Monday, March 06, 2006
Taiwan!!
Wah... Finally got back my photos taken at Taiwan last year! Just scanned them in yesterday... Hahaz...So here's a belated entry of my Taiwan trip...
By the way, I managed to get the photos of my 22 Jan TPS outing resized... Hope it's much clearer now! =)
It was really a long trip-- ONE WHOLE MONTH miles away from home. But the strange thing is that I did not at all felt homesick during the trip. Things were new and the layout of the base camp was excellent-- the cookhouse, canteen, pool table, TV sets, Internet stations and toilets are all below my bunk! Simply wonderful! By the way, let me intersperse some pictures taken during my recreational tour with my blog, lest this entry gets too boring. Hahaz.. =P
These 2 pics are taken at the Jian Hu Shan theme park at central Taiwan:
This was part of the recreational tour at the end of our training phase of the trip.
This is one taken with MH on the free-and-easy day:
Training in Taiwan was not as tough as in Singapore, my morale was higher, as many a times it is done near villages, or at least pass by roads in front of houses, so it is much closer to the civilian world than ever would be in Singapore. Once in a while, you would see little kids standing in front of their porches, waving at your passing vehicles and shouting "Ah bing ge", which means soldiers in Chinese. I actually had a chance to interact with them during the navigation exercise, when we were allowed to take shelter at an unused row of shophouses. The place was surprisingly well kept, complete with toilet facilities even though it was unoccupied. Therefore, we had to clean up the place a bit before we leave. The place was a pleasant surprise to us-- there was a small park right beside our restpoint. A Chinese temple was nearby and there were many shops selling food, including burgers, "bian dang", bubble tea shops as well as 7-eleven convenience stores. Hahaz.. When can you ever get these over here?? ( i mean during training,when in uniforms) And not forgetting the "ninja vans", which tailed our convoys to almost every training location. And the funny thing is, that these aunties and uncles peddalling food roughly know the various timings that we have to meet during our exercises!! It's probably their experience with the numerous previous batches that have been training in this part of Taiwan. I remembered once when a "ninja van" made a dangerous three point turn at the top of a very steep hill where our vehicles were stuck. These vendors are really omnipotent and they go through all sorts of impossible terrain just to make a living. Impressive right? =p
Another memorable thing was during the abovementioned exercise, while we were busy unloading our stuff and hauling them manually over long distances as the terrain was too steep for our vehicles, the most inconceivable thing at point of that time appeared in front of our eyes. At first we heard some weird engine sounds, then we were surprised by the high-pitched squeals of enjoyment and ecstacy that would be totally out of place in such a rural and inhospitable training ground. Then... WE SAW... A COUPLE OF JEEPS CARRYING LOCALS ON A WILD BUGGY RIDE... with pretty girls on board too! These vehicles go up and down the extremely steep hills without the slightest of problems and the adventure-seekers would let out screams of ecstacy every time they go crashing down the slopes. Readers, if you are thinking that the thing we most wanted to do at that time was to borrow their vehicles to transport our stuff up the other knolls, you ARE ABSOLUTELY RIGHT!! It would have made our job so much easier then... so sad... :'(
This is taken at Window on China which actually has a different meaning in its Chinese name: "Xiao Ren Guo"
Me and my frens in Xiao Ren Guo :p
Last and not least is our recreational tour over at Taipei. It was again, wonderful and memorable. We dined at restaurants (prob cos there's no such thing as hawker centres over there). The food was reasonably good and we bought lotsa goodies back, including the lemon puffs(which actually tasted more like cakes), yam-paste pastries and clothes and other priceless souvenirs like entrance tickets (for places of interest), d MRT train broucheres and of course, the photos that I have taken over the 30 days... =)
Taken with the Taiwanese tour guide babes:
Lastly, tis' a bird eye's view from Taipei 101, currently the tallest structure in the world:
