We all wear different masks for different reasons.

Some masks we put on because its truly who we want to be.  Some we wear because we can’t bear to face what’s really underneath.

Or because its what someone else needs us to be.  Or some masks we wear because we hope to stay hidden.

But that’s the problem with wearing masks, they can be ripped off at any moment.

Credit – Gossip Girl. Xoxo

You Are the Apple of My Eye (那些年，我們一起追的女孩) is a 2011 Taiwanese romance film based on the story of the same name by Taiwanese author Giddens.  The film stars actor Ko Chen-Tung, who plays Ko Ching-Teng (柯震東), a prankster and a mischievous student who eventually becomes a writer and actress Michelle Chen as Shen Chia-yi (沈佳宜), an honor student who is very popular amongst the boys in her class. [wiki]

‘Ko-Teng has several close friends who had a crush on Shen Chia-Yi.  Those friends of Ko’s thus moved in unison from Ching Chengs junior high school straight into the senior high school division in pursuit of her.

Naughty in nature, Ko was ordered by their homeroom teacher to sit in front of honor student Shen for her to keep close tabs on him.  The two hadn’t hit it off at first but Ko gradually fell for Shen, who was always pressuring him to study hard.  On the other hand, Shen became impressed by the contrasting values Ko represented. Ko started pursuing Shen but Shen remained hesitant.

After graduation from senior high, Ko and Shen almost became a couple but the deal was spoilt by a dukeout competition organized by Ko.  Growing up together to witness their beloved Shen walking down the aisle to become someone else’s wife, these boys have learned their coming-of-age lessons and continue to pursue their happiness.’

“I want to watch this!” when I first saw the poster and even more after watching the trailer.  Managed to catch this movie yesterday thou late but I’m glad I did.  This film is heartwarming, not only does it makes you laugh, it tucks the strings of your heart.  Re-living the sweet & childish memories during school times and your first love.

The film brings you through 3 phrases – high school, university and the aftermath.  Each part illustrates a different phase and level of the relationship.  And you can’t help but wonder on those times that you may have allow fate to slip through your fingertips.

很简单，很感动。青春，应该就是这样吧，很热血，也很单纯。爱，要勇敢说出来，错过了，就只能遗憾。

=)

柯景騰: ”我想成为一个很厉害的人。因为有了我，让这个世界而有一点点的不一样。” ; 而我的世界，不过就是你的心

Took a little longer than usual to blog about Day 3 because my schedule was packed for the entire month of Sept & Oct – birthdays, gatherings and more birthdays.  Am glad that everything came to an end (am 1 year older too *cries) and its nearing Christmas too.  *jumps*

And so… Day 3 begins with breakfast at Q-Square foodcourt and I’m impressed (not anymore cause MBS has the same concept) with the classy interiors and the place was neat.

After, we walked over to Taipei West Bus Station Terminal A and bought bus tickets to 野柳地质公园.

Okay once you alighted, there will be taxis waiting around to psycho you to take the ride with them and they will tell you “its a LONG walk in and probably take you more than 20mins” blah blah blah.

And so, we got tricked (partly because it was going to rain) cause it only took 5mins.  But we benefit from it as uncle proposed fetching us to 九份 (and once again he claimed it will be a long journey & inconvenient as we need to change buses in between) at the price of NT$1000 for 5 of us.

Quite worthy what right.  So we took the offer.

野柳地质公园 is a cape on the north coast of Taiwan and is known by geologists as the Yehliu Promontory.  It stretches approximately 1,700 meters into the ocean and showcase interesting set of geological formations. [wiki]

The famous 女王頭 (The Queen’s Head).  This unique rock, shaped by wind erosion for nearly 4,000 years, may collapse in ten years as its middle part (the neck per say) becomes thinner and thinner.

Started to rain and we were glad we got the ride.  Saved us aplenty of time and it was so comfortable with the aircon and the music he plays (he says he’s Show Lou’s senior hahaha.  Whatever.)

九份!  During the first years of the Qing Dynasty, the village here housed nine families, thus the village would request “nine portions” every time shipments arrived from town.  Later Jiufen (“Nine portions” in Chinese) would become the name of the village.  [wiki]

And do you know its downtown was used as a model in the anime movie Spirited Away (my favorite anime) and one of the tea houses was used to film A City of Sadness featuring Tony Leung Chiu-Wai.

The place where we bought our sanitary pads sweets!

Lunch and its… Lu Rou Fen again.

One of the must eat at 九份 – 阿蘭宇粿/草仔粿.  I didn’t try cause it looks like yam and I dislike yam.

There were sweet & salty fillings for you to choose from and Ms Char chose the salted veg one (odd one out from all) and think that gave her tummyache after.

