Commando training camp, Taiwan
This report 'summarises' the full training schedule of the 11 days training camp in Taiwan for commandos.
Click on any photos to view their full size. For those who don't like to read, wait for the coming photoblog. Full records of all the meals consumed during training were taken down, and will only be shown in the photoblog.
The full strength of this camp is five, consisting of the following personnel:
Back, from left: Fengchun, me; front, from left: Jiaxiu, Shijie, Yuxiang.
Day 1: admin and recce
As with all training camps, there's a lot of administrative work to be done.
Papaerwork, commenced in-flight, by our hardworking 'clerk'
Jiaxiu wanted to make use of the free service provided by SIA to send postcards to her family. In fact, the rightists were all busy writing postcards during the filght. The leftists were making full use of the in-flight entertainment.
The Rightists
The Leftists
During the flight, Fengchun realised that 1 of the air stewardess was his former classmate. She had rather nice Caucasian looking features, even though she's a pure Chinese. Fengchun didn't get to say much to her during the flight, much less get any contacts or a photo. Shall not dwell too much on his loss, less he breaks down.
We managed to find our way to our deployment area with relative ease. It's quite easy to get around in Taiwan - follow the signs (which are mostly in Mandarin) or ask around (in either Mandarin or Hokkien). Taiwanese are quite friendly and helpful, relatively more so as compared to Singaporeans. And it always helps to do a little homework beforehand and get hold of any maps you see along the way.
It was afternoon by the time we got settled into our hotel at Xi Men Ding (西门町). The traffic system in Taiwan is different from that in Singapore - they drive on the right side of the road. The style of driving there made our country look gracious (I can't believe I actually said this). The rule of the thumb for crossing roads in a foreign country: follow what the locals do.
Our first objective was to scout the unfamiliar terrain from the nearest observation post.
新光三越 observation post
Most tourists normally aim for Taipei 101 (as its names implies, is 101 storeys high), but we settled for this building which only allows us to go up to a maximum of 46 storeys. Commandos differ from normal infantry, what more can I say?
Alright, I admit we're cheapskates and opted for the less expensive choice. But the night view from that height was magnificient enough for us.
As we were too enthusiastic about starting our training, we decided to have night training immediately after scouting. Night training conducted at the local night market, of course.
华西街观光夜市
Only the night market in Chinatown nearing Chinese New Year are anything comparable to their counterparts in Taiwan. Night market visits there are a daily (or nightly) affair for the Taiwanese and weekend crowds are as terrible as Chinese New Year crowds.
Most of the food sold at 华西街观光夜市 are too exotic (snakes, turtles, you get the idea) for our tastes, so we mostly ended up 观光 (looking around) as the name suggested.
Day 2: cold training
Early next morning, after only 6 hours of rest (7 hours are for weaklings), we made our way to the train station to take a train down to Luo Dong (罗东), the holding area for our cold jokes training (冷笑话特训）. Cold training was conducted at Su Ao Cold Springs (苏奥冷泉), which we had to travel to by train from Luo Dong.
Help! Help! The rock is falling!
It was a Wednesday morning, and business was nil. The person in charge of collecting entrance fee fell asleep at her post. Although I proved it was possible to sneak in without her detection, we decided to be honest and not bring down the name of Singaporeans.
The water in the bath areas came from the rain collected at the mountain and are rich in sulphur having flowed through sulphur-rich moutain soil.
Private bath area in the cold spring
Freaking cold and stinks like animal wastes (sulphur stinks). Thankfully we didn't stink after soaking ourselves inside. The water was so cold that we almost jumped out after stepping in. However, after staying inside for about 10 seconds, our body started feeling warm. We guessed it was due to the high sulphur content. Our skin was red when we exited the water, as though we had just finished tanning.
Photos of ourselves in the bath are not displayed for the sake of the health of readers.
The water in the private bath was more concentrated than that of the public bath, although we had to pay more to use the private bath.
Public bath area
Su Ao is a very quiet and relatively empty place (empty as in lacking in amenities). Visitors travel there only for the cold spring.
We saw this:
Guess what this bell is for
Here's the full picture:
What were you thinking?
It was raining that day, but that fits our cold training perfectly fine. Phase 2 of cold training program: 内冷外寒 (cold on the interior and exterior).
Ice creams on a rainy day!
The ice creams were bought from a night market next to our hotel in Luo Dong. Subsequently we retired to our rooms.
With all due respect, Taiwanese have rather small statures.
I can't even stand up straight...
Thankfully, we're putting up there for only 1 night.
Day 3
Woke up early (again) to catch the train to Hua Lien (花莲), the most acclaimed place to visit if you wish to get close to nature. The rain poured relentlessly from last night and carried on all the way to Hua Lien. Extended cold training.
In Hua Lien, the 1st place we visited and the 1st proper meal we had was at 原野牧场 (translated literally, wildlife farm).
Entrance to the farm, best accessed by taxi
The country-styled restaurant at the farm
Previously, we adopted jungle survival techniques - eat what you can find (边走边吃), which made us full rather easily but doesn't last, because all we had were bits of snacks at intervals that didn't amount to a full meal. Eating a proper meal felt heavenly, and the food was nice on top of it. We even had a glass of fresh goat's milk to round the whole meal off.
Halfwaty through our meal, we spotted a sugar packet with some funny words on it. Naturally, we felt obliged to correct the 'mistake'.
That seems better now doesn't it?
Of course, we didn't forget to train.
Mock light sabre fighting
The farm was located next to a beach, where the waves were so strong that swimming is prohibited. The waves seemed to be as high as a car, but due to poor weather, I wasn't able to take a photo to show.
CO Sua decided to conduct landmine warfare at the beach when the rained had stopped, but it suddenly resumed pouring again. True to his appointment, CO Sua said,
"Enemy forces will not call for a halt in the battle during CAT 1 (Category 1 weather: cancel all outdoor training)." Anyway, we wanted to dig around the beach to look for stones to bring back as souvenirs (for ourselves and for friends). Thus, we braved the rain and made our way down to the beach.
Brave commandos braving the rain
The wind was so strong and changed direction so often that Jiaxiu's umbrella was inverted a few times on the way down. In the end, CO called the training off reluctantly.
Relentless, we waited for the rain to ease so that we can go down to Qi Xing Tan (七星潭), which is the main beach in this part of Taiwan, to continue landmine warfare training. No such luck however. In the end, we had to take taxi back to our hotels, soaked to the skin. I think I caught a cold that day.
It had been raining everyday in Taiwan since we arrived, though at different times each day. Bad weather can be a real spoilsport.
Looking on the bright side, we had night's off instead of the usual night training. Night's off was spent vsiting A-Mei tribe village (阿美族村). This is a tribe of villagers who migrated to the eastern part of Taiwan (Hua Lien) because of volcanic activities at their homelands.
We visited the souvenir shops selling their cultural products (clothes, accessories, etc), looked at an exhibition stating the history of the tribe, and finally watched a dance put up by the tribespeople. However, everything seems too commercialised to have the feeling that you were being brought to a place that was supposed to be away from civilisation and from a different age.
Do you have this feeling that you're being stranded in the middle of the wilderness and surrounded by very strange culture? No? Well neither do I.
Day 4: cheong hai (charge down the sea)
To be precise, charge down the river to the sea.
River rafting at 秀姑峦溪 (nice name eh? too nice to be translated directly) was the itinerary for today. As typical 'big shot' Singaporeans, we kept everyone waiting for us: from getting on the bus at the hotel to get to the rafting site, to waiting for us to be done at the toilet so that everyone can board the rafts.
River rafting is a don't-bother-to-try-to-stay-dry-activity, so we couldn't bring our cameras along.
Before we boarded the rafts (rubber dinghies), we were shown a short clip teaching us how to raft and the safety procedures to follow in case of any accidents. Following which, we (inclusive of our Taiwanese counterparts) were led to a storeroom where we geared up (lifejacket, some sort of head protection and a paddle each), and finally, we proceeded to the launch site.
5...
4...
3...
2...
1...
Lift off!
Ahem.
There were a total of 15 people, so we split ourselves onto 2 rafts, with 7 people in our group. There were also 2 safety vessels (a motorised rubber dinghy with a lifeguard on each). It was rather sunny and hot, unlike the past few days, and we were thankful for that. The accompanying lifeguards, however, were more worried we'd get heat stroke and dehydration, so they kept themselves entertained by driving past us a high speeds and splashing us with the clay-rich river water.
In between keeping our rafts from bumping against the rocks or grounding, and river warfare (water fights) between the 2 rafts, we got to enjoy the magnificent view of the gorge from below (or rather the lowest altitude), survive tumbling rapids that threaten to capsize our rafts. On 1 occassion, Shijie fell into the water when the raft went over a relatively stronger rapid, and I had to pull him back onto the raft.
