2010 Italy Holiday (8D7N)

08-Sep-2010
Departure from Muscat to Rome via Frankfurt.

09-Sep-2010 (Day 01), Rome
Reached Rome Airport
Hotel: Augusta Lucilla Palace (4*)
Internet: 5 Euros / hr (Accumulative)
• Take a shuttle bus (8 Euros per pax) to hotel and check-in.
• Pantheon
• Piazza Navona
• Piazza di Spagna (Spanish Steps)
• Piazza de Popolo
• Fontana del Tritone - A fountain on a roundabout in the middle of the road.
• Fontana di Tevi (Tevi Fountain)
• Return to hotel

10-Sep-2010 (Day 02), Rome
• Vatican City - Got a tour when reaching the Vatican City and decided to take up the offer to avoid the long queue. (45 Euros per pax)
o Vatican Museum
o Cappella Sistina (Sistine Chapel)
o St Peter Basilica
o St Peter Square
• Palatino (Palatine Hill) - Ancient tour, included in my tour package.
• Roman Forum - Ancient tour, included in my tour package.
• Arco di Costantino (Arch of Constantine) - Ancient tour, included in my tour package.
• Colosseo (Colosseum) - Ancient tour, included in my tour package.
• Monumento Nazionale a Vittorio Emanuele II (National Monument of Victor Emmanuel II)
• Fontana di Tevi (Tevi Fountain) - For day photo taking.
• Fontana del Tritone - For day photo taking.
• Piazza della Repubblica
• Return to hotel

11-Sep-2010 (Day 03), Florence
Hotel: Hotel Atlantic Palace (4*)
Internet: 10 Euros / 24hrs (Non-Accumulative)
• Proceed to Florence by Eurostar.
• Check-in hotel and proceed to Pisa by train (not Eurostar).
• Torre Pendente (Leaning Tower) - Before climbing the tower, please deposits your bag at the bag desposit counter just beside the ticket counter.
• Duomo
• Battistero
• Camposanto
• Return to hotel

12-Sep-2010 (Day 04), Florence
• Santa Maria Novella
• Piazza Michelangiolo - Included in my tour package.
• Duomo - Included in my tour package.
• Galleria dell Accademia - Included in my tour package.
• Piazza della Repubblica
• Piazza della Signoria
• Ponte Vecchio
• Palazzo Pitti
• Piazza del Mercato Centrale
• Piazza del SS Annunziata
• Duomo
• Piazza della Signoria
• Piazza Santa Maria Novella

13-Sep-2010 (Day 05), Venice
Hotel: Hotel Amadeus (4*)
Internet: No Internet available
• Took a Eurostar from Florence to Venice and check-in to the hotel
• Ponte Rialto
• Accademia - Did not go into the museum as it is closed for the day.
• Piazza San Marco
• Basilica di San Marco - Did not go into the church as the queue is too long.
• Campanile - Did not go up to the tower.
• Wander around in Venice and get lost in Venice - Seriously I do not know where else I visited as it is too difficult to navigate myself in Venice.
• A glass-blowing factory that have glass-blowing demostration.
• Gondola Ride - It cost 80 Euros for 2 persons, and the ride is about 40 mins
• Return to hotel at night.

14-Sep-2010 (Day 06), Venice
• Proceed to Piazza San Marco for day tour which is included in my package.
• Piazza San Marco
• Palazzo Ducale (Doge Palace) - Included in my tour package.
• Ponte di Sospiri (Bridge of Sighs) - Only accessible if you have admission into Doge Palace - Included in my tour package.
• Murano Island - After the tour, the tour guide asked us to follow another tour guide and he will lead us to take the free shuttle boat to Murano. It shuttle service is provided by the glass-blowing factory.
• Helicopter ride - Met the salesperson of the helicopter ride at Palazzo delle Prigioni, which is 39 Euros per person. It includes the helicopter ride which is about 10 mins up in the air and shuttle boat service to and from Lido
• Basilica di San Marco - Went into the church and it is admission free unless you wanted to climb up to the church.
• Again wander and get lost in Venice.
• Piazzale Roma - There is nothing there, it is just a train and bus terminal.

