20140215 My Fair Lady

K watched another musical.  This time, it is My Fair Lady.  This is her third full-fledged musical, after Wicked and Phantom of the Opera.

20130809 Phantom of the Opera







 The phantom of the opera tickets!

 

K was very happy to go there.

 

 

We can sit on seats A28 and A29.

 

 

Place  : Marina Bay Sands Grand Theatre











 

This is the cast signboard.

 

 





Look! So many masks and roses plus a rabbit. Ha ha.

 

 



 

 

 

Don't forget to see the small words.





After the chandelier goes up it is....

 

like this!



Hot dog with bread yum yum. Have a nine day. 

20130610 Taiwan Day 9 - leaving Taipei for Singapore

Last day in Taiwan.

 

 

Po po said that she would never want to go on long trips again.

 

K said that she would never want to go to the mountains again (after she threw up).  Even the idea of seeing snow in the mountain does not tempt her.

 

 

We had a leisurely breakfast at Keymans Hotel before we checked out.

Me spreading butter on my bread!



Do you know how did the coffee turn into light brown?  First, the coffee was dark brown.  Secondly, mommy poured the creamer into the coffee.  Thirdly, after the creamer had mixed with the dark coffee, the coffee became ...... light brown coffee!

Charlie felt uncomfortable the moment we left the hotel (well, at least the kids took turns to feel sick.  Imagine if they all fell sick together! :P).  So while the rest of us went for lunch at this small eatery in the Taipei station (where the Kuokuang buses were), yi yi had to let Charlie rest and brought her bread for lunch as she had no appetite.

Mommy bought tickets for the return express bus to the airport.  Luckily for us, this time round, there was no timing for the bus (we could take any bus so long as we had the tickets) as Charlie had to go to the toilet in the last minute!

At the airport, Charlie felt hungry again and si yiyi , yy and Charlie went into one of the Chinese restaurants along the corridor to our departure gate.  The restaurant served food very promptly and they later declared to us that they had eaten the most delicious meal in the whole Taiwan trip (ahhh..irony!)

The plane took off in the afternoon.  While we pre-ordered the meals for gong gong and po po (mutton redang.  Thank goodness mommy did not order for everyone!), we ordered instant noodles (the menu showed that they have Haagan Daaz on selected flights but sorry m'am, not this flight) and (no prize for guessing the right answer), K felt asleep after that and did not wake up until the plane almost landed.


Me on the plane going back to Singapore



Me on the plane, closed the window, didn't even open the window, asked for the shawl, closed my eyes and went to sleep. Then, it was nighttime, I woke up. Yeah! It is the end of the Taiwan holiday and we were back in Singapore!

When we landed in Singapore, we discovered that our luggage was badly damaged.  Unfortunately Jetstar Asia did not compensate damaged luggage and so we had to see what the insurance company said.  A not-so-pleasant ending in an otherwise good and fun trip.

20130609 Taiwan Day 8 - Cingjing Swiss Garden

Day 8 - our last day in the mountains

 

We had breakfast in Misty Villa.  The breakfast is very sumptuous (porridge, bread, sunny-side up, different kinds of juices, hashbrown) - yummy!

The whole family having their breakfast



Me having my breakfast

After breakfast, we went back to Swiss Garden to look at the garden during the daytime.


Me in the Swiss Garden.  The windmills are in different colours



 Me with the ducks



Me with the fountain.  The fountain was not as beautiful as the night before because there were lights but now they don't have lights.  I know why.  Because at night if they didn't on the lights, how could the people see the water?



Me with the windmills.  I think I saw purple, orange, pink and blue



Me with the heart.  It looks like I am killing a heart but it is not real.  It's only a fake heart.



Me on the Swiss road to the other side

We arranged for another car to pick us up upon check out to bring us to Taichung.

On the way down, K felt nauseous.  Luckily, she managed to wait until the car stopped at the road side before she threw up.  (this was the only time that she did not sleep in a public transport when she was in Taiwan.  No good right?)

Rewarded her with doraemon mini-cakes after that. :P


Me on the bus ride but then, I feel like throwing up so mommy bring me down the bus and let me vomit first then let me eat some Doraemon cakes.

We reached the Taichung HSR station.  They have regular trains to Taipei so we went for lunch before we bought the train tickets.  The lady, upon noticing that Mommy was buying tickets for the elderly, assigned us seats there were close to the lift that went to the platform so that the elderly do not have to walk far.  It was little gestures like this that made our Taiwan trip pleasant.



Me feeling really coldddddd in the restaurant



Our HSR 1162



I was still cold.  When I was in the train station, there was somebody who received some toys

There was a lady selling souvenirs on a push cart on the train and gong gong bought train toys for the kids.  Thank you gong gong!



Me, Charlie and yy in the train



Me in the train and I got a toy train finally the second last day before leaving Taiwan

We went back to Keymans Hotel in Taipei.  That night, we went for shopping spree at the Li Yi branch in the basement of Taipei Main station.  Mommy alone bought more than 6kg of Li Yi goodies *droooollll*

20130608 Taiwan Day 7 - Cingjing Sheep Farm

The next day, we had breakfast at Starry House.  As it was the lunar first day of the month, the owner arranged for po po to have vegetarian breakfast so her bread came without the bacon that the rest of us have.  She also had extra vegetables.  Good service!

 

A view from the courtyard of Starry House.  Doesn't it remind you of some beautiful beach resort? :P





Popo eating her breakfast at the restaurant close to Starry House



Me and mommy eating our breakfast



Charlie, yy and si yiyi eating their breakfast

The night before, we had made arrangements with our next minsu.  Their staff would come and collect our luggage while the owner of Starry House would arrange for a driver to bring us direct to the Cingjing Sheep Farm.