We started rafting from 1000h to about 1200h, when we reached a mid-way resting point for trainees. Everyone disembarked from the rafts and made their way up to a building with tables and benches and our lunch (indented for our training) waiting.
Lunch was the takeaway type (便当) - a rectangular paper cardboard container filled with rice, vegetables, meat, etc (sounds a lot but the portion is quite small). No drinks were provided, we had to pay additional money to buy drinks. Very good way to make money, because the lunch was rather dry and we were all thirsty after 2 hours of rafting. But...
Never never ever underestimate Singapore's commandos.
We rested for about 2 hours before resuming the final 12 km of our journey. Yup, we used approxiamtely 2 hours to travel 12 km. This was because at certain points in the river, our rafts seemed doomed to hit the rock faces flanking the river. Thus the lifeguards had to come to our rescue by using their vessel to push out raft towards the centre of the river away from imminent danger. Sometimes, when the distance between both rafts were too great, 1 of the lifeguard will use his vessel to maintain the faster raft's position and wait for the slower one to catch up. This slowed down our downstream progress. Excellent safety coverage, should really commend them.
Most of the later journey was quite dangerous (although it doesn't seem to be the case to me), so our rafts were mostly towed by the lifeguards for the next 2 hours. Quite a spoiler, but I just made use of it to enjoy the moutain scenery.
It was around 1600h by the time we reached the sea (which also marks the end of rafting). Not as tiring as I thought, but still got a tan despite the fact that it was cloudy throughout the whole day.
On our way back to the hotel, we travelled along the eastern coast of Hua Lien and managed to get some nice shots of the coastal scenery.
View of a part of the coastal region in Hua Lien
After returning to the hotel, we decided to replenish our combat rations for our outfield training tomorrow. So we looked around the nearby supermarket. On our way there, we saw this:
Translated literally, it says "Do you have any needs (most people here would think this question is in the sexual sense)?". Actually it's a computer hardware shop
And at the supermarket we saw this:
Can you believe this is the packaging for LEGO?
We rounded off the day telling one another cold jokes and nearly caused a 'cold wave' to sweep through the entire country.
Day 5: cheong sua (charge up the mountain)
CHARGE!!!
As expected, we kept the bus going to take us to Taroko Gorge (太鲁葛) waiting. The bus was supposed to pick up tourists from other hotels after us, so that means we kept quite a few people waiting.
Ooops.
The bus driver cum tour guide will be in charge of showing us (everyone he picked up) the various sights in Taroko Gorge, as well as ferrying us around. and he did a great job at that.
There were several stops along the roads in Taroko Gorge. Upon reaching each stop, the driver/guide would give us a brief introduction to the place, tell us what (scenery) to expect, and how much time we have to look around. As you can guess, we were the last to board the bus each time. I think the whole bus probably hates Singaporeans at the end of the trip.
Everyone went trigger happy once we alighted from the bus.
Taroko National Park Centre
1st stop: 百狮桥 (Hundred lions bridge)
Thus named because there are exactly 100 stone lions statues on the bridge
There was a trail that allowed us to get a closer look at the running stream and pond below the bridge
The river at which we did our rafting looked like this
The water is less than knee deep - the rich blue colour indicates very high mineral content
Private property in the middle of a national park? Hmmm.....
After moving off from the 1st stop, we saw the only waterfall that could be seen in the during the whole trip.
银丝带瀑布 (Silver silk belt waterfall)
2nd stop: 燕子口 (Swallow grotto)
A rather narrow pass (the 2 rock walls were about 10 metres apart) where dozesn of swallows were doing their fly-by. The cries of the swallows echo through the pass, smothering even the thunderous roar from the river water below.
Holes in the rock formation carved by flowing water served as homes to the numerous swallows
3rd stop: Intercontinental buffet lunch at a 5 star hotel
Hardcore as we may be, we still understand the importance of pampering ourselves. The 5 star hotel was smack in the middle of Taroko Gorge, and it provided lunch to tourists on a package tour.
View from the hotel surroundings
As we were not used to eating in such high quantities (because of our eating habits since we came to Taiwan), all of us 'underperformed' during lunch time. Oh well, at least the food was great (and great variety too). The buffet costs us NT$288 per person, which rounds up to about S$15 per person. Food sold in Taiwan is generally cheaper than that in Singapore.
4th stop: 慈母桥
Caring mother bridge?
No idea why this name.
Pavements and walkways are built along the roads to allow tourists to walk and get a better view of the gorge. It had been raining for the past few days in Taiwan and falling rocks were a potential hazard to all tourists.
Very realistic war-time simulations for our training purposes
The best way to avoid these falling rocks is to keep as close as possible to the rock wall.
Mother Nature is sometimes referred to as an artist - she carves rocks into beautiful patterns using flowing water as a tool to create wear and tear.
This boulder seems to be balanced nicely
This piece of marble seemed to have received special attention from Mother Nature
Kidding. This is no handiwork of Mother Nature. This is the result of an unarmed combat demonstration turned real.
Now you see it
Now you don't
I can't control my strength sometimes.....
5th stop: 九曲洞 (tunnel of 9 turns)
The tunnel didn't have exactly 9 turns. It was so called because it had numerous windings and turns, due to different hardness in the rocks. Several tunnels can be found in this part of the gorge.
Fengchun doing area cleaning in 1 of the tunnels
Do you see a huge rock in the shape of a fish?
They named this place "鱼跃龙门" (Fish leaping across dragon gate). For those who can't see the correct boulder, the 'fish' has plants growing on its back, it's in the middle of the falling water and it's 'head' is facing upwards.
Didn't get to go there, could only take a photo from where we were
Our outfield training at Taroko Gorge ends here. On our way back to the hotel, we stopped over at a few places for breaks and of course, to enjoy the scenery that Hua Lien is famous for.
Final stop: 七星潭 (7 star lake)
You can never find an unobstructed view of the horizon in Singapore
This is actually a reclaimed beach, named after the local landmark (the 7 lakes) that were filled during reclamation. The stones that were used for reclamation most likely came from the stone quarries in Hua Lien. We picked some up for souvenirs as they were very well polished by the tides and made good decoration back at home.
Most of the stones are marble, some seem to contain traces of jade and other precious minerals, while the rest are just plain granite.
Back at company line, Fengchun and Yuxiang conducted parade using the rocks we picked up...
Fall in the rocks
...while the rest of us stoned away in our bunk.
Stone face
Stone foot
Day 6:
Our section departed for Kee Lung (基隆) via train in the morning. Though Kee Lung was considered out of the way (in our opinion), because we had to take a transit for our train ride to get there and it seemed to be in an obscure corner of the island from the map, we were expecting relatively empty streets. On the contrary, the city was bustling with enough activities to match the busiest streets of Taipei.
Although our holding area was in Kee Lung, most of our time were spent away from its busy streets. Training at Kee Lung was much more diverse. The 1st training - topography (or rather finding our way around) - was halfway up a mountain at a place known as Jiu Fen (九份).
I'm not kidding you, it's a mountain out there!
Just when we thought that places that have very narrow roads, accessible only by car and high up in the mountains (ok maybe it's not really high but it is still in the mountains) are not likely to resemble crowded cities in any way, we were wrong again.
Jiu Fen seeemed to be made up of endless shops lined on both sides of a gigantic maze of narrow corridors sprawling along the mountainside.
Here we go again, same old shit again, up the hill and down the slope...
- SAF marching song
That and the fact we went on a weekend meant squeezing through throngs and throngs of people. The shops there were mostly selling food and souvenirs - the ideal place for tourists to visit. It also made an excellent ground for topography training too, because of the lack of any apparent landmark.
Except for the smell of food.
The nicest of everything that I've tried in thus far while in Taiwan was this grilled mushroom.
Our camera man couldn't resist taking a snapshot of the eye candy together with the good food
Check out the size of those mushrooms!
They couldn't have came up with a better name than 天下第一菇 (best mushrooms on Earth). All they did was to grill the mushrooms in butter and sprinkle some flavouring on it when it was cooked, then cut it into bite-sized pieces and voila - the best mushrooms you've ever eaten!
The 2 girls were well versed in their culinary skills despite their age. The mushrooms were so succulent and tender that we feel as though we weren't eating mushrooms.
Apart from that, we had huge meat balls (made from prawn, sotong, and some others as well which I forgot) served in piping hot soup. We gave the famous yam balls (芋圆) a miss, because the queues were ridiculously long.