15-Sep-2010 (Day 07), Milan
Hotel: Hotel Antares Concorde
Internet: 5 Euros / 24hrs (Non-Accumulative)
• Took Eurostar from Venice to Milan train station.
• Bought a subway ticket valid for 48hrs to take the metro from the train station to my hotel.
• Duomo - It is free to enter the cathedral but it cost about 5 or 8 Euros, without lift and with lift respectively, to climb up to the roof of the cathedral.
• Piazza del Duomo
• Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II
• Spend the entire day around Duomo and San Babila metro station to shop.

16-Sep-2010 (Day 08), Milan
• Take metro to Cadorna Triennale to visit Castello Sforzesco.
• Arco della Pace (Arch of Peace)
• Santa Maria della Grazie - This is the place famous for the mural of Leonardo da Vinci's Last Supper. Reservation is needed to be book weeks before you visit the place as the daily number of visitors visiting is limited. I did not heed the advice and hope that I can get a ticket on the day itself. In the end I was told that the admission slots for the whole week is fully booked.
• Proceed to Duomo and San Babila area to start shopping.

17-Sep-2010
Departure from Milan to Muscat.
• Took a cab from the hotel, which I booked with the hotel one day in advance, to the airport and it cost 85 Euros.
• End of trip.

Things to take note:
1. Italy (In General):
• There are few types of train service in Italy, Subway Train / Metro, and the train connecting the city from Trenitalia and Eurostar. The subway train is just like our MRT and not available in every city. Rome and Milan have subway but not Florence and Pisa. As for train service, you may be confused on which train to take and the cheapest in order to reach your destination. However from my understanding or to make things easier, I divided them into 2 types, the slow train no first or second class) and the fast train (have first class and second class). The slow ones are used to connect within the city itself, like Florence to Pisa which is in Tuscany and they have more stop. The fast one is used to connect within Italy (as far as I do connect to other European countries but I did not travel out of Italy) and have lesser stop. So you may ask which train to take, slow or fast one. What I observed is the slow and fast train does not have the route. So often you only have one choice from A to B. So if you are buying online train ticket, just choose your locations and do not need to worry which train to take.
• The train ticket is also like the plane ticket, they have open and fixed ticket. For those who have open ticket, do remember to validate your open ticket before you board the train by slotting your open ticket into a yellow box in the railway station. There are quite a lot of them and you should not have missed it.
• All food and drink will have service charge if you are not planning to takeaway. The service charge is from 1 - 2 Euros per pax unless the restaurant specified that they do not have service charge. Service charge do applied on train.
• Do not expect to have a big hotel room even you are staying in a 4 stars hotel. All my 4 stars hotel rooms I stayed are very small especially the one I stayed in Rome, the room is so small to a point that I can't even find a spot to open my luggage fully and it is impossible not to bump into the wall in the shower area while you are bathing no matter what small size you are.
• If you see people selling the paper dancing doll claiming that it can dance with the music by rubbing the magnetic strip behind the paper doll, please do not buy it. It is a scam. You can find the video of the scam in Youtube, "dancing paper doll".
• There is a lot of Indian-like or black foreigner in most of tourist area giving you friendship band for good luck or rose or similar claiming that it is for free, please do not take. Once you take even they keep insisting that it is free, they will keep pestering you asking for some money.
• Please wear comfortable pair of shoe as there is a lot of walking and climbing of stairs if you wanted to experience Italy. Most of the attraction of Rome, Pisa, Florence, Venice and Milan is within walking distance. At most you only need to walk 15 mins to another attraction. Even you are at the bottom of the map and the next destination of yours is at the top of the map, you still can walk there. Of course it is the city map provided by the map I am referring and not the world map.
• Please learn how to see the map as it is not unusual to see all people around you trying to navigate themselves with the map. It is not easy to navigate in Italy as there are too much of small streets in the city.
• For the tax free refund, please bear in mind that there is a minimum purchase before you can claim. Do ask the salesperson for more details as some places allow you to combine the receipts of the day and some do not allow.

