29 Apr - 6 May 2013 ( 8D/7N Taiwan Trip ) - The summary

When dad invited me to join them for an overseas trip, I was floating on cloud nine. It was such a blessing that my parents always thought of me whenever they have something good to share. Without hesitating, I quickly said YES, but I need to bring along one of my kid with me.

Since YX had been to 2 overseas trips with us, I decided to bring XJ this time. It was her first time flying and obviously, she was excited.

Our tour consists of 17 family members and our Itinerary was tailor made by the travel agent. Overall, it was an enjoyable trips even XJ fell ill on the 2nd day of our trips. Will blog about it later.....

We left home at 7 am and met up with the rest of our relatives at the airport. Our flight was at 10 am via AA.

Tour Guide
The journey to/fro was a smooth ones. Our local tour guide was a nice man. Friendly, professional and a joker. Everyone praised him for being a very responsible tour guide as during every meals, he would make sure all dishes were served before he went off. He make sure we were all being well taken care off during the whole trip. He even suggested and paid for our MRT expenses (1 way) to save some traveling time when the road leading to one of the tourist attractions was unexpectedly jammed.

When XJ fell ill, he assisted us to bring XJ to the hospital and he stayed at the hospital together with us. He even assisted to collect the medications and paid the bills upfront as he was more familiar with the procedures. We really appreciate his help and everyone chipped in to give him more tips at the end of our 8 days tour.

Places of Interest
Places of interest were so-so only. Even the guide told us, in Taiwan, we don't expect to see beautiful scenery. Those beautiful mountains and seas are all widely available in China. However, Taiwan are known for it's hospitality. The locals there were all very friendly. Once you stepped into their shop, you will be greeted with 'WELCOME'. Even we did not buy anything from them, we won't get any scolding or nagging. They still smiles to you. Shopping in Taiwan won't give you any pressure unlike in some other places, the sales person won't be happy to see you leaving empty handed.

Food
Food were great but not surprising anymore as we have so many Taiwan delicacies mushroomed in our own country. However, I really loves their milk tea. It was so fragrance, something which we couldn't get it here. I even managed to smuggle a cup of Taiwanese Milk Tea into the plane unintentionally ! Surprisingly, the immigration did not notice it (and I totally forgotten about that milk tea too) and I only remembered about it inside the plane !

Shopping 
As mentioned earlier, no stress during shopping in Taiwan because of the hospitality of the people there. Unfortunately, we did not really have the time to browse and shop slowly because the time for shopping was too short ! Well, short for the ladies, but long for the men ! We visited a few night markets and women clothing and shoes were abundance ! Price varies according to the quality and some are slightly cheaper than in Malaysia. However, children clothing and shoes are not available at all in the night market. As told by our guide, we will have to shop in their wet market in order to buy children's stuffs.

Weather
It was late Spring and the weather was very comfortable. Temperature was around 23 degrees and we just need a thin cardigan to keep us warm. At times, cold winds would blows. It rained most of the day but we still managed to travel comfortably.

Accommodations
All the hotels we stayed were up to expectations. Clean, spacious and sometimes, we even get 2 Queen size bed in a room for twin sharing. Our last day hotel was the best of all. It was a five star (as mentioned in the website) and every room comes with a personal SPA. The designed in each rooms were different as they were specially designed to make it unique.

Once all photographs are being sorted out, I shall blog about day to day Itinerary.

Results

Hello everybody..... I know, I've not been updating my blog for such a long time. I'm getting lazier each day and really hope for a long holidays, even I'd just came back from one. haha..... 

Time really flies. I was all excited when the Taiwan trip was booked and confirmed. Then, when I was on the tour, time past by so fast and NOW, am back to my normal routine ! Shall blog about the Taiwan trip later.........

As school holidays are approaching, that also means my kids had got back all their exam results. I was happy and proud of them as they did extremely well in their exams. Daddy and mummy don't even score that good during our schooling times. * Grin *

XJ sat for 4 papers and she managed to get the lowest mark at 98 % while the highest at 100 %. According to her teacher, she has good memories and enjoyed learning. Being a 5 years old girl, she already had the ambition to be a teacher. She likes to act with her imaginary friends at home, teaching 'them' to read as well as scolding 'them' when 'they' misbehaved. Scary....she better don't turned into a Monster Teacher !

As for YX, we had higher expectation on him as he is already in a 'real' school. As a Primary One student, he is doing pretty well. He scores the lowest marks at 88 % and highest at 100 %. He sat a total of 7 papers ( 2 papers for Chinese subjects) and we were all proud of him for getting such results. It was his careless mistakes which took away 1 or 2 marks for his English, Moral and Maths. Else, he would have scored 100% for those 3 subjects as it was just a few steps away from 100 %. Anyway, we were very satisfied with his results and had already rewarded him with ice-cream, toys, day trip to PD and books.

