27th November 2008 (Thursday).
This day was exceptionally memorable because it was the COLDEST day we experienced! The night before, the lady boss of one of the local produce shops that we patronised shared with us that the temperature would drop to a low of TEN DEGREES CELCIUS!!! We panicked when we heard that coz' we were obviously not prepared for such a low temperature! Haha. But it was quite exciting for us because we can never experience that in Singapore!
And so, we wrapped ourselves up in as many layers as possible before heading out that morning. Zhen and Eve even bought gloves to keep their *cough* delicate *cough* hands warm!
We started off our morning with a hearty breakfast at one of the little eateries in Ximending. We just couldn't get enough of Ru Rou Fan!!! Wahahaha...
Our first photo of the day, before tucking in to breakfast!
The simple but delicious ru rou fan, ru dan (eggs) and something special that we wanted to try - the 甜不辣!
Eve just had to have her daily fix of bubble milk tea, and she got everyone to join in too!
Justina and Ronnie drinking their bubble tea in the shelter...
... while Eve and Zhen opted to drink theirs in the sun coz' it was just too cold!
Eve and her standard daily shot with her favourite pao pao cha...
We were on a tight schedule coz' we wanted to be at Yu Ren Ma Tou (Fisherman's Wharf) before sunset, which is about 5pm there. And we still had to travel via train to Danshui before taking a ferry over. So we quickly proceeded into the station to catch our train!
Camwhoring while waiting... Don't act shy lah Guanwei!!! Wahaha.
A more decent self-taken group shot... good job Ling Yang!!! :D
The two girls up to their nonsense again... HAI.
When we finally got onto the Danshui-bound train, we couldn't help but laugh at Ronnie's predicament...
He's always sitting in the 博爱座 (priority seat) lor!!! Hahaha! Cannot stand it leh.
Your friend?!?!?!?!?! :P
It was a pretty long journey, and as expected, the guys soon fell asleep...
Well, Guanwei only actually. Ling Yang was still wide awake!!! (You can see that Ron had changed seats by then... he was feeling paiseh after our constant teasing! ahaha)
Your friend again?!?
And of course, the guys just couldn't pass up the chance to catch the girls sleeping!!! Grrrrrrr...
3 Sleeping Beauties? :D
We finally reached Danshui!!!
A proper shot of the girls with Danshui station in the background...
And the guys, who were feeling chilly!!!
We found a good spot for photo-taking, and Justina managed to capture some lovely shots of the scenery too.
None of our cameras could capture the real beauty of this scene... the sun rays were shining through the clouds! It was such a captivating sight. =)
Eve was up to her usual mad antics... balancing herself on one leg! Look at how her besties are watching her intently... Teehee.
And as usual, we had to warm ourselves up with jumping shots!!!
Justina started it first...
Eve and Zhen wanted to do it too, but it turned out disastrous!!! Muahahahahaha.
The besties!
The 3 ladies were treated like royalty... Teehee.
Which day is complete without a shot of our Director in action? Heheh here he is again, in some weird position so as to adjust the camera :P
We started taking group shots, which turned out a little dark because of the strong sunlight in the background. But we love the effect, coz' the sky seems to be our background and it was such a lovely shade of blue!
First attempt: FAIL! (Coz' of Zhen's 翘屁股, i.e. protruding backside! HAHAHA)
Second attempt: Slightly better, though still not perfect coz' we weren't standing equal distances apart!
Third attempt: Satisfactory, but our Director LY complained about Zhen's "extra" hand! Wahahahahaha
Fourth attempt: The lighting was a lot better for this photo, but Zhen's tilted head spoiled everything! (Her excuse for this was that the wind was blowing and messing up her hair, so she had to tilt her head...)
This photo resembles some idol drama photoshoot right? ;)
All huddled together for warmth! :)
We're buddies forever!
After spending a long time taking photos at that same spot, we finally made a move to walk further down...
But of course, we soon got distracted by FOOD!!!
Fried prawns and assorted seafood... just couldn't resist!!!
BOOOOO!!!
We're greedy people!
While strolling down the street, something suddenly caught the attention of eagle-eyed Eve...
Can you make out the words on the giant ice-cream cone?
YES!!! The letters spell out LING YANG!!!
