Thursday, February 24, 2011

My countdown experience in taipei


I went to Taiwan on 28th Dec 2010 to 6th Jan 2011, I know that now is already the end of February, this had been a really delayed post, but still want to share my experience of celebrating my new year in foreign country.

My first ever countdown experience is counting down to year 2008 in front of sungei wang plaza. and my 2nd time is counting down to year 2010 at the exact same venue.

星光三少 performance in front of sungei wang plaza on 1/1/2010

And this time, I got a chance to countdown outside of malaysia, in the city of taipei!!! There's a lot of saying about this countdown event in taipei, as this is the 100th year since the Republic of Taiwan was established, so the event is going to be huge. I was so looking forward for it.

we were in front of taipei city hall :)

So, the event was held at the square in front of Taipei City Hall. We were there since around 5.00, the sky is getting dark at that time. We saw a really long queue over there. When I said that it's long, I really mean it, it is like you were queuing from the north court to the south court of mid valley. So, we thought that maybe we need to take an entrance ticket or something in order to join that countdown concert. Then we just started to queue. People coming around and ask us, what are we queueing for, and we don't know how to answer. Then a woman standing behind of us was like "You guys don't know what you are queueing for but you still standing here?" Then only she told us that we were actually queueing for the 3D spectacless as there were going to be 3D effect while the concert is going on.

besides a 3D spectacles, we also get a pair of inflatable sticks, ZA two-way foundation sample and a shiseido perfect liquid sample

It's not even 6 o'clock after we get those stuffs, so we decided to have a walk to Taipei 101. The sky is already dark, and the weather is getting real cold and it is really windy.

in front of Taipei 101

We have our dinner inside of Taipei 101 and then walk towards the countdown concert. It's getting really crowded by then and we can only find a spot which is way behind from the stage. I can hardly see the artist performing, can only see them through the big screen. The first artist that I see performing that night is Yen-J, 严爵. I'm so excited I get to see so many artists that I usually seen on TV in one night. The most pretty host in taiwan -- Patty Hou 侯佩岑, Rainie Yang 杨丞琳, Jam Hsiao 萧敬腾, Aska 杨宗纬, Mayday 五月天, and etc.... wohoo!!!

The biggest different between countdown-ing in malaysia and in taiwan, is the weather. In malaysia, it is so warm, but in taiwan, it is freezing as it is only 8 degree celcius. I wonder how those artists perform on stage without shivering as some of them only wear short pants or skirts. It is really tiring to stand whole night long, so some of the times we were just sitting on the ground, I just stand up when my favourite artists were performing.


I guess Mayday is really popular, as the concert going on, you can notice many people were sitting down. But as soon as Mayday coming out, all the people are standing together shouting for them and everyone were singing together with them. Too bad, I didn't update myself with Mayday's song, so i can only sing 1 or 2 of it :(
Love Mayday, going to their concert is definitely in my to-do list.

it's very very crowded

After Mayday's performance, it's almost 12 o'clock. Finally, the firework show that everyone had been waiting for. This show actually costs 60 million taiwan dollar.

fireworks at 101 building and city hall, not only these 2, actually a lot more fireworks show all around taipei city, can be seen if we turn around, but of course we want to concentrate on the 101 firework show :)


series of firework show pics (credit to mei fang ^^)


We were standing so near to the 101 building, the ashes were falling on our faces. But maybe there are too many fireworks at the same time, sometimes, i can only see the smokes. However it is, I still enjoy it a lot. At least it is the best fireworks show I have ever seen :)

this is why i say "sometimes, we only saw smokes"

As soon as the fireworks show end, we quickly rushing out towards the MRT station, you can see that many people had started to leave. Too bad that we can't see a-mei's 张惠妹 performance. As soon as we walk out, OMG!!!! Everywhere is crowded, we had a hard time to move on. Four of us holding hands so tightly afraid that anyone of us will get lost. As we getting nearer to the MRT station, we are totally stuck. We standing there and can't even move an inch. People are pushing one another and it is really frustrating. We stucked there for more than half an hour and only realize that all the MRT station nearby have been closed. We need to walk to Chung Hsiao East Road station 忠孝东路站 which is further away in order to get back to Ximending 西门町.

By the time we reach our hostel, it was almost 3am. We almost missed our train to Taichung the next morning as everyone was too tired to get up early the next morning.

Anyway, I enjoyed that night a lot. So glad that I can share the experience with mei fang, mei le and a bong. :)

Monday, February 21, 2011

Amazing Race 18 : Unfinished Business



they are all back :)

This season of amazing race is an all star season. Can't wait to watch it, many of my favourite teams were in. Teams that I really dislike are those who were from season 14 except Mel & Mike.

