Taiwan Day 1 — Taoyuan

I'm finally getting down to blog about my trip to Taiwan! Kinda drafted up the post but since I've yet to upload my photos to my computer (due to some hiccups with my OS) for the past few weeks, I refuse to publish this post. You've probably seen my instagram feed with my Taiwan photos but not sure where I've been or what I've done throughout my backpacking trip to Taiwan right? So here's a quick run thru of what happened.

I booked my trip intending to backpack around Taiwan with no plans ahead of me. Just a destination to conquer and a strike off my life goals. Then... on a supper nights out with my friends, we all discovered that we are heading to Taiwan around the same period of time?! I decided to join Jiahao and his friend, Eric on their trip abandoning half my plan (of having no plans). But despite having no real plan,I still had to reschedule a couple of my stays with some of my host and rejecting a couple of them. And in exchange of a planned trip throughout the stay. Pros and cons I guess. But it's definitely more fun to be travelling with friends right?

I decided to join them on a trip around the entire Taiwan only on 1 April.

So let's start off with the day I left Singapore! It was 27 March 2016 and Justus sent me to the airport, I couldn't bare to leave him and neither could he. It had been a torturous 18 days without him although I did have my fun in Taiwan. Thank god for Skype!

(Here's J carrying my backpack, refusing to let me carry because its heavy. keke.)

Backpack is actually dad's. I did order a 50L one online but it didn't arrive until April. :( 

Did I mention he made me a jar of notes for me to read. 18 in total, 1 for each day. And i'll open it every night before I sleep.

(Since the bottle is too bulky for my backpack, I brought the 18 notes to Taiwan in a ziploc bag.)

My flight was scheduled to depart at 3:55pm but there was a flight delay and it only flew off at 5:10pm! Guys, that is what you get for opting budget airline. I was flying on tigerairways because I don't really see a point on the extra cost of a better quality airline. You see, it's only a 4.5 hours flight, i'm the kind who can sleep wherever so I pretty much would sleep the whole flight. If you're talking about comfort, I would say that i'm quite petite so I don't need much room for my legs, it's definitely comfortable enough for me to travel alone.

(Cup noodles always taste a little tastier on planes.)

Touched down Taoyuan International Airport at 9:40pm. Did I mention I was couchsurfing? I swear it's a whole new experience for me and really opened my tiny little life. My first host was Oliver, he was so super nice to meet me at the arrival hall. The first thing I did was of cos, get myself a data plan! My trip was 18 days but it's either I get a 15 days 4G data plan or a 30 days 3G data plan. Obviously I would rather 4G, it's faster isn't it? Although locals say there is not much of a difference, but since there is a difference in SG, i'll go the SG way.

Oli cabs everywhere. He claims that comparing the price of cabbing in Taiwan to Singapore, it is way cheaper and more convenient. Before my arrival, he told me he will be making crepes. I was so excited because I loooooove crepes. How else would my abandoned instagram account be renamed pinkcrepes as well as my steam IGN? So I watched him made and tried to make one my own. The batter was enough for 8 pieces. It's actually really filling! I had only 3 pieces with nutella spread. He was showing me the various TV applications he had on his smart TV and we ended up watching survivor and amazing race through the night.

The weather was pretty darn cold. I had to keep my parka that Justus bought for me on the entire day even when I slept because that was just how cold it is! I love how thin my parka was and it still manage to keep me warm. Fell asleep at 3 and had to wake up around 9 am!

(Toilet selfie with my Parka!)

There isn't much content on the places I went as it's basically me arriving in Taiwan. From next post on, i'll be sharing on the places I went!

Miniature dollhouses!

Woken up to the sound of the doorbell because J came over to find me! Opened the door and lazed in bed for awhile before we got our asses ready to get crafty!

Drum rolls........

And we are going to work on the minion miniature dollhouse kit! Because J's brother love minion so we decide to make this collectible for him! 

Here's the box , showing us what the dollhouse (room) will look like after completion. Pretty promising isn't it?

You must be wondering what's in the kit right? 

You guessed it! Everything has to be done from SCRATCH! They provide the materials and we gotta use our nifty fingers to cut and glue the materials together!

First up , an instruction booklet (I swear the instructions are super detailed so even a 10 years old can help with your craft!) , beads (with super useful functions you never knew you can create mini furniture with them!), cloth (mainly to make pillows, bed linen & sheets), some wires, pillow stuffings and even glue!

Also, without these wooden pieces, the bed cannot be formed! (Forgotten to snap a pic of the wooden pieces that are used for the walls and flooring)

There's also a pretty large sheet of prints that needs to be cut out to form and complete the adorable minion room.

Because J & I had to attend vivi's 21st birthday at night, we only had time to cut out the prints. So we left everything else to Sunday and went to the birthday. 

So yup! *teleports to venue*

Really happy to be able to see the girls again. Our froyo moment that night felt pretty nostalgic of our Grunge chalet days. Haha! And not forgetting the boys, it was nice to see them after sooo long! ^^ Happy birthday to vivi! It's her actual day today! 

I'll continue about our DIY journey hopefully tomorrow!

Miniatures

It's a public holiday today! Started off the morning with nasi lemak from lee wee brother's that my parents bought for us. Then lazed at home with Justus playing slither.io for half the morning. It's super duper addictive I swear! HAHAHA

We could play for hours and hours. The other day, we were on the phone discussing about the game while playing it for about 1 hour and 45 minutes. Crazy HAHAH. And he have work the next day!

Anyway, after playing, we had the idea to play with popin' cookin' takoyaki kit! 

This is how it looks like! (Picture from Pinterest)

We didn't have a microwave oven, cos I make an egg burst in the old one so we threw it away, so we tried our luck with the conventional oven. It took much much longer to "cook" the tako balls. 

And we got so into making the tako balls that we ended up creating more than just the balls! 

We went ahead and created a few "bowls" , skewers, spoon, chopsticks and even the fake grass HAHAHA. 

So here is our final product with two sets of takoyaki and the small bowl behind is mashed potatoes (can't really be seen from this view though).

Yes and the sushi is real HAHAH. We didn't waste food okay? Gobbled it down right after the shots were taken. 

So that's how we spent labor day holiday! Really do enjoy chill days like this. ^^