Time flew on while we were browsing through the souvenir shops and food stalls. It was time to return to the hotel. We had arranged with a taxi driver (who calls himself 小潘) to wait for us at the road outside Jiu Fen. 小潘, and most probably every other driver in Taiwan, makes an excellent player for Daytona (a racing game). From the way he maneuvered his vehicle through the narrow streets past other vehicles, heavy or otherwise, can bring shock to the weak hearted.
It was as though we paid for a thrill ride back.
The best of days spent in Taiwan (for sampling Taiwanese cuisine) was on that day. The scale of the night market in Kee Lung, Temple Entrance Night Market (庙口夜市), is perhaps second only to the biggest night market in the whole of Taiwan, which we'll be getting to later. It's not the size of the night market that matters, however. It's the variety of food that counts.
Finding a temple smack in the middle of the night market foodstalls is a common sight in Taiwan
Somehow, our CO (Sua) had an upset stomach while we were at Jiu Fen. We suspected that the wide range of food we've been eating everday was too much for his stomach to handle, but the problem shouldn't be a big one. Most unfortunately, it lasted beyond the next day. Since it wasn't possible to get an "Attend C" status (sick leave), he was literally "excused (from doing) everything".
Day 7: Charlie Osprey down
Yuxiang was feeling worse than before, so Fengchun stayed with him to look after him. CO or no CO, we have to carry out our scheduled training. In the morning, the remaining 3 of us first visited Fairy Cave (仙洞岩).
That was my head caught in friendly fire from Fengchun. This is what happens when you don't warn your mates before shooting.
From our "ops order briefing", the cave seemed to be rather deep and narrow. At least that's how it looks like on the travel guide. But nooooo, it was so disappointingly small and wide that we didn't bother to take any photos of the place.
There was an uncompleted temple further up the hill in which Fairy Cave was built. We had to climb a few flights of very very very steep stairs in order to reach it.
The unpainted stone walls and pillars make the temple look lifeless
Take a closer look. Notice anything about the pillars?
Check out the carvings on the pillars, they're not just on the surface of the pillar only. Click on the picture to enlarge it.
In case you're wondering what type of training we had there, we were fighting for our lives against the mosquitos. It was a hard-fought battle of life and death. There were enough of those bugs around to cause everyone to die from loss of blood.
No no, this is no mosquito, just a friendly bug who thought my arm made a good resting point
Stupid spider never did its work, left so many mosquitos around the place. Big but useless.....*grumble grumble*
Can you spot the spider? Bet you can't. This is a positive demonstration in cover and concealment. Anyone who can spot the spider can claim a souvenir from me (while stocks last).
Back to the mission. We were severely outnumbered (1 million to 4) and had to withdraw to Holland City (荷兰城).
Holland City was an abandoned fort built by the Dutch (who else) when they colonised Taiwan. It was built atop a hill (as usual) with its guns pointing out towards the sea (as usual), though the guns were removed (as usual) when the place was turned into a tourist attraction and majority of the structure was rebuilt (as usual).
The fort was replaced by a playground (as usual.....ooops, I mean how unusual) and a basketball court not shown in this photo
So much for the fort
All that was left behind was this observation post (OP)that even Shijie had to bend his head if he wanted to enter
This is probably what soldiers of the former fort saw when they looked out from the OP
And this is probably how the soldiers of the former fort looked like when they look out at the sea for hostile invaders
Is there no end to the super steep steps we have to climb today?
Enough training for the morning. My legs were turning into jelly already and we still had to walk down the hill on which Holland City was built. We returned to the hotel, only to find out that Yuxiang's condition had deteriorated so badly that Fengchun took him to the hospital. The 3 of us took our lunch at the night market and bought something for Fengchun as well.
Just because it's called "night market" doesn't mean it doesn't operate during the day
A pack of drip later, Yuxiang was discharged and we checked out of our hotel to make our way towards Dan Shui (淡水). Fearing that Yuxiang was unable to survive the 1 hour plus bus ride, we spilt ourselves into 2 taxis to get to Dan Shui. Another 'Daytona-style' thrill ride.
It was late afternoon when we reached Dan Shui. The place is a relatively quiet and empty town located at the northwestern corner of Taiwan by the sea. Most people visit Dan Shui for the famed breath-taking sunset view at Fish Man Harbour (渔人码头), and so was our objective.
Since we were unable to move out in full strength, Shijie and I volunteered ourselves to recce the place. Armed with a digicam each, we loaned a bike each from the hotel staff (this was the only hotel that provided free bicycle rentals for their customers) and rode off following a schematic diagram of the town. Having a proper map is a luxury that commandos can't afford.
The part of the town closer to Fish Man Harbour wasn't just quiet and empty, it looked as deserted as a ghost town, except for the ocassion passing vehicle or pedestrian. With a bit of luck, we found the harbour very soon.
There were some words on the lighthouse. If you're interested to know what they are, take a look:
Translated: Protect our fishing resources. In other words, don't pollute the sea
Taiwanese have rather strong environmental consciousness. Their dustbins are usually placed in groups of 2 - 1 for normal rubbish, the other for recyclable rubbish. On top of that, the citizens always made sure they disposed of their rubbish into the appropriate bin. I really admire their efforts.
It was too cloudy for us to get a photo of the setting sun at the harbour that evening. The place was filled with romanticising couples, and a pair of newly weds taking their marriage photos.
Sneaky shot of the newly weds
Yuxiang seemed better after we returned from our scouting mission. Thus, the 4 of us left him and went ahead with the routine night training, this time at Dan Shui Sight-seeing Night Market (淡水观光夜市). The night market was very empty like the rest of the town, but this is also due to the late hour at which we visited the night market. Unlike the rest, this night market closes at 2200h everyday. We only had a little more than an hour to look around.
Walking along the streets, we saw this:
Why do they always have to make their steps so high?
and this:
Interesting way of beautifying a wall
We discovered an amazing fact during our walk - there was not a single dustbin along the entire street and neither was there any litter lying around. While we walked through the night market, we bought drinks to quench our thirst. However, there was the problem of disposing of the used cups. Out of 'desperation' we asked the owner of 1 of the shops we entered if there was a place for us to throw our used cups. The lady boss told us to leave our cups in a corner and she'll take care of them. I think we can learn a lot from the Taiwanese.
This night market is different from the other night markets we've been to, in the sense that this one has quite a lot of game stalls. Out of sheer boredom (and not because of the sake of unarmed combat training), I played "sonic Blastman" (the arcade game that tests the strength of your punches). Actually, I played only because Shijie challenged me to. The glove for my right hand was too worn to allow me to clench my fist. As a result, my right wrist was injured even before I threw my third punch.
Status: Excused upper limbs.
Day 8: FIBUA (Fighting in built-up area) training
No more waking up early in the morning to catch trains. For the remaining days, we'll be staying put in Xi Men Ding. We took the Metro (Taiwan's equivalent of the MRT) from Dan Shui to Xi Men Ding, the ride lasting for only half an hour.
Somehow, our luggage had been gaining weight and volume steadily for the past few days and we were having a tough time moving them around. In fact, it was no longer possible to for all of us to squeeze into a lift together with our luggages, unlike when we had just started out.
Or maybe the lifts are getting smaller.
Anyway, we moved back to the hotel in which we spent our first night. Program for the day: change parade. Or rather, observe the change parade at one of the 2 memorial halls in Taipei.
The 2 memorial halls were built to honour Chiang Kai-shek and Sun Yat Sen, 1 for each of them. At every hour of each day between 0900h to 1700h (change at 10 am, 11 am, 12 pm, etc), there will be a change of guards within each hall. Each change parade is a marvellous display of fancy drill (like the kind in NDP where Military Police throw arms into the air and such) lasting for more about 15 minutes.
We only managed to visit 中正纪念堂 (built in memory of Chiang Kai-Shek) because both memorial halls close at 1700h and we were rather late in making our way there.
Sign outside the memorial hall.....and underground in the MRT station. If this is what the MRT station looks like, then what about the memorial hall itself?
From gate of the memorial hall. The Chinese words should be read from right to left (I think)
The memorial hall takes up less than a quarter of the total allocated area on which it is built
Statue of Chiang Kai-Shek. The change parade takes place before this statue, but pity none of us got a good shot.
One of the displays found in the memorial hall. Those 2 quickly posed as studious onlookers when they noticed my camera pointing at them
Taiwan flag symbol depicted in the ceiling design
We lingered around the memorial hall for a while before moving on to 国父纪念堂 (the memorial hall built in memory of Sun Yat Sen). I'm not sure why, but the architecture is not even half as impressive as that of 中正纪念堂.
Why such a big difference in standard?
Unlike the previous memorial hall, this statue is placed out in the open
Despite the rain, we walked along the streets of Taipei to while the rest of the day away. This was not just any street, rather it's called 中孝东路. Suddenly, an ideal marching song came into our minds: 《中孝东路走九遍》. This street is like the Taiwanese equivalent of Orchard Road.
