台湾观光part 1

After a trip to Taiwan and speaking pure mandarin for a week, i felt like my mandarin has improved. Hahahahha. ANYWAY i reckon my mandarin is not bad already, not like my friend who tells 大陆 pax 你要不要吃这个？errrr 很好吃的！

Some pictures! Somehow i like taking pictures of buildings, especially those unique to Singapore. Hmmm.

Lookie! Airbus 330-300! But China Airlines hahaha! Like what they said, the aisle is indeed very small -_- How will fat people walk through?




On my way from Taoyuan to Taipei
从桃园机场到台北的路上。


Fisherman's wharf in Danshui.
淡水鱼人码头的情人桥。



Street market in Danshui.
淡水老街。

Potato Chips???
这是薯片吗？

Some sweet preserved fruit thing we always see on period dramas.
古装剧里常听说的冰糖葫芦。

Grilled squid... salty with a subtle sweetness :)
烤鱿鱼。咸中带甜。

Wholesale ceramic market.
陶瓷。

Landscape outside the ceramic market.


I have no idea why there is a sculpture and what it represents but there it is.

An old household. VERY old.
这户人家住很久了吧。


Tofu Street. Very old and nostalgic street.
豆腐街。











Smelly tofu! I like it with cabbage :)
喜欢臭豆腐配泡菜吃。

Current tallest building in the world. Taipei 101.
世界最高大楼台北101。

Nothing much inside. Mostly high-end shopping.
里头都是高档货。

My bedroom in Taichung. Like nihon-jin desu!
台中的客房非常日本化。

this is what i do - the cool factor

I realized it's weird that i took pictures of myself in the hotel room instead of the sights and sounds of the bustling streets below. You see, i barely had sufficient time to savour my ah zong mee zua/XXXXXXXL hao da da ji pa/ning meng ai yu/zhen zhu nai cha etc. Do the people in our line really get to see the world? I did see many hotels. And probably just the essence of the world. For instance, we only travel to the major cities. We then only had time to get to the highlights of each city, provided it's within short travelling distance from the hotel.


I visited the pyramids in Egypt,
cuddled a lion and

fed a giraffe in South Africa,

marveled at the Blue mosque in Istanbul,

seen the Swiss Alps in Switzerland...

took a picture with the Sydney Opera House...

But that's almost as much as all i could do each visit. Unless if i visit repeatedly. Like....

I have a strong affinity with the middle east. Which basically just means that i get rostered there a lot.

Which gave me opportunities to

belly dance in the desert,

visit an old gold market and creek,

shop in the biggest mall in the world,

gawk at the world's 7-star hotel,

stare at the tallest building in the world.

Ok after posting all the photos i actually feel quite cool. Hahaha thick skin. But something that bugs me is that along with this job, i meet a lot of random people. And i tend to wonder if these random people are friendly to me cos of my status. (not that i have a high status duh of cos but people tend to think it's very glam. which is UNtrue). Now even when i meet old acquaintances they are extra friendly to me. Not that i do not enjoy this sudden surge of affection from people, only that it makes me feel fake. Or maybe they are not extra friendly, i think too much. You think?

But i guess i understand the natural reaction cos when Ian (the drunk one) told me he's now a film producer i was going all "WOW SO COOL do you get a lot of girls who want to sleep with you". He said he was gonna make our new safety video. HOW COOL IS THAT!!!!

One night inTaipei

Hello!

I came back from Santorini totally sunburnt.

Not totally. Just the shoulders and arms.

Face was fine cos i got myself a silly big hat with a ribbon on it.

I hope i'll get round to posting my beautiful pictures. But here are some dated pictures first. When i just rebonded my hair! So nice and smooth. But now it'sall in a mess again gah.



My outfit. Ready to roam the Shilin night market in Taipei.

Hair. So much neater. Face. Made up on a rare occasion.

Lookie me new bracelet!

Yay. So princessy.

London

Bra says he hadn't been reading my blog for weeks. I haven't been blogging for weeks either. Hehe. So let's blog something big that involves pictures: London!!

London was hot. I got a sunburn. I know, very unbelievable. But believe me, it's summer but i did not feel a drop of rain. So obviously the whole city was out.

We bought a day pass to ride on the topless hop on hop off bus :) Finally i get to visit the places that i've read in story books. Like Baker Street. Or Harrods. Lol.


On the bus. Here's Baker Street. Sherlock Holmes stayed at 221b :D



People on the bus.

Very busy Piccadilly Circus. I find the neon signs very un-london.


Random street lamp with a flower pot dangling! :)

Look at the crowd! See the glorious weather! We're at Trafalgar Square.


Artists scrawling on the pavements with chalk for money. I find this one particularly interesting. It totally looked like a painting..... he even drew a dish for you to lay your money in :)

Ok then we came to Buckingham palace. Interestingly i came to know of 'Beckingham' before Buckingham :p


Beautiful park en route to the palace. Peek at the Big Ben!

It was reeeeeally sunny. I put on double layers in view of the 20 degrees but.....

Here we are... See that the flag is up, which means the queen is at home!

It turned out to be the queen's birthday! Unfortunately we didn't come to know of it till we switched on the TV in the evening. But she had a procession in the morning, arriving in a carriage with marching and firing and stuff like that. Gahhhhhh wished i had been there!!!

This is the balcony where you always see the royal family standing and waving to the crowd on TV.

So this was the closest i ever got to the queen.

Nah i didn't post anything.

Yay Big Ben!




Westminster Abbey- very large Gothic church. It is a traditional coronation and burial site for the monarchs. I think Princess Diana was married and subsequently crowned here?


The entrance.

Palace of Westminster aka Parliament House. Magnificent structure.

The clock tower... and a peek of the London Eye.

Random protests. It was actually the first time i witness a live one.


On our way to the River Thames cruise.



An attempt at an artistic shot.



HAHA. I thought London Bridge was some incredible super old historic bridge. But it looked like some normal old bridge.


This was often mistaken for the London Bridge. But it is actually.......



Tower Bridge.Tower of London. Where those old twisted dark tales of English monarchy you read in books happened. This was where King Henry VIII chopped off Anne Boelyn's head. Hadn't had the chance to tour the inside though.


One of the gates.
There used to be a moat but it was filled.

Traitors' gate. So it was said that Anne Boelyn was brought in as a prisoner through here.


Haha! Harrods!


A touristy phone booth pic with my friend's irritaing finger.






I think this was somewhere near Hyde Park. Oh dear i can't really remember.


Random artistic shot of a rose...

Wahaha Primark!

The tube.

Nice little cafes by the streets.

Finally, i think this was some huge shopping mall? But i like the lights :) Reminds me of christmas :)

Generally we took less than a day to visit almost all major tourist attractions of London city. "Visit" as in touch-and-go, did not have the time to go into attractions like the museums or the rides eg. London eye. No even the churches. The attractions are actually very close to one another so if weather permits, walking is very ok. In fact we only took the bus to Trafalgar Square and walked all the way to river thames, took the boat, walked again, then took the bus home. Pardon me for being such a typical tourist lol but i only had ONE pathetic day there so had to make the best of it.

This was one of my most enjoyable tours! Probably cos i felt like i was going back to my childhood, actually witnessing places i read about as a child, and monopoly locations like MAYFAIR. Hahhaha. Would definitaly tour London at my own time in future.