So first up, we go to Taipei Trainstation, and bought a ticket to KeeLung. If I remember correctly the train comes at a 30 mins interval, so somehow its ok we are late. Its cheap too.

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Upon reaching there, we were alittle lost. but luckily theres this tourist outlet and friendly people to assit us as to how to go to Yehliu then to Jiufen. So the guys there helped us get a “trusted” cab, (instead of getting chopped by other taxi) and we head down towards the 2 places.

1st stop, it was to a Yehliu national Park. We regret not stepping out of the hotel earlier because it was freaking 12pm and very very hot. I was melting. Suggeted to go out by 9am so we can reach here just at 10+ am. We got here at 12pm so it was damn hot. But there’s still quite a lot of visitors though.

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野柳地質公園 / 野柳海洋世界
It’s a natural park along the sea coast, nice view of the sea though. The results of the “mushroom head” the main theme for this park visit, was a result of natural sea erosion through many years causing it to be what it is today. As I cannot embed this, I shall leave this secrecy for you to explore them there. Oh ya there’s this Yehliu Dolphin water theme park, with dolphins and sea animals shows. I hope I could visit that place on the next trip. *Bring a hat and umbrella.

After that at 2 pm, (thank god there’s 7 Eleven, I was out of body salt and almost fainted!) we went towards Jiufen. Rounding and circling the natural hills and mountains, the lady Taxi driver took us a tour and some of the famous sea spots. I remember seeing people doing parachuting flying around and beach sports. We also saw the YinYang sea.

Finally we reach Jiufen at around 3+pm. I didn’t know what it was, but afterGreat view while we drove up the mountains (it was scary) then finally we’ve reached Jiufen. Its basically a place on top of the hills, many inter-link hills, nice scenary, and I thought it would be great if we could stay there for a night. For some reasons if there’s a tsunami, I think it probably won’t hit us.

http://wikitravel.org/en/Jiufen#b

There’s a never ending stretch of shops where I’ve bought a famous Jiufen snacks, and only available in Jiufen. And again I leave it to you guys. So we ended our trip at about 5+. Instead of taking a cab from Jiufen all the way back to our start point Keelung, we took a bus instead. It was a very long ride, like 45 mins, but along the way, as a tourist I got to see much of Taipei though, with a nap…

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Finally back to Keelung. Ahh. I still need a train trip back to Taipei main city before heading to our hotel.

Wow I was on the bus, my phone rang. my aunt was asking me if I could meet up with her. We had contact but I didn’t had the chance to meet out at Taiwan. Oh yeah. So the first thing when I reach Hotel was to call her back so that I could meet her up for “Dinner”

At 8+, I took a train to DingXi station, for a German Pork Knuckle. It is just a normal restaurant, but on the finer side. You can view it on the map here:

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Then my aunt walked me through to some of the history in Taipei and etc. Oh, and she brought me to the KTV which I’ll be going with her fellow Taipei neighbors. After a heavy dinner we had a 10 minutes down along the road. And before its 11:00pm, we walked back, and finish our night.

And back to hotel

So at the start, we went around Ximen Ding, and realize that there wont much breakfast stalls. After some walking across the street of the Train station, we met up a small local sandwich stall. Fried bacon, egg, and put in either Wrap, toast bread, or as a sandwich, with a milk tea as a drink. Cheap and good.

Sogo @ Zhongxiao Fuxing
Before we reached the actual Sogo, we visited an Underground shopping Mall called “East Metro Mall”. It actually links from Station Zhongxiao Dunhua (忠孝敦化站) to Station Zhongxiao Fuxing (忠孝复兴站). Knowing that, we alight at Dunhua Station, and walked across. Argh, alittle too early though, we were there at 9.30 ++ but shops were too early. It was known that we later visited the same place the next day (girls shopping… for shoes dress dress more dress and shoes etc… ) and in fact there weren’t much shoppers along this underground “mall” (just 2 rows of shops .. in fact)

Finally at Zhongxiao Fuxing’s Sogo. In fact there were 2 Sogos Fuxing’s and Dunhua’s Sogo, and they sit side by side, across the streets, joined at the underground train station. Fuxing’s Sogo is much bigger, grand, taller in stories, so figure yourself.

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Ahh.. we were alittle hungry again. The food court has quite good food, at slightly expensive prices. With the “Pager” like device, we ordered food, and waited the device to “beep and vibrate”. That signals our food is ready. Quite a crowded and busy day at the food court. The girls went shopping, and as a guy, I went around exploring, like desserts. I do recommend Sogo over at Dunhua, for some desserts if you are not the shopper type.

