Day 1: Welcome to Taiwan

23 October 2007, 0500H

It's an early flight so gotta get up early. Went around looking for anything that I forgot to take after taking a shower. When everything was done at around six, went down with Dad and took a cab to Changi Airport Terminal 2.

We reached the airport about a half hour later, and joined a long queue of people checking in. It took about fifteen minutes before we got a counter. We went straight into the departure hall and went around looking for breakfast.

Found a Burger King and ate there. Tried the chicken burger promotion thing and it sucked. Utterly. I officially hate Burger King. But the Mushroom Swiss... Gah.

Our gate was right at the end of the airport, bloody hell.


Last call for the flight to nowhere, last call for...

0800H

Boarded the plane. Sat down and after a while, was reminded why the SIA stewardess uniform was so damn sexy. We took off and I was finally able to get the in-flight entertainment. Watched Die Hard 4 and... Well, action sequences were awesome and there was Maggie Q in it, so obviously that's good.

I also watched about five minutes of the UK edition of The Office before I found it too boring and switched over to Top Gear. Now that's a good show. I explored the cartoon channels and found Pinky & The Brain. It's Pinky, it's Pinky and The Brain Brain Brain Brain Brain Brain Brain NARF~

1300H

Finally landed. Got out of the plane and proceeded to the customs. Looks like we were at the end of the airport here too, dammit. Took a look and noticed the layout looks almost like Changi.

We finished with everything and went out to meet our driver. How nice, a chauffeur to our hotel. On our way there we tried to contact the girls with the numbers I got back here. And when we did, we arranged to meet the Sis at our hotel lobby.

Saw our room when we got there. There was a pathetic looking bed. We sat down and looked at the channels they had there. Turns out there was a certain one Sis wanted but didn't get over at her hotel. So that meant having to go back everyday at 6 so she could watch her show.

Before we left, Dad got a change of room to one with a bigger bed. This one really sucks. We also found out about the free terminal in the back. It's always connected so thankfully I can stay connected on the net for free.

As we walked around, I took notice of the license plates on the bikes and cars there. The convention was 3 alphabets and 3 digits for bikes, and 4 digits and 2 alphabets for cars. So I went looking around and found a few interesting ones.


You would think the rider is really, really happy.


The Carplate of the Beast


We went walking around looking for a proper lunch and found this beef noodle place around the corner. It was awesome, like I've always expected Taiwanese food to be.

After the awesome noodles, we went walking around the area and found a 7-11. Noticed a poster on the outside. The preorder for Jay Chou's latest album is out, hmmm. We got some snacks and drinks and went around some more before heading back so Sis can watch her show, and before I knew it, I fell asleep.

1910H

They woke me up and we went off to the famous 士林 (Shi4 lin2) night market. It wasn't that big a hype as I expected it to be, the food sold there were the same everywhere. We just found a stall with less people and ate. It was okay I guess, except the smelly tofu wasn't smelly at all, so that was a big disappointment.


Think of a pasar malam, but permanent.


"Small pastries wrapped in big pastries". Who would have guessed? The one selling "Small sausage wrapped in big sausage" maybe.



Also saw a shooting gallery. Was tempted to try it but decided against it. We bought some cream puffs and a giant chicken cutlet back. After putting everything down, I went down to the free terminal.

2300H

Finished with the terminal and went up. Got a shower and went to sleep. This is going to get interesting.