Lweichiang's Blog

Taiwan Trip 2012

Yes i went to Taipei during my one week block leave after POP. This is my fourth time visiting Taiwan, and only six months apart from my last visit. This time round, went with my poly friends aka army mates. This trip is a little different from the last previous trip. I only did the booking of the air-tickets and accommodation and leave the itinerary to my fellow friends – yujian. 

Some of the places he planned is somewhere i would not include in my own itinerary, such as the National Palace Museum and Taipei zoo. I had been to National Palace Museum few years back when i first visited Taiwan with tour group. Museum is never a place i would want to visit especially in overseas. Time is precious isn’t it?

We went for an outdoor hot spring at Xin BeiTou this time round, this is something new for me, i had never soaked an outdoor hot spring in Taiwan before. Walked around Xin BeiTou for quite some time to find the hot spring hotel that we had done research online. Hot spring is definitely something you must try when you visit Taiwan especially in winter period.

On the second day of the trip we went to visit our Taiwanese poly classmate near her university. She brought us around “Shida Night market” and bought us “Ru Wei” for dinner. To be frank, “ru wei” is something i will never try on my own. I agree that i am picky on food, especially food like animal internal organs if definitely a NO for me. After the dinner we went to some dessert stall and continue updating our current state. 

 This visit we went to their club, like FINALLY!!! All thanks to that Yujian that didn’t want to go the previous trip. Taiwan club is indeed more happening compared to Singapore club. 

 

 

 

POP lo!

POP lo! I had been waiting for this day for 4 long months in BMT, finally i POP two weeks ago, somehow thought my life would be a lot better in the unit. End of BMT is the start of the brand new NS journey in the unit. Well i was posted to Rifle Range Road Camp 1 as a Sup Assit (Ammo). Indeed life is easier but there are negative side to it. I can’t mention too much here though. 

I definitely gonna miss my bunk mates in BMTC. The brothers that we had been through hardship together, I will never forget any one of you guys. Now that we had parted to different unit, facing different difficulties on our own part. Pull it on and share with each other  when we have our meet-up. 

 

Field Camp

I would be having fieldcamp this coming Tuesday. Can’t imagine how is it going to be like? Many shag moments and “tekan” session. Moreover, my SIT test would be straight after my fieldcamp. I doubt after i can think for the SIT test after the fieldcamp. 

Mixed feelings i wanted to quickly get over the fieldcamp yet i dun really want to go for it. 

HELP!!!!!!!

Happy Hari Raya Haji

All NS-men are looking forward to any of the Public Holidays, Public Holidays represents a official day off for us. Last week we had Deepavali and this week we had Hari Raya Haji. The next one would be Christmas, which is about 2 months away from now. This week marks the end of our PTP phase and BMT phase will start straight after i book in tomorrow. Life is getting tougher and tougher as it goes by…

Long Break

Can’t imagine that i am at home on a Monday morning. Thanks to Deepavali we had this long break. Booking in on Wednesday. Time is always not enough!

Book Out Lo!

This is my third book out after i enlisted on the 8 September 2011. I actually served for about one month, times pass super duper slow during my  confinement weeks. Time seems to be so precious when book out, time isn’t enough for army man.

 

Batam 2D1N Trip

Came across this Batam 2D1N deal on www.deal.com.sg, a few months back and I decided to bring my parents for a short get-away. This deal includes two-way ferry ride, hotel accommodation, seafood lunch, one hour full body massage, and hotel transfer that cost $78 per pax. The above package excludes the fuel charges and taxes which add up to about $30 dollars per pax.

We reached Batam Ferry terminal at about 10 plus am, to my surprise is that we do not need to queue up for the custom clearance despite that there is a long queue. The tour-guide collected our passport on the bus and told us that their staff will settle for us. I didn’t know the law in Batam are that lenient, and this definitely is not going to happen in Singapore.

First Stop – Home-made Kueh –Lapis Store

There are total 4 types of Kueh-Lapis namely the Original, Coffee, Prune and Cinnamon and are sold at $25 SGD per 1kg. According to my mum that $25 SGD for a 1kg Kueh-Lapis are considered cheap compared to the ones that sold in Singapore where the prices can go up to $50 per 1kg. We managed to buy 2, the Original and Cinnamon.

