2010, lots of memories...

Sitting in front of the tv and I was watching the Taiwan live count down concert show, the crowd shouted "6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, Happy New Year!". I was not ready to finish the year of 2010, but it had passed without my sight!

Flash back of year 2010:
January, didn't really want the thing, but almost got it!
February, received incredible invitation!
March, burning books!
April, first round started!
May, very first good news came and invited to the next round!
June, flew for the second round but lost the game!
July, enrolled into the brand new environment and discovered something weird!
August, met a very good buddy!
September, started wondering around and thinking was I in the correct track!
October, my best buddy left and stayed 350km apart from me!
November, got the very first time surgery experience; scary yet relief!
December, went to an awesome trip!

A very rough list! However, year 2010 had been one of the highlights of my life so far! Happy, sad, delightful, sorrow.....that's hell a lot happened in a year!
May the new year brings me more luck and good health! Thank God for the peaceful year 2010, now only I'm ready for year 2011!
Have fun and enjoy the life everyone! Happy New Year!

Love,
Vivienne

Tainan, Taiwan - High Tea

Almost three hours of walking around NCKU, we were extremely tired and hungry! So what's next? Of course it was FOOD! Got up on the scooter and rode to a students food street nearby, in Taiwan, I couldn't miss the pearl milk tea, we bought this extra big size milk tea with extra pearl! Eric also recommended me a crispy fried chicken, the shop is just a few streets down. I was drinking my tasty milk tea while we were waiting for the chicken to be fried, it needed time to get the best crisp, so I waited for 8 minutes. Eric paid for it and I got this almost 8 inches long fried chicken!

Our next destination was to An Ping Old Castle '安平古堡', a 15 minutes drive from the city, even though the sky is getting darker but he insisted to go because of the famous puddings! On the way to An Ping, I was eating the chicken behind. After I gave it the first bite, I think that was the best fried chicken that I had ever tried!!! The skin was SUPER CRISPY, it tasted sweet, a little spicy, and it was not oily at all! I was eating very slowly, didn't want to finish it so fast, until we reached the pudding shop, yet I still had half way to go! Eric laughed and said "I've never seen anyone eating this for so long!". Then I asked him why it tasted so sweet, he said, they actually have few different tastes of powder for you to put on the chicken, and he requested the best taste which was the plum powder! No wonder!!

When we arrived we saw a bunch of people queueing for puddings! Wow! How hot could these pudding should be? So I stood in line! I bought half a dozen of milk pudding and half a dozen of mango cheese pudding, total of a dozen! It came with a box to maintain it's temperature, so I think I should enjoy it after I went back to Kaohsiung, because we had to go to the night market for dinner!

Out of the sudden, Eric remembered that he had to bring me to buy some Ma Chi too! He recommended me AGAIN, the strawberry ma chi! It is not cheap though for a ma chi, but it looked delicious, the whole big strawberry is stuffed inside the ma chi with red beans! Can you imagine?!

Tainan, Taiwan - NCKU

So that was the lunch and Chikan House, we rode to NCKU next! The National Cheng Kung University where Eric is studying, located just next to the Tainan train station. So far, this is the second University that I had visited, NCKU is one of the famous universities in Taiwan. They are famous with their engineering faculty, founded in the 40s, first with only engineering courses, and now expanded to aerospace, medicine, designs, commerce, language, and all the usual subjects!
Thanks to Eric, I got this precious opportunity to step in the NCKU, there are 4 divided campuses, from sceince to medicine, he brought me to every corner of the campus! There's a main library situated in the heart of the University, it was the largest library I've seen so far! Got the visitor pass and walked around the library, it contains 7 levels included the basements, every level has different layout of table settings. If you feel autistic today then you might just go to 3rd floor for a window seat, or need a books surrounded seat then go to 2nd floor! Follow your mood of the day and get to that corner to study! The book shelves are connected to each other with metal rodes, to pretend it to fall during earthquake! How interesting!

This is a University we are talking about! Of course it is HUGE and has these Uni smells! They have a park and a man made lake, there's a freaking huge Banyan tree in the middle of the park! It is almost 110 years old if I still remember! The weather was windy and sunshine, how I wish I could bring some snacks and tea then sit down and enjoy for the whole afternoon! This Banyan tree is actually supported by the Taiwanese Cathay Bank, the bank makes it as a logo of it, so they have to make sure that no one breaks it or ruins it too!

