Friday, August 28, 2009

Taiwan Part II

So I've finally got myself to write this 2nd post. Holidays oso malas. How la? Anyway, here's the part II that I promised. This post is dedicated mainly to our day out in Kaohshiung. We also finally met up with the other group who came a day later compared to us. It was such a drama I tell u! We lost contact with one another and can't seem to contact one another in another country! So scary wey! So I ended up waiting in the train station for up to 6 hours, the station that we were supposed to meet in. Well I have my friend to thank for that. She go n give wrong train station and did not even feel bad about it. My gawd! Think back oso marah. Somemore wanna marah the other group of frens. I was so panicked that I even called jie to ask her help to contact another fren of mine. Teruk, teruk! Sorry jie made u panic for sure.

Okie, all that aside. We finally found them that night itself. Thank goodness. But relationship was definitely strained. Anyhow, I was just glad we did not lose one another in a foreign country. Phew~ For the rest of the post, let the pic do the talking la..


Look how glad I was to have found them

So we brought them back to our hotel where we were to sleep another nite. Then it was off to visit everywhere around Kaohshiung!! Weee~

Walking around Kaohshiung Town

A view of Kaohshiung Town

Spot McD and Fridays?? D Mall beside looks so nice kan??

At Central Park with my batch mates

To all of you who dunno Taiwan that well (I oso did research lepas nak pegi Taiwan saje), Kaohshiung is the 2nd largest city in Taiwan. So kalau nak banding ngan Malaysia, it's like Penang macam tu la. But then, Kaohshiung I would say is more advanced la. Maybe slightly like KL cos the MRT system is so good! I absolutely like Kaohshiung. It was like living in a city, but somehow everything is still slightly laidback. Plus ppl in Kaohshiung is very friendly, ask them questions, they'll be glad to help. However, to those not so good in mandarin, do brush up on ur mandarin as the ppl here speak like mainly mandarin and nothing else. The only place we could find english speaking ppl was in Subway. Lol. Ok, continue story..

In front of the MRT station in Central Park

View from MRT station

Purchasing group ticket, cheaper.. Lol

The pics says it all!

Up in their MRT. It was bigger and more comfy than LRT in M'sia

So where are we heading to?? Before that, in central park kan, there was the time i saw clay court for the first time in my live! Come all the way to Taiwan to see tennis court pula. Lol. Tapi look at people play you oso wanna play. Oh yea, ppl in Kaohshiung oso very healthy. Pegi d Central park there was like dance classes la, ppl jogging around and walking their dogs. Very healthy. Terpesong jauh pula. So we headed for Ecological district in Kaohshiung..

View of Ecological District

Bus in Taiwan. So can know i kat South Taiwan. Wing Hoh wanted to bring the umbrella to me cos it was too hot!!

While jalan2 around, we saw the train too! (macam org kampung haven't seen train pula!)

The system there was so user friendly. Got specific lane for cyclist!

Speaking of cyclist, the people there do not use motorcycle like in Malaysia. As in the Yamaha, Suzuki that type la. But the people here use scooter a lot. Then they wear very cute masks while riding on the scooter. If you cant imagine just pegi tengok Jay Chou's MV of "Wo Bu Pei", macam tu la the culture in Taiwan. So after jln2 even more we finally made it to..

Lian Chi Tan a.k.a Lotus Pond
The one and only photo of all 10 of us
This was the only time when all ten of us were together out playing. Cos come conference we were all broken up into groups. In a way, thinking back, this trip round Kaohshiung kinda soften the tension created earlier. Bodoh betul la thinking back. Quarrel for nothing. Now i know why people kat amazing race gaduh so much. So apa yang ada kat Lotus Pond?
Lotus

And pond! Lol
The World Games were also ongoing then

The promo pic we took for free in conjunction with World Games
We managed to catch the live action of the water skiing competition that was held at the lotus pond itself. Mind you, the pond is not covered with lotus. It's just like a super huge pond la with lots of flowers and all around it. Oh yea and temples too if you noticed from the photo above. Actually that's more like chinese cultural heritage than temple la. Well another upclose photo of it..
Camwhoring!!

More camwhoring!!

so as you can see from the pics, macam the pagoda kat Penang kan? what's it called again? Kek Lok Si ahr? There was a dragon mouth and tiger mouth in front of that 2 majestic pagoda (I dunno wat's it called exactly). There was a lot of camwhoring going on. When it comes to us with camera, it's scary. Lol. But then we din spent long oso, cos nampak souvenir shop terus bergegar there, wanna buy souvenirs cos there's like the cheapest we could find!

