A Beautiful Transformation...

The destroyer...

There are many beautiful, colourful and tiny insects that I can see when I'm doing gardening. Some insects are very cheeky~! I talked to my plants and I also had monologues with the insects. I remembered seeing a very small colourful insect flying around and I asked it to wait for me while I go get the camera. When that insect saw my camera, it went into hiding. So fed up was I that I kept my camera in the house and the insect came out to play again. Sometimes, they must be camera-shy, too. Gardening is NOT my hobby. I just want to keep my small plot of land nice and beautiful so I have to do all the work. Since I've started doing it, I have to maintain it every now and then. Well, who has been chewing on my lime leaves? Who? That's the fat guy. No wonder you're so fat... you chewed half of my tree. Enough, okay... you stay as prisoner in the glass enclosure from now on.

The dried cocoon...

The previous caterpillars all died because I did not poke any holes for them. Sorry for murdering all siblings at one go. But this one, we made sure there were plenty of holes on top. After two weeks, this afternoon I came back to a fluttering symmetrical-designed beauty. The cocoon has dried up.

The trapped beauty...

Let's make a deal, okay? You wait for mi mama and mi hubby to come home, then I will release you to your freedom. I will not keep you in this glass cave and kill you. I'm not that type of person. But you have to wait and while waiting please pose for my camera. Will you do that for me? Thank you for your co-operation. I appreciate it very much.

The side view...

Let me take a few pics until I am satisfied with one piece of photo. I know you are tired and hungry and thirsty but I'm equally as tired and the weather is really hot. Thank you for giving me this piece. You're really beautiful~!! How can anyone believe that there's no God in this world? If there's no God then who created this beautiful creature? Look at those pattern. It's so symmetrically perfect. The blend of colours are really of top notch. Okay, I'm done with your side view. Can you open up your wings please? Thank you~!

The bottom view...

Stay this way for awhile please. Ohhhh..... You're amazingly beautiful~! I don't know how did all those professional photographers who capture the photo of wild animals and insects have the patience to wait for the animals to appear? I have this beautiful butterfly model which was really co-operative. Thank you very much for your patience. I think I'm about done. Just a few more, okay. At least I get to choose your most perfect photos and show them to the world what a real beauty you are. 

The top view...

Go, baby~! Fly to your heaven on earth. You can lay eggs and I will take care of your caterpillars and release them when they are big. That I can promise you. Remember to come home once in awhile. You can stay in the garden if you want to. The whole garden I give it to you.

First drink of the nectar....

Eat, drink and be merry. Enjoy yourself. I hope the nectar of the flower is sweet enough for you. Do you need any flowers in particular? I will go get them for you. You are really beautiful. I'm going to miss you. I will work on the garden later. Come visit me.

Let Him Die...

It was a really beautiful Sunday today. I didn't have much opportunity to enjoy Sundays. I usually rush out to work and ended up a few minutes late. Then, I rushed to another class right smack at another end of the island, driving as fast as possible, trying to get all the green lights so that I need not stop. Even if there's a rainbow in the sky, I wouldn't have time to stop by the roadside and marvel at God's beautiful landscape. Today was different. It will be different Sundays from today on-wards. Today is the first Sunday that I stop working. What makes me do so?

My cousin-in-law has been nagging about keeping the Sabbath for many years. I think she prayed about it as well. All those years I thought she must be crazy asking me to earn less. When I told her that I'm gonna stop working on Sundays, she was the happiest of all as God has answered her prayers. So, how did God make an obstinate mule like me change my way of life? I was reading the Old Testament when I read this passage about keeping the Sabbath holy. Actually that's not the verse that I came to that stopped me in my tracks. I read in another passage where God bluntly said,"Let him die." It was for the man who did not keep Sabbath. I know we're no longer living in the time of the Old Testament but I am dying inside after working like a horse everyday for 12 years. I'm just very tired as in dead tired. I see the sun when I go out and by the time I'm done with my work, I either see the moon or see the stars or the sky is just pitch black. Then, after a few hours of sleep, I repeat what I do everyday and I don't get to rest in between as I have other things to prepare. So, eventually, even if God didn't put me to death, I will die of exhaustion.

