

Here’s a clearer picture of the pig and its house in the day.

After that we took a walk at the garden in the resort. Very nice place.. We went crazy taking photos there..

Us trying to pretend to meditate and looking stupid..

More nice photos of the place….

Forgot to adjust the contrast for this picture.. A bit dull here.. Sorry ah!

Our official photographer for the trip..

Superb view right?

Next we went to a ‘mini’ tea garden and made some ‘tea eggs’.. Not the usual 茶叶蛋.. they call it something else.. tastes goodie!Some pics of the place!

Us looking stupid in the bandana and apron.. And taking a tour around the mini tea garden.. Its a miniature to show tourists how tea is grown, the types of tea leaves, etc. The actual tea gardens are in the mountains where the weather is better for tea growing..

Making the eggs… Basically we use some brown sugar, tea leaves to ‘steam’ the eggs till they turn brown..

Me making the eggs!!! Ok.. I know I look crappy in the apron and bandana.. *haha*

Back on the roads….

One of the few shots of a betel nut house with the infamous betel nut lady…

Next to 深坑老街.. Its an old street thats famous for smelly tofu! My first time eating smelly tofu and its not too bad..

The mascot for the famous smelly tofu!

Smelly tofu!!

Loads of other good food along the street.. They even have smelly tofu flavoured ice cream.. My friends bought it but I didnt dare try it.. Sounded a bit gross..

Back to the roads! This ‘smoke pipe’ thingy was painted with a cute picture. No idea why it was done.. But quite a few ‘pipes’ in Taiwan were painted that way..

Some huge temple that looked pretty magnificent..

Close up picture of it..

Went for hot springs somewhere near Taipei.. Was the cheaper type just for experience. Was quite an experience seriously. We went for the ‘public’ bath. Was pretty funny with all the women bathing there. Some of them were regular customers who were there daily..

They had 3 different baths. 1 was the normal hot one, 1 was hotter, and 1 was a cold bath. Apparently you have to go inside the hot one, soak awhile, then go inside the cold one for a short while and back to the hot one. To & fro for 2 to 3 times. The regular folks at the bath told us not to try the super hot one unless we were very ‘seasoned’ bathers. And not recommended to do the hot-cold method also for the same reason. But we tried it once anyway, just for the fun of it. Felt super dizzy after that.. Overall not a bad experience..

No pictures of the bath for obvious reasons…

View from the hot springs place..

Next to Yong He night market. Its not one of the ‘big name’ markets which tourists usually go. According to our guide who brought us there, she said only locals know of this market and they don’t usually do business with tourists cos its meant for locals.

Things there are a lot cheaper than the other famous night markets in Taiwan.. We had to pretend we were locals. For some of the shops who discovered we were tourists, they kept asking how we found the place, etc..

Overall a very good place to shop!! Here’s a picture of the first food stall we tried. Baked potato with various choices for toppings. We went for the “All-In”.. There was cheese, bacon, corn, vegetables, and some other stuff that I cant remember.

More food!!

And our shopping starts!!

Thats all for Day 4! Stay tuned for more!!

Finally! I decided to get down to editing photos for Day 3!

Getting abit lazy so I just lumped all the photos for 1 place together.. Maybe I won’t even bother to put them together for Day 4 onwards. Haha..

Anyway photos for Day 3 quite nice and ALOT. We went to a lot of nice places and took SUPER alot of photos. The first place we went to on the 3rd day is this place called “Qi Xin Tan” – 七星潭. Very nice place! But super duper cold, the winds were strong, waves were high. Sea was blue. Everything was GREAT!

The place is well known for its beach, cos its not made up of sand but stones. Different coloured stones. And the small ‘town’ basically makes its money from the more ‘precious’ stones that they find and craft. The place that the guide brought us has no more of the more ‘precious’ stones. And the places with the more expensive stones is out of bounds to tourists. They don’t want people to go in and steal the town’s ‘treasure’.

Loads of crazy and silly shots here cos the weather was so good and the view is REALLY great! Someone complained I put too many ‘portrait’ photos in my post, so I put more of scenery photos this time. *heh*

After this, the next place we went to was Taroko Gorge. That place is SUPERB! The view is also damn nice. And it makes you wonder how nature created all these. Its amazing when you see how all the huge rocks, the mountains, the cliffs, the rivers, small fountains, etc all form a beautiful picture from any angle.

