Taiwan Trip - Part 1

The recent company trip to Taiwan was an opportunity I couldn’t miss. Even though I feel a bit sad to be away with my little twins for 5 days, I know they will be in a good hand with their Atuk and Opah. (Atuk= grandfather, Opah= grandmother)

Day 1- Taipei
2 April 2008

Arrived at KLIA at 7:30pm. First group ini ada lebih kurang 40 orang. Next week, another group, yang akan berlepas pula. Nasib baik tak ramai orang yang beratur di kaunter check in. Inilah baiknya kalau pergi trip pagi-pagi. My husband sends me off that morning. Last nite, we all over night at my parent’s house in Seremban. My daughters ada kat sana.

I was the last person to check in. Nasib baik rep from the tour agent ni ada sama. Dia lah yang uruskan semua. Dia pun akan ikut sama trip ni nanti. After check in my luggage, i and Kak Faudzillah (my roomate kat sana nanti) pergi breakfast dulu.

We reached Taiyoun International Airport, Taipei, at around 2pm. After collected our luggage, terus pergi passport counter. Bila tiba my turn, tetiba officer tu tanya I, how long I would stay in Taiwan. I replied, 5 days. Suddenly, dia asked for my IC. Tak percaya I Malaysian kot. Yang pelik, my other colleagues tak pula kena show IC.

Bila dah keluar from airport, our local tour guide, Cindy dah tunggu. She briefed us on our itinerary for that day. Our first stop for that day was 101 Shopping Mall. It took about 45mins to reach there from the airport.

101 Mall, was not like I expected. Being the tallest tower in the world, I thought the shopping mall would be something similar to our KLCC Twin Tower. 101 Shopping Mall, tak besar sangat compared to KLCC. Lebih kurang macam StarHill aje. Untuk naik ke atas tower, bayaran RM45 dikenakan. According to my friends yang naik, nothing much to see but the lift was incredible. It took only a few seconds untuk sampai atas.

After mingled four an hour, we all terus pergi dinner at one of local restaurant, can’t recalled the name. This is not a halal restaurant, cuma no pork. But nasib baik before I go to this trip, I ada email to Malaysia Trade Centre di Taipei for their advice on halal food. Di sebabkan restaurant halal tu jauh sikit from the places we went for that day, the tour agent dah order awal-awal pack halal food and bawa ke restaurant ni. To tell you the truth, I tak lalu makan langsung. Dalam each pack, dia bagi nasi pulut (macam nasi dagang), ayam goreng, fruits, pau and pudding. When we arrived, the food was already there, dah sejuk.

Habis dinner, we all terus pergi night market. Shopping kat Xi Men Ding. We were given 1 ½ hour to spent. Environment kat sini lebih kurang macam Petaling Street. Macam-macam kedai yang ada, but mostly women clothing and shoes. Rambang biji mata! I didn’t buy much because I don’t know whether the price is competitive or not. Lagipun ada 3 malam lagi boleh shopping. Some of my colleague yang pegi the same trip last year said, kat Taipei ni harga mahal sikit. Kalau nak shopping, better kat Taichung or Kaohsiung. I ended bought some baju for myself and sis in-law.

Lebih kurang pukul 10 lebih, barula we all check in to the hotel. We stayed at Fortune Hotel. Boleh tahan la hotel ni. Eventhough 3 star but plasma TV lagi tu…Sampai bilik, terus mandi and tido.

Day 2 – Taipei
3 April 2008

Woke up at 6am. Breakfast ready at 7am. Tak banyak yang boleh makan masa breakfast. Apa-pun Cindy, our tour guide dah inform whatever yang ada red label, are not halal. Makan roti la jawabnya. Terkebil-kebil mata tengok budak-budak cina lain makan. Dalam trip ni, ada 20 malay staff and 20 non malay yang join. But yang malays la kena banyak sacrifice. Almaklum la, visit pun non muslim country. Tak bolehla nak demand.

The weather was so cold. Hujan. I was not prepared because masa briefing kat office dulu, Admin kata bawa light clothing. It’s spring time. Bila sampai sini, hujan pula. Nasib baik la ada bawa raincoat and umbrella. Itupun pun saya dapat tahu from blogs and websites yang bagi tips to visitor yang nak melancong ke Taiwan. Mesti bawa raincoat atau umbrella!

