Taiwan, April '13: The Long Way There

So you already know all the drama that happened on my way to Taiwan last week. Now, with Photoshop re-installed on my MBP, you get to see snapshots of it. =)

Finally up in the air and on our way out of KL after a long delay.

 Feeding my son on the way up in an effort to protect

his eardrums. Also very kiasi hence the mask-wearing

to make sure we don't catch anything while travelling.

 Got a bassinet seat but decided to do away with the

Cathay Pacific bassinet. It didn't look very sanitary. :-/ 

The great thing about travelling with an infant is that you get priority in queues. Don't bother lining up to board the plane, ok. Just go straight to the front of the line and shove your kid in the stewardess' face. They'll let you through. Same goes at Immigration. Just go straight to the Priority Lane. (This applies to every airport I've been to so far – even when I was pregnant – EXCEPT KLIA. -_-''' Lousy place got no Priority Lane wan. Lame-ass third-world country airport we have la, I tell you.)

 Finally at Hong Kong International Airport

on one of their many super long escalators.

Anyway, we had a little extra time to waste in Hong Kong cos we missed our intended flight no thanks to the delay at KLIA so we ended up with some time to go look for food. (Food is of utmost importance whenever we travel with my FIL. =p) Went up to the food court and ate some very expensive Koay Teow Soup there. Over RM100 for four small bowls! Tsk tsk. Really ridiculous, man. -_-'''

 Flight path as seen in the plane before take-off at Hong Kong.

Taipei City is 807km away. That's 807km

for me to keep my baby happy... and quiet.

Arriving at Taipei Tao-Yuan Airport.

And then, over 12 whole hours after we started

our journey, we finally touched down on Taiwan soil.

 TAIPEI, BAY-BEH!!!

 Semua kiassiiiiii!!! Say 'NO' to H7N9!

Newly renovated portion of the airport! I don't know
what it was about this sight but it stopped me in my tracks.

 There's always something special about

symmetry and repeated patterns.

 My baby and I are finally in Taiwan! Wheee!!!

 And then the horror of missing luggage hits. -_-'''

And after all that drama, we f-i-n-a-l-l-y made it out of the airport and saw the darkening Taipei sky. Boo. We were supposed to arrive after lunch! When it was still bright and sunny! Drats. There goes one day. Sigh. Thankfully, my aunt-in-law (MIL's youngest sister) was there to meet us at the Arrival Hall. And she's a real big ball of sunshine to be around. Always have been from the first time I met her over a whole decade ago. =)

My aunt-in-law looking very, very, very happy while

carrying my son. She's the best host in all the land!

She brought us back to her home in the city and The Husband and I quickly got our son bathed and cleaned up. In her laundry basket. With no soap. (Like the rest of our luggage, his inflatable bathtub and toiletries did not arrive when we did. -_-''') I mandi-kerbau-ed after that and had no choice but to put on my 15-year-old cousin-sister-in-law's clothes. AND SO DID THE HUSBAND. BWHAHAHAHA.


While I put my son to sleep, The Husband shamelessly took some time to tour the house on his own. (The rest had gone out for dinner.) And my oh my, did he fall in love with her place. Cosy, comfortable, well ID-ed with quality fittings and finishings – he loved it! And when I had the time to check it out for myself, I could see why. It was such a nice place to call Home! I didn't take any pictures of her place but I did snap away when it came to her flowers. =p

REAL flowers leh! So pretty, right???

After that, the rest came home, The Husband and I ate a quick dinner they tapau-ed for us from a shop near by (LOVED the stir-fried cabbage!), and then promptly hit the sack after. Zzz... It was a looong day. But hey, at least we made it to Taiwan in one piece. =)


p/s: You'll notice with this series that I won't have as many pictures as I usually have because (1) I'm carrying my son so holding and camera and taking pictures becomes a real chore, and (2) most of the pictures I take include people I am expected to censor so... you don't get to see them anyways. Boo. =(

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Related Post
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• Taiwan, April '13: Murphy's Law [Saturday, April 20, 2013]

Adobe Photoshop CS6 Extended

Have been severely handicapped the last couple of weeks since I deauthorised Photoshop CS4 on my old comp to upgrade to a new one with Mountain Lion OSX because I couldn't find a suitable replacement photo-editing software that would run on the newer platform. Until today.

