16th Sept - Fisherman's Wharf, Tam Shui, Old streets

Not to be confused with San Francisco's Fisherman's Wharf, its Taipei's Fisherman's Wharf - 淡水鱼人码头.
There was this temple proceedings at the street where we stayed.
inside the MRT station
Old Street 淡水老街
pig's trotters + innards for sale!
chicken feet (the food i mean, not the literal meaning), chicken innards, some veggies..
selling catch of the day! As I was taking this picture secretly, the neighbouring stallholder asked me, "li ai hip xiong, wu gio yi chio3 bo? bo chio3 wa gio yi chio3 ji tio hor li hip" Which struck a chord of familiarity within me. The uncle was speaking to me in Hokkien, which means - "you want a picture? did the uncle smile? if not i ask him smile then u can take again." I was secretly happy. Haha, i don't know why.
chickens (dead) on top, chickens (alive) below. Fresh chickens? order and kill and take home?

Tam Shui Wharf 淡水码头
Those pasar malam games were rampant here.. I tried my hand at throwing darts -
Don't play play.. i burst 4 out of 6 water balloons, ok! haha! That is 60% hit rate. Anyone wants to challenge me to Time Crisis?
and won a bubble blower and a lollipop. Haha
The ice cream u see is the famed ice cream which u can spin to very very tall...but NO TASTE one! Like eating ice water. I threw mine away after ONE slurp. Yes, missus is a very picky and spoilt brat when it comes to food.
Guai lan people. They say no parking, you still park!!??
大树下乘凉



Fort San Domingo
We were in luck! The Fort San Domingo was opened for visitors today! Free Entry! Since we were killing time, we went in to see see look look...

haha, please tell me i have sexy LONG legs

A history tour round this place.. About how this port in Taiwan was taken over by the French, Portuguese and then Brits...and then I forget already.
After this we went into Aletheia University....

Fisherman's Wharf - 淡水鱼人码头.
People who are pak toh-ing (otherwise known as dating) can come to this place. The bridge behind us is the 'Lover's Bridge'. Haha, you can torture your prospectives by demanding, "you don't piggy back me across this bridge, don't even think of marrying me!!" See - i make a good jie mei (for those who are getting married..)
Dunno why i smile until like that.. must be missed a step then paiseh machiam want to fall down liao.
假惆怅！几琼瑶一下！哈哈！
Night view of the bridge
I super like this shot. Kudos to Panasonic Cameras - my favourite! In case you cant tell, I am on the extreme Right.


If you have been following my blog, you probably can recall that I was sick when I was in Las Vegas. Well, the sick monster has been pestering me since. I was nursing a bad cough...till now! Well, I went into a pharmacy - cheena kong kind. And bought this cough capsules. Which works magic! After I finished this 10 capsules, my cough was waving me bye bye already.I was coughing like a pneumonia being...but I healed. Magical.

13th to 15th sept - i am flying + 15sept in Taipei

13th sept - i roamed san francisco alone. Nana has returned to new york, and i started to busy myself away.
had breakfast at jack in the box - their croissant was great! I just like croissants! After that I scouted around for a foreign exchange..to change my US currency to Taiwan Dollar, 'cos Missus here is gonna tour Taiwan.

Noon time, I depart SF airport and reached LA airport 2-3 hours later... had to nuah at LAX for up to 12+ hours before I boarded my flight bound for Taiwan at 1am. Caught several movies on the flight..and
flew into the "future" - reached Taiwan 15th Sept at 545am. It was a sense of deja vu all over again at LAX. How, 3+ months ago, I flew in from Taiwan, all alone, taking the transiting flight, at LAX, how I scurried around with my suitcase... I came alone, and I left alone. A feeling of weirdom.
In Taipei Taoyuan airport, I left my large luggage with the Luggage Service (allowed to keep your luggage there up to 30 days, at 100 TWD per day)......and nuahed for another 12 hours as I waited for my friend to fly in from Singapore. Had croissant for breakfast (again!) at Burger King, walked around the airport, used my laptop (thankful for the internet!), wrote letters, counting down the hours before my friend will reach.. 12hours of waiting in LA, 12+++ hours of waiting at Taiwan. Is my life filled with waiting? I hate waiting. I hate waiting for buses. I hate waiting for friends who show up late for dates.
Anyway, my friend reached at 630pm, and we boarded the ultimately unfriendly + attitude problem bus service provider - Freego bus services from the airport to our hotel. People - if you think I have a serious attitude problem, Freego bus services is the ultimatum. AND people -since when do I have an attitude problem? Those who thinks so, RAISE UP YOUR HANDS!
We stayed at 明日大饭店, 1280TWD per night. Its just a stone's throw away from Ximen MRT station. Shopping malls encompasses the hotels... just at the doorstep can shop and eat till you laosai..
Anyway, we quickly scouted out for dinner -
first authentic chinese dinner!
Jolin + Edison + Me!! WHHEEEEEE. I was wearing Levis too, ok!
Monkey see, monkey do, BUT my purpose in taking this pic was cos i thought her haircut looked nice, maybe can cut this style.
MY BOYS!!! Riise, Alonso and Stevie G!
our Hotel room.

12th Sept - Day 5 in SF

Today marks our last day in SF.
Nana will be flying back to New York the next morning at 5am, and I will head back Los Angeles to fly to Taipei to continue my travel with another friend. More about this laters :)

When we woke up it was like 11++. Geez, we missed our plan to take a train to Castro! Thus we gave it a miss. We had brunch at this Thai Eatery:
Thai Milk Tea

Thai Tom Yum soup with i dunno how come got so many mushrooms.
chao padtai. Which is fried glass noodles with seafood

After brunch, we set out for some last minute shopping round Union Square. I went into Urban Outfitters and saw this very tantalising phone book entitled: my bitches. Click to enlarge! So tempted to buy! haha, but i don't know so many bitches to fill up a book, heh heh.
Time flies by when you're having fun - to quote Einstein's Law of relativity loosely. It was dark when we are still....shopping for stuff.
We planned to splurge on our last meal in SF, but Cheesecake Factory was maxed out. And we were too hungry to want to queue...so we went to the next best - the 'Naan and Curry' eatery. Cheap and good. We tapao-ed cheesecakes for desserts though.. haha

Scene of mess that needs be packed.

Sigh...Goodbye San Francisco, Goodbye US

11th sept - Day 4 in SF

Booked a tour to visit Wine Country and the Outlet malls in Napa after that.
Wine tasting was included in the package - and we tasted to 4 different wines. I had 1 white, 2 reds, 1 champagne.


riding an ox?beautiful skies, beautiful grass, beautiful people pretty much sums up the day - beautiful day!

viansa winery
a corvette convertible i saw when we went to outlet mall.
we had dinner at my favourite eatery in SF - Naan and curry. we had tea as we waited for our food to arrive:
38 reminds me of 38 - bitchy in chinese.. but it also poked my niggling feelings about scoring 38/100 for my heat transfer quiz when i was in NTU yr 3. weiting conveniently teased me for being formidable to achieve exactly 38 points to make up the 38-ness - aka bitchiness. tsk tsk. trust u to do that! now 38 holds a blemished memory!

FOOD IS HERE!!! WHEEEEEEE!!!!
chicken tandoori
garlic and plain naan
spinach curry - don't judge on appearances! It might look like a pile of shit, but it taste gooodd!
And after dinner, we had desserts in the form of cheesecake from the cheesecake factory!! yuMMy!
AHHH! Food - my first love! heh heh!