HALF EMPTY OR HALF FULL

e m P t Y

Tried to write a letter; In ink
I've got a piece of paper; But it's Empty

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Saturday, August 30, 2008 ( 9:34 AM )

happy birthday!

and this song is for you.. hope u like it.. =)

Don't worry about that extra line
That's creeping up upon your face
It's just a part of nature's way
To say you've grown a little more
Trees have rings and thicker branches
Kids shoes get a little tighter
Every year we're getting closer to who we're gonna be
It's time to celebrate the story of how you've come to be

Happy birthday my friend
Here's to all the years we've shared together
All the fun we've had
You're such a blessing
Such a joy in my life
May the good Lord bless you
And may all your dreams come true

So light a candle on your cake
For every smile you've helped create
For every heart and every soul
You've known to grow a little more
A few more pounds, a little more grey (=p)
Don't count the years just count the way
It takes a little time to go from water into wine
Don't ever lose the wonder of the child within your eyes

Happy birthday my friend
Here's to all the years we've shared together
All the fun we've had
It's such a blessing
Such a joy in my life
May the good Lord bless you
And may all your dreams come true

happy birthday my dear fren.. =) now u can open the envelope.. =)

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Saturday, August 09, 2008 ( 7:58 AM )

Henry Lamer and the Chronicles of Taiwan: Prince Lamer

hi everyone.. i am back with more photos to show u guys from my trip in taiwan. so on to my second day.. as part of the tour package, the second day is the only day that involves a guided tour. so we followed a tour guide to several places in taiwan(duh!) one of which was the memorial hall of another founding father of taiwan. eh.. i dunno wat is it called in english and i dunno what are the characters for chinese so u all can juz guess the name from the photos..

the entrance..

superman..

so.. i decide to make a run for the building all the way at the back of the compound, which is the main building..

and got stopped by the door.. anyway, the building is super big..

after that, we went to another memorial hall, which is basically for all those war time heroes that died for the country.. my super knowledgeable dad actually rmbed some of them from sch lessons..

thats the entrance..

and some of the erm.. tablets..

den after that.. we went to a national park kinda thing, where u get to see a lot a lot of natural erosion of rocks..

rock shaped like taiwan..

gorilla..

super a lot of rocks..

turtle..

the next one is one of the most famous rocks here.. they say it looks like a queen's head.. but after years and years of visitors, they say her neck became skinnier..

this one is the fairy's shoe.. they say anyone who can wear this shoe can live up to a hundred years.. and i will throw in another one million dollars if anyone can do that..

this one is the candle head.. though the tour guide tells us that japanese says it looks like erm... nipple..

thats an elephant..

gorilla again at a closer look..

back view of gorilla which i think looks like the thinker..

and all these are mushroom heads..

den after that.. we got on the bus and went to jiu fen.. a scenic area near the sea.. ok.. that's not helping much.. but anyway, its a popular tourist spot wif lotsa gd food and souvenirs to buy..

one of the famous food there is the balls.. er.. i mean like fish ball, meat balls and etc.. there are about six types, and one the meat ball is the size of half of my fist.. scary.

den another famous food there is the erm.. yam pearls.. there's both hot and cold and different flavours.. highly chewy.. so me and my dad took quite a long time to finish.. but its pretty nice.. =)

one of the scenic points..

den after jiu fen.. we went to several shops.. one of them sells ling zhi and bee syrup.. one sells feng shui amulet, which i was busy laughing when the feng shui master was talking bout all the feng shui stuff.. .and the last one was one tat sells a lot of tidbits.. like pineapple tarts, some nice biscuits and everything.. den after that, the rest of the tour grp went to shi lin night market which we went ytd.. so we decided to go another night market.. called the Rao He Night market.. simply means the night market around the river..

it is not as big as shi lin.. but the food is still as aplenty.. and of the food i ate was the SUPER GIGANTIC ICE BOWL!!

at first i tot it was pretty expensive.. at around NT120.. but when i saw the portion, den i knew why.. it is like half my head.. wow.. and my dad ordered an even bigger one..

like wow.. my dad only ate the fruits.. he gave up on the ice.. and after finishing my ice bowl, i couldn't eat anything else.. my dad cud still eat some rice in a bamboo..

i also bought doraemon's fav food..

i also saw this super cool thing.. u know in singapore, there are those play rides thing where by u put coins inside t\den it will move for awhile? guess wat? i saw a mobile version..

cool heh? haha..

due the the extremely long walk from the nearest mrt station to the night market, we had a very long walk.. and i saw quite a few interesting things.. like..

i guess macdonald's need to diversify..

and i also notice that taiwan's traffic lights last extremely long.. i mean the green light.. so i guess it muz be becoz of the elderlies.. how considerate.. unlike some other country..

and the little man below moves..

the longest i saw was 90 seconds.. wow.. and also, the most common form of transport in taiwan is..

and the most popular form of tidbits is..

ok la.. i guess thats enuff for now.. my browser flooded with pictures already.. stay tune to the next episode of THE CHRONICLES OF TAIWAN..

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Saturday, August 02, 2008 ( 10:12 PM )

Henry Lamer and the Chronicles of Taiwan: The Food, The People and The Country

hi guys! as promise(after a very long time), i am finally back to blog about my taiwan trip.. but for those of u who survive till now, u muz have realise there are plenty of pictures.. thats why the browser took so long to load.. haha.. but before i start the chronicles.. juz want to share something with u guys..

Myths or truths?

Myth #1
Its said that taiwan girls, on average, are considerable prettier than Singaporean girls. From many popular variety shows, it can be seen that that seems to be true.