Haha Eve got so excited when she spotted it and shouted out to everyone immediately! We couldn't believe just how coincidental it was! It was the second time something had a connection with Ling Yang lor... the first was the Ling Yang goat at the themepark on Day 4, remember? Muahaha.
Ling Yang with the Ling Yang cone! :P
We found another vantage spot for photos!
With a grand sight to behold once again...
That's us! :D
We then decided to snap some emo photos...
Girls first!
Hey look, that's SUPERMAN!
It was then the guys' turn to act emo...
But of course we girls just had to be a little silly!!! We made them stay in that position for the longest time while we snapped our own photos behind their backs (LITERALLY!).
And they were still obediently sitting there the whole time! Awwwwwwww
We bought the ferry tickets which would bring us to Fisherman's Wharf.
The ferry was leaving immediately, but but but! We couldn't board it coz' Ronnie was in the toilet... Sigh. He couldn't tahan so there was nothing we could do. We were all cursing him when he finally returned though. Hyak hyak hyak.
We then came across this statue. Eve kept insisting that it was a fish, which the others believed... until someone (forgot who) read the plaque and clarified that it's actually a stone statue of a crescent moon! OMG..................
Which part of this looks like a moon, you tell me?
Nonetheless, it was a good spot for us to go snap-happy once again!!!
Oiiii don't hide behind lah Ron!
A nice one... :)
Eve and Zhen didn't have the energy to stand up after squatting for so long in that position... Haha old already lah!
Monkey? Tiger? Some random animal?
Eve and Justina showing off their boots!
With minutes before the next ferry arrived, Ron still went to buy food lor!!! Haha. Thank God he didn't make us miss that too, or we would have KILLED him! :P
Evidence of the perpetually-hungry guys buying food...
And finally, we could board the ferry!
A last glance of Danshui in the daytime...
The ferry!
Walk down the ramp also must take photo... Haha that's how we ended up with 3000+ photos in 6 days!
The dudes...
Bye bye Danshui!
It was a bumpy but exciting ride on the ferry... which caused a lot of drama too coz' Zhen actually fell at one point! Heheh. But no serious injuries except for an aching butt. ;)
All smiles...
The poser guys... teehee
We're on our way to Yu Ren Ma Tou!
Dunno why Ling Yang was posing like that... haha maybe the water splashed on him?
Ron, LY and Eve - all ex-students of Jurong Primary! :D
The guys were laughing at Eve coz' she was clinging on to the pole for dear life...
This was before she fell... haha she should have just remained seated!!!
And finally, we saw the bridge that we had previously only seen in photos...
We were at Yu Ren Ma Tou (Fisherman's Wharf)!!!
Photos of the signs that prove that we were indeed there!
The 6 of us climbed up the staircase to get to a higher level so we could take nicer photos... and we really took A LOT of photos there! It was so cold and windy but nothing could stop us!
The bridge is lovely, isn't it?
Eve attempting to fly?
Zhen says "YO!!!!"
Justina stands pretty...
While the guys are as cool as ever!
Okay lah, already say you all cool... still want what?
Random poses in the group shot.
Bleah!
All looking cosy together...
It was the guys who started the jumping thing here... told you we just couldn't get enough of it! Muahaha.
Ron, as usual, has the BEST pose ever! He can win any of us hands down!
Ling Yang also not bad... he managed to cover the vertical part of the bridge with his body!!! :D If his legs were higher, he could have blocked the entired bridge already. Heh.
And we just couldn't help but crack up at Guanwei's attempts to jump... he just couldn't do it properly lor! And when he finally succeeded (kinda), the end result made us laugh till our stomachs hurt!!!
You tell me what pose this is! Wah lau!!! (And see the girls in the background acting as extras... Passersby A, B and C.)
Speaking of whom, the girls didn't do much better at their jumping shots too. In fact, they practically BOMBED!!! Wahahahahahahahahaha...
Evidence: Call this a jump?!?!?!?!?!
OMG look at their faces! Totally hilarious lor!!!
After all that nonsense, we walked to the further end of the platform in preparation for sunset. We had already planned to be there early so as to catch the sun setting... But we were disappointed in the end coz' the skies were so cloudy! We barely got to see the sun. Well, the photos we took there were nice though... :D
A more flattering shot of the girls. Heh.
Justina, with a faint glimpse of Mr. Sun!
Ronnie presents to you... the sky!
