Taiwan Trip - Part 1

Hi to those who have been following my blogs. You must been wondering what has happened since my last update more than a year ago. Well, a great deal of things has taken place – change of jobs and in fact in the past 14 months, I have also been to 3 fantastic places. In March 07 (before the crackdown), I had the opportunity to tour Yangon, the capital city of Myanmar. Then with my family in June 07, we toured the Hunan province of China and viewed the mesmerizing scenery of Zhangjiajie (I have tendency to describe it as a ‘Paradise’) and the most recent, a round-island tour of Taiwan (December 07).

Well, let me share with you the great time that I experienced during the recent 9-days Taiwan tour. This trip is the most memorable and enjoyable one that I had ever been to. Why is it so? Taiwan, of course didn’t promised sceneries better than China. Shopping is not cheap either as compared to China or Hong Kong. In this trip however, I had a wonderful chance to tour with 2 of my best ex-colleagues of more than 16 years. Unlike in the past, my family traveled in tour packages with strangers and naturally, it took longer to get to know new friends in the same tour. This time around, the tour members are known to each other and as a matter of fact, a get-together dinner was organized a couple of days before the start of our tour. In addition, we had arranged with the tour agent to dispense with the tour leader. This way, we enjoyed some rebate in our fares and at the same time, had the opportunity to experience life as a tour leader too. Of course, we had some prearrangement to tailor the itineraries to our needs such as doing away with some meals so that we can taste the local delicacies which is highly featured in Taiwanese entertainment programme. The final day was allocated for free and easy tour of Taipei capital city on our own. We had an unexpected windfall when our Malaysian’s tour agent called to notify that we are unable to return as scheduled due to some flight complications. After some negotiations, we settled for return flight from Kaoshiung the next day and as compensation, we were provided an all-paid-expenses for accommodation in Kaoshiung, 3 meals, bullet train ride from Taipei to Kaoshiung and a visit to a theme park featuring world’s major landmarks in miniatures sizes for all 17 of us.