Dorayaki with ice-cream.  Doraemon’s favorite food.

How can you not find a teahouse and chillax when you come to 九份?  We found one with outdoor seats and a magnificence view.

So beautiful that I want to fall in love there and not leave.

Another must-try food – 阿甘姨芋圆.  真好吃!

The teahouse which “A City of Sadness” was filmed.

I mad love 九份 that we don’t want to leave but we have too cause we are going to one of the best night market in Taiwan!

基隆廟口夜市!  Or you can say its our favorite among ALL the night market we visited for the entire trip.  Everything is so yummy know!

Blogging this makes me mad hungry and want to fly back there.

First up!  營養三明治.   THIS IS THE BOMB.  H E A V E N.

I can’t exactly tell you how good it is till you try it.  Nom nom~

Second – Salted chicken.  Normal but twins was running the stall hahah.  ^.^

Third – 一口香腸.  Just another Taiwanese sausage which is really 一口.

Fourth – We never get sick of it

Fifth – 泡泡冰

基隆廟口夜市 is one night market that is ALL about food and more food.  There are so many things to try; from snacks to seafood (we saw many stalls selling snow crabs which we didn’t get to try) that I get crazy.

Walked till 10+pm and headed back to hotel.  Got ourselves prepared for…

P A R T Y.

Tried Lava cause we heard they have interesting programs that they hold there but it was all a waste, saw nothing at all.  Boo!  Opened a bottle of Johnny Walker which costs us only NT$3800 (cheaper than paying entry with 2 free drinks of NT$1000 each).

Drank finished the bottle and hopped over to Room 18 opened by 庹宗康 (Tuo Tsung-kang) and that place is mad happening. The antidote to the bored-to-death-Lava.

The place and the music fits our bill.  Perfectly.  (No photos cause cameras ain’t allowed. =))

And so that’s the end of our packed Day 3 from 10am – 5am.

Shall tryna blog about Day 4 soon ya.

Till then.

♥♥♥,

Karin

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In this blog:

- 野柳地质公园 (Yehliu Geopark)
Directions:  Board a Kuo Kuang bus at Taipei West Bus Station Terminal A (near Taipei Main Station) to Yehliu. An hour & 20 mins journey.

- 九份 (Jiu Fen)
Directions:  Take the train (not MRT) to Ruifang Station. From Ruifang take the Keelung Transit bus from the bus stop in front of the train station to Jiufen.

To eat: 口吅品 (smelly tofu) / 阿甘姨芋圆 (Grandma Lai’s Yuyuan) 阿蘭宇粿/草仔粿

- 基隆廟口夜市 (Keelung Miaokou Night Market)
Directions: Train. No suggestions for this as we took from 九份

To eat: 營養三明治/鼎邊銼/甜不辣 /一口香腸/泡泡冰/雞腳

- Lava & Room 18
Address:  B1, No.88, Songren Rd., Taipei (台北市松仁路88號b1). Basement of Neo19 building which houses Lava, Room 18, Babe 18 & Barcode

傻孩子~音樂故事(下)

Woke up bright and sunny at 9am hoping to fill our stomach with traditional Taiwanese breakfast but all the restaurants around our hotel are CLOSED.  The only thing we can find is MOS Burger.

Who knows that MOS Burger actually serves breakfast and its quite good thou.


Next up, 陽明山!  We took bus up…

An hour journey, here we are!  陽明山國家公園 has 8 recreation area which includes Taiwan’s tallest peak 七星山 and it’s also famous for its cherry blossoms, hot springs, sulfur deposits and hiking trails.  [wiki]

Something to note for first timer:
1)  If you want to get to the visitor center, please alight 1 stop before the YangMing Bus Station (bus terminal)
2)  Shuttle bus 108 transits around the park.  For unlimited rides, it just costs you NT$60.

We made a mistake by sitting all the way to the bus terminal.  Alighted and happily followed a sign that says “Visitor Centre 0.6km –>”.  Walked, saw the above sign again and this time round, it points to a tunnel and the side of the wall was a bold print sign “Sidewalk Trail –>”.

Somehow the bold print didn’t got registered into our mind and all of us thought “okay maybe we have to go thru the tunnel and the visitor center is upstairs”.  Little did we know, we did a 0.6km trekking.  Stupid misleading signs.

We cursed and swear but reached the visitor center in one piece and took the shuttle bus to 小油坑 (Xiaoyukeng).  One of the best-known recreation area that offers some of the most typical scenery and it contains a host of volcanically-created fumaroles, sulfur crystals, hot springs, and landslides.  [wiki]

Afterwhich, took the same public bus back to Taipei Main Station and to 五分埔!  Girls’ heaven, the huge place is tucked with pretty clothing and girls that you’ll never get to walk finish in a day.