A section of the street that we hear about so often in a rather nice song
They even have underground shops like the Citilink Mall in Singapore. In fact, they have about 6 of those scattered around the city along the Metro.
Undergrond shops, a relatively new concept in Singapore, seemed to have been in Taipei for quite some time
That night, we went to the biggest and most famous night market in Taiwan: Shilin night market (士林夜市). By far, it is the biggest night market I've been to in Taiwan. There were lots of shops selling apparel, accessories, shoes, and even "UFO catchers". No kidding. There are entire shops filled with machines that allow you to try to catch cute little soft toys, but all the grapplers are designed to release their cargo before reaching the chute. No business ethics.
While I was still wondering through the numerous stalls and shops, I heard a familiar voice from behind.
"喂，高的！" (translated: "Hey, tall guy!")
Mr. Yong Wai Kit, my 2nd year classmate, had came to Taiwan as well with his girlfriend. What a small world! It feels very much different bumping into old friends some place overseas as compared to bumping into them along the streets of Singapore, even though half (or more) of the undergrads in my cohort are coming to Taiwan. We recounted our past activities in Taiwan with relish and chatted for quite a while before going our separate ways.
A bigger coincidence came later, when we left the night market to catch the last Metro train back to our hotel. Jing Na, Tiffany, and some others from their OG were at the station buying tickets. Just as before, we exchanged our experiences in Taiwan excitedly as well as the plans for the remaining days.
As their group was taking the same route as us for most of the journey, we spent the time on the train chatting away and showing the pictures we took using our digicams. Their group was a pretty big one - about 8 to 10 people with a good balance of both sexes. However, I only know Jing Na from among the whole group, so I ended up talking to her more than anyone else. Tiffany and Shuqing (hope I didn't get the name wrong) came to listen as well when I told stories of river rafting at Hua Lien.
Not surprisingly, some people were green-eyed with envy when they saw that I was surrounded by girls. 3 girls is all it takes to make some people show their true colours. The harsh reality of life.
Yuxiang didn't go with us to the night market because he still hasn't recovered from his food poisoning. He made his way back to the hotel after dinner while we made our way to the night market. Most unfortunately for him, he was ambushed by 2 guerillas.
The 2 guerillas appeared in the form of dirty old men who asked Yuxiang if he wanted any ladies to keep him company. They suddenly stood up from a bench along the street, held him by the arm on each side, and popped the question at him. It was the sight of Yuxiang's half dead (from food poisoning) face that made them let him go.
Ambush is easily carried out in a built-up area.
Day 9: CDFAM (Chemical Defence Familiarisation) training
We planned to go to Beitou Hot Springs (北投温泉) today. The place is easily accessible by Metro plus a 10 minutes walk. My right wrist still hurts from the game of Sonic Blastman 2 days ago. Hopefully a dip in the hot springs can heal it.
Hot springs form when water reaches deep into Earth's crust close to the molten magma, get heated up, and rises to the surface. Sulphur often leaks from into the heated water, causing the water to have an unpleasant smell though not as strong as that of the cold springs.
Which also means the water has a low pH value.
The place we visited offers several pools with a wide range of water temperatures and pH values. We entered the cooler and less acidic pools before venturing into the hotter ones. I also had my first try of sauna over there. Feels like staying in a torture chamber. POW (prisoner of war) training.
We saw smoke before we saw the smoke chambers
SMOKE!
Vapours never stopped rising from the waters.
Endure! Endure!
We're in a smoky smoky fairy realm
This lake is only for viewing purposes. Skinny dipping and cooking of eggs are not allowed
Staying in a high temperature environment for a few hours makes the body feel tired. When we left the hot springs, we literally had to drag ourselves. Stomachs growling from hunger but too tired to move any further, we settled on fast-food for lunch.
3 hungry ghosts tucking in to a MacDonald's meal
Fast-food restaurants in Taiwan usually occupy an entire building, unlike majority of those in land-hungry Singapore. There are 3 storeys in this branch and each level has its own toilet. The fast-food industry is doing pretty well in a country where efficient service and take-aways are a part of everyday life.
We were close to falling asleep while taking the train back to our hotel, except for Jiaxiu who still wanted to go shopping. Girls have limitless energy at the mere thought of shopping. It was decided that Jiaxiu and Shijie would go shopping while the rest of us get our beauty sleep back at the hotel. On our way back, we took care to avoid the area at which Yuxiang was ambushed.
The 3 of us got up only after the sky turned dark. Napping during a holiday is one of the most wonderful things one can do. After the much needed rest, we had to take care of our empty stomachs. We went down to the nearby famous Ah Zong Mee Sua (阿宗面线) for supper (it was too late to be considered dinner), where I bumped into Jiaying who was already tucking into the Mee Sua with her boyfriend. Quite fun to keep bumping into friends in Taiwan.
Day 10: Operation Happy Birthday
It was the final day (as in a full day) we had in Taiwan, thus we deemed it necessary to have an exercise to evaluate ourselves on the training we had so far. Fengchun's birthday was on the following day and the 4 of us were going to give him a little surprise party.
He had been eyeing the huge KTVs we saw ever since we stepped foot into Taipei, and knowing how crazy he is over singing, we decided to grant him his wish at 0000 h of his birthday.
The earlier part of the day was spent walking around the streets (enacting the song 中孝东路走九遍 again). Nothing interesting, save for eating 小笼包 at 鼎泰奉.
我吃了台北鼎泰奉的小笼包！‘魔女’少在那炫耀，哈哈!
The shopping centres were very much like those in Singapore, so we weren't interested in exploring those. Of course, "we" excludes Jiaxiu naturally. Hence we decided to split up again: Jiaxiu and Shijie goes shopping while Fengchun, Yuxiang and I find some other means to while our time away. We planned to regroup for dinner at Shilin night market because Yuxiang hasn't been to there yet.
Once again, we were 'plagued' by the huge KTV signboards hanging all over the streets of Taipei. Why do we have to wait till night time to sing? It's pure torture having to anticipate, just like a child who has to wait to tear open all of his birthday presents. Heck, we'll warm ourselves up first.
The good thing about Taiwan, is that they allow payment of student rates for people with student passes of foreign insitutions (or maybe it's the bad thing about Singapore is that local businesses don't do so). We get to sing at STUDENT RATE!!!
The KTV in Taiwan is unlike anything we have in Singapore. Their rooms are much bigger, their TV screens are much bigger, the drinking cups are also much bigger. They even provide a sweet per person an additional pot of warm water to help soothe the throat (very unlike the KTVs here where they give you snacks that causes throat driness).
While Fengchun was happily distracted, Operation Happy Birthday commenced as Jiaxiu and Shijie secretly ordered a cake from a confectionery near our hotel at Xi Men Ding after their shopping.
3 hours later, it was time to regroup for dinner, Fengchun, Yuxiang and I made our way to Shilin night market directly, while Jiaxiu and Shijie went over after their 'detour'. In the midst of walking around the night market after dinner, Yuxiang pretended to have another stomachache and I offered to send him back to the hotel. In actual fact, the 2 of us went to collect the cake, brought it to the KTV and booked a room, and then waited for the rest to join us at the KTV.
Fengchun wasn't dumb enough not to suspect anything, but he played along with our little game. Good for him for if not, the cake will go straight to his face. The party begun a little while after we've started singing (again, for some of us), when the birthday song appeared on the TV screen.
Poppers burst. Air horns wailed. Confetti rained. Cushions bashed (into faces). Just kidding. We only ate and sang ourselves silly during the 4 hours in the KTV room.
Birthday Boy is grinning away happily - mission success!
Lights out
The guys
Suddenly looking very 'extra'
A very wholesome spread for a KTV session
Enjoying ourselves
歌佛 (God of KTV - checkout his pose)
Day 11: The journey back
Home at last!
Click on any photos to view their full size. For those who don't like to read, wait for the coming photoblog. Full records of all the meals consumed during training were taken down, and will only be shown in the photoblog.
The full strength of this camp is five, consisting of the following personnel:
Back, from left: Fengchun, me; front, from left: Jiaxiu, Shijie, Yuxiang.
Day 1: admin and recce
As with all training camps, there's a lot of administrative work to be done.
Papaerwork, commenced in-flight, by our hardworking 'clerk'
Jiaxiu wanted to make use of the free service provided by SIA to send postcards to her family. In fact, the rightists were all busy writing postcards during the filght. The leftists were making full use of the in-flight entertainment.
The Rightists
The Leftists
During the flight, Fengchun realised that 1 of the air stewardess was his former classmate. She had rather nice Caucasian looking features, even though she's a pure Chinese. Fengchun didn't get to say much to her during the flight, much less get any contacts or a photo. Shall not dwell too much on his loss, less he breaks down.
