Tuesday, January 30, 2007

One more nite in Taipei

Time flies when you are on business trip and before i knew it, half day passed!

Shirley brought us to eat pork rb noodle with tomato based soup near our office.. OOOOOo yummy! I missed such simple soup based noodle. Hard to find in HK. So i happily slurp off the soup and headed off for Bubble milk tea at "50Lan". Ooooo soooooo gooooood!

In a flash, i was late for dinner by an hour with Allen and the rest. Havent seen Allen since he quit his previous job. Absolute delight to catch up, and of discussing the "absurd" TV variety shows which i missed so much on crappy HK TV. I didnt realise how influenced SG TV is by Taiwan movie that it had become so integrated in my life!

After TGIF, we headed off to iCE Monster @ Da An Yong Kang Jie coz i was craving for local dessert. It was soooo nice! Too bad jumbo mango was off season..(damnit!), so Allen and I settled for Mango yorgurt while Tim and Rosie went for more local options of sweet potato, grass jelly and green beans.....Its quite nice to be eating cold dessert, sitting in the open cool weather. I think I will so hate to go back to the humid heat in singapore if ever!




By 1am, we decided to call it a night since everyone has to work tomorrow. I didnt realised how much i missed hanging out sessions with friends like this and just chatting after work. Plus there wasnt anyone else in the lounge and felt like we were at home lazing at the sofa. In HK, never got to do anything like this. Just didnt feel the same. With allen and gang, felt theraputic..like back home with my old friends....

Despite being Monday, the group headed off for a quick drink @Lounge (Xiao Ke Ting). The moment i entered the place, i thought the guy behind the bar counter looked super familiar. I think he kind of realise and he didnt really want to make eye contact initially. I kept telling the group that he looked familiar and i thought i saw him on TV Taiwan drama before. They all laughed and said if that was so, it must be some second grade show or they are from "singapore" to not recognise their local actor. Anycase, we started chatted about other things like why chewing gum was banned in sg and i was telling Allen to head to geylang for food. (Sooo embarrassing that i actually forgot the name of the Geylang street!! Oh god, i am away from home for toooo long!!!!!). Tim shared more "disgusting" past that boys he knew ate their nose shit when they were young!!! the girls went "EEEEEEEeeeewwwweeeee grosssssss!!!" Haaa haaa

As we were clearing the bill, i couldnt help but asked the owner if the guy i saw the whole night was ever on TV. The boss paused and said yes!!!!!!! And i asked if it was local idol drama and he said yes, that he was from the show "Prince turned frog series" ! I was like "I KNEW IT!!" and the rest of the group all laughed responding "OH! we are all from singapore!!!" It was hilarious! Imagine that i actually watched MORE Taiwan drama than the Taiwanese?!?@!! Haa haaa.
Anycase, a pity i didnt ask earlier or i could have a picture! I demanded Rosie to head back and take a picture of Antony tomorrow!!! I dun care!!! Arrrrrgggghhhh!!

Sunday, January 28, 2007

U-LAI Hotspring @ taiwan


We were totally in love with the hot spring spa session at Spring Park Urai Spa (春秋乌来). Kate and I spent 4 solid hours for Onsen soak and massage. We took 40mins- one hour cab ride from Taipei city to the hot spring spot (about NT$900). We were in love with the green river and forest green view where the private room overlooks. Imagine the tranquil of soaking in your own private onsen with the cool breeze blowing, and the gentle peace amid the green. Abolsutely fabulous.

I fell asleep through the whole session, with the gentle rythmic touch. I almost thought i heard myself snoring from total relaxation of body and mind! After kate lunch after 4pm, we grab a cab back to the comfortable bed that awaits us... If u are in Taipei for the weekend, and your body craves for gentle touch, you should so give this a go!

Shopping & Eating & Drinking @Taipei City


we met Jo at Mitshiko mall so that we can attend the roadshow for spring collection today. Kate was so nice (not to mention rich) and she bought the whole brush collection, eye shades, the brushes stand and whole shades of mascara today! In today, it cost her NT26,000 (S$1,300) just for the makeup at retail price. The BA was so shocked that she said she has never had anyone bought so much in one go.

Then we went to have beancurd downstairs in foodcourt@Eslite bookstore and it was OMG. I LOVE IT and i missed good beancurd so much!!! The syrup is not just cane sugar, there's something different about it with brown sugar and its not sickly sweet. Plus Muah chee was soooo goooooooooood! Comfort fooooood!

Then josephine was telling us she bought these necklace at the "hawkers" stall outside the MRT station and it only cost her NT$100 (S$5). My jaws drop!!!! its sooo cheap and nice!!! So we went to the store and i grab 3 necklace and feeling so happy! In between picking, there was police raid and the guy just packup and went off. So we were staying there with necklace in our hands wondering what happened. Shirley told us"cops" and we went oh! The best was everyone just stood around waiting for the guy to come back and collect the money. No one walk away with the necklace! How great is that for honesty!!!

We got hungry and headed to 川巴子(www.cbz.com.tw). Again, it was OMG!!!!!!The soup base was sooo good! we had the double pot of fish stock and the spicy stock. The fish is sooooo soft and tender! AMAZING!

After dinner, we craved for icecream and headed to Haggen Daaz. So we sat there and swopping stories. God i was dying from laughing the whole night!

Then we moved on to Organo (886-227840555) @An ho road. The fries are fanastic!!!! We had another 2 friends of shirley and Jo to join us and again we swopped ghost tales of this famouse hotel chain in Taipei and stories from different companies. It was funny! Joseph used to be from a known brand chips and he was sharing how they invited chef from Japan to make a dish and how they convert that taste to chips etc. It was amazing to know stories from behind the scene! Not to mention him gaining 6kg from eating all teh chips and drinking softdrink due to food testing!

By 1.30am, we called it a night but it has been such a great night. I went crazy and bought lotsa mandarin cds. and tomorrow, we are heading to U-Lai for hotspring and massage! Meanwhile, i feel my tummy skin being stretched so much from all the food and drinks that i think my waist is so going to sag by morning..!!


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Tuesday, January 23, 2007

Extra "Mobile" Service

Did i say i love the concept of the mobile service in Les Suite Taipei? It is sooo cool!!!Basically the hotel provide you with a free motorola phone in the room. And u can use the phone in Taipei city for the whole stay., Best of all, land calls are FREE and you can do room to room calling using the mobile. Press "8" and it connects you to the service desk and you can ask for anything! It is amazing concept and me and kate love it!I didnt have roaming service for hp (fk up HK sim card doesnt even allow sms service even when i am willing to PAY). So This hotel service is a blessing!!!

Tuesday, January 16, 2007

Abbreviation


How do u tell one is a Singaporean in HK, apart from singlish and our uniquely peppered speech flavoured with awesome string of words from different dialect+ language. Simple > Our love for Abbreviation.

I just realise, absolutely realise that no one except singaporeans have a clue as to what D&D means. If u are a singaporean and u just went "Huh?", You ought to be shot!So happens we had a gals night out last friday at Soho@ Sole Mio (Italian) and we were discussing about D&D. And when i said D&D, everyone on the table gave me a blank face. One was a philippino who worked in singapore before, one is a HK born and worked in New York for 15 years, one is Taiwanese who migrated to sea seattle, one is HK who grew up in melbourne, and one is just native Hk gal. So imagine. None of the 5 gals has a clue what D&D means, until i said "ANNUAL DINNER & DANCE!" They went "OoOoooooooHHHHHHH!!!"