Ferreroroche’s Weblog

Pic from the night before,

we were excited about our Taiwan trip, so we took pics with the hotel, usually we do not do this!

thats right, our home in Taipei, Taipei Fullerton Hotel.
While the name Fullerton immediately reminded me of the very posh Fullerton hotel that is just right next to the Supreme Court, beautifully situated along the banks of Singapore River, the one in Taiwan is not as grand, and I dont think they are by the same management.

Nevertheless the hotel is really nice, free internet broadband in the room.
The room had a view of the TAIPEI 101, the tallest building in the world right now (yeah WTC is down thats Why). More about Taipei 101 next time.

and the room decor is simple yet comfortable and sophisticated. The best thing is for my sister, the WC had a bidet ( water for cleaning, directly from the WC, eliminating the need for copious amount of tissue paper), cos my home too, all toilets are equipped with bidet.

and they have half windows and then the study table cum cabinet to put all sorts of things from the fridge, stationery etc etc.

oh well no pic of the room either, I dunno why.
Location wise, its in Nanjing West ROAD, very near to Taipei 101, within walking distance to RAO He night market, I will tell you more about RaoHe in another post.

ok thats it about the hotel in Taipei.
we LEFT most of our luggage in this hotel, cos we are going to go outta town for a few days. and I forgot to bring alot of stuff cos I was too tired n forgot to pack many things.

today we went for a city tour around taipei after breakfast.

the hotels in taiwan are generally super small just like Japan hotels. the breakfast restaurant was so cramped, I can feel the heat from the food warmers, many times I am just so scared someone will pour their entire breakfast on me when they accidentally slip

the breakfast was decent though.

In taiwan, especially in Southern taiwan, ppl use Hokkien as their everyday languange, and most of them do not understand english.

Taiwanese are very hardworking ppl, just like most chinese although, as i have learned in Sociology, hardworkingness has nothing to do with race or gender. it is just their society and in order not to be labelled as a deviant, we will just follow.

Taiwan has many indegenous tribes too, their most famous singer A*mei, comes from one of these tribes, usually live in the mountainous regions in the middle of Taiwan itself.

our tour guide, is a neighbour of mine in Jakarta, by neighbour I dont mean he live in Jakarta and so do I, but really we live in the same neighbourhood. I can walk to his place kind of thing  but I dunno him of course, cos he has migrated long time ago to taiwan, he is quite knowledgable and friendly

thats our guide with my family, well my guide did not take a pic with my family he just happened to be in the pic

our first stop in the city tour, Chiang Kai Shek memorial hall.

chiang Kai shek marry the youngest soong sister, Soong may ling. credited as the father of taiwan, but because of politics his popularity is waning and even accused as the thief of china due to the amt of stuff he took that are now stored in the national museum, as usual due to lack of time we did not enter the place

thats the man himself, hard at work

thats us outside, the guy on the left on my Dad is the tour guide, speak Indon quite well.

so after chiang kai shek memorial, we went to the martyr’s shrine, a place containing thousands of names from those who died in the war to mainly watched the changing of guards, quite impressive but i was lazy.

Martyr’s Shrine, very expansive place and one of the view still guarded by the elite guards and many tourists flock here to watch the changing of guards ceremony and so did we.

My pretty Sister outside the National Museum.

All these places are actually quite near each other, the Chiang Kai Shek Memorial, Martyr’s Shrine, National Museum and even the Presidential Palace. all had expansive ground, with beautifully manicured gardens.
while the rest of Taipei is kinda shabby,crowded and just look grey to me. Even Singapore look so bright. but it seems like most of the buildings are not maintained properly, esp the exterior. Maybe because its winter, everything just gets dark faster and add to the gloomy mood.

then we went to have lunch, yeah I do not take a pic of whatever I eat because, my family is around, it feels quite weird to be taking such pics. secondly, other ppl are around cos we are in a tour group. Lastly cos I thought nobody cares about the food as part of the memory and do not want to look Kampung/SuaKu.

However I was wrong. Some people even took videos of their family eating! and all the courses.

oh well nothing special about the food, regular chinese food, with lots of chicken (its cheap), Pork (also cheap), egg (very cheap i heard) and veg. I get bored of it and sometimes just go to 7-11 and buy snack.

Hi-Chew sweets are very cheap (8-12 NT) my sister bought alot as souvenirs, cos it comes in many different flavors instead of the usual apple flavor found in Jakarta. They have strawberry, lychee, honey melon etc etc.

continue on to Part 2,

after lunch is our journey to Hua Lien by their high speed train.