I will have less classes from now on which means I will earn less. But you will understand that less is so much more. You will have to go through that first hand to know what does it mean by less is so much more. For today itself, the first Sunday that I'm no longer working, I felt really good. I didn't do anything major like going for a bungee jump or go shopping or walking aimlessly at the shopping mall. Neither did we go to the cinema and glued ourselves to the huge screen. We just did something really normal, normal yet I've not experienced it before.

My hubby drove us to church this morning. Going to church on a Sunday morning is something which I've not done for more than a decade. We usually go on Saturday nights but I'm always tired because I've worked my brain for 9 hours non-stop. Try doing additional maths for long hours, your brain will be drained of any energy. I need to learn to enjoy being fetched. I do complain a lot coz the hubby either drives too slow or too reckless. Hubby said I'm the worst driver. I know I drive very fast but I always feel safe when I'm the one holding the steering wheel.

We had a simple breakfast at the coffee shop outside the church building. I like koay teow th'ng and that's the only thing that I will repeatedly cook but now if I need to make this, I will need to force people to come over my house to help me finish the big pot of soup then. This is not the best koay teoh th'ng but it would do for the time being.

Ps Cheng Kin preached on Proverbs 24:3-4 .. I will not launch into an elaborate preaching mode. I think it's not that hard to understand those verses. 

In conclusion, I like NOT working on a Sunday. Please, parents, don't ask me to give your children lessons on Sundays. I will lobby for their rights to rest on Sundays without having any tuition classes. This time round, I will not budge from my stand of not working on Sundays. Thank you for your understanding. If you don't understand then I cannot help you to see from my point of view. Someone asked me to choose other weekdays instead of  a Sunday, but I'm thinking what's the point? My hubby will be working and I will be all alone in the house sitting in front of the computer or rot on my bed. I want to spend time with my hubby doing practically nothing at all. 

Day 6: The Day I Felt Insulted by General Remarks...

 ~ 19th March 2014 ~

How old is that building?

Our third day in Taipei and we're still marching on. Our initial plan was to wake up at 6:30a.m. to catch the earliest bus to Yangmingshan. And we sleepyheads couldn't even wake up as we slept around 1 or 2 am the previous night. We cleared our room in the speed of lightning but you don't expect us to carry everything with us to Yangmingshan. We got Miss Chen to babysit our luggage while we swing away. The bus to Yangmingshan would be stopping outside Taipei Railway Station. While walking, you could wash your eyes on some things which was not much of a difference whether you're in a developed country, a developing country or an underdeveloped country.

The homeless' shelter...

The poor you will always have with you... They are the senior citizens, homeless and the only shelter they have over their heads was the concrete ceiling of the train station. Some can be seen sleeping on the bench. They have make shift tents and yes, it's an eyesore. Isn't there any social welfare to put them into homes? How are they going to survive the cold winter? The cost of living is Taiwan is not low, it's really high and then again, there was just a fraction of society who couldn't meet the mark in life. Did they even try to run the crazy rat race of city life? Or they just gave up on life and decided to live this way? I thank God for the shelter we have. I couldn't imagine mi mama living on the streets like this. I will give my best to mi mama.

The scooters....

Scooters everywhere. Nothing like our motorbikes. How come? Is it safer riding on scooters? Not everyone can afford a car. Some never have any vehicles except for their two feet. I keep on thinking how would my life be if I'm not who I am and what I am now? Will I be so poor? Or will I be a filthy rich person? Or I would just lead a mundane life working in a factory. Can't imagine... I like my life now. It's the life that I've always wanted. Don't think so much... take one day at a time :D

Bus #260 to Yangmingshan

We're at the right pick up point. Wait for bus #260 which will take you straight up to the entrance of Yangmingshan. I can't read anything so I'm sorry, I cannot tell you much about where else the bus is gonna stop. I read about this bus #260 from another blog, so thanks to that blog, we got to our destination without any hiccups. So, I'm just sharing with you now the same information of taking the bus #260 to go to Yangmingshan. No public transport which depends on the flow of traffic would reach on time. Please don't be ridiculous and accuse the bus for being not on time. Even trains and planes got delayed or arrived earlier at times.

Queuing up....

The government knows that Yangmingshan and bus 260 are two inseparable organs. A temporary tent was put up to shade you from the bright sunshine or the rain. We queued up like any civilized human would do upon waiting for anything. 

