Itinerary of the day
After taking a 5 hour flight✈️ to Taiwan, we took a high speed train (高铁🚄) to Hsinchu to get dinner. Dinner was 米粉 with 肉丸汤🍲, also known as Hsinchu's famous pork ball, and several other dishes. Since most of the day was spent of traveling, we did not go to any specific sightseeing location.
We stayed at Howard Prince Hotel.
Pork ball （贡丸） is a Chinese meatball made from finely minced pork, starch and cuttlefish to allow it to have a "bouncy" texture and added flavor. It is not only a common part of the cuisine of Taiwan, but from China and other parts of Asia such as Malaysia as well. The most popular place these delicious and chewy pork balls can be found is the place we are at now, Hsinchu.
Reflections
Charmaine- Although we did not do much today, I feel that it was rather fruitful since we learnt about the Taiwanese food whilst having dinner and touched a bit on the History of Taiwan as described by the tour guide. After the long await flight to our destination, we took a high speed train to Hsinchu. The train was like the MRTs you can find in Singapore, just that the seats are arranged for the passengers and they were more comfortable since it was meant for longer journeys. I feel that it is very organized for the people-in-charge to assign seats to us so that every passenger can get a seat on the train. However, I find that the waiting time between each train interval was quite long and people who would like to travel to another place quickly is not able to do so. After which, we went to a restaurant famous for their vermicelli and meatballs. I find that Taiwanese food is quite different from what we have in Singapore. I especially like the pork balls served with the soup. Even though the soup does not have much flavor, the pork balls are really good when placed into your mouth and guaranteed to be chewy 😋 However, I did not like the bamboo shoots since it was my first time tasting it and I couldn't get use to the taste. After today's trip, I realised that there were some things we could improve on, in particularly our behaviour. Since we have been rather noisy and uncivilized during our trip, I believe we can improve on our behaviour by talking and laughing softly and act properly so as to not leave a bad impression on the Taiwanese. I hope that we can be on our best behaviour as a class tomorrow so that we can leave a good impression on the Taiwanese students and teachers.
Outside the train station at Taoyuan
Scenery of Taiwan from the high speed train 🚄🚄
Brian- Today I was the Day IC, making the entire class cooperate was the most challenging part of the day, other than that the day was fine. We did nothing much but the high speed train experience was very new and is very different from the mrt in singapore. The seats are more comfortable and are able to lean backwards but the downside to this is that people are required to buy a ticket and then sit on it, similar to the restrictions of the airplane. I enjoyed today's traveling and would wish that this process would be smoother in the future days. I feel that we are lacking cooperation with the Day ICs and so causing inconvenience to him/her and if we are able overcome this, our trip will be even more enjoyable. Other than just traveling, the food also amused me. This was the first time I have eaten such big meatballs but I did not really like the Bee Hoon. One of my favorite dishes is the tofu with salted egg, the salted egg's taste was in every bit of the tofu and I really liked this. I hope that tommorow will be more enjoyable and I look forward to the people we will encounter in the school we will be visiting tommorow.
Seated!
Arrival at Hsinchu
Tiffany- The highly anticipated trip has arrived. First day is just loads of traveling though... :( It is not very tiring. And plane food was nicer than expected (: Anyway, I quite enjoyed the train ride to Hsinchu. It was fast but it didn't feel like it. And the one time use tickets were really peculiar. I had assumed long ago that train stations used cards that tap. The first meal in Taiwan was pretty interesting. Firstly, the tour guide mentioned that the bee hoon was free flow. Secondly, the meatballs were the size of a legit ping long ball! And they taste more like beef than pork. Thirdly, everyone was eating the same thing. They didn't even have a menu anywhere or like a sign to say what they sell yet tons of people came to eat. So I'm guessing this is a common meal in Taiwan? I also have a feeling we'll be eating loads of bee hoon later on, don't know why. But seriously, the bee hoon is awesome. Few minutes after dinner , we finally arrived at the hotel AKA wifi. Can I say I'm impressed by the hotel?
Day 1 was still fun though there was no sightseeing and everyone was completely obsessed with the minimarts (7-eleven). I did learn a bit more about Taiwan from the tourguide and I'm already mesmerised. Can't wait for more!!!!
A view of our room :)
Min Hui- With a heart fully filled with excitement, I boarded the plane with the rest of my classmates. We had a pleasant flight today although it was slightly delayed. After arriving in Taiwan, Taoyuan International Ariport, we took a coach to take the HSR(高铁) to Hsinchu. This is my thrid time coming to Taiwan but this is my first time taking the HSR. The tour guide, Uncle Jeff, told us that the HSR, moves at the speed of 300-320km per hour. It took us 10mins to get to Hsinchu from Taipei. I feel really honoured to take the HSR and the experience was AWESOME!
Then, we proceed on to have dinner. My CID group had dinner with Mr Chua. It was the first time I felt bonded with my group members. Time flies... I hope we would have more of this "bonding session". It allows our friendship to be closer. Thank you GuanJung for serving us:)! I really appreciate it.
In between waiting time, we went to mini convenient stores to get snacks. Those mini convenience stores are different from those in Singapore. There are a variety of food available and we could easily fill our hungry stomachs with food.
我喜欢台湾，他们的服务态度良好，人都很客气！
Tomorrow, we will be visiting National Experimental High School, Hsinchu, for an exchange with the students there. 我期待着明天的交流。 I hope I am able to understand the education system in Taiwan. It is getting late so I am signing off...
Once again, I am Min Hui from CID Group(2L)^^
明天会更美好的！
GuanJung- Today was the day , it was what I have waited for for ages and it's finally here. Today, I will be traveling to Taiwan with my class ( most of them ) , and out destination istaoyian international airport. This would bethe first time I will be traveling overseas without my parents , thus I'm extremely excited . Upon boarding the Airbus 330-300 CI0725 China airlines plane , I find the attitude of the air stewardess very good . They were extremely polite and if we needed their help they would come over immediately and help us . Next I would move on the the plane food . My lunch was sweet and sour chicken with fried rice. and it shocked me as it tasted a billion times better then I would expect it to be , thus I felt that the food was very nice .
Right after we clear immigration and step out of the airport , I could breathe in the frest air that taoyuan had . I could see the clear skies , very little clouds and a lot of blue . We then took a 10-15 minutes bus right to taoyuan high speed railway station . The rail ride would take us about 10-15 minutes to reach hsinchu but the bus took 1 hour instead . Before entering the station , there were 2 minimarts at the entrance , the minimarts in Taiwan are very different from those in singapore , they had ready to eat food , a take what you want to eat counter and most of all my favourite , their latte , it's extremely tasty . After which we arrived in hsinchu , we headed out to our dinner restaurant . As stated in the itinerary we had hsinchu very famous rice noodles and meatballs . The rice noodles were abit different from what I had eaten in singapore but I found it still ok and enjoyed my meal .
After we had eaten our dinner , we took a 10-15 minutes bus ride to our hotel , on the way the tour guide explain why hsinchu is called hsinchu for us . If you want to know , come down to hsinchu yourself and find out. The hotel that we stayed tonight was Howard Plaza hotel , I found the stay quite enjoyable even though I slept in the small bed as my roommates hong yang and xingjian bullied me with their big muscles . Overall I found the day filled with fun and enjoyment I hope that tomorrow would be a better day and more fun pack activities would be held for us :)
Once again TAIWAN FTW!!!!!!!!!
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