Oct 2017: Taipei (^^)

Bismillah...

My Taipei trip still feels like a dream to me. I've been obsessed with G-Dragon since BigBang's MADE album and truth be told I was there to catch his final concert for the ACT III: M.O.T.T.E solo tour. But... The ticket sale started on the night we went camping in Melangkap.. The post below~ And it was sold out within 7 minutes!

So I proceeded with the trip but with no plans at all. I was clueless when I didn't get ticket. My traveler's instinct was completely shrouded by the frustration and the only thing that was arranged was my accommodation and the only info that I have about Taipei was how to get to my hostel from the airport. I tried to do a research, but like I said, my traveler's instinct was completely shrouded~

I arrived very late at night and took a bus from Tao Yuan to the Taipei Main Station; bus fare TND 125. And then from there I took a taxi that cost me around TND 140. I was given a self-check in instruction by the hostel but unfortunately I didn't watch the video. I felt guilty for calling up the staff at that hour but they were very helpful throughout my stay.

My first impression that night; Taiwan trip will be a short memorable one

During arrival, a very friendly Malaysian Chinese guy approached me and asked me whether I was alone. When I said yes, he said I shouldn't be worried because Taiwan is very safe and he started telling what are the things I should try during my short stay. And later, I was very impressed by the politeness of the airport staffs and also the friendly taxi driver. 

I woke up quite late the next morning and of course with nothing in mind. I already knew some of the places that are doable on a daytrip but back home I just couldn't connect the transportation between the points that I wanted to go to. I found it is always easier to connect the dots once you've arrived at the country itself.

At 9am, I forced myself to get up from bed, take a shower and off to Pingxi!

The pic above is my EasyPay card that I bought at the 7E just next to my hostel. I was surprised to see how fancy the designs were and they actually had a GD limited edition too! But it's all sold out~ Damn~

This one cost me TND 150 without any credit inside. The normal card cost around TND 100 which is also with no credit inside. So I don't mind paying more as this is a very cute souvenir as well. The good thing about using this is, you can get discounts on the public transport! I bought TND 500 on the first day and I only topped it up on the last day because my credit was a bit short for the airport bus.

To me the public transport in Taiwan is very efficient and I had no problem moving about from one place to another. The only thing that I didn't figure out was when to touch my EasyPay on the scanner. Sometimes it was when you board the bus but sometimes when you alight the bus. So when there was no one infront of me for me to emulate, I occasionally get a "NO!!!!" from the bus driver when I wanted to scan my card hahaha 

Don't be deceived by the empty alleys in my pictures. Pingxi was jampacked with tourists when I was there and these pictures were quickly taken as it was cleared from crowds. It was only a matter of seconds for it to be swarmed with people again after that.

I love how the old fashioned buildings are very well maintained. For a moment it felt like I was walking in a chinese kungfu movie set. However, there weren't so many food stalls and restaurants in this area. Most of them were souvenir shops and also those selling lanterns. It was hard for me to decide which lantern shop to go, but I'd mistakenly chosen si pacik nda-berapa-banyak-ambil-gambar hurm~ Although I actually observed the paci2 first when they were with their customers on the railway. But the paling-rajin-ambil-gambar pacik took so long on the railway that I couldn't wait to see which shop he will go back to.

The prices are all the same in every shop, so I guess it's the service that they provide that distinguishes them. Tips: Observe for paci paling-rajin-ambil-gambar

Each of the colour represent something. They will give you an A4 cardboard describing what they mean and the choice of combination. I thought a monochrome lantern was rather boring so I opted for the 4 colour lantern which cost me TND 200. The monochrome was TD 100.

These bamboos were hanged at the train station

I took the Pingxi line train to get to Ruifang where I can get the bus to Jiufen. Actually, there is a train that connects Pingxi with Jiufen. However it was not the best option for me at that time because the travel time of that train is around 5 hours while it will only take around 15-20 minutes by bus from Ruifang. The train was really full from the start and worsened when more tourists board the train in Shifen. My face was literally pressed on the window! To be honest, it was not comfortable but I felt lucky that I decided to stand next to the window instead of standing at the aisle. I was really surprised to see how scenic the journey was. There were hills, gorges and waterfall along the way. But I didn't take any picture because it was so crowded that I couldn't even slip my hand into my pocket to reach for my phone (^^") And ya, I loved it when we passed Shifen too; shoppers were waving at us outside and ya I waved back lol

 I waited for about half an hour for the bus to Jiufen in Ruifang. And when I got there, the crowd was even worse. It was like everybody that was in Pingxi and Shifen also planned to end the day in Jiufen. The old town was brightly lit with lights and lanterns so it made this place look very happening. There were a lot of street food but I didn't try any because it was either the seafood is placed exactly next to non-halal food or the line was too long that I don't think I can wait.

At the end of my day in Jiufen I met a very friendly Korean girl named Leya and we waited for the bus together and sat next to each other on the bus. We exchange emails and I hope I can see her during my next trip to Seoul (^^) Yes! I'm going back to Seoul, InshaAllah...

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Trip Kak Long: Melangkap Campsite Aug 17

Bismillah...

During our trip to Sipadan, we decided to have at least a monthly activity. So to keep the momentum up, I quickly suggested a camping trip to somewhere in Kota Belud, which was about an hour drive from KK. I saw bff RM posted her hiking and camping pics on IG and asked about the details. It was nearby and very cheap, so why not?

I made a booking with the campsite right away and confirmed the hiking (which was organized by another party) about a week before our camping date. There were 3 packages and it was very hard for us to choose. But, it was raining throughout the week and we were left only with one accessible hiking trail so we end up doing the '4 in 1' package.

