Colors City

Detergent labels

2011-08-14T23:58:00.003+08:00

Re-labeling the detergent container was some home deco that I did recently. I have this habit on putting my detergent on these tall cookie container. I feel it more easier to use rather then opening from the box every time to do my laundry.

I brought some Korean stickers and Korean Masking Sticker for this shop. I try playing them, cut and assemble them. It looks perfectly cute. The Korean Masking Stickers are not the same as the MT masking tape. Talking about mt tape, I was totally addicted with that (shall talk more on other post).

Mirrors

2011-07-12T00:07:00.002+08:00

Remember the half way done mirrors on the dinning area that I posted earlier? Here is the completed version on my dinning area. We got 3 set of Ikea Mirrors for RM19.90 and DIY ourselves. It fits pretty well with the Paris + Building wall stickers.

Master Bedroom in purple

2011-06-27T22:00:00.001+08:00

Part of my master bedroom, which is half way complete. End up as what I want ~ purple. Here is the initial wall paint was like that, but with the furniture, curtains, bed sheet and carpet, it looks purple now.

Love the purple swirl carpet which we brought pass 2 weeks. It's around RM250 which I brought at Giant near my house.
Definitely like the white lights, too bad the bed frame is in black.... hmm.... thinking to change it to white. But due to money constraint, I think will still stick the the black frame for this moment.
Another shot with lights. The bed sheet and quilt cover are in a matching set. Price around RM250 for the bed cover, quilt cover, pillow case and booster case. The cotton thread count is 450(if not mistaken), which is higher then those that I brought earlier, which is 250 cotton thread count. The higher the cotton thread count really make the bed smoother and softer.

The purple curtains I got from Nagoya, the fabric is much more cheaper then those curtain shop yet it looks elegant.

Enjoying music with speakers

2011-03-31T23:47:00.004+08:00

With such space on my house.

I can open the speaker out loud.

Which I can't on my share house condo last time.

Listening music thru speaker and laptop speaker its really so much difference.

Some bits from the bass of the speaker, makes my body moves....

I love the music out from the speaker, it is so relaxing, sometimes distress a bit after a whole day of hard work.

Recently love both of these songs:-

Lady Antebellum - Need you Now

Bruno Mars - Just The way you Are

Enjoy~!

Dry & Wet Kitchen

2011-03-28T23:23:00.005+08:00

Well... here is it. Here is my dry kitchen.

At the dry kitchen, I select black solid surface. It looks great, but it is easy to get scratch. On my wet kitchen, we choose 2 x 2 black tiles. I admit that the tiles are more resistible then solid surface. The cabinets are all in white color. And the foreground color of the kitchen is in apple white (slightly greenish over sun lights). Overall, I love my kitchen.

We built an extra sliding door to separate the dry and wet kitchen. I am glad I insist to install that door. Looks stylish and it really block part of the smell from reaching the living/dinning area. See here when it was first install the door.
That day I was unpacking some of my box and found these small souvenirs we brought from Taiwan last year. Haha... finally found a place for them to display.
Here is how's our wet kitchen looks. The cooking place seems to be a bit small. Its hard for 2 person cooking together.
It is still a total mess on the kitchen. I still yet to buy dish racks and some small organizer to store those things.

I have brought a mini dish strainer which I got from Diaso. Since we move to our new house, I tend to buy a lot house whole items from Diaso and 100 yen shop.
There is the maid room but we use as our store room. One side is for washing machine. Another side if for storage....

Dinning area

2011-03-27T20:52:00.000+08:00

After a few months of tidying the house, here is my dinning room. See the dinning table when it was first move in here.
We brought mirrors from Ikea. It comes 4 piece in one set, plan to get more at the weekend.

My small garden

2011-03-16T23:50:00.001+08:00

Part of our new project and hobby~ gardening.

We brought packets of soil, plants, grass, stone, tools, decorations... Total damage was around RM500 for this small gardening area.
Aloe Vera Plant from TS mum.... Wonder when will it grow tall and we can start eating them.
Philippine grass (Left) that we plants ourself. The right hand side grass are from our neighbour. They hired professional to plant the grass. We actually have fun planting them ourselves. The Philippine grass is RM3 per piece of 2 x 1 feet. We just remove it from the plastic and arrange them tidy into the land.

Some flowers we brought from the plant nursery. I have request the seller to sell us those easy to maintain flowers and plants as to built up my confident in gardening.

I started to plant some chilies from seeds and see... see... it's growing... I am so delight to see them growing....

We brought these gardening items from:-
1. Paramount Giant Car Park.
2. A huge plant nursery at the end of the road of Proton Manufacturing Plant at Shah Alam.

Living Area

2011-03-08T23:11:00.001+08:00

Here is my living area of my home sweet home. Still with the Chinese New Year decoration (lazy to remove them). Color theme of the living ares is brown color. The curtain and the sofa tend to be the same color.

The sofa is big, bigger then what we see on the fair. This was our first furniture we brought during April 2010 Home Deco Fair at KLCC. The sofa is around RM3000++ which includes the coffee table. The sofa is detachable into 4 separate individual sofa and we can mix and match with it's design. The upper part of the cushion is also detachable to adjust the height of the sofa. It includes 3 square and 3 long sized feather pillow which is super soft. We are allow to choose the fabric and color for both the sofa and pillows.We didn't hang around much at the living area. Maybe one reason was we haven't brought a TV. It is still in our waiting list. Or who want's to sponsor me a new television? LOL. The sofa now become the home for my soft toys. I "kept" some of my brother's collection there. Here is a nasty and furious fish. Some are gifts from TS and friends. I love the Tatty teddy valentine collection the most.

I think the most ugliest item in my living room is this shoe rack which I used back on my old condo. Still in the process of saving more money to buy more furniture for my house.

Lights Part 2

2011-03-08T00:37:00.002+08:00

After 5 months we move to our new home, I finally manage to snap some picture's and share with you all.

Great thanks to TS brother who came several trips down from Johor and install those lights for us. Note that all lights and lamps are assemble by TS and his brother(Save us alot of money). I only manage to help on installing the glass crystal of the chandelier light.

Here is the Chandelier for my living room. I brought from here. Thank got I snap the picture from the shop, else I wouldn't know how to assemble the glass crystal. It turn out to be very elegant and beautiful as it matches with the color and theme of the living area. Price for each Chandelier is RM99.

I brought 3 Rubine Fan for RM218 each. It is in black color with a remote control. We put them in the dinning, living and the master bedroom. The rest of the rooms we install KDK white ceiling fan. Beside the fan is the Chandelier light before installing the glass crystal.

Here is a stand light which is in the living room, we brought from the LDP Furniture Mall. We grab it from a discounted price at RM269. Same shop where we got the Chandelier.

Finding lights for the living area is such a pain. What I notice from design magazine, usually no ceiling fan at dinning area's. Well, I think it is very impractical unless you have air -con on that area. We initially brought lights around RM60 that are quite similar to the Ikea's BRASA black lamp(which cost RM200++), but when TS brother hang it before installing it to the dinning area, we do not feel like it matches with the area. We finally used TS brother's lamp's as above for our dinning area (yellow lights) & dry kitchen (white light).

We install several down lights on the middle of the living + dinning area. It is just a backup light source if in case the main lights from both area is insufficient. Each down light cost us RM36 with twin energy light bulb. Due to the blur surface of the glass on the down light, some times I few like it is not bright enough. We have install 2 more at the car pouch and at the wet kitchen.

Let's go upstairs... We brought these twin wall lights (RM69) for the stairs and for the family area. Surprisingly with just 2 energy saving light bulbs, it is bright enough for the family area. It handle made from wood, which matches well with the apple white color of the wall and green feature wall at the family area.

This rottan round light is around RM99, Top Ten told us to use yellow lights for warm and relaxing feel. I think it's a great suggestion, he even suggest us to get the wooden wall lamp as it will fits perfectly with this lamp.
Love the effect when the yellow dim light is open ~!
My master room light, each cost RM280, the most expensive lights in my house. The worst part was I need to buy 2 as we have 2 lighting ports in the master room. It is a very beautiful and modern light. It end up to be very matching with my purple room. One thing bad of this light is it is too bright. Each light holds 3 bulb. And it is very eye sore when we are lying down the bed and accidentally look on the bulbs. Planned to change to yellow light's next time.

We was worried that wall lamps are not bright enough. I suggested using normal fluorescent light for other small rooms, but TS insist getting more beautiful lights for the rooms. This wall lamp surface is made from glass and the lights is very bright. Just one of them are enough for the whole room. It cost RM125, slightly expensive then we thought. If we knew the wooden wall lights would be bright enough, we might consider buying them from those smaller rooms too.

Simple round moon like lamp for the toilet. It is RM38 each and the bigger on is RM58 that we install it as the main light at the car pouch. I think this is suitable for toilets as toilets are wet and the plastic casing will protect it. The disadvantage was the light isn't that bright on the car park as the plastic casing blocks some of the light off.

Almost all our light's we brought from Top Ten, I think they offer most reasonable price for lights. If you buy alot from them, try to ask for more discount. I hate to go to lighting shop's where they set the price very high and then mark 50% or 70% off where the discounted price is around the same as per the price labeled at Top Ten. Just to be careful and double check your items before you leave the shop.

Top Ten Lighting Sdn. Bhd.
1-G, Jalan Bandar 3,
Pusat Bandar Puchong,
Puchong
47100 Selangor
Tel: 03-5882 4606

Business Hour:
Mon - Sat: 11.30am - 9pm
Sun: 12 noon - 4pm

I think I still missed photographing some other lamps in the house, will do it on the next post.

Wedding Ceremony + Lunch (2nd Jan 2011)

2011-02-23T23:56:00.006+08:00

Finally get my photos from the photographer for my actual day wedding pictures.

Great thanks to PerfectEdge Photograhpy for those wonderful pictures.

Thanks to YC Video Recording Studio that shot memorable videos on my special day

Thanks for Grace Wang - the leng lui makeup artist which makes me a princess for a day.

Many thanks for my family members and friends that have lead a hand to help on my wedding day.

Appreciate those friends that have came from Penang, KL, Johor down to Pontian just to attend my wedding. A million kisses to you all.

I did have a wonderful Tea Ceremony session. A funny, yet joyful morning. Some nice shot of the

The lunch wasn't going as smooth as we thought, but we still manage to handle it with a happy heart.

Wedding Gift

2011-01-25T00:11:00.001+08:00

Gosh~ it's terrible there was no internet connection for the pass 1 week at home. Things got miserable when dealing with the Telekom staff. I have to shout and yell at them, being very pushy to get back my connection back in 1 week time. Talk more on that later in another post.

Back to some bits and bites on my wedding gifts that I got. I think I got most gifts from my younger brother - JQ which he is back from overseas. I think part of the gifts are my souvenirs and part of them are my wedding gifts.

Tatty Teddy Wedding Series from JQ, there are just too adorable. Once I love them a lot, but it's hard to find them in Malaysia.

(I have "stole" another bigger size Valentine Tatty Teddy doll from my brother last week .... wahahah...)

Kid jersey set from JQ, it comes with a pair of socks too. ~ wishing us to find a owner for the jersey set. (Hidden meaning - Wishing us to have babies soon...)

I think this would be the most expensive give from JQ - Gucci bag for my wedding present.

A belt and wallet set from JQ to my husband.

Body Shop diffuser from lovely ex-housemates, they really know what I like :)

Cute Wedding dolls from my mother...

Polo shirt for hubby and and Anna Sui perfume from my sister

Precious Moment wedding musical crystal ball from TS friend. So Romantic.

Thanks everyone for those lovely gifts ~!

Pre-wedding photos Package

2011-01-13T23:59:00.004+08:00

Let me share with you my pre-wedding photo's package. Please take note that this is just a guidance, and you might not get the same package as every year the price increase. Furthermore, every packages differs as each wedding studio have their own pricing.

Original package includes:

- 12 x 18" - 20 pages (30 poses) Design Album

- 10 x 15" - 20 pages (20 poses) Full page Album

- 20 x 40" - Design photo frame for hanging at the bedroom

- 10 x 12" - 3 piece photo frame for mum's & in law's

- 4 x 6" - 80 pieces(10 poses) for guess.

- DVD - 1 piece (2 songs) 50 poses

- CDR - 50 poses (Original size touch up files)

- Special guest book - 1 book including the 50 poses that I choose for my album.

- A book printed with 200 poses which are not from the selected 50 poses

- 2 photographer

- Car Deco

- 1 Actual day wedding gown, 1 actual day evening gown, accessories....

- 1 Actual day coat.

- Pre-wedding dress - can select 4 different types

Total wedding package is RM3600.

I have added additional RM600 for requesting 20 pose + design album + enlarge album from 10 x 15" to 12 x 18". So two album are in the same size now. Grand total will be RM4200.

20 x 40" - Design photo frame

10 x 12" - 3 piece photo frame (1 missing because already given to my in laws)

2 album of 12 x 18" - 20 pages (70 poses) Design Album

The album are so heavy as the surface is full glass ~ its the trend nowadays.

It comes with a protector cover and a brief case.

Guest book (left) and book printed with 200 poses(right)

Some pictures that are not in the album will be printed at here.

Our guest book

My advise is if you do not have too much time to DIY your own album, do not have budget to buy wedding gowns, getting a wedding house to handle all your pre-wedding photos and actual day gowns is the correct choice.

Some personal tips:

1. Make sure to survey enough thru the internet, friends comments and forum before approaching the wedding studio. As most of the wedding studio are very pushy on selling their packages.

2. The wedding studio I sign do not have too much selection of dress, but surprisingly they manage to take excellent photos which make a non eye catching dress become a princess to every girl. Just walk to any wedding shop and look at their album, if you don't like how to photo's are taken, no point asking for the price.

3. Ask for more poses. 1 poses == 1 photo. Designed album usually consist more photos. My 20 page album consist of 35 poses. Each additional poses will have a price from the wedding studio.

Mine is RM30 per pose extra and the highest price is RM80 per pose.

