In order of time then: (de ja vu feeling because I distinctly remember doing something like that two years ago) Mum, Zhiqi, Sis, Hueysun junior-turning-senior, Xuefen, Kane, Kaiyun, Yong En, Jing, Cousin San jie, Huiyun, Sihan, Dad, Denise, Xinyu, Jasmine and Jias. (Jas and jias it's better late than never so thanks so much!)

I do remember that this isn't the first time I spent my birthday overseas, the last time was when I went Yunnan with my family way back. Age is catching up really fast indeed. But I guess 20 marks the end of the second decade of my life and also a start of the third. Spent the first few hours of my birthday in a club trying not to look too bored. There are people in my group who frequents such places after all and they even paid quite abit to treat us some drinks. Toasts were made to me in more considerable amounts, most fortunately. My impression of clubs have not changed one bit. The stench of acrid smoke still puts me off and the loud volume of the music definitely took a toll on my ears. Even after I left with a few from our group (we left first because we had enough... and to think I had to attend to two of them who were feeling abit shaky from drinking too much) I could still hear a ringing sound reverbrating in my ears. But I guess it's one of the birthday experiences you won't get too often. At least in my case, this is a first and the last.

Before I proceed to my account, I must backtrack abit to the part when we first landed in Taipei Airport. Here I must really recommend you guys who wish to go to Taiwan to go for free and easy if you can. What I really enjoyed during these few days was the freedom to do whatever you want and roam around wherever you want, finding things out from people (taxi drivers especially, shall elaborate later) and venturing to unknown places. So we were fetched to the Paradise Hotel we booked in advance in yes... a posh, black BMW. It's one of those limo services available in airport. The cost is reasonable because it was divided among us and we calculated the cost of a normal taxi will be about the same too, so why not travel in comfort. The BMW was really cool, it had a gps system, mini tv and the funny thing is these cars in Taipei have this device that will warn them whenever they are nearing any road cameras... Highly suspect it is due to the fact the drivers there like to do Initial-D like driving on the roads. No kidding this driver of the BMW actually drove onto the Chevron linings at the side of the road. (Licensed drivers will know what I mean) There was a bit of a slight confusion because the driver did not know much english and we only had the english name of the hotel. It was only after seeking help from the tourist service line that we found out the address and name of the hotel in chinese.

The second surprise in line for us was when we reached our long-awaited hotel which on a side note, is very near Xi Men Ding. Initially we booked three rooms but the hotelier offered us their presidential suite that could house all 8 of us in exchange for those three rooms, absorbing the extra charges and all. Hmm BMW and presidential suite. Quite a good start for a holiday indeed.

My Room 2107...

The hotel lobby. I simply love the Victorian style.

Taipei people are really one of a kind. From taxi drivers to business men to teenage couples... they just look very "tai". One taxi driver was telling me something about 台北人. “台北人就是这个样子，什么都差不多。驾车也一样，那么乱来。但也因为人有逃避的本能，所以在路上都能你照顾我，我照顾你。”What he said really summed up the people's culture 人文 of Taipei quite well. Like one of my friends Boo said in his blog, there is order among the chaos over there, which is in stark contrast to the chaos among order structure over here in Singapore. They queue up to enter their Metro (our MRT) even though there aren't any demarcated lines. (Unlike some people I see in Singapore, disregarding the yellow boxes even during peak hours and squeezing their way into the carriage even before the people inside have finished filing out) And you can't help noticing that although the motorists in Taipei like to do drifting stunts you see only in movies and appear to treat the roads like Daytona race tracks, they will really look out for people who are crossing, even jaywalkers... And to them, green lights or red lights are never taken for granted, meaning it can be green light for the drivers but they will still take extra note of any pedestrians who may try to cross and vice versa. I myself have experienced motor bikes zooming past me even when the pedestrian light was flashing green. Taxi drivers wise, I think we have met enough taxi drivers during our short stay over there, because we just couldn't resist the convenience of sharing cabs from place to place, but we limit such luxury to once a day, or only when we have alot to carry. Some taxidrivers are really friendly, trying to explain this and that, some will just drive quietly while listening to their Hokkien radio channel, some will appear cool and intellectual, some will try to put on an english slang and add in some english words in their sentences to hopefully make an impact (I notice they like to use the words "you understand", "always" and those individual english terms.)