Guanwei just looks stoned... Heheh...
One's acting cute, one's acting fierce, the other's oblivious to what's going on...
Eve and Zhen wanting to be part of the pretty colours of the sky...
A picturesque photo of the boats out at sea and the pinkish-sky... Simply awesome.
Ronnie's eating the sun!!!
Guanwei and Ling Yang then came up with this fantastic idea to take photos of us portraying different roles... machiam acting. But with our backs to the camera. Yeah go figure.
Dunno what we were trying to do here!
We randomly paired up and posed together.
Another take.
Then Ling Yang decided to go one step further and assign us specific roles... We had a round of oh-ya-pay-ah-som to decide on our roles, and these were LY's exact words,
"你们两个做 couple...我们四个做朋友."
Which prompted Zhen to ask... "You mean we weren't friends before this?!?" HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
It looks real right? We're damn good actors/actresses lah!
Finally, we decided to take a proper shot again.
Yeah we girls are taller for once!!!
=)
We then decided to give our cameras a break and concentrate on watching the sun set... =)
All perched on the stairs.
See how focused we were on watching the sun!
But there's always time for a photo...
The sun disappeared behind the clouds...
Appeared again momentarily...
Before it disappeared for good... well, almost. We couldn't wait coz'a Zhen was in urgent need of a toilet! Hahaha. We walked and walked and walked, and couldn't find a single one! It was only after walking all the way to the other end, which took about ten minutes, that we finally saw it...
While the girls were busy in the toilet, the guys continued snapping photos outside.
Capturing the last few moments of sunlight.
So emo...
When nightfall finally came upon us, we were marvelled by the lights emanating from the bridge... which meant more photos!!!
Front view of the girls
and backview!
Same for the guys...
Had to use flash to brighten up the photo coz' the natural lighting was too dark by then... which made the guys damn sad!
The bridge by night. Beautiful!
We headed back up again to capture more shots of the brightly-lit bridge.
#1
#2
#3
It wasn't easy taking the photos above, coz' the positioning of the camera had to be just right so as to create the perfect composition for the photo... Teehee our Director LY is such a stickler for such things that when he asked a passerby to snap the following group photo for us, he had to tell the poor dude where exactly to stand and how to hold the camera... :P
But the effort is all worth it when we get a nice photo like this for memory's sake!
Tried to take an artistic shot of the girls but it turned out too dark...
Another view of the bridge by night.
We later learnt that the bridge is actually called Qing Ren Qiao (Lovers' Bridge!). How romantic! =)
Eve had learnt from her friend that the custom is to hold the hand of your loved one as you walk across the lovers' bridge together, and NOT to let go of each other's hands until you step off the bridge. That will ensure that your relationship will last till eternity!!! Too bad all of us didn't have the hands of our significant other to hold. Eve and Zhen did hold hands though... let's see if it works. Haha!
Ling Yang posing in front of the bridge.
Artistic shot of the bridge.
Yoohoooooo it's us!!!
Love how our closeness is depicted in this photo =)
One more for the road!
We finally left Fisherman's Wharf at about 6.30pm, but not before snapping more silly photos...
BLUE BLUE BLUE!!!
Who's the BLUEST of us all???
The ferry departing from Yu Ren Ma Tou...
We had such a barrel of laughs onboard the ferry with the wind blowing in our hair... thanks to Ling Yang, who decided to zip up his hoodie jacket all the way to cover his face.
BLUE RANGER!!!
We were laughing non-stop coz' of his funny antics lah! Goodness... Made such a racket on the ferry that it's a wonder we weren't thrown into the sea :P
Back at Danshui - the guys
The girls...
We strolled back to Danshui station, stopping along the way to grab more snacks and local produce.
Then, we hopped onto the train which brought us to our next destination.
As usual, Ling Yang is always the most awake! Still can admire himself in the mirror while the other guys are sleeping leh! Hahaha...
We changed train at Beitou station, to reach Xinbeitou.
The exterior of Xinbeitou Station.
We were at Xinbeitou for our long-awaited hot spring session!!! All looking forward to it to relax our weary feet and tired bodies... But it wasn't without drama lah. We got into our first (and thankfully, the ONE AND ONLY) major dispute there because we couldn't agree on which hot spring to go to. We had actually paid for the cheapest one, which was actually a public bath which was crowded with people - especially aunties and uncles. Some of us weren't comfortable with the idea after seeing how packed the hot spring was...