We managed to find our way to our deployment area with relative ease. It's quite easy to get around in Taiwan - follow the signs (which are mostly in Mandarin) or ask around (in either Mandarin or Hokkien). Taiwanese are quite friendly and helpful, relatively more so as compared to Singaporeans. And it always helps to do a little homework beforehand and get hold of any maps you see along the way.
It was afternoon by the time we got settled into our hotel at Xi Men Ding (西门町). The traffic system in Taiwan is different from that in Singapore - they drive on the right side of the road. The style of driving there made our country look gracious (I can't believe I actually said this). The rule of the thumb for crossing roads in a foreign country: follow what the locals do.
Our first objective was to scout the unfamiliar terrain from the nearest observation post.
新光三越 observation post
Most tourists normally aim for Taipei 101 (as its names implies, is 101 storeys high), but we settled for this building which only allows us to go up to a maximum of 46 storeys. Commandos differ from normal infantry, what more can I say?
Alright, I admit we're cheapskates and opted for the less expensive choice. But the night view from that height was magnificient enough for us.
As we were too enthusiastic about starting our training, we decided to have night training immediately after scouting. Night training conducted at the local night market, of course.
华西街观光夜市
Only the night market in Chinatown nearing Chinese New Year are anything comparable to their counterparts in Taiwan. Night market visits there are a daily (or nightly) affair for the Taiwanese and weekend crowds are as terrible as Chinese New Year crowds.
Most of the food sold at 华西街观光夜市 are too exotic (snakes, turtles, you get the idea) for our tastes, so we mostly ended up 观光 (looking around) as the name suggested.
Day 2: cold training
Early next morning, after only 6 hours of rest (7 hours are for weaklings), we made our way to the train station to take a train down to Luo Dong (罗东), the holding area for our cold jokes training (冷笑话特训）. Cold training was conducted at Su Ao Cold Springs (苏奥冷泉), which we had to travel to by train from Luo Dong.
Help! Help! The rock is falling!
It was a Wednesday morning, and business was nil. The person in charge of collecting entrance fee fell asleep at her post. Although I proved it was possible to sneak in without her detection, we decided to be honest and not bring down the name of Singaporeans.
The water in the bath areas came from the rain collected at the mountain and are rich in sulphur having flowed through sulphur-rich moutain soil.
Private bath area in the cold spring
Freaking cold and stinks like animal wastes (sulphur stinks). Thankfully we didn't stink after soaking ourselves inside. The water was so cold that we almost jumped out after stepping in. However, after staying inside for about 10 seconds, our body started feeling warm. We guessed it was due to the high sulphur content. Our skin was red when we exited the water, as though we had just finished tanning.
Photos of ourselves in the bath are not displayed for the sake of the health of readers.
The water in the private bath was more concentrated than that of the public bath, although we had to pay more to use the private bath.
Public bath area
Su Ao is a very quiet and relatively empty place (empty as in lacking in amenities). Visitors travel there only for the cold spring.
We saw this:
Guess what this bell is for
Here's the full picture:
What were you thinking?
It was raining that day, but that fits our cold training perfectly fine. Phase 2 of cold training program: 内冷外寒 (cold on the interior and exterior).
Ice creams on a rainy day!
The ice creams were bought from a night market next to our hotel in Luo Dong. Subsequently we retired to our rooms.
With all due respect, Taiwanese have rather small statures.
I can't even stand up straight...
Thankfully, we're putting up there for only 1 night.
Day 3
Woke up early (again) to catch the train to Hua Lien (花莲), the most acclaimed place to visit if you wish to get close to nature. The rain poured relentlessly from last night and carried on all the way to Hua Lien. Extended cold training.
In Hua Lien, the 1st place we visited and the 1st proper meal we had was at 原野牧场 (translated literally, wildlife farm).
Entrance to the farm, best accessed by taxi
The country-styled restaurant at the farm
Previously, we adopted jungle survival techniques - eat what you can find (边走边吃), which made us full rather easily but doesn't last, because all we had were bits of snacks at intervals that didn't amount to a full meal. Eating a proper meal felt heavenly, and the food was nice on top of it. We even had a glass of fresh goat's milk to round the whole meal off.
Halfwaty through our meal, we spotted a sugar packet with some funny words on it. Naturally, we felt obliged to correct the 'mistake'.
That seems better now doesn't it?
Of course, we didn't forget to train.
Mock light sabre fighting
The farm was located next to a beach, where the waves were so strong that swimming is prohibited. The waves seemed to be as high as a car, but due to poor weather, I wasn't able to take a photo to show.
CO Sua decided to conduct landmine warfare at the beach when the rained had stopped, but it suddenly resumed pouring again. True to his appointment, CO Sua said,
"Enemy forces will not call for a halt in the battle during CAT 1 (Category 1 weather: cancel all outdoor training)." Anyway, we wanted to dig around the beach to look for stones to bring back as souvenirs (for ourselves and for friends). Thus, we braved the rain and made our way down to the beach.
Brave commandos braving the rain
The wind was so strong and changed direction so often that Jiaxiu's umbrella was inverted a few times on the way down. In the end, CO called the training off reluctantly.
Relentless, we waited for the rain to ease so that we can go down to Qi Xing Tan (七星潭), which is the main beach in this part of Taiwan, to continue landmine warfare training. No such luck however. In the end, we had to take taxi back to our hotels, soaked to the skin. I think I caught a cold that day.
It had been raining everyday in Taiwan since we arrived, though at different times each day. Bad weather can be a real spoilsport.
Looking on the bright side, we had night's off instead of the usual night training. Night's off was spent vsiting A-Mei tribe village (阿美族村). This is a tribe of villagers who migrated to the eastern part of Taiwan (Hua Lien) because of volcanic activities at their homelands.
We visited the souvenir shops selling their cultural products (clothes, accessories, etc), looked at an exhibition stating the history of the tribe, and finally watched a dance put up by the tribespeople. However, everything seems too commercialised to have the feeling that you were being brought to a place that was supposed to be away from civilisation and from a different age.
Do you have this feeling that you're being stranded in the middle of the wilderness and surrounded by very strange culture? No? Well neither do I.
Day 4: cheong hai (charge down the sea)
To be precise, charge down the river to the sea.
River rafting at 秀姑峦溪 (nice name eh? too nice to be translated directly) was the itinerary for today. As typical 'big shot' Singaporeans, we kept everyone waiting for us: from getting on the bus at the hotel to get to the rafting site, to waiting for us to be done at the toilet so that everyone can board the rafts.
River rafting is a don't-bother-to-try-to-stay-dry-activity, so we couldn't bring our cameras along.
Before we boarded the rafts (rubber dinghies), we were shown a short clip teaching us how to raft and the safety procedures to follow in case of any accidents. Following which, we (inclusive of our Taiwanese counterparts) were led to a storeroom where we geared up (lifejacket, some sort of head protection and a paddle each), and finally, we proceeded to the launch site.
5...
4...
3...
2...
1...
Lift off!
Ahem.
There were a total of 15 people, so we split ourselves onto 2 rafts, with 7 people in our group. There were also 2 safety vessels (a motorised rubber dinghy with a lifeguard on each). It was rather sunny and hot, unlike the past few days, and we were thankful for that. The accompanying lifeguards, however, were more worried we'd get heat stroke and dehydration, so they kept themselves entertained by driving past us a high speeds and splashing us with the clay-rich river water.
In between keeping our rafts from bumping against the rocks or grounding, and river warfare (water fights) between the 2 rafts, we got to enjoy the magnificent view of the gorge from below (or rather the lowest altitude), survive tumbling rapids that threaten to capsize our rafts. On 1 occassion, Shijie fell into the water when the raft went over a relatively stronger rapid, and I had to pull him back onto the raft.
We started rafting from 1000h to about 1200h, when we reached a mid-way resting point for trainees. Everyone disembarked from the rafts and made their way up to a building with tables and benches and our lunch (indented for our training) waiting.
Lunch was the takeaway type (便当) - a rectangular paper cardboard container filled with rice, vegetables, meat, etc (sounds a lot but the portion is quite small). No drinks were provided, we had to pay additional money to buy drinks. Very good way to make money, because the lunch was rather dry and we were all thirsty after 2 hours of rafting. But...
Never never ever underestimate Singapore's commandos.
We rested for about 2 hours before resuming the final 12 km of our journey. Yup, we used approxiamtely 2 hours to travel 12 km. This was because at certain points in the river, our rafts seemed doomed to hit the rock faces flanking the river. Thus the lifeguards had to come to our rescue by using their vessel to push out raft towards the centre of the river away from imminent danger. Sometimes, when the distance between both rafts were too great, 1 of the lifeguard will use his vessel to maintain the faster raft's position and wait for the slower one to catch up. This slowed down our downstream progress. Excellent safety coverage, should really commend them.
