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 97 -- Eccentric weather checked

For the first time, I'd experienced the eccentric weather here in Kaohsiung. For the whole day it was heavy rain then all of a sudden it can be hot and sunny. Then after an hour or two, it'll be all gloomy and rainy again. And this lasted through the whole day. And because of it, our training in the pool was cancelled.

When the clock strikes 12, we gave Miyuki a mini birthday surprise, the 武陵一村 style.. This time we got almost everyone staying in the block to come over to celebrate her birthday! Really love how spontaneous the girls are! Within such short notice, we managed to gather everyone into the room and I must say that the plan went on pretty well too!

Day 38 -- It's another day at the Sugar Museum!

Made a trip down to the Sugar Museum with the girls and Chris this afternoon! It's was an awesome trip although we went through the same places I went previously (you can read about it here). Sometimes, it's just so different to go to the same place with friends!

After which, we each had an ice Popsicle to end our day at 19 degree Celsius, and that was another great experience for all of us!

Well, I'm still in the midst of editing the pictures. Hopefully they will be ready soon! :)

Day 33 -- 去六合当一夜傻傻（被骗）的游客

Went to Liuhe night market tonight with Minyu because I wanted to get some local goodies. I believed I got conned into buying expensive stuff, but oh wells, this only happens once in a while.

Unlike the previous trip there, we knew what we want, so the trip was a rather swift one! Which means, we had more time to explore the food there! After spending a month here, I finally got to try the Taiwanese meat ball or 肉圆 as they called it! I'm a sucker for anything that's sticky and chewy, so this had just made it to the top 10 must try local food!

I also got myself smelly tofu fries! It's so smelliciously awesome! Now I understand what some people meant by the smellier the tofu, the better it is! I can totally relate to that! Smelly tofu's place in my heart is uncontested! LOL.

Then we went to walk around Nanhua Night Market (although it doesn't feel like one at all!) to look at the cheap and really pretty shoes available there! They are all so pretty that I can't help but to want to bag them all!

Tonight ended with an impromptu gathering outside Fam Mart and I'm glad to know new people, a Malaysian and an Italian to be exact. They are so friendly and easy to talk to! I do hope we can meet up again! :)

Day 32 -- Trip to Mei Nong (美濃)!

We woke up early today for a day trip to Mei Nong learning about some traditions of the Hakka Culture here in Taiwan.

First we went to the Hakka Culture Museum where we had a guide to show us around the place and also to explain the Hakka culture in Taiwan; how and where did the Hakka in Taiwan originated from. Learnt quite a fair bit from it especially how a typical traditional Hakka household is like.

Then we enjoyed a splendid lunch which include some of the key food that is unique to the Hakkas. I especially loved the pig intestines and the pork belly with preserved veg! They were so good that I just kept on eating and eating.

After lunch, we then head to another cultural centre where we were taught about the Hakka oil paper umbrellas and the grounded tea. We even get to decorate our own mini umbrellas which we were allowed to bring back! I certainly had fun decorating mine though it looked really meh :/

My masterpiece! ^^

Ingredients for the Hakka grounded tea (擂茶)

And finally to the last stop! We went to pick cherry tomatoes in a tomato farm! It's my first time doing such activity and it's so fun! Plucking and eating then pluck again (oops! :p) Not to mention that the tomatoes are so sweet and juicy! Who would have known I hated these variant of the tomatoes family a few months back! LOL!

Sweet and juicy tomatoes!

In all, the trip was an insightful and definitely a well-planned one!

PS. pictures will be up soon! :)

Day 26 -- Taiwan Sugar Museum

Spent half of my day at the Taiwan Sugar Museum @ Ciaotou this afternoon! But I regretted leaving the dorm so late. There were so many things to see there! I'm sure to visit it again with the rest in the near future :)

Anyway, it was a good experience to be able to learn about something we consume almost every single day -- Sugar. It is always around us yet, so little about its production is known to us. Hence, I really feel that this trip was really an insightful one. Especially the exhibition that shows the different procedures involved in the production of sugar, and how the sugar industry in Taiwan started and transform for the past century.

They also have this mini maze where they used old machinery to make installation art pieces and place them in various spots in the maze. Not to mention the adorable descriptions they have for some of the pieces as well! Oh yes, and this exhibition on pigs! You can find all sorts of objects related to pigs; from piggy banks to dolls to ornaments! Some of them are so cute!!

In all, this is an interesting place, and I will definitely recommend you to go if you've time to spare from your itinerary, since it is quite out of place.

Day 24 -- It's a solo trip!

