Fly Back from the Heart of Asia

Hello, I'm back!

Taiwan is amazingly awesome, I wish the time will just freeze at that point of time because I seriously do not want to come back :’( It is a total of 9D8N trip to Taiwan and our itinerary consists of Taichung and Taipei only. Some people might ask “huh, 9 days only Taichung and Taipei?” Yes, only Taichung and Taipei, me and my love enjoy ourselves so much!

I’m gonna write a super long-winded and detailed post about my Taiwan trip, you can skip only to photos if you think that this is boring (please don’t). This is a free and easy trip and we managed to visit every place we intended to and visited few additional places as well.

We had our itinerary after few months’ hard work on researching. I shall share with you the actual one for our 9days trip.

Day1   : Malaysia LCCT – Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport – TaiChung – FengJia Night Market – Accomodation: Eiffel Tower Hostel 
Day2   :TaiChung – CingJing Farm – Accomodation: Star Villa 
Day3   : CingJing – Sun Moon Lake – Formosan Aboriginal Culture Village – Accomodation: Mei Jen House 
Day4   :Sun Moon Lake – TaiChung High Speed Rail Station – Taipei MainStation – Xi Men Ding – Long Shan Temple – HuaXi Night Market 
Day5   : Yehliu Geo Park – Jiu Fen – Shi Fen 
Day6   : YangMingShan National Park – Bei Tou – Tam Shui Village – Shi Da Night Market – He Bin Gong Yuan 
Day7   : The Palace Museum – Chiang Kai-shek Shilin Residence - Martyrs' Shrine in 228 Memorial Park - Chiang Kai‑shek Memorial Hall - Sun Yat Sen Memorial Park – Shi Lin Night Market 
Day8   : Mr. J French Italian Restaurant – Taipei 101 – Wu Fen Pu – Mao Kong 
Day9   : Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport – Malaysia :’(

Some people suggested us to rent a car + driver to bring us around. But since there are only 2 of us, it is not worth it (and to cut budget) so we decided to walk on our own. After all it is very convenient because their transportation system is superb. Okay, let's get the journey started. 

It takes around 4 hours and 20 minutes from LCCT to reach Taoyuan International Airport. We brought 2 x 24" luggage and the checked-in weight is only 19kgs for both. We bought 35kgs :( We also pre-order meals, Terriyaki Chicken for the love and I had Chicken Rice. Each pre-booked meal comes with a 300ml Mineral Water. AirAsia being AirAsia, I wonder why they don't served pre-book meals first until we have to ask from them, and they are still blur and said they have to check whether they have any of this left @.@ If there isn't any left, so what is the meaning of pre-booked leh? Well, here's a pic of that "finally arrived pre-booked meal".

After 4hours of flying, finally, ta-daa.... Taoyuan International Airport!! Get to the immigration gate and claimed our baggage. Ready, get-set, go!!! These are some photos took in the airport upon the arrival. Welcome to Taiwan <3

Stay tuned for upcoming post and I will share with you my amazing Taiwan trip!

It’s time for Taiwan

I’ve always wanted to visit Taiwan since I was young. And now this gonna be so real… because It’s time for Taiwan!

Chinese New Year is over and I’m continuing to plan for my Taiwan trip. I’ve started to plan for my Taiwan trip since last November. This will be my first free and easy trip. A lot of homework to be done but I truly enjoy doing it. If you don’t know where to start and how to plan, please log on to http://chinese.cari.com.my and http://www.backpackers.com.tw/ (for those who read Chinese only) The people there are helpful and they will share their travel experience with you.

I have read a lot of blog posts and forum sharing to plan out my Taiwan trip. At times it might seem confusing, but I just can’t wait for the day to come. While doing research, I can really see how Taiwan Tourism has put effort in promoting this beautiful island. There are benefits which are especially for tourist such as discounts, you can also apply for a free phone (have to return one) during your visit to Taiwan, and they called it Digital Buddy.

I have so many things on my mind and I’m also worry that I might not be able to find my way to my destination. According to all the posts that I’ve read, most of them claimed that Taiwanese are very helpful. Hopefully I'll be able to get some help when I needed.

I bought the air tickets last year when AirAsia having their promotions. It was a super rush decision made but there was no regrets. I never have the chances to study overseas, so my wish is to visit one country in a year (cannot afford too many also). Upcoming I will plan for Hong Kong, hopefully.

Can’t wait for that. Counting down…. 34days!

My Chinese New Year!

Chinese New Year is awesome and I actually break my record because it’s been a year I didn’t go back to my hometown. Although my mum visited me and my bro once in a while, going back hometown makes me feel so much relaxing. Stress-free life is what I mean. J I don’t feel much intense as compared to when I’m in the city.

