naruwan taiwan. day 2 (:

24 march 2009
after a few hours of sleep uopn return from ytd's kbox, i was awaken by e hotel morning call, my phone alarm n finally esther's call. blushes* guess i was pretty tired from all e singing e nite b4.
after washing up, met e rest for breakfast downstairs. n it's one of e most hearty breakfast i'd eaten in ages. look at e photo below n u'll understand y. esp for someone who had drank milo for breakfast for e past 12yrs. lol.

my 1st hearty breakfast in taiwan!

cranberry juice with papaya, soba, cornflakes + milk, egg n springroll. (:

after breakfast, we met randy at e foyer b4 boardin e tour bus to:

martyrs shrine! (zhong lie ci)

and there is alot alot of tour buses n PEOPLE.

all waitin for e changing of guards' procession ceremony which takes place at 0900hr everyday.

as usual, i didnt get to see much. ):

luckily e crowd went off after e ceremony n we managed to take photos with e guards.

accordin to randy, we have to take photo with both guards.
cos they may get upset if we jus take with one. lol.
so we posed for 2! hahas.
p/s: this is a better lookin guard than e previous one. :D

me at e entrance.
notice e whole lot of pple far behind me?
yup. tt's e amt of pple who were standin at e entrance jus nw.

e martyrs shrine really have nice structures.

nice stucture 2.


nice stucutre 3.


nice stucture 4.
took all these shots along my walk from e entrance into strucutre 4.
day 2 is cold n windy as usual n there is even a drizzle.
so photos were taken painstakingly.
my hands were shakin from all e wind too. lol.


from left: lili, denise n me (:


finally walked into structure 4 n took a pic b4 e guards started to march out.



a really close up photo by denise.
i managed to capture e march out of e guards from e shrine to e entrance. (:
stood really really close to them, esp e guy in suit.
whose onli role is to wipe sweat for e guards on duty n tidy their uniforms.
yup. their army uniform is really different from ours.
heard from randy tt those helmets wore had been passed down for many many generations.
wonder wat e interior of those helmets smelled like. haha.


e new guards on duty in e shrine.
this is guard no.1.


n guard no.2 !
as usual, nid to take with both. haha.



hahas.
me n denise aint e focus in e pic.
denise's mum n her umbrella is. lol.


after much posing n watchin e march out, we droveby:
the grand hotel where randy allowed us to pose for pics.
heard tt it was a temple before being converted into a hotel.
n a one night's stay there cn easily cost up to 2-3k tw currency?

our tour group photo!

from left front row: me, lili, est n shat-yin. ( yup. we looked exceptionally short.)

from left back row: e china son & mum, sally n e funny "mao" uncle, denise's mum n her plus another uncle n auntie.

chiufen street*

next stop: we went to yu xuan fang where they intro some green tea powder to us. this green tea powder was said to aid digestion n cn help to shed fats. had e urge to buy onli to realise tt it's darn ex. 2 jin/ 8 liang costed 8k tw currency. faints*

then we headed to the national palace museum (gu gong) to see mainly 2 famous pieces from the ch'ing dynasty palaces: jadeite cabbage n dong po meat. these 2 exhibitions were handcrafted by artists from pieces of jades n they really looked like e real cabbage n meat. it's a pity cameras werent allowed. ):

after which, we went down to chiufen after a ride up a mountain. e drizzle continued and we started shoppin for local delicacies n food to bring back home. went to ah xin de dian to shop for muai chee, jelly, cuttlefish, taiyang biscuits. some of them bought so much tt they had them packed into boxes. lol. bought key chains for my frens over at chiufen too. tried their saucy noodles, fen yuan n lu rou fan for lunch. yummy! (:

along the way down from chiufen to taipei 101,

randy sang some songs to entertain us. (:

taipei 101!!!

group shot (:

didnt take e elevator up since e drizzle created fog. ):

n it's an expensive ride up- 400 tw currency.

so we stood outside e tower after tourin ard e interior, waiting for e tour bus.

almost gt frozen to death by e deadly chill gusts of wind.

after taipei 101, we headed to our shopping haven: wu fen pu wholesale market!!!

randy onli gave us 1.5hrs to shop n we bargained till 2hrs with him.

still, it isnt enough for us. there is TOO MUCH to see.

TOO MUCH to buy!!

bought loads of stuff there. 1 dress, a few tees n blouses.

i think i cn spend a day there shopping n lookin at e clothes.

hahas. we were all too busy shopping to camwhore e wholesale market. :P

after which, we headed down to shilin nite market for dinner. (:

shilin nite market was different from other nite market cos it's in a builiding.

gt pretty disappointed. was expectin a long stretch of street or smth.

nonetheless, we had great food tt nite: e smelly tofu above, oyster omelette, tw sausage.

nt to forget randy's supersized chicken fillet.

shilin nite market food stalls.

e shop where randy purchased e supersized chicken fillets.

see e long queue!!

their fillet is so huge tt it's bigger than a person's face. (quoted from randy)

he even tell us to xchange if we realise it's smaller than our own faces. lol.

bought a papaya milkshake to try after eatin e chicken fillet.

we headed down to e street across shilin to shop for clothes after dinner.

e street across shilin. (:

it's really a hustle n bustle there.

bought 3 t-shirts n shopped ard b4 headin back to gather.

realise tt tw's traffic is realli bad.

couldnt understand their pedestrain crossin at all. lol.

headed back to sunworld dynasty after a long day out.

end of day 2. await more for day 3!! :D