The long awaited bus..

Finally, after I've calculated about 989898 scooters wheezing passed us, the bus came. The bus looked big from the outside but inside was so.... without much space to even breathe. There were three empty seats at different part of the bus. Pinky went straight to the back while I sat next to a lady. I am, naturally, a very friendly person, but my main itinerary while on the bus, was to take a forty wink. But, this auntie beside me tortured me through and through mentally.

The auntie....

There are things that I would remember till the end. This auntie tortured me mentally, so that makes her in the list of people I would remember for life:

1. She asked me not to sit too near her because it was really suffocating. She has her stuff and I have my stuff but there's no place to even move so I shrink two sizes from my normal size. Yes, you can do that at times. Then, more space appeared between us.
2. I started closing my eyes. I have the ability to sleep anywhere, whenever I want it, no matter how noisy it is. This auntie poke me awake and asked me where I came from. I told her Malaysia.
3. .... silence for a few minutes.... pure blissfulness except for the loud engine from the bus....
4. Auntie said she has been to Malaysia before and she went on to mention that Malaysians are dirty people. Oh, my goodness~! I felt so insulted that I was so wide awake and ever ready to launch into fighting mode. She said the skin colour of Malaysians are dirty... got dark brown and various shades of brown... and she said I, as a Chinese, should look fair... Oi, auntie~! I got tanned skin also because of the sun in Taiwan~!!!!!! And Taiwanese are not even fair and lovely~!!!!!
5. I did not argue with her out of respect for an older person. I kept quiet and thought to myself, what kind of toilet brush should I use to scrub myself clean. Then, I shut my eyes and ears and went off to dreamland.
6. Then, auntie poked my arm to wake me again. Auntie said Malaysians are unhygienic people. Auntie, why you insult me over and over? I really felt like punching her, excuse my brutality. She said that when she visited Malaysia, she saw people using their hands to eat. Hello, auntie~! That's called the joy of eating... finger-smacking good food like nasi lemak. I would use hands anytime~!!!!!
7. Auntie then took out her lunchbox and the smell of bamboo shoot was so nauseating. She went on to show me that, hygienic people would eat using chopsticks. I became very rude to her and I told her that I also used my hands to eat, sometimes forgetting to wash my hands after bombing the toilet with stink bomb... then went on to show her how to use hand when eating, but not touching her food though...
8. Auntie quickly closed her food container. She has this horrified look on her face.
9. I went to dreamland shortly after with a smirk on my face.
10. Auntie poked me again. She asked whether I could understand Taiwan's local language which sounded like Hokkien or more like Singapore's Hokkien, so I told her, yes, I could understand.
11. Auntie refused to let me sleep. She tested me on colours. She pointed to one of the passenger's bag, their clothes, their shoes and tested me on the colours in Taiwan Hokkien. I didn't answer wrongly just that some of the words were different. Then she said,"Hah... you don't know!" Wahlaueh, auntie... let me go please...
12. Auntie forced me to take out my EasyCard so she could see how different it was from hers, a senior citizen's card and she laughed at me saying I don't have the discounted card for senior citizens.... auntie.... do I look as old as you? I'm very nice to entertain her... 

Pinky, my travel buddy, was laughing like a hyena at the back of the bus, then she used her hat to shut out the world. Mi mama wasn't helping me to find a route of escape also. When we arrived Yangmingshan, I was glad that she walked away. Then, she ran towards us and said she should accompany us or we might get lost and all three of us almost fainted upon hearing that. Thank God, she decided not to follow us after that.

But then again, I should thank the auntie for she planned for us the time we should get out of the place so we could catch our bullet train to the next county. It was, give and take, a 2.5 hours journey from Yangmingshan back to Taipei Central. We overlooked that and without her mention of time and her questions of our whereabouts after that actually helped us. It's worth being insulted. She doesn't even know I felt insulted to the max and maybe she's just very lonely. She talked about her family, her life and I think she talked to me more than anyone else. Auntie, thank you.

PS. Don't ever mention to me about how dark Indians look like and how come some Malays look fairer than Chinese and how come some Chinese look darker than Malay, I will skin you alive and you can see for yourself, under that skin, we're all PINK~!

Day 5: Discovering More Food in Taipei...