Beli so banyak until take pic with lady boss!

Lepas shoppind gila2, pegi la jalan2 around. Told you got a lot of temples kan?? Here's one
Told you we pegi shopping kan? Dah ada plastic bag dah

With the others in front of the temple

The next thing we know, it suddenly, out of nowhere hujan lebat! We din even bothered carrying umbrellas cos it was scorching hot in the morning. But then there was still sun shining brightly. So the next thing we know we saw..
Rainbow!
There was actually 2 rainbows. Tapi could only capture one. You look closely on that pic, mungkin boleh nampak kot. We all went like 'wow', 'awww' etc. Somemore so coincidentally around the 2 pagodas. Now from this pic you can see the dragon and tiger. So we went on roaming around and more..
Camwhoring!!
But letak 1 saje la. Cukup la. That nite we went on roaming around the nite markets in Kaohshiung as well as 'Ai He' or 'Love River' (Direct translation). Don't have photos on that cos terlupa tangkap gambar pula. Other pics are in my frens cam who's in Sandakan now. The nite market in Kaohshiung is like the pasar malam in Malaysia la. I think it's something like Petaling Street where there's like a lot of food vendors and overpriced souvenirs. The food ain't too pricey, but then we were on a tight budget. Lol. Good oso la in a way. Restrain myself from eating too much. But I tell u, the 'Ai Yi Bing' there is so nice!! So is the Pearl Milk Tea. There's even Pearl Green Tea which was absolutely fabulous! Lol. Okie, talk about food i oso lapar sudah. Oh yea to all Muslims, Happy Fasting!! Till Taiwan Part III

Thursday, August 20, 2009

Taiwan Part I

So I've told u guys so much about being in Taiwan. My first time overseas alone (in other words with no parents or sis around me la). Weee~ It was indeed an unforgettable experience la. We (my friends n i) basically went with just the clothes on us as well as in our suitcases with no plans where to stay what-so-ever and to reach Taipei by the 25th of Aug for the registration for AMSC. Oh yea! For those who are still unsure kenapa si Karleen ni pegi Taiwan tetiba pula, it's all business ok. But then slit in some pleasure on the way la.. Hehehe :)

We took off on the 22nd of Aug in KKIA terminal 1 all the way to Kaohshiung. Kenapa pegi Kaohshiung? 2 reasons. 1 flight ticket cheaper. 2 Nak explore Taiwan from south up. Hehe :) Jadi kita pun terbang la at 1520 tat day.


Wing Hoh, K Mint n I onboard MH 86, BKI-KHH
Tengok aircraft can guess apa aircraft tu? We sat on Boeing 737. Kecik la, tapi okie la. Not like tat fat oso kan? lol. So after 2 hours and 40 mins, we finally could get a glimpse of
Kaohshiung!!
Taken when we were about to land
Imagine our excitement la. All 5 of us were all so excited. Me without camera oso ambik gambar ngan handphone oso. All photos kat blog will be pics taken from my fon. Other pics from my frens cam i may jz upload later in FB, or as u hv noticed my friends i met through AMSC has uploaded pics throughout d conference d. My camera, i mean my sis cam sudah rosak dibuat saya (sorry!!), so tis is the consequence la. Pegi overseas tak bawak camera. Anyway, first place i visited, the toilet. Cos i don like using aircraft toilet. Lol

This was pasted on the door of the toilet. Lol.
Can understand d line above? if you don't, I'll translate it later for ya. Ask me la. hehehehe.. So as bukti/evidence I betul2 gi Taiwan
Saw the many2 posters of Taiwan?
So we arrived about 1815 in Taiwan, on schedule and head on straight to information counter to decide where we wanna go next. Discuss, discuss and more discussion, we made an impulsive decision to go all the way south to Kenting, Taiwan. Check Taiwan map kalau tak tau. :P This place is a reknown tourist spot in Taiwan, a coastal area la. So imagine white sandy beaches. The view there is just fantastic la! Kalah PD although i love PD with all my heart.
Here's one of the beaches i visited
I so wanna jump into the water, but we were on a tight schedule so tak dapat la. Next visit la if i ever visit Taiwan again. It was very windy, very nice.
Me at the beach. Windy kan?
So we went off for breakie in a small shop just across the road from the beach. Food here is quite pricey compared to Malaysia. Something like Sabah, but if u take into account the portion and all, here more pricey la. After having breakie, our 1st stop..
Can read??

Took another pic here. Kenting National Park.