4. Ask for more bargains and freebies. Or swiping those things that you don't want for more poses. Going to wedding fairs for better offers.

5. Every details need to be black and white written in the receipt.

6. Ask for photos soft copies. I think the best is to sign up with a wedding studio that give you all the soft copies back.

Hope this will help those future's brides that are planning their pre-wedding photo's decision. Good luck ~!

Pre-wedding photos

2011-01-07T20:58:00.000+08:00

Share with you, some of my pre-wedding pictures. These are all my favorite~! Great photography thanks to Keep Gallery.

幸福女人 ~ Hubby cook

2011-01-06T20:24:00.000+08:00

We started cooking after moving to our new house.

Why?

We need to drive out to buy food instate of walking 5 minutes to buy a meal.

A bit waste as we have spend thousand Ringgit on furnish our kitchen and not using it.

Yesterday TS is not working and he prepare our dinner. Although there are not looking well in pictures, but definitely there taste good.

工作回家后，还有亲爱的老公亲自准备的晚餐～～感觉好幸福！

Happy New Year 2011

2011-01-05T22:50:00.004+08:00

Neglected my blog for a long long time.

Not to say I forget, just that I was too busy with my current life.

2010 was the busiest year that I have ever been.

So much thing change, life changes from one stage to another.

Here is some recap on year 2010

1. Longest - 17 days, self planned trip with TS to Taiwan.

2. Change Job although it is still IT related, but different roles of job, new challenge.

3. ROM at July 2010. From girlfriend 6.0 upgrade to wife 1.0.

4. Planning, designing, monitor renovation and move to our new house at Kota Kemuning

5. At last, wedding ceremony in Chinese culture. Which includes tea ceremony and wedding lunch.

6. Start picking up driving as I need to drive to work daily.

Well, spending money is like spending water this year. So much to spend on the trip, wedding and the house.

I think now I have more time to blog / rest / and continue crafting soon.

Christmas @ Mid Valley 2010

2010-12-14T23:47:00.002+08:00

I adore all of these cute huge bears, puppet, nutcrackers at the Mid Valley 2010 Christmas Decoration.

I think it's a dream of every child to have such wonderful toys. I even see some kids hug and lay down on those toys until their mum have to pull them off ...
Not forgetting to place myself among these cute toys.
And hugging a huge bear at the mall for photographs. How I wish I can take him home with me ... to me new home :)

The 1st Day @ New Home

2010-12-07T01:25:00.000+08:00

After almost 3 weeks of packing all my stuff in to boxes sponsor by Joan, we finally move out from Wangsa Maju at 30th October 2010 officially to our new house at Kota Kemuning.

I hired a 5 tan lorry- Mr Tan 019-2778829 from Wangsa Maju (Condo) to Kota Kemuning (Landed) cost us RM400 with 3 workers. They are movers workers, which provide service for house moving or office moving. (Not those temporary lorry and workers that work partime). I am quite satisfy with their service. Quite impressive the speed they move our things which is very fast. I add extra RM30 for the wrapping of my mattress. They also provide service such as un-install and install your furniture. And of cost they will charge extra too. Cons are they didn't fill the lorry fully which makes me need to travel another time back to Wangsa Maju to collect some remaining stuff. My fridge and washing machine was working fine as usual after the move, but my LCD Monitor got a bit of problem after the move to my new house.

Alternative you can select and call any number at the tiang that I snap a picture down near my previous condo. Price around RM350 for 3 tan lorry with 3 workers.

Here we reach our new house. The wiring is still pending for TS brother to come and fix it, so wires wondering around the electrical box until today.My Guan Yin Goddess looking great ~~ The most perfect part on my entire house. The rest of the house was a total mess now.

TS brother couldn't finish installing all the lights on his last visit, so some areas of the house are with lights, no fan(craft room and 2 bedroom upstair); some areas with fan no lights (master room); some areas totally no light (kitchen, car park). But we manage to have a temporary workaround where we use stand lights and table lights for almost 1 month. We didn't want to spend extra money for lights installation. It is better to let the person who did the wiring (which is TS brother) to install the lights as he will know which wire connect to which wire.

Here is the living area, he manage to install 4 down lights with fan for us.
Here is the living area/ dinning area. Notice there is a small mattress beside the photo, we have a small rest and lying around that small mattress while waiting for the furniture to arrive.

The first furniture that arrive on the day was the dinning table. I like wooden dinning table, but for the sake of cleaning and long term use, we go for temper glass dinning table. I initially wanted a full white color temper glass dinning table. But after a few walks into the furniture shop, we order this temper glass dinning table with black borders. Why not the one we ordered? This is because the one I wanted at least cost us RM2000 and above.

The shop have communicate with us as the previous model was out of stock and advise us to have this. I gladly said YES ~ of course. The dinning table cost us RM1300 including 6 chairs. The dinning table are made from solid wood and they are extremely heavy.

The room down stairs are now in a mess of all the boxes that contains things which belongs at the ground floor.

Here is my dry kitchen. The contractor manage to install the sliding door before the day I move in. Looks great hor~~? But it cost us RM1500.

Next: Curtains, more lights, sofa...

Moving- in Ceremony

2010-11-25T00:32:00.000+08:00

I have abandoned my blog for more then a month. No updates for so long, as I finally got my internet connection in my new house after 2 weeks of nagging and chasing to our telecom company - TM. This is the 4rd week that I have stay in my new house.

Here is some brief pictures I took a month ago. The moving -in ceremony was on the 23th October 2010 (Sifu choose the date).

We have a simple move-in ceremony, but not as simple as we thought.

To cut the story short, first, we have to invite the Goddess - Guan Yin(观音菩萨) to our new house, then set up the charcoal fire(火炭炉) and cook a kettle of water. After the water is boiled, we need to carry the rice pot, a pair of broom and boiled water into the house.

Here is the total white Guan Yin that we choose and some modern praying accessories. The Guan Yin cost us RM518 and the cabinet is RM593 with tempered glass top.

We were working hard to make the water boil in a 11am morning. The weather was extremely hot.

TS crossing the boiling kettle with the rice pot.

Almost all the renovation is done. But the carpenter piss me off by delaying and kitchen work and my wardrobe. Due to this issue, we have to delay our actual day moving in until the second last day of the month. My solid surface wasn't ready until 30th October. He drag my work for more then 2 months. The kitchen cabinet are as what we expected.

Here is the look of the walk in wardrobe of my master bedroom. I feel disappointed the first look on the cabinets. It is just some plain and simple and it cost me almost RM5000 for this wardrobe and the sliding door to separate the walk in wardrobe and master room. It isn't what I imagine and dream of. I wanted those Ikea wardrobe feel, which all the drawer, wire basket and compartments but we didn't went for Ikea as the quality of wood.
The most disappointment was the basket tray. I wanted 3 basket tray but he install 2 for me. It doesn't look like a laundry basket tray when I put my clothes. It looks more like a basket tray for the kitchen. What do you think? I have argue with the carpenter and he claim that the basket for wardrobe and kitchen are the same! The handle of the drawer look so awkward. I totally don't like the design of the wardrobe at all. The clothes rail are way to high for my height to hang clothes. Every time I have the climb up a small stool to reach the rails. I can't understand why the carpenter didn't think of this issue.
He is such a irresponsible guy where until today, he still haven't finish what we requested we made. Well, never mind as we still owe him money. Let see how long he will drag and I will only pay the remaining amount after he finish everything.

Pre-wedding makeover

2010-10-13T01:13:00.003+08:00

I just manage to finish my work at 1am. Just to write a quick post.

I went for my pre-wedding photo shot at 5th Oct 2010, Tues.

I sign the package from Keep Gallery, which includes 4 dress + hair do, 2 album, 1 large + 3 small photo frame.....One thing good about this wedding house is we will get all the photo's soft copies back (4R size for unselected photos)

It wasn't a sunny day, drizzling rain on and off at Putrajaya. I am still thankful that it didn't rain too heavy.

We prepare quite a number of tools, such as lollipops, bubble gun, rose pedals,devil plush for the photography session. Hope the photos are towards what we expect.

Here is one of my dress and hair do for the indoor shot. How do I look?

Eating healthy Salad

2010-09-27T23:35:00.000+08:00

A few weeks back, my friend took me to an Italian Restaurant - Nero Teca for lunch. I ordered this salad which cost RM30(Of cost I'm not the one paying). I just don't understand why a bowl of salad is so expensive. Maybe because got prawn and salmon?
This is what I prepare my salad at home. Some lettuces, cherry tomato, grapes, sunflower seeds and cashew nut. Add some French dressing and it taste good.

Renovation Part 3 - Paints

2010-09-18T00:08:00.000+08:00

One of the most tough decision to made is the choosing the colors of the house. The cost for re-painting the whole house(interior walls) is RM4000. It's so hard for me to decide what colors I want to paint as I love colors, colors that I like might not be suitable for a house.

As promise, let see how is my house now after painting.

Here is the living and dining room ~ I choose natural brown color compliment with beige color.

At the kitchen area, I choose "apple white" color. We view the sample wall from the contractors, it was actually white in color, but the contractor told me it will have some greenish color on the white. Ended up it a bit light greenish on the kitchen and the maid area. I think it should look good with my white and black kitchen cabinets.
They have also paint our backyard wall ~!
Let's see how its the upper part of the house.

Here is the family area~ I choose khaki green color with is a continuous matching color from the living/ dinning area.

Purple color on the master room ~ a bit disappointed on the color as I would like a more deep purple color. Its look more pink purple to me. All the rooms matching white color is "orchid white" which means there is some pink colors in the white color.
The 1st small room and my craft room is in blue. Oh my~ I love this blue color so much~
The second room I color it in to pink color ~~ Sweet sweet color ~~

One thing the contractor did was the shower screen on the master room. He did half of the opening area~~ should ask him to do 70% of the width. I scared the water will split out~ Lets see how after we move in~~We spend the last weekend to buy more lights. Brought everything except the living area light. Estimated spending on lights will be around RM2500 for the whole house. Next shopping list will be the curtains ~

Renovation Part 2

2010-09-09T01:00:00.000+08:00

Another 2 weeks later from the Renovation Part 1, my contractor have finish almost 50% of our house renovation.

The auto gate was install. Both of us was so funny trying to open the auto gate door without knowing it can be only open with a remote control!~ so stupid.

Let see the back yard~~ hooray! It is done. The floors are cement too. No more muddy dirt stains on the back of the wall.
This is our neighborer's house backyard
We have added additional water pipes at the back yard. Ease of cleaning the backyard.
After I deliver the sink to the contractors, they manage to build the tile concrete top L shape at my wet kitchen. I must say they are so quickly on deliver the house to us.
To my surprised, the carpenter had finish his work (he promise to deliver at end of September), but we saw the cabinets of the kitchen and the cabinets of the master room in our house. I think we can move in by end of September as everything seems like in early schedule.

The last visit to my house, we paid the 2nd payment. I have choose the colors of my house. I hope it won't look like kindergarten as it will be colorful ~ I choose blue, pink, purple, green, brown..... Does it sound like too colorful ? Haha. Looking forward to visit it this coming weekend

Manage to snap a picture on the recent show house on my house~!

It's almost 1 at the midnight and I'm still blogging. Need to stop write and go to bath and sleep. One thing good in my new company is I can enter the office at 10am. Lesser traffic and I can sleep more. I feel more happy as after tomorrow we will be having a 3 days weekend holidays ~!

Renovation Part 1

2010-09-09T00:24:00.001+08:00

Recently was busy with my new job. Since my new job, I reach home almost 9-10pm everyday. Had to do either housework or "extra" work after reach home. I didn't have time to read thru my list of feed blogs nor has much time surfing in Facebook.

We start our house renovation at the mid of July. We drag quite some time because the fixing of defects wasted us more then 3 months. Besides that, we are waiting for our EPF money to release.

We started our house renovation by the house wiring and air con piping. Both of them are done by TS brother. We added extra wire points and sockets for the home. We also added air con piping for living/dinning room and 3 rooms at the 2nd floor. Most of the wiring and pipes are buried/conceal in the walls which requires hacking on the existing walls. There goes my clean and beautiful walls ~ sore heart ~ Actually not to worry that much as it will be repaint later from my contractor. If anyone need piping/wiring, you can contact me as I can recommend you to my TS brother.

After all the research and asking several quotation from different contractors, we decided to go for the contractor which did most of the house for Paramount. His shop is located at the shop houses at the entrance to our house area. He might not be the most cheapest among our quotation, but we will go for a more peaceful mind renovation as we do not have too much time to monitor and chasing their work. (heard too many stories on unreliable and bad contractors) There is quite a number of residents let him do. Why we know it? Because we can see their banner hanging at the house they renovate. If there are bad, I don't think so many resident will let them renovate their house.

Our renovation cost is estimated around RM28,000++. We paid RM4,000 at the end of July and they started working on it.

The next week we visit our house, they have already started renovating our house. The car park area was full of construction materials.... Total mess.

They started on the plaster ceiling between the dinning and living area. My main reason of adding the plaster ceiling here is to install 2 row of down light to ensure both area is bright enough. We didn't do the whole living/dinning area with plaster ceiling because I love the ready made cornice ceiling.
The contractor almost finish our concrete wall fencing at the backyard. But I think there are still under construction as there are supportive woods all around the backyard.

Lights Part 1

2010-09-02T23:52:00.000+08:00

Just a quick post on our new house shopping ~

Last few weeks, we drop by a lamp shop on our way home. I brought this chandelier lamp for RM99. The stones are in glass, not crystal. But I am still happy with the price and the design. Thinking of either put it on my master bedroom or my living room

I find the most difficult part of the house is choosing the house lamps/light.

What I notice in magazine and show house, they will usually install down lights at their house.

Then install one lamp at the middle of the room with air con beside the room.

For me, I do want a ceiling fan and I do not wish to on the air con whole day at an area. Firstly, my electrical bill will be a bom and it is not too healthy to have air con for long hours.