And the plan for tonight - Shilin Ye shi (Shilin Night Market). But before that, I manage to “persuade” the girls to at least take a visit to one of e place, I’ll like to go, which is Xiao Ju Dan, where many Great Taiwanese Pop singers performed there, many concerts held there, as the international stage for Taiwan.

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Alright, time for us to head back with the shopping items, preparing for a trip down to Shilin market, the biggest and most famous market in Taipei or perhaps Taiwan !

Shilin Market
Shilin is located not at Shilin train Station, but over at Jiantan Station. When you arrive, you should see a big Food court market like place, with some of the favorite stalls by the side. According to the locals, Shilin night markets has shifted. Even so, the original stretch (there are 2 -3 stretches of Non food stuff, eg. shopping). So for those who craved for the food, its still there but, a small shift. Only bad thing is the location of the stalls has changed

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Dinner: The famous “Chao Da Ji Pa” Big Chicken Culet, + Cold noodles, the perfect combination. And then me and my mates splitted up again, they do their shopping while I did mine, end of day and back at the Hotel !

Hmm not quite end of day. I had been communicating with my Aunt these past few days, and finally, she decided shes free and wanted to have supper. It was also nearing my Birthday that day ! (it was 9++ already, so we met at a BBQ stall near her house.

BBQ - 有間燒烤
And this is the location + Address:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/%E6%9C%89%E9%96%93%E7%87%92%E7%83%A4/162239427157026?ref=pb

豫溪街130號

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I couldn’t stress more, having supper with my “distance” relative in Taiwan, at this super good BBQ restaurant. Great service great food. After Supper, with almost no Energy left (notice this is the longest day with most stuff packed) my Aunt brought me to an “underground” 24hr supermarket, at 2am, buying some nice drinks in Taiwan. Why was I shock. ? It’s huge, very huge, probably covering at least half a soccer field… Well on land You can’t tell that’s theres hidden supermarkets like this one.

Some drinks for my breakfast tomorrow

Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hall
We took trains to the station and upon coming out, you’ll see the Big Memorial Hall. There will always be a demonstration of soldiers changing parades and guarding the statue of Mr Sun Yat-Sun. There are many history artifacts, pictures and articles dating to how China break free from its communist state at 1911 and how Taiwan came about, so they claim him to be “Guo Fu” (Father of the nation).

Image here

Taipei 101
After visiting this for about 1 hours +, we left for Taipei 101. In fact we walked over, but I suggest to take a cab. It cost like TWD30 ? And it will save you about 10 mins.

A must go if you are at Taipei City. But I didn’t go up this tall building, and I think you have to pay some fees to get up there. Anyway Its a commercial center with many International MNC prescence here. Oh yeah and its the TSE, Taiwan Stocks Exchange.

Wu Fen Pu
After lunch, we headed to Wu Fen Pu. Alight at Hou Shan Pi Train station and a short walk to reach there. This market place is a place with designer t shirts, many many types of clothings, sold (distributed) at a warehouse wholesale level, though there’s a mixture of individual shops that cater to retail shoppers. You might get lost here, as as much as I wanted to remember my way where I came from, eventually I got lost and had to get help.

As a guy, there aren’t much selection, but for ladies there are quite alot of selection. I bought 4 t shirts there and it costs about $4 USD per T shirt, simple and plain stuff. As a lady well…

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And then I broke off with my travel mates since they are girls and needed more time for shopping.
My dinner was at a local shop nearby, very quiet with like 4-5 customers.

Dinner
It was a vegetarian food (some healthy food was needed else we’ll go fat very fast), and here you grab your food one by one (Rice, veges, Tou Fu, and some nice food etc), then you bring to the counter and the boss will charge you accordingly (something different from Singapore) . It was nice and cheap, an experience on how the locals do their daily bread and butter living.

And speaking of 7-Eleven shops, they sell tons of variety drinks (Fruit juices, milk tea, and special mix of fruits and milk tea), those that I don’t see at my home’s 7 Eleven. And it was a trip back to Hotel to rest, and some shopping at the Watson’s at Xi Men Ding, which is opposite Xi Men train Station.

Last min shopping at Hua Lien
There wasn’t much people or things to do. Here, I bought Porter bag for one of my good friend, relax at Starbucks and bought a few items for friends in Singapore

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So later on, we went back to our Hotel, and stupidly walked about 10 mins with big and small Luggages to the train station. I would have suggested spending like $1, and sit comfortably to the train station.

The train ride was smooth, and we had a nice scenic view of the sea. Then we reach Taipei Mainstation again, after 3 hours ++. There were quite alot of taxis waiting, so it was OK for us. We took a cab to straight to Wonstar Hotel, our hotel for next 5 days, which is located just beside Ximen Ding.