2. Rome:
• Do not to buy mineral water n Rome as it cost at least 2 Euros for a bottle. Bring an empty bottle and fill it up from the fountain. There are plenty of fountain in Rome to fill up your empty bottle with drinkable water.
• The subway ticket cost 1 Euros per trip regardless on the number of stops. There is also ticket that valid for 12, 24 or 48 hours but I believe you will not need it unless you do not want to walk.

3. Pisa:
• It is possible to walk from the train station of Pisa to the leaning tower if you don't mind walking about 20 mins.

4. Florence:
• All attractions are walking distance between one another.
• No subway in Florence.

5. Venice:
• Unless you are a very good topo man, I would advise you to buy a water-bus ticket to get around Venice. Venice is made up of small islets and linked by bridges. There are a lot of died-end and small street in Venice therefore even you have map, you will get lost after walking a few streets. Walking in Venice is just like walking is a maze.
• If you are planning to visit the glass-blowing factory, it is not necessary to go to the nearby island, Murano, there are also a few glass-blowing factories that will demonstrate the technique in the island itself. But you just have to know the demonstration timing and where is the factory. There is one which I remembered the location. Go into the shopping street of Piazza San Marco and you will find Cartier boutique, proceed to the street straight ahead of the boutique and at the end you will see a toy shop then turn left. At the end of the street up the bridge there is a glass-blowing factory. I am so lucky that I bumped into the glass-blowing factory unintentionally just in time that they are having a demonstration. I also went to Murano for free for another glass-blowing demonstration. To what I know that there is free shuttle boat to bring tourist from the main island to Murano to visit the factory for free but I do not know the timing as I was brought there by my tour guide after my tour. The boarding place is at the Piazza San Marco. As for the glass-blowing demonstration in Venice itself, I can't provide more information as I am also not aware of it, I just saw a group of people queuing up and out of curiosity I went up to see realizing that it is a glass-blowing factory opening for demonstration.
• Do not buy the glass product from the factory itself as the price is being marked up. There are a lot of shops in Venice selling Murano glass product at lower prices.
• There are no car in Venice island itself and all transportation is replaced by boat. There is water-bus and water-taxi but the water-taxi is very expensive and the price for riding it can be as high as 100 Euros per trip. Buy the water-bus ticket which can be single-trip, 12 hours, 36 hours and 48 hours. You can take unlimited rides of the water-bus as long as the ticket still valid (depending on the number of hours of the ticket you bought, not applicable to single trip ticket) even after midnight. The water-bus operates 24 hours.
• There are two different train stations in Venice, so beware of your train station when you buy the train ticket. The one at the Venice island is Venezia Santa Lucia and the other one is Venezia Mestre. I actually went to the wrong train station when departing from Venice to Milan.

6. Milan:
• There are a lot of people standing at the Piazza de Duomo giving tourist things to feed the pigeon so that the pigeon will fly to your hand for picture standing. They will insist that the pigeon feeding food for free, but please do not take or else after the picture is taken they will ask money from you. If you really wanted to take the picture with the pigeons on your hand, then I think 1 Euros will be enough.

My Bridal Photo-Taking in Harbin

Finally my long waited day has come...visiting my wife's parent and bridal photo-taking session. To save money, I have chose to take the bridal photo-taking package in China. Singapore package is way too expensive and after calculation, with a lesser money I can get a better package in China. Wow...to my surprise the package in China is very different from the one in Singapore. More pictures, nicer albums and more freebies like table-top frames and other big frames pictures. But I am headache now cos I need think of a cheaper way to bring all the frames picture back to Singapore and I got like 8 frames picture!!!