We went into the Mechanical Engineering building, it has 12 levels! He showed me where his classes are, the laboratories, and the lobby. Every building in the University has this net hanging on the second floor, know why? To avoid students committing suicide from the highest floor! How scary! However, he told me that the studies are seriously hard, so it is normal for students to feel extremely stressful too! Gosh...!
We walked to the University Museum too, obviously it contains all historical memories and founded stories. We walked from commerce to the Uni Hospital, engineering until science buildings, in total we had walked for two and a half hours! It was huge, that's all I can describe! I see how the students live in a Uni life, how interesting are the building designs, the Taiwanese culture of studying, the big library, the famous squirrel park, the Banyan, and many else! It was a great walk-around trip in NCKU! I appreciate a lot that I got the chance to visit! it was really nice!

University's life is really great! I couldn't experience that so far, not sure whether I will in the future! Enjoy and have fun with the life in there! Also, wishing Eric could pass everything in the studies and graduate with flying colours!

Tainan, Taiwan - Motor Ride

M had to go for a concert in Kaohsiung on Saturday evening, so I used this opportunity to visit my high school friend Eric in Tainan. The transport in Taiwan is pretty convenient, can travel by bus or railway. From Kaohsiung to Tainan, by travelling with train, it needs about 50 minutes to reach. Since it was a one day trip, I wanted it to be casual and relax, so I woke up quite late and got to the station at noon. Bought the train ticket, car 5 seat 27, thankfully I didn't miss the train!

Eric was expecting me and also planned the whole Tainan one day explore trip, he had also borrowed a scooter from roommate so that we could move around the city! 1213, I got out from the train and looked for the exit, once I got out the station I saw Eric waiting in the middle of the crowd. After few chit chat and greetings, he passed me a cute helmet and we were ready for lunch! Tainan is a small city, more like a country side city, with lots of temples and good food!

The first stall we arrived for lunch was the squid noodle which is quite famous there, the squid was surprisingly sweet and so did the soup! You know that kind of seafood sweet taste?! Also, squid was elastic and huge, it goes perfectly tasty with the garlic-chili sauce, Eric told me he actually ordered the smallest size squid! I don't think that was SMALL?!

After the "light" lunch, we went to see one of the historical buildings, The Chikan House '赤坎楼'. But before that, I wanted to try the famous melon tea near the place, Ah Chuan '阿川冬瓜茶'. This is recommended, should try in Tainan, not that sweet, I like!

So, this is the chamber in the Chikan House. It contains lots of historical stories, want to know more? Get yourself there and find out!

Walked around the place and had lunch, so next destinations are coming up in the next few posts!

Kaohsiung, Taiwan - Rui Feng Night Market

Since we have no "harvest" in Liu He night market, we diverted to Rui Feng instead to get some supper! It was a Friday night, the night market was full of teenagers buying winter clothes as well as queueing for food. When we arrived the MRT station near the night market, we could already smell the food! Imagine how awesome is this night market?! However we were still very full after the hotpot, so we didn't really eat, too bad! Rui Feng has larger crowd and stalls; which are selling food, drinks, clothes (for adult, kids and also dogs!), games and even massage! This was the time I saw so many games set up in a night market and also massage stall/shop?! NTD 100 for a 20 minutes massage, can get one when you are too tired walking around the market place! Niceeee...Walking around, finally I saw something that I wanted to try! Scallion pie! The green onion we have in Malaysia has a choking smell, normally we won't eat a bunch of them because the taste is too strong! But, here in Taiwan, the green onion is so sweet and crunchy! I was amazed! Though it looked very simple, in fact, the pie wasn't oily but absorbed the sweet taste from the stuffing too!
There was one more thing that I tried but forgot to take picture because we were so busy eating, the sweet potato balls! Delicious too!

Christmas Lunch @ Grand Hyatt Mezza 9 Macau

"Remember our X'mas lunch on 25th!", J reminded me one month ago! She did the same one week before the date too! I was so excited for the buffet lunch in Grand Hyatt Macau celebrating Christmas with M, B, Carl and J. Ginger bread, turkey, oysters, more and more chocolate; how could these be missed out in a Christmas buffet?! Started with the typical exchanging presents and wishing everyone a Merry Christmas, then...get up and take FOOD!

