Epilogue -- 1 month home

I'd finally found time to upload all my pictures after 1 month! Life back in Singapore is rather hectic because of the many activities and meetups I had since I'm back home! And school has officially started for me, so hello to the much dreaded Final Year Project / Thesis (they are the same to me :p).

Here are just some of the last few pictures I took in Taiwan :)

Epilogue -- 1st week home

Spent the past week meeting up with friends and family whom I hadn't seen for a long time, some just 5 months and others longer... It's a tiring week, given the fact that I went for church camp on the second day I'm back and having to enter Malaysia at 9pm on Friday. But then, it's great to see people I hadn't seen for a long time, so it kinda compensate the fatigue I was feeling. 

Spent quite some time editing some pictures I took during the last days in Taiwan, and it felt quite surreal. I mean, I was still travelling around in Taiwan barely a week ago and now I'm back home! And suddenly 5 months don't seem to be as long as what I thought it is! 

I'll still update this space, though not on a daily basis. I'll be doing some sort of a 懒人包 aka summary of each area I went to, also a review of the hostels I'd stayed during the various trips around Taiwan. I hope I won't procrastinate too much though :p

Till the next time, ciaos~

Here's some of the pictures I took at 心之芳庭 at 台中! It has a really romantic ambiance, perfect for engagement or wedding shoots!  

Day 138 -- Delayed flight, advanced landing

The title sums up the entry pretty much. The boarding was delayed for half an hour, but when we reached Singapore in the morning, we were 30 minutes earlier than the scheduled timing -.-

The first thing I did after clearing the immigration was to get to Changi Airport T3 for Ya Kun Kaya Toast set A! The breakfast set that I was craving for the past 3 months! (And I am not exaggerating) I really missed the flavours of the toast and also ordering my coffee in the Singaporean style, eg. Kopi gao peng siew dai. True blue Singaporean will know what this whole stretch of weird wordings meant :p

Then it was truly home sweet home, but when I first got on the cab, I almost wanted to say 中山大学, and it took me a while to recall the street I lived in. No matter what, I'm still happy that I'm home, and I'll continue to post in this space, especially some reviews and whats not. Stay tuned :D

Lastly, thank you for accompanying me on this memorable, once-in-a-lifetime journey with me :)
P.S. pictures for the past few days will be up soon~

Day 137 -- Final day in Taiwan!

It's my last full day in Taiwan! Time passes so fast and I still remember how lost I felt when I first reached Tao Yuan Airport with the fellow Singaporeans 5 months back! Now, I am back at the same place, blogging using the free wifi available here while waiting for my flight at 1 AM  (So technically I am still 138 days away from home.. LOL).

Spent the whole day idling around Taichung city and had lunch at my favourite 宫原眼科 for its awesome sundae and I tried its special milk tea concoction. I had mine named 半梦半醒之间.. I was thinking, how apt is the name to describe my last day in Taiwan.

Walked a bit to find the last of the local specialties to bring home, and yes, I bought a whole bag of them, then went back to the hostel to retrieve my luggage and headed off to the airport.

I'd such a great nap on the bus when I woke up all of a sudden. Shortly after, the bus stopped at one side of the expressway to restart and I realised that the speedometer wasn't working (I was sitting at the first seat, that's why I could see it) and we were only halfway to the airport. Needless to say, I was afraid that driver could not estimate his speed and it was pouring somemore! But thank God, we were stuck in a jam afterwards and this sort of controlled the speed of the bus and the rain stopped too...

So here I am, in the airport, safe and sound and waiting for my check-in. I hope my last minute baggage increment can save my pocket from burning a huge hole for being overweight. Till I reached Singapore in a couple of hours, see yea!

Day 136 -- Unexpected day tour

Met up with my cousin in the morning with no concrete idea where we will go to for the day. All we knew was that we want to visit some lavender garden and we were completely clueless about the itinerary for the rest of the day..

Our first stop was Yi-zhong street because le cousin wanted to look for something, but it was a futile trip because the shop wasn't open. Afterwards, we went to 心之芳庭 and had an awesome time walking around the theme park, which was essentially a huge garden with romantic settings apt for holding weddings and for couple photo shoots.

