Trip to Yangmingshan
Saturday, February 23, 2008

I went to watch "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" at Ximending 西門町 with Aaron, Gang and Braces in the morning. After that, Aaron and i rushed to Jiantan 劍潭 MRT station to meet Seok Kooi, Frank and Shenq Huey. We have planned to go to Yangmingshan 陽明山together. We went there by bus after having our lunch nearby.
They provide free massage and ginger tea for all the tourist waiting for touring bus at Yangmingshan terminal station. After getting the advice from the staff, we took about 15 minutes walk heading to the flower blooming spot. Due to the cold weather last week, not much flowers bloom, however we managed to see some mountain sakura 山櫻花 along the way.
The theme decoration for the Spring and Bloom Season at Yangmingshan was very beautiful.

Mountain sakura 山櫻花.

陽明山花季2008.

Act cute.., oh i looked fat... >.<

The flower clock 花鐘.

Some snapshots nearby.

It was drizzling the whole day, and i got my shoes wet throughly along the way. We were only managed to go for one destination due to time constraint, we should have come earlier next time. We took the last bus back to town heading to Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hall 國立國父紀念館 for CNY Lantern Festival. Aaron left us along the way going for his harmonica practise at TTU leaving three of us having dinner at Aunt Su's Pizza House.
(Actually is Shakey's Pizza lah..., may be (merely my speculation okay, don't sue me please...) "Aunt Su" took over it last time, just like Domino's Pizza took over all the outlets in Malaysia... ;p)

Those lanterns there were very beautiful comparable to last year one which was held at National Taiwan Democracy Memorial Hall 國立台灣民主紀念館 (formerly known as Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall 國立中正紀念堂).

We were so disappointed for not be able to find the lanterns set up by Malaysian Tourism Board at International Lantern Area. May be all had been dismantled and removed. Those lanterns in this exhibition area were elegant and beautiful in the previous year.

Labels: Chinese New Year, Taipei, Taiwan, Teoh Pak Guan, Vacation, Yang Ming Shan

posted by teopag @ 11:34 PM, ,

Happy Chap Goh Meh!
Friday, February 22, 2008

Happy Chap Goh Meh!
元宵节快乐！元宵節快樂!
Selamat Hari Chap Goh Meh!

We had a simple gathering eating dumplings with Frank, Seok Kooi and Chin Huey in the dorm.

Labels: Chinese New Year

posted by teopag @ 1:12 AM, ,

CNY Trip to Middle of Taiwan
Saturday, February 09, 2008

This year CNY, i am not alone... i went to my relative's mother (nanny) house in Changhua 彰化 on Tuesday night.

Aunty and uncle went to picked me at Changhua railway station and brought me to have famous Changhua meat ball 彰化肉圓. i had another bowl of soup 貢丸湯. The meat ball is really nice, i changed my bad impact on this dish after i tried once in Taipei.

Nanny stays in the hostel of National Changhua University of Education 彰化師範大學. This is nanny's house and the surrounding area.

A big thank you to my friend in Changhua QZ for bringing me touring around Changhua on the next day afternoon. Changhua is a beautiful historical city with small population. There are a lot of historical buildings around the city including temples and old colonial buildings. The weather in Changhua is very nice, no raining and not so cold compared to Taipei.

We went to Ba-gua Mountain 八卦山. The huge buddha statue is the landmark of that tourist spot.

A creative design, you can change the colour of the "flower mural" by changing different flowers on the slots.

After that, we went back to have our own reunion dinner. It was nice to have to opportunity to have reunion dinner oversea with my far relatives, so warm and happy. I got an red packet from Nanny as New year's money 壓歲錢压岁钱.
On the first day of CNY, we had the dumpling for breakfast. It is the tradition of Nanny's family from China... Ha, actually we made the dumpling together on the night before. We then went to visit cousin's family, an aborigine family in Miaoli 苗栗. The place is very scenic and beautiful, really a good place for stay. They were very friendly and served us with lots of delicious foods. Their friendliness kept us warmed in this very cold weather.