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Reaching our Hotel WonStar @ Ximen Ding
The first thing we did: Get our directions on Xi Men Ding streets and to Xi Men Ding Train station. It isn’t very big and likely wont get lost, but still the hotel is not very outstanding so we might get lost! Or ya dinner time.

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One tip here: The hotel will book for you a personalize Taxi, where you pay the entire cab for say TWD$3000 - $3500. Since most cab drivers in Hua Lien should be able to do the same service (Depends if they are willing to travel one whole day), we approach drivers the previous day, and got ours at TWD$1600, about $USD50.

Entry point for Taroko
1st Stop, I was brought over to this place by the friendly Taxi driver. It took us about 30 mins to drive up the “Entry point” or Taroko day tour.

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Then we drove into the Display meusum 太魯閣國家公園 , 5 mins away.

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The beauty of Taroko Park…
And then for the rest of the Journey, you’ve got to be there to see and feel it. It took us an almost whole day of looking at Nature, mountains, rivers, and we took a lot of fresh air. It was slightly cloudy, and by noon the sun were out. And Wow, its damn hot.

七星潭石雕公園, last stop?
We ended our Hualien trip at 台灣七星潭石雕公園, at around 6+

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Driving back to the City, the Taxi Driver bought us up to a hill where we can look over the entire Hualien City. Didn’t know what hill was that (as it was very dark and we were tired), with Taiwan’s 70% Mountainous areas, and in HuaLien 90%, what we saw was a mere 10%. Oh, and we saw our Hotel, as well as Ziqiang Night Market 自强路夜市，花莲.

Exciting - 自强路夜市!
Before we really end and back to our hotel, we went there to buy our dinner. It was really packed, but this time this Night market has almost anything, bubble tea to Chicken Cutlets and other food varieties.

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We bought them packed back to our hotel, to enjoy the aircon, while we prepare to go back to Taipei tomorrow.

The hotel staff are great, hotel looks simple, yet the inside is a 4 star service. Taiwan has very good general service as it depends on tourist for income, so you seldom get bad service.

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There’s a big LAN shop and Pool table combined, and a 7 Eleven, so you really cant be so boring.

After that we starting unpacking, settled down and plan for night activities.

Hua lien “Main City” or street ?
First stop was to walked to the main “city”. Took us about 30 mins before we decided to take cab to night market. There were 2, so we went to the one closer to the Ocean. We’ll visit the other night market on day 2

Along the way we saw many scooters and cars for rent, some shops, but as we get closer, the shops and types gets more and roads get busier.

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At 8+ we took a cab driver and went to the 1st Night market. Decided to call him to bring us around Taroko tomorrow

Nanbin Night Market:

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What you get to see here? Simple life style, oldie classic fun fair and stall games, simple dishes, and most prettiest of all, Fireworks shot up to the dark sky, and towards the Philippines / Pacific Ocean. I’ll never forget that night, where the seas are so dark without any ships. Its plain big and wide.

How we get there ?
Firstly, I’ve gotten tickets to Taiwan via jetstar. For their students, July 1st is the start of the holiday, till Sept 1st ? So being there at this period means I can see many Tai mei (Taiwanese girls) ! It also means the season is hot now so they’ll wear less :p/

If you decided to go there, either go there during winter (where its cooler, but they wear more) or during this period (just before Monsoon Season). That last day that we left… the very next day it was typhoon, and if we stayed, we will not be able to go out shopping)

Now 7 days are going to be very long, but luckily we are heading towards Hua Lien first. After this experience, its better to first head to Taipei, stay 1 night, then head Hua lien for a 1-2 days trip. We planned for 3 days instead though.

Some pre planning done…
Getting there by Express railway (Gao Tie) we’ll spend 3 days sight seeing, then back to Taipei for the next 5 days.

So 2 things we did:
- Got a cab that will fetch us from Airport to Taipei Main station
- bought tickets for Gao Tie, by credit card, from Taipei Main Station to Hua Lien in like 2.5 hours.

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Zooooom to Taipei Main station first and to Hua lien !
Our flight were in the morning hours, so we’ll reach there by 12+ Noon. Upon then after reaching, the friendly uncle helped us with lugguages and then took us to Taipei Main station. Along the way we are seeing another flyover expressway being built along the existing expressway, for ease of traffic. There were also trains from airport to Taipei, so I guess we won’t need to take cab the very next time.

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Upon reaching Taipei Main station, Then we queue for our tickets. There are many restaurants in that Station, and very expensive IMO. Anyway i bought my favorite Starbucks drink. This is #1/#8 ?

