I was supposed to be heading to Europe to spend Christmas snowboarding in Switzerland, drinking mulled wine on NYE in Amsterdam and some New Year's time with my relatives in England. But then Paypal decided to screw things up when I made payment for the accommodations and other packages.

Turned out Paypal not only withdrew said money, they did this TWICE, they also lost the transaction history and the money never arrived at the merchant's hands. Which rendered the bank account almost empty upon my return from Japan for almost 4 months without the case being resolved.

Though it was this time family matters arise so I decided it would be a good idea to just cancel the entire trip and stay in the country to spend the remaining of the year, much to my dismay at first.

But I was glad I was able to spend Winter Solstice with my family, which I have missed several years in a row now.

And on Christmas Eve, I hosted a Christmas Party at my place with friends, some old some new.



There was some traditional Christmas meals like Turkey, mash, Sangria, cookies sausages, and not so traditional food like Dominos.


My awesome mash which was so buttery and creamy it would clog your artery. Ho~ ho~ ho~. But it was so gooood.


I decorated the tree. Nice or not?
Would be nicer if there was tinsel.

As well as being the host, I was the gamemaster of the night. Hehehe.. Which meant I was omitted from the most punishing kind of games, all of which I thought out myself. :p


Punishment from wear the silliest headwear, get your nails painted (for guys), pole dancing, say a tongue twister with your mouth full, eating a teaspoon of mustard, get bitten, do crunches, eat chocolate from a pile a flour, etc.

And my personal favourite:

Smell an armpit. Laugh can die.

Look at Mike's (guy on right) face.
I would be traumatized too if I were him. lol

It was pretty last minute and till a day before we didn't know how many people were coming so secret santa present exchange was out of the question. But we still wanted to have the fun of opening gifts when the clock struck midnight so we came out with the idea of Recycle Presents.



The idea was simple, we found whatever gifts we could around the house that we might not want any more but might be of good use to others. Each attendee then wrapped the gifts up and placed them under the Christmas tree when they arrived. And on midnight, after popping champagne, we drew names at random and have the person picked his present of his choice from under the tree and have unwrapped it on the spot.

Turned out it was so much more fun and exciting than expected. Of course the presents were separated into three categories: more suitable for female, male or unisex. There were funny ones but lots of better-than-expected presents. It was like having a lucky draw. We laughed so hard and awed at some really amazing gifts.




The three cool kids lol

Thanks everyone for making this party a success!
Will now end this post with a comic strip.

lolol

I stumbled into this cute little boutique in the mountain village of Alishan National Scenic Area. It felt like walking into the world of Alice in Wonderland, surrounded by talking rabbits and cuddly bears and beautifully scented dried flowers and pines. Every turn there's something interesting to look at.

I like how the shop insisted on selling certain amount of things everyday, and once it's sold, you'd have to wait for the next day (for that I'd assume they were regarding to food).












family of bears


You can find the boutique, named Sunrise (in Mandarin), on the sidewalk at the bottom of the stairs leading up to the Alishan train station in the village. 

I can remember the rare few occasions that call for an early rise, they usually involve catching a plane, or getting to a dive spot in fairly distant location.

But in Alishan, sunrise watching is a big thing for tourists. And often visitors would travel between mountains in the wee hours just to catch a glimpse of the first light of dawn.

On my first trip, I went to two sunrise watching. First being the less visited Yu-Shan that's the next mountain away which requires a booking on a tour van to get to, which meant departing from my hotel at 4am in the morning; the second was taking the 'small train' 小火车 up to the peak of Alishan to catch sunrise (which I did on the last day of my stay.



My visit to Yu-Shan was an uneventful one, having the foggy morning didn't help. It was too cold and too early. Turned out we could neither see the sun nor get a refund on the wasted journey. It's always a gamble on trips such as these. But the view has more than made up for it, or so I comfort myself with.


click to view a larger image of this



Between you and me, the trip's worth a shot as there's rarely anything to do in the mountain (no bars, etc) and you usually get to bed pretty early, leaving you wide awake by 4am. It doesn't cost much and you did travel, assumingly, to Alishan to immerse yourself in nature and the park doesn't open till after 8am-ish which you would be back in your hotel by then.

