Last Day in Taipei, Taiwan Trip (Day 8)

20th May 2018, Sunday

Arghh...holidays coming to an end..so long Taipei. We woke up and started to pack our luggage to squeeze in all the goodies we bought. S and mi headed out to the popular braised pork rice shop for breakfast and KT and Ss headed out to look for their own breakfast (which is in Starbucks).  After breakfast, we met up and went buying the instant noodles that S had bought the night before. I also bought a small bottle of peach coke (ekk..regretted it)...Funny taste, don't like it...

Braised Pork Rice

Carrot Cake

After the last minute shopping, we went back to the hotel rooms and really packed our luggage for the last time. When it was time, we headed down to the back alley where Mr Zhu was waiting for us to go to the airport.  We said final good-bye to Mr Zhu when we reached there, he still insisted us to take a group photo outside the airport entrance...hahaa...After that, we went in to check-in our luggage and we went in to clear the customs. After everything was done, we walked around the shops in the airport to pass time. S and mi stayed inside a shop for a long time because we were trying to decide if we were to buy the cute musical boxes shown in the display case. There were so many designs to choose from, the musical boxes were made of wood and they were all so cute and nice to look at.

Instant Noodles

Peach Cola (Not nice)

Eventually we both decide to buy one each, so i bought one with a tiny train which will move around the box when it is played. After we done shopping, we headed to the food court to gab some food before the flight. We saw KT and Ss back with ichiran instant ramen packets..hahaa...After that, we headed to the gate to board the plane....Had to come back to face reality....sianz...

In-flight meal

We landed back in Singapore safe and sound (and of cos, unwillingly...hahaa) and we went separate ways to go back home. It marks the end of my Taiwan trip for this year....^_^

Nature Parks Walk - Coney Island

10/10/2015, Saturday

Today, I went for a walking trail from Punggol Waterway to Coney Island (which was previously known as Palau Serangoon Island). I went with a group of volunteers from Punggol North Community Services Centre. It was the opening day for the public to visit Coney Island too and it was opened by the Guest of Honour, Mr Khaw Boon Wan. We walked past the Serangoon dam and saw some wild otters swimming in the waters. Then we continued onto island, there were free fruits given by the national parks staffs too. The road into the island was with stones and muddy.

Wild Otter having breakfast

A little history of the island, the Aw brothers of Haw Par Villa accquired Pulau Serangoon and bulit a holiday villa in the 1930s. But the villa was damaged during the World War II (it was still hidden in the island). Later in 1951, an indian businessman Ghulam Mahmood renamed the island to Coney Island and planned to convert the island into a resort and amusement par. But his plan was not realized after he was fined for corruption. Later in 1972, our Singapore Government reclaimed the island back and developed it into a recreation site under Punggol 21 plan. And in 2011, Sungei Serangoon was converted into the 17th freshwater reservoir and because of this, it was connected to the island, Punggol and Pasir Ris.

Battleship?

After we reached the East Entrance of the island, we walked around the island where the national parks volunteers had setup 5 stations to explain some of the plants, trees, birds, fishes and the history of the island. At one of the stations, the volunteers were explaining on horseshoe crabs and hermit crabs and lightning crabs. Interestingly, lightning crabs are so called due to if you ever got bitten by it, it will never let go of your finger until there is a lightning. As for horseshoe crabs, they are being hunted because of their blue bloods. Their bloods are previous as it is used to help humans in medical purposes. They have been staying around long before the dinosaurs time. Now they are getting extinct due to all the hunting. The volunteer told us it wasn't exactly from the crab family, they are more to spiders because of their legs. There are alot of trees there and there are areas to enjoy the breeze from the sea. Opposite, you can see Pulau Ubin island too. You can also cycle around the island, but there is no electricity and water there. The toilet uses rainwater, meaning if there is rain, there will be water...hohoho...and did i mentioned? There is only one toilet available in the whole island. There may be boars around in the island too, if you are lucky enough to see one there. If more lucky enough, maybe you can see the single Brahman bull roaming around. I found a giant log which looked like a giant turtle from far. I ended my walk when i reached Punggol Settlement, where i took a bus back to Punggol interchange. 

Horseshoe Crab

Does it look like a giant turtle?