 ~ 18th March 2014 ~

One of the streets behind Xinshen North Road...

One should have learnt by now that not everything that's hyped up in the Internet is as good as it sounds. One of our Malay idioms perfectly described it as "Indah khabar daripada rupa". Touristy places are not always as amazing as they seemed in still shots taken by professionals. One must walk the streets to look for something that's hidden. On our way back to Miss Chen's homestay in the apartment which looks like it's gonna fall apart, I shepherded my entourage into the wrong turning. My built-in GPS in the head has no signal, total lost of connection, so I simply made a turning and they happily followed. The sight of colourful bright lights along the street raised an alarm in my head... *location unknown.... location unknown.... turn back.... turn back....* but the bright lights with lots of red and pink were calling us to move forward. There's food everywhere. On the left and on the right. Trust me, this place was not even listed as one of the places to offer street food. We studied the map of Taipei from every corner and we searched everything that's written online, but nada... no mention of this food haven.

One of the narrower streets....

The streets got narrower and narrower. You seriously need skills to manoeuvre your vehicles and many of them drove mini vans. It was quite dangerous to order food, standing beside the stall and then a few scooters would be zoom-ing by. I was not thinking of snatch thieves. It's easy to snatch handbags since the bikers would be very near the pedestrians. I have no such thought as I don't carry handbags with me. It would be a nightmare to snatch anything from me. The snatch thief would definitely fall off the machine trying to snatch my bags tangled up in a mess that I find difficult to untangle at times.

Getting supper....

I have my milk tea for supper while Pinky has her huge bowl of crab porridge. The price of food there was extremely cheap. I'm still wondering how come I didn't buy any food. The food intake for day 5 was miserably too little. By the way, it's quite easy to look for this place. It's at Xinsheng North Road, somewhere there... and you will see lots of taxis moving in and out. And yeah, that's the red light district that I saw from the room. Geylang in Singapore, also a red light district, has good food, too. 

Seafood restaurants along the main road....

We had to make a big round to walk back to our homestay. Along the road, there were more and more seafood restaurants. All the restaurants were filled to the brim. The food must be fantastic. It must have been near midnight and we were not prepared for such discovery, or we must be poor again that we couldn't afford to have more food. The fish caught in Taiwan was totally alien to me. I can't even name any of the fishes. I don't have much knowledge regarding fishes. I suppose they must be delicious and expensive? No? I don't know... We weren't that lost anymore as I could recognize the shape of the buildings which I have spent a couple of hours staring into on the first night. While we were walking back, we were verbally accusing Miss Chen behind her back for not telling us about such food haven just behind the building. If we ever go again, we will still stay at Miss Chen's place... if we go again... I'm about 99.99% sure that we won't be going again. I don't miss the country, just felt that we have missed out here and there and we should have made more detailed studies on a particular place and zoomed in on one place. Will learn from this trip to make better plans for our next trip together.

We had the television switched on the moment we walked in. While eating her porridge, we were actually planning to watch the Taiwan series from the day before but we watched news instead. Everyday, the news was about the missing MH370 followed by the tertiary students' activity in showing their disagreements with the governments. The event was just three streets away from us. We were very tired but the moment we have our fingers busy on our phones, chatting with our husbands, left behind by us in different parts of the world, we were wide awake. Oh, me the professional luggage packer, started packing all our stuff. We were moving out the next day.

Day 5: Feet-Dragging in Danshui...

~ 18th March 2014 ~

Zzzoooommmmmm....

After spending a great time at Xinbeitou, floating like a lark and feeling all energetic and just like wealthy trio taking on the world, reality struck. We were hungry and heading towards our next destination in the list. Thank goodness for reliable public transportation in Taipei City. The train was fast.

Mi mama with a cute dog....

We arrived Danshui shortly. Our plan was to walk the Old Street and then take a ferry ride to the Love Bridge. We did not know whether there's a time schedule for the ferry rides or not. I was thinking maybe the time would be like our ferry rides where the last ride should be before midnite. We arrived around 7:30p.m. ... I know, I have very good memory. Then, we spent some time talking to the adorable kitty sausage dog. We made a general conclusion that Taiwanese adore toy-size dogs especially chihuahua, poodle, daschund and even pinscher. My travel buddy prefers big, huge and masculine dogs so, Pinky wasn't really that keen to touch any dogs in Taiwan. After spending a few thousand seconds with the dog, we started our moonlite stroll.