I did manage, however, to see a 2700 year-old cypress tree 鹿林神木 with an impressively wide trunk.

 





It started with a trip that lacked planning. Judging by the phone I owned in the image it should be easy to conclude that it was a trip taken years ago when iPhone was still bulky and had a short battery life. I sat at the front of a van I hitched watching Sex and the City episode as we ascended the slope into Alishan because I missed the last scheduled bus ride at noon.

Travelling alone has its perks, especially in a country like Taiwan where people tend to be extremely protective of a solo Asian female traveller. So I managed my way around half of Taiwan riding on locals' generosity and insistence much to my very pleasant surprise.

(read post on Getting Free Drinks in Taipei Bars)




I was given this delicious odd fruit to try on the van by the friendly driver who was fetching a group of tourists up the mountain, who declared me his cousin so I managed to sit in free, and front seat no less.






On the way up we stopped by half mountain in a place called Eryanping for some photos of the famous "Yun Hai" (translates to: sea of clouds) that's such a novelty in Alishan. Many elegant homestays can be found here for visitors to wake up among the clouds and experience serenity of mountain beauty.











Catching the Sea of Clouds isn't as easy as one thinks, but it's more frequent in certain season than others and not as rare as a clear view of Mount Fuji in Japan (which is only fully visible 20% of the time in a year). So just ensure a longer stay and you'd be rewarded handsomely.





By the time I got to Alishan, it was already nightfall. And like any of my travels, my meals usually consist of food bought from 24 hours mart or 7-11; mostly out of convenience but mainly because I'm not really a picky travel eater.






Besides, isn't instant noodles in Taiwan a sort of local delicacy as well? :p

It was closing on winter when I last visited Alishan, and while it was fairly nice cooling weather in Taipei, it was really cold up in the dense forestry of Alishan National Scenic Area; which I have visited twice since and have extremely fond memories walking alone among thousand-year-old cypress trees. And also Yu-Shan National Park that's not far a drive from Alishan for a beautiful sunrise if you have the time.

 

Taiwan is a food country, and Taipei its food capital.

I've never really been a food person when it comes to travelling, but Taiwan is one of the exceptions (Japan being the other)

But here's a list of some of my favourite food in Taipei. Hopefully I'll be adding more in the future.

Taiwan Beef Noodle


Taiwan is famous for their beef noodle, with its succulent tendon and juicy meat, you can't not try this dish when you visit Taipei.


'yong kang' is among of my favs.


Salted Crispy Chicken (Yan Su Ji 鹽酥雞)


The dish gradually became rather popular over the last half a decade, sold and served in many shops, stalls and restaurants in Kuala Lumpur.

But its origin being Taiwan, it's become a novelty to buy this off the street shops to munch for an afternoon snack.


These street shops normally sell many other versions of deep fried food like this salted-egg-filled deep fried buns.


Bubble Milk Tea
The famous Boba or bubble tea that's taking the world by storm comes from none other than Taiwan.



Though there has been many controversy regarding the health behind this artificial drink, it is SO DELICIOUS. One drink won't hurt, right? Or will it?




My


Now this is a mouthful to say, though in Mandarin it only consists of three words. It's a sinfully delicious crispy pancake/bread (coated with scallion and chive) that's deep fried in a wok-ful of hot oil. You can even choose to pay a little bit extra to add an extra egg to it.

It's my mom's personal favourite, and now mine too.

On a completely random note to abruptly end this post, what do you think of me in bling glasses?

Taipei has one of the most coolest night scenes in Asia, especially for girls.

First and foremost, Taiwanese are friendly. Period.
Not just the guys, the girls are generally very welcoming as well.

I felt that the title is a bit of a spoof since I'm just sharing my experience on my first night out in Taipei. But I did end up loads of free drinks without so much an effort.