But before anything else, dinner at 鬍鬚張!  Nothing beats having 滷肉飯 on a rainy weather and the 滷肉 is TO DIE FOR.  The meat TOTALLY MELTS in your mouth.

Had a 4hour agreement with the guys but like I stated above, the place is huge, the hours we had are definitely not enough.  But this shall be an excuse to go back Taipei.  Hee.

Pretty SA

When you are over at 五分埔, how can one ever miss out going to 饶河夜市!  One of the famous night markets in Taipei.

胡椒餅! Man, I LOVE this. All know this is a MUST EAT!

豆花

Korokke.  Kana bluffed – It says 可乐饼 so I thought it was a new dish with Coke (yeah i know direct translation).  HAHA

饶河夜市 beats 士林夜市 hands down on food, there are many more stalls compared to the latter and its much more yummy.  The 胡椒餅 alone, oh man, drooling just thinking of it.

But a pity that I didn’t exactly enjoy myself or take aplenty of photos cause it was drizzling.  To be exact, almost the whole day.  Rain spoils all fun. =(

Went back to the hotel and went to our favorite convenience store – 萊爾富便利商店!  And we bought the MUST EAT in Taiwan..  M A G G I M E E~xx

Got ourselves 满汉大餐麻辣锅牛肉面.  VERY YUM KNOW!

Supper before bedtime is the best thing ever.

Day 3 soon!

Till then.

♥♥♥,

Karin

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In this blog:

- 陽明山國家公園 (Yangmingshan National Park)
Directions:  Bus 260 from Civic Blvd (outside Taipei Main Station) traveling along Zhongshan North Road

- 五分埔
Directions:  Take MRT to Houshanpi Station (後山埤站). Exit 4. The market is a 10 minutes walk from the station along YongJi Road.

- 鬍鬚張 @ 五分埔 (Formosa Chang)
Address:  台北巿永吉路533號

- 饶河街观光夜市 (Raohe Night Market)
Directions:  Take MRT to Nangang Exhibition Center (南港展覽館站). From 五分埔 to 饶河夜市, walk towards the Songshan railway station (松山火車站) and you’ll see the night market after crossing Ba-de Road Section 4 (八德路四段).

To eat: 胡椒餅 / Hot sticky rice / Clam noodles / Sweet marinated tomatoes / Fried mushrooms

A 2010 movie starring starring Aarif Lee, Janice Man & Janice Vidal.  And the story utilizes various songs and themes that are related to late famous Hong Kong pop-star Leslie Cheung

” Ever since Wing (Janice Vidal) was a toddler, her father and grandfather weaved the tale that Winnie’s mother works for Santa Claus.  Until Wing turns twenty does the incredible truth finally dawns on her when she accidentally opens a freezing chamber in his grandfather’s laboratory and resurrects a mysterious young woman inside.  And this woman is none other than her long lost mother, Gigi (Janice Man), who has been cyronically frozen since a fatal car accident twenty years ago.

Still very much a teenager, Gigi is shaken not only by the presence of a daughter physically older than her but also by the devastating news that her idol Leslie Cheung has passed away during her long slumber.  To make up for lost time, she sets off with Wing in search of her boyfriend, Kit (Aarif Lee), who is Wing’s biological father.  The Kit that Gigi used to know was a dashingly handsome young man fully convinced he would become a pop star some day.  When Gigi and Winnie finally locate him, he has already dwindled into a grumpy middle-aged vagabond having his life sucked out of him.  When the newly met mother and daughter finally manage to rekindle the fire within Kit, he realizes all too late that Gigi’s days on this brave new world are actually numbered.”

Editor’s Note:  The core relationship of the movie is not about Wing & Gigi but more on Gigi and Kit.  The sentimental indulgence walk with incessant flashbacks to Gigi and Kit’s high school love.  Enjoy!

Venue: Taoyuan International Airport, 樂也燒烤, 西門町  & 士林夜市

First happy thing of the day – we got FREE upgrades to seats with extra leg room.   Cheap thrill.

From Taoyuan Airport to the city, we can choose either the express bus or taxi.  However, taxi costs approximately NT$1000-$1200 while buses are NT$120-$150.  Very much recommended is Freego which I think its the cheapest but we took Guo-Guang cause we are Singaporeans.  We see a queue, we think it must be good!  HAHA!

Bought 2-way tickets package but we didn’t take the bus back on our last day. Think too highly of ourselves that we can carry the heavy luggage around.