Brought a matching stand lamp and another stand lamp too for the living area. Pictures next time after I have install them on my house.

House defect

2010-08-23T22:31:00.004+08:00

After we got our house keys, we booked a session with the developer for join inspection. We manage to book the session 1 month later as it was fully book on the Saturday.

We went to our house twice on checking the whole house. The first thing we encounter was leakage of water on the entrance and the master room ceiling. Water stain was very obvious on the ceiling. The living area and the dinning area have pond of water. Two of my bed room wood vinyl floors come out. We have demand the developers to change them for us.

We spotted quite a number of defect. Mainly on uneven furnishing on windows, slanting windows panel, poor quality on the switch part, and many more small and tiny details to check. Remember one concept that we have pay so much for the house, everything that you are no satisfy, you can complain about it.

The land at the back yard... The land is sinking....

WE decide to cement the back yard to preventing the mud to split over my back wall. Mainly because it is more easy to maintain.
Poor workman ship in the stairs.....
My dad told me to check the hollowness of each and single tiles. So we have the knock knock every single tiles with the 50 cents coin, but later the developer say that we can't check like this. We can only use our hand to to knock each tile. Poor TS hand was hurt after the inspection.
The developer spend almost 1 month to repair all my defects.... why? Because we are so detail on our defects.

Working non stop

2010-08-15T11:22:00.003+08:00

I have started my new job at last Monday.

It was a totally different environment, lifestyle and working style to me.

Now I understand why they are so busy.

At the second day, they start assigning me to a project and start to ask me to work around on it.

I was pretty lost as I do not have any experience in my new job.

Have to digest tons of documents and data.

Time flies very fast working there.

After getting home from work,I was exhausted and just when to bed....

I only manage to surf the internet, check my mails at the weekends

What a busy week~!

Later I'm going off to buy some lights and furniture hunting for my new house.

Monopoly

2010-08-02T17:22:00.000+08:00

A lazy Sunday evening

walking into a coffee shop

TS order a cup of coffee and I order a slice of cake

Saw a box of Monopoly on the coffee shop and started playing them.

It was way too long the last game

I almost forget all the rules and regulation

I miss those old days I played with my brother's and sister's back at Penang.

It was once our favorite game when we were young.

Spending some time reading the rules and regulation and we started to play.... We shouted and laugh with joy if we earn money and become sad if we loss money.

I think the rest of the people of the coffee shop thinks we are crazy.

One thing funny of this game is this TS keep on stepping my land (Pentonville Road $8) every round he passed by....

TS manage to build houses in the most expensive piece of land~ I kena 1 time which cost the rental for $200!

Too bad I wasn't in luck of building any house.

New house @ Kota Kemuning

2010-07-28T17:16:00.000+08:00

We brought our first new home at Kota Kemuning after a series of long search on houses.

At first, we didn't plan to buy a double story house as the landed property at Wangsa Maju is out of our budget. We started looking into condominium around the area. One thing that we don't like about condominium is we need to pay the monthly maintenance starting from RM150 - RM280 per month. Even if we are not living in the condo. TS friend started introduce us double story unit at USJ and since then we started to expand our options.

It took us 2-3 months, every weekend starting to visit show houses and second hand houses until we found this ~!

I love it because the design of the house looks modern and it's a brand new unit. TS love it because of the location. (He is fussy with certain location - Cheras and Puchong is a NO to him)

We paid the deposit at November 2009 and start paying our installment at March 2010. We got our key's at early April 2010.
Here is the sliding door and the main gate of the house. The living room and dinning room is so big compare to the condo we are renting now.
One of the reason I buy this house is I love the ready made cornice ceiling on both the living room and dinning room.
Dry and wet kitchen ~ plan to put a custom made kitchen cabinet
The small room at the back~ This room is so small and it is a maid room. I think I will use it as ironing room.
The back of the house is guarded with wire fence and a fence door. There is still 4-5 feet space of land from the end of my house back door to the wire fence. I personally feel like it is so not safe. Will probably change it to solid bricks wall with a metal door. (something like my opposite neighbor wall shown on the picture below)
Let's go up now ~ There is small store room below of the stairs.
There is a family room, 1 master room and 2 bedrooms on the 2nd floor. The 2 bedroom are quite identical, just one in the left and one in the right.
Each bedroom is attach to a bathroom. So total I have 4 bathroom on my new house(omg~~ need to wash 4 bathrooms). The tiles on the bathroom are tile up until the ceiling.
Here is the master bedroom. I love it as it is big compare to others. There is an small area near the attach bathroom where we plan to do a built in cabinet ~ I'm excited in having a walk in wardrobe soon ~~
The floor plan of the house to give you a brief idea how's the house is structure.

Next: Checking defects of the house.

Summary of Taiwan 17 days trip

2010-07-26T13:47:00.004+08:00

Here is a complete list of post on the whole trip to Taiwan~ Enjoy!

1.0 Preparation and Flight to Taiwan
2.0 Xi Men Ding 西门町 & Homestay
2.1 Red Theater 紅樓劇場 & Tian Hou Gong 西门町天后宫
2.2 Shi Lin Night Market 士林夜市
3.0 Taiwan High Speed Rail heading to Kenting 高铁前往垦丁
3.1 Kenting HomeStay 垦丁民宿 - Minimi 米尼米
3.2 Kenting National Park 垦丁国家公园 Part 1
3.3 Heng Chun 恒春 & Cape No 7 海角七号 Movie Scene
3.4 Kenting National Park 垦丁国家公园 Part 2
3.5 National Museum of Marine Biology and Aquarium 國立海洋生物博物館
4.0 Kaohsiung HomeStay 高雄 & RuiFeng Night Market 瑞豐夜市
4.1 Kaohsiung高雄 - Cijin District 旗津
4.2 British old Embassy 英国领事馆，Dream Mall夢時代購物中心, Love River爱河
5.0 Alishan 阿里山
5.1 Jade Mountain 玉山 + Alishan 阿里山
5.2 Fenqihu 奮起湖 + 嘉义Chiayi
6.0 Jiji集集，Shuili水里，CheCheng车埕
7.0 Sun Moon Lake Homestay 日月潭民宿
7.1 日月潭骑脚踏车游记 Cycling Exprience around Sun Moon Lake
7.2 Sun Moon Lake Tour 日月潭遊艇遊湖 Part 1 + 日月潭缆车 Sun Moon Lake Cable Car
7.3 Formosan Aboriginal Culture Village 九族文化村
7.4 Sun Moon Lake Tour 日月潭遊艇遊湖 Part 2
8.0 Cingjing Farm 清境农场 + 觀星園 Starry House
8.1 Cingjing Farm 清境农场
9.0 Hehuanshan合欢山
9.1 Taroko Gorge National Park(太鲁阁国家公园) Part 1
9.2 Taroko Gorge National Park(太鲁阁国家公园) Part 2
9.3 Hualien Homestay 花蓮民宿
9.4 Hualien East Coast Trip 花东海岸之游 Part 1
9.5 Hualien East Coast Trip 花东海岸之游 Part 2
10.0 Jiaoxi homestay 礁溪民宿 + 五峰旗瀑布
10.1 National Center for Traditional Arts 传统艺术中心 + 湯圍溝溫泉公園
10.2 McDonald Breakfast
11.0 Jiufen Old Street 九分老街
11.1 Yehliu GeoPark 野柳地质公园
11.2 National Palace Museum 國立故宮博物院
11.3 DanShui Old Street 淡水老街 , Fisherman’s Wharf 渔人码头
11.4 Taipei City Mall 台北车站地下街, Wufenpu 五分铺, Raohe Street Night Market饶河夜市
11.5 Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall 中正纪念堂, Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall 国父纪念馆, Taipei 101, 永乐市集
11.6 Bye bye Taiwan and things that I brought

How much did I spend?
Around RM9000 for 2 person trip.This includes all the transportation, accomodation and Air Tickets to Taiwan RM1100++ for 2 person.

How long was my trip?
17 days, 16 nights
In chronological order: Taipei 台北 (1N) -> Kenting 垦丁(1N) ->Kaohsiung 高雄 (2N) -> Alishan 阿里山 (1N) -> Yushan 玉山 -> Chiayi 嘉義(1N) -> Jiji集集，Shuili水里，CheCheng车埕 -> Sun Moon Lake 日月潭 (2N) -> Cingjing Farm 清境农场 (1N) ->Hualien 花莲 (2N) -> Jiaoxi 礁溪 (1N) -> Jiufen 九份 ->Taipei 台北 (4N)

11.6 Bye bye Taiwan and things that I brought

2010-07-26T10:13:00.001+08:00

Day 17, the last day at Taiwan.

We didn't visit anywhere else, sleep until time and pack and went to the Airport.

Actually I was too exhausted on the long trip.

Here are some goodies that I got from Taiwan. Buy until I pok gai

1. Postcard and wood postcard

I love these wooden postcard and I have brought some from places that I visit, such as Eluanbi Park at Kenting, Cape No 7 at Kenting, Alishan...

Planning to hang the wooden postcard on my new house.

2. Souvenir

I didn't expect I brought that much of souvenir.Can't stop buying them...

3D postcard that can be assemble which I brought at Jiufen.

Lucky lamp work beads brought at Formosan Aboriginal Culture Village.

Wooden Slippers as gift for friends and family members brought at JiuFen

"Jadeite Cabbage" and Chinese vase souvenir from the National Palace Museum.

Wooden toy from Checheng

3. Cute Souvenir

Love this so much ~ the windmill and the light house from Kenting

7-11 is one of my favorite shopping area at Taiwan. Almost every tourist area will have at least 1 shop of 7-11. I was lucky enough to collect the stickers and exchange a cute bear.

土地公 from Jiufen

Cute magnet from Yehliu

Hand phone accessories from Alishan

Small train pencil from Jiji

4. Clothes

The clothes that I brought are more toward Japanese style in pastel color with lace. Love them alot. I brought these clothes at Shi Lin Night Market and Wufenpu

5. Snacks

Milk Nougat from Kenting (Left) and Hualian(Right). I love the milk nougat from Ruishui farm at Hualian the most.

Yummy seafood snacks from Kenting. Regret not buying more as they taste very nice.

11.5 Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall 中正纪念堂, Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall 国父纪念馆, Taipei 101, 永乐市集

2010-07-24T10:34:00.000+08:00

Second last day at Taiwan. It's quite a rush day as "I" would like to go for more shopping and "he " would go for more tourist attraction.

Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall (中正纪念堂)
We took the MRT to the CKS Memorial Hall Station (中正纪念堂捷运站). Several buge building around the area. We was too lazy to walk in and just shot some photos from far.

Next we reach the Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall (国父纪念馆). We took the MRT and stop at the Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall Station (國父紀念館捷运站).

TS love this place so much, we spend quite some time reading the exhibitions on the Hall.

Taipei 101 (101大楼) is a landmark skyscraper located in Taipei.
It is reachable via MRT Taipei City Hall station (市政府站)， and there are free shuttle bus to Taipei 101.

Taipei 101 shopping mall is something like shopping at KLCC. We didn't went up the tower to view the skyview rather then just walking around to catch a beautiful picture of the tower.

Next, we headed to 永乐市集 which is a paradise of fabric and patch work lovers. It is near the ZhongShan MRT station 中山站. But you will need to walk more then 20 minutes to the market. Detail map and directions please refer to here.

It's a whole building of fabrics, ribbons, trims and many more sewing materials that we Malaysian dream of owning them. There are so many to choose and I just manage to bring back some.

Spend my last shopping again at Wufenpu and Shi Lin Night Market.

11.4 Taipei City Mall 台北车站地下街, Wufenpu 五分铺, Raohe Street Night Market饶河夜市

2010-07-23T16:17:00.000+08:00

Today is a shopping day for me~!

I wonder around the Taipei City Mall 台北车站地下街. It is the most famous underground shopping markets in Taipei and it is located at Taipei Main Station.

We stumble upon this mutton soup shop on one of the street around Taipei Main Station. The mutton soup has over 10 years and was very delicious.

It is an very big and long underground market

While I was busying shopping, TS hang around at the Mr. Brown coffee shop to surf online.

Around 4pm, we reach the Wufenpu 五分铺- one of the largest fashion markets in Taipei. Remember to visit Wufenpu at the late evening because the next day I reach Wufenpu at 1pm but non of the shop open yet.

Wufenpu is reachable via MRT - Houshanpi station (后山碑捷运站) OR by train Songshan station (松山火车站). We took the MRT and we need to walk 5 minutes to reach the Wufenpu.

Omg~~ shopping paradise for ladies!~

Lots of latest fashion and the price is so much cheaper compare to Malaysia.

There is so much to see until I am pening on don't know which to buy. There are rows and rows of streets all on clothes, shoes, handbags, children clothes .....

The SA is not as friendly as those in the night market as they are targeting more on wholesale customers.
I come back the next day to do my final shopping on my last night at Taiwan.

We asked around and walk to Raohe Street Night Market(饒河街觀光夜市). It's around 10-15 minutes walk from Wufenpu.

The famous pork rib soup. TS enjoy it so much. I think it taste much alike as our Bak Kut Teh.

Chinese facial using strings and powder on the night market ~

There is a temple beside the Raohe Street Night Market. It is beautifully decorated with lanterns.

11.3 DanShui Old Street 淡水老街 , Fisherman’s Wharf 渔人码头

2010-07-22T19:24:00.000+08:00

After the whole day visit at the National Palace Museum, we headed to DanShui Old Street 淡水老街. We took the MRT to the northern end at Danshui Station. The DanShui Old Street is just beside the MRT station.

This night market is smaller compare to Shilin Night Market in terms of shopping and food. We walk around and quickly headed to the Fisherman’s Wharf 渔人码头.

We took a bus from the Danshui MRT Station to the Fisherman’s Wharf. There are boat/ferry service available too, but not at that day.

Finally we reach the famous Fisherman’s Wharf aka the "Lover's Bridge". Many people say it's a romantic place for Pak Tuo (dating).

It was very cold that night, with the cold sea breeze wild blowing toward us.

