There are 3 working washing machines in the camp.
There are currently 30+ people struggling to get their special moments with it.
But I got a shrewd plan...
I'm gonna wake up at 3am tonight just to wash my clothes.
-_-"
Or else I'm really afraid they are gonna stay unwashed till the next week :( EWWW! I seriously don't want my bunk to smell any worse than what it is now.
Oh ya, I'M JUST BACK FROM SUMMER TOUR! Arrived at 6.08pm today in fact, together with a bunch of new clothes and some wonderful experiences!
Been to tons of places, taken lots of pictures, did new things like snorkeling, Go-Kart, banana boating and BBQing oysters.
It's basically a 4 days, 3 nights tour around the southern part of Taiwan, which is known for having nice beaches, good water sports and much hotter weather.
Our female tour guide was nice. Bus was comfy enough. And some hotels really impressed me. And some events were really fun, like the trip to Ken Ting. I wanted to do more shopping but my cough just prevented me from spending my nights too late.
Henceforth, I will do a chronological run-through of my adventures in southern Taiwan!
And for your information, this would be the last offical "tour" before I return to Singapore this fall!
Day 1
Mister Bus-mate! 90% of the time playing his look-quite-fun game on PSP. On the contrary, I spend most of my time sleeping and catching the immense collection of movies on board the bus.
(Can you imagine? They have like, almost every show and they already have whatever's showing in the cinemas)
We set off at 6am in the morning and we were slated for a 6 hours ride to the very southern of Taiwan! Long ride indeed!
First stop was somewhere called Maopitao. It's basically a cliff area where there is one huge rock that looks like a cat gazing off at the sea.
Cat wasn't that interesting. Climbing the cliffs and enjoying the breathtaking view was.
Mr. Andy.
Perry. JC student, same day to go back to Singapore, same age... I'm treasuring every person here that has that amount of similarities with me.
If you look really really closely, you can see the cat in this picture.
Budok.
My boss!
Nice right? I bet you are jealous that you couldn't take in the fresh sea breeze like I could.
Chua Poh Long! Someone who has came on the same day with me in Taiwan (I saw him already in Changi Airport and how incredible that we were strangers back then) but slated to leave Taiwan either this or next month.
It's immensely emotional to think that someone you spend everyday of 9 months with would be soon gone from your life forever.
I guess that's the curse of this place. People who you see literally everyday... would suddenly be gone in one morning.
Ahh, we very happy ar.
We travelled to a park-like area that required tickets to be bought. There wasn't much of sightseeing except this impressive estate far off in the distance.
And we had to climb a hill of take an up close picture. Then, guess what. At the top of the view, the reward is a souvenir shop. How commercial-y...
Behold! My new slippers bought in preparation for the great and sandy beach!
I also bought a number of shirts and a singlet just to prep up for the hotter summer in the weeks ahead.
WELCOME TO KENTING, the hottest beach area in Taiwan!
As you can see, lots of shops, lots of beach stuff, lots of people...
Not to forget food. Sadly, I couldn't eat most of them due to my ravaging cough.
Believe it or not, there's this bun restaruant that blasts clubbing music. And you did hear it, they sell... buns.
Plus, there's a REAL, LIVING DJ spinning on the second floor balcony. And they are selling... buns.
This lady over here is incredible. Using very basic equipment, she could put your Chinese name in the form of dragons, phoenix, and what have you, all in less than 5 minutes!!!
Needless to say, I got one! And it's very nice!
Watching her at work was already worth the price that we paid for the finished piece.
Day 2
The morning of day 2 was spent at a center of water sports run by some enterpreneuring locals. What they offer was a 3 sports-in-one package, which were snorkeling, banana boating and speed boating.
Snorkeling was a refreshing experience. It was really incredibly mystical to gaze at the sea beds and notice for the first time that there are infinite beautiful marvels even at the bottom of the earth.