Opposite Golden Water Shore...

Danshui is at the north point of Taiwan so it's a beachfront. According to the Chinese letters, direct translation will tell you you're at the Golden Water Shore. Since we won't be going to the Fisherman's Wharf opposite, I decided to let mi mama and Pinky to have a rest at the concrete bench while I happily set up camp for night photography. There weren't that many people at the shore front's walkway mainly because there's no beach there. Are you a Penangnite? If you are, you might have taken a stroll along Karpal Singh's Drive at Jalan Sungai Pinang area there. The saltiness and fishiness from the sea was too great until the odour became so unpleasant. It's like you're within the perimeter where salted fish barricades you. I enjoyed the lighted scene minus the smell.

Danshui Old Street....

That's the Old Street from where I was standing. Then, we started walking along the shore front. There were a few pairs of young couples whispering sweet nothing to each other. Thank God my hubby wasn't the romantic type who would suggest taking me out for a date by the smelly sea. It would be such a turn off. Now I understand why hubby always says there's nothing in going for a date. It's either going to the cinemas or going out for dinner. I prefer watching DVDs at home on my comfortable couch, wearing my skimpy pyjamas and having dinner at home rather than going out now. Love my hubby for being a realistic man.

The Old Street...

Oh, yeah. We missed the last ferry ride by just merely 15 minutes. Pinky said thanks to me for taking photos for too long. Then again, we were flexible people. We planned to come again before we leave Taiwan. Since we were already there, we went looking for the Old Street to walk around. The place was kinda deserted. Where are all the tourists? Or were we at the wrong place again like in Hong Kong?

Deep fried soft shell crab~!

Taiwan night markets offer lots of deep fried food. Hubby would love it. Since we haven't had our dinner, I bought a small paper cup of deep fried soft shell crabs. Then, Pinky had her deep fried mushrooms. The size of the fresh mushrooms were gigantic. Deep fried mushrooms are delicious. I have done it before so I know :D Trust my taste~! I live to eat :0)

Pink guava....

Fancy having pink guava juice? I've never seen pink guava so we had a moderate serving of pink guava juice while walking along the Old Street. I wished we would have more of this juice.

Handmade fishball...

Now that I looked through the photos, I had no idea what we ate for dinner. There's this stall just selling all sort of fishballs. I don't remember the fishballs being delicious, if not I would have remembered. And then, there's nothing else for dinner. Whatever happen to my dinner? I couldn't be having so little food for that day? I just remembered the delicious roti telur for lunch. I must be very hungry that day... huhuhuhu...

... And Then He's No More...

It's just another Thursday morning which I will spend my morning getting my groceries done at the market which is just 5 minutes away from home by walking. I'm blessed with a really strategic location where there are two markets just opposite each other in walking distance. I've roughly known everyone selling their goods, be it in the building itself or by the roadside.

There's this man who sells neatly sliced organic pumpkins wrapped up presentably. He also sells ulam (our local traditional salad). I know he has buah petai hanging on his bike. He's a very simple trader, selling from his bike. It was still early when mi mama and I walked to the opposite market. Just 8:30a.m. I saw the police patrol car. Hah~! Must be giving out summons to those who parked illegally by the roadside and causing traffic hiccups at our residential area every morning. 

Then, we crossed the road and from the opposite, we saw the man selling ulam lying down on the tar road beside his bike. He wasn't moving and he's definitely not breathing. He's dead. He died of cardiac arrest. One of the traders called the police. The ambulance was on its way. He wasn't covered with newspapers. There wasn't much crowd and there was definitely no looting.Nobody grabbed his freshly cut pumpkins and ran away. No one snap a photo using their smartphones. You don't selfie with a dead body lying on the road. That's totally disrespectful and not something to post up in the social network to boast about your day being great meeting with a dead man.

I went to get my basmathi rice then when we crossed the road, I was just walking beside him. An old lady laid her hands and pray for him. I do hope that he would get back his breath of life and has his heart pumping again. The ambulance came shortly when we left the house to do more grocery shopping at the hypermarket.