Enjoying the night view of the Fisherman’s Wharf. Around the river, there are a boardwalk, chic coffee shops, foods, and some seafood restaurants. Suddenly there came a huge number of primary school kids. I think there are 100 of them. The romantic fell of the bridge suddenly gone with all the laughter, jumping and screaming of the kids ~ They were so noisy!

11.2 National Palace Museum 國立故宮博物院

2010-07-22T10:00:00.000+08:00

Finally we are back to Taipei City.

The next morning, we took the MRT to Shilin Station and took a bus to the National Palace Museum(國立故宮博物院). It is the world’s largest and finest collection of Chinese art; and was part of China museum. During the world war, China have move lots of the most valuable pieces out of the city to prevent them from falling into the hands of the Japanese Army.

Entrance Fee was NT$80 for the Youth Travel Program. We took almost the whole day to walk the whole 3 story building. There were many things on displayed such as jades, paintings, calligraphy, weapons, handicrafts, literature and many more. The most famous one and must see items are the "Jadeite Cabbage", the "Meat-shaped Stone", "Return Clearing" painting (more than 30 meters in length long painting) and many more....

There are no much selection of lunch at the national museum. We have no choice and this was the most expensive meal we have in Taiwan.

There is a traditional Chinese garden beside the museum called Zhishan Garden (至善園). It is just a place to relax after viewing the treasures at the museum.

It consist a beautiful landscape of mountains, lakes, garden and building.

Too bad, we are not allow to take any pictures in the museum. Therefore no pictures to show off. But we manage to snap of pictures at the MRT station where there are promoting the museum.

The above is a part of the paintings and the below are some jades.

11.1 Yehliu GeoPark 野柳地质公园

2010-07-21T19:14:00.000+08:00

After several hours wondering at Jiufen Old Street( 九分老街), we took the bus back to RuiFang Station 瑞芳車站, and get our luggage. From RuiFang Station we took an 30 minutes bus(fare around NT$50) to Keelung Station (基隆火车站).

We then deposit or luggage at the Keelung Railway Station. From the Keelung Railway station, just take a 40 minutes bus to Yehliu GeoPark (野柳地质公园). Entrance Fee NT$50.

The bus stopped at the main road and we have the walk 15 minutes to the actual entrance of the park.

Yehliu GeoPark is a park full of rock that are was formed by the sea erosion.. Each of the rock has been given imaginative names based on their shapes.

The only one that I could easily recognize is The Queen's Head (女王頭)

There are other rocks, such as "The Fairy Shoe", "The Bee Hive", "The Ginger Rocks" and "The Sea Candles", but none of them are that easy to recognize.

Some beautiful landscape around the park.

The day is getting dark and we quicken our steps to catch a bus back to Keelung Station.

The Famous Keelung Miaokou Night Market 基隆庙口夜市 is nearby the Keelung Station. With all the luggage and I wasn't feeling that well, we directly headed back to the Taipei Homestay for the rest of the day.

11.0 Jiufen Old Street 九分老街

2010-07-21T12:05:00.004+08:00

After our Mc Donald's breakfast, we took a 1 hour train from Jiaoxi Station (礁溪車站) to RuiFang Station(瑞芳車站).

RuiFang Station is a small railway station without proper facilities... Poor TS have to carry the luggage up the slop.

We deposit our luggage at the railway station.

We took a 30 minutes bus (fare around NT$50) and head over to Jiufen old street ( 九分老街). Jiufen is a small town in north Taiwan. It was once a famous gold mining town but now a tourist attraction.

Entrance of the Jiufen Old Street

Yummy snacks

What I like on this town is I love the building and structure of the the area.

An cultural museum full of ancient goodies and childhood goodies

Old cinema

There is so much interesting stuff to see and walk at Jiufen~!

Some other snacks at Jiufen

18XX sweets

And some lovely things that are so cute and unique.

Jiufen is a wonderful place to visit if you love the architectural of old buildings and old street markets

It's time to change

2010-07-19T15:04:00.001+08:00

After a lot of consideration.

I made my decision.

I choose to get out from my comfort zone.

And to get a better offer.

The new job will be more challenging as I do not have any experience.

It is not as flexible if compare with what I am doing now.

No more blogging, personal research at office time.

No more Facebook nor Msn chatting.

I am prepared to work long hours

And lesser time for my hobby.

If I do not try to change now, I don't think I have the guts to change when I'm getting more old...

My ROM

2010-07-08T14:35:00.000+08:00

3rd July 2010 is a memorable day of my life.

It is the day will begin a new chapter of our life, as we are now husband and wife.

Some beautiful pictures capture by my friend hubby - All about love photography. Special thanks for both our parents and family members that attend the ceremony. Thank you for my house mate whom help me to stick the fake eye lashes (still fail to stick them myself) and her sister which help on my hair setting on that day.

Our ROM ceremony was held at Thean Hou Temple. Not regretting on buying the pink Cheongsam (旗袍) for the day. It looks lovely and matching with the temple scenes.

There are more picture that I need to filter before I put them up.

Now I'm waiting for my shooting on my pre-wedding pictures this coming October.

If you do not know what is ROM?

ROM = Registration of Marriage

10.2 McDonald Breakfast

2010-07-02T11:59:00.000+08:00

The next morning, we have MC Donald's for breakfast. It is a free breakfast from our home stay.
Some menus from MC Donald's Taiwan. One thing bad in Taiwan is there is no chili sauce in MC Donald's. Oh my god~~ Mc Donald's fries are best serve with chili sauce. Remember to bring some Malaysia chili sauce to Taiwan if you are planning to have Mc Donalds there.

After our breakfast, TS go to return the bike, while I'm sitting at the car taking this picture. A proof that he drove at Taiwan.

10.1 National Center for Traditional Arts 传统艺术中心 + 湯圍溝溫泉公園

2010-07-02T09:55:00.000+08:00

After all the lost on the city road, we finally reach the National Center for Traditional Arts at Yilan传统艺术中心,宜兰.

It is a very large centre that preserves and promotes Taiwanese arts and culture.Ticket is NT$ 150.

At the entrance, there are this cute culture performance.

I love this wood crave sculpture.

There is a "old street" selling traditional crafts. Such as chopstick, art, paper art, beading, traditional dress, "gasing"... etc.
Chopsticks~ the below is the giant chopsticks

Handpainted gasing...

I brought one of the paper art back home. :)

Some food from the National art center.

Later we drive to the Luodong Nightmarket (罗东夜市). This is the first time we use our bike to drive around the night market.

We went back to our hotel. The whole trip for the day is so tiring as we drive alot on the bike. We pamper ourself with a hotspring bath on our hotel before going out for our dinner.

We pass by the public hotspring park (湯圍溝溫泉公園). It is claim the most warmest hot spring on the Yilan area. This hotspring park is to soak your feet for FOC.

We have dinner near by the park.

10.0 Jiaoxi homestay 礁溪民宿 + 五峰旗瀑布

2010-06-30T15:08:00.001+08:00

Next morning, the home stay lady boss fetch us to the Hualien Train Station( 花蓮車站). We brought a ticket to Jiaoxi Station (礁溪車站). Ticket Price NT$243 for 1 hour and 20 minute train ride. We pay most of our Train Tickets using credit cards.

There are very beautiful seaside views along the journey to Jiaoxi.

Jiaoxi township is famous for hot springs. Almost all hotel or even house have hot spring inside the building itself. At the entrance of the train station, there is a public hotspring for soaking our feets.

I booked this hotel<青禾溫泉家> which cost us NT$1600 per night. Free transport from the train station to the hotel. We got some information of some tourist place and we rent a bike (NT$350 24 hours + fill back the oil tank) to go around. I would not recommend renting a bike because it is not a small town as in Kenting. It is very big town and when we travel from place to place, we tend to get lost on the way.

First, we visited the Wufongci waterfall (五峰旗瀑布)

Yummy yummy BBQ sausage.

Saw this funny road sign on the road.

9.5 Hualien East Coast Trip 花东海岸之游 Part 2

2010-06-30T10:03:00.000+08:00

After a series of seaside visit, we then reach the AnTong Hotspring Hotel (安通温泉). The hot spring does smells hydrogen sulfide a little bit. It’s very good for external injury and skin disease.The temperature of hot spring is about 66 C (150F) You can either select a public or private hot spring area. It is so refreshing after a hot bath of hotspring at there...

Ruishui farm (瑞穗牧场).

Ruishui farm is famed for its fresh and delicious milk extracted daily from the cows. The cheese made from the Ruishui milk certainly is irresistible.

光復糖廠 Guangfu Sugar Refinery

There is always room for ice cream and the Hualien Sugar Factory. It was once the industrial focus of the Rift Valley and now currently a tourist center that is worth a visit. There is a small lake and lots of local food to grab.

Our dinner was famous pork leg (满妹猪脚). It is located at a rural area yet there is so many people. For those who loves pork leg ~ you must try this~!

Its getting dark and we have a small walk at Nanbin Seashore Park (南滨公园夜市). A very small night market beside the beaches. Later we pass by this Soya bean shop and have some tofufa before we head back to the homestay.

9.4 Hualien East Coast Trip 花东海岸之游 Part 1

2010-06-29T11:17:00.000+08:00

We took a day trip at Hualien East Coast Trip 花东海岸之游. Hualien public transport is not convenient. You can either hire a driver to drive you around places to visit or take a travel bus package.

At the early morning, we visit the Chishingtan Beach (七星潭) . It is located at the north of Hualien City (follow the bike path from Nanbin Seashore Park). No swimming and beach activities on this beach, as the tides and currents are quite dangerous, the bottom drops off steeply.

The beach does not have much sand, mostly pebbles. I heard the pebbles are from wash down from the mountains of Taroko Gorge.

There is a Chishing Fish Museum (七星柴魚博物館) at near the beach. We didn't visit the museum as we are not interested. One thing good in having a personal driver is we can select those places we wanted to visit.

The driver later drive us up to a small hill where we can see the whole Hualien City view.

Here is a beautiful view when we are driving down the hill.

This is the Hualien Ocean Park. It's something similar to the National Museum of Marine Biology and Aquarium at Kenting. Adding more features such as ferris wheel,cable car, and some theme park. The ticket price is NT$890. We didn't visit this park as we think it will be more or less the same as in Kenting.

Along the road, we saw alot of these bicyclist along the road.

Next is our favorite spot -Stone Stairs Beach (石梯坪). The beach are form by rocks that looks like stairs. Love the blue waters of the beach.

There some small lakes around the stones, we enjoy viewing the small fishes and seaweeds around the small lakes. The water are crystal clear.

The current of the sea is just so powerful. See how the water splash on the gap of the rocks ~

There are some workers collecting sea shells on the dangerous beach. Please do not go so near to the beach. We even saw some news reporting people die because of this powerful sea.

Next we reach the Long Rainbow Bridge. During summer, the water will rise and they will have 4 hours of river rafting trip from the hills down to this bridge.

We now reach the Eight Goddess Cave八仙洞. We were too lazy to visit every caves. Instate we visit the one that is more nearer to us.

Our New Home

2010-06-24T11:51:00.001+08:00

Got the keys of our new home on April 2010 after we came back from Taiwan. Hooray!~

I was super excited and started to read thru forums and website for my new home design and layout.

The renovation fees are just a bomb to us.

A double story landed house, full renovation + design will cost RM80K-RM120K. How could I afford that? We do not have much left after the down payment of the house.

So we decide to keep the renovation to be the most basic ones, such as kitchen cabinets, masteroom cabinets, windows grills, lights and lamps, fan, air con ...

Will be adding more and more from time to time.

I'm still thinking what style and concept for my new house.

There is so much hidden cost in buying a house. Even the transfer name of TNB (electrical) cost us RM800.

Although we are spending and spending much of our hard earn money, but it's worth to have a home of our own, a place to rest.

Something more exciting that I will have a work room aka craft room~!

9.3 Hualien Homestay 花蓮民宿

2010-06-21T11:45:00.001+08:00

The journey from Taroko Terrence Visitor Cente to Hualien (花蓮) is 30 minutes car ride. At Hualien, we stay at the driver's home called 湘荷居.

The driver contact person is Mr Wei (Tel: 0975-337234). Msn: park884734@hotmail.com

It is located at somewhere near the railway station. NT$800 per night which is consider very cheap for weekends. They even serve us simple breakfast. The owner was good enough to gave us a 6 bed room for our 2 days stay at Hualien.

Later the driver brought some onion cakes (葱油饼) for us. They claim to be the famous food in town. To me it tasted like roti telur. Oh my ~~ it was very tasteless and I missed the curry that we dip for the roti telur.

Dinner time:

The driver took us to this famous baozi and dumpling shop - 公正包子，水饺. Taste great. I even see a couple eating 2 dozen of baozi and dumpling. We just ate some as we are leaving our stomach for other foods. We enjoy the chicken nuggets (香酥鸡) along the street too.

Hualien is a smaller town compare to Taipei city.

9.2 Taroko Gorge National Park(太鲁阁国家公园) Part 2

2010-06-18T16:36:00.000+08:00

Next we reach Jiucyudong tunnel (Tunnel of 9 Turns) 九曲洞. It's a walking path for visitor to enjoy the beautiful scene of the hills, cliffs, narrow valley and rivers.

Almost three quarter of the walking path is close due to path is not too safe as anytime the rocks might fall down. For safety precautions, we have to wear a helmet in the 15 minutes walk at the Tunnel of 9 Turns.

At Yanzihkou (Swallow Grotto) 燕子口, we can see small holes around the rock cliffs where those are the home of the swallow. The driver stop us a the main entrance and there is a walking path for visitors to walk along.

We can have a closer view of the rocks, cliff and the rivers here.

Another destination: Changchun (Eternal Spring Shrine )長春祠. Another beautiful landscape that we can only take picture from far.

We reach Taroko Terrence Visitor Center around 3.30pm which is the last stop of our Taroko Trip. Taroko Terrence Visitor Center consist of exhibition areas, such as Our Environment Hall, Humans in the Environment, Environmental Education Hall and Special Exhibition Room, and providing educational and travel related information.
There is a performance of the native people on the park even it was raining.