From appetizers to turkey ham, butter chestnut then Chinese food; seafood with free flow Chardonnay, finally landed in front of the dessert bar. The ginger bread was delicious! I've never eaten such a nice ginger bread! It's very crispy of course, and the ginger taste was not that strong but still there; the combination was awfully good!

The dessert was actually the highlight of the buffet, everyone was waiting to finish the main course and get themselves into the "chocolate factory"! There was a chocolate cake, it was just pure chocolate and a thin layer of biscuit at the bottom! It was very rich! I actually needed more time to finish the whole thing, bit by bit, let the cocoa melt on your tongue! Délicieux!

Met a new friend that day, Carl., a very sweet girl who wished could set a table and sit in front of the dessert bar!

Raising my wine glass, cheering with each other with the Christmas carol singing behind, awww... I just love Christmas.

Letter to Santa

Dear Santa,

My name is Vivienne, thank you for giving me a great year of 2010, there were happy situations and also heart broken matters. But it has grown me up a little.

In this year's Christmas, I have wishes... still.
I wish I could get a job in the upcoming year;
I wish there's no more natural disaster and bring peace to the world;
I wish my lovely family members have a good health and free from danger;
I wish I can have more friends from all around the world;
I wish I could travel more countries in 2011;
I wish my "dream" would come true!

The list is neither long nor short. Alright then, I'm not greedy, all I want for Christmas is a good health. Thank you Santa. Love you...

Warmest regards,
Vivienne

Kaohsiung, Taiwan - Liu He Night Market

After the dinner, we walked out with satisfaction to the night market. There are two night markets in Kaohsiung, Liu He was the first one we went and it wasn't so attracted to me because it looks very commercial and small. But still, there are selling most of the famous Taiwanese hawker food too.

We were so full after the awesome hotpot, so we didn't buy anything to eat; but I was attached to the papaya milk stall. It looks nice as so many artists and politicians had gone there and signed on the signboard, even though the Taiwan president signed on it three times! So, I think it should be good right?! However, it's not cheap though, it is NTD50 per bottle!

Another stall we noticed was selling hotdogs. Wow! Look at the signatures! But the hotdog didn't look so tempting compared to the signatures though! XD

Kaohsiung, Taiwan - Tripod King Hotpot

First time arrived in RCKH, South of Taiwan, it was really cold on the first day as the weather in Kaohsiung is normally above 15 degree Celsius. However, the first day was about 11 degree Celsius. Anyhow, it was a little windy, me n M were grabbing our jackets tighter until we reached the restaurant! The Tripod King Hotpot!

One of the most famous hotpot restaurants in Taiwan, originally based in Taichung and has outlets in every state in Taiwan. B and M had STRONGLY recommended it to me! So I thought we should go for it for our first dinner in Taiwan in that cold weather!

The restaurant is huge and well furnished, can be fitted with 250 customers. They have a rule which every customer could not be occupied for more than one and a half hour, due to the availability of the tables. Everyday, you would see dozens of people queueing outside the restaurant though they have so many seats and tables!

Normally, the hotpot is perfect to serve with white rice and their special made sauce which are unlimited supplies.

So that is the Hotpot!! The famous hotpot I have heard, it finally appeared in front of me! Reddish oil and the "duck blood" floating up one by one together with tofu. Quickly took a sip of the soup...., "Oh Gosh!"!!
The soup is really nice and a little spicy of course, how to explain..., it's thick, a little sour and sweet! It was good!!

We ordered pork slices, vege, tendon and meatballs. Just to look at the pork, my stomach had told me "just bring it in!".
Put a slice of pork into the hotpot, boiled it for few minutes and it was ready to serve! The pork was very juicy after it boiled with the soup, together with the sauce; it was fantastically GOOD!! One slice of pork + one spoon of rice + one sip of soup = I'm in Heaven!
This is recommended! Please try it out when you are in Taiwan, it's one of the signature dish in the country, especially during winter! I'll definitely be back for just to eat the hotpot! It's so worth it! Thanks to M for the dinner! Two thumbs up! =D

The ID sticker

Snapped this picture when I was chatting with the kids and sisters through msn last week, NL & NX. How cute....! =D

I always want to take picture through the photo machine, make funny faces and expressions then stick it on my phone, purse, books, etc! I just missed the chance when I was in Taiwan last few days, the thing is I didn't see any of the machine along my journey. Sigh......