An hour journey, we arrived at Taipei Bus Station which is near to Taipei Railway Station which is near to Taipei Main Station (MRT) which is near to Q-Square which is right below our SERVICE APARTMENT!

Sounds awesome right?  IT IS!

Our A W E S O M E service apartment which has everything including FREE Wifi and Wii!  =))

Unpacked a’little and headed out.  The first thing to get is the EasyCard (悠游卡) which is available at any information counter in all Taipei Metro stations. Works exactly like our EZ-Link card here if you don’t already know.

Initial plan was to make a reservation at Hello Kitty Sweets Café then lunch and back there for desserts.  But it was fully booked all the way till Monday night.  CRAZY!  So peeps, make reservation early.

樂也燒烤 @ 西門町 for dinner.  And I tell you.. Damn worthy and shiok.  NT$549 for dinner buffet with free flow beer, Meiji & Haagen Dazs ice cream. 
I miss the food especially the udon.  =(

Afterwhich, we head to 西門町, need to walk off the food before 士林夜市.

Ximending is hailed as “Harajuku of Taipei” and the “Shibuya of Taipei”, the source of Taiwan’s fashion, subculture, and Japanese culture.  And its home to the popular Theater street and Red House Theater too.
[wiki]

Adorable cats everywhere!  The cats look so different from SG ones, soooo kaiwaii that I wanna bring them all home.

A must try food item when you go to Taiwan is 炸雞排.  Huge ass fried chicken steak.  Piping hot, juicy and tender.

The next item to try here is 红油炒手 – wantons in red chili oil.

蚵仔煎 another must try Taiwan food.  But nah, I still prefer Singapore’s version, this erm taste weird, not to my liking.

Shilin Night Market is considered to be the largest and most famous night market in the city however, I feel the food there has nothing much to rave about (or maybe we are already filled to the brim with the yummy BBQ to appreciate it) and most of the stalls are closed at 10+pm (could be due to the rainy weather).  It was still early so we tried walking around and came to the “shopping district” of Shilin and regretted not heading there.  Don’t ask me for directions cause I’ve no idea.  Hee.

For first timer, you can maybe skip Shilin or put it as the last option because there are better night markets in Taipei which I will show you in the later entries.

Till then.

♥♥♥,
Karin

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In this blog:

- 京站時尚會館 (y3 @ Taipei Main Station)
Website:  http://www.y3.com.tw/

- 樂也燒烤
Address:  台北市敦化南路一段187巷41號1樓.  Above Rainbow Hotel.

- 士林夜市
Directions:  Take MRT to Jiantan Station.  Turn right from station and walk down all the way till you see the night market across the street.
To eat:  大腸包小腸 / 蚵仔煎 / 炸雞排 / 水煎包 / 红油炒手

Words of love/care & concern can change everything to make your sky blue with rainbows again.

Whereas words of hurt just because your sky is oh-so-gloomy could bring both worlds crashing down.  And that sometimes, are beyond repair.

Doesn’t matter who’s suppose to make the move first, just cause you are blue means everyone have to give in or “you know he/she is like this” and let it go.

Being upset/angry makes one vulnerable and crave for the comfort needed to fill the void and restore.  When one is deprived, it attacks – scarred.  As time goes, the lesser the feeding (getting fussy; higher expectations), the deeper the void and craving gets.

But one can overcome. Control how negativity overtakes/overlooks everything that once makes your heart skip a beat.

Take a shower, count to 10 and take a deep breath, take a good rest, take chocolates.

Then indulge in reminiscence.

The sunshine that once shine upon your life, the silly smile you had thinking god has descend an angel down to you.

Everyone likes/wants a happy ending, don’t they?

So say, it takes two hands to clap but really?  One can only rely on themselves to heal their soul and make things work.

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You could be my unintended
Choice to live my life extended
You could be the one I’ll always love
You could be the one who listens
To my deepest inquisitions
You could be the one I’ll always love

I’ll be there as soon as I can
But I’m busy mending broken
Pieces of the life I had before

First there was the one who challenged
All my dreams and all my balance
She could never be as good as you
You could be my unintended
Choice to live my life extended
You should be the one I’ll always love

I’ll be there as soon as I can
But I’m busy mending broken
Pieces of the life I had before

I’ll be there as soon as I can
But I’m busy mending broken
Pieces of the life I had before

Before you

“The lyrics tell the story of a person coming out of depression because they have recently found happiness from love, and they now wish to see their life through to the end.  The video features many lovers ‘blending’ around each other as Matthew Bellamy and the band sit around looking sad” — Wiki

Haven been here for awhile, the longer I stop blogging, the harder it is to even start. Shall try on my Taiwan trip, no promises (look what happen to my HongKong ones).

Till then, again.