We can see the map on one of the exhibition hall that we drove a long way to reach our next station: HuaLian (花蓮)

9.1 Taroko Gorge National Park(太鲁阁国家公园) Part 1

2010-06-18T10:13:00.002+08:00

After visiting the Hehuanshan(合欢山), we then come to the Taroko Gorge National Park(太鲁阁国家公园).

There are several places we visit along Taroko Gorge National Park(太鲁阁国家公园) . Here is a map that you can see for more detail places. Taroko Gorge National Park is a huge park that spans the states of Hualien, Taichung, and Nantou. If you want to visit this place, do attach with a driver or a travel agent as there is no public transport around the route of this park.

We reach the Bilyu Sacred Tree(碧绿神木). This tree is 3,200 years old and about 50m high . To us, it is another huge tree in Taiwan. The driver told us that Japanese visitor loved these trees. But we saw too much at our Alishan Tour.

We are more interested on the sakura flowers beside the tree!

Next we reach Tiansiang(天祥). Tiansiang is a large river terrace recreational area in Taroko National Park.

There is a suspension bridge connecting the main road to a hill.

On the hill, it has a tall White Guanyin Statue, a 7-story high Pagoda, Giant Statute of the Bodhisattva, and some Siangde Temple.

After Tiansiang, we saw a H-Shape hanging bridge with marble stone lions on each end, which is the Cihmu Bridge(慈母橋). This was built by former President Chiang Jing-guo, in memory of his mother, during construction of the road.

9.0 Hehuanshan合欢山

2010-06-17T17:11:00.002+08:00

Hehuanshan(合欢山) is a 3,416 metres high mountain in Central Taiwan. The hill is within the Taroko Gorge National Park.

The public transportation from Cingjing(清境) to Hualian花莲 isn’t that convenient. I have pre-book a driver back in Malaysia.

I paid NT$4500 for 2 days drive which the driver take us from
1 day: from Cingjing(清境) to Hehuanshan(合欢山) to Taroko Gorge National Park(太鲁阁) to Hualian (花莲)
1 day: Hualian day trip

I think its worth what we are paying for. Here is thethe contact of the driver - Mr Wei, MSN: park884734@hotmail.com

We depart from Cingjing at 8am, but the weather of the day wasn’t that good. The whole journey was with thick fog along the way up the hill. The viewable distance was just 1-2 meters and it is so dangerous to drive on such hills.

We reach the most top that the car can reach at Hehuanshan. I was shivering cold when I walk out of the car. We manage to see snow but most of them started melt because of the rain last night. The melted snow become a small fountains at the side of the rocks beside the road.

The way down the hill, we manage to see some hill/forests view .

Next we reach the intersection of the between Hualian(花蓮)，Puli(埔里) and Taizhong(台中).

There are selling some vegetables and fruits beside the road. Notice their fruits are bigger then we say in the market.

8.1 Cingjing Farm 清境农场

2010-06-17T11:51:00.001+08:00

After having our delicious lunch，our homestay boss drive us down to the Cingjing Farm(清境农场) . Entrance free is $60 with the youth card. (np$80)

We start walking on the green green grass farm. Enjoying these lovely sheep.

Those sheep are so busy eating grass non stop.

Unique species of black sheep, only 2 in the farm.

Pony around the farm.

Those sheep are very hungry. We brought their food and feed them. After eating the food from our hand, the next immediate action was bending down and start eating grass.

It is fun and funny feeding them.

The cutest animal on the farm are these lamb.

After the lamb and sheep park, there is a section on goat park, butterfly park, and other animals park. We wasn't in a great interest and we just walk pass by.

We pass by the Cingjing Vistor Center and when in for food trying and souvenirs.

Next we reach a stairs of pathway (步步高升步道). We look down from the stairs and was wondering to walk down 500 steps or to choose to walk the hill road beside the stairs.

Our last choice was climbing down the stairs and we are glad we made the correct selection. Look on the right hand side of the picture. Such a long and windy road to walk down.

We then reach a small garden beside the 7-11 called 小瑞士花园. We didn't enter the park as the homestay boss told us that is wasn't that exciting inside.

There is a huge 7-11 beside the 小瑞士花园, selling 7-11 own mascot and goodies.

Another 7-11 opposite the road. So many 7-11 in Taiwan. When we was in Kaohsiung, there is 3 shops of 7-11 in the same road. Gosh~!

There are some beautiful shops around 7-11。

8.0 Cingjing Farm 清境农场 + 觀星園 Starry House

2010-06-11T14:01:00.000+08:00

We headed to Cingjing Farm(清境农场) early next morning

Transport:
Take a bus from Sun Moon Lake(日月潭) to Puli(埔里)， then take another bus to Cingjing. You can get the bus time table from the Tourist Center.

We reach the Cingjing tourist center around 11am. I called up our homestay person in charge to fetch us.

This is where we stay at Cingjing - 觀星園 starry house. It is the most recommended homestay on my whole trip at Taiwan. Room price $1750 per on Friday night. This price includes free transportation around Cingjing area, breakfast and dinner from the homestay.

The boss was kind enough to upgrade our room to a larger 4 person room. We can see the beautiful view of Cingjing town from our room.

Some interior of the living area of the homestay, full with flower and home deco.

The night view we took from our room.

We reach at the homestay at lunch time. The homestay boss was kind enough to cook us lunch.

He told us he will cook some noodle for us as lunch. We think that he will cook those instant noodle for us, we waited for more then half hour and he came out with these lovely lunch set- mushroom spaghetti and corn soup. And it is free of charge. Plus the coffee and tea too.

Our dinner was delicious too, we have this famous sour vegetable steamboat (酸白菜火锅) which are their famous meal. This meal was very filling too.

That night was very cold. The bed have a sheet of heater and both of us are not willingly we step down the bed that night. The heater sheet has made us a pleasant night stay at there.

Next morning breakfast was well served too. Both the boss and the lady boss really treat us as their guest and served us the best.

Al thought this the most expensive room price that I paid in Taiwan. But to me, it was the worth what I paid for in terms of the service, food and transportation they provide.

Olivia Ong

2010-06-10T10:30:00.002+08:00

Love her voice, love her song, so relax and sweet ~
She sang the theme song of the Singapore famous drama serial, "The Little Nyonya".

Started to notice her after the show Superstar Taiwan.

7.4 Sun Moon Lake Tour 日月潭遊艇遊湖 Part 2

2010-06-03T17:00:00.000+08:00

After getting down from the Sun Moon Lake Cable car, we walk back to Yidashao Wrarf(伊达邵码头). We waited for our boat to Syuanguang Wrarf (玄奘寺码头)

Since it is the last boat back to Shueishe Wharf(水社码头), we have insufficient time to visit the attractions around Syuanguang Wrarf (玄奘寺码头). We only have time to buy a Herbal egg(茶叶蛋).

Sunset along the way back to Shueishe Wharf(水社码头)

Most expensive Hotel at Sun Moon Lake. Room price USD $1000 per night. Heard that weekends are always full-house.

This dog knows how to help his owner to pull the strings to the Wharf.

Dinner of the day ~ doesn't taste good.

7.3 Formosan Aboriginal Culture Village 九族文化村

2010-06-02T15:15:00.001+08:00

Finally we reach the Formosan Aboriginal Culture Village (九族文化村). Read here on how to reach the culture village from Sun Moon Lake.

Yes, indeed there is tons of small kids on the park on weekdays. I was wondering are they on a school holidays? But later I just found out they are on a school trip to the park. How I wish I have this activities when I was young.

There is another cable car inside the culture village called culture village cable car.(九族缆车) I recommend that to walk down the hill and later take the culture village cable car up to the entrance.

After the entrance, we can see lots of buildings and statue on the park. The culture village shows 9 different native race culture, buildings and lifestyle.

Lavender plants all around the culture village.

Some performance on the park.

Beautiful Amis lady from the performance.

Lucky lamp work beads accessories. The movie Cape No 7 make this accessories become famous.

We have lunch at the Aboriginal Culture Village. The Aboriginal dish doesn't taste as good as I thought, but the chicken chop was tasty.

There is a small pond with fishes beside the native's village.

Next we reach the theme park. There are several games and adventures games. I only play this water game – 加勒比海探险. It is a wet game and we need to buy raincoats and put all our things in the locker. Why wearing rain coats, see the below pictures and you will know why.

The water splash wasn't just once, but several times. We need to put all our things in a locker and buy the rain coat.

Indoor theme park

TS told me this UFO can see the whole culture village beautiful view.

The most adventurous/scary game on the theme park – 马雅探险. You can see all the spinning and twisting on the roller coaster.

While waiting for TS in his game, I manage to snap a picture of this lovely Taiwan native child.

After the theme park, we saw a huge garden with full of flowers called-水沙连欧洲宫廷花园. We took the whole picture from far view as we are short of time plus very tired. If you have time, you can sit the park train to visit round the park. I think its such a lovely place to take pictures.

Why are we so rush? Because our boat trip back to our homestay is 5pm.

Beside the huge garden there is the Culture village cable car which will take us up on the entrance to the Sun moon lake cable car. In the Culture village cable car, we are able to see the whole view of the cultural village.

Won a Sony Camera

2010-05-27T12:30:00.000+08:00

TS was lucky enough to win a Sony Camera DSC-S2100 worth RM499 by using swiping a minimum of RM5000 on his Standard Chartered credit card. (To him it is so easy to swiping RM5K per month).
This camera was better compare to my previous digital camera. It has 12.1 Mega Pixels, 3x optical zoom lens and the best part is the 3.0" Clear Photo LCD Screen. Woh ~ bigger then my DSLR. Video capturing is capable with this camera.

Pipit 4th Wonderful Market - The day

2010-05-26T12:27:00.000+08:00

Here is our booth at the Pipit 4th Wonderful Market. A design layout from Chiwawa Family. The event was crowded with tons of people in a small room at Annexe Gallery. We are sweating from the event start until the end.

My neighbour stall finish selling at around 4pm and he lend us place to sell ~ But the layout was in a mess.

I was more busy on selling. I didn't have more time to chat around and making new friends. I am looking forward for the next Pipit event. Thanks for everyone who drop by my stall ~!

Here are some interesting picture on items/things selling that day.

I-City, Shah Alam

2010-05-25T17:17:00.000+08:00

We was driving home from our new house and spotted this place called I-City along Federal highway. I-City is the latest MSC Malaysia Cybercentre Zone @ Shah Alam, Selangor. Too bad we didn't carry my camera stand along with us. Good part was the parking is FREE.

We manage to snap some nice picture I-City.

Does this picture like we are having winter at Malaysia? The scene looks like winter but it is actually very warm even it is on at night.

Ice-world at I-City. Everything in white LED lights.

Star shaped LED lights ~

Blue crystal balls ~

Penguins at the snow

Chinese New Year Theme lights and decorations. Picture are more yellowish as lights are in yellow color.

The huge Christmas Trees are build from pieces of snowflakes LED lights. I think they hang up the red lanterns during Chinese New Year.

Those LED Trees was bright and standing out on the night.

Detail shot of the LED trees

Lots of pine trees decorated with lights at the park.

7.2 Sun Moon Lake Tour 日月潭遊艇遊湖 Part 1 + 日月潭缆车 Sun Moon Lake Cable Car

2010-05-24T15:14:00.000+08:00

Next morning, we reach the Shueishe Wharf (水社码头) at around 9am.

Today we plan to visit Formosan Aboriginal Culture Village (九族文化村)。

How go to Formosan Aboriginal Culture Village from Sun Moon Lake?
1. By Bus
2. By Sun Moon Lake Cable Car

Our homestay is at Shueishe Wharf(水社码头).
The Sun Moon Lake Cable Car is near Yidashao Wrarf(伊达邵码头).
So we decided to take the boat from Shueishe Wharf(水社码头)to Yidashao Wrarf(伊达邵码头), where we can go to the Sun Moon Lake cable car station.

The lake tour is divided into 3 major stops:
1． Shueishe Wharf(水社码头) –〉Yidashao Wrarf(伊达邵码头)
2． Yidashao Wrarf(伊达邵码头)-〉Syuanguang Wrarf (玄奘寺码头)
3． Syuanguang Wrarf(玄奘寺码头) –〉Shueishe Wharf(水社码头)
At the back of the ticket has the time of each location on when the boat is leaving.

The earlist boat from Shueishe Wharf(水社码头) is 9.20am, and the latest boat from Syuanguang Wrarf(玄奘寺码头) back is 5pm.

Every boat company will have it's own time.

Pink yacht ~ kawai-neh

We took the earlist boat ride which is 9.20am. That day is weekdays and we are only the 2 passenger on the boat. Seems like we are renting the whole boat. Hehehe....

Reach Yidashao Wharf (伊达邵码头)。

But the Sun Moon Lake Cable Station look so far, we need to walk 20-30minute.

Here we reach the cable car station, there is a lot crowd on the station, especially more then hundred kids runing around.

We quickly move to buy our tickets.
There is a promotion purple lavender《紫戀薰衣草》 on that time, our ticket to the culture village + cable car is NT$550 (normal price NT$700)
Our cable car ticket number was over thousand at 10.15am.

The cable car starts operating at 10.30am. I took the culture village map and study on it. It definately is a huge park and there is alot things to visit and play.

After waiting for half hour, it's own turn on the cable cars. It is not my first time on cable cars as there are cable car's at Genting, Malaysia. The Sun Moon Lake cable cars are in these 3 different colors: blue, red and yellow.

If you come to Sun Moon Lake, this cable car trip is a must ride. From the cable cars, you can see the amazing beautiful lake view from the cable cars.

7.1 日月潭骑脚踏车游记 Cycling Exprience around Sun Moon Lake

2010-05-20T16:11:00.000+08:00

After settle everything on the home stay, we decided to have a short cycling trip around the lake. Sun Moon Lake is a very huge lake. Walk or cycle the whole lake will take hours.