After we took a 2hours 30 mins ride to Hua Lien. The train was fast, and scenic for the places it went thru. You can eat and drink up there, and I did catch a nap with my traveller’s mask.

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Touch down @ Hua lien
Then we finally arrive, while it was drizzling. Flagged a cab (there were many many cabs, and its cheap) to e hotel, which was just a 2 mins ride.

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I shall continue the rest in Day 1 trip !

As Taekwondo is has evolved and rapidly improve, no other martial art has focus on leg techniques more than we do. Other than the Northern Punch and Southern Kicks of Shaolin, which I don’t think they are actively spreading this art to outsiders.

Here are some the 8 most basic kicks (8 because it is easy to remember) that I have repeatedly practice, refine and pass on to my other students throughout these years. Although they may not be the best or fastest scoring kicks in tournaments, it is still useful in situations outside of tournaments. when executed properly with enough practice, they are deadly and delivers great damage to your opponent

1) Front Kick - a kick that is simple and direct. Prepares you for turning kick

2) Turning kick (Roundhouse kick)

3) Side kick

4) Slamming kick (Axe kick)

5) Back kick (Back thrust)

6) Back hook (Reverse roundhouse kick)

7) Crescent kick (Inner/outer crescent)
Front Push kick

By learning and perfecting these kicks on both the left and right foot, it means you have a good foundaton on kicks and this could help in other martial art techniques as well.

Ok you’ve seen the product introduction, its very much ‘you-see-you-understand’ kinda of thing. What does it includes ?

1) The Evolution Robotics Mint Automatic Hard Floor Cleaner, 4200 with wheels, sensors, and a placeholder for the “clothe”
2) The cleaning material (Floor wipes, or any similar cleaning clothes)
3) The GPS tracking guide called the North Star
4) Batteries used to power the station

Now you may wonder how do I operate it ? Easy. 3 Buttons, On/Off, Start sweeping, Start Mopping.

1) Place Evolution Robotics Mint Automatic Hard Floor Cleaner, 4200 in the room to sweep/mob.
2) Press power on
3) Press the mode you wan, sweep or mob ?
4) Oh yeah before you start Step 1, place the GPS in the middle of the room, somewhere high.

Some reviews were that it will only likely stay in the room / living hall because of the GPS system. Secondly, do try to change the clothe or wipes like 10-20 mins time period, varying on the “dirt” of your house.

And finally, it is available on Amazon! Purchase it here online through Amazon!

Or you may be interested in these automated floor cleaners :

Other Robotics cleaner

Neato XV-11 All Floor Robotic Vacuum System:

Tip#1 - Get a spray or air fragrant solution (the one with a candle burning) that helps you to relax your mind and muscle. I do not have any recommendations, but I got mind from “The Body Shop”. This helps you enter your sleep faster.

Tip#2 - Play some relaxation music. I prefer classical music, with the piano and violin. You may prefer your own kind of relaxation music, such as new age or yoga ones, but not those with heavy bass and fast tempo. Play only for the first 30 minutes !

Tip#3 - Use an eye mask. The eye mask is used to prevent light, blinking lights from triggering your sleep and affect you. In fact once I started covering up my eye, my mind would be tricked to sleep. Worth a try, helps your to sleep throughout.

Tip#4 - Do not consume food before sleeping! Experts say not to eat 2 hours before sleeping, but how do you know the exact time to sleep ? Instead I tell myself to stop taking any food past the 9:30pm (doesn’t mean i eat till 9:30 everyday). I aim to sleep at 11:00pm-12:00am

Tip#5 - Stop using the computer, or any “stressnous” stuff for the brains. The brains, after I tried experimenting during my UnderGraduate studies, would barely rest even after I close my eyes. Due to the nature, stuff like IT development and Financial markets, the brain still continue to think and reason, making my sleep shorter by 1 or 2 hours everyday.
Solution: Relax into your sleep 30 mins at least. Brush your teeth, face your face, or just do something to “cool down”.

Tip#6 - Drinking milk does help. It helps to clear off some of your body toxic with fluid, plus some relaxing substances in the milk itself.

Tip#7 - Lastly, using some air purifier + some lavender / liquid. The air purifier or the air flow system will propecia hair loss evaporate the liquid into nice fragrant vapor that helps you sleep soundly through out the night, tested and proven. Some of the ones fragrant I used includes “Lavender” and “Sakura” smell. That would give a nice spa/hotel smell which feels good at the end of the day.

That’s all people, have a great sleep. Oh and yes, spend 1 day of the week to sleep like 10 hours. This would be your “Sunday restoration day”.