I'm sad by this turn of event. He's not even obese but whoever says that only obese people will suffer from heart diseases? And he's not even in his old age. Yet, he just went away like that without saying goodbye. How would his family members feel? It's just another mundane morning where he got himself busy selling pumpkins and ulam. Just another simple day. Did he see it coming that he wouldn't even have the chance to bring his things home and say goodbye before leaving?

Mi mama says one must live one's life humbly. Good reminder. You can be great and powerful and wealthy, what the world has you may have a hold of them, but the only thing you have no power over is your own life. One minute your heart is pumping and you are breathing, the next you might be gasping for air and before long, you're dead and gone. Just like that. In a wink of an eye. One trader less, will he be remembered? I don't even know his name. I don't know anybody's name. I just know them by what they are trading at the marketplace.

I can choose to be anybody I want to be, but I can never choose the way I want to leave this temporal world. Can't even suggest the simplest way to die. Most will prefer a painless death and one with no sufferings - die in one's sleep. Who would want a painful death? But then again, only God can decide as our lives belong to Him and Him alone.

And I Miss You Already...

Luggage-fie.... *stupiak*

Yesterday night, I've packed a small luggage for mi hubby. He will be away for a course in another state. Before he left, I already miss him. How did he survive when I'm not around for the whole month. The feeling of being left at home is not nice at all. I'm needed at home to be a chauffeur and I still need to cook. At least we have free calls and get to Watsapp each other. Now, he's sending me the food pics of the hotel. I'm comforted that I can cook better. Hehehhe... Will cook up a feast when hubby is back. 

Selfie~

In order to use up my time now, since I'm so free, I'm practically shaking my legs but I have to clean up the house, mopping the floor is more tiring than a 5-round jog outside the house. I'm enjoying my leisure time editing photos~! Something that I wouldn't do in the past but I need to have really beautiful flawless photos as sweet memories. No matter what, I'm still lazy to edit the photos until it's completely flawless. Leave that job to the professionals. Editing is a very tiring job. Kindly pay whatever amount the editors charge you for your photos. It's tedious work. You blink your eyes once, the edited photo looks different. You close your eyes then open them and look again, it looks different again. Don't blink when editing, you will end up looking at one piece of photo for the whole day. Don't even come back to the same photo the next day, you will feel that the photo is not good enough then you start meddling with that same one piece for another 24 hours. Blink blink blink your eyes a few times, I have more than 14000 photos to look at. My eyes are popping out very soon plus the uneasiness of wanting to go for another holiday. The pleasure of self-torture.

The best part of sitting in front of the computer is right now, I have a headset so that I can go deaf to the surrounding. Don't bother calling me or talking to me. I have lots of missed calls and I have the kids screaming for me until my neighbours can hear, but only I couldn't hear anything. You can listen to what I'm listening if you're in the same room as I am. Yeah, I like my music loud. Lazy kids ended up marching up the stairs and talk in front of me, but I still can't hear anything until I remove the headset.... Hehehhee... sorry... I know I'm terrible.... hehehe... but I only listen to the songs in my blog. I posted it there so that I wouldn't have to search for them high and low in YouTube. Indonesian worship songs are the best~! And I get to update this almost dead blog. It's revived for this year. Next year come January, I bet it will be as still as the graveyard. And I have time to do some reading, not some, lots of reading. I have lots of books that have been left untouched for years.

Hubby, quickly come back.... huhuhuhu....

Day 5: Radium Kagaya - Hippos in Hot Spring Bath...

~ 18th March 2014 ~

Reminiscing our sweet moments together. The sensation of looking through holiday photos, is about to awaken my globe-trotting spirit. I'm very tempted to drag my luggage and I don't mind chasing after trains and running towards the closing flight gates. 

Excited to be here...

What's the point of going to Xinbeitou without a proper hot spring bath? I did mention that we were not interested to have a dip at the public bath neither were we willing to take a free dip at the monsoon drain. I wasn't sure how we came about at this place. Pinky suggested this place but we were just walking aimlessly, not sure of which hotel that offers private hot spring baths to walk into. We walked into Radium Kagaya. The interior design was fantastic, completely Japanese. We love it~!

The Japanese concept by the Japanese...

This is what you would see inside the building. This pic was captured inside the elevator. No fingerprints on the glass. Squeaky clean. We dare not touch the glass panel just in case we would leave a print and the cleaning lady need to wipe everything from top to bottom. We were one considerate lot.