Road on the island

Bird Hide

Pulau Ubin

But i find there are more to explore on the island, maybe some hidden spots..heheee...Will go back another time but maybe with a bike...hahahaa....As there is no electricity in the park, there is an opening timing from 7 am to 7 pm daily. So make sure you arrive there early and leave before 7 pm. Hahaha...one thing i didn't expected, was that i found myself in the photograph published in The Sunday Times the next day. Luckily i wasn't doing anything funny there.

Nature Parks Walk - Labrador & Hort Parks

Treasures of Hort Park

18th Jan 2014 - Went Labrador & Hort Parks with my friends as our morning exercise again. This time we went to have a walk @ Labrador Park first and today was not cloudy (the sky was not blue) as the last time i came. But at least it was still windy, and the tunnels were not opened again. Don't know when will it open again. I even told my friend the wrong dragon tooth gate...hahaaa....After the walk in the park, we made our way to Hort Park. The park was small and there was a garden fair when we reached there. But there were a lot of beautiful flowers around, and there were a lot of children playing around too. Too bad, we didn't make it back for the Japanese lunch as it wasn't opened yet.

Nature Parks Walk - MacRitchie Reservoir

A type of Fungus

Tree Top Walk

11th Jan 2014 - Went hiking @ MacRitchie Reservoir with my friends as part of our morning exercise. It was nice to have a hike in the morning and i didn't know that MacRitchie Reservoir was soooo big. There was a mountain hiking path and it was surrounded with trees and you even can see complete spider webs around the trees. We even saw a bunch of monkeys and there were 2 or 3 baby monkeys playing around. The monkeys were jumping from tree to tree above us too, it was cute. We took around 4 hours or so to reach the tree top walk, it was a suspend bridge. The wind is blowing when we walked the bridge and the bridge was also slightly too..but the bridge wasn't that long (the one at Southern Ridges is longer). And after that, we continued our hike and we reached a tower which one of my friend didn't want to climb up as she was tired. The rest of us walked up and one of my friend got scared of height when climbing down the stairs. Her boyfriend and me had to hoax her walk slowly down the tower...kekee...Then we continued to walk slowly back to the exit and along the way, we saw some monkeys playing too. By the time we finished our hike (which was around 3.30pm), we were quite tired and sweaty...After that, we all went home separately.

It was quite a walk there, we only walked around one side of the reservoir. Hope we will have another round to walk the other side of the reservoir.


Click here to see the complete walking trail from National Parks, Singapore.

Nature Parks Walk - SengKang Riverside Park

4th Jan 2014 - Went alone @ SengKang Riverside Park to walk the fruits trail. It was windy and so nice to walk and see around the park. There is a reservoir called Punggol Reservoir and a SengKang Floating Wetland. There are some fruit trees in the park too, but i went there too late, so by the time i tried to find the trees, it was getting dark. Saw lightnings too and it looks like going to rain soon. So i had to go home.

Click here for the complete walking trail from National Parks, Singapore

A visit back to Haw Par Villa

Haw Par Villa

Wah...i remembered the first time i went to Haw Par Villa was like 20 plus years ago. That time, my dad brought mi and my sister there,along with my grandma. What i  remembered clearly was the boat ride that will bring u tour along the 10 levels of Hell and it show you which are the bad deeds and the punishments for each levels (which will really make you chill and make you have nightmares), and at the end of the tour, which was the most exciting part, was the ride down from high level and splash onto the water when it reached the ground (like roller coaster). Now, the boat ride was gone and the park is like a dead town, even the pond looks dirty with algae. But i still find it creepy to just to walk in to see the 10 levels of Hell......

Now the entrance to the Gates of Hell looks like this. Once you walk in, you will see statues of the punishments in each level and there will be explanation to let you know what are the bad deeds done to deserve it. For example: don't think that paying taxes or rent is a small matter, it is also considered one of the bad deeds here and you will be punished in the 5th level. There is even a self-reflection mirror. You can try looking at it to see what you had done in this lifetime.....

10 Levels of Hell Entrance (Ox Head & Horse Face Guards)

Around the park, there are some old statues of characters from Journey to the West and Madam White Snake. And there are also gods statues like Fu Lu Shou, Ji Gong, Eight Immortals.

Madam White Snake

Fu Lu Shou

Master Tripitaka

 

You can also see statues holding with Tiger Palm Oil.

Cute Tiger with Tiger Palm Oil

 There is even a legendary car with a tiger head in front, which was displayed in the garage there.