As for wedding gown, it is another surprise for me...At first I am thinking of buying only 1 wedding gown but after asking the price, I decided to buy 1 evening and 1 wedding gown. Another surprise is the price of the mens suit. It is only about $92 for 3 pieces suit!!! So bridal photo package, my suit, 1 evening gown and 1 wedding gown, it cost about SGD$2008, hahaha...

After saying so much, it is time for me to share some pictures of my wife wearing wedding gown on photo-taking day. For the first three pictures show the wedding and evening gown I bought.This is the evening gown I bought.

This is the wedding gown I bought.

Another view of the wedding gown.

2008 Taiwan Holiday

Day 1 ( 11/5/08 Sun) SG – Taipei (Royal Castle Hotel)
1300hrs - 1745hrs: Reach Taiwan
1830hrs – 1950hrs: Took Freego bus to Royal Castle Hotel
2000hrs – 2115hrs: Ximending
2130hrs – 2200hrs: Longshan Temple
2200hrs – 2310hrs: Huaxi Night Market

Finally reached Taiwan liao.....can see my little cute gf again, hehe. Wahaha, saw my little cute gf and she is as cute as before...so happy. After checking in the hotel, we immediately rush to Ximending to have some light snacks. Then went to pray for a safe holiday in Taiwan. Oh no hungry again...so went to Huaxi Night Market to have the snake soup and wine, and we have sashimi for our dinner, but because it is late and also Mothers' day there are no much food left. Nevertheless still managed to fill our stomach.

stinking beancurd & 羊肉串
actually is sotong ball snake soup & wine
sashimi, small abalone, 乌鱼子


Day 2 ( 12/5/08 Mon) Taipei (Royal Castle Hotel)
0825hrs – 0845hrs: C.K.S Memorial Hall.
0900hrs – 0935hrs: Martyr’s Shrine
0955hrs – 1045hrs: Yangmingshan
1115hrs – 1335hrs: Yangmingshan, Calla Young Garden Resort.
1350hrs – 1515hrs: Yeliu
1600hrs – 1610hrs: Bisha Fishery Harbour
1630hrs – 1840hrs: Chiufen
1925hrs – 2110hrs: Taipei 101
2125hrs – 2205hrs: Wufenpu
2215hrs – 0035hrs: Raohe Night Market

Real actions liao...today we booked a cab which I knew him when I was in Taiwan 4 years ago. So I gave him my iternary and he amended some of it. He also brought us to places which is not in my itinernary like Bisha Fishery Harbour. He also brought me to a shop that sell 蛋黄酥 which is very famous among the locals. During the night, it is our freetime so we continue our iternary til midnight before going back to hotel.
pig blood & 鲁肉饭fried oyster & seaweed soupyes, stinking beancurd again芋圆冰tofu with century egg, 番薯叶 & 猪油饭蛋黄酥 fried soft shell crabice mixed fruits 海鲜羹

Day 3 ( 13/5/08 Tue) Taipei (Burgary Hotel)
0930hrs – 1055hrs: Wulai, Yun Xian Le
1110hrs – 1220hrs: Wulai Old Street
1220hrs – 1345hrs: Wulai, Full Moon Spa
1420hrs – 1515hrs: Shen Keng Tofu Street
1555hrs – 1445hrs: Maokong Gondola
1730hrs – 1745hrs: Check in to Burgary Hotel
1845hrs – 1900hrs: Danshui Old Street
1930hrs – 2100hrs: Danshui Fisherman’s Wharf
2115hrs – 2150hrs: Danshui Old Street
2225hrs – 0035hrs: Shilin Night Market