We couldnt bear to leave the place and we exceeded our stay and delayed our plans by quite a bit here. After the walk to the top and back, we spent some time at this small coffee place there. Very shiok to have a nice warm cup of coffee in the nice weather with the scenery..

Next place we went was the Stone Factory. Thats where they process all the precious stones that they find in the 2 places above. I think the boss of the place should be DAMN rich from all the money they made from the tourists. I heard from Mum that they went to the exact same shop when they went Taiwan about 20+ years ago for their honeymoon.

Nothing much here, but just showing the different stone carvings. All the carvings were carved from stones found in Taroko & Qi Xing Tan. Very amazing too!

After this, we had a SUPER long drive to this resort. Cant remember if it was at Hualien or Yilan. A not too bad place. The beds were super comfy. And the rooms were up on a hill. Weather was slightly colder than aircon at 16 degrees. When we woke up in the morning, the view was pretty good. Perched on the hilltop, we could look down and see the farms, etc.

The people who worked there were very nice and hospitable. They had loads of activities for us to do. Had some challenges to keep us occupied as well. We had some ‘tang yuan’ making competition.. Then we lit a ‘kong ming teng’ – 孔明灯. Its some chinese belief where you write your wishes on this lantern and light it up. The higher it flies, the more possibility of it coming true. And they said if you write wishes which won’t come true or greedy wishes, it will not light up or will drop down very faster after it goes up. Was quite fun. My first 孔明灯 ever!

There was this cute ‘pet’ the resort kept which you will see in one of the photos. He’s called “Ah Fei” – 阿肥. Should read the chinese words on his house. Very funny.. Some poem which says he isn’t food and belongs to the people at the resort, etc..

There are a few photos which look like its snowing. It isnt. The resort has this ‘bubble’ generating machine which shoots LOADS of bubbles to create that effect. Had some fun taking photos there. Overall not a bad place to stay for the night. In my Day 4, there will be some photos of a garden which is just down the slope of where the resort is. Very nice place! I miss Taiwan….

Shall end the post with some random scenery photos which we took along the way. The guide was pretty nice, brought us along some nicer routes so we could take photos along the way. Some of them were taken by the roadside of some mountain route.. Enjoy!

Stay tuned for Taiwan Day 4! You shouldnt have to wait too long cos I’ve decided to stop gaming for some time and pick my life back!

Another weekend burning due to my game tournament!!!!

Gonna spend the next 2 days at Iluma @ Bugis for my game tournament and I am supposed to be the emcee for the 2 days!!! OMG!!!

We decided to save $800 for an emcee cos I was niao and I ended up being arrowed to do it.. DAMN IT!

Just finished doing some photoshop stuff for my score board tomorrow. Luckily I went down to the venue today! The Events team was telling us that there will be a projector to show the scores for the tournament, and apparently, we prepared it in MS ppt, the usual format for score boards. And when I headed down to check out the place today, turns out that they only accept .jpg!!!!! Had to covert all the PPT slides into .jpg. And its SUPER dumb. After every round, we will have to use photoshop to ‘add’ in the names, then save as .jpg and then upload to the system to project. Its going to be SUPER tedious.

Blah. And imagine I didnt go down today? We would have ended up with no score board. How great. Zzz..

Anyway, shan’t complain so much. I don’t want to imagine the day when some AS staff stumbles upon this great site and then gossip spreads again. Let me tell you. The Internet is a SUPER scary place. Do no underestimate it. My team was just telling me about 1 of the staff in my team who has been constantly taking leave & MCs, etc. Saying that she has been blogging about skipping work, etc. So… I was just being 38, and decided to google her in-game nick.. And turns out… I found her personal Twitter account and I found her blog. So… seriously… if someone were to google something about me, I am sure, VERY SURE… That they will find me..

So ok. Enough about complaining bout a place that I am still in. Now you guys know why I am so secretive about my work place, mentioning names, etc on my blog huh!

Alright. heading to bed. 2 LONG days ahead…

Oh, had a great dinner & coffee session with the Guys. A group of friends whom I have not seen for a long time. At least not together. And spent the entire night reminiscing the good old times. Shall share some of those another time. For now, its sleep time!

Additional:
Decided to close down my old blogs. As I mentioned, the Internet is a scary place. Don’t want people stumbling on my secrets. And from now on, there will be no mention of my other nicks here. It is just going to be “Berrified”. Thanks all! Muack!