Travel – Page 18 – HeaRty's Haven

é™½æ˜Žå±±åœ‹å®¶å…¬åœ’ (Yangmingshan National Park)

Posted by Rochelle Sy Chua On September 25, 2009

é™½æ˜Žå±±åœ‹å®¶å…¬åœ’ Yangmingshan National Park
1-20 Chu Tzu Hu Road, Taipei 112, Taiwan
886 (2) 2861-5404

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My mom rented a van that day in order for us to go to Yangmingshan National Park & Jinshan. We went first to Yangmingshan National Park, 1st impression? The place is huge!!

We stopped over first at the å°æ²¹å‘ (Siaoyukeng). Located at northwestern part of the park, this has the largest sulphur steam vents.

The sulphur vents spew gases and the odor is pungent, very pungent! Here is a preview of what you can see in the place.

The scenery is really lovely. And we climbed up to the top where the highway is located, about 800 meters long. Whew! We were already very tired after that. In the picture below, that is a preview of the stairs that we climbed in order to reach the top.

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If you’re planning to go to Yangmingshan National Park, be ready for a hike! 🙂

When we reached the top, it already started raining. We still went ahead and toured the rest of the tourist spots at the park. We were already there so might as well continue even if we’d be soaking wet w/c was what happened hehehe 😛

Next stop is the National Park itself. Since it was September, flower festival has already ended (the event runs from November to April). Still the park is a beautiful sight.

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To share the history, Yangmingshan was called Grass Mountain during Japanese occupation of Taiwan, since it was covered in grass and seldom visited by the people. After world war II, åœ‹æ°‘é»¨ (Kuo Min Tang) renamed it to Yangmingshan and created the park.

We walked around and spotted waterfalls, flowers & è¾›äº¥å…‰å¾©æ¨“ (Xinhai Guangfu building). The building, located at the center of the park, is one of the popular spots in the park where people hang around. It has a coffee shop & gift shop on the 1st floor & art exhibit on the 2nd floor & coffee shop at the 3rd floor.

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We also found fish ponds surrounding the building. I took a video of the fish pond and also took a video of the duck that we saw, soooooo cute!!

Other sights to see in the park are the ff.:

é™½æ˜Žå±±èŠ±é˜ (Flower Clock) – large clock that is made of 15,000 flower pots! Something that we should take a picture of. Surrounded by Taiwan flowering cherrie, Japanese flowering cherrie, camellia, etc.

Statue of Late President è”£ä¸æ£ (Chiang Kai Shek) – Yangmingshan is a summer residence of the late president. It was he who renamed the place to Yangmingshan in honor of çŽ‹é˜³æ˜Ž Wang Yang Ming.

Statue of çŽ‹é˜³æ˜Ž (Wang Yang Ming) – is a Ming Dynasty famous chinese scholar & military official of the 17th century

More pictures from the park here.

P.S. This is where my aunt lost her 1,000USD watch (she removed it and put it in her pocket coz it was raining hard but it fell accidentally) and where I damaged my phone due to heavy rains. We were soaking wet when we went back to the van. Still had a great time, we just didn’t anticipate the heavy rains.

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Manila’s Metered Taxis

Posted by Rochelle Sy Chua On September 24, 2009

Hai, Jo & I rode the taxi back to the office coz we missed the shuttle by 1 minute!

For me, it’s meant to be… coz we got to know the new meter LTFRB implemented! Believe me, it’s sooooooooo cool! I think this is the cheapest taxi ride I ever had in my whole life (in the Philippines).

I also realized that majority of the taxi in the Philippines are tampered… imagine I used to pay around 70-90pesos from GO to GBS but with this meter it cost us only 45 pesos!!!

It’s just sad that not all taxi drivers bought this meter as it’ll cost them Php16,000.00. It is definitely worth it though, the driver was very proud of it as well. He told us that all his passengers were very happy upon seeing the meter.

It will be mandated by January 2010 though. I really hope this will push through despite of the disapproval of the different taxi companies.

The advantages that I can see are the ff.:

No tampering of meters! (this is very important for passengers)
Tax properly reported (good for government)
Passenger’s approval & confidence to the ride & taxi fee (makes it a joyful ride – good for driver & passenger hehe)
taxi ride properly documented (receipts- coolness)

Disadvantages:

meter is expensive – Php 16,000.00 (1 year warranty)
you can only get materials for the meter like receipt paper through LTFRB (so price is dictated by the government, no other sources for materials)

I did mention about the receipt earlier. Promise, we were sooooo impressed.

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Here are the information that you can see in the receipt:

Taxi Operator Details
Car Details (Plate #)
Official Receipt #
Date
Distance measured by kilometers
waiting time
Taxi Fare

I really do hope the plans to make this mandatory on January 2010 will push through.

Rest of the pictures here.

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Roch’s Taiwan Trip Photo Album

Posted by Rochelle Sy Chua On September 22, 2009

I’m truly sorry that I wasn’t able to blog while I was on vacation (September 12-21).