I can teman my grandmother watches TV for the whole day, while playing “Candy Crush” (the hottest game for this moment) my mum cook all my favorite food, my aunty make desserts for me. My cousins has all grown up, not like last time the little tiny who will always cry for milk. We spent time together as we seldom meet each other ever since I started working, and they further their studies elsewhere.

I always feel a bit sentimental during Chinese New Year. I don’t know why J and this year my brother wasn’t around due to last minute arrangement, he has to travel to China for 8 days. My cousin who supposed to come back from UK was delayed cause of the company arrangement. Thank you for technology and we can still take our yearly reunion photo *excluding my bro*.

Unto this age, Chinese New Year is not so much about ang-pow anymore. In fact, I love it when I can bless my family members in return by giving them ang-pow. It is more blessed to give than to receive.

Meeting friends in hometown is like tuning into news section. Getting updates on who’s getting married, who’s having new babies, and lots more. Sometimes I really couldn’t believe that we had actually grown up. Things that seems will not happen during our school times has all came to passed. Well, I’m happy that all my friends are doing well.

And now Chinese New Year is over, get back to reality and … move on!

My 2013 Resolutions

I know it's a bit too late to write this post when it is already mid of January. In fact I'm still sorting out what are the things that I would like to achieve in this year. It is quite funny when I start to think about this topic, suddenly my mind floated this - Be Happy! Well, it is not that I'm sad for the last whole year, but I've been through a lot of challenges and struggles. Of course, I still have some good and happy memories (which I supposed to write my "Reflecting 2012").

This brand new year, I would like to make a [c h a n g e]. Change is necessary for growth and I think I should have take the initiative after procrastinate for so long. I would like to (1) learn something new and (2) read more books this year. It's been a long time since I pick up a book and read it ever since I started working. While sinking in the working environment, reading a book should be able to refresh my brain :)

As for what to learn, I'm still figuring it out. I know I need to have a specific goal in order to work towards the goal. Please share with me what's interesting if you know one :)

2013 should be a great year, striving to make a better living for myself and my family. 

Flower Dome

Just realize that I did not have much photos in Flower Dome when I started writing this blog. As mentioned, Gardens by the Bay in Singapore is a must visit place, which is located strategically next to Marina Bay. Beautiful scenery which will blow your mind away :P 

I've wrote about Cloud Forest, this post will be about Flower Dome and the Skyway at night. What welcome you is a super big compound which makes me don't know where to start @.@ Showing the panorama photo of my beloved 'grandma', please ignore the distorted lady on the left. *Blame to my shaky hand while taking this photo*

This is me at the entrance before getting lost in this big garden. A lot of visitors but fear not, this place is so big that you can still easily move around and take lots of photos in this indoor garden. Plus the air-conditioned, you can admiring without getting sweat. Awesome!! Flower Dome is divided according to region, such as American, African and so on. I don't know why we don't have much photos here, maybe we were busying on the flowers :P

These are some of the plants inside the Dome.

As that time was end of October, they decorated the place in conjunction with Halloween. You can see lots of pumpkins were placed in the garden. There are some pumpkins' balloons too! There is a big garden at the middle where lots of visitors just sit on the bench to enjoy this indoor garden. Surrounded by beautiful and colourful flowers make us happy! Practice ethics, do not pluck the flower :) After walking for the whole day, we just want to find a place to rest our feets. Can you believe that we walked non-stop for 5 hours? Oh wait, we still have the Skyway ticket with us!! We shall have our dinner before the skyway :D

There are few restaurants there for your options. Just that all the restaurants are crowded and we were too hungreeee at that time, we chose one of the restaurant where the queue is shorter because we just want to sit down and eat! The food is okay, not too bad when we have limited choice at that time. Hehe...While chit-chatting, the skies get darker and a lot of people are sitting on the greeny greeny grass and enjoy the beautiful scenery. How often can you see this in a city? When is the last time that we 'pause' to enjoy life? It was so relaxing.... and loving! At specific timing, there are lights and music shows at the Supertree Grove. When that is playing, we were already high-up on the skyway.

I thought it will not be scary, but I'm wrong. In the beginning, you can still happily take photo because it is so excited to be up at the skyway. When you walk further, the tiny bridge is so scary. I know it is not going to break, but I'm scared :( Well, aiming the end I have to finish the whole journey because there's no turning back. *So serious* But the whole place looks more beautiful when we were at the skyway. The lighting, the city, the walkway, the supertree, looks so beautiful! I feel like staying there at that point of time. The wind is cozy, the weather is good. Perfect! There's also a restaurant on one of the supertree, you can dine in the sky :) Cool right?

Here are some photos when the skies get darker:

I'm brave enough to take photo towards the end of the bridge. We even sat on the floor to enjoy the cool breeze... by thinking of it is already so relaxing. I really don't mind going back again for the second time. Awww.... writting this blog at this moment makes me miss that time so much!!

Okay, I have to wake up. That's all about Flower Dome and Skyway in Gardens by the Bay!