Most of the later journey was quite dangerous (although it doesn't seem to be the case to me), so our rafts were mostly towed by the lifeguards for the next 2 hours. Quite a spoiler, but I just made use of it to enjoy the moutain scenery.
It was around 1600h by the time we reached the sea (which also marks the end of rafting). Not as tiring as I thought, but still got a tan despite the fact that it was cloudy throughout the whole day.
On our way back to the hotel, we travelled along the eastern coast of Hua Lien and managed to get some nice shots of the coastal scenery.
View of a part of the coastal region in Hua Lien
After returning to the hotel, we decided to replenish our combat rations for our outfield training tomorrow. So we looked around the nearby supermarket. On our way there, we saw this:
Translated literally, it says "Do you have any needs (most people here would think this question is in the sexual sense)?". Actually it's a computer hardware shop
And at the supermarket we saw this:
Can you believe this is the packaging for LEGO?
We rounded off the day telling one another cold jokes and nearly caused a 'cold wave' to sweep through the entire country.
Day 5: cheong sua (charge up the mountain)
CHARGE!!!
As expected, we kept the bus going to take us to Taroko Gorge (太鲁葛) waiting. The bus was supposed to pick up tourists from other hotels after us, so that means we kept quite a few people waiting.
Ooops.
The bus driver cum tour guide will be in charge of showing us (everyone he picked up) the various sights in Taroko Gorge, as well as ferrying us around. and he did a great job at that.
There were several stops along the roads in Taroko Gorge. Upon reaching each stop, the driver/guide would give us a brief introduction to the place, tell us what (scenery) to expect, and how much time we have to look around. As you can guess, we were the last to board the bus each time. I think the whole bus probably hates Singaporeans at the end of the trip.
Everyone went trigger happy once we alighted from the bus.
Taroko National Park Centre
1st stop: 百狮桥 (Hundred lions bridge)
Thus named because there are exactly 100 stone lions statues on the bridge
There was a trail that allowed us to get a closer look at the running stream and pond below the bridge
The river at which we did our rafting looked like this
The water is less than knee deep - the rich blue colour indicates very high mineral content
Private property in the middle of a national park? Hmmm.....
After moving off from the 1st stop, we saw the only waterfall that could be seen in the during the whole trip.
银丝带瀑布 (Silver silk belt waterfall)
2nd stop: 燕子口 (Swallow grotto)
A rather narrow pass (the 2 rock walls were about 10 metres apart) where dozesn of swallows were doing their fly-by. The cries of the swallows echo through the pass, smothering even the thunderous roar from the river water below.
Holes in the rock formation carved by flowing water served as homes to the numerous swallows
3rd stop: Intercontinental buffet lunch at a 5 star hotel
Hardcore as we may be, we still understand the importance of pampering ourselves. The 5 star hotel was smack in the middle of Taroko Gorge, and it provided lunch to tourists on a package tour.
View from the hotel surroundings
As we were not used to eating in such high quantities (because of our eating habits since we came to Taiwan), all of us 'underperformed' during lunch time. Oh well, at least the food was great (and great variety too). The buffet costs us NT$288 per person, which rounds up to about S$15 per person. Food sold in Taiwan is generally cheaper than that in Singapore.
4th stop: 慈母桥
Caring mother bridge?
No idea why this name.
Pavements and walkways are built along the roads to allow tourists to walk and get a better view of the gorge. It had been raining for the past few days in Taiwan and falling rocks were a potential hazard to all tourists.
Very realistic war-time simulations for our training purposes
The best way to avoid these falling rocks is to keep as close as possible to the rock wall.
Mother Nature is sometimes referred to as an artist - she carves rocks into beautiful patterns using flowing water as a tool to create wear and tear.
This boulder seems to be balanced nicely
This piece of marble seemed to have received special attention from Mother Nature
Kidding. This is no handiwork of Mother Nature. This is the result of an unarmed combat demonstration turned real.
Now you see it
Now you don't
I can't control my strength sometimes.....
5th stop: 九曲洞 (tunnel of 9 turns)
The tunnel didn't have exactly 9 turns. It was so called because it had numerous windings and turns, due to different hardness in the rocks. Several tunnels can be found in this part of the gorge.
Fengchun doing area cleaning in 1 of the tunnels
Do you see a huge rock in the shape of a fish?
They named this place "鱼跃龙门" (Fish leaping across dragon gate). For those who can't see the correct boulder, the 'fish' has plants growing on its back, it's in the middle of the falling water and it's 'head' is facing upwards.
Didn't get to go there, could only take a photo from where we were
Our outfield training at Taroko Gorge ends here. On our way back to the hotel, we stopped over at a few places for breaks and of course, to enjoy the scenery that Hua Lien is famous for.
Final stop: 七星潭 (7 star lake)
You can never find an unobstructed view of the horizon in Singapore
This is actually a reclaimed beach, named after the local landmark (the 7 lakes) that were filled during reclamation. The stones that were used for reclamation most likely came from the stone quarries in Hua Lien. We picked some up for souvenirs as they were very well polished by the tides and made good decoration back at home.
Most of the stones are marble, some seem to contain traces of jade and other precious minerals, while the rest are just plain granite.
Back at company line, Fengchun and Yuxiang conducted parade using the rocks we picked up...
Fall in the rocks
...while the rest of us stoned away in our bunk.
Stone face
Stone foot
Day 6:
Our section departed for Kee Lung (基隆) via train in the morning. Though Kee Lung was considered out of the way (in our opinion), because we had to take a transit for our train ride to get there and it seemed to be in an obscure corner of the island from the map, we were expecting relatively empty streets. On the contrary, the city was bustling with enough activities to match the busiest streets of Taipei.
Although our holding area was in Kee Lung, most of our time were spent away from its busy streets. Training at Kee Lung was much more diverse. The 1st training - topography (or rather finding our way around) - was halfway up a mountain at a place known as Jiu Fen (九份).
I'm not kidding you, it's a mountain out there!
Just when we thought that places that have very narrow roads, accessible only by car and high up in the mountains (ok maybe it's not really high but it is still in the mountains) are not likely to resemble crowded cities in any way, we were wrong again.
Jiu Fen seeemed to be made up of endless shops lined on both sides of a gigantic maze of narrow corridors sprawling along the mountainside.
Here we go again, same old shit again, up the hill and down the slope...
- SAF marching song
That and the fact we went on a weekend meant squeezing through throngs and throngs of people. The shops there were mostly selling food and souvenirs - the ideal place for tourists to visit. It also made an excellent ground for topography training too, because of the lack of any apparent landmark.
Except for the smell of food.
The nicest of everything that I've tried in thus far while in Taiwan was this grilled mushroom.
Our camera man couldn't resist taking a snapshot of the eye candy together with the good food
Check out the size of those mushrooms!
They couldn't have came up with a better name than 天下第一菇 (best mushrooms on Earth). All they did was to grill the mushrooms in butter and sprinkle some flavouring on it when it was cooked, then cut it into bite-sized pieces and voila - the best mushrooms you've ever eaten!
The 2 girls were well versed in their culinary skills despite their age. The mushrooms were so succulent and tender that we feel as though we weren't eating mushrooms.
Apart from that, we had huge meat balls (made from prawn, sotong, and some others as well which I forgot) served in piping hot soup. We gave the famous yam balls (芋圆) a miss, because the queues were ridiculously long.
Time flew on while we were browsing through the souvenir shops and food stalls. It was time to return to the hotel. We had arranged with a taxi driver (who calls himself 小潘) to wait for us at the road outside Jiu Fen. 小潘, and most probably every other driver in Taiwan, makes an excellent player for Daytona (a racing game). From the way he maneuvered his vehicle through the narrow streets past other vehicles, heavy or otherwise, can bring shock to the weak hearted.
It was as though we paid for a thrill ride back.
The best of days spent in Taiwan (for sampling Taiwanese cuisine) was on that day. The scale of the night market in Kee Lung, Temple Entrance Night Market (庙口夜市), is perhaps second only to the biggest night market in the whole of Taiwan, which we'll be getting to later. It's not the size of the night market that matters, however. It's the variety of food that counts.
Finding a temple smack in the middle of the night market foodstalls is a common sight in Taiwan
Somehow, our CO (Sua) had an upset stomach while we were at Jiu Fen. We suspected that the wide range of food we've been eating everday was too much for his stomach to handle, but the problem shouldn't be a big one. Most unfortunately, it lasted beyond the next day. Since it wasn't possible to get an "Attend C" status (sick leave), he was literally "excused (from doing) everything".
