阿里山－日月潭

为了看日出，我早上四点就爬起来。。跟着旅行车到日出观景点。早晨的气候特别冷。。我被冻的连话都说不出来。

沿路我们经过玉山国家公圆。

还有著名的＂夫妻＂树。


大家都在等待日出

可惜，因为天气不好，我们无法看到阿里山的日出与云海。只好自我安慰，摆个胜利的手势拍张照留念。

穿过云层的曙光

阿里山火车模型

阿里山森林乐园区

阿里山火车站

在离开阿里山之前，我们有机会观赏到阿里山原著民的表演。之后，我们乘坐专车下山前往下一站－日月潭！

沿途的美景。。

乡村的美丽风光

搞怪1...

搞怪2

路程比我想象的短。两个小时我们就到了日月潭。路程比我想象的短。两个小时我们就到了日月潭。我们在日月潭的住宿是＂碧水山居＂民宿。我超喜欢那个地方。。。很有家的感觉。我的房间能眺望日月潭。。超漂亮！

我房间窗外的景色

日月潭全景

似人间仙境

本人到日月潭水社码头一游

涵碧步道

来到日月潭，一定要乘渡轮游湖。可惜天气不好，起了大雾，把整个日月潭的景色给破坏了。

我和我的旅伴，他也叫vincent

渡轮把我们带到对岸的伊达邵部落。邵族是住在日月潭的原住民

伊达邵部落

另一站是玄光寺。在山下先买个阿嬷茶叶蛋。听导游说这位阿嬷是从年轻卖到老。

从玄光寺眺望日月潭

游完湖，我们到民宿安排的餐馆用餐。这是一家卖道地邵族美食的餐馆。

别看这三道菜普普通通，其实还蛮好吃的。又清淡又健康。

水社码头的夜景

阿里山

隔天，我们起了个大早，从台中赶到嘉義.通过旅行社的安排，我们有专车接送到嘉義火车站。从嘉義火车站，

我们搭乘阿里山小火车直达阿里山森林乐园区。车程长达四个小时，沿路风光明媚。火车从海拔30公尺的嘉義火车站一路开往海拔2200公尺的阿里山森林乐园区。车程长达四个小时，沿路风光明媚。途中我了解到铁路是日军为了运送檜木而在二十世纪初建造的，如今是世界闻名的三条登山铁路之一。
等待启程

中途，由于部分铁路在地震损坏，我们得徒步行走５００公尺。

损坏的铁路正在修复中

阿里山小火车的火车头。

檜木林

阿里山著名的神木

终于到达饭店。我蛮喜欢这间饭店－高峰大饭店。地点很好，干净又漂亮。

我住的檜木房。

阿里山的樱花. 可惜，今年的樱花开的太早。我们错过了樱花盛开的美景。这是剩下的几朵没凋谢的。。

开始我的阿里山森林之旅

姐妹潭

姐妹潭.水中倒影。。我超喜欢这张照片。

心。。你看的出吗？

站在原始森林里，我显得特别渺小

无法形容的震撼..对于城市人的我。。这景色实在是太美了

由于天色在６点就变暗，我们不得不赶快离开。我不想迷失在森林里。我们的晚餐就在一家火锅店解决。

这里的火锅分量超大，食物种类也很多。最重要的是，东西都很新鲜！这一锅我们两吃到超饱！

阿里山的夜市

台湾。。两种不一样的体验

期盼了好久，终于等到这一天。不知道是什么时候。。心里一直很想到台湾走一走。。可是一直没机会。４月４日。。愿望实现！

来到台湾碰到的第一个问题就是语言。习惯了把英语和华语混着说的我，一时之间要我说一口流利的华语真的有点别扭。到达桃园机场的第一个挑战就是问路。我竟然把一句简单的＂请问，从这里怎么到桃园高铁站？＂我都问得好辛苦。自己都忍不住笑了。。

从桃园机场到桃园高铁站只是２０分钟的车程。我们第一个目的地就是台中。到达台中已经是傍晚，我们把行李卸下，马上就到台中的逢甲夜市。台湾的夜市文化真是让我大开眼界。

不知道是不是因为是星期六，夜市的人潮特别汹涌。还不到７点，天色已暗，街上的招牌更显得绚烂夺目。来夜市，主要的目的就是吃。那里的小吃真是特别多。我们沿路走着走着，边走，边买，边吃，不知不觉就把肚子给填饱了。串烧，鸡排，炸金珍菇，烤鱿鱼，猪宝，肉丸，面线。。一次过吃个够。

最左边的是猪宝。。其实是炸猪排里面加了火腿和起司。外面再加特制浆料。吃起来真是又香又脆。。超好吃。老板还上过电视呢！来台湾怎么可以不吃面线和肉丸。肉丸外皮软软的，入口即化。

吃得好饱，我们沿街逛了一会。经过了一家宠物店，我看到了一只超可爱的小狗！我好想抱它回家！

My Taiwan Trip

Havent got time to really blog about my taiwan trip. But I managed to upload some photos on my flickr.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/vinz_ong/

Thinking about work

Wow, its been more than a month since my last post. Been thinking about work alot lately..not feeling very good about it. I know now is the time when everyone is saying .."oh you should be thankful you still have a job" ..moreover, I just got promoted lately, I should not be feeling like this. But work has been very frustrating lately...I shant elaborate here. Not sure how long I can tolerate all the shit but I dont know where I can go during this time. argghh...

