Leaving for Taiwan with sore eyes was just so inconvenient. I had to pretend I'm busy whilst passing immigration. Yes, I had to do all the faking until I reach pass the Taiwan immigration. We arrived at our hotel half past 2:00 a.m. Had the privilege to pass by 7-11 and hoard some bento there 'coz we were starving after the long flight. Well... yeah it's long... 2 hours. xD
3 Itchy Feet embark on a journey to Taiwan, our first ever together, my 3rd and their 1st after 15 years. Yes, it was that long time ago. When things were given to us for free... even pocket money. *lol*
On our first day, our first stop was here:
Had to come over for some fangirl sight-seeing. This is an Art Center, the place is filled with ruins and very cozy place to stroll. Here, we can see Deja Vu Restaurant ( THe resto that Liu Qian, Will Liu and Jay Chou owned) and A place for Tea (一間茶屋), Fang Wen Shan's own Teahouse.
We stopped by at A place for Tea first then we had a reservation for Deja Vu at around 12 noon. Unfortunately, since we're here to see Mr. Cheung, we had to meet a friend/fan around 1:30 and so we decided to postpone the Deja Vu reservation to 5:00pm. Mr. Cheung stays at a Hotel where we stayed in as well, knowing he's about to go to the Taipei Arena, we had to go back to the Hotel and wait for him in the Lobby. The Philippine delegates must report to their "老大" (Boss). haha! Since the inconvenience in Taiwan is that there's no Yellow Gate where you can report to duty daily, we had to wait at the Hotel lobby for him to see us and say: "Present" through eye contact. *lol*
We waited at the hotel lobby for an hour or so, since we had to meet a friend/fan at Taipei Arena, we had to leave at once and so we were not able to see Mr. Cheung at the lobby.
To cut the story short, our route for that day was:
East Dragon Hotel -> Hua Shan Creative Park -> Mr. Cheung's Hotel -> Taipei Arena -> Taipei Main Station (Nova Mall) -> Hua Shan Creative Park (Deja Vu) -> East Dragon Hotel (Pick up luggage) -> Mr. Cheung's Hotel (Check in) -> Taipei Arena (Watch Concert) -> Back to hotel
After meeting our friend, we went to Nova Mall and bought this:
Then we had to rush to Deja Vu Restaurant and have early dinner at 4:30pm! Food was great but expensive. I missed their Anchovy pasta, it was sensational!
After checking in and freshening up a bit, we rushed to Taipei Arena and proceed to Row 11. Our first night, good seats, good companion, good show!
It was a great show. With the rock song on top of my head, we really had a blast!
After the show we had to rush back to the hotel and wait for Mr. Cheung at the lobby. It was a mob in the making! Some tourists from China coincidentally just arrived (2 tour buses) and they knew of Mr. Cheung's arrival. In the end? The fans were not able to take a good look at him 'coz China people hoarded him and were mobbing him like crazy. Purpose? Just to have a click on their cellphone and brag their close encounter with the God of songs in Taiwan. They were always the reason why we can't see Mr. Cheung in a decent, proper and reserved manner. We were so frustrated that night. Luckily, one of my cousins was able to make eye contact with him as he nodded in assurance that he saw her. He shifted a bit and by the looks of it as my cousin narrated, he's looking for other familiar faces.
Anyhow, as the crowd got thinner, we went outside ready to grab some dinner at 12:00am. While outside, we met this bellboy who was a Filipino. Kabayan! He lives in Tondo but has already been in Taiwan for 2 years. We kept chatting for an hour or so until we finally decided to go to a convenient store to hoard food again for supper. :)
The next day, we had to go to the boring Taipei 101 and ate at their Food Court. Wasn't a big fan of Taipei 101, I swore I won't go there again and I won't spend another NT to get to the top floor. Puh-lease...
Our 2nd night, and of course our last night in Taipei and the last night of the 1/2 Century Concert as well. We had to leave early and not finish the concert 'coz we had to travel to Taoyuan Airport for an hour or so. We were right at the side in front of the bridge of the stage. It was a listening kind of place, can't see any of the people on stage but what the heck, I've watched for like 6 times and it won't hurt just to listen to the songs. Besides, my eyes were hurting so much I had to force it open all the while since morning. I was really pathetic.
While singing the Encore songs, Jacky Cheung sang 情書 right at that bridge, we were of course, star strucked. We sing without knowing the words, it was so surreal. He was totally in front of us! This was a dream come true. Though we had close encounters with him before, this was by far a first time. We wanted to sing with him, thus during the concert, we were hoping to get front seats so we could sing as he sings and he could see us sing! The feeling would be different, it would have been so COOL.
So, when he sang 二分之一的幸福 we were already climbing the stairs, exiting with heavy hearts as we leave our good seats. While taking a break in the loo, I was able to listen through halfway of the song, it was my first time to hear that song since I never listened to all his albums. It stayed with me for hours. :(
Before we left, we had the chance to pass by the section where flowers were given by artists who admire Mr. Cheung, one of the admirers of course, was our very own Jay Chou. Can't help but take pictures with the flower! xD
An hour drive to Taoyuan Airport, we discussed things we surely have missed when we left the Arena. We thought we were a bit hasty in giving ourselves an ultimatum to leave that early. Arriving the airport, we noticed the empty lobby with only us checking in, we thought we really blew it. We could've stayed for a few more minutes :( As we pass by immigration, baggage check-up, we came across another surprise... Mr. Fang Wen Shan's poem on our way to the boarding gate!
The boarding gate is filled with people, waiting for flight 5J310 to take them back home to Manila. As we found our place and settled on emptier seats, we felt the drowsiness and exhaustion downing upon us as we rest for a while. Not long, everybody were assisted to board and we sat on our respective seats, reminiscing with drowsiness, our 2-day marathon trip to TAIPEI.
We shall return... for more.
