Taipei Part 1: The Itinerary

So the countdown ended, I left for Taipei, dc-ed from the rest of the world while I was there, and now I'm back – alive, but not kickin' quite as hard as I'd like to. -_- Tired like hell, wei. Really beh tahan. I need leisurely holidays! Like the kind retirees take, you know? I'm getting too old for this non-stop-travel-here-travel-there nonsense.


Was already having a crazy month and an exceptionally crazy pre-Merdeka week at work. (No kidding. My last day at work was my busiest day. Possibly EVER.) Was insanely tired by the time I hopped onto the bus back to Penang. (Almost missed it, actually. Haha.) Thought I'd finally get my forty winks along the way but mana tau... ended up not getting to catch any sleep at all. Had the rotten luck of running into a bunch of noisy buggers. They talked all the way! And very loudly, too! Plus, it didn't quite help that I happened to be sitting in the same row as two of the noisiest. So suey. ROAR.


Arrived in Penang waaay past midnight and only got home after the clock struck 2. Bathed, washed up, checked Tinki Talks... and then got pulled into an hour-long, ad hoc, over-the-phone counselling session. Updated Tinki Talks one last time before hitting the sack, included a scheduled post for the morning after, then turned off the lights. And the next thing I knew, it was morning. -_-

And I looked like this -----> =_=

Haih. That's it lah. I'm going to look like I've got
Angelina Jolie's lips for eyes in all my Taipei pictures.

Got ready and rushed off to the airport. Collected our tickets from the tour leader, checked-in our luggage, ate a quick lunch at the airport and said 'bye bye' to Penang.


DAY 1 (more like NIGHT 1) IN TAIPEI: After flying the 4 hours plus to Taipei, we took a relatively long bus ride into town. Probably took us a little less than an hour. Ate and shopped at a night market (tell you that story some other time), then checked into the hotel.


DAY 2 IN TAIPEI: Woke up at a ridiculous hour, had breakfast at the hotel, and was on tour the entire day. Almost died. (Again, this story is to be left for another post.)


DAY 3 IN TAIPEI: Free and easy. So many nice-ness! I was made to travel this way. =) Slept at 2:30AM after watching a HBO movie.


DAY 4 (more like MORNING 3) IN TAIPEI: Woke up at 4:30AM, got dug out of bed sometime past 5AM, went down to join the tour group by 6AM or so. After some waiting around, we boarded the bus and began on our looong bus ride back to the airport. Had breakfast at the airport, checked-in and went into the waiting hall for some duty-free shopping. (I didn't get anything.) Boarded the plane by 9:15AM and flew the 4 hours plus back to Penang with my seat upright. (I got a lousy seat that simply refused to recline. -_-)


Hit Penang soil, tried checking in and couldn't cos the counter was still closed, grabbed a quick lunch with the family and aunt, headed home for a milisecond to pee and grab a card reader, then headed back downtown to catch my flight back to KL. Bad turbulence all the way back – no thanks to rain and cloudy skies in Malaysia – so that kinda erased the cat nap I planned on sneaking in. Sigh.


Made it back to KL in one piece, waited at Terminal 3 for almost an hour cos my ride got caught in a bad jam because of the rain. Finally got into the car and decided to have dinner in Kepong. Jammed all the way there and somehow took a wrong exit, which resulted in us driving around god-forsaken Kepong for over an hour before finding the makan place (after making a couple of SOS phone calls). ARGH! Sat down to eat, chat a little (Okay, fine. A lot.), then went to the office to collect Baby who was abandoned there last Friday.


Drove home, showered, then went down for a short makan session with Top 3 (who officially named me Top 2)... which ended up becoming a long yam cha session. -_- Went back home, unpacked, then hit the sack 24 hours after I woke up in Taipei.

Tired or not, I ask you???

Tired.

Tell you about Taipei and my many
misadventures there tomorrow lah ya.
Right now, I need to crash. Cheerios!