2014 - Year In Review

One year about to pass in days time. Reviewing the past year in photos, hoping for a better one in 2015



First trip to the Taiwan & judging from the enjoyable moments we had, it's definitely won't be the last time there



Daytrip to Melaka - One of many countless moments I had with The Love. I can't stop thanking God for having you in my life, SL.



Last minute planned trip to Bangkok but definitely worth the effort/time

Welcoming baby Carlson to the Eng family & it's such a joy to see his smile & antics daily in da house

I left this seat of mine after serving 11 years 4 months with Nippon Express, seeking greener pastures with DHL Global Forwarding.

One of the gatherings with the usual Akurian gang. We should get the trip started again for next year...

Taiwan #4 - The Heart of Asia: Kaohsiung

Day 5

Continuing from previous posts (1, 2, 3) of my Taiwan trip, we took a bus down south to Kaohsiung. Kaohsiung is the 2nd most populous city in Taiwan, after Taipei & is the island largest industrial centre. Halfway, we stopped at Hakka village in Meinong for visit & had authentic Hakka lunch meal. This small community village allows you to experience the richness of Hakka culture & way of life.

At Hakka village entrance

Next is to Fo Guang Shan Monastery, the most popular tourist attraction in Kaohsiung. This centre is affiliated to Fo Guang Shan & is the largest monastery in Taiwan. Founded by Master Hsing Yun in 1967, this Buddhist movement since, has expanded rapidly throughout the world with its humanistic Buddhist teachings. The monastery covers more than 100 hectares & opened to public since 2011. You just need to be impressed with the building structures, sculptures & drawings with  detailed information given to each of them. One will need more than a day to fully explore the place & read all teachings signs, erected all over the place.

Majestic statue of Buddha & His disciples

Majestic pavilions with the large Buddha statue erected

The layout of whole area, covering over 100 hectares

We checked into E-Da Royal Hotel. This 5-star hotel is located within the vicinity of the E-Da World, an integrated park consists of an indoor & outdoor theme parks, outlet malls, university & even international school. It is the largest tourist resort in Taiwan & hosted many international events. Spent the whole evening, taking on the rides in the outdoor theme park & window shopping at the premium outlet mall. A must-ride in this theme park is the Taiwan Formosa ride. This indoor ride offers you a bird-eye view of all the natural attractions in the whole of Taiwan, providing the up/down movements as if you are flying on a paraglide. Another notable mention is the "Booster". This ride brings you up in the air in & making a 360 degrees (a few turns actually) turn up in the air. A first timer bounds to have his/her voice cracks for screaming out in fear throughout the ride.

The "Booster" ride. Two words: Terrifying excitement

Colourful ferris wheel at night

As mentioned in previous posts, we had dinner with Dad's long lost cousins & other relatives in Taipei. This time, with another bigger sets of cousins & relatives based in Kaohsiung. Apparently, some cousins of mine are already of grandparents status. It was a happy & emotional reunion for Dad & us, being able to see so many of them making efforts to meet us on a weekday night.

Definitely the biggest round table I've seen so far. Great for reunion purpose

The Kaohsiung gang. Seriously, I still don't know where is their standing in the family tree, just call them long-lost relatives from Dad's side...:p

Day 6 & 7

The next day was a full day tour of Kaohsiung city attractions. First stop was the Lotus Lake, located at the centre of the town. This scenic lake is well noted for its profusion of temples with the Confucius temple at the north edge & in the south, the Dragon & Tiger Pagodas and the Spring & Autumn Pavillions.

Papaya milk tea. A must-try in Taiwan if you're a milk tea fan



The pagodas in Lotus Lake

The pavilion with Guan Yu (Lord Guan)'s statue behind

Next, we took a short ferry ride to the Qijin island. This island is known by locals (not really well known by foreign tourists yet) for its seafood industry & slowly turning into a tourist attraction. Has seafood lunch along its famoud Qijin Seafood street. Spent the afternoon in the New Juejiang shopping street & the night, strolling along Love River after dinner. With the vibrant skylights, sightseeing cruise & riverbanks activities, the scene at night along the river was a sight to behold, taking after Beijing's Silk River or Bangkok's Chao Phraya river style.