Today we booked a cab as well as the places is not in Taipei city. First place is Wulai, I remembered 4 years ago the park at Wulai is quite fun but this time round, there is no tourists!!! only a few locals. The taxi driver said the golden age of Wulai & Yangmingshan is over and seldom tour agency will include them in the itinenary anymore. Again today we went to places not in my itinernary like the tofu street. Wow the stinking tofu is real stink!!! but the tofu street also offers various foods made from tofu like ice-cream and yogurt. Next interesting place is the Maokong Gondola. The taxi driver said it is a new tourist spot and a lot of locals is visiting this place, and to our surprise, the queue is from third storeys of the station to the taxi stand!!! Luckily my taxi driver knew a loophole, that is to drive up to the second last stop and true enough there is no queue at all...hehehe.....Finally it is the end of my day tour and my taxi driver drove me to my hotel. Tonight I will be staying in another better hotel...hahaha...this hotel got jacuzzi lei...so cosy hotel but it is too early to rest we can not complete our itinenary for the day. So I brought my little cute gf to the Danshui Fisherman's Wharf for some live seafood, but it is another surprise...a lot of the restaurant closed down and it is not as crowded compared to 4 years ago...another disappointment. Then rush for the last ferry back to Danshui Old Street to buy the famous long ice-cream but because the shops at Danshui close around 2200hrs so the famous ice-cream stall has closed. Phew...managed to find a shop still open that sell tall ice-cream BUT another disappointment the ice-cream is not as tall as it should be.....maybe they closing shop so dun bother to make it long.
hotspring eggpig blood, stinking tofu, pig intestines & 猪油饭 tofu ice-creamgrass jelly milksteam prawns fried noodlessashimi & fish soupdanshui famous tall ice-cream Hao Da Chicken Cutlet milk tea

Day 4 ( 14/8/08 Wed) Taipei (Burgary Hotel)
1045hrs – 1100hrs: Beitou, Hell Valley
1115hrs – 1245hrs: Beitou, Asia Pacific Resort
1245hrs – 1335hrs: Free shuttle bus from the resort to Beitou MRT, MRT to Jiantan MRT station then free shuttle service to Miramar.
1355hrs – 1425hrs: Lunch at Hu Xu Zhang.
1440hrs – 1515hrs: Miramar
1600hrs – 1700hrs: Shilin Night Market
1735hrs – 2030hrs: Zhongxiao East Road
2045hrs – 2200hrs: Ximending

After a night resting in the cosy hotel room, we feel very reluctant to wake up, but cannot cos we still got a few places to cover. As most of the places we have managed to squeeze into day 2 & 3, today we only left Beitou and Miramar therefore we left plenty of time. So during the free time we revisit Shilin for the toilet theme restaurant. During the late afternoon we actually wanted to shop along Zhongxiao East road but we got nothing to buy and my little cute gf is not into shopping and although I like to shop but branded goods in Taiwan is more expensive than SG, so end up taking pics of most of the landmarks. Landmarks like Sogo, Warner movie cineplexes, New York New York, 新光三越 and Taipei 101.
鲁肉饭 & vegetablepig bone marrowpork cutlet sausage toilet restaurant chicken nuggets
toilet restaurant ice-creamDing Tai Feng xiao long bao
Ding Tai Feng 海带Ding Tai Feng chicken soup



Day 5 ( 15/8/08 Thur) Taipei – Taoyuan (Free Lodging)
0906hrs – 0928hrs: Taiwan High Speed Rail from Taipei to Taoyuan.
0930hrs – 1100hrs: Took bus to Chungli, then taxi to my gf house.
1135hrs – 1200hrs: Shihmen Reservoir
1220hrs – 1230hrs: The Exhibition of the Chiang’s in Tzuhu
1250hrs – 1330hrs: Lunch 1415hrs – 1700hrs: Taiwan’s Window on China Theme Park