The last bicycle that I ride myself was 16 years old. It has been years that I didn't ride a bicycle and I was having a hard time controlling it. I fell down several times and TS say I look dangerous cycling like that. But gradually I manage to control the bicycle as I won't fall that easily.

The weather wasn't that good. There is so much fog around and we couldn't have a clear picture of the lake.

Poor bride is taking her wedding photo is such a cold evening.

The water of the lake is clear and clean. No rubbish. I don't think we can see clean lake at Malaysia!

There is a temple around our path. Its a small slope up the hill. I was exhausted cycling up the hill, thus I just push the bicycle up.

Finally reach the temple - Dragon and Phoenix Temple (龙凤宫).

Next we saw the Sun Moon Lake Tourist Center. Travelling at Taiwan is kinda easy as there are a lot of these travel center around the tourist place, it's a great place to source for tourist information, transport and accommodation.

In front of the Tourist Center is a row of shops.

There is nothing special on food at Sun Moon Lake. The most famous food is the lake fish called president fish(中统鱼), but the price is costly.
We stop by 7-11, TS brought the lunch box from Fencihu, and I brought another lunch box and we have our dinner in 7-11. TS lunch box taste as good as in Fencihu, but mine taste so so.

7-11special design t-shirt from Sun Moon Lake

The day become dark, we walk to the Shueishe Wharf(水社码头) to take some night views.

Here are some hotels in front of the Shueishe Wharf. It is so beautiful with the colorful lights.

On the wharf, there are some musical fountain performance. The mixture of lights, water the music just makes everyone so smoothing.

Shueishe Wharf night scenery which is full with yachts.

7.0 Sun Moon Lake Homestay 日月潭民宿

2010-05-19T16:35:00.000+08:00

We reach Sun Moon Lake around 4pm. The van stop us at our homestay: LOVE HOME 度假旅店

We took a promotion package(2天1夜幸福之旅) for NT$1600, which includes
★2 free bicycle ride
★2 Sun Moon Lake Lake tour tickets
★2 free breakfast
Do refer here for more details. (Price now is slightly higher as they have increase the room rates)

Here is our room of the package(203 红色浪漫)
The room looks new, with morden design and beautiful, suitable for loving couples for a stay,. The only limitation to me is the open concept of the toilet bowl.

I booked 2 night at Sun Moon Lake, but the lady boss make a mistake and that lovely red room has been booked by others. We have to change to another room (Love木屋四人套房) which cost us NT$1300 for this huge room.
Overall the rooms are comfortable enough for a night stay. Disadvantages was they didn't provide only heater on the room. Both nights was as cold as 12 degrees. I wore the white jacket even I was in bed.

Preparation for Pipit Wonderful Market 4

2010-05-14T11:33:00.002+08:00

Some sneak peek on items that I will be selling at the Pipit Wonderful Market 4. Been working hard on the events. Hope the people will love my items :)
Colorful kawaii handphone/ multipurpose pouch with matching swingable wrist strap
Drawstring pouches~ I love the lace!
Lots of tissue pouches in different design, fabric and colors
Some other sewings pouches, bags....
I am selling some craft materials too, such as these lovely buttons, paper flowers(below), jewelery finding, stamps ... etc.

Remember to drop by to Pipit Wonderful Market 4 at Central Market tomorrow from 12pm- 8pm to visit me and Chiwawa Family.

6.0 Jiji集集，Shuili水里，CheCheng车埕

2010-05-13T14:22:00.000+08:00

Jiji(集集) Township is a small town at Nantou(南投).

It is one alternative way to reach the Sun Moon Lake (日月潭).

How to get to Sun Moon Lake(日月潭)from Alishan(阿里山)?
Here are some answer that I got online.
1． Take a railway train/high speed train from ChiaYi (嘉义)to Taichung(台中)，take a bus from Taichung railway station (台中火车站) to Puli(埔里)，and change bus from Puli(埔里)to Sun Moon Lake. (I did see a brochure mention that you can take a bus direct from Taichung railway station to the Sun Moon Lake)
2． Take a railway train from ChiaYi(嘉义) to Zhanghua Ershuei Station(彰化二水站), then change to Jiji Railway Line (集集线小火车）to Shuili(水里)， take a bus from Shuili to the Sun Moon Lake.
3． Take a cab/ car from Alishan to Sun Moon Lake。Price around NT$4500-NT$5500 per cab.

After some research from the internet, I deciede to take Choice 2. As I do not need to head up to Taichung and go down to SunMoonLake.

At 8am, we depart from Chiayi and took a train to Zhanghua Ershuei Station.

Remember to get down here and change another track to catch the train heading to Jiji.

The Jiji line, which runs from Ershuei, takes you right up to Taiwan’s oldest train station. It is a small train and it passed by rows of green trees.

The railway track is even at the back of their homes.

The train passed by an slanting electrical pole which is damage during the earthquake. Now it is one of the travel attractionof Nantou.

We reach Jiji at 10am.

We just hand over our luaggage to the railway station officer and they are kind enough to let us put our luaggage there. But becareful not to put valuable things on your bag. It is not a proper bag deposit counter.

This small train is the trade mark and a must take photograph place just when we step our legs out from the train station.

There is another large train beside the railway station.

The best way to travel along Jiji Township is by renting a bicycle. There are paths for cyclist.

We rent our bicycle at the nearby shop. NT$200 for 24hours. It is an electrical bicycle where you just press the button and it will run by itself without pedaling the bicycle pedal. I would recomend renting this as it is not that tiring if you cycle yourselve.
If the battery is out, we can call the boss and he will come and recharge it free for us.

The weather was cold. TS was freezing as he cycle. PS: I just sit and hide behind him :)

First we saw the Military Park (軍史公園). This is the first Military Park to display unuse army's weapons such as Flying jets, tanks, air missile in public open air.

Next we visited the Mingxin Library(明新書院). It is a heritage building and it is a school/library on the olden days.
Beside the Mingxin Library, there is a Eco - life Park (集集特有生物研究保育中心)，we skip that place as we are not really interested in visiting animals again.

Continue to cycle and we pass by a big piece of planted flowers. Entrance is NT$10. The flowers as so beautiful and its endless flower all around us. If you want to pick a Sun flower, just drop a $10 coin the box.

Next we reach Collapsed Wuchang Temple (武昌宮). The temple was damage during the 921 earthquake. The miracle part of this building was the God statue that they save out start to grow moustache. We really saw it with our eyes.

Next we reach this 700 year old tree called 大樟樹，locals has been praying the tree for quite sometime and call it 樟樹公. Tere is a temple 大眾爺祠 beside the tree.

We reach this place called 目仔窯， but no shops are open.

Lastly we visit the Green Lane (集集綠色隧道).
On our way back, TS stop by a famous ice-cream shop. He dare to eat the ice-cream in such a cold weather.

We headed back to the bicycle shop and the boss introduce us to have our lunch at this small old shop.

The shop is without any sign board, yet there are alot of people ordering their food.
We tried pig intestine (猪肠) -very delicious，YangChun Noodle(阳春面)，Dumplings (水饺)， and another unknown food。They taste good and didn't cost us alot.

After our lunch, we return our bicycle and took the train to CheCheng(车埕)。

CheCheng is the last station of Jiji Line。
The scenery is wonderful. With the big mountains, hills, abit haze and the old train makes everything perfect. It peace our mind when we are at there.

We didn't visit any place at CheCheng. We saw a group of people visiting CheCheng Old Street. But with all the lauggage we have, just forget it. There is also a wood museum (木业文化馆)，but is was close. So we took the next train and went back to Shuli(水里).

At Jiji Line, the route of the train is Jiji集集->Shuili水里->CheCheng车埕. We can only take bus from Shuili to Sun Moon Lake.

We reach Shuili. We wanted to take a bus, but the next bus is 1 hour later. We decided to take a cab which cost NT$400 per cab to Sun Moon Lake. It took us 30++ minutes to reach Sun Moon Lake

5.2 Fenqihu 奮起湖 + 嘉义Chiayi

2010-05-12T10:36:00.000+08:00

We left Alishan at 12pm to Fenqihu(奮起湖),NT$400 per person.
Public transport is impossible to reach Fenqihu due to time constrain.Unless you are staying there 1 night.

On the way to Fenqihu，they are repairing the road and cause massive jam on the road for more then 40 minutes. We ended up reaching Fenqihu 3++pm which initialy need only 1 hour trip.

Fenqihu is a small town along the forest railway.

It is well know for the local box lunches (奮起湖便當, Fencihu bento) which were once sold to passengers on the rail line. Each lunch box is sold NT$100, which consist rice, vegetables, chicken and pork meat. TS love Fenchihu bento alot.

There are several old street, wooden houses selling sourvinor and foods.
The railway station that was stoped working due to the flood.

We continue our journey down to ChiaYi. We stop by the temple (龍隱寺).

And there are 2 Suspension Bridge.
The Tianchang bridge (天長橋) is closed.

But not the DiJiu Brigde (地久橋)

We reach Chiayi train station and we headed to 新高大飯店 and check-in our hotel in Chiayi. Room rates is NT$800 per night. The hotel is very near to the train station and the room is quite big.

On our way for dinner, we stop at Bosini and brought both of us 2 thick jumper jackets. 2 jackets only cost us NT$1400 which we will never get this price in Malaysia. The SA recommend me to buy a thicker one as I will be visiting Qingjing on the next few days.

The weather jump to as cold as 8-9°C at night due to the cold wind(寒流)blowing toward Taiwan island.

Our dinner is famous chicken rice nearby our hotel. Too bad I forgotten to snap the shop name.

After dinner, we wonder around Chiayi town. The weather is so cold and we stop to had some Taofufa (豆花) and you know what, the Taofufa went cold after 15 minutes. Oh ~! the weather is really really cold by now.

5.1 Jade Mountain 玉山 + Alishan 阿里山

2010-05-07T12:21:00.000+08:00

Woke up at 5.30am. Why? To see the sun rise at Jade Mountain aka Yushan(玉山). Jade Mountain highest mountain in Taiwan. Each person is NT$250 for the trip to the Jade Mountain.

That morning, the temperature is only 9 °C. The homestay lady boss was kind enough to lean us thick jumper jackets.

Due to the rain last night, there is too much haze and we have no luck on enjoy the view of sun rise :( But we can see the beautiful scenery of the hills and moutains.

Lulin ShenMu(鹿林神木) an 2800 years old tree.There are several monkeys around the hill too.

We reach our homestay at 8++am ， TS was too tried and went for a nap, and I was busy taking some photographs of lovely pictures around there.

My breakfast from 7-11, green tea latte and snacks.

We were very lucky that we decided to visit the Alishan National Park yesterday. Today the weather wasn't that good and rains alot. A pair of couple in the homestay told the lady boss they can't see the beautiful scenery at Alishan hill due to the haze and the rain.
Was too boring and brought some postcard to post to my family and friends。

5.0 Alishan 阿里山

2010-05-04T14:52:00.000+08:00

The next day (6th day), we headed to Alishan (阿里山). Alishan is located at Chiayi (嘉义) district. We took the 8am railway train from Kaohsiung Train Station (高雄火车站)to Chiayi Train Staion (嘉义火车站) for 1 hour and 15 minutes. Train ticket cost us NT$246 per person.

We reach Chiayi Train Staion and we brought 10am bus ticket to Alishan. It is a 2 hour journey and the ticket price is NT$221. The Famous Alishan Forest Railway had stop service since the 88 flood （88水灾） that hit Taiwan last year. The locals told us the Forest railway will be only available after 3 years from the flood. We saw alot of damage cause by mother nature.

The bus will stop us at the Alishan National Scenic Area (阿里山國家風景區) entrance. Each person will need to buy a ticket to enter. We paid $100 per person with the youth card(np$150).

We reach Alishan at 12 noon, the bus stop us at 7-11，and our homestay - 欣欣民宿is just beside the7-11, it is so convinent.

Decoration on the enterance of the homestay.

The lady boss is such a kind lady, she even borrow us thick jumper coat for us at the next morning due to the cold weather. Our room is NT$1200 per might and it is there have a heater in the room.

We ate our lunch at the near by stall near our homestay. We met a Singapore family of 4, after some chit chat, we found out that they are traveling at Taiwan for 26days! Whenever I tell my friend that I'm going to Taiwan for 17 days, they will say "Siao ar? go so many days for what ar?", "So many things to see mer?". After this trip, I can say "Yes, you need so many days if you plan to round Taiwan Island". Even 17 days for us is still not enough.

After our lunch, we started our journey at Alishan Hill. There is a native performance in front of the enterance.

Started climbing up the hill. Started to spot cherry blossom aka sakura flowers on the way.

Cherry blossom (sakura) season starts from 10th March until 15 April every year. We was at Alishan at 8th March and we are so lucky that this year the cherry blossom open early this year.

I must say, we really have a good exprience in seing beautiful white and red blossom around Alishan.

Alishan Forest Railway 阿里山铁路.

After the flood, tourist to Alishan decrease tremendously. We visit Alishan at Monday and the crowd was so little.

It's a huge park and we start to get lost.

Even the tree, forest looks beautiful with those sakura flower trees.

Here we reach the Two Sisters Pond (姊妹潭).

The we saw the Golden pig.
And the famous love tree.

The famous Shermuh (神木) - giant tree. We have climbed more then 100 stairs up from the Giant Trees Trail just to see this huge tree. The small Cihyun Temple, and the Tree Spirit Pagoda are along the way.

We walked thru the Alishan Park for more then 5 hours until the day got dark. We visited 7-11 on our way to have our dinner. Cute 7-11 Alishan mascot & T-shirt . I think the doll is the cutest among all.

Food:
Top left：Lunch: meat noodle肉庚面 - nice
Bottom left：mua-ci - taste good
The rest are the steamboat Dinner we had, NT$700 – taste so so....
There is nothing much to write on the food at Alishan.

Short Trip back to Penang

2010-05-04T10:06:00.000+08:00

My brother was back from UK on someday mid March and our dad ask us to get back for a small gathering over the weekend.