Seafood on display for steamboat meal in Qijin Seafood Street

Leaving Qijin island on a ferry

New Juejiang shopping street

Night light at Love River

For the last day, we went to the largest mall in Kaohsiung, Dream Mall for lunch before departing for Kuala Lumpur. With fun loving people & fun loving, helpful local guide Jin Lee coupled with good food & attractive places as well, this is truly an enjoyable & memorable trip. Definitely wont be the last time I will be visiting Taiwan, for there are plenty more places yet to be explored & plenty more foods yet to be tasted. Hot springs next perhaps...

Taiwan #3 - The Heart of Asia: Cingjing, Nantou

Day 4

Continuing the blog posts (1 & 2) of previous trip to Taiwan last March. On Day 4, we went up to Cingjing. Cingjing is located at the Renai township of Nantou county in central Taiwan. With altitude of 1750m above the sea, the average temperature in Cingjing ranges from 5 degrees - 20 degrees, depending on which month you are visiting. Opened since 1961, the whole area consists of multiple tourist attractions. Our first stop is Small Swiss Garden. It's called "Taiwan's Little Switzerland" and "Paradise in the Mist" due to its Northern European influenced landscapes & ambience.

With Mum at the entrance of the garden

One of many flowers planted

Dad & Aunty Susie dancing to the Hokkien folk song

After lunch, we went up to the most popular attraction of the place, called "Green Green Grassland". This wide grassy plain spreads over hills with herds of sheep grazing on the land. The view was simply breathtaking, overlooking mountains with distinct cooling air. One look, you will be mistakenly thinking you're in New Zealand. There's sheep shearing show, with sheep shearers hired from New Zealand hairdressing those furry animals. With a Mandarin speaking Kiwi as host of the show, you will be amused with his funny antics with the sheeps. By this time, cool mists came out of nowhere & covered the whole place & it was rather cold by then.



Nope. This is not the land of Lord of the Rings but this is the land of Acer & Jay Chou

Good weather allowing us to have beautiful view of the mountains beneath the clouds

How not to love these cute animals

Our next stop was for an afternoon tea session in Old England Manor hotel. This English themed mansion is definitely majestic sight to behold & a must-visit place if you're in Cingjing. It's hard not to be impressed with the detailed architecture & interiors in the hotel. I felt as though I was transported back in time to the days of old England. The Victorian style afternoon tea was served with a 3 tier tower, consists of scones, sandwiches, deserts & a pot of Earl Grey tea. Me being a pastries lover, this is simply heaven & you just want the time to stop right there. Most of pastries are great, being freshly made from the kitchen.

To be or not to be, that is the question. Do you understand what I'm trying to say?

English mansion

Afternoon tea. This is heavenly sent for a pastry lover

We checked into this Shangri-La Hanging Garden rest house (no relations to the Shangri-La hotel chain). The warn hue, decoration of the bouquets & romantic music from the lobby creates an elegant & comfortable ambiance.

The exterior of the hotel

Temperature outside hotel but my record showed its 9 degrees out there !!!

Stayed overnight in extremely cold weather before checking out & departing to Kaohsiung (our last stop) the next day


TO BE CONTINUED....

Taiwan #2 - The Heart of Asia: Puli / Hsinchu

Day 3

Continuing from the previous post, on day 3, we departed from Taipei to Puli area. Puli is an urban township in the Nantou county. We passed by Hsinchu town & stopped at Neiwan Old Street for snacks & tits bits. This is a Hakka street, popular with tourists in recent years.

Brown sugar sponge cake at Neiwan Old Street - I had 2 whole pieces of this myself



Creatively made strawberry ice cream in the form of a strawberry plant 

Having these 2 sweeties playing beautiful instrumental music in the middle of cool weather, you simply need to sit down, close your eyes & just appreciate the moment

We then proceed to 18 Celcius chocolate factory & Shaoxing Wine factory before checking in for a night stay at this beautiful resort of Taiyi Red Maple Resort, located at the foothill of whatever it is called. With its beautifully landscaped area, this is like resort within a flower farm. Room was designed in a Oriental style with spacious bathroom to hoot.

