the DAY of the angry bouncer
Wow.. time is indeed passing quite fast. Our next travel stop would be the lotus flower pond and we took a train to Zuoying. When we arrived, we had thoughts of dumping our bags into the train locker but there were none present at the station. As the weather was good and since we were there already, might as well take a look at the vicinity, and with that we repacked our bags and set off. Cursed is my mouth... after we boarded the taxi and drove out of the railway station, raindrops started to fall and well, there really wasn't much turning back.Thankfully, our taxi driver was once again quite nice and suggested driving us around the pond to take a quick look. At the first two stops however, we took umbrellas down and took photos but we got a little carried away and took too much of her time. She said that it was unfair to her (which was true) and suggested we pay her a fixed price / hour instead. That would have made sense had the rain continued at a drizzle pace but it soon gotten much heavier and we just decided to take a quick drive for the rest of the stops. At least, hmm, we can proceed to Taipei earlier via the High Speed Rail.
... big statue ...
... view on a rainy day ...
The train station was damn nice looking, resembled an airport actually and we got our tickets from the self checkout machine, we learn fast! Trains depart on the hour and we were rather early so could busy ourselves and scrutinize all the various advertisements, machines, and well, even signboards.
We were quite excited about the HSR, but ended up terribly disappointed. The train wasn't as fast as we had anticipated it to be, it just felt a tad faster than a normal train. Sad sad. However, clean / good service, big comfy chairs, cutting short our journey by more than half. All great! Heheh, the train speed was around 230+ km/h, not Japan fast but hey, never been to Japan before so can't compare!
Taiwan High Speed Rail != Bullet Train
Soon it was back in Taipei for us, and we made our way to the 国军英雄馆. Our last hotel stop! Well, it was a very simple place, and as the name suggests, very erm.. army like? Our room looked like a bunk, smelt like one, and well, basically, just felt like one too. Thin mattress, thin blanket, 1 pillow, the bare necessities of it all. Room was freezing cold also! Not sure if its due to the cold taipei temperature or our ineptness but just.. brr! Every night! BRRR!! Oh well, other than that, its advantage is really is location, very near Ximenting and it provided us with lots of convenience. Price wise was ok, at 500NT per person so well, win some.. and lose some.
Recently at work, was talking to Beng Chuan about hotel taboos/things to do, he was saying before he enter a room he will:
1) Knock on the room door, and say "sorry to disturb".
2) Open door and enter it sideways to allow "them" to pass you on the way out.
3) On all the lights and taps.
4) Check if bible is flipped open (if there is one)
etc...
etc...
2) Open door and enter it sideways to allow "them" to pass you on the way out.
3) On all the lights and taps.
4) Check if bible is flipped open (if there is one)
etc...
etc...
WAH.. so many. Haha.. as for me, first thing I do is well, erm, usually, figure out how to open the door and if that is successful, ermm.. test the springiness of the bed? (Subsequently get more bags dumped on top, and even.. sheesh, some guy in a pink shirt)
For the record, the bed passed the test.
Lunch was settled at MOS Burger, before heading on to Guanghua Market, where Andy wanted to shop for a mobile phone. The place resembled that of SLS, similar pricelist flying around, loads of components, displayed computers running, erm, geek world? But haha, was never one to really shop around in SLS either, more of a online search and just go down to make the purchase person, so the place wasn't all that attractive, but interesting nonetheless. Anyway, we left the place empty handed. Price wise for components, Singapore could still be better or almost equal so yup, no point buying stuff here except for the novelty items or Taiwan brands.
With that, we headed back to one of the more famous temples in Taipei, 龙山寺. Alot of people, be it locals or tourists and alot were moving around doing the prayings and offerings. Well temples are temples and we did our part both here and subsequently later at 天后宫 which is nearer to XMT. Midway, we had a 泡泡茶 that had a signboard saying serving since 197+. Wah grandfather of 泡泡茶 stalls haha. Erm, it was quite normal (crappy), and mmm.. yep, no tradition needed here for plain bubble tea!
Our XMT shopping kept getting held back, haha.. we were almost there then got detour-ed to the Red Playhouse, a place to stage shows/plays but it was listed on the map as a tourist attraction so we headed there. Turned out that the first floor is the standard tourist trap of souvenir shops and haha, after a quick browse we headed upstairs and it turned out to be some university media faculty event so erm, we joined in the fun? Not like there was much happening except that they were screening / advertising their own productions and the students manning their exhibits. There were free drinks / food which we didn't get to take.. sob and free magazines! Which we did take, and ended up dumping them shortly thereafter because erm, they were rather heavy? Haha..
... the red play house foray ...
That marked the end of the sight seeing for this day and it was on to shopping shopping shopping (and oh, dinner somewhere in between, but that's not very important is it).
... we have arrived! ...
Well, tons of people, shops all around, interesting? Yup.. it was a Saturday night so atmosphere was perhaps a tad livelier, and best of all, the weather, it had rained quite abit during the day and had stopped by late afternoon, leaving the rest of the day in a permanently cool weather which was just great! At least walking around and all that didn't felt so sticky and when hit with a blast of cold air, just well, keeps us going.
Over dinner, we made plans for the rest of the night and finally agreed on clubbing and with Ivan uncontactable, we went around asking some of the salesperson where are the best places to go. But wah, kenna conned! Haha, we got recommended to this place, Lava which had supposedly free flow for a high cover but when we go there, it was a high(er) cover for only 3 drinks. BAH.
... the dance floor ...
We made our way there around 11, after going back to the Hotel to dump our shopping stuff, managed to take a train still, so.. economical economical. Well ok lah, I'm not one to club so don't know much about the music or people, but felt the music wasn't that great and the place was quite small actually and worst, got this extremly sweaty / WET guy near us. Wah, damn gross. Haha, it was like standing next to a minefield, hmm worse, the minefield rather active in gyrating also. AHHH. The free drinks they had to offer was definitely a larger range compared to Singapore (I think) but wah, with the menu given to us, we really could make some terrible choices for the unknown drinks. Haha, some tasted really really very horrible haha, arghh.. so, lesson learnt, a more varied choice might not be always a good thing.
Finally figured out why our entrance fee so high. Waste our money! Got some lingerie competition, and wah, got 2 of the 4 girls really quite fierce and even took their top off with an aim to win although their arms were strategically placed. I wanted to take some pictures, (no not of the topless girls, they had already worn back), and after I snapped, haha, the stage emcee or one of the crew immediately shone a torch at me and bam, the bouncer quickly came walking over, "删掉！" Wah, Strict, haha, so quickly obeyed and deleted the photo, he happy I happy, lucky never make me delete any of the other photos.
Hmm, top prize was like $S100 dollars, crazy, so low! Anyway, yup, that was just a brief event and after that, we sat outside for awhile, finished up our drinks and left! Think it was almost 3 am by then. Someone said its good to take Vitamin C after alcohol consumption so we went to buy some lemonade which lol, remained largely undrunk for the night. Hey, didn't feel any difference the next morning! Taxi back quite shuang, no midnight surcharge, haha.. but wah, after clearing our stuff and bathing etc, we finally KO-ed at close to 4 am. ZzzZzzzZzzzzzz
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1 comment :
oh my tour guide said abt those steps to take before entering the hotel also.. but we only knock if we remember!
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