[Naruwan]

That's welcome to Taiwan in aborigine language.

I'm back I'm back! Had an awesome time in Taipei, as I always make it a point to when I travel. Heh. It was so good that I even enjoyed the biostats workshops we had to attend (main purpose of the trip actually). It was a pretty good revision of what we'd already learnt so it was fun actually knowing what the lecturers were talking about, and even being able to explain it to my colleagues. p-values n more..bring it on!

I did pretty much everything I wanted to do. Visited the night market and Ximending with the ladies on our first couple of days there. We even skipped our not-so-formal formal dinner on the second night to see the world's tallest building (for now) - Taipei 101. We got by with our minimal knowledge of Mandarin...even managed to converse a little with those who spoke not much English (with a bit of comedy of course!)

I did the must sees like the Sun Yat Sen and Cheang Kai Shek memorial halls, National Palace Museum and even the Aborigine museum (left out by many tourists...I went there cos I have a soft spot for natives who have been driven out from their own land..must go there next time to visit their tribes...).

Then there was the nature part - Taroko Gorge (Hualien), Northern coast tour (Keelung Harbour and Yehliu Scenic Area), Northeastern coast tour (Nanya Rock Formations, Bay of Two Colors, Chiufen (aborigine) Village), and Yangmingshan National Park with the hot spring baths. The views were just AMAZING. I remember touching down in Hualien and the backdrop from the airport was moutains. What a lovely spot. Taroko Gorge was beautiful beyond belief...I'm so jealous that we're so deprived of natural sceneries here. If any of you decide that you need a soothing place to meditate, that's definitely the place to go. I would have spent hours just listening to the waters flowing and admiring the rocks if I hadn't been on a guided tour.

There were pretty interesting rock formations at Yehliu. Queen's head, elephant head, fairy's shoe..what have you. Some needed some imagination to be deciphered lol. I also managed to captivate a Korean's heart...he was trying so hard to buaya me...even asked me to attend a workshop in Seoul so that I could visit him! Tsk tsk. He was saying I was beautiful and smart and blah blah then our tour guide (thankfully) burst his bubble by saying that I'm Muslim so can only marry Muslim. Muahaha. I could swear poor Mr Korean guy became more quiet after that. He even got me to take a pic for him on my cam so that I can email it to him...was a tactic just to get my contact after I disappointed him abt not having a name card..haha.

I had loads of fun taking all sorts of pictures..now that I know my cam a little better. I was in a pretty trigger happy mood (till I pissed Sugi off haha) especially in the scenic areas, and I'm pretty happy with the shots I got. I also got to meet Winnie, one of my online friends from m'sia who's studying there. She brought me on my first motorbike ride ever..I was nervous and first..but it turned out to be really thrilling. Wanted her to go faster lol. That was half my butch fantasy fulfilled lol. She brought me to Shihlin Night Market..and we realised neither of us are big shoppers so we ended up spending on food instead. It was a pity we couldn't meet on Fri...cos we forgot to take pics tog. Hope we meet again in future :)

Taiwan's a beautiful country. I'm pretty sure I wanna return there to explore more. For now I shall get back to admiring the scenery... Check out more pics here!