supermerlion » Taiwan

Hello Kitty Lottery

Sho — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 16:00:15 +0000

During his last trip to Taiwan, I asked KT to bring me back some scratch and win cards on the logic that a winning ticket meant that I could afford to travel over to collect my prize. Much to my surprise, he returned with a couple of these Hello Kitty lottery tickets!

This is an actual Sanrio licensed product (or at least it claims to be). Sanrio stand is that they will not offer their characters for anything deemed inappropriate but I guess Hello Kitty supports gambling.

Green welcoming version.

Pink acting cute version.

I won!

As you can see from the photo above I actually ended up winning $200. Unfortunately $200 in New Taiwan Dollars is only approximately SGD$8. The prize didn’t cover the TWD$300 cost for both tickets, let alone a flight. Notice Hello Kitty mocking me in the picture.

50 Lan

Yan — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 16:00:43 +0000

As previously stated, KOI Cafe is an overseas branch of a hugely popular bubble tea franchise in Taiwan. But one will be disappointed if you try walking around asking locals for help locating KOI Cafe in Taiwan since they are under the name of 50嵐 (50 Lan).

Other than the name, are there any differences in the bubble tea? Luckily I got to taste their version of bubble tea when I was in Taiwan and I could just say that there is still that small difference, even though they derive from the same tree.

Obviously, 50嵐 has more variations of drinks offered than in Singapore, some of which (e.g. pudding bubble tea) I really hope that they carry over to Singapore.

There’s also an option of the size of pearls (tapioca balls in S, M or L size) to choose from when you order your drinks. Not applicable to the Singapore franchise though.

The third most prominent difference would be the extra burnt taste that was pretty evident in their bubble tea. From asking the Taiwanese locals, I learned that they too recognized that 50嵐 has a distinct taste which makes it different from all the other bubble tea franchises in Taiwan.

My verdict, either you love the burnt taste or you hate it.

The Tea of Cool, Craving, Content...

Now that you know, there won’t be a mix up or any confusion in locating the shops for that KOI Cafe taste the next time you happen to visit Taiwan.

KOI Cafe does not actually own a website of its own. 50嵐’s website should be the one to check out if you want to find out more about their drinks.

Taiwan: Non-stop Taipei

Yan — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 02:37:22 +0000

Armed with a total of 5 cameras and various camera phones, 3 friends and myself set off on a journey to Taiwan. Motive of the trip: to recharge ourselves after a long year of studying or working. But of course, snapping as many photos as we can, pigging out on the street snacks in Taipei and hiking our way through the beautiful greenery of Alishan were the main objectives of this journey.

I will be covering the trip in 2 main articles, one of Taipei and another for Alishan. In this part, you will be witnessing a non-stop Taipei sightseeing adventure. It served primarily as a pit stop for us to actually transit to Chiayi-Alishan, so we did only minimal sightseeing and last minute shopping at Taipei. While we only briefly covered the various areas of interest in Taipei, I still managed to snap a few good pictures. Alas, the pictures featured below are a combined effort with my friends.

PS: As there was a little problem with the film camera that i brought with me to the Taiwan trip, some Light leaks (red glares) occurred in various pictures featured below. Please forgive me for some of the bad photos shown.

The Flight to Taipei (台北):

Final check for our boarding Jetstar flight to Taiwan.

Excited to see Taipei in another 5~6 hours? You bet.

First thing to do is to get the Taiwan youth card from the information counter. Selected shops/hostels and most of the ticketed premises will be given 5%~15% discount once u show them this.

Lugging heavy luggage, coach was our preferred choice of transport in and out of Taoyuan International Airport.

For traveling around Taipei itself, Taipei Metro is your best and least expensive option.

Be sure to get the Easycard from the metro stations. It covers almost everything from metro/buses to even boats.

Ximending (西門町):

We went to Ximending. The "Harajuku" of Taipei and a shopping heaven for teenagers.

The main entrance of the Ximending street could be located by looking for the huge screen.

The famous Red House Theater. Its located just opposite the streets of Ximending.

Approach the friendly police for directions and ogle at the World of Warcraft signboard if you are a fan.

Street of Ximending itself. Taxis, bikes and even trucks are allowed to cross free in the streets during weekdays, we have to constantly look out vehicles before crossing even the small streets.

One of the popular ice cream stalls loaded with students. The ice cream is reputed to be 1/3 of your body's length.

Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall (中正紀念堂):

Visited Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall.

Really huge parade square.

Ceremonial main gate to the memorial hall.

Bronze statue of Chiang Kai-shek in the main inner hall.

One of the 2 Ceremonial guards on duty. Sadly they are fenced a huge distance from the visitors, preventing visitors from doing stupid poses with the guards. This also means the pictures we could take of them are not going to be of decent quality.

