About to board HSR to Kaohsiung
About to board HSR to Kaohsiung
Musings: Shi Lin Night Market Taipei Taiwan Travel Xi Men Ding
by michael
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Day 1 Singapore to Taipei
0750 : We got to Terminal 1 @ Changi Airport quite early and proceeded to get our boarding pass. T1 compared to the new T3 really feels quite old.
This is the first time our whole family has travelled together since 2002 China Trip(before my sis and myself got married)! This time round, we have baby Celeste along with us.
The plane trip (via China Airlines) was pretty smooth with some turbulence reaching Taipei. With my third visit, everything seems just as it is with the only difference being this would be summer and the weather would pretty much be similar to Singapore.
Celeste was great throughout her first plane trip with her usual curiosity in everything. The trip to our hotel (booked via Chan Brothers) at Hotel Riverview Taipei took slightly less than an hour since traffic was pretty good. This was a short 10 minutes walk to Xi Men Ding although I preferred Wonstar which we stayed during the last trip for its nicer rooms.
1820 : After a quick drop of our luggage, we proceeded to Xi Men Ding to take a quick walk around. On route, there was a road side stall selling Onion Pancakes (yh loves them) next to a cinema.
Since we were in Xi Men Ding, we had to try the famous Ah Zhong Mian Xian. This delightful soup noodle is great to have in all seasons! We got shared 2 bowls between my parents and ourselves.
1920 : My sis, bro-in-law and Celeste went off to find a place more suitable to have dinner while parents, yh and myself headed down to Shi Lin night market.
While we were there, we had to try Hao Da Ji Pa (fried chicken cutlet) which I never miss out on since tasting it in 2003! Of course, we also made sure to cool off with a bowl of mango shaved ice while my parents had a mixed fruit. See my dad enjoy the cold milk syrup shaved ice in the hot summer.
The crowds in the summer was even more than I remembered during the winter period. Seems everyone enjoyed taking a stroll past the various roadside stalls selling all manners of food stuff and clothing.
The illegal hawkers also displayed their wares in easy to display (and pack up) mats/ or tables which quickly disappeared into the alleys when the police came patrolling. The crowds would just cover up the gaps as if nothing had happened. We also passed by a shop where Yh had bought a bag in 2006 although nothing really caught her eye this time round. Since the night was still young, we split up on the way back when my parents wanted to explore Xi Men Ding further. We went and caught a movie “Blood : The Last Vampire” (our first in Taipei) near the onion pancake stall. Movie was below average and very cheesy effects. By the time we reached back to our hotel, it was about midnight and we turned in for a early day to Yang Ming Shan.
Arrival at terminal 1
Arrival at terminal 1
View from The Arcade @ Shenton Medical Group
Took this while waiting to get the pre-employment medical test done. Those 3 joss sticks sure are forming up nicely although I think I preferred the horizon when it was clear of any structures 
Was also thinking about my interview record while waiting. I’ve officially interviewed for 7 jobs for a 85% success rate
- RBR Networks
- JuzPC
- Sony Ericsson. Accepted for Industrial Attachment but results were poor and I couldn’t go
- Societe Generale, also Industrial Attachment
- Cornet Technologies
- SMRT (Struck out here)
- SPH
Musings: holiday Kaoshiung Musings national service Taipei Taiwan Travel
by michael
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Counting down to Taiwan Trip and Not that looking forward to First ICT!
Going to be off to Taiwan with family for a couple of days. Taipei and Kaohsiung are on the agenda so will need to start planning where to head off to. This will be our 3rd visit to Taipei and 2nd to Kaohsiung.
On more serious note, going to be heading for first ICT (in camp training) right after I get back from the trip. Guess my unit finally caught up with me! Will be back to familiar grounds in the West so just like good old/bad? times.
Easier way to aggregate RSS Feeds with Google Reader’s Bundle Creator
Was writing last week on trying to aggregate RSS feeds into Facebook and on the same day, Google Reader publishes Bundles. This makes it a lot easier to share feeds that one is reading. Simple interface and works well!
Redshirt in Star Trek (even Lego characters can’t avoid their fate)
Laughed when I saw this photo of a redshirt security officer come up in the Flickr “Interestingness” media bar. Now where are my old Lego sets…
Getting multiple RSS Feeds on Facebook
Was trying to look at how to post multiple rss feeds into Facebook since it doesn’t support it natively. Luckily there is Yahoo Pipes to the rescue. Great guide here teaches how to configure pipes easily to manage the aggregation of multiple feeds so that it can be used in the Facebook blog/rss notes posting. So with this link, I now have notes from 3 blogs automatically posted to Facebook.
I’ll need to take a look also at http://openkapow.com/ and http://www.dapper.net/.