This post signifies the end of procrastination hahaha.

Ok we’re finally at the last day! I don’t think this is what is supposed to happen during holidays, but I was dying to get home and dive under my blanket.

On the coach.

The coach we spent too much time in.

Nicely designed shopping center near airport.

Lunch! Was not a very exciting meal, but it tasted ok. Yes I remember the taste. For some reason.

 
Cute cafe the boyfriend and I went while waiting for the mum to finish shopping.

Delish waffles!

Mum & I.

I know I’m supposed to wrap things up nicely here and write about my overall impressions or something like that but seriously… I have nothing I really want to say.

The end. 2 ends! The end of this 2008 trip which was only blogged about in 2009, and the end of 2009 woohooo.

Happy new year everyone.

Second last day in TW! Things took a turn for the better today, and I think it’s amazing how apparent it is that my mood is better cos I actually look better in photos.

Or is it the fact that I looked better that made me feel better. Regardless, I was feeling a-ok! (/end reference to Love Happens which no one will get.)

 
Bf & I at some gardeny place.

Oh I have a new theory! If you noticed (I really don’t think anyone did), the photos frm Day 1 to 5 were almost all greyish and dull cos the weather was so gloomy and the places we visited were old and/or dull and/or grey.

Therefore my mood is positively related to the weather and vibrancy of colours around me.

Moving on…

Proof of improved mood: Willingness to stupid things for photos.

Rows upon rows of Buddhas. Er… they are buddhas, right?

Lovely hedge arch. Reminds me of Farmville.

Proof #2 of improved mood: Attempts to take artistic shots.

Temple thingy?

Mood considerably dipped after they made us climb these steps. In my short skirt too tmd.

Spot the error!

Bf & I.

Pretty sunset.

 
Mummy looking every bit the kiasu Singaporean lugging a carton of delish beef instant noodles home.

Buys for the day. Again very modest.

The end to this day was rather anticlimatic, with the bf and mum simultaneously abandoning me in favour of a bookstore. I headed to the magazine section as I always do whenever either one of them start walking into a bookstore.

P/s. I am aware of how bimbotic that is. I’m going to justify myself by stating that 1) I can’t read chinese books. 2) Bookstores make my eyes hurt cos of the dust and flourescent lighting.

Ok I might have made it worse.

The temperature got warmer as we travelled southward, so I started wearing less. At this point, I would like to point out that the tour guide we had was an ass. Not only was he solely profit driven, he described the sites very minimally and fawned over people who bought things. Goodness.

Anyway, he failed to warn us that we were going to visit some cave today, which was going to be freezing cold.

Me freezing in a thin dress, calf length stockings and the mum trying to keep me alive.

Some temple thing across the quarry.

 
Hot coffee that cost a bomb. Suspect that tour guide deliberately ommitted the freezing temp and profited from the hot drink sales.

 
Mum very happy after jewelry factory visit. (One of the many factories that we went… for the tour guide’s commission, of course.)

Mum and her new sapphire necklace. She can’t stop herself when she sees jewelry, haha.

Interesting treehouse!

If you have been reading my Taiwan posts all the way so far, it would seem that it was a gloomy and miserable trip, but it wasn’t all that bad, really.

Sure, the accom sucked. The travelling sucked. The tour guide sucked. The “scenery” sucked. The weather sucked. The factory and temple visits sucked.

But the boyfriend was there, and that alone made things ok. (Although I’m sure that it would have been so much better without all the minus points.)

The photos taken get lesser as they days went by because I lose my mood to take photos when I look hideous in them.

Continuing my deluded streak of mistakenly feeling fashionable, I wore… nevermind. Just FML. Maybe I should consider taking photos of myself and sitting down for about 10 minutes to clear my head everyday before stepping out of the house.

Who knows how many days have gone by like this.

At some market in the hills.

 
Woman painting names.

  
Where we spent most of the trip – on the coach.

Some roadside fruit stall.

Hotel room.

Gosh the hotels we stayed in were really ulu pandan. Sigh. Ahh ok no more complaining. No wonder I stopped blogging about this trip! It was so disappointing.

Spent so much time on the bus, visited so many temples (really not my thing), stayed in crap hotels, changed hotels every single night cos we visited diff cities every day, minimal shopping…

Wait what happened to the no more complaining bit hahaha. Ok. /stop

So we come to Day 4. This day was spent in some city I don’t remember and Taipei.

You know, I remember feeling very chic and full of myself wearing a coat and leggings but on hindsight I just looked like a black dumpling. Why do these things only come to me too late FML. Ahh this is why they say 当局者迷，旁观者清 (translated loosely: you can’t see the mess you’re in, although others clearly do).

And I also managed to look absolutely hideous in 99.9% of all photos that were taken on this trip. Excluding those where you can’t really see my face i.e. below. Boo.

Me at some open ground memorial thingy, I think.

Then they brought us to some confectionary store to cheat our money.

Some palace.

The below should have been my favourite part of the day but our enterprising tour guide decided that places that gave him commission were more worthy of his time so we were only given 15 minutes at Taipei 101. @*#^$!*^

The interior of Taipei 101.

Xmas tree outside Taipei 101.

 
Ice kacang, which wasn’t called ice kacang there, at some night market.

The mum & I.

Cute puppy for sale!

 
*melts*

Furball.

Stuff I bought! Very little right. One of the cons of shopping with mummy. Paiseh to spend money.

And so, Day 4 ended rather uneventfully.