Day 7: Charlie Osprey down
Yuxiang was feeling worse than before, so Fengchun stayed with him to look after him. CO or no CO, we have to carry out our scheduled training. In the morning, the remaining 3 of us first visited Fairy Cave (仙洞岩).
That was my head caught in friendly fire from Fengchun. This is what happens when you don't warn your mates before shooting.
From our "ops order briefing", the cave seemed to be rather deep and narrow. At least that's how it looks like on the travel guide. But nooooo, it was so disappointingly small and wide that we didn't bother to take any photos of the place.
There was an uncompleted temple further up the hill in which Fairy Cave was built. We had to climb a few flights of very very very steep stairs in order to reach it.
The unpainted stone walls and pillars make the temple look lifeless
Take a closer look. Notice anything about the pillars?
Check out the carvings on the pillars, they're not just on the surface of the pillar only. Click on the picture to enlarge it.
In case you're wondering what type of training we had there, we were fighting for our lives against the mosquitos. It was a hard-fought battle of life and death. There were enough of those bugs around to cause everyone to die from loss of blood.
No no, this is no mosquito, just a friendly bug who thought my arm made a good resting point
Stupid spider never did its work, left so many mosquitos around the place. Big but useless.....*grumble grumble*
Can you spot the spider? Bet you can't. This is a positive demonstration in cover and concealment. Anyone who can spot the spider can claim a souvenir from me (while stocks last).
Back to the mission. We were severely outnumbered (1 million to 4) and had to withdraw to Holland City (荷兰城).
Holland City was an abandoned fort built by the Dutch (who else) when they colonised Taiwan. It was built atop a hill (as usual) with its guns pointing out towards the sea (as usual), though the guns were removed (as usual) when the place was turned into a tourist attraction and majority of the structure was rebuilt (as usual).
The fort was replaced by a playground (as usual.....ooops, I mean how unusual) and a basketball court not shown in this photo
So much for the fort
All that was left behind was this observation post (OP)that even Shijie had to bend his head if he wanted to enter
This is probably what soldiers of the former fort saw when they looked out from the OP
And this is probably how the soldiers of the former fort looked like when they look out at the sea for hostile invaders
Is there no end to the super steep steps we have to climb today?
Enough training for the morning. My legs were turning into jelly already and we still had to walk down the hill on which Holland City was built. We returned to the hotel, only to find out that Yuxiang's condition had deteriorated so badly that Fengchun took him to the hospital. The 3 of us took our lunch at the night market and bought something for Fengchun as well.
Just because it's called "night market" doesn't mean it doesn't operate during the day
A pack of drip later, Yuxiang was discharged and we checked out of our hotel to make our way towards Dan Shui (淡水). Fearing that Yuxiang was unable to survive the 1 hour plus bus ride, we spilt ourselves into 2 taxis to get to Dan Shui. Another 'Daytona-style' thrill ride.
It was late afternoon when we reached Dan Shui. The place is a relatively quiet and empty town located at the northwestern corner of Taiwan by the sea. Most people visit Dan Shui for the famed breath-taking sunset view at Fish Man Harbour (渔人码头), and so was our objective.
Since we were unable to move out in full strength, Shijie and I volunteered ourselves to recce the place. Armed with a digicam each, we loaned a bike each from the hotel staff (this was the only hotel that provided free bicycle rentals for their customers) and rode off following a schematic diagram of the town. Having a proper map is a luxury that commandos can't afford.
The part of the town closer to Fish Man Harbour wasn't just quiet and empty, it looked as deserted as a ghost town, except for the ocassion passing vehicle or pedestrian. With a bit of luck, we found the harbour very soon.
There were some words on the lighthouse. If you're interested to know what they are, take a look:
Translated: Protect our fishing resources. In other words, don't pollute the sea
Taiwanese have rather strong environmental consciousness. Their dustbins are usually placed in groups of 2 - 1 for normal rubbish, the other for recyclable rubbish. On top of that, the citizens always made sure they disposed of their rubbish into the appropriate bin. I really admire their efforts.
It was too cloudy for us to get a photo of the setting sun at the harbour that evening. The place was filled with romanticising couples, and a pair of newly weds taking their marriage photos.
Sneaky shot of the newly weds
Yuxiang seemed better after we returned from our scouting mission. Thus, the 4 of us left him and went ahead with the routine night training, this time at Dan Shui Sight-seeing Night Market (淡水观光夜市). The night market was very empty like the rest of the town, but this is also due to the late hour at which we visited the night market. Unlike the rest, this night market closes at 2200h everyday. We only had a little more than an hour to look around.
Walking along the streets, we saw this:
Why do they always have to make their steps so high?
and this:
Interesting way of beautifying a wall
We discovered an amazing fact during our walk - there was not a single dustbin along the entire street and neither was there any litter lying around. While we walked through the night market, we bought drinks to quench our thirst. However, there was the problem of disposing of the used cups. Out of 'desperation' we asked the owner of 1 of the shops we entered if there was a place for us to throw our used cups. The lady boss told us to leave our cups in a corner and she'll take care of them. I think we can learn a lot from the Taiwanese.
This night market is different from the other night markets we've been to, in the sense that this one has quite a lot of game stalls. Out of sheer boredom (and not because of the sake of unarmed combat training), I played "sonic Blastman" (the arcade game that tests the strength of your punches). Actually, I played only because Shijie challenged me to. The glove for my right hand was too worn to allow me to clench my fist. As a result, my right wrist was injured even before I threw my third punch.
Status: Excused upper limbs.
Day 8: FIBUA (Fighting in built-up area) training
No more waking up early in the morning to catch trains. For the remaining days, we'll be staying put in Xi Men Ding. We took the Metro (Taiwan's equivalent of the MRT) from Dan Shui to Xi Men Ding, the ride lasting for only half an hour.
Somehow, our luggage had been gaining weight and volume steadily for the past few days and we were having a tough time moving them around. In fact, it was no longer possible to for all of us to squeeze into a lift together with our luggages, unlike when we had just started out.
Or maybe the lifts are getting smaller.
Anyway, we moved back to the hotel in which we spent our first night. Program for the day: change parade. Or rather, observe the change parade at one of the 2 memorial halls in Taipei.
The 2 memorial halls were built to honour Chiang Kai-shek and Sun Yat Sen, 1 for each of them. At every hour of each day between 0900h to 1700h (change at 10 am, 11 am, 12 pm, etc), there will be a change of guards within each hall. Each change parade is a marvellous display of fancy drill (like the kind in NDP where Military Police throw arms into the air and such) lasting for more about 15 minutes.
We only managed to visit 中正纪念堂 (built in memory of Chiang Kai-Shek) because both memorial halls close at 1700h and we were rather late in making our way there.
Sign outside the memorial hall.....and underground in the MRT station. If this is what the MRT station looks like, then what about the memorial hall itself?
From gate of the memorial hall. The Chinese words should be read from right to left (I think)
The memorial hall takes up less than a quarter of the total allocated area on which it is built
Statue of Chiang Kai-Shek. The change parade takes place before this statue, but pity none of us got a good shot.
One of the displays found in the memorial hall. Those 2 quickly posed as studious onlookers when they noticed my camera pointing at them
Taiwan flag symbol depicted in the ceiling design
We lingered around the memorial hall for a while before moving on to 国父纪念堂 (the memorial hall built in memory of Sun Yat Sen). I'm not sure why, but the architecture is not even half as impressive as that of 中正纪念堂.
Why such a big difference in standard?
Unlike the previous memorial hall, this statue is placed out in the open
Despite the rain, we walked along the streets of Taipei to while the rest of the day away. This was not just any street, rather it's called 中孝东路. Suddenly, an ideal marching song came into our minds: 《中孝东路走九遍》. This street is like the Taiwanese equivalent of Orchard Road.
A section of the street that we hear about so often in a rather nice song
They even have underground shops like the Citilink Mall in Singapore. In fact, they have about 6 of those scattered around the city along the Metro.
Undergrond shops, a relatively new concept in Singapore, seemed to have been in Taipei for quite some time
That night, we went to the biggest and most famous night market in Taiwan: Shilin night market (士林夜市). By far, it is the biggest night market I've been to in Taiwan. There were lots of shops selling apparel, accessories, shoes, and even "UFO catchers". No kidding. There are entire shops filled with machines that allow you to try to catch cute little soft toys, but all the grapplers are designed to release their cargo before reaching the chute. No business ethics.
While I was still wondering through the numerous stalls and shops, I heard a familiar voice from behind.
"喂，高的！" (translated: "Hey, tall guy!")