Jet & Cord is definitely the team that I root for this season. I was reviewing TAR season 16 few ways back, it kind of like refreshing my memories about how nice the cowboys were. Really sad that they lost it last time. Definitely want them to make it to the final three this time.


Jet & Cord


*Contains Spoilers*

Thanks to yoon yeh who reminded me that I can actually watch The Amazing Race from AXN. So here I go, standby in front of the TV waiting for the show to start. Like the fact that this season, the team were not just running towards their bags to get the clue, instead, they need to solve a clue given by Phil. So glad that my favourite teams were in the top 8, which means they can take a 1.5 hours earlier flight. The last 3 teams, kesha & jen, gary & mallory, kris & amanda will take the later flight and as the last team, kris & amanda will later face a double u-turn.

seriously, luck is almost everything in this race, there's a medical emergency in the first flight to sydney, which means, the later flight actually landed earlier than the first flight. Was hoping that the cowboys could catch up, but -- nothing is right when the luck is not with you. They miss the subway, then miss the ferry to go to the destination which they need to perform their task.

So, their first task in sydney is actually a road block. The person need to get into an huge aquarium with sharks to retrieve a compass and then use the compass to decipher a sentence. Before Jet & Cord reach, some of the other teams already working together to solve this thing. I feel a little bit unfair because there are some of the teams just listen to others' answers.

Congrats to Gary & Mallory who gets to the pit stop first and get an express pass :) , however this is not really a pit stop as the race still continues. As every team had reached the pit stop, you can see that jet & cord still having a really hard time solving the puzzle. Wish they had been working with Kynt & Vyxsin. :(

Thanks to bootsycolumbia who replied my comment in http://tvrecaps.ew.com, it really makes me feel better

Hopefully the cowboys can catch up with the other teams next week, wondering if I will still be eager in watching amazing race 18 if they were out.




Sunday, February 20, 2011

Taipei Flora Expo



The biggest event of Taipei's tourism in 2010 and 2011 would be the Taipei Flora Expo. This event will end on 25th April 2011. So glad that I visited it on the last day of 2010. As there will be a countdown event that day, the Dajia Riverside Park Area had been closed. As compensation, every visitors on that day were given an afternoon ticket which can be used anyday afterwards.

our afternoon ticket

The ticket price can be different based on what time you enter. For us, we enter using the Easy Card, no need to queue for ticket purchasing and can get a 10% discount on the ticket price.

We go there by MRT and get off at the YuanShan station.

the main entrance in front of Yuan Shan Park area.

Our first station, the one nearest to the entrance, EXPO Dome. As we were queueing to enter, we passed by the Flora Rainbows.

flora rainbow

so lucky to be able to take a photo with the mascot

For me, the EXPO Dome is somehow like a science museum.


cloned goat

inside the EXPO Dome

The view is really breathtaking after you walked out from EXPO Dome as we were in front of the flower landscape.



flower landscape

Actually there were a lot more interesting place to be visited in the YuanShan park area, such as Celebrity's house, Pavillion of New Fashion, but looking at the queue, just made us decided to drop the idea straight away.

outside view of Pavillion of New Fashion

As we just plan to stay until the evening, so we quickly moved on to the Global Garden Area.

Thailand

USA

Malaysia

Phillipines

Hawaii

Netherlands

Canada

Greece

Trying to settle our lunch at pavillion of aroma flowers. but, the price seems to be a bit expensive and the whole place are just too crowded.
pavillion of aroma flowers. Source : http://www.2010taipeiexpo.tw

So, we move on to the Fine Arts Park Area. We pass by the floral tunnel.


inside of floral tunnel

And we found this place, there are a lot of stalls over here and decided to settle our lunch over here.

bought my lunch here, 宝岛肉圆 - 第一届彰化肉圆节比赛总冠军

my lunch - 肉圆, the price is around NTD50

After that, we move on to the Taipei Story House. We actually watched a clip about Taiwan's history inside.

in front of story house

Next stop, Taipei Fine Art Museum.


Finally, the XinSheng Park Area. The Pavillion of Dreams was said to be the must-visited place, but unfortunately, in order to enter it, you will need to start queueing from 4 o'clock in the morning. So, we just got the chance to take picture in front of it.

outside of the famous pavillion of dreams

Not much time left for us, so we just enter one more pavillion - the pavillion of future, we queued for half an hour plus in order to get inside.


pavillion of future - ouside view


inside pavillion of future

Next, we went to the maze garden. Having lots of fun there, we actually have a race to get out of the maze. But I'm too short, can't see what's the road in front of me, and really get lost inside of it and ended getting the last place :(


inside Garden Maze

Our last photo before leaving.

thanks to the staff who help us to take this photo :)