Garden lake view

Outside one of the bungalow for hire

Hotspring bath in the room. No prize for guessing what we do after dinner

The next morning, we departed for the popular Cingjing farm for another night stay.


TO BE CONTINUED...

Taiwan #1 - The Heart of Asia: Taipei

Taiwan is one of those countries heavily promoted in travel fairs in recent years. And I am the only one in the family yet to make a visit there. And I did exactly that last month with parents and group of family friends. Never mind I'm the youngest in the group, when the group consists of happy-go-luck, fun-loving people, age is not the factor here.

DAY 1

We took a morning flight departure from KLIA via Cathay Pacific. I'm never a fan of morning flight especially if the journey takes more than 3 hours. Thank God, listening to the in-house oldies music helped me to get away with the anxiety. We arrived at Taoyuan International Airport, Taipei at approx. 4.30pm local time. By the way, Taiwan shared the same time zone with Malaysia. Went to this Fisherman's Wharf located at Tamsui. Nothing much but a colourful bridge to see. Wasted no time to check out Taiwan's famous night markets at Tamsui Night Market on the way to Taipei. We had dumplings dinner at this King Ming Tea restaurant in town. Mind you, the dumplings served here are better anytime than the ones in Beijing or Shanghai. Checked into Taipei Garden Hotel where we will be staying for 2 nights.

Red Bean Tako at Tamsui market. This is what u call generous fillings



White Taiwan bittergourd. Nice cooling juice drink

Pork filling steamed dumplings. Simply superb !!!

DAY 2

It was a cool, chilly and cloudy morning in Taipei city. We took the trip to the famous Yehliu Geopark, located at Wanli town approx. 2 hours by bus from Taipei. Windy n rainy day & was told that this is the weather almost all year long at Yehliu area. This place is famous for its sea-erosion landscape with its different shapes of rock formations. A number of rock formations were given imaginative names based on their shapes such as The Queen's Head, Mushroom Rocks & Camel Rock. The Queen's Head, I was told is an iconic image of Taiwan & an unofficial emblem for the town of Wanli. The rainy day does not stop us from making going to the Jiufen Old Street, about 30 minutes away.  Once the gold mining centre of Taiwan, today the village sees mostly tourists looking to experience Taiwan's cultural pasts with its colonial style structures & traditional teahouses. I truly enjoyed the walk here, sampling the Taiwanese famous snacks & deserts along the way. The famous Jiufen specialities here are taro (yam) balls, steamed taro cakes, fried meat balls & herbal rice cakes. Definitely as must-visit place for anyone coming to Taiwan.

One of many types of rock formations at Yehliu

The Entrance

Whatever this is called, this spring roll wrapped together with veggie bits and yam ice cream is delicious to the max !!!

Next stop is the Taipei city where we had lunch before proceeding to Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall Square. The square, bears much resemblance to Beijing Tiananmen Square consists of the Memorial Hall, National concert Hall & National Theatre. The hall was erected in the memory of well, Chiang Kai Shek (duh!!!). And then to the famous skyline tower Taipei 101. Did not to go to the observatory tower though, for u need to queue for countless hours to get the tickets. Stopped by at Raohe Night Market where we had in-between light meal of beef noodles.



The entrance to the Square

The famous sign outside Taipei 101

 

Fresh rock oysters at Raohe

Went back to hotel where we were greeted by Dad's long lost relatives who stayed in Taiwan. It's a long story whereby the ancestors emigrated from China & went their separate ways to Taiwan & Malaysia. Not even Dad has met them & when we knew we're coming to Taiwan, Dad just knew it's now or never. It was a wonderful and joyful feeling for me, seeing the elders chatted all night long talking about the family history and to the extent, drawing family tree to trace back all the roots. At least, now I know I have sizeable numbers of relatives in Taiwan. One of them by the name of Hai Leng (means sea dragon in Hokkien) promised to introduce us to other relatives when we will meet again in Kaohsiung. After dinner, we still managed to slot the time to take taxi to Ximen shopping street for supper and walkabout. The next day, we checked out & proceed to next city Puli where we will be staying for 2 nights.

Us with long lost relatives residing at Taipei

TO BE CONTINUED....