Just when we were lost about our next stop (it was still quite early to end the day), my cousin's roomie came to the rescue. She was out with her brother and sister-in-law and was intending to do visit the carton king and asked if we were interested. Of course we said yes and joined them! And the best part of it, they drove so we were all seated comfortably in her brother's car for the rest of our trip. And it seemed like my cousin asked if she could stay over at her place (quite last minute), and the family was like 'SURE!' They even included my accommodation but I'd already booked mine at the awesome N JOY Taichung ( I think I may dedicate one post for the hostels I'd stayed during my trips around).

Ok, I'd sidetracked too much.. Carton King was interesting! As the name suggest, everything was made from carton in this theme park! Even the furniture in the restaurant we had our dinner at were all made from cardboard! If you have the time in Taichung, I certainly recommend you to pay this attraction a visit!

During dinner, the brother and sister-in-law was suggesting to end the night at the Jin-Cheng night market in ChangHua and visiting Tung Hai University in TaiChung. Factoring in the fact that I was staying in Taichung, they decided to make a detour by going to the night market then back to tunghai before returning home (which is in Changhua). For this, I was truly grateful for their hospitality! And not to mention they were so funny during the whole trip! It was really enjoyable to travel with awesome locals!

Photos will be uploaded after I return to Singapore because the hard-disk is currently safely (i hope) tucked in a corner in my luggage :D

Day 135 -- Goodbye KS, Hello Tai-Chung

Woke up early to help Miyuki with her luggage and I couldn't sleep afterwards, so in the end I decided to finish off my packing earlier... Gosh, it was harder than what I thought. Not to mention carrying all my belongings to the ground floor! Just in case you don't know, I stay on the 4th level with no elevator and I carried all my bags alone. Thinking about it, it's really crazy but oh wells, I did it, so yay!

Another crazy thing I did was to take the TRA to Tai chung with all my barang-barangs -.- How dumb can I get, but after today's experience, I'd learnt my lesson.. I will not try to take TRA with too much stuff ever again.

And the theme today was -- E.A.T.

I spent the whole day eating! I had the railway bento (like finally!) on my way to taichung. And because I already had the plan to eat my day 1 away in Taichung today so yups, the only part of my body that moved the most was my mouth :p

Had nice ice cream from 宫原眼科, the original bubble tea from 春水堂（本店 somemore!). And the eating continued after I reached 逢甲夜市. Had the famous 大肠包小肠, which was also my first; 红茶臭豆腐, which I ordered because I saw that they had korean kimchi in it; Matcha red bean egg tart which was MEH~; and a lemonade in a box. It was so so, but I bought it because the packaging looked cute *facepalm*

Was so full from all the eating but I'm not regretting it at all. If I don't eat them now, I will truly regret it when I return! So, let me grow fat and enjoy all the nice food now then worry about the massive weight gain later :p

Day 134 -- Final Farewell with friends

It seemed like it was the day for final goodbyes with new friends made in Taiwan.

I had lunch at this restaurant called 异人馆 in a district near 左营。Other than Xin fang (who was the classmate who treated all of us), there was also her other friends, Li chun and Zhu laoshi. Didn't expect it to be so many people, but it was during lunch that she mentioned that it's a lunch with combined purpose. Firstly, a farewell to me, then a celebration of her getting 1st in some competition, and to thank her friend for supporting her. But nonetheless, I was glad to know new people even though it was technically my last day in Kaohsiung. Li Chun was a really friendly girl, and perhaps our ages are relatively close, it seemed like we can relate to many things. Zhu laoshi on the other hand, was a very wise lady. If I have the opportunity to talk to her more, I believe there will be so many things I can learn from her! And as usual, Xing Fang was the life of the group. With her, there's no need to worry about a lack to conversation topics :p

After lunch, I met Miyuki at the beach to catch our last sunset in NSYSU. Just idling on the shore, looking out into the horizon, watching the setting sun and listening to the waves as they hit the shores. It's a feeling I will not forget. Neither will it be an experience I will get to enjoy in the near future (assuming I am stuck in Singapore most of the year).

After the sun had set, we went to meet Alice for one final meetup this exchange. We had Shark Bites, as were craving for the awesome Chocolate Banana Waffles we had in the beginning of the semester with the Japanese neighbours. But dinner was disappointing. We ordered the waffles only to see that it wasn't anywhere near to what we saw or ate a few months back :( But nonetheless, it was good to meet my buddy for the last time on the last day in Kaohsiung. Take care my dear buddy and hope to see you soon!

I had such a long day, yet it felt so fast. Too fast, too soon, I am bidding this awesome place farewell.