Admission fees was a mere NT20, which is almost equivalent to Malaysia RM2 la. Cheap rite? We applied for the international youth travel in Taiwan so we got it cheaper. So for those who are heading to Taiwan, remember to apply ohr! FOC and you save a bundle. Y go to a park u ask? Just take a look at the pics i took at the park
At the entrance


View from one of the viewing towers

The kissing rocks


At another viewing tower, overseeing Kenting

Kenting's own lighthouse. Macam kat PD kan??

Our last stop from our walk around the park.
The whole trip we were all so mesmerized by the beauty of the nature surrounding Taiwan. Makes u wanna visit urself too kan? Well just looking back at the pics, i wanna visit the place again myself! Our time was so limited, but just the short stop was enough for us. Then we went on to explore Kenting. Most pics are in my fren's cam, but here is the last pic i took
Breathtaking ain't it?
Really had a lot of fun, goofing around, cam whoring to the max in Kenting. Tapi tak jadi show kat sini la. When i get hold of the pics later baru i show u guys la. Hehehe.. no prob. So tat's all of my Taiwan part 1 la. Till the next post!!

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Delayed Post: Health Promotion

This marks my 101 post.. weee~ sikitnya after so long buat blog ni! haih.. tapi takper.. 101 is also a milestone n worth to be celebrated.. weee~

So basically i've mentioned health promotion health promotion like freaking many times d.. basically wat we (my group) had to do was choose a kampung in kinabatangan, find out wat is endemic there, wat medical facilities there are, promote health to all the villagers, live their lifestyle etc. sounds ez enuf no? well if we were to do tat only i think we wud hv had a much funner time.. but the paperwork was killing us! final folio came up to about 120++ page after much editting.. hv to prepare graphs for all questionaires passed out, do statistical analysis, come out with hypothesis, methodology, results, discussion.. pening kepala jz thinkin abt it..

Okie la.. i think if i elaborate on nanti panjang panjang, sure u guys read until tertidur kang susah.. so let's roll the pics..
When we met up with reporters from Sabah before taking off to Kg Tongod
On our trip there, bus got stuck in the hole filled with water
Wat else to do but pull.. eh no i mean push the bus?
Tak budge oso.. comes the tractor to the rescue!!
All relieved, happy to continue on our journey to Kg Tongod
Basically our main transport around Kg is our vy own bus 11 (legs la tu!)
Pegi jauh2 sure la must lecture a lil..
Then we went house to house visit kat Kg Kiliwatong (part of Kg Tongod)
Journey to houses bukan senang.. Cross bridges cam ni only can sampai rumah
Or walk kat jalan macam ni baru sampai
Among the villagers i managed to interview.. i look so pale!!
Then interview with the Head of village a.k.a Ketua Kampung
Then we had activites with the villagers where i taught hand washing to the kids
Then saw tis cute lil baby.. must la tangkap gambar!
After a whole day of activity with villagers all so happy can rest.. finally
Walaupun however tired must jln the bukit-bukau jln back oso
We managed to do gotong-royong with asrama school kids oso.. spot me?
Lepas tu, had activity kat school.. sempat buat disco move pula.. opening ceremony
Lepas tu ajar them how to brush teeth without toothbrush.. lol.. Tak cukup toothbrush although i bought like 108..
It was bitter sweet to part with them.. cos all were super hyper active who come n grab u when u're giving away sweets.. (imagine feeding fish kat aquarium)
We also got quite close with people from the Klinik Tongod.. had medical checkup there oso
Lepas tu, when free free tu, gotong-royong the whole klinik la..After 2 whole week of hardship, celebrate lo!!Somemore sempat set up fire to BBQ.. Marshmallows were fantastic!!
Tapi tak tau kenapa, on the way back, tayar boleh pancit pula.. lol
Tat pics summarize my 2 weeks of health promotion at Kg Tongod.. Nampak ok je kan with all those modern brick building.. sure la cos i tapis gambar d.. i managed to survive 2 weeks without mirror, drinking white white colour water, bathing white white colour water, experiencing black out everyday, living with all kinds of insects and so on. But we were considered fortunate as we still had electricity supply, proper bed to sleep and even pipe water.. other groups slept on grounds, drank rain water, lived without electricity n fon line.. tu baru drastic kan??
Tat's all for my health promotion la.. banyak gambar lagi.. c la ada masa only upload kat fb la.. nowadays banyak gila with RC la.. restaurant city.. call me childish i don care.. it is fun!! boleh level up all.. lol.. okie la.. dah lambat.. got class tmr at 8 n now sudah hampir mau pukul 2.. nitey nite!! till the next post!! :)