Hello, dear Adobe Photoshop CS6 Extended! =)

With you, my life is complete.

And now, real blogging can finally resume! =D

Taiwan, April '13: Murphy's Law

"Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong."


------------

So, like it always seems to be whenever I find myself traveling to a holiday destination via airplane, dear ol' Murphy just had to come along for the ride. Sigh. A simple 4.5-hour flight to Taiwan ended up taking all of 12 hours and everything that could have gone wrong, did. We were supposed to arrive in Taiwan by the afternoon, with ample time to freshen up and rest before dinner out in the town. But by the time we actually got out to the Arrival Hall, the sun had already gone down and it was already dark. =(


Flight delayed. Flight missed.
Baggages "lost" in transit.

We just had to experience them ALL lah
on my son's maiden trip abroad.
Come one, come all. Suey suey sai lang semua. -_-


See, we decided to fly Cathay Pacific this time around cos we figured that traveling on a full service airline would be easier with an infant. Summore first time flying far far with him, right? Better just be safe rather than sorry lah. Short flights with a short transit in between better. Nanti kelam-kabut in mid air then hailat liao. @_@ But still bad move la. Maybe should have just gone with Air Asia and flown direct from KL to Taiwan.


Cos, as fate would have it, although my son travelled like a total pro and didn't make a single scene throughout our 12-hour journey from beginning to end (so proud of him for being so well-behaved!) "uneventful" would so not be the way I'd describe our trip here. :-/ Our first flight out of KLIA was delayed by over an hour so we missed our connecting flight during our transit in Hong Kong and were put on a later flight. Because of that, our baggages ended up on a different flight and did not arrive in Taiwan when we did. -_-'


And I tell you ah, although we checked in our baggages at the very. same. time. as the other members of our family who are traveling with us with three other luggages, only OUR two luggages didn't arrive. >( Super WTH, right?! Suey or not, I ask you??? Sigh. Ended up having to wear a 15-year-old relative's clothes for the night and bathing my son in a laundry basket without any soap. -_-


Thankfully, I always have a spare change of clothes for him and extra diapers in his baby bag so we could still get him out of his dirty travel clothes and into bed even without his luggage bag. Oh, and I'm also super thankful he's breast-fed so no problems with his milk either. Or else I really dunno how liao. :-/


Anyway, the trip's nice so far. Persistent wet weather is the only damper but that's only to be expected during springtime in Taiwan, I suppose. :-/ Still, I hope the rain clouds ease up and the sun decides to play nice the next few days while we're here so we can do some real sightseeing. Anyhoo, Sun Moon Lake tomorrow, followed by Alishan the day after. Woo hoo! =D

Lah

Was in the car with our maid sometime last week  – she sits in the back with my son while I drive – when I overheard her comfort my son with a very Malaysian:

"Ok la, ok la."

@_@

"OK LA?????" WTH!?!

I thought we hired a Filipino!

So I turned around and asked:

Pam Song: You all use "Lah" in the Philippines, too??

Maid: No, ma'am. 

Pam Song: Then how come you can say, "Ok LA?"

Maid: Haha. Cos I hear you use, ma'am. 

Pam Song: You know where to put the "Lah" or not?

Maid: Yes, ma'am.

Pam Song: Where?

Maid: At the end, ma'am. 

Hahaha. Not bad, huh? And she's only been with us for a couple of months. That said, I think she's settling in with us just fine. But I really can't blame her for generalising that "Lah" should always be at the end of the sentence lah. Cos that's the same way I use the Indonesian "Dong", too. HAHA. Just hentam and plonk it down at the end of every sentence nia. =p

Anyway, wait till she discovers

the less famous siblings of "Lah"

– "Meh", "Leh", "Wei", "Hor" and "Lor".

See if she pusing kepala then. =p

The Death-In-This-Order Agreement

The Husband and I have been talking a lot about dying lately. Morbid, I know. But Good Friday and Easter Sunday just passed, plus we just did our health checks, so it all just came up very naturally. Well, after 27 seconds of intense discussion, it was decided that the members of our little family will die in this order:

1. Me first. 
2. Him second. 
3. Our son never last.

In that order!! End of discussion.