Welcome To Taiwan

 Arriving at Taoyuan International Airport on Sunday morning (14 Nov) with a bit of cloud in the sky. Weather forecast for the week is cloudy with a bit of rain. I can accept that.

 First stop, Wufenpu as babe and me wanted to get some clothes for the trip. Cheap? Not really. But there's a lot of choices here for the ladies.

National Taiwan Democracy Memorial Hall. Windy and a bit of rain but that doesn't stop us from taking a picture or two. The Prime Minister is coming on that day so we can't enter the memorial hall. Sigh~! 

Yehliu's eco-park famous stone formation the Queen's Head. You need to queue up to take picture of the head though. As you can see the neck portion of the stone is getting smaller and according to them will be broken anytime. So better snap a picture of it soon peeps. 

The famous Chiufen mountain view from the top. Totally breathtaking and one of the most windy and coldest place we been in Taiwan. 

Trip over Chiufen old street isn't complete without taking a picture of the 'old stairs' down memory lane. Simply nostalgic. 

 Fisherman's Wharf a.k.a The Lover's Bridge. Another windy place as it's next to the sea. We hold hand in hand all along the bridge. Memorable.

Tamsui Old Street which is famous for their Tia Tan (steel eggs). The best place to buy them as they have a lot of flavors to choose from. Other than that, you can also have a taste of their local delicacies such as stinky tofu and ice cream to name a few.

Martyr's Shrine. You can see the famous guards on duty here by the main entrance. Yes, they won't move an inch but don't try to be silly here as there are other uniform guard at the side to watch over them. Wait for the time when they change shift and you can see some really nifty marching.

The famous Ximenting center. It's busy as hell during night time with movie-goers queuing up to the numerous cinemas over there. The place is also known as cinema city by local. Plenty of clothes and food to choose from. Even had the famous Ah Chung Flour Rice noodle over at this area. Nothing special though. Totally over-rated.

 We were lucky as it they were holding this International Flora Exposition while we were there. Plenty of flowers and others futuristic stuff to see at this place. Entrance fees is TW300 for the whole day. But you need at least 3 days to finish the whole place.

 A must visit place at one of the section in the flower expo, the Future expo. But there's a long queue, so just be patients. It's worth the wait.

The busy busy Ximenting center in the afternoon. Totally love this shot. Gonna rain really soon. Felt like Times Square over at NY or Tokyo~! :P 

You trip isn't complete without visiting the busy street of Shilin night market. Plenty of food and clothes for the ladies. Had my homestay over at this place for the last 3 days. Simply marvelous. Eat and shop all day long. 

The Rainbow Bridge where all lovers fall in love. Great view and memorable scenery with my beloved. 

 Another shot of the busy street of Shilin night market around 11pm on a Friday night. Crazy~! The road and street are pack. Havoc but you got to love this, it's totally Taiwan. 

 We have the twin tower, they have this 101 Tower. Blardy tourist spot. haha~! 

Now you know why there are so many tourist taking pictures outside KLCC right? 

FF Empire's New Spinner Bike

 

 Finally the old bikes are replaced by the new ...

This is something new for us RPM members as I need to do trial and error on the height and distance of the saddle from the handle bar and all. This bike is similar to the one which TF is using right now. It's not our old 'resistance bike' but rather a 'spinner bike'. After a class with the bike I notice that the resistance level do not some time to get use to. Since it's a new bike, the resistance is always there which is good. One bad thing I found out bout the knob is that it's too small and too near to the handle bar. So imagine when you're doing standing climb and quickly come down to speed work, you will need to quickly reset the resistance, but in this case, you will need time to do that. Secondly, you will need to turn a lot to achieve the standing resistance from seated which is not the case with the old bike. Did I mentioned that the handle bar seemed a bit too thick/large? But you do have the slot in front to place your towel and bottle which is really convenient. The bar although is thick but to me it's a bit short cause I can't really place all my palm into it during ride easy position. Sigh~! 

There are some good side about the new bike of course. Looking at the enclose structure of the frontal part of the bike, it's impossible for our sweats to sip in. This prevent phantom bike phenomenon from happening and at the end less maintenance too. Better adjustable seat's lever. This will surely cut down on those broken knobs or over turned screws you saw on the old bikes.  But the rear part of the seat  do seemed a bit too long to me as I my leg got hit by it for several time when I am coming onto the bike last night. Clumsy me. Well these are just some of my findings anyway. Nevertheless, I am still very happy with the new bike. Just need time to get use of it.

Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World

I saw the preview of the movie few months back in the cinema and I had to say it's really interesting. I had to watch this movie. Finally I managed to watch the movie today and I totally love it. It might not be the best action movie I watched late like RED or A-Team but heck it brings a new meaning to teenager's love movies. The story tells of Scott Pilgrim who dates a high schooler, Knives Chau. He is playing in a band with his friends whom one of them is his ex. The story gets interesting when he meet up with his latest ex-gf, who is the lead singer of another famous band meet. But he found his true love when he meet a new girl in town, Ramona Flowers.

He managed to break off with Knives and be together with Ramona. But the thing is that, he need to get pass Ramona's 7 exes. Well, you thought how hard can that be? Trust me, they are all some crazy guys and even one chick. You know that this movie is gonna make you laugh really hard since the director, Edgar Wright brought us Shaun of The Dead and Hot Fuzz. Yes, I watched both that movie and I guess not everyone seen or heard of it before. But trust me, it's damn hilarious. It's another boy meets girl and breaks up with her and meet another girl who had 7 exes trying to kill you. Add that to some really cool special effects and for those who really like PC games, this is your cup of tea. (Rating: 4.0 out of 5.0)

Renewing My Passport

Not being any different from my fellow Malaysians, I had decided to renew my passport almost at the last second before my trip. Since I know that they can renew my passport within a day, I had decided to take my own sweet time. But I need to confirm my itinerary beforehand, hence I need to renew it earlier than I expected. Anyway, I just found out that we have this Kiosk machine available at selected branches of the immigration department for renewing your passport. So I went over to Pusat Bandar Damansara and give it a try. Arrived around 9.15am and went straight to Block I. You can see Giant hypermarket on your left the Kiosk a.k.a KIPPAS (Kiosk Pembaharuan Passport) is opposite it. Don't bother looking for parking anywhere above, just go straight to basement 4 and below. Since all the above are reserved parking anyway.

Make sure you got all the documents:-

1. Old Passport (make sure you are having the chip build in at the last page cover)
2. MyKad (the one with the smart chip in build) 
3. Photocopy of your MyKad front & back (on the same page)
4. 1 x Passport Photograph of yourself 
5. Bring Cash (RM300 for 5 years & RM100 for 1 year) 
6. Pen, as there are no pen for you to fill in the envelope on your details later. 

Word of advice, make sure that the photocopy of your MyKad is visible and clear. Make sure the passport picture of yourself is valid and check with the  photo shop. Bring extra cash as some of the cash might not be accepted by the machine (similar to our cash deposit machines). 

Once arrive, make sure you get an envelope from the side table to write your full name, I.C number and contact number on it. Then walk over to the Kiosk machine (4 machines and pray that most of them are working) and touch the screen to choose the language. 

1. Insert your old passport into the slot and it will be read. Most of the time, you won't encounter any problem at this early stage unless your passport isn't the new one with the build in chip. 
2. Insert your MyKad into the slot with the chip in first with your picture facing up. Most of the time, problem will start here. I tried mine twice and only got it on the third. Try cleaning the chip surface with an eraser or just your finger. And pray hard that it is readable or you're gonna do it manually. 
3. Place your right hand thumb on the scanner to verify. Ladies, make sure you hands are dry and don't applied moisturizer or stuff on it beforehand. I heard it will make the scanning process difficult. 
4. You can retrieve both your passport and MyKad at this point and take out your cash (either RM10 or RM50 notes only). Choose either 1 year renewal or 5 years and slot in the cash. And please, not all at the same time or you're gonna jam the machine and everyone behind you are gonna kill you for that. 
5. Place your old passport, photocopy of MyKad, passport picture into the envelope and slot it into the place instructed. You will be given a piece of resit and notify of the time to collect it. It's written there, one hour after the deposit, but I think better make it 2 hours to be safe unless you are waiting over at that place.

I am now waiting in my office and it's almost time to collect my new passport. I hope that all the documents and papers are in order or I am going to be very mad later. This KIPPAS really beat the hassle of waking up early and having to queue up with the rest of the people to get a number (which normally only serve 150 people a day). One good thing about doing it the old fashion way is that, they will check all your documentations and make sure everything is in order before you leave. Anyway, it's a new thing for me and hope that this post gives some ideas to those whose gonna renew their passport soon an option. Cheers~!

Updates:-

So I came back around lunch hour although the resit asked me to come back after an hour after the deposit of the envelope. You will need to go to 2nd floor to collect your new passport. You will need to go to Counter 17 and pass them your resit (from the Kiosk machine) and they will give you a running number. Now pray that their system is not down or you're gonna spend a long time over here. Don't worry if your number is far from the current one as they don't follow the running numbers. The guy from Counter 16 will call you over and now will need to present your MyKad and verify again with your right hand thumb on the scanner. Walla~ you're done. He will give you your new passport and you are off to go home. It took me around 25 minutes to complete the whole process. Long? Well, it's alright for me. Beats doing it the manual way in fact.