If you look up to the ceiling, you could see a huge Taiwan flag logo in the hall.

A duplicate of Chiang Kai-shek's office in one of the inner halls, complete with a life sized model of Chiang Kai-shek.

Beitou Hot Springs District (北投溫泉區):

Beitou Metro Station. They put in great effort on the decorations.

While Xin Beitou was the actual destination that we were suppose to visit for the hot spring, getting there will require a transition ride from the normal metro line to a specially decorated tram from Beitou station.

Beitou hot springs district.The murky white river that you see here is actually discharged spring water flowing from the spring source.

Snapping away.

Several points on the river could be accessed on foot. Providing a free foot soak for anyone who is willing to brave the dangers of getting soaked.

At the very end of the road lies the Geothermal valley, the source of hot spring water for the whole area.

There are of course several spring bath facilities littered on Beitou hot springs district. They ranges from cheap communal baths to the high end private hotel baths.

Other areas of attraction include the very beautiful Beitou library.

Beitou hot springs museum. There was school excursion when we arrived.

Various scenic buildings there make Beitou a great spot for artists to work on their paintwork.

Another artist at work. Painting makes a great retirement hobby I presume.

Closeup.

Danshui Fisherman’s Warf (淡水漁人碼頭):

Visiting the "Lover's Bridge".

Considered to be the most scenic spot in Danshui.

Various takes on the bridge.

Another angle.

Heavily featured in many Taiwan shots and commercials, the Lover's bridge itself is not a easy subject to get great pictures of.

Great view form the bridge though.

Pier.

Freak accident shotthat turned out to be beautiful.

Danshui old street (淡水老街). Great place to get gifts and snacks.

Danshui old street (淡水老街). Night.

Leofoo Village (六福村):

Leofoo Amusement Park. Serves as both am amusement park and a mini zoo.

Went around to try the rides provided.

The carousel.

A 360 degree thrill ride.

Free drop.

Mobile performance during fixed intervals.

Closeup.

Took a leisure tram ride for the animal viewing.

Snapping like mad.

Some rhinos.

Giraffes.

Even flamingos.

There are quite a number of must-go-places that I didn’t manage to cover during this trip, but there were even more places that we neglected to take pictures of (I have no idea how I managed to miss taking a picture of Taipei 101…). While I have to say that the places I covered might not be the most extensive, it certainly wasn’t a wasted effort to make a trip down to those places. With that, I end this little article of the trip to Taipei.

Word of caution : Taiwan is a very Mandarin orientated country, do bring a friend who excels with the language or risk spending the whole journey fumbling with hand gestures and wild guesses.

Alishan, Mamiya Perspective

Yan — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 02:42:39 +0000

Recently, I had finally developed the negatives for the Taiwan trip that I have went for during 2009. Lugging a 1.5kg camera and carrying a whole lot of 120mm films was really hard work, but most of the pictures turned out to be well worth the money and wait to develop them. I will now share with you some of the better pictures I took at Alishan. Hope that you will like it.

PS: Just in case if you are wondering what is a Mamiya C220, it is a twin-lens reflex camera made in the 1970s with interchangeable lenses. I will post a picture to let you see how it actually looks like.

Me and my Mamiya C220.

Next up, pictures taken with the Mamiya during the trip.

First stop, Fencihu.

Fencihu station. See the mountain beyond? That's Alishan.

Old street of Fencihu.

The start of a long long hike up the mountains.

Resting at the bridge.

We saw the train track at the bottom of the bridge, and went down.

Guys, if you value your life. Lets not play around the train tracks please.

Luckily for us, the Alishan Tram service is not in service. So we did not get crushed by any incoming trains.

Random Plant shot on the track.

Resting and posing a shot for the camera.

Since the Alishan tram service was stopped due to the Hurricane. we managed to play around in the famous wooden cabins.

Interior of the wooden cabins.

Signal.

Sakura trees not yet in bloom.

Surprisingly, there is a temple right in the middle of Alishan. Sadly, the nuns in the temple could not take a picture with us due to religious reasons.

Construction is still ongoing at Alishan to rebuild the damaged roads.

Random Interesting Vehicle shot.

Random Bike shot.

Back to our homestay lodging. Yes they actually carve and color the stone.

This is the table where we had our meals and acquainted ourselves with the homestay family. Great mountain viewing place too.

Sadly, the hurricane did quite a bit of damage to the regions of Alishan. See those strips of landslide on the photo?

Way to the viewing stage.

The early bird gets all the nice seats. Just remember to wear something more than boxers!

Lastly, a group photo with the homestay family. The girl and the tallest guy on the right happened to be visiting reporters checking on the damage done to Alishan as a whole.