Winter Solstice

First day of winter in the lunar calender, traditionally, families have to gather around and eat dumpling in the cold weather. This year, woke up in the morning in Taipei, M bought a bowl of dumpling in red bean soup for me, how warm....! Flew back from Taipei to Macau in the afternoon, after we arrived B made us some dumpling with ginger and black sugar. The home made dumpling is always the best!

That reminds me of two years ago, when I was living in the island, I made my own dumpling for the first time. There was no ginger or black sugar, but just flour and white sugar. Since I had the multi-cooker and flour, so I made plenty of dumpling for me and S. It wasn't the best but it tasted "home", I missed home so much. Studying away from home was very new for me in the last few years, first time celebrated this day with non-family members, refreshing yet sad...

Kraze Burger

Spending time alone in M's apartment, it is very hard to find food for one person. Though I wanted to try more stuffs which is always better if I could share with someone, so I went to Venetian Macau to meet M & B for lunch!

A new restaurant came out in the Grand Canal Shoppes-Kraze Burger from Korea, which pronounced as Crazy burger! The meat is always fresh, it will cook once only you place the order, so it takes quite a while to serve too. I forgot what I had ordered that day, but it had bacons, lettuce, tomatoes, pickles, beef and their special sauce with onions. It came with a soft drink and a fries for a staff set lunch, the fries is very nice poured with the bolognese sauce with cheese.

The crispness of the lettuce together with the taste of sourness from tomato, mixed with the juicy beef and a little sweet with the sauce added with a playful little pickle! I'm satisfied!

Wow! I think I'm hungry now! Mmm.... I should go for a second time! Bonn Appetite!

The House of Dancing Water @ The City of Dream Macau

Arrived in MFM on the 11th December 2010, a cloudy Saturday morning with 19 degree Celsius. Finally I could escape from the 30++ degree Celsius Malaysia weather! My sis, M, had bought the tickets to the Dancing Water show few months ago, with 50% discounted, thanks to Ms.C for this good offer. The show was the next day I arrived, which was Sunday night 8pm. I was so excited for this brand new HKD $2 billion production, incredible settings musical directed by Franco Dragone.

The Dancing Water theater is located inside the City of Dream, the stage is actually a 5 Olympic-sized pool with 3.7 million gallons of water! This is an epic love story and spectacular adventures throughout the whole journey which includes lots of special effects, dazzling costumes and record breaking acts never seen before in a theater!

I think it is a must see show in Macau! It was breathtaking, intense and stimulating! An outstanding performance! The price is worth for it!

Request to hold on 5000 feet!

Well, how to say....

I'm currently travelling...

Though I'm tired but still writing this post...

Sitting in front of the desk in Taipei's hotel room...

Met one of my high school friends yesterday in Tainan...

Going to the International Taipei Flora Expo tomorrow morning...

Also, going with a friend from Taichung who I met in Urban Central, Melbourne...

Today is the third day in Taiwan, I still have three days to go; neither long nor short...

Christmas is coming, everywhere is covered with joyful atmosphere; means December is ending...

And, I just want to freeze the time as much as I can; many things happened during the whole 2010, it had passed too fast...

Penang Jazz Festival 2010 - Concert 2

The second concert had arrived, and also the last day of the Jazz Festival Penang 2010! Tonight, I came with different group of friends included my sister! Cloudy and windy in the whole afternoon, we were praying for good weather, rain does not make any fun to the concert though! However, still, we searched through few convenient stores to look for rain coats! Well, this is the last night for the festival, and I went to the previous night’s concert and it was really AWESOME! So, I did set up a level higher of my expectation.

The opening show was a local acoustic guitar player, Roger Wong trio together with Peter Lau on drums and Simon Lau on bass. Very refreshing songs composed by Roger Wong himself, which are really good for opening. He played the song Human Nature by Michael Jackson which is one of my favourite!

Boi Akih from Netherlands sings in Haruku (a Moluccan Languange), the trio consists percussionist Sandip Bhattcharya who play Indian drums, and also a guitarist Niels Brouwer. Of course, most of us did not understand any single word in Haruku, but the harmony and tempo are extremely unique! It drew us into the music immediately!

