10 Days in Taiwan

My apologies for not blogging in close to a month. I went on a 10-day trip to Taiwan, came back totally exhausted and have to plunge myself into my work immediately.

The trip was supposed to comprise a quick 5-day tour round the country (which the locals refer to as 雞豬馬 chicken-pig-horse tour i.e. wake up earlier than chickens, eat worse than pigs and run faster than horses) followed by an extension of four days in Taipei. But those 5 days turned out to be quite eventful because we were being pursued by two typhoons apparently. Taiwan has not witnessed typhoons during the winter season for the last 8.4 years but it chose to welcome us when we arrived there. Every day, while our coach was going round the country, I reported to my Taiwan friends on the phone that I saw only rain, rain and more rain at every destination…oh yeah, and fog too at the Sun Moon Lake. Took us so many hours to get to some of these sights but we saw rain water more than anything else. Anyway, we were quite fortunate that the typhoon was behind and not ahead of us, otherwise the entire journey would have been greatly delayed and ended up even more depressing. The tour guide told us those buses that were behind were affected by fallen trees, rocks or landslides along the mountainous coastal routes. I think he mentioned a guide was reportedly hit by the rocks. Now I understand why the travel agent took down our particulars upon our arrival to provide us with free insurance coverage for the tour. We were that close to danger and we didn’t know.

The 5-day tour was disappointing because of the bad weather on top of the tight schedule, and the bus journey wasn’t exactly comfortable. But thank goodness I had good company with me throughout the ordeal, my six other long-time friends from cdac. To make up for the lack of sightseeing, we partied almost every night in our hotel room with lots of food, drinks, card games and so much laughter. It’s been a long long time since I last laughed until I got stomach cramps. With all that racket we created, I was so surprised no one came knocking on our room to yell at us…hahaha!

Ever since I’ve enjoyed the freedom of travelling alone, I’m pretty picky about my travelling companions. As we all know, no matter how long you may have known a friend, you won’t see his or her true colours until you travel together. When you live and interact together from morning till night every day, everyone will inevitably start to display their peculiar personality or idiosyncrasies. Anyone who show signs of being self-centred, uncompromising and difficult, I’m sorry to say I will never travel in future with that person. When I travel with friends, my principle is to see to everyone else’s needs before mine, especially when I’m the one who organised the trip. If I notice unbecoming or selfish behaviours, I get upset. If I know my friends are not enjoying themselves, I feel lousy. During this trip I actually felt apologetic towards my friends that we had to meet with bad weather during that round-island trip. I know it’s silly but that’s just me.

I must say to travel in a group of seven was definitely a record for me. But I’ve known almost everyone in our group for 10 years or more so I was quite confident no one would be much of a travelling nuisance. I think besides the occasional “blur” qualities of the two aunties and a couple of unintentional hiccups, I have to say that this group of friends was generally easy-going, cooperative, helpful and great company. Top commendation goes out to Mr Lai for being so marvellous in everything from beginning till end, especially for sponsoring the Choya! Hahaha! Clap! Clap! Clap! We also know by now who will have problem getting a roommate in future after this taiwan trip. And yes, someone kicks in her sleep! Scary siah! Muahahaha! :P

Lastly, I want to express my thanks to my Taiwan friends. I’m so fortunate to have made so many great friends in Taiwan. They were super fabulous in hosting not just me but my group of friends as well when we were in Taipei and really made a difference to the entire trip! Tacobee, Clio and Kyo brought us out to eat some great local fanfare the moment we touched down in Taipei. Tacobee deserves an award for her hardwork in researching and recommending the places of interest to visit and the food to try at each location. Great job my friend! 辛苦你了! Thanks too to Clio and her friend for the special arrangement to drive me to Yang Ming Shan and Fa Gu Shan. Couldn’t have made my way up those places by myself. The views were simply therapeutic. Love it! Also, special thanks to those friends who travelled for hours from other parts of Taiwan to meet me in Taipei. Really appreciate it. Sorry for not being able to talk much with each of you but I’ll be back and will definitely try to look you up at your hometown when I return to Taiwan. For sure, no more 雞豬馬 in future for me! ^_^III

ps: I haven’t got time to share about what I saw in taiwan nor touch-up the photos I took on the trip. Will try to do it as soon as I can.