"Tiger Car"

There are also 4 super big tombstones, which are the graves for the Aw brothers who founded this park and their parents.

One of the Aw memorial

There wasn't no maintenance done on this park too, and it is going to demolish anytime, which is a sad thing. Cos it is a nice place to walk again in the future. Do visit back before it is demolish.....

And remember

The bad will always get its retribution (It's just the matter of when)

Nature Parks Walk - Labrador Nature Reserve

Labrador Nature Park

11th Feb 2012 - Went to Labrador Park today with my friend. We met at Labrador MRT station and had BK breakfast. Then we started off our morning walk, we walked from the mrt station but we still need to walk a long distance up to the park entrance. It was super hot too and we were starting to sweat.

After about half an hour or more, we managed to reach the park's entrance. We walked around the park, there are war relics left behind during the WWII and some information on WWII too. I wanted to go to the secret tunnels left behind during WWII times but it was closed for maintenance. Such a pity. We walked through the nature paths to get around the park.

Later we walked along the sea coast, which we can see the dragon's gate stone, Yatch Club and the beautiful condos built there. So we just walked along the path and back to Harbourfront Station. We did saw a big lizard (didn't managed to take a photot of it cos it was hiding inside the bushes) when we were out to the road...lol....

Nevertheless, it was a nice walk although it was hot. But you should try it some day, go around Singapore's Nature Parks and walk around, enjoy the nature, views and you may find surprises too.
:)

Click here for the complete walking trail from National Parks, Singapore

Wicked Musical, SIngapore

28th Jan 2012: Went to watch Wicked Musical in Marina Bay Sands (MBS), Grand Theater with my friends. We had purchased the $151 category tickets (including booking fees). It was a awards-winning musical and it was very popular in other countries. It is a play about the 2 witches in the Wizard of Oz before Dorothy dropped in Oz land. The play was also telling how the 2 witches met each other and become best friends and falling in love with the same guy and how they fell out with each other. There was also a mech dragon built on the stage, i was expected it to be used often but was disappointed when it was only operated 2 times throughout the whole play.The conversation between the characters was also quite funny in the play.

Read Wicked synopis

But I prefer Lion King Musical more than Wicked Musical, as Lion king used more props whereas Wicked used more lighting effects. And i also prefer the music in Lion King over Wicked...but it is still worth watching....hehehe....

Ride on the Singapore Flyer

Went to have a ride in the Singapore Flyer with my friend on 20 Nov 2010. The ticket price is $29.50 per adult and the whole ride took about half an hour to complete its turn. It was ok, they even provide audio guide in the flyer to explain on the flyer information. You get the full view of the Marina Bay Sands opposite and Nicoll Highway + Kallang River on the other side.


Complete Photo Album: Click here

A Day in Universal Studio

Had a great day in the Universal Studio (SG) again, but this time it was a full day from 10am to 10pm.
Hohohoo... Saw a few characters walking around and performing there too. And best of all, there is fireworks showing @ the Lagoon in the nite.

 Rides Taken:
1. Enchanted Airways
2. Revenge of the Mummy
3. Shrek 4D Adventure

Shows Watched:
1. Waterfront Performance
2. Monster Rock

Complete Photo Album: Click here

Europe Trip - Back to Singapore

Day 15: Haiz...going to take plane back to singapore..so sian.Woke up and left for Paris airport.Still have to take the airport shuttle train from T3 to T1.So ma fan and the airport is so messy (still got 2A to 2F terminals,don't know how many terminals they have.) Then we checked in our luggage and when we went checking in,there was a lady beside our counter.She was like arguing with the SQ personnel about paying for excess hand luggage.Hohoho....

Anyway the airport looks old and boring,so we went in to the gate early.We did a little shopping too before boarding the plane. Later we boarded the plane,it was a 11 hours plane ride.So anyway basically we just sat and slept in the plane.As there is nothing much to do,except to watch movies or listen to music and waited for our food to come.Lol

With this,my 2 weeks Europe trip ended by reaching Singapore on 24th May 2010 early morning.

A Night in Universal Studios

Hahahaha. Got to go Universal Studio, thanks to SingTel. hehehe. It was fun there but alot of ple. Long queue everywhere. Only managed to watch the Waterfront performance and we just chiong for the Revenge of the Mummy ride. Super cool!!! No time for other rides, so sad. Took a lot of photos there too.