Tour Guide explaining the different types of Kueh-Lapis

Original Kueh-Lapis

Second Stop – Golden Prawn 933

This is the place where we had our seafood lunch, the food seriously CMI, but kind of think back, we only paid for $78 per pax, so we should not complain that much. Another thing that I am displeased is the sharing of table with other tour mates. The awkward atmosphere is something that you cannot imagine, with four or more different family placed together sharing the food.

Third Stop – Tua Pek Gong Temple

Fourth Stop – Batam Factory Outlet

This is place where you can get all sort of Branded stuff like Burberry, Ralph Lauren and etc. However how authentic the stock are is all for you is justified.

Fifth Stop – Massaging time

Finally the massage time, this is what I am looking forward to since the starting of the trip. We top-up another $10 SGD for the aroma oil massage. Though the massage wasn’t as good as I expected but it’s better than nothing.

Sixth Stop – Hotel

I love the hotel! Shall let the picture do the talking:

We took a cab and went to  an nearby shopping mall for dinner. Went into this Thai Restaurant that serves good Tom-yum soup.

DAD’s Salted Fish Fried Rice!

Yummy Tom-Yum Soup

My Black pepper Chicken Rice : )

MUM’s Seafood Hor-Fun

Walk around the shopping Mall after dinner and bought a cup of Chocolate Cream & Chip from Starbuck.

DAY 2

After our heavy breakfast in the hotel, we walked out of the hotel and stroll around the hotel and managed to find our way to the shopping mall that we came last night. Was scammed by the hotel staff, she told us that the shopping mall are not within walk able distance.

Photo(s) took while walking to the Shopping Mall

We bought J.Co Donuts and ate A&W for lunch before we set off back to Singapore.

Root-beer without ice-cream, you guys must be thinking that i am crazy drinking root-beer from A&W without the ice-cream. Its like their “Must Try” but too bad i just didn’t like my soft drink to be contaminated.

SINGAPORE 

We had our dinner at Crystal Jade Dining Restaurant, finally managed to eat our SEAFOOD MEAL where we thought we will be eating in Batam.

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Gong Cha

 

Lot – 1 Gong Cha officially open this week. I am glad that i do not need to go all the way down to town to get better quality bubble tea. Recently Gong Cha had open many outlets island-wide, I hope that they keep the quality and not compromise.

Failed Outing

Meet up with some of my ex-polytechnic classmate today. The class is getting smaller and smaller as some of them went overseas to further their studies while some of the guys enlisted. Some of them last-minute back up, end up with only 4 of us.

Meet Yujian at 4.30pm to Takashimaya to find our old colleagues. Glad to meet up and catch-up with them, have the urge to go back to work. Had our dinner at Javier. Top-up $3.90 on top of the main dish to get the “fill up the plate” promotion.

The movie “Twisted”

Regret watching this movie, story plotting failed. I would give a negative rating for this movie, why can’t local production be better? After the movie both Carnegie and Zhi hwa went home. Went khatib with yujian to have ice-cream waffles, i didn’t want to go home that early. Feel so disheartening and emotional today, hope everything will be better tomorrow.

While on my way home, i saw this guy who looks like a friend of mine, or i should say school mate of mine, didn’t really know him in person. He used to be very autistic and low self-esteem, he was once being forced to do a sex position with another guy in the school toilet and the whole process was being filmed down. The video clip was spread across the school. This incident was so serious that police came in and investigate. After that incident his parents actually pull him out of our school. From what i know this is not the first time he change school due to such incident.

Saw him today on the train with his friends, he looks happier and more outgoing now. Feel happy for him to walk out of his own world. At least something that make me feels better today.

 

 

Day 5 – Taipei

Today i woke up exceptionally early despite having much alcohol the previous night. I went out to the streets alone while my friends were still sleeping, doing my last-minute shopping. After the shopping i went back to the hotel and to my surprise, they actually woke up without me as the human alarm.

We had our breakfast near-by and went to the Taipei Underground mall for some last-minute shopping. There is simply nothing in the Taipei Underground Mall, we went back to Xi-men-ding.

Saw this in one of Jacky Wu’s variety show, finally got our chance to taste it! OMG….

We had some dessert after that and head straight to the airport….

With that i mark the end of the Taipei trip 2011.