Itz about 1 month since i came back to Taiwan! But it feels like so long ago!
Hmm.. i was lazy to write the taiwan trip down, but before my memory fails me, i should jot down the interesting pieces.
Went back with only one or 2 friends whom I know of back in army days, was feelin sian at first, but in the end, all went out well, and i made a few new friends too. Back at the airport, we had coffee at the Toast Box inside, and board the plane at 2am i think. Watched Yes Man on the plane, not bad, quite nice, though Jim still does the same faces, but they look appropriate and really him. I like the part he uses the masking tapes on his face..
Reach KaoShuing at 6plus, waiting, board bus, and went on the same journey i took 4 yrs back. Interestin to see the same sight after 4 years. When i reach the camp, i could recgonise almost everything.. haha.. then we went to the same bunk, and i decided to change with a friend to the upper deck of the beds, since he prefer the lower,and i prefer higher. The air on top is much better really, climbin up and jumping down was not a prom so i decided to change.
The bed position was almost excatly the same one i used 4 yrs back too. Beside me was this very quiet and very normal looking guy. He look like quite senior. Yes, for those who know me, i dun actually converse well with ppl i am not familiar with, and if i meet a quiet person i am not familiar with, yes, itz silience.
So thats wat happen, i sit on bed, he sit on his side of his bed. Mosquitos fly around... the bunk was in a real... arrgg,... i really dun know how to put it state.. we could not unpack or change, cuz out army bags were not in yet. So sat on the dirty ratshit bed, took off t-shirt, and sat there, looking down.
After our bags came, we started to unpack lo. Change lo, the wardrobes were filled with mosqitos. any single moves brings the mosqitos to life. But they were quite friendly with me thru out the stay though, so i decided not to kill them like i always do.
After like half a day, i decided to break the ice " Can I know how to address u?" Wahhahaha.. this is like so bloody formal lo. So from there, i got to know a new friend Ah Teck. Through a few conversations, i got to know he is his own boss, he is married, and he is 2 yrs my senior. Our char is v different, but i think we had a few common stuff thru the 2 weeks plus stay. Light sleepers, more of the responsible type in terms of work, married for abt the same number of yrs. So in the end, we stuck together most of the time, esp during night snack for kopi. One thing worth mentioning is he is like the everything-i-also-hv man! Insect repelent shower foam, medicine, this wierd fan looking thingy that is suppose to ward off mosquis, charger that portable to charge his psp on the go etc etc.
The 2nd person i would like to mention is Ah Choy, knew him since my 3rd sig days, he is this tatto guy who hv abit of a bash me look if u dun knw him. Yes, he is also his own boss now. And he is very good in openin conversations, and he was the one who in the end brought a few of us together cuz he can really mix well and bec the middle man. One thing we had in common was our ablilty to cook up nonsense stories and act them out. Had a lot of stupid crap with him at the basketball court b4 excercise start. We were practically crappin like for hell of an hour. Almost like wat i do with GL. Overall, Ah choy helps ppl who needs help, classified under a hao ren.
Okay, food in cookhouse was ok. vege meat rotated for breakfast lunch and dinner. The other ppl can go Fu Li She to eat other finger food, or, go to the Ninja Van (Xiao Mi Feng) outside the fence to buy fried ji pa etc etc. From here, we talk abt Ninja Man Koh Beng Chye. hahahah.. very cute guy, he sleeps till he likes, then wakes up, and, for the few few days, never step into the cookhouse, goes to the Ninja Van for all his meals. Therefore the Ninja Man nick that Choy gave him.
There is also a MOE (Ministry of Enviroment) in our bunk, he is really a nice person. 4 yrs back, he was also in my bunk, and yes, he sweeps the floor every hour! when he has time! and he dun only sweep his own place, he sweeps, the entrance, the laundry area, the corridor of our bunks, takes up our slippers and sweeps underneath. And he does this kinda when i go canteen he sweeping floor and when i come back he still sweeping floor stunt. Cool right. But really, he is nice, so we call him MOE.
The bunk leaks when it rains. Not the whole bunk leaks, it happen to leak on me and Teck's bed. We seem to be at the lowest point. Lucky thing is it never leak during midnight. The best one was one night, it rained, and i started to feel rain on my face at 5am like tat. Teck woke up too. So we started to use mesh tins again to collect water. But it was dripping worse than before. So in the end, i took trash bags and place them on our beds opened, to collect water. And, we decided to go for super early breakfast. First to reach cookhouse, only to find that itz not opened yet. That morning was super cold, so we stood beside the cookhouse in the cold until it opened. hahah. very funny.
Life in PaoLi was really boring. Itz almost like a resort really, but, there are only 3 areas to move around, namely : Point A, Point B, and yes, Point C.
