This is a daily chronicle of my trip to Taiwan from 9th to 24th May 2006 with Ronghua and partially Boon Liang. I am trying to blog about all 15 days, so it takes time..sorry.. If you wanna read all that have been posted, pls click on Taiwan Adventure category here, or on the left sidebar.

Warning: Pic n vid intensive post

It was only the nite before when BL revealed to us that on his army training trip a few yrs back, he had seen much of Taipei and he only wanted to see Taipei 101 before going out of taipei. And we happily assumed that he’s not seen taipei. So effectively we have wasted 2 days in taipei. Day 8 hence called for a major revamp in plans, more on that later.

The sky was almost as overcast as the previous day but we decided to take our chance with Taipei 101. Luckily this time we were able to see the top of the building. NT$320 for the tickets, and we were all set to go up to the 89th floor (382 metres).

Of cos the key feature here is the lift, they have a panel within the lift to show u the speed. Sorry for the wrong orientation of the video. Silly me realised much later that i can’t flip videos like i flip fotos..

Taipei 101 Observatory of cos is a tourist trap, but i do appreciate tourist traps that actually make you feel that your money was well spent. The place was pretty well designed with viewing areas located at all 8 points of the compasses. Each zone has a picture of the view, with the key sights marked out. So you dun have ppl who quarrel over what they are looking at. Electronic handheld guides are also avail for ppl who wanted a guided tour.

The lighting conditions made it terrible for photo-taking. The room was dimmed to allow for better view of the surroundings. The sky was cloudy. The glass windows made sure that you rule out flash most of the time. End result = crappy photos…

Taipei 101 was designed to be resistant against typhoons and earthquakes, of cos up to a certain degree. Central to this requirement was the positioning of a 500 tonne steel ball between the 87th to 91st floor. Talk about balls of steel..heh.. I was pretty fascinated by this, they built it layer by layer, just like wat we learnt in integration of spheres, chop it into slices and calculate the vol of each.




I was equally fascinated with the steel cables holding up the balls..


Paid NT$320 to come up, might as well pay another NT$100 to go up to the outdoor observatory…

If fire, that is the only way to escape…

You can see how strong the wind is, and also in the video

Not a good place to go after spending money setting your hair @ a salon

Similar pics taken in similar way in previous post, this time can see top!

We proceeded with our newest fav activity, getting caught in the rain..Ended up walking to Shin Kong Mitsukoshi 新光三越, this huge department store nearby. 3-4 buildings on its own, with one totally devoted to atas atas brands. Warner Village, this large cineplex was nearby too. It had this giant nike world cup banner outside, like 3 storeys tall at least. Ironically, not a single nike outlet inside…

Onto our special mission…going to Pinghsi to play with sky lanterns 平溪天灯

Mission Plan:

1. Train from Taipei Main Station to Rueifang 瑞枋
2. Small Train to Pinghsi
3. Purchase 1 天灯 per pax and successfully launch them
4. Haul ass back to Rueifang and then Taipei
5. Hope that wishes on lanterns come thru

And so we travelled to Rueifang, drizzling all the way. By the time we boarded the small train, it was 6 plus n pitch dark. Small train lines are located in some parts of Taiwan to serve small towns or tourist towns. Their trains essentially are 3-carriage long and the seating is MRT style (2 rows on either side facing each other). They do not have announcements like the main trains have, the stations they serve are often unmanned at nite. That led to the major cockup, as we only roughly knew how many stops that we were supposed to take. And we were dozing off from tiredness..The stations were pitch dark, and when i tot we were at the right station, we jumped off the train, and tried to look for the sign “平溪”, and by the time we saw “岭脚”, we realised how truely fucked we are. If there was any consolation, Pinghsi was 1.0km away by walking on the railway, and risking being knocked down the by the mf small train or falling into the streams that the track crossed.

“岭脚是什么鬼地方来的?”

Found out from a shopkeeper at a shop next to the station that Pinghsi is about 1km from here by walking down the main road., and to get to that, we have to walk down this kampung road that was unlit, and surrounded by farmland.. Being the ever-optimist, i managed to take a few shots from Lingjiao station

Walked n walked, avoiding being knocked down by cars driven by Takumi-wannabes, we came across this shop

that had the good stuff..
NT$100 for small, 200 for big…Small enuff for us liaoz..

Decorated my yellow 天灯..

Not as kiasu as ronghua who managed to cover his with fontsize 15 words…1000word essay.. Bought even more good stuff, firecrackers of the rocket variant.. the kind which would shoot straight up into the sky with a shrill and explode..heh.. We carried on walking to Pinghsi n for want of a better place to launch it, we decided to launch on the railway track. This was crazy in 2 ways, we know that the scheduled trains won’t come so soon but what about unscheduled ones? And powerlines were above us. However being tired and too fuck-care attitudes, we proceeded..heh

How to 放天灯

Fix the stack of paraffin-coated paper to the wick of your lantern like this:

Get your launch assistants to standby and open up the lantern:

Light the paraffin paper, they dun burst into flames suddenly..so it’s safe..

Sit back n take pics, wait for it to inflate:

Take more pics n videos of your beatiful lanter b4 take off. Thank your assistants too..

You will feel it getting lighter n lighter, give it a slight push.. be careful to watch it @ this stage if not it may crash n burn:

Say bye bye to your lantern:

Don’t forget about the firecrackers:

We tried to do horizontal launches that only succeeded in nearly landing into houses, combo launches with 2 sticks tied together that flew extra high and exploded twice, combo launches with 3 sticks that were too heavy to take off and exploded at eye level, and of cos duds which refused to launch/explode and had to be cleared by Explosive Ordnance Disposal crew, ie me. All these were done on a railway bridge, where you can get injured by the firecracker, fall into the river, trip over the rail… End results, super fun!

We also saw the station that we were supposed to arrive at, even more deserted than Lingjiao

Took a few pics in the station and the surroundings:

Ronghua suggested that we take a walk ard Pinghsi since the train was not scheduled to arrive till 1.5 hrs later. Something that i really liked about this trip is the amt of contact and interaction that we have with the locals. Walking into a small shop that made intricate lanterns, we learnt that a bus going to the outskirts of Taipei would be arriving soon. This was info that you can never find on your own, and we decided to take the bus, and the driver did a damn-good imitation of takumi, with a bus.. Ended up at Muzha MRT station, whic was near the zoo, and we realised the train looked different too…

Changed trains twice to go to Shilin Night Market, both train changes required walking of about 5 mins. Not like raffles place or city hall, whereby changing lines means taking escalators 1 level up or down. Cheong for 2 soccer jerseys at Shilin, pretty good deal…holland home and japan away.

End of most happening day, of cos bought beer and 鸡排..