So after some compromise and discussion, we decided to forgo the ticket and find a more upmarket and private hot spring.
Thankfully, we found this!!!
This is how the building looks like - it's actually a hotel too!
We managed to get a bigger private hot spring room which all six of us could use together. So glad for that coz' it would have been a totally different experience if the girls and guys were separated! And we only paid about NT$1500 (SGD$75) for the whole room, for one hour. That works out to slightly more than SGD$12 per person, which is reasonable considering the enjoyable experience we had!
Our private room.
It was huge, with two hot springs and a cold one, plus a shower area and a changing area!
The hot spring tubs... (the cold one is the smaller one in the centre)
Bench for sauna? Haha
Eve, Zhen, Ling Yang and Guanwei jumped into the less-warm hot spring first. The temperature was still quite high though - about 40 degrees celcius.
Ronnie joined in not long after...
Followed by Justina!
Yeah we're all getting cooked in the hot water! Wahaahahahaha
It was really damn shiok lor... just soaking ourselves in the hot water...
SPLASH LING YANG!!!
It's not advisable to stay in the hot spring tub for more than 20 minutes at a time due to health reasons, so we were all out within 30-45 minutes!
Towel girls!
Fuzzy shot of the girls in their bikinis...
And of course, there's the infamous video of our dear Ling Yang performing his sexy bath... it was entirely unintentional! He had intended to pose for a photo only, not knowing that Ron was taking a video. Haha! Take a look at this...
We can assure you that he's not a tikopek, so no worries. :P
After showering and changing up, we left the premises. But not before taking a group shot...
The hot spring has this sleep-inducing effect so we were all feeling quite sleepy by then... but the night wasn't over yet! In fact, it was FAR from over. Heh.
Back at Xinbeitou station... The two camwhores at it again!
Sneaky Ron tried to snap a photo of the girls sleeping, but Eve was still awake!
Not for long though.... Zzzzzzzz
Needless to say, the guys were totally gone too... Hee.
Back at Ximending, we took a lazy walk back to our hotel to dump our stuff. We had already decided on what to have for dinner - ma la huo guo at the steamboat restaurant conveniently located just below our hotel (Paradise Hotel)!!! :D
Oh, and the craziest thing was that it was already 11plus by the time we started on dinner... but we couldn't be bothered lor! Just whacked the food since it was buffet!
Look at the 5 of us (Justina snapped this photo)- greedily snatching the food!
Yummers!
By then, the guys were more concerned about eating than about posing nicely... as can be seen here.
Ever-ready for the camera!
Just like us!
Let's tuck in!!!
Almost two hours later, we paid the bill and lingered a while more in the restaurant... Guanwei went back to the hotel room first coz' he was feeling totally drained. Which gave the rest of us an easy job of executing our secret plan - to surprise him! Guanwei's birthday is on 29th November, you see. So we had already planned since a long time ago to spring a surprise birthday celebration on him during our last night in Taiwan.
It was 1am by the time we returned to the girls' hotel room to plan our surprise, and we were feeling so sleepy... but still, we were determined to carry it out successfully! :D
We had no birthday cake - so we used little donuts instead.
We had no birthday card - so we used the hotel notepad paper instead.
We had no candles - so we used the hotel matchsticks instead.
It was simple, but from the heart. =)
Ron and LY, who was holding onto the birthday 'cake'!
Don't mind the girls' messy room... heheh
Zhen writing on the 'card'.
The whole process of our planning and execution of the birthday surprise was recorded on video by Eve... You can watch it below, but the video is pretty long at over 9minutes. It's placed here mainly for us, so we can watch it anytime we want to. But you can to, if you have the patience! =)
As you can see, Guanwei was darn surprised that we actually did such a thing! Haha. He didn't see it coming AT ALL okay... which goes to show how good we are! ;)
Heartwarming photos to end the night... =)
It also marked our last night together in Taipei!
We went to bed really late that night, coz' it was wayyyyy past 2am by the time everything ended. And of course, we still had to spend some time packing our stuff since we were leaving the next day...
(Click here to read Day 6's entry - our final day in Taipei! But we still had lots of fun taking photos at C.K.S Memorial Hall and doing last-minute shopping at Ximending.)
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