On the Taipei Trip (1)

Here comes the nightmare for all. WAKAKAKA. Medie's gonna showoff his one week trip in Taipei with gazillions of amazing photos which shall slow down the loading time in your browsers!

Just kidding.

But seriously, I had like 700 photos I took on my SLR, plus 300 that I took on my compact, plus another hundreds of myself taken on my friends' camera. So yeah, it took me days to even go through all of them photos myself! But it was definitely a trip to remember, of which I wouldn't hesitate if I were given another chance to visit Taipei again. I simply love it there! Maybe because it was also due to the fact that I was there during winter. LOL >.< So the group of 5 left KL on the afternoon flight from the international airport. My first international flight this year, which I couldn't find any words to describe my euphoria. Flight on China Airlines was great. Mainly because I slept throughout the entire 4.5 hours flight! LOL. Was too tired from the on-call the night before probably. But the food served was actually quite nice! Too bad though, I didn't request for wine or whatsoever on the rock alcohol despite TZ telling me I could before I flew. Oh well... I enjoyed my sleep alright. LOLS. We arrived about 7 in the evening. It was 20 degrees then, not too chilly, the temperature was just nice. :) We searched high and low for accomodation actually. So by the time we found a suitable inn, it was already past midnight.

The next day, we walked to the convention centre with the help of a tourism map, not knowing exactly where the place is. But after much asking around, we finally managed to find ourselves in the National Taipei University Hospital International Convention Centre. It was the first day of the conference, so there was only some workshops in the day and the welcome reception in the evening. Unfortunately, the registration was only open late in the afternoon. Therefore, we had the whole morning to ourselves venturing in the city.

Our first stop was of course non-other than the famous Long-shan temple. It was 350 years old yet the building is still so ever beautiful. The restoration and preservation work must've been superb, really. All the carvings are so delicate. A lot of devotees were there the day we visited. But apart from the normal burning of joss-sticks, I noticed there were a lot of Buddhists chanting in and around the main hall. Something different from the temple we have in Malaysia indeed.

After that we headed to the Three-Courtyard House. It was the house of once the richest man in Taiwan, which is now turned into a museum. The house must've been a few acres because we almost got lost in there. Of course it wasn't as big as the Forbidden City I'm sure, but the numerous buildings and rooms and small tunnels and pathways were all too confusing and disorientating. But we enjoyed our camwhoring nonetheless. LMAO.

Our last station before heading back to the welcome reception was of course Ximen-ding the happening fashion and food district in downtown Taipei, equivalent to the Bukit Bintang strips that we have in Kuala Lumpur. However, being in Ximen-ding gave me the feeling as if I was in Times Square New York! LOL. What's with all the big screen on the buildings and what nots. There was only the feeling of euphoria and wanting to stay longer cruising the pretty girls and handsome guys there.

We headed back to the convention centre for quite some amazing welcome reception. Buffet was amazing, with all sorts of sashimis and steak. When it ended at 10 at night, we were all still too hyped to go back to the hotel, and hence, we headed to Shilin Night Market. Of course, it was already 1030p.m. by the time we reached the night market, but my friend said the night market usually close at 1 or 2 in the morning. But then again, we couldn't stay too long in the night market as the last train was at 11.30p.m. So, we hang out for a bit before calling it a night.


...to be continued: Fisherman's Wharf, Jiu-fen, Taipei 101, National Palace Museum...