Banana boating was exciting because they made us sit on this long rubber boat which would suddenly capsize as the speedboat pulled on it ahead and do twists and turns in the waters.
Having a boat capsize experience was pretty... amazing.
We spent afternoons at a marine biological centre. It was a huge tourist centre which contained real living marine animals. It was incredible!
But I spent my time taking pictures with non-live ones.
Whales quite big ar.
Most of the places in the centre were like this. So camera flashes wasn't really allowed.
And they have giant squids!
This guy just wanted to take a picture up close with a spashy whale and get wet.
We then proceeded to the biggest shopping mall in Kaohsiung City called the Dream Mall. They had a ferris wheel on the roof of the building.
But personally, I think our VivoCity is many times bigger and has more people than this mall.
This mall was virtually... empty.
Maybe students don't go shopping on weekdays in Taiwan.
Hotel that night was damn impressive. That is a self-playing piano!
The hotel lobby... almost felt like a real expensive hotel!
The name!
Although it had been a super tiring day and my body was threatening to cease functioning, we ventured out to Kaohsiung night markets for some shopping.
Lots of people and wares on sale! Very nice!
But I went back early due to my worsening cough. I guess it was due to over-activity on my part. By 9pm, I was already coughing so much that there my throat bled and I couldn't even think probably, let alone shop.
Well that's all for day 2!
Day 3
Day 3 was rather boring. We went to some rural area called Meinong. They introduced their cultures, plantations and history to us.
Frankly, I wasn't interested because it sounded like another typical rural area. I wanted to at least go to some place with a mystical or impactful history.
Nonetheless, we took some time with exploring some sites!
Next stop: Cigu Salt Mountain! Really made of salt!!!
And don't get those eyes so wide open. This is not a real snowscape in hot, blazing summer. It's salt you see that you mistake as snow!
I didn't really get to hear the origins of the salt mountain as I was messing with my PSP back in the bus. So all I did was just wander around aimlessly.
Tour guide was nice to change our iternary for the better because she felt visiting a castle next would be too boring for us.
So we proceeded to a HUGE oyster farm for a visit and unlimited oyster consumption!
The ferry ride turned out to be excruciatingly painful because the auntie who farmed those oysters have a super irritating speaking tone.
To add in, the ride was painfully slow and long.
We finally reach and discovered.... no one on a lonely beach!
But can get to see some other stuff la. My apologies though, I didn't had much of a opportunity to take other pictures because I was still madly coughing away.
The oyster meal later was nice. But as I didn't want to agitate my weak immune system, I only ate four.
I remembered that there was once, I ate seven raw oysters and ended up nearly dead with three days of vomiting and diarrhea.
We had our dinner at an amazing place. The entire restaruant was framed on trees and rocks.
An interesting eatery if you ever get to visit!
And food was slightly above average. The restaruant itself makes it worth the visit.
Wei wei and me!
More vanity!
Mr. Kevin and me happily aiming a cannon at you.
And that ended our journey day 3. We landed at a Tainan City hotel that was nothing impressive and had not much attractions in the city itself. So I basically spent the night resting, which was well deserved.
Day 4
Last day of tours are always planned to be the most exciting! We crashed at Jian Hu Shan theme park for some water sports and attraction rides!
But actually I never take a single ride or played a single water sport because I was both too humji and lazy at the same time. Plus, I scared myself real bad at the theme park last winter tour.
Scariest thing I sat on was a ferris wheel that slightly shook as we went to the top!
I spent most of the time drifting around and exploring this and that. Not very fun la, I was basically just looking forward to returning to camp.
And here I am now!
Summer tour has been a blast to go to, though I still wished I was healthier, more willing to try things and braver. I also wished I took more pictures of myself with others and at places.
Well, till the next unofficial tour... I would be working again! A typhoon will hit us either tonight or tomorrow. Other than that, life would return to normal and we would preparing for more camp events up ahead!
It's been a long blog post. I hope you enjoyed reading!
