I've decided to blog about my Taiwan trip in English.

Sie Yen and I arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan Airport at around 7pm on the last day of 2009. Unsure if Jetstar offered meals on plane, we boarded the plane without having our lunch and ended up buying Hokkien Mee on the flight. A small box of pre-prepared noodle costs SGD8! So people, if you did not know, please do have your fill before departing. When we arrived in Taiwan, we were hungry again, and since our friends were stuck in a traffic jam (they had lessons that day), we went to find food again! Well, there really isn't much at the Terminal 1 arrival hall, but at least we did find food.

Thank goodness there was a public phone in the airport which I can use to call back to Singapore using coins. I could not call back using my own phone because I did not manage to apply for roaming in time.

After awhile, Jessie and 綠茶 reached the airport. It was much of a surprise to meet Jessie since we have met her once in Singapore. 綠茶 turned out to be quite different from how I thought she would be, because her Facebook picture was of quite a different style. She's super cool! She's actually a qualified tour guide and really talented in music, and I really admire her attitude.

We headed for 綠茶's home in Taipei via 客運, which is something like a shuttle bus. Our adventure in Taiwan started then! Or rather, it's the adventure of this pair of female tourists from Korea. They just arrived in Taipei for a 3-day trip, without planning for any accommodation. It was fun talking to them on the bus although their English was beyond our comprehension. We took photos too, and I realized how 愛美 Koreans are. They got off the bus with us to take 捷運, which is the equivalent of our MRT, to 劍潭 where 綠茶's place is, and 綠茶 brought them to find a hotel. We only managed to confirm their accommodation for the night and they said they will settle the following nights themselves. So, we left them on their own, feeling not very assured of their well-being. We moved on to 綠茶's place to place our luggage.

We rested for awhile in 綠茶's room while waiting for the rest, i.e. Vivi and 凱樂. It was more of a surprise to see them as Sie Yen and I have never met them. Vivi is a petite, Japanese-looking girl (might be because she likes Ayumi) with long blond hair and really long fake eyelashes. Sie Yen and I could not resist staring at her lashes. 凱樂 is a rather fashionably-dressed guy with an iPhone. Hahah special mention of the iPhone because it's interesting to meet fellow Apple users. He's really nice to talk to too!

Soon after that, we left for countdown, with a few more layers of clothes. I left Singapore wearing a long shirt with my Huang Cheng jacket, and it was damn freaking cold when we got to Taipei. Our adventure (now it's really our adventure) in Taipei starts then. If you thought Boon Lay MRT is crowded during peak hours, you've got to experience Taipei's 捷運 during new year's eve. There is so many people you have to literally move with the flow. I took videos! But you've got to wait for me to find a way to upload them because my Mac is not working well with my Vado. Anyway, the word "crowded" has a new definition.

As the countdown venue at Taipei 101 was already full of people, the 捷運 stopped at 國父紀念館 instead of 市政府 station, and we made our way in the direction of Taipei 101 in search for a good view for viewing and filming. This was the start of my OMG experience in Taiwan. First, we climbed a wall into a primary school, and many people were already gathered there in a basketball court. 爬牆耶！我在新加坡都沒爬過牆！好在有好多人扶我下牆。In hope that there will be a better view closer to Taipei 101, we continued moving forward, and climbed another wall! What awaits us was an even bigger crowd! We tried to move ahead but it was really too crowded and we got split into two groups. Sie Yen was ahead with 綠茶 and Vivi, while Jessie, 凱樂 and I stayed somewhere further behind.

The view was quite good actually. Just being right there, seeing Taipei 101 in front of your eyes, hearing the fireworks pop, smelling the burnt odour, beat the feeling of staring at the TV screen. I love fireworks! The burst of light and colours is totally spectacular. I took videos of the fireworks (videos, because the firework display paused in between and I got scammed). I did something really dumb, you will see when I manage to upload them.

After the fireworks, the crowd dispersed really quickly and we hung out for awhile before looking for the others. When most of the crowd has left, we got a much better view and started taking more photos. Then we started calling the rest. A few days later, I heard that the phone network was jammed during the countdown period. That's why we couldn't contact the rest for awhile.

It turned out that they moved back to the primary school basketball court, and so we had to climb another wall. But as there were only two people left with me and poor Jessie is so petite, I was stuck on the wall, not daring to jump down, until we found a cone for me to step down. So sorry I wasted so much time on the wall, but let's just leave the long story short like this.

Finally, we re-united and made our way back to 綠茶's home. Even though the crowd was still out there, the traffic control was really good at the 捷運站 and I'm really impressed. Orh, so tired by then I cannot really remember much from the trip back, except that we skipped a few trains because a few did not stop and those which did were totally packed!

We had steamboat when we got back to 綠茶's room, after Sie Yen and I bathed. Omg! It's so hard to get the water to be of the right temperature! Anyway, this is my first time eating steamboat after midnight, and it was an interesting experience. The 電爐 was provided by 凱樂, I think. Taiwanese steamboat is quite different from what I usually have at home. They used this 包裝姜母鴨湯底 and voila! we had our soup base ready in a jiffy. The ingredients we used are quite different also. Taiwanese love 餃子、丸子 and the new craze－muah chee 燒! And of course, there's meat and a huge cabbage which we can finish and it's still resting under 綠茶's keyboard! We were all really hungry and we ate and chatted all the way until early morning. Sound like we ate for very long? Remember what time we got back k! And nope, we did not sleep!

First day in Taiwan: HIGH!

未完。待續。

Omg, that was barely the first 12h of our trip!

。尋找中@19:12