He brought back alot of chocolates ~ yummy ones. One of my favorite is these Ferrero Dark Chocolates. And some dark chocolate Kit Kat too. Our family is a great fan of chocolates.

When to the market and saw some of our childhood snacks. My sister brought and gave my brother some. Which he will never find these at UK. The price shoot up high compare to those days when we were young.

Steamboat is our tradition dish on Chinese New Year. My brother couldn't make it back for this year Chinese New Year. So we gather and prepare one for him.

No photo's on my family~ why? Warn buy my sister not to put "ugly" un-edit pictures up online. Haha.

Here are some pictures on my dogs at home. It is so hard to capture a still picture of Browny.

Too much flash ~~

Lucky looks great on pictures ~!

Spotted a cute white puppy beside my friends house ~

Mum's garden

2010-05-03T17:20:00.000+08:00

I know my Taiwan Trip is getting more and more boring.

But it is very useful for those who are planning to visit Taiwan in future.

Today I shall blogged some shooting I took back at Penang. ~ My mums Garden

She love planting them at the house compound. She is proud of her garden. Some plants become enormous big. The 'Kertas Bunga' plant is now even taller then me.

Some colorful and different types of flowers ~ Don't ask me, I do not know their name.

4.2 British old Embassy 英国领事馆，Dream Mall夢時代購物中心, Love River爱河

2010-04-29T10:50:00.000+08:00

The British old Embassy 英国领事馆 is 15 minutes walk from the Cijin Ferry Station. I think they should have shuttle bus to there, but we are too lazy to wait and just walk towards the British Old Embassy.

Some old building and streets we saw along the road.

Finally we reached the British old Embassy 英国领事馆, a historical building made from red bricks. There is also an english high tea restoran behind of the building.

We are more attracted with the beautiful sea view from the embassy. There you can see the 85 building where we stay.
Next we headed to the Dream Mall (夢時代購物中心) - the largest shopping mall in Taiwan and 2nd largest in Asia. We took the MRT and stop at Kaisyuan station (凯旋站). There is free shutter bus every 5-10 minutes to the Dream Mall and see how kawaii is the shuttle bus ~

Why do I come to this shopping mall? To me is to see the Hello Kitty Ferris Wheel（摩天輪）on the roof. See how huge is the Ferris Wheel.
Everywhere on the Ferris Wheels are decorated with Hello Kitty and Sanrio Friends characters.

Even Sanrio characters on the ticketing booth and each couch. So cute~~!

The day is getting dark and we headed to the Love River (爱河). We took the MRT and stop at Yanchengpu(盐埕埔站). We took the free shuttle bus and reach GuangRou Habour （光荣码头）. Such a beautiful river decorated with lights. It was such a coincidence that they are having a lattern festival there. And that day was their closing ceremony. And MayDay(五月天)is preforming there too. Woh~!
The fireworks starts 7pm and another final one at 9pm. It is a combination of fountain music and fireworks. It's very fun to look at firework from near as they are so much beautiful then you see it from far.

After the fireworks, we when to the lattern festival. Different types of design, motifs, pattern on the lattern festival and I think this 2 was the best.

Along the road side, this old man handmade candies are so cute. He actually draw the candy straight ahead from the heating plate. Amazing.

There are alot more places to visit at Kaohsiung. See here to get more information.

4.1 Kaohsiung高雄 - Cijin District 旗津

2010-04-28T08:54:00.000+08:00

Next morning, we headed to Cijin District 旗津. Cijin is located on a thin island in Kaohsiung harbor. It's our 5th day at Taiwan. At the MRT station, we brought the unlimited 1 day pass which is NT$200 and NT$70 is refundable. We took the MRT and stop at the last station of the yellow line -Sizihwan (西子湾站). It is 7 minutes walk from the MRT station to the Ferry station. I would highly recommend to rent a bicycle or bike when you come down from the MRT station. Else you will be like us, walking non-stop.

It is short ferry ride, shorter compare to Penang and Seberang Prai ferry ride. Remember to prepare $15 coin for the ride.
The first building we see when we step our foot on this small island is the Cijin TianHouGong (旗津天后宮). It is a very old temple yet beautifully decorated with red latterns.
We started to walk along the beaches. Chinese temples is at everywhere.

Do remember to rent a bicycle. We didn't and we walk non stop until we gave up. We only pass by the Beach park (海岸公園) and the sea shell park (贝壳馆) and walk back to the ferry station.
On our way back, we manage to see an interesting event: God celebration (神游街). Some interesting faces, looks and culture could be see on here.

The whole street is fired up with red firecrackers and they just carry their god over the street without fear.

After a long walk, we manage to get ourselves back to Cijin Old street. We started to hunt for food. Cijin old street seafood are cheap, cheaper then we ate at Kenting.
We ordered: Steamfish, abalone slice, fried crab and small squid. Each dish is only NT$100 and rice is free flow and FREE. The seafood are fresh and delicious.

We finish our meal and took the ferry back to Kaohsiung main land. Next we headed to British old Embassy 英国领事馆.

4.0 Kaohsiung HomeStay 高雄 & RuiFeng Night Market 瑞豐夜市

2010-04-27T14:04:00.001+08:00

We booked the driver to pick us up at 6.30pm and we reach aohsiung City at 8pm. The driver drop us at out Homestay <高雄85天空> which is located at 85 Building(85大楼). Our room is located at 30th floor. From our room, we can see the sea view. It is clean and spacious, much more better then the homestay in Taipei. Our room cost us NT$1680(saturday night) and NT$1180 (sunday night). I paid NT$1500 by credit card as deposit for my stay. It is just 10 minutes walk from the Sanduo Shopping District MRT station(三多商圈).

Next we headed to RuiFeng Night Market (瑞豐夜市), the largest night market at Kaosiung. We took the Kaohsiung Arena MRT (巨蛋站)to the night market. Taiwan night markets are far more different from Malaysian night market.

We started with the food section. I grab this Keli Biscult (可立饼). They will put the ingrediants n top of the base and wrap it over. I must say, the one I ate taste good. Its a mixture of salty ingrediants such as ham, egg, vegetables, corn ... etc.
I have also tried the fried bird egg(炸鸟蛋). Its just like Tako balls.
The grill squid 酥炸大鱿鱼(top left) are quite famous in Taiwan. Even a small store like this requires us to queue according to number we take. TS tried the hotplate chicken noodle 铁板烧鸡排(top right) ~ nothing special. One thing I like the most in Taiwan is the their fruits. Their fruits are very sweet and crispy. I brought 2 pack of guava from the bottom left photo, the stall called 阿容芭乐.Their licorice root taste(甘草口味)is the best. I enjoy those big red jambul air (水蓊) at there too. Taiwan Grill Sausages 香肠(bottom right) are the best among all. Malaysian so call "Taiwan sausage" has nothing to fight.

Taiwan night markets have alot of this kind of entertainments games. We can't find these at pasar malam at Malaysia anymore. I think I still can see this at Genting highland indoor theme park.
Baseball theme game. To me, their night market is like everything in a roof top. I even saw a stall serving message service. We tried the head neck message 15 minutes for NT$100.

3.5 National Museum of Marine Biology and Aquarium 國立海洋生物博物館

2010-04-17T11:55:00.000+08:00

After our lunch, we headed to the National Museum of Marine Biology and Aquarium ( 國立海洋生物博物館). We plan to take the public bus but as the Aquarium last entry is 5pm. That time was around 3.15pm. We decided to take a cab to there, fee is NT$400 per car.

We leave our luaggage with the homestay and we pre-book the car driver to pick us up at the Aquarium at 6.30pm, which means we no need to carry our huge luaggage and walk around the Aquarium.

Entrance Fee to the whole park is NT$450. We brought it for NT$400 from our homestay.
A place inside the park, huge whales and fountains and water - it's water pool for children to play.

Huge squild made with metals ~

There are several section on the park, such as corals, sea life, fossil ....
I enjoy more on the natural coral section.

And these lovely cute penguin ~ and off course it is cool inside here. I have a video on these cute penguin, will update them later.

There is a place where we can see the sinking ships, surrounding with the sea life.

Pretty white whale

I love those jelly fishes...

There are only 2 of these sea lion on the park. He is so cute ~ he will peak on you and see if u are looking at him and if u are, he will start to swim and perform trick for you. Haha~!

Sea creatures that we can touch.

It's still fun visiting the Aquarium Park, it's more meaningful if you are taking your kids around.

3.4 Kenting National Park 垦丁国家公园 Part 2

2010-04-16T12:55:00.001+08:00

The next morning, we started our journey with the Blue line mark on the map.

Our journey path:
Kenting Main Road (垦丁大街) -> Sail Rock (船帆石) -> Banana Bay (香蕉灣) -> Shadao beach(砂島) -> Eluanbi Park(鵝鑾鼻公園) -> Most South Part (最南點)-> Lungpan Park (龍磐公園) -> FengChueiSha(風吹沙) - > Gangkou Suspension Bridge(港口吊橋) -> Back to Homestay

First we reach Sail Rock (船帆石), a huge rock standing alone in the ocean.

Beach at the Sail Rock ~ so blue and beautiful

Harbour Banana Bay (香蕉灣) - isn't it the sea is too clean for a harbour? There is a place for swiming on Banana Bay but we didn't saw it!

After the Banana Bay, we drove to the Eluanbi Park(鵝鑾鼻公園).

Entrance Fee is $20(n.p $40), discount using the travel youth card.

Within the park, there are a number of recreational facilities and a wide range of interesting geological, botanical and ornithological features.

Becareful for snake and incests on the park ~

This park is famous for this most notable landmarks - the Eluanbi Lighthouse. The Eluanbi Lighthouse is also known as the "Light of East Asia"

The rest of the parks are those cave's form by natural stones, cliffs and trees...

Just beside the Eluanbi Park, we drove to the Most South Part (最南點) of Taiwan. It's another just a place to see more on the sea.

We drove again up the hill, later we passed by Lungpan Park (龍磐公園).The Park features spectacular sheer slumping cliffs, coastal terraces and of course again, beautiful views of the sea.

After the Lungpan Park, we arrive at FengChueiSha(風吹沙). Something special of the FengChueiSha is the strong northeasterly winds blow the sand up to the top of the cliffs. See the sand behind me ~! There are from the sea.

Later we arrive at Gangkou Suspension Bridge(港口吊橋), was just wondering why there is a suspension bridge at here.

We missed the Shadao beach(砂島) and we found it on our way back to our homestay.

Over the years, seashells, rhizaria and coral have create the fine white sand for which Shadao’s beach is famous.

But now it is prohibited to enter the sand area as too much sand has been taken away by visitors

We went back to our homestay and return the bike to the shop. We headed to have our lunch at Kenting Main Road. Here are the seafood we have for lunch which cost us NT$600++ ~ not cheap having seafood at Kenting

Coming next: National Museum of Marine Biology and Aquarium

3.3 Heng Chun 恒春 & Cape No 7 海角七号 Movie Scene

2010-04-16T10:40:00.002+08:00

Continue on the last post, we headed to Hengchuen(恒春) -> ChuHuo(出火特别景观区)

This is route for the day, highlighted on bold is the place that I am going to write more at this post:
Kenting Main Road(垦丁大街) -> South Bay(南灣) -> Houbihu (后壁湖) -> Maubitou(貓鼻頭) -> White Sand Beach (白沙灣海滩)-> GuanShan(關山) -> Hengchuen(恒春) -> ChuHuo(出火特别景观区) -> Back to Homestay

The day was getting dark and we headed to Heng Chun(恒春). Heng Chun is also the only urban township in the southern part of Pingtung County.

On the way to Heng Chun, we passed by beautiful views of green paddy fields.

We reach Heng Chun and saw this sign board. It was one of the movie scene -〈海角七号中山老街〉.

Most of the people at Heng Chun know this place - Aga House 〈阿嘉之屋〉. I think Cape No. 7 is a sucessful movie, as the number of visitor visiting Kenting increase after that movie. And these movie scence are now one of a travel destination for visitors. If you are lost like us, just hop down from your bike and ask anyone, they are so kind to help on directions.

This is the bike that we use on our trip. Entrance fee is NT$50 per person - abit expensive.

There is so much photos of the movie scence inside the house.

The 2 window glasses that had been broken by Tomoko and now there have repaired them with their signature on it.

The letters......

There is a girl inside the house where she will help us take photos on the house. It is somehow like a standard shot of position on the house. She help us take more then 30 shots in this small room and I have selected 2 to show here.

TS wearing Aga Postman Uniform ...

Me wearing Tomoko's hat and bags.

Just a few steps out of Aga House, there is the post office which Aga works at.

On our way to find our dinner, we passed by this XiMen(西门), one of the movie scence too.

This is the famous Duck Meat Noodle〈鸭肉东粉〉that our homestay owner told us.

Taste good ~~

Some food that the local's introduce to me -duck meat, rice cubes, intestine(don't know duck or chickhen) and some seaweed. Surprisingly the intestine taste good.

Next we reach ChuHuo Special Scenic Area 〈出火特别景观区〉. Chuhuo earns its name from the natural gas that leaks from numerous fissures in the mudstone ground here. When it is light up, the fire never stops.

It's a bad idea to go at night, as there is no road lights on the stairs toward the ChuHuo area. We manage to use our cellphone lights to walk until this area.

TS trying to cook the egg we brought infront of the ChuHuo.

Someone else trying to cook popcorn too... It really pop's

Our egg~! Taste like telur bakar (barbeque egg)

On our way home, we pass by 7-11 to buy some to toiletries. I spotted these..... Omg, aren't there so cute? How I wish 7-11 in Malaysia have these.

7-11 mascot dolls and T-shirt. Each travel place have it's own unique design and pattern. I will post more in the future post. The T-shirt is $350 and the doll is $390 each.

This is the Kenting Main Road Night Market. It is just outside of our homestay. It close at 11pm ~ consider early at compare to Taipei's Night Market which usually close at 1am.