Goodbye Taipei, here I go Chungli liao, my little cute gf house, hehe...Got the Taiwan High Speed Rail to Taoyuan then a cab to my gf house. Then we rush to Shihmen Reservoir by taxi... But the taxi dropped us at the car gantry at the entrance of the dam. Oh no...it is a long way up the dam, but nevermind, take some pics first. Oh no...dun feel like walking up the dam lei...Ah ha, saw a police post, so I went in to ask how long does it take to walk up the dam. To my surprise a middle-aged man who is chit-chatting with the policeman offer to bring me up, furthermore he also act as a tour guide and starts to introduce the place to me. Subsequently, he brought me to another place which is not in my itinenary. While driving to the next place he is bringing us, me and my gf was thinking is he a good guy as he drove quite a distance already, and what if he is not sending back...no cab around...after much thinking, he cannot be a bad guy cos he is chatting in the police station earlier unless the policeman is also bad guy!!! hahaha... Throughout the journey we chat a lot and he revealed that he has cancer and he is here to relax...so got time to show us around...He even brought us to taste the live fresh water fish, and due to his cancer he can only eat fried rice. After the lunch, he ask us where are we going but due to the distance he said he can only send us to take the bus...then he look at his watch...oh no he told us we have to rush in order not to miss the bus...by this time I was so touched by the hospitality. Then I get to know he is a DJ but is those politics station DJ I think...One regretting thing is I forgot to take a picture with him before we parted...REALLY VERY REGRETFUL...Then we managed to catch the bus and carry on with our itinenary to 小人国 and needless to say, in 小人国 is all photo-taking...WA...first time I saw my camera battery low within a day cos my Casio camera battery can take 300+ pics with a single charge!!! Maybe old liao...
delicious fried rice
sweet and sour fish沙拉虾球
steamed fish

锅贴，馄饨，皮蛋豆腐，豆干丝，贡圆，面

Day 6 ( 16/5/08 Fri) Taoyuan (Free Lodging)
1100hrs – 1700hrs: Leo Foo Village

Basically today is nothing much, just a few exciting rides in the theme park and lots of photo taking...But a word of advise, dun go to the theme park during Mon, Fri, Sat and Sun. Mon is because some of the theme park or rides will be closed, and Fri - Sun is too crowded. I went on Fri so morning a lot of people...But normally theme park will be quiet after 1500hrs.

Day 7 ( 17/5/08 Sat) Taoyuan - Hualien (Shi Tou Zhi Wu)
0645hrs – 1045hrs: Chungli Train Station to Hualien Train
1045hrs – 1145hrs: Breakfast
1215hrs – 1510hrs: Taroko Gorge
1600hrs – 1635hrs: Qi Xing Lake
1650hrs – 1705hrs: Hualien Fishing Harbour
1810hrs – 1935hrs: Play firework
1945hrs – 2010: Dinner
2010hrs - 2125hrs: Aboriginal Performance

Finally is time to set off a place I never been before and lots of exciting things are awaiting for me in Hualien. A lot of places and activities I planned in Hualien are things I had never try before...like staying in homestay, dolphins watching, water rafting, etc...After reaching Hualien I finally saw the homestay owner, Liu Ah Yi, a very friendly person. She actually brought a cab driver along and straight away w/o delaying we are going for our first place in Hualien, Taroko Gorge...Magnificent...After a few hours of walking along the scenic point in Taroko Gorge, we went to Cising Lake to stone picking...haha...it is actually a beach full of beautiful pebbles and every visitors are sure to pick a few pebbles back with them. Next destination...sashimi...wow....bought tuna, black tuna, salmon and sailfish sashimi and it is only SGD$15!!! After the yummy sashimi, we proceed to buy FIREWORK!!!!! Haha...I like fireworks...Then we go back to our homestay to check-in and play the firework...hehe... However after firework, the night is still young so Liu Aunty brought us to see free aboriginal performance...

small cold dishes
the famous 扁食
扁食面
旗鱼，鲔鱼刺生
黑鲔鱼刺生
鲑鱼刺生
花生冰
葱油饼lots of fireworks
排骨面，粉肠，鲁蛋，青菜，鲁肉饭