I thought everything will be fine after my break from work. Well I did enjoy myself in taiwan..i had a great time in fact. But good times never last and is always so short...now I am back again and work is still as suffocating. I been working here for 3 years, this is the first time I felt so bad. Oh well...

****

Watched two very good movies recently...Knowing and Taken. Knowing totally freaked me out man. I thought the visual effects were great. The plane crash and the train crash scene blew me away. The ending was unlike any other disaster movies where human always survive and triumph..this time everyone get toasted! Haha. Taken was a non-stop thrill ride from the beginning to the end. It was great watching 50 over years old Liam Neeson kicking ass and man he is one awesome fighting machine. He is totally believeable and has the "Dont F**king mess with me" look throughout. Throughout the movie, he went around hunting down those guys who kidnapped his daughter, killing each and everyone of them without any hesitation just to get his daughter back. A little unbelieveable but still a thrilling ride throughout. Love it!

Slumdog millionaire

I caught Slumdog Millionaire last night. To be honest, if not for the Oscar best picture, I probably wouldnt watch it. Two reasons...its a movie about indian...which I am really not a fan...and secondly, its directed by Danny Boyle...the director of the ultra crappy 28 days later. Anyway, after beating the films that I have watched at the Oscars for best picture, I was interested to find out if its really that good. This is the first time I watched 4 out of 5 oscar nominated films. Milk was good because of Sean Penn. He totally deserve the best actor award. The Reader was good because of the ever so fantastic Kate Winslet. I am so glad she finally won the oscar. But the movie was a little too slow and heavy. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button was a nice fantasy film but a little too long at 3 hours. So I went in thinking, how did a low budget independent film about Indians beat all the big boys, and I came out surprised that its actually a really engaging movie. For the first time, there were no ridiculous song and dance segments during the movie - only at the end..Although I enjoyed the movie, it made me so not want to visit India. LOL. I never thought of visiting there in the first place but after watching this...its like NEVER!! The conditions of the slums featured in the movie was appalling. Those kids were so pitiful and so badly abused you cant help feel sorry for them. So, at the end, I could see why the oscar picked this movie as their best picture. Its a beautiful love story and a amazing tale of a boy who went from slumdog to a millionaire overnight but all he ever wanted is love. If you havent watched it, go catch it now before its too late. Its not a typical Bollywood movie, cos its directed by a British, but its a really entertaining show.

Penang

Went to Penang on thursday for an inspection trip. It was really short trip, I flew there in the morning and came back in the evening. Didnt have much time to go sightseeing but I did manage to cross from Penang island to the mainland...not on the penang bridge but on the ferry.

On the vehicle ferry to mainland. Its really cool and to my surprise it is quite a nice way to get across instead of using the Penang bridge which I heard is always jammed up in the morning.

A similar ferry passing by in the other direction.

Penang island

The Penang bridge at the left side....very blur due to the morning fog.

From this view, it reminds me of Hongkong victoria harbour though not as beautiful.

After crossing to the mainland, I went straight to work. Then after lunch, I did abit of shopping but not at Georgetown. Its a pity I didnt get to go there...oh well. After that, went straight back to the airport to wait for my flight. Everytime I visit parts of Malaysia, I always feel that these places seemed stuck in time. The buildings, the people...they seemed so 70s...living such simple kampung/small town life. I wonder if its a good thing sometimes...not living in a city ...but enjoy life at a much slower pace...hmm

OSCAR 2009!!

The nominations for this year oscar are out!! Woohoo, the Dark Knight got 8 nominations and expectedly one of them goes to Heath Ledger. I really hope he will win the oscar eventually...his performance as the Joker was one of the most shocking and memorable last year. The rest of the 7 nominations are in the technical categories and not as expected, it was denied the Best picture and best director nomination. Well, its afterall a commercial flick...a comic book adaption.

I am quite excited about this year award..not just becos of heath ledger nomination, but becos 3 of my favorites actresses are nominated in the best actress category - Kate Winslet, Meryl Streep and Angelina Jolie. Any of the three getting the Oscar will be great but I really hope Kate Winslet wins it this year. Reason? She havent won for so long already!! Sadly, Leonardo Dicaprio didnt get a nomination this year for Revolutionary Road. I thought it would be perfect if both of them can get a nomination for that film.

I am waiting for a few films to be out in Singapore. Revolutionary Road is one of them, Milk, The Reader and lastly, the most nominated film this year - The curious case of benjamin button. The concept is great, guy ages backwards. Love to see how they pull that off..and there's Cate Blanchett and Brad Pitt. Cool!

Happy New Year!! Gong Xi Fa Cai!!

Wish all my friends out there, a happy and prosperous year of the ox! I know this year is not exactly a bullish year...everyday we hear of people getting retrenched, companies closing down, people getting paycut...but I hope we will get out of this recession or depression soon. Hopefully with our government 20.5 billion resilience package, we can see the light in this time of darkness soon. Anyway, Chinese New Year is coming in a few hours...enjoy the holiday and best wishes to you all. Gong Xi Fa Cai...Huat ah!