After being in Taiwan for 3 weeks, here's my first visit to some place all by myself. There may be more to come, knowing that there are places that wouldn't appeal to the rest of the group. Back to the trip, it was an awesome one! I finally got to visit Pier 2 Arts Center proper and went for a few exhibitions, including the National Geographic one!

Each picture had it's publishing year stated on the description make it seemed like I'm walking through history. But the one thing I love about the exhibit which I cannot find in the one in Singapore is that they included the pictures published about Taiwan together with some description. Especially those of the indigenous tribes in Taiwan near to a century ago. They are indeed valuable historic archives.

Other than Pier 2, I also went to the Takao Railway Museum. I was expecting much explanation about the railway history but the museum was more of displays then explanations. Oh well, at least I still enjoyed the scenery there and some of the really huge trains left for tourists (like myself) to snap pictures with.

Finally I went to RuiFeng Night Market again for dinner. But I was snacking all the way that I ate so much unknowingly! Lesson learnt: Never have snacks as dinner ever again!

Enough talking for today! Bye~

Day 12 -- It's shopping time!

Today was shopping day at Sanduo shopping district and Ruifeng Night market. 

With 3 shopping malls at the MRT station, Sanduo should be the first choice to shop, but well, I'm just a poor student. All I can do was to admire the expensive stuff on sales and tell myself to work hard so I can afford them in the future (LOL! Can't believe I actually typed that -.-). Yup, so my verdict is Sanduo is for the richer ones who can afford it or those who can only wear branded stuff. By that, I'm including Mango and Espirit (see, this is how poor I am).

After which, we travelled to 巨蛋 station to meet some of the Japanese neighbours and went to Ruifeng Night Market in the evening. Then that we realised our group was too huge to walk through the market together, so in the end we split, and I was with Miyuki and Minyu for the rest of the night. And my I met my buddy coincidentally where she was hanging out with her friends, how cool! I must say the night is really an awesome one. Firstly it's huge! Next, there are so many cheap clothes around! Needless to say I went a little overboard spending for more clothes :p I believe they are all worth it!

To sum up, I don't think I'm going to Sanduo again, unless I really want to get branded stuff (which is highly impossible). But I am definitely going back to Rui Feng for the cheap thrills :)

Day 11 -- 旗津之我们一起去郊游！

Went to Cijin today with the NTU peeps and KT's buddy and we had so much fun! We took the ferry from Gushan ferry terminal and within minutes, we reached Cijin! The ride was so fast that I didn't even have time to register where I am for a moment (ok, perhaps I am just slow). What greeted us was good warm and sunny weather topped with strong winds, and I'm not complaining :D

First stop: Cihou fort and lighthouse
Thank goodness for the road signs around, it wasn't too hard to navigate around. But too bad, when we reach the foot of the mountain, we realised we couldn't cycle up to neither the fort nor the lighthouse, so we changed to 'hiking' up these 2 attractions instead. But the effort to go up was worth it. The views on top was breathtaking.

 The creation of our signature pose aka 招牌动作!

 Us trying to form a word. Can you guess it?

 Taking a pic of 西子湾 from the coast opposite!

Second stop: 万二正老店、六斗冰店
For lunch, we travelled a little further into Cijin because we want to try the cheap seafood recommended by some bloggers and the travel guide YY brought along. And I'm glad we went the extra mile for it because just as it was recommended, the food served were so value for money! And we only spent NTD 950 for 9 dishes! How awesome is that! Afterwards, we cycled to 六斗冰店 for old school ice cream. They are known for handmade ice cream and this particular ice cream sandwich, which is very similar to what we get from those roadside ice cream vendors. But the peanut flavored one that I got was heavenly. The fragrance of the peanut was so intense, I fell in love with it at once!

This ordinary looking ice cream which I instantly fell madly in love with!

Final stops: 风车公园、海水浴场、星光隧道

There are many parks along the way as we cycled back to the main area. But what's worth mentioning will be the 风车公园. Just as the name suggests, this park adjacent to the sea was planted with many windmills and the strong winds that accompany definitely made this park one of a must-go in Cijin! The spinning windmills with countless of kites flying in the background is certainly a view not to be missed!

We then went to the beach aka 海水浴场. The sand there was so soft that you can't feel it at all! It just seemed like I was walking on cushioned ground! As the night falls, we decided to travel to our last destination, the star tunnel, which is in my opinion, another display of how creative the Taiwanese can be; making something ordinary into something extraordinary.

 Sunset by the beach

Last group pic of the day!

Side note: 

I finally got to eat my fried smelly tofu! After trying the grilled ones (which are more popular around nowadays), my verdict is I still prefer the fried ones! Awesome yummy snack to end off my day. Now back to the books before we start another day of exploring tomorrow!