Day 8 ( 18/5/08 Sun) Hualien (Shi Tou Zhi Wu)
0900hrs – 1430hrs: White Water Rafting
1900hrs – 2130hrs: Nan Bing Night Market
2230hrs – 2250hrs: Kongming Lantern

Oh no…did I woke up late? The sun has rises and it seem like 0700hrs!!! I quickly check on all my clock but it also shows 0515hrs…so I continue to sleep…after a while I woke up again and check on my clock, 0630hrs…did my clock play a trick on me??? The sky is like almost 0800hrs…quickly went down to the living room to check Liu Aunty’s clock…correct lei…0630hrs, so went back to sleep. Finally my alarm clock rang…woke up my cute little gf to wash up and take our breakfast. Then the people from water rafting company arrive to bring us to 秀姑峦溪for the 23km long water rafting. After the safety briefing, we proceed to the water…oh no again… the water level is low and the people said because it has not rain for the past 1 week the water is low and the water flow will not be very fast. Indeed…throughout the 23km long river rafting there are only a few exciting moments…but anyway it is a good experience for me…Phew…we reached the ending, by this time I was tired and tan (roasted under the sun for a few hours w/o sun block). Quickly took my shower and proceed back to the homestay to rest. At night, Liu aunty brought us to the night market for dinner and then we go back to the homestay to release the Kongming Lantern. First time release Kongming Lantern…wrote blessing on all the four sides of the lantern and see the lantern disappearing into the dark sky. And people says that if the lantern rises up the sky on the first try, the blessing will come true…hope it really came true.
便当 provided by the water rafting company
红豆，仙草，粉圆冰
海石花
台湾黑轮


Day 9 ( 19/5/08 Mon) Hualien (Shi Tou Zhi Wu)
0900hrs – 1100hrs: Whale and Dolphins Watching
1145hrs – 1700hrs: Farglory Ocean Park
1950hrs – 2045hrs: Zheng He Night Market

Today there is another exciting program awaiting for me, the whale and dolphins watching. Again the respective company driver drove us to the ferry terminal. After about only 10mins out in the sea, our captain of the ferry saw a group of dolphins and he max his throttle to chase the dolphins…wow lots of dolphins…first time watching them out in the nature…During the 2 hrs trip, we saw 3 species of dolphin out of 5 and the tour guide said we are very lucky as yesterday group only see 2 species. As for whale, it is not the season yet… After seeing the dolphins, we went to the ocean park to experience the close contact with the dolphins. In the ocean park, there are performances by the dolphins and sea lion, worth watching…after the dolphins’ performance, we went to feed and take pictures with the dolphin, of course you need to pay extras. There is also a chance to swim with the dolphin but the fee is NT$2000 for 30mins (SGD$100), sigh…..too expensive liao, decided to miss it. At night, we went to another night market…wow…a lot of nice and cheap food there…yummy…
香肠面包
棺材板
assorted sushi


Day 10 ( 20/5/08 Sun) Hualien - Taoyuan – SG
0800hrs – 1140hrs: Hualien Station – Chungli Station
1825hrs – 2315hrs: Taipei Airport to Singapore Airport

Today is my last day in Taiwan, also the last day to spend time with my cute little gf…happy moment always fly…Today I did not plan to visit any places, just want to spend time with my gf after taking train back from Hualien to Taoyuan. We took our breakfast in the homestay and took a last min picture with Liu Aunty before leaving Hualien. After reaching my gf house, starts to pack my luggage and spend time chit-chatting with her. Sigh…times up…time to go to Airport liao…

铁路便当

I am very happy that I had cover all places planned and w/o hiccups, most importantly there is someone that I love accompany me going places both of us had never been to. During this holiday, we practically did not shop at all, we are only interested in photo-taking and sight-seeing. We went to a lot big shopping mall like Taipei 101 and Sogo but it is just to take pictures. So if any of my friends wanted to shop, do not follow my itinerary. I think if everything goes smoothly, my next trip will be honeymoon with my gf in Alaska, haha…