For the second time, we started with dramas. I can't find chicken wings to marinate the night before!!! I searched in all supermarkets around Putatan which usually have fresh chicken wings but there were NONE when I needed them the most. We were late the next day because I had to rush to Tamu to get some. The good side of it, the chicken wings in Tamu were so0o0o0 big!

AS had to back off at the last minute because he had food poisoning and to make matters worse; the bridge that connects the main road to where our hike starts was badly damaged and the village's cell tower was struck by lightning the night before and we can't contact our guide that morning.

At first, we were really clueless of how to get ourselves to the other side. NN approached one of the worker that was repairing the bridge and he let us through! Surprisingly, the bridge was already 'straightened' that evening after we finished hiking. But I thought it was scarier that evening when we had to slowly slide our feet on the steel slab thingy with nothing to hold on. At least when it was  tilted, we have the handrails to hold on to.

Our next challenge was to find our hiking guide. EVJ and I went to a villager's house to ask and this pakcik was kind enough to bring EVJ to where the guide's HQ was located with his motorcycle. Fortunately, the guide was also looking for us. The guide and EVJ passed each other not long after this pic was taken so EVJ went back to us and we rode the guide's 4WD to the starting point.

I don't have pictures of the trail but THE TRAIL WAS AWESOME!!!!! I highly recommend you to try it. It's easy, you don't have to train or be fit to be able to do it. The special thing about it is the surprising encounters along the way. We were told there will be caves along the way so in my mind it might be the ordinary caves like those I went into before. But actually these caves were big boulders that have narrow openings underneath them; big enough to fit an adult. The first one had water flowing in it, but we were able to keep ourselves dry because we were walking on rocks. But there was no way to stay dry at the second one, we had to squat walk under the boulder with the water at neck level and at the end of this one were 2 small waterfalls! The third one was the narrowest of all that we were crawling inside. The largest was the last one.

Happy faces post hiking!

Showing off our certificates

We had lunch at the last waterfall where there was a nice hut with a table and benches made of bamboo. We spent an hour dipping at the waterfall and also sliding down a rock slab. Hehe we actually saw this kid splashing water on the slab and later sliding down on it. Jealous pulak!

I don't have pics of us setting up the tent

It was a wise decision to set up our tents after the hike since it rained while we were hiking. If we did, our tents might have been wet when we got back. We were busied setting up our stuffs that we don't have pictures. Most of that night's moments were recorded in short videos on IG.

We divided our tasks beforehand; siap ada AJK! We had chicken, prawn and lamb bbq that night and they tasted soooo good because it was left for so long. And we also had carbonara spaghetti because that was the easiest one I could think of. We were already tired that night so we just star gaze and chat after dinner.

Our breakfast prepared by by AJK breakfast! A huge and delicious one indeed~

DC, our AJK Game, brought a different game for this trip and below is a picture during briefing. We look so attentive, don't we?

In this game, each of the player will be given roles based on the card that they picked. Two of the players will be the Werewolves and the rest will either be villagers or special beings with powers. The Werewolves will pick who they want to kill while all the others close their eyes. And then when everybody open their eyes, they have to decide who are the two wolves.

It was so funny playing with them. Ada roh2 yang tak tenang... sudah kena bunuh pon mengganggu permainan hahahaha

Another dip in the river before we head back home. Akinabalu hidden behind those clouds

Counting weeks until the next one, inshaAllah!

The contact for Melangkap Polumpung Campsite

012-871 5576 (Whatsapp)

Although you can just walk-in but it's better to book in advance especially if you have stuffs that you want to rent from them like the canopy or bbq set.

For the guide, NariouCraft and Eco Tourism-  014-572 0134

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Trip Kak Long: Sipadan Jul 2017

Bismillah,

After 3 years, I finally went back to Sipadan with a new bunch of friends. It was not that difficult to arrange the trip since I'm already familiar with the flow and I'm so happy that these peeps were such a sport that we had a great laugh throughout the trip.

It was just the same as my previous trips to Sipadan; arrived Friday night, 3 dives on Saturday and snorkeling on Sunday since we took the last flight on Sunday night. I still want to put this on my blog because it was such a great trip that we straight away planned a camping trip in August.

O ya, we applied the RM 1 penalty to anyone who initiated conversation about work and this worked well! This proves that we are actually still able to connect with each other without talking about work fuuuhhhh....

When we arrived that morning

Luckily we took this picture quickly during registration upon arrival. DC and LH had a really bad motion sickness after our first dive and we had to wait for them to get a little better before we continue our next dive.

When they got better... Pink again~

UNO Spin

AJ insisted for DC to bring this game over and it definitely added more fun to this trip! We were, perhaps, the noisiest group that weekend. None of us knew how to play it that we spent about 20 minutes to figure it out and once we did, all of us switched on our competitive mode except for AJ! Hahaha 

On our last day

The current was very strong on both days. On the last day, I was pushed to the bottom of the boat and was stuck there for a few seconds. I tried to kick myself away from the boat and had to do it a few times before I succeed. I was already thinking of releasing my life jacket since I was running out of breath. Luckily during that last kick, one of the DM saw me struggling and pulled me away from there. 

Back to Semporna safely

 Manage to safeguard my skin to minimal damage hehe thank you Korean beauty products! Z treated us with scrumptious seafood before our departure; like the most delicious ever! All of them took the picture of the restaurant's signboard because it was so good, they wanted to come again.

(^^)v

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