Henry thinks:
From personal experience, yes.. there are quite a few pretty girls seen walking on the streets of taiwan. HOWEVER, as we know, everyone have different opinions of what is pretty and wat is not.. and furthermore, singapore have quite a few pretty girls too.. and it really depends where u go..

Verdict: Myth unsolved

Myth #2
It is said that taiwanese food are super nice and cheap. and u can find it all over taiwan.

Henry thinks:
hmm.. taiwan food is nice.. yup.. and some is simply superb.. whereas for price, i have to say its pretty reasonable too.. especially when i saw the portion.

Verdict: Truth

Myth #3
It is said that betel nuts and leaves, one of the most popular tidbits eaten by taiwanese, is often sold by pretty and hot girls dressed in skimpy clothings.

Henry thinks:
out of the so many stalls i see selling betel nuts, only ONE is sold by so called pretty and hot girls. and i do not think it shud be sold by them either, coz it is wud be bad for kids.. anyway, most of the stalls are tended by middle age man or woman.. so ya..

Verdict: MYTH!

so now, on with the chronicles..

me and my dad landed at taiwan at around 1300 on 14th july. upon reaching the airport, i saw some security guys with some dogs doing patrol. but i couldn't take a gd enuff photo.. den after that, i tried to find the name of the airport and take a picture of it. but i failed again.. so i contented myself by taking a picture of this funny sign..

correct me if i am wrong coz i do not believe that there is such a word called "greeters"..

anyway, after leaving the airport, a tour guide came to fetch us to our hotel..

so me and my dad rested in the hotel while we consulted my maps and guidebooks as to where to go. so finally, we decided to travel to a nearby mrt station at Longshan Temple. so it was a 10 minutes walk there.. and at the basement, and the first floor, they had a food court kinda thing.. so i decided to try my first taiwanese food..

thats erm.. 鲁肉饭.. which is basically rice with braised pork, or in this case, minced pork. i ask for an egg. so the total price adds up to around NT60. oh ya, SG1=NT22.1. so do the calculation urself yeah? and in addition to that, i had..

green beans with ice.. which is basically like ice kachang in singapore.. juz that less colour.. haha.. its pretty gd. simple but nice..

so after i am done with that, me and my dad proceeded to the mrt station.

dun u agree it looks very similar to singapore's version?

and that is their whole mrt line..

and their barrier is quite different from singapore's..

and this, is their train...

if u notice, those red lights on the floor.. those lights flashes red once the train is about one minute away.. neat stuff..

so after about 15mins train ride, we reach the memorial hall..

if u can see the words on top, it says, 国父纪念馆..

that statue at the back is Sun Yat Sen.. and he has his own guards..

from wat i know, hourly, there will be a change of guards, between the navy, army and the air force.. something like this..

i'll be posting some videos at the end of all my taiwan entries, one of which includes the change of guard. so if u are interested, do check on this blog every once in awhile and pray hard i will update.

and so, me and my dad took a quick tour around the memorial hall.. plenty of documents on sun yat sen, plus a few items that belong to him and commemorate him.. one of the item that caught my interest was this..

in the card below this object, it says, "Wallet". so i was thinking in terms of size, mr sun's wallet beat every girls' wallet in this world hands down.. no fight..

so after visiting the memorial hall(i also happen to see people dancing break dance outside the memorial hall.. i guess dance is an international language.. maybe i shud dance at lim bo seng memorial hall one day.. =p), me and my dad decided to visit Din Tai Fung, one of the most famous exports from taiwan. some of u shud have heard it too. it is a restaurant famed for its Xiao Long Bao, a very delicious type of bun. However, singapore's version of Din Tai Fung disappointed me greatly. but after haering great reviews from my frenz who came to taiwan before, i decided to give it a try..

and guess wat? the reviews weren't wrong. IT IS SUPERB. it is super nice!! comparable to those found in shanghai.. it is so nice that i was too busy eating and nearly forgot to take a picture of it.. nice and cheap.. for 10 buns, the price is around NT100 if i nvr rmb wrongly..

i also had some siew mai..

which are also very nice.. though its made different from those u see in hong kong dramas.. juz by looking at the picture i am salivating already.. *day dreams*

after we are done with this sumptuous meal.. we finally head down to the famous Shi Lin Night market..

doesn't seem a lot of people rite? coz i took the photo at the entrance, inside, it is too freaking squeezy.. super a lot of people, even though its only monday nite.. me and my dad didnt really buy much, coz we had too much in the afternoon.. haha.. so we had only one drink and juz walk around..

after that, we went to the other side of the night market, consisting of food stalls only..

yup.. also pretty crowded.. there, i had an omelette with fried oyster, which is said to be pretty famous too..

i tot it was juz ok only.. not say very nice.. so a bit disappointed.. but one thing gd about it is that they included veggies inside. so u wun feel so guilty while eating it.. haha.. my dad had some squid thing..

that was also ok.. quite special..

oh ya, i nearly forget.. i managed to try the very famous gigantic chicken cutlet which this nite market is famed for. i actually tried it a few days later coz i was too full on monday..

if u notice, the chicken cutlet is as large as my face!! and i took 10minutes juz to finish it!! and it got bones too.. but i muz say, its quite good..

back to monday, so after strolling the nite market, me and my dad went back to our hotel to get some rest. to ease my guilt of eating so much, i did some sit ups.. and their television channels are so numerous, i was afraid i might explode the tv by changing too many channels..

anyway, and at that, i end my first day.. as u can see, the entry is SUPER loooooong.. so i shall leave the rest for another day.. stay tune! more interesting stuff will be coming up.. especially nice sceneries.. see u soon!!

Maybe the timing
Is beating our hearts; We're Empty

{/miscellaneous --

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