Trying new design + PIPIT Wonderful Market 4

2010-04-14T11:34:00.003+08:00

After all the long holiday and rest, I manage to get myself on the sewing machine and try some new design.

First was this dawstring pouch. Initially I wasn't doing this but it looks good after the mix and match of the bright pink polka dots with lace combain with this pink kawaii fabrics. I have sew even 2 small dots to cover the knot of the string that adds more cuteness on the drawstring pouch. I can just sit there and admire on the pouch. I feel sucessful and great to see the outcome. That the wonder and joy on crafting. I sew 2 more in a similar design just with different fabrics. You can see all of them on my shop.

Tried this tissue pouch and it turn out to be cute. Will be sewing more different fabric for the upcoming PIPIT event.

I will be joining this craft event at 15 May 2010 (Saturday) at Annexe Gallery. I will be joining booth with Chiwawa Family. Just drop a comment and let me know any new items you would like to see on that day. It's time to push myself to be more hard working in sewing before my cabinet brust out on too much fabrics... Haha ~!

3.2 Kenting National Park 垦丁国家公园 Part 1

2010-04-05T11:50:00.004+08:00

After settle down on our homestay we start to explore Kenting National Park 垦丁国家公园. Almost all the forest and beach are under protection and maintance of the Kenting National Park. Here on the map, we spend 1 day at the West Coast of Kenting (Purple Line) and another morning at the East Coast of Kenting (Blue Line)Kenting transport is not good, local bus are less. The only way you can travel around is by car or by bike. We decide to rent a bike to go round each station. In order to drive overseas, TS had apply International Driving Liciense for RM150 back at Malaysia. Go to your nearest JPJ with 2 copies of photo and you will get your international liciense within seconds.TS claim that they served the best bubble tea in Taiwan. There are alot of outlet thought out Taiwan. I love their Yakult + Lemon bubble tea.

We follow the route that the homestay guide us:

(I have highlighted in bold which I will write more in this post)
Kenting Main Road(垦丁大街) -> South Bay(南灣) -> Houbihu (后壁湖) -> Maubitou(貓鼻頭) -> White Sand Beach (白沙灣海滩)-> GuanShan(關山) -> Hengchuen(恒春) -> ChuHuo(出火特别景观区) -> Back to Homestay

Here is the South Bay(南灣) - a place for water sports and swimming.

Next, Houbihu Harbor(后壁湖) -which consist of a nuclear station(核三場南區展示館), fishing port, seafood stalls.

We took the sub-marine(觀光半潛艇) trip for 40 minutes to see the corals. Cost: $380 per person. I must say, Sabah, Malaysia have more beautiful corals then Taiwan

Yummy seafood snacks beside the fishing port. Those cuttle fish taste so good, even thou it looks pale and dule on the snacks but it taste excellent. Should buy more back. Each pack around $100

The food stalls beside the fishing port. I never saw fried flying fish before!

Several hawker stalls selling fresh seafood. The plate below is sliced raw fish that only cost $100 for more then 20 piece. So Cheap~!

Next we reach Mobitou Park(貓鼻頭). We climb up the hill and see beautiful blue seas, cliffs. What I love Taiwan sea the most is they have beautiful blue sea where we can't find it Penang (green blue sea).

You will never get lost at Kenting, the roads and simple and the signs are good enuough to get to our destination.

White Sand beach (白沙灣海滩)- It was one of the movie scene of Cape No 7 《海角七號》. There are families swimming and playing water at this beach.

GuanShan(關山) - a mountain for sunset viewing. Again more climbing up the hill~ I think I loss weight after all these exercise

Yet all this trouble of hiking hill are just worth to see such a lovely natural landscape.

A meteor(飛來石) that landed nearby the GuanShan temple and it looks like a turtle.

Sunset at GuanShan ~ nice view

Next we headed to Heng Chun for more exciting visit on Cape No 7 《海角七號》movie scene.

3.1 Kenting HomeStay 垦丁民宿 - Minimi 米尼米

2010-04-02T12:01:00.001+08:00

Reach Kenting at 12 noon, check in to our homestay at Minimi Inn米尼米 - a small cosy homestay located at a small path from Kenting Main Road.

I love how the owner design her place, stuff with cute, adorable small deco items around the house.

Bright pink color background at the back of the receiptionist. I love the Red London Letter Box which they store travel information. It give me inspiration and ideas on how to deco my new house in future.

Another main reason I booked this place is she have this cute poodle - too bad he is afaird of people, I didn't have time to play with him.

The room we book was quite a small room, but it only cost us $880 at friday night, which is consider cheap among the homestay and hotel we live. Her room is decorated with beautiful wallpapers, small item of deco items around the room. I wish I can do something like this on my new house as I have tons of cuties and deco items to be put around.

3.0 Taiwan High Speed Rail heading to Kenting 高铁前往垦丁

2010-03-29T11:20:00.003+08:00

Day 2 of our Taiwan Trip, we headed to Kenting(垦丁). It is located at the extreme southern tip of Taiwan and it is famous for beaches and forest.
TheTaiwan High Speed Rail is a high speed railway train that runs up to 300 km/h. As fast as a plane. It can reach Kaohsiung Zuoying station in 90 minutes, compare to normal railway train that needs 4.5 hours reach.

I pre-book my HSR tickets online 2-3 days before I leave Malaysia. HSR tickets are as expensive as an aireoplane tickets. It cost me NT$1490 1 way trip to Kaohsiung Zuoying station. I booked the 6.36am (90 minutes) tickets which have 35% off which is $965. I paid my tickets online via credit card and they give me extra 5% discount which makes my ticket price is only $915.

Due to the earthquake at 4th March, the HSR has stop operation for that day and resume operation at 5th March. Our train at 6.36am has cancel and it has change to 6.30am train which stops at every station. I will take us 2 hours to reach Kaohsiung.

The HSR is quite a comfortable train to ride on. The space between each sit is wide enough that we can put our luaggage in front.

Reach Kaohsiung Zuoying Station after 2 hours later. The ticket counter was so pack!

We headed to the bus station to get our bus tickets to Kenting. Due to our large luaggage, we took the lift down and we are approch with a taxi guy offering trip and transport to Kenting.

According to the driver, the bus to Kenting cost us $385 per person and it will take 3 hours to reach. IF we take taxi, it is only $400 per person and they will sent us straight to our homestay.

We agree as it is just several bucks extra. We waited for half hour and they drive us to Kenting. The car consist around 7 person.

Beautiful trees along the way to Kenting ~
Finally we saw the sea, we are excited and happy, but it was just the beginning ~ we still need to sit at the car for 1 hour before reaching our homestay. It such a long journey to travel to Kenting.

2.2 Shi Lin Night Market 士林夜市

2010-03-25T16:28:00.002+08:00

We went to ShiLin Night Market (士林夜市) on the first night and our last night on our stay at Taiwan. Why? There is a lot variety to eat and to shop.

The EasyCard (悠游卡) we got can be use at all MRT, trains and bus in Taipei only. To ShiLin Night Market, we need to change to the RED line at Taipei Main Station (台北车站) MRT to Jiantan Station (劍潭站).

Shi Lin Hawker Stall - very crowded with peoples, the stalls are mostly alike, selling the same food, from Oyster omelet, tempura, sotong soup, drink, chickhen chop....

The original XXL Chicken at Shilin night market (士林豪大大鸡排) NT$50
Very very big piece of chickhen until cannot finish.

Stinky tofu (臭豆腐) - not as smelly compare to Malaysia. I tired some, but I do not like it. TS enjoy it and finish the whole plate.
Oyster omelet(蚵仔煎) - not nice at all. Malaysia's oyster omelet are better.

Big Hotdog wrap Small Hotdog (大肠包小肠) - the outer layer is glutinous rice wrap with the real hotdog in the middle, mix with some vegetables inside.

Squid soup - warm and nice

Opposite the Hawker Stall, here comes the huge shopping area + some small snacks.

Famous Tao Fa(豆花), we can select 3 different extra topping in the tao fa. The tao fa abit burnt taste.

Ah Liang Oyster Mee Sua (阿亮面线) tasted normal. Maybe I eat too much Mee Sua like this back in Malaysia.

Sotong Bakar is another food that is great. Love them alot until we didn't manage to snap pictures on in.

Playing mahjung in public. It's a 1 person game.

Around Shi Lin Night Market, we saw this man dress up as an angle in promoting their products. And even a girl standing on the middle of the street with words on her dress promoting their shop.

The first day wondering around Shi Lin make me start spending money on buying some dress and umbrellas. Oh... I love their umbrella and I brought 3 of them.

Time was getting late and we headed back to Xi Men Ding. We saw this street artist 街头画家 spraying to produce a drawing. So cool! His booth was always crowded with people. We saw him every night when we go back to our homestay. And finally brought 2 piece of art work from him. It is just NT$100 per art work.

That's all for Day 1. Next we will be heading to Kaohsiung and to Kenting in Day 2.

2.1 Red Theater 紅樓劇場 & Tian Hou Gong 西门町天后宫

2010-03-24T16:23:00.001+08:00

Next, we visit the Red Theater (紅樓劇場) which is just opposite the Xi Men Ding MRT Exit 6. It was Taiwan's first modern market as well as a theater in Japanese rule before, now there is an exhibition hall and a small playhouse. Lots of vintage stuffs, history and old scences. Great place to snap some pictures.

Artistic dolls. There are several artist selling their craft works behind the Red Theater.

Artist Lion??

Chinese Art

Xi Men Ding Tian Hou Gong (西门町天后宫) is just walking distance from the Red Theater. It is squeeze on a row of shop houses.

There are lots of temples in Taiwan, everyone are built in very detail workmanship.

Next we headed to ShiLin Night Market (士林夜市) for our first dinner at Taiwan

2.0 Xi Men Ding 西门町 & Homestay

2010-03-24T11:55:00.004+08:00

The bus stop us at Xi Men Ding (西门町) MRT exit 6. Xi Men Deng greet us with Smile Xi Men Ding (微笑西门町)。
On our way to our home stay, we saw some film or maybe mv shooting beside the road.
Xi Men Ding is really crowded with people and alot of shops for shopping.

We stay for 5 nights at this Homestay - 時尚茱屋 Julie House
Website: http://juliehouse.shop2000.com.tw/
Blog: http://www.wretch.cc/blog/Julie0309
We live in her small room called Strawberry Garden (草莓園)

Overall the room was ok. Acceptable and cheap for the price we pay. 5 nights for $5019. We have 30% off for continuous stay for the 3rd and 4th day. Downstair have a 7-11 opposite the building. It is quite far for the MRT station, 8 minutes walk. The building is very old and the is corridor to our room torn and old. The toilet bath tub have some small cracks but luckly is was still clean. The door have complicated 2-3 locks and until the day I left , I also don't really know how to use it.
It is actually a building with many rooms on it. Some of them are monthly rental owners and Julie have 4 room at that building to rent out for travelers. One thing bad is that homestay owner isn't staying at the same building which makes us hard to get travel guide from her.

Image grab from Julie House

Public confess to someone he cares??
Some food we got on Xi Men Ding. Pot-stewed meat(卤味) - cold and taste no good.
So much people buy this, but it taste so so only.

1.0 Preparation and Flight to Taiwan

2010-03-24T11:02:00.003+08:00

Booked our ticket at August 2009 which is around RM1100++ for 2 person. Start proper research and plan early this year. And fly to Taiwan at 4th March 2010. Here are some books we refer to in our 17 days trip.

Here are the books that I refer to. The 3 small booklet on the left is very handy on traveling especially at Taipei. It contains compact infomation and even transportation information to travel. I got these at Taiwan Visitors Association KL at Wisma GoldHill which is just behind my office. Or try visiting the recent Matta Fair, there will have booths there. Or you can download the booklet from their website.

If you are visiting Taiwan from soon, just print out your flight booking and you can redeem a limited edition of EasyCard (悠游卡) with NT$50 value inside the card at Taiwan Visitors Association KL . We can refund the balance yet keep this card. I would recomend to use this card when travel in Taipei as there are some small discount on the transportation fairs using this card.

Taiwan Visitors Association, Kuala Lumpur Office
Address： WISMA GOLDHILL Suite 25-01, Level 25, Wisma Goldhill, 67 Jalan Raja Chulan, 50200 Kuala Lumpur Malaysia
Tel： +60-3-2070-6789
Fax： +60-3-2072-3559
E-mail： tva@streamyx.com
Website： http://www.welcome2taiwan.net/

I did the web checkin in Air Asia and checkin luaggage itself is just super quick. Within 10 minutes we are done with everything.
As it is a budget flight, the seats were not so comfortable. But with some chat, sleep, music listening, playing games. It wasn't that hard flying for 4 hours 40 minutes to Taiwan.

Surprisingly there is a USB port on below the screen, and TS try to charge his iphone and it works. So no worries on low battery for Iphone and Ipod.There is a small screen in each seat. There are a selection of movies, music, games, but you need to pay RM30 for that. The chatting services and the map is free. Its fun to see how the plane fly and it makes me more excited when we see the plane being more and more near to Taiwan.

Reach Tao Yuan International Airport (台湾桃园国际机场) Terminal 2 at around 2.30pm. I can feel its getting cold at here.

Beautiful handmade paper wedding dress ~ fantastic.

We apply the Youth Travel Card (青年旅遊卡) at Tao Yuan Airport for FREE, as long as you are within 15-30 years old. It provides discount and special offers on admission tickets, transportation, accommodation, and culinary delicacies for free and easy traveler like us. I find it useful for admission tickets.
We also apply the Digital Tour Buddy 寶貝機. I received a handphone with NT$100 phone credit value on it. This promotion starts March 2010 and I apply last minute before my trip. Thank god they approve my application. We need to return the phone back to them when we leave Taiwan.

Initially I thought we need to stop at Taipei Main Station (台北车站) and change MRT to Xi Men Ding. Luckly there is a bus (飞狗巴士) direct stop us at Xi Men Ding (西门町) to check in to our Homestay. Ticket prices is NT$140 per person.