Azerbaijani Jazz musicians-Rain Sultanov Quartet, created by Rain Sultanov who is a talented saxophone player. Similarly to those classic jazz music, Rain Sultanov plays wonderful music with Elchin Shirinov (Piano), Ruslan Huseynov (Bass) and Ramin Sultanov (Drums). Their performance was really Jazzy, toxicant!

The next band was the PELbO from Norway, a shocking band which surprised everyone with their music! A band consists tuba-Chris Lo, drums-Trond Bersu and vocal-Ine Hoem; they mixed rock and jazz together and also adding tuba in their music. A very different and unique combination of instrument plays hardcore and charismatic jazz! That was a rocking-ly jazz! Lol

The highlight of the concert was this artist who is one of the most respected Australian musician/guitarist; also he has a name being called “The Guitar Wizard of Oz” and a two-time Grammy nominee. This man is Tommy Emmanuel! I can only say he is the God of guitar! He is so damn good and fast in picking the strings, together with the tricks by knocking the guitar. The show was so worth it! He is really Awesome!

The closing show was by the band called Zhan. Joined by the famous Malaysian drummer-John Thomas, Rie Tsuji-Pianist who is currently Beyonce’s pianist/keyboardist and versatile composer/arranger, Saxophone by Nicole Duffel and a Malaysian bass player. Not bad for Zhan, the best player was the pianist, Rie Tsuji is really good and charismatic!

Penang Jazz Festival 2010 - Concert 1

Annually Penang Jazz Festival had arrived in Batu Ferringhi on 2nd until 5th December 2010! This is the 7th festival held in Penang, previously, it had been acclaimed and given favorable comments towards the shows. So, this year, we could go to this great event!

There are concerts, fringe stages, workshops, big band performances, and drum circle in different hotels as well as resorts. Just like any festival, if you favour that band or artist, then you would go to that place for their performances! Which is really fun!
Last night, there was the first festival concert held in Bayview Resort's garden. Including multi-races performers from all around the world! Me and friends went to the show and had a good time!

The opening show was from the Penang Youth Philharmonic Orchestra featuring Ray Rozells and James Boyle.


Floor mat, tibits and beer would be our best friends during the show. It was a 5 hours concert, in order to stand until the end, everyone has to bring a mat so that could sit and relax. Took out the shoes and lied down...accompany with Jazz musics....wonderful!


Us, picture taken before the sunset, while the orchestra was playing, sitting just at the centre from the stage! Fantastic view!


The second performer was Celco Machado from Brazil, a virtuoso Brazilian guitarist, percussionist and composer. Unique rhythm, the mixture of different percussion and interaction with the audience. Simply nice and artistic!


Started to get a little hungry and thirsty, we, bought everyone of us a bottle of Heineken! Ahhhhhh.....a windy evening, sun started to set, Jazz music kept picking up, we cheer for our awesome night!


Next on the list was SC Yun Trio from Korea, Yun is a talented pianist who is the youngest music instructor in a College in Korea; together with Kim In Young(Bass) and Kim Yeong Jin(Drum). From the big screen projected, I saw that Yun's intoxicated play and fingers moving on most of the black keys, his music really caught our attention all the time!


The Electric Barbarian from Europe, initiated by Floris Vermeulen who's from Amsterdam. The band is played by Floris Vermeulen(bass player), Luanda Casella(spoken word), George Pancras(trumpet), DJ Lamont(turntables) and Sabastian Kaptein(drums). This is a very unique combination of music and instruments, I hardly get what they were playing, but felt quite cool though!


The highlight of the evening was the Stouxingers from Germany, an award winning Acapella group! It's mind BLASTING! The members of the Stouxingers are Khatarina Debus, Michael Eimann, Gregorio Hernandez, Karsten Muller, Konrad Zeiner and Thomas Piontek. Six special voices without any instrument, they rocked the stage and blew everyone's mind away! I didn't dare to breathe because I scared I might miss an awesome moment of them! Coolest performance!


Last on the list was the Carefree, a local fusion band contains Pop, R&B and Funk. They formed in the 70s, and today, they re-born with more members and music. The band consisted keyboards, saxophone, electric guitar, drums, bass guitar, trombone, trumpet, and percussion. A very local band which they sang Malay song out of no where in the Jazz concert! However, they brought up the fun level a little towards the end!