We thought that it would be  a cold and windy day (from our previous day's experience) and dressed the kids in warm clothing.  Oh boy, were we badly mistaken.




Me with the zebra.  The zebra has flowers on his body.  Anyway, a real zebra does not have grass on its body.

Cingjing Sheep Farm turned out to be a hilly area stretched over a large area.  We had to walk quite a distance from the entrance to the sheep show and po po gave up and chose to sit under a tree instead.

The rest of us sat in the seats in the show area (they closed the gates to area even before the show started but being thick skin, we climbed in :P) but there was no shelter and it was a cloudless sunny day with hardly any wind.

Halfway during the show, Charlie could not take it anymore and nearly fainted and Si yiyi had to carry her out of the show area to sit under a tree.  After a while, yy said that he felt uncomfortable too and went for the same tree. 

After the show ended, gong gong, mommy and K went to look for the three of them and we went in search of po po who was happily sitting under a tree (with a good view of the show below LOL!)


The people on the show shaving the sheep. I did not know that instead of using a scissor to cut off the wool, we can also use the razor to shave the sheep.

Mommy went back to the shop to buy many cold drinks and also ice cream made of sheep's milk and cow's milk.


Me from the sheep show and I have to climb way, way, way high to get away from the staircase.  How long.

We rested for a long time under the tree, taking the time to enjoy the scenery and the ice cream.  Si yi yi does not like the ice cream made of sheep's milk though.


The whole family under the tree.  Anyway, during the sheep show, Charlie has a heatstroke so we went under a tree to wake up Charlie.



Me with the house and the houses have sheeps and it is a rubbish house.




Me with my ice cream.  There are two flavors.  The flavors : sheep and cow. 

The kids regained their energy after a while and started to pose for photos.



Me, Charlie, yy and si yiyi under the big tree




Me and Charlie




Me and mommy on the rocks



Me and popo sitting on the rocks

After that, we went back to the shop near to the entrance and bought souvenirs.  Popo and gong gong also tried out the piping hot sheep's soup (yang rou tang) as they were hungry.  There was a very limited choice of food there (like, 2 choices?).


Me in front of the fence.  Behind the fence is a beautiful garden and behind the beautiful garden is ....people!

There were vending machines all around the place selling pre-packed sheep food and the kids had a wild time feeding the sheeps.


Me feeding a sheep.  The sheep is so cute!



Me with a funny fluffy cotton wool with a face.  The sheep is not real.

After that, the kids started to get hungry and we bough the only other food option there - hot dog.  The hot dog was fried in dough and the dough was so hard (perhaps it was fried many times?) that it was impossible to bite.


Me with the lamb that Charlie was feeding just now.



Me with the sheep.  The signboard will show the time for the next show.

It was only after we had started walking that we realized that the whole area was huge!  All in all, we walked at least three hours before we reached our next minsu.

There was a 'hawker center' after the 'sheep area' and we went for lunch.  There were many stalls selling fried food and fruits.


Me with a bigger windmill and on the way we found some windmills but this is bigger.

To our horror, there was one part which we had to go down 487 flights of steps!!!! There was an alternative, a windy slope which the staff said was a longer route, but we decided to take the stairs as we had no idea how much longer was the slope.

When we were going down, we saw some tourists coming from the opposite direction - climbing up 487 flights of steps! Mommy really pitied them!

And of course we had to take photos at the end to prove that we went down 487 flights of stairs.  Po po's toes even cramped halfway!


mommy put the circle around the 487.  It's not me! Me, Charlie and yy on the floor with the 487 in the white oval.

 

Gong gong with the upside down 487.  The shape is a rectangle!



Popo with the upside down 487.  The shape is a star!

After the stairs, we had to walk along a road for another half an hour or so before we reached this junction where we saw a 7-11 (yeah civilization).  To our relief, our next minsu was across the road, though we had to walk uphill to reach it.  Again, no lift (played scary music)!

The owner of this minsu, Misty minsu, told us beforehand to call them so that they could use the buggy to fetch the old folks, but we walked up to the reception instead.  As the rooms are on the hillside, they arranged for the buggy to send the old folks, Charlie and K to the rooms while the rest of us took the stairs.  It could be due to the thinner air in the mountains but those flight of stairs took mommy's breath away (not in the good way).



Me in my new hotel room.  Popo is already sleeping and there is one bed with one pillow and another bed with two pillows.

Po po decided not to go for the hehuanshan sunrise tour the next day as she was very tired and Mommy whatsapps and email to cancel the activity.  To her surprise, the staff called back, and when requested, offered to drop by later to return the deposit! Kudos for good service!

After a nap, we went to the nearby Carton Box for dinner. Everything there was made of carton, including the tables, chairs and cups!


We all at the Carton King restaurant.  Everything is made of paper but not the cup and the food.  How funny.



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Me with the paper cow



Me with the paper man fishing on a boat



Me pretending to be Santa Claus riding on a white reindeer

After that, we went to the Swiss Garden which was next door.  We had bought two adult tickets from the owner of Misty Villa but there was an ongoing promotion which allowed us to get free tickets after spending a minimum amount at Carton King.

We were also told that we could come back to Swiss Garden the next day as we entered the place a night.  Bet our local tourist spots are not like this!



Me doing my star jump




Showtime for their musical fountain




Me in the Cinderella pumpkin and in the story of Cinderella, her fairy godmother changed the pumpkin into a coach and she changed the mice into horses




Me and Charlie in the pumpkin coach.  The pumpkin is like this - so I know that the carriage is turning back into a pumpkin and the horses are going to change back to mice!

After that, we went back to the minsu and zzzzz ......