Mr. Yong Wai Kit, my 2nd year classmate, had came to Taiwan as well with his girlfriend. What a small world! It feels very much different bumping into old friends some place overseas as compared to bumping into them along the streets of Singapore, even though half (or more) of the undergrads in my cohort are coming to Taiwan. We recounted our past activities in Taiwan with relish and chatted for quite a while before going our separate ways.
A bigger coincidence came later, when we left the night market to catch the last Metro train back to our hotel. Jing Na, Tiffany, and some others from their OG were at the station buying tickets. Just as before, we exchanged our experiences in Taiwan excitedly as well as the plans for the remaining days.
As their group was taking the same route as us for most of the journey, we spent the time on the train chatting away and showing the pictures we took using our digicams. Their group was a pretty big one - about 8 to 10 people with a good balance of both sexes. However, I only know Jing Na from among the whole group, so I ended up talking to her more than anyone else. Tiffany and Shuqing (hope I didn't get the name wrong) came to listen as well when I told stories of river rafting at Hua Lien.
Not surprisingly, some people were green-eyed with envy when they saw that I was surrounded by girls. 3 girls is all it takes to make some people show their true colours. The harsh reality of life.
Yuxiang didn't go with us to the night market because he still hasn't recovered from his food poisoning. He made his way back to the hotel after dinner while we made our way to the night market. Most unfortunately for him, he was ambushed by 2 guerillas.
The 2 guerillas appeared in the form of dirty old men who asked Yuxiang if he wanted any ladies to keep him company. They suddenly stood up from a bench along the street, held him by the arm on each side, and popped the question at him. It was the sight of Yuxiang's half dead (from food poisoning) face that made them let him go.
Ambush is easily carried out in a built-up area.
Day 9: CDFAM (Chemical Defence Familiarisation) training
We planned to go to Beitou Hot Springs (北投温泉) today. The place is easily accessible by Metro plus a 10 minutes walk. My right wrist still hurts from the game of Sonic Blastman 2 days ago. Hopefully a dip in the hot springs can heal it.
Hot springs form when water reaches deep into Earth's crust close to the molten magma, get heated up, and rises to the surface. Sulphur often leaks from into the heated water, causing the water to have an unpleasant smell though not as strong as that of the cold springs.
Which also means the water has a low pH value.
The place we visited offers several pools with a wide range of water temperatures and pH values. We entered the cooler and less acidic pools before venturing into the hotter ones. I also had my first try of sauna over there. Feels like staying in a torture chamber. POW (prisoner of war) training.
We saw smoke before we saw the smoke chambers
SMOKE!
Vapours never stopped rising from the waters.
Endure! Endure!
We're in a smoky smoky fairy realm
This lake is only for viewing purposes. Skinny dipping and cooking of eggs are not allowed
Staying in a high temperature environment for a few hours makes the body feel tired. When we left the hot springs, we literally had to drag ourselves. Stomachs growling from hunger but too tired to move any further, we settled on fast-food for lunch.
3 hungry ghosts tucking in to a MacDonald's meal
Fast-food restaurants in Taiwan usually occupy an entire building, unlike majority of those in land-hungry Singapore. There are 3 storeys in this branch and each level has its own toilet. The fast-food industry is doing pretty well in a country where efficient service and take-aways are a part of everyday life.
We were close to falling asleep while taking the train back to our hotel, except for Jiaxiu who still wanted to go shopping. Girls have limitless energy at the mere thought of shopping. It was decided that Jiaxiu and Shijie would go shopping while the rest of us get our beauty sleep back at the hotel. On our way back, we took care to avoid the area at which Yuxiang was ambushed.
The 3 of us got up only after the sky turned dark. Napping during a holiday is one of the most wonderful things one can do. After the much needed rest, we had to take care of our empty stomachs. We went down to the nearby famous Ah Zong Mee Sua (阿宗面线) for supper (it was too late to be considered dinner), where I bumped into Jiaying who was already tucking into the Mee Sua with her boyfriend. Quite fun to keep bumping into friends in Taiwan.
Day 10: Operation Happy Birthday
It was the final day (as in a full day) we had in Taiwan, thus we deemed it necessary to have an exercise to evaluate ourselves on the training we had so far. Fengchun's birthday was on the following day and the 4 of us were going to give him a little surprise party.
He had been eyeing the huge KTVs we saw ever since we stepped foot into Taipei, and knowing how crazy he is over singing, we decided to grant him his wish at 0000 h of his birthday.
The earlier part of the day was spent walking around the streets (enacting the song 中孝东路走九遍 again). Nothing interesting, save for eating 小笼包 at 鼎泰奉.
我吃了台北鼎泰奉的小笼包！‘魔女’少在那炫耀，哈哈!
The shopping centres were very much like those in Singapore, so we weren't interested in exploring those. Of course, "we" excludes Jiaxiu naturally. Hence we decided to split up again: Jiaxiu and Shijie goes shopping while Fengchun, Yuxiang and I find some other means to while our time away. We planned to regroup for dinner at Shilin night market because Yuxiang hasn't been to there yet.
Once again, we were 'plagued' by the huge KTV signboards hanging all over the streets of Taipei. Why do we have to wait till night time to sing? It's pure torture having to anticipate, just like a child who has to wait to tear open all of his birthday presents. Heck, we'll warm ourselves up first.
The good thing about Taiwan, is that they allow payment of student rates for people with student passes of foreign insitutions (or maybe it's the bad thing about Singapore is that local businesses don't do so). We get to sing at STUDENT RATE!!!
The KTV in Taiwan is unlike anything we have in Singapore. Their rooms are much bigger, their TV screens are much bigger, the drinking cups are also much bigger. They even provide a sweet per person an additional pot of warm water to help soothe the throat (very unlike the KTVs here where they give you snacks that causes throat driness).
While Fengchun was happily distracted, Operation Happy Birthday commenced as Jiaxiu and Shijie secretly ordered a cake from a confectionery near our hotel at Xi Men Ding after their shopping.
3 hours later, it was time to regroup for dinner, Fengchun, Yuxiang and I made our way to Shilin night market directly, while Jiaxiu and Shijie went over after their 'detour'. In the midst of walking around the night market after dinner, Yuxiang pretended to have another stomachache and I offered to send him back to the hotel. In actual fact, the 2 of us went to collect the cake, brought it to the KTV and booked a room, and then waited for the rest to join us at the KTV.
Fengchun wasn't dumb enough not to suspect anything, but he played along with our little game. Good for him for if not, the cake will go straight to his face. The party begun a little while after we've started singing (again, for some of us), when the birthday song appeared on the TV screen.
Poppers burst. Air horns wailed. Confetti rained. Cushions bashed (into faces). Just kidding. We only ate and sang ourselves silly during the 4 hours in the KTV room.
Birthday Boy is grinning away happily - mission success!
Lights out
The guys
Suddenly looking very 'extra'
A very wholesome spread for a KTV session
Enjoying ourselves
歌佛 (God of KTV - checkout his pose)
Day 11: The journey back
Home at last!
posted by Tengkia | 3:20 pm
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Level of response: 7
Level of response: 7
great entry!
i like the way u use army terms to describe the whole trip..
although i noe almost all details of the trip, I still find sth new when I read this entry. It juz goes to show that everyone sees the same thing in different perspectives.
out of sheer bo-liao-ness I cut and paste this entry into MS word to do a word count... this entry amounts to a grand total of 7394 words!!!!!
which covers 29 pages using times new roman font size 12... 29 pages without pictures!! This is like half an fyp thesis le! He must have spent a long time writing it..
out of sheer curiosity, i did a word count for desaru entry too... it contains 1492 words, which is about 20% of wat he wrote for taiwan entry.
this entry is indeed the longest le... does anyone wanna beat him to that?
I spent more than a month writing this and yet you 2 only took an afternoon to read. So much hard work, so little appreciation.
Just kidding.
I forgot to take photos with the NUS people I bumped into while in Taiwan - my greatest regret.
I think HCl posted the longest comment ever too, ha ha.
very nice entry... kept me from uncle chow's invitation.
brings back lotsa memories and laughter.
BUT... why have to keep dwelling on the sick and injuried har? Go sign 12.
anyway, juz to correct a small error, it was 2 bags of drip. hahaha...
come to think of it, I went there to promote singapore's icon - Merlion. :oP
yay!! Finally!!! *jump up and down excitedly*
though it took ages to load and even made my explorer crashed once.. i shant complain.. hoho!
Nice pics!!! I wanna go taiwan!!
whoa man, you captured the highlights of the trip with your photographs. Can tell it was a fantastic trip, bday celebrations, trip to hospital, river rafting, hot springs, FOOD, night markets, night views... Yeah, I WANNA GO TAIWAN TOO!!!
and yes, i had to refresh the page so many times!!!
thanks for the nice card you made with the pebbles you picked. wasn't easy at all!
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