On my first evening of arrival in Taipei years ago, I was invited by the host of my homestay, a girl not much older than myself, to a party of her friends in town. It was my first time in Taiwan, and my first time meeting this girl.


on the way to my homestay in a taxi from the airport

My room was a cute space with the tiniest double bed that would be considered as a large single beds in other countries with a very modern en-suite bathroom. Facing the front street, despite my initial fear of noise, it was frankly very bearable well into the night though the school opposite would be an alarm in the morning. Might as well since I had no intention of staying coop up in a room in Taipei.



I didn't come to Taiwan to party, so I didn't even have a proper piece of outfit I could wear out for the night. So I settled with denim mini skirt and skull t-shirt; a scarf to make up for the lack of glam and hopefully enough make up and hair to pass it off as class.



Turned out it was a party for a surprise proposal! I was surprised to be so warmly invited to such a personal party.






The girl said yes. And even showed me her ring. It was such a sweet gesture I didn't know what to make of it being an outsider feeling so welcomed.

And I wasn't the only outsider, another Canadian girl from the home-stay was invited along as well and the boys at the party made sure we didn't feel left out by chatting us up without being sleazy.

Then feeling that we could use some drinks, the Canadian girl and I settled ourselves at the bar counter and ordered ourselves some fancy cocktails, which were really delicious and fancy looking. I was impressed that a bar could present such delicate cocktails that not even the bigger bars in Singapore, Kuala Lumpur or the UK could whip up (not even overpriced Golden Gai in Tokyo could compare); but then again that's as far as my experience on cocktails went.





And surprisingly, we only ordered one drink and the rest was given for free by the bartender (who was cute and friendly), and more drinks were offered by boys from the party which we kindly declined. And none of which made a sleazy move other than chatting us up and asking where we're from, nor did they press for phone numbers had we decline the first time much like the boys back home.



If this was how being single and alone felt like in Taiwan, I would go out partying every night had I lived in the city.

I had my doubt initially regarding the motives behind these generous gestures from random strangers in bars but a week later when I landed in Tainan and wandered into a random bar, I practically became friends with all the staff in the bar over the course of my pizza dinner; who spontaneously invited me out to party with them (two girls and one guy) that night and that weekend. The girls even offered to walk me from my hotel to the club. Though in the end I didn't go because I was never really a clubbing person to begin with, it was a new friendliness I could get used to.

I did end up going to some night market with a Tainanese girl I met in Taipei who was a friend to my host then and showed me around town that evening.



How can you pose on camera in Taiwan without the peace sign? lol. 

What better way to indulge than an afternoon tea filled with sweet delights.

I've once read about the afternoon tea of Mandarin Oriental Bangkok in a magazine and thus a visit has to be made. I was really looking forward to spending a beautiful afternoon with my friends after walking all morning in the famous Author's Lounge, but was offered elsewhere to sit (with a view) because all the seats were taken. So make sure to get your hotel to make a reservation for you a day before to ensure available seats.
























Author's Lounge (image taken from Mandarin Oriental webpage)

There were two sets to choose from: Traditional Afternoon Tea Set and Mandarin Oriental Thai Tea Set. (Both of which were ordered)
Each set came with a choice of tea, coffee or infusion.


refreshing lime sorbet to start your palate engine.






Thai tea set is served with pandan scones and chiffon cake and some other thai fusion and local sweets
(you can refer to the ingredient items in the menu images below)






my favourite panna cotta with berry jam and opera cakes


assorted finger sandwiches to sink your teeth in before diving into desserts.


perfect cuppa creme brulee, torched to perfection


 Four choices of jams from two different set options and balls of butter for the scones; including whipped cream which we've refilled several times.


the stars of the afternoon.

Mandarin Oriental Bangkok's Author's Lounge was getting so famous with their scones that they sold them in package to dining guests and hotel customers, even walk in buyers.

Honestly, after swamping myself in so many sweets, it was difficult to justify the flavor of these scones. But they were delicious, no doubt; fluffy soft and filling texture. Perhaps it would make more sense to savor these simple carbs on their own, hence the separate purchase.

Menus for reference






If you're ever Bangkok on a girls trip, maybe it's worthwhile to consider spending an afternoon in Author's Lounge in Mandarin Oriental.