Point A is our bunk.
Point B is Fu Li She (Canteen, with TV, and a Internet room beside)
Point C is cookhouse.
So, after our meals at cookhouse, we will ask each other, which point do we go to? A or B? Normally, we move back to Point A, rinse our mouths, use toilet, or take jacket if cold, then we move on to Point B.
So for like 1 week, we move from Point A to B to C... and so on an so forth. Till the end of first week, some of us already move out for excercise liao, the remaining was so fustrated with these 3 Points that we were all crying "We wanna move out for excercise!!" "Anywhere will do!!" "Jus let us out!" We were gg crazy, to such extent we almost held a "See Who can Kill most Mosqitoes using the Electric Badminton Rachet within 1 min" competition.
But, later do we know that when we reached the Hu Ju camp, it was worse, only 1 Point, no B and Cs. So we started crying "No........ bring us back to PaoLi...." haha.. really seow..
Anyway, excercise for me was like a social escort. I pratically escort my officer around in his aircon car. But my officer was a real nice high ranking uncle. I was lucky.. haha.. Eric kana the super easily agiated kind.
Our movement was up north to Hu Ju. Moving up took us 6 hrs like tat. When we reach Hu Ju, the camp look good from the exterior. Little did we know that we were alocated abandoned bunks. Really like a prison cell. And we happen to pick one without lights. So at night, other bunks hv lights, and we used this lanterns in our room. we were joking, those with lights are like blangadesh bunks, and ours are like blangadesh who hv not got working permits and waiting in a room.
We saw Teck and Kang in one of the cells (they moved up 2 days ahead of us), so i visted their cells when i am sick of staying in mine, to play psp or watch TV using Teck's china Hp which had a TV tuner. Yes, we watched Doraemon there.
The toilet there... phew.. no comments.. the toilet bowl, the hole there.. wah... all covered with dirt. not shit, but dirt. I dun dare shit there. i go down to use the cleaner toilets. Then when we were chatting outside this corridor jus outside the toilet, and we saw cockroach inside the toilet, and i was like.. great... but then, we carry on chatting, then one of us spotted the cockroach flyin in the toilet and within 1 sec, this 4 adult man ran away from the scene. hahah.. v funny, all scared of cockroaches..
The next camp we went to is near our home camp. ADA. this one was much much nicer except we need to climb 4 floors to our bunks. In the morning, the speakers play some pop chinese songs. Very weird,,, haha
Back to Paoli, we were all very happy. it was like back home, and the bunk is back to life. Everyone is high. We started to feel happy moving from Point A-B-C. And we played basket ball with the taiwan guys one night. And we used internet room to play counter strike, and we had nightsnack, and we went to canteen to chitchat over kopi.
So in the end, we had about 9 of us in this group. And last 2nd day in camp, we decided to take photos. So we moved around the camp to take group photos. haha..
The last night, mid night, like 3am, someone screamed... hahahah.. itz was Ah Ong .. he dreamed i think. Then the next morning at 5am plus, everyone was talking abt this scream last night. hahah. super funny lo.. really. and they almost wanted to pull Ah Ong out of the bunk together with his sleeping bag, cuz he still sleeping.
RnR... wat everyone was waiting for... the 9 of us went together for the first day. We topo with Richards topo skills, some of the places i saw b4 in my last trip. When we reach a wisma shoppign centre, we gave each other 1 hr to shop on our own. While the rest carry on in the mall, me and teck decided to carry on walkin to find another mall. But in the end, i took a wrong turn and we end up gg no where. haha. After meeting back with the rest, we went back hotel, then met again for Liu He Ye Shi to eat.
2nd day, Me, Teck, Choy and Ninja man went out together. When we were in the lift, a taiwan uncle told us abt thsi big mall "Dream Mall", so we decided to try it, took a cab there to find out that itz not opened yet, and there is no foodstalls opened yet too. So we called the same cab back, and the uncle took us back to a place selling noodles. and happen that there is a Vege stall beside it. so lucky. after eating the cold noodles, Choy was not satisfied, so we went on to another stall to eat 2nd round. I took a cup of kopi.
We happen to be easy goers, need take cab? Take, eat? eat. Shop? Shop. haha. and all 4 very zi4 dong4, we take turns treating for meals or kopi or cab. So 4 of us had a good and easy time. before gg back hotel, we happen to pass by Nan Hua! all the things inside... everything,.. i bought my comics there...
Had dinner with Teck at the vege shop near hotel while Choy and Ninja went cut hair. After which we went to airport at 6pm plus, and Home Sweet home....
Thats a brief encounter...
Over all, this trip was more fun than the last one. I would thanks Choy for that, cuz he put us all together which is y more happening.
Phew... this entry is long..