Our room....

After making payment for the 90-minute private hot spring bath session, we were walked to our room. It was splendid. I could only imagine hotel rooms with beds and sorts, but there's no beds in this room. Just a round tub with ancient-like bathing area We were exhilarated and excited to the edge of hyperventilating. 90 minutes ain't enough. What should we do? We should move fast as every extra hour, we would be charged accordingly.

Our baby pool....

I came prepared. I brought my swimming costume and brought an extra pair while my travel buddy brought hers as well. The benefit of making an itinerary even though we didn't manage to follow them to the dot is you wouldn't miss out on the important stuff. Carrying extra is worth the effort rather than not having enough. While waiting to fill up the flower-shaped tub with water directly sucked in from the source of hot spring and mixing with some cold water, we went to change up. You need to mix with cold water or your would turn into blanched vegetables. We had our drinks from 7-11 and chips to munch, too. Please don't throw chips into the tub, that would be an uncivilized act.

Going crazy in the tub....

What to do while having a dip in hot water? The weather outside was hot but the dip was altogether different. It was really nice and soothing. We were not planning to stare at each other while taking a dip. We would like to keep this as memories with lots of still shots. The tripod which I deemed a pain in the ass came handy. And with the ability to be connected to the phone, it was all-in-all useful. While I clicked away on my phone, the camera was in-sync with the phone but just a tad slower. If I were to climb up and down to set the timer, I would definitely slide open the window and fling everything to the ground or I would accidentally get my foot stuck and went flying to the end of the room and lose a tooth. You have to give a thumb's up to modern technology which makes life simpler.

Excitement level at the max....

While mi mama were done being blanched, we continue to simmer in the tub. We wanted to make full use of our time there. You see the wall clock right in front of us? That's a real good reminder. They even called us ten minutes before our time was up to make sure that we were all done, dressed up and ready to go leave. If we ever go back to Taiwan, I wouldn't mind staying there but the homestay at Miss Chen's place where we were staying was just as good. Anyway, I doubtfully think that we will be going back to the same country, as we have suddenly made a rough draft for next year. Our draft was really simple now, just the name of the countries have popped out. The rest was still in blank pages.

Ancient way of bathing by the well....

The traditional way of taking a shower. Fill up the bamboo bucket with water. There's hot and cold water, so nothing to worry about. Then splash yourself. It's really refreshing. We had a great time that day. My travel buddy actually washed my hair for me... Hahahaha... Gosh, I miss the time we were together. Why are you staying so far away? Maybe it's good that way. If we're staying in the same place, we will never meet up as we're both so busy until late at night. I miss ya' lots. This is the holiday that brought us together really close. I could know what she has in her mind by just looking at her facial expression or hearing her way of responding. We used to tip-toe around each other, not knowing what we both like. Now, she could fart freely when we're around. Hey, you only fart around your very close friends. You can never do that to strangers. You would be so embarrass and tried to dig a hole and bury yourself if you know you have farted around strangers, and the strangers know you're the culprit. It IS rude to fart when there are others in the same room but don't you agree that you are rudest to those whom you are really close to? Fart away now~ Hahahahahhaa....

The outside world....

There are two other things that can be done while taking turns to shower. One, I slide open the window and tried on my unskilled photography skill. There's not much of a view. Just overlooking that bungalow which I had no idea whose house was it or was it some place that we have missed out completely in our rush. 

Smart phone and smart camera staring at smart toilet...

The second thing that you could do to upgrade yourself culturally is by trying out the smart toilet. There are a few buttons for you to try out. Both of us were just reminiscing about this place and great minds think alike. We both regretted for not trying out any of the function buttons. We were afraid that the toilet water would splash onto our faces and we had no time to clean ourselves up, then be charged with the extra hours spent in the expensive room. We were also worried that we might destroy the expensive toilet as we were three people from the countryside. You won't know, you might press a button then maybe the toilet would crash, boom and bam, all shit come flooding the beautiful room. Next time, we will try it out.

Comfort to the butts...