Yesterday, MIL asked what position he get in class. This silly boy replied No.29 out of 33 students. I was shocked and burst out laughing as he didn't get the question. No.29 is actually his number according to his name arranged alphabetically. As his surname is TAN, obviously his name is placed towards the end of the list. Hmm......it doesn't really matter what position he get in class, for his results already proof that he understood what was taught and hope he will do even better in the final year. And I believe, this is what all parents hope for ! 

Recently, he started to protest not willing to attend the school's tuition. It was not compulsory for all Primary one students, hence, we allowed him. His reason, TIRED. After discussion with hubby, we decided not to force him. He has his freedom of choice, with our guidance along the way. No point forcing him to do something he doesn't wish to. As for Robotic on every Wednesday, he is always looking forward to attend.  
 

Corrections

Everytime, when I checked on YX's Maths homework, I noticed there will be corrections to do. His Maths teacher is very strict and all students must write their work NEATLY.

He did not write the answer for all sums.

Just like the above work, YX was required to colour the picture based on the number given in the book. However, he came back with lots of  ?  marks on top of the other sums. The instructions in the book did not state students must write the answer, therefore, we did not know he must write out the answers. Maybe teacher did instruct all students to write, but YX did not pay attention ? Anyway, he did his corrections and have to write the answer in BLUE colour pencils.

YX did not write the formula

As for this, YX did not write down the FORMULA. Did you noticed the teacher draw an arrow ?

YX did not write neatly

This was worst ! The answers and formula YX wrote was correct but he did not write them neatly. Teacher punished him to rewrite the formula again by using blue colour pencils. Teacher mentioned that the + or - sign cannot be on the same line as the number.

Hope he won't lose careless marks on his coming exams which will start on the 9 May 2013.

Mango

I'm not really a fruit lover but when comes to sweet mangoes, I can't give that a miss !

Green skin

During lunch one day, I saw a pakcik selling mangoes by the roadside. I quickly stopped over to check them out. 3kg for RM10. Pakcik told me the flesh are very sweet. He even gave me some samples and the mangoes were really sweet !

Peel mango like banana

Sweet mangoes are just so irresistible. The skins were very thin and easy to peel. Just like peeling a banana.

Thick flesh

I do not know what species these mangoes were, but the fleshes were thick and smooth. Not much of fibre which will stick to your teeth.

Thin seeds

Even the seeds were very thin. I wanted to buy again from the pakcik, but he did not comes anymore.

MIL's chicken rice

Chicken rice

Whenever MIL cooks chicken rice at home, she will always make 2 types of chicken. One deep fried and another one steamed chicken.

Deep fried chicken with Good Good chicken seasoning powder

Steamed chicken with soy sauce and garlic oil

The deep fried chicken which MIL used the Good Good seasoning powder was indeed delicious. It has a very fragrance smell and the skin are crispy. We loved having her chicken rice. Even the kids enjoyed eating them. MIL told me the other night that she was happy to see there were no leftover rice where normally, there will be 1 small bowl of leftover white rice. See how delicious the chicken rice was !

Ginger and chilli sauce

She even pound some ginger and made the chilli sauce.

Wanton soup

During the recent trip back to BP, my friend, LF gave me 2 packs of fresh wanton and we added it into the chicken soup.

Deep fried wanton

And deep fried another plate to goes with the rice. It was yummy delicious. As the wanton skin are homemade, it was crunchier than what we normally bought from the market. The fillings were well seasoned and my FIL loves the taste.

 

Heong Peah

After dinner, we had some biscuits given to me by another friend, SL. It was such a blessing to have so many wonderful people around us :) 

Good Good Fried Chicken seasoning powder

During my recent trip down south, I had a lot of delicious food. However, my food hunting was not completed as I still did not managed to eat so many of them, namely fried oyster, fried carrot cakes, nasi beryani, lontong, etc, etc.......

Uncle H, a good family friend even recommended us the best Bak Kut Teh in town but we just couldn't allocate any time for it. That's a good reason to make us travel again, hopefully.

Before we left for home, Uncle H purposely drove us to buy the special fried chicken seasoning powder which he claimed to be the best too ! This fried chicken stall operates after 3pm and is situated right beside the delicious kuey chap's shop.

We did not managed to try the fried chicken as we just had a very sumptuous seafood lunch. I regretted not buying a piece or two to eat in the car. According to Uncle H, no need to add extra seasoning to the chicken as the powder already consists the best ingredient. Just dip the chicken meat onto the dry powder and deep fried them till golden brown. Coming up next, MIL's home cooked chicken rice.

* Good Good Fried Chicken is the name of the stall. Even the owner claimed his fried chicken as GOOD *. haha

Fried Chicken Powder @ RM 10/ 1 kg

She is ready to fly

Hello everyone. By the time this post is up, we are already on the plane ! Excited, excited !

I've already scheduled a few posts for these few days so my blog won't grow mushroom.

This is XJ's first time on the plane and hope she will be a good little traveler. Will blog about my trip once I'm back and hopefully, everything goes well as planned.

Luggage checked, passport checked, money checked, and we are ready to FLY !
 

XJ's first ever passport