Our first visit for the day was Yehliu Park. We saw the amazing rock formations that were naturally crafted by the sea. Masa ni, hujan turun renyai-renyai. So, terus pakai raincoat, lagi senang compared to umbrella sebab angin di sini kuat.

Tak ada apa yang best sangat. Tengok batu-batu aja. Kena guna banyak imagination bila tengok batu-batu ni sebab ada macam-macam rupa. Rupa kapal selam, badak air, Queen’s head and macam-macam lagi. Bagi yang otak lembab tu, slow lah sikit nak catch up.

From there, we moved to Chiu Fen. Tempat ni atas bukit, famous dengan local delicacies and souvenir. Lorong kedai kat sini sempit. Susah nak berjalan. Bukan hanya penuh dengan orang yang leka menjamu mata, motor dan van kecik pun sibuk nak lalu. Terpaksa la berhimpit-himpit ke tepi bila ada kenderaan nak lalu.

Tak ada barang yang saya berkenan di sini. Almost all of my chinese friends sibuk borong asam, tart nenas and tit bits lain. As for us yang malays ni, tengok aje la. Tapi I sempat juga try home made ice cream kat sini. Kulit popiah yang putih (macam popiah basah) di sapu dengan kacang tumbuk, lepas tu letak ice cream perisa lemon and gulung macam popiah. Boleh tahan juga rasanya.

After Chiu Fen, we proceed for lunch at Thai Food House. Only malay staff saja yang makan di sini. The rest makan at Mongolian Barbeque Restaurant. Makan di Thai restaurant ni memang puas hati and tak payah nak ragu-ragu because it’s halal. Masa ni we all semua makan tak ingat dunia. The tom yam was superb. Ada yang tapau lagi.

Lepas makan, we went to National Palace Museum. Kat sini, tersimpan bahan sejarah awal Taiwan. Selepas membayar harga tiket, each one of us diberi headphone. Kami hanya akan dengar suara Cindy yang beri history explanation, jadi tak menggangu group tourist yang lain.

We continued our trip to Martyr’s Shrine, to view an elaborate ceremony of changing guards. Mase ni pun hujan juga, so ceremony tu buat simpler than usual.

After that, we all pergi visit Yang Ming Shan National Park. All the tourist spots kat sini jauh-jauh belaka. So, we all banyak waste time on the bus. Sampai kat sini, hujan lagi. So, tak boleh nak walk around. At last, ramai-ramai pergi beli jagung rebus kat stall yang di recommend oleh Cindy. Tapi hampeh, tawar gila. Dah la mahal lak tu. As far as I know, kat Taiwan ni famous dengan jagungnya. Pelik. Rasanya jagung Malaysia lagi sedap.

We all sempat juga ambil group photo kat sini. Lepas tu, we all proceed to Fisherman Wharf. Kata Cindy, kat sini famous untuk view sunset. Nasib tak baik, we all sampai hari dah gelap gelita coz perjalanan lama sangat. Lebih kurang 2 jam. Kedai pun dah tutup. So, turun pergi toilet aja la. Semua orang tak puas hati and merungut sebab dah 2 jam dalam bas, sampai sini hanya pergi toilet dan patah balik ke Taipei.

Sampai di Taipei, we all terus pergi dinner at another non-halal restaurant and we all makan pack food again. Nasib baik la we all yang melayu ni ada bawa Maggie, roti, rendang and lain-lain. Boleh la survive. Geram juga bila tengok my chinese friends dapat makan sedap-sedap.

After dinner, we went for shopping again. Can’t recaledl the name of the place. We were given an option, spent for one hour and take the bus to return to the hotel or spent how long do we wish but balik tanggung sendiri, either you take taxi or MRT. Terleka semasa belek barang, kelam kabut lari ke arah bas. Sampai kat tempat bas, tengok bas dah takda. Sah, kena tinggal. So, we decided to take a taxi. Middle of the way to the taxi stand, we met Hadi, Mawi and Amin. Rupa-rupanya diaorang pun tertinggal juga. So, we all pun squeeze la naik same taxi. Nasib baik driver tu ok coz dah terlebih orang. Kak Faudzillah duduk depan, I and mamat lagi 3 orang ni berhimpit-himpit kat belakang.

Sampai hotel, mandi and start packing barang. The next morning, we have to check out and pergi Taichung pula.