How I wish we didn't have to rush off. I would love to sink my ass into those comfortable seats. I'm very sure my butt would be stuck to the chair for hours. Give me a good book, I could sit there whole day without going anywhere. I really miss our time together. This job of looking through our holiday photos is doing me no good. It's not that I miss the country. I just miss spending time together, walking around. I guess, hardly anyone will be blessed to have a whole month of holiday together. Now, we're 8 hours of flight time away plus the waiting time for boarding, would be 12 hours with a four-figure flight ticket away. Should I just abandon this work of going through our photos, that wouldn't be fair, too as I 'm the only person having our photos.... *sad*

Mi mama....

So, interview time...

Me: How do you feel about this trip? 

Mama: Very tired but very exciting. Get to see lots of things.

Me: What do you think of this place?

Mama: Very expensive.

Me: Are you happy?

No need to answer la. Mi mama was smiling from ear-to-ear. The hot spring bath has boosted our energy level. We're fully charged. I just Google search this place, yeah, I know, talking about being ignorant. This is a 5-star hotel with exquisite Japanese restaurant which we didn't go to, I don't know why we didn't go. Do you remember that just that morning, we couldn't even afford to buy a basket of fruits by the roadside, but we were blessed. We could actually afford NT$3300 for 3 persons and for 90 minutes. Talk about feeling rich. We are wealthy and prosperous. 

Leaving the luxurious hotel...

Goodbye, Radium Kagaya! Memang kayalah kita orang duduk berendam di dalam kolam kecil dengan bayaran beribu wang Taiwan selama 90 minit. Kaya sungguh kita~! Puji Tuhan atas segala yang diberikan. Amen~!

Day 5: Thermal Valley...

~ 18th March 2014 ~

Where to next? We came to this post with arrows pointing towards the north, north-west and east. We were going to the last stop right at the end. I do not know how far is 410m away from where I was standing, but I knew it was within walking distance.

One of the sights that made tired and hungry tourists happy would be to see the sign indicating that they've arrived at their destination. Thermal Valley was also known as Hell Valley and Jade Springs Valley. I wouldn't agree on Hell Valley as hell would be a place hotter than what Thermal Valley has to offer. But it you fall into the almost boiling hot stream, I bet you will equate that you're in a condition where you felt that you're burning in hell on Earth. Jade Springs Valley would be more acceptable. The colour of the spring is almost as green as the colour of jade.If you do not know what jade is, it's a type of coloured stone mostly found in various shades of green. My grandma loved jades. I still remembered that she would have a salesman bringing a briefcase to the house filled with jade bracelets for her to choose. When she wanted to give me one, I was looking at the one purple in colour. I do not like green so any colour would do but in the end I turned down the offer. Just not to my liking. A treasure to you may just be a piece of junk to me.

Hell on earth...

The heat could be felt from the entrance of Thermal Valley. According to the thermometer reading at the area, it was 97 degree Celsius. That's really hot, almost to the boiling point of water. The were gurgling sound if you were aware of it like the hot water has swallowed something alive. I was wondering what if Pinky drop into the water. I told her I would definitely not rescue her. Then I thought about what if we use the fishing net and put some eggs into the hot water, we would have hard-boiled eggs for dinner. Nobody did that. I don't think we're allowed to do that. I abide by the rules~! 

Face-steaming session...

The hot steam should be good for health. Look into it and vapour steam your face~! Free facial done while sight-seeing. 

Steamy....

Wouldn't it be nice to be here during winter? Cold and hot... cold and hot.... cold and hot.... I was really fascinated by the sight of vapour coming out from the surface. The house on top of the hill above this valley, was the whole house hot all the time? What makes the colour green? What are the minerals in the water? Has anyone dive in before? How do you actually study this place? I'm really interested.

Three happy sweaty and stinky people at sauna. Packed up tripod and walked away before the camera melts. I don't have much to say. Sometimes you looks at some photos, and you just don't know what to say. It's our first encounter with such a place. I can look at this place and say,"What's so special about this place with hot steam forming now and then?" Actually we were really excited beyond words. It's such a special place different from anywhere else. 

A gentle reminder to the public....

A note for those who got scalded by the almost boiling hot water. Rinse in room temperature water. If you use icy cold water, you will get cold burn then you will be burnt twice, hot and cold. Cut off your clothing while soaked in water. Then, I cannot remember what mi mama has translated already. Jump to the last one with a clear picture of an ambulance. Call the ambulance to take you away. The doctors will know what to do with you.