I toured Taipei, Taiwan and had a blast. Went to soooooo many places, took lots of pictures (more than 1k!!!). Had so much fun with my mom & aunt. Met up with colleagues during the end of the trip.

Went to temples, museums, amusement park, hot springs, famous parks & memorial halls. One thing that I really noticed about Taiwan is that people are sooo disciplined & nice.

You’ll definitely see a series of posts about my Taiwan trip. It’ll take some time to complete all of it so let me give you some idea what’s in store.

Here are the photos that I took while vacationing, enjoy!

Please stay tuned for the write-ups 😉

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Crowne Plaza Galleria Manila

Posted by Rochelle Sy Chua On August 22, 2009

Picture from CrownePlaza.com

Crowne Plaza Galleria Manila
Ortigas Avenue corner Asian Development Bank Avenue, Quezon City, Philippines 1100
(02) 633-7222

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I wanted to relax and have a worry-free & stress-free weekend, that’s why I decided to spend one night at the new Crowne Plaza Galleria Manila.

I booked for the Deluxe Room but when I arrived at the hotel, they informed me that they upgraded my room to Executive Suite (without additional charge!!! :D). It was a 3-level upgrade (since there’s still grand deluxe & premiere rooms after deluxe). I was pretty ecstatic and felt that I would definitely have a great time staying.

Here are the rates so you can see the different room types:

Deluxe Room – Php 7,187.50
Grand Deluxe Room – Php 8,062.50
Premier Room – Php 8,437.50
Executive Suite – Php 10,937.50
Premiere Suite – Php 12,812.50
Grand Club Suite – Php 12,812.50
Crowne Suite – Php 18,437.50

I was in total awe when I entered a room, I suddenly felt that I should have invited a female friend to stay with me so someone else can also experience it 🙂

Let me show you the room by dividing it into 3 parts:

The Living Room – full-length mirror, trouser presser, work table, television, refrigerator, sofa table.

The Bedroom – bed, television, sofa, dresser, bathrobe, safety deposit box, flashlight, alarm clock.

The Washroom – I don’t know what to say… This is just the best washroom I’ve ever been! Coolness to the highest level. I ended up staying in the bath tub for hours! The washroom is actually divided into 2.

The 1st one is the one connected at the bedroom with bathtub, beauty area, shower room, toilet bowl.

The 2nd one is connected to the living room with beauty area & toilet bowl.

Ofcourse, the rate include buffet breakfast for 2 at the 7 corners restaurant. A charge of Php 1,875 will be imposed for extra person exceeding 2.

I was also able to walk around the hotel and found the ff. establishments:

Seven Corners
Xin Tian Di
Suriya Spa
Gold’s Gym
Kids Play Area
Ballrooms
Fab Restaurant
Bar One
Toyz
Swimming Pool
Agenda

Service is very good as well. A warning though, if you’re going to order for delivery, you will need to go down the lobby and drop by the employee area to get your orders which is a bit inconvenient in my honest opinion. Everything else is superb!

I definitely recommend this hotel to everyone 🙂

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Centerstage Family KTV & Resto Bar

Posted by Rochelle Sy Chua On August 21, 2009

Centerstage Family KTV & Resto Bar

2/F CTTM Square, Timog Avenue corner Tomas Morato, Quezon City

(02) 926-8365

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Christina & I bond every now & then, our favorite past time is either shopping, karaoke or dining out 🙂

Last night, it was KTV time. Our original plan was to go to Red Box but since we met at around 9pm plus already, it was already too late to go there. So we decided to go to Music 21. Unfortunately, it was jam-packed so we have to find another place to go.

Then after 15 minutes of roaming around Timog/Tomas Morato area, we saw the centerstage sign at the circle. We parked at the basement and went straight to the 2/F to check if there is available KTV room for us.

We were asked to wait in their waiting area. The 1st thing you’ll notice is their display of black CD’s with celebrity notes. Beside it are collection of pictures of those celebrities with the Centerstage staff.

On the other side is the open bar where anyone can sing their heart out for everyone to hear 😛 Do I plan to ever try singing at that part of the place? No way! That’s why I only go to karaoke and not be a professional singer, it is mainly because I don’t sing well! hahahaha

Luckily, there is an available room! We got the smallest room ofcourse since there was just the 2 of us 🙂 No promo running but room rate is Php85 per room per person, non-consumable. Not bad..

Here is what the room looks like:

You’ll notice one computer monitor where you’ll look at when choosing songs. It’s quite self-explanatory though coz you’ll just have to click the corresponding numbers to make your choices.

I was a bit disappointed with the service, we will need to go out of the room and look for a server if we want to order or take the bill. Very inconvenient considering they have a button in their remote for service and also a phone near the door for service calls. Though once we got hold of a server, she was all smiles and very accomodating.

Another thing that disappointed me was the sounds. I have yet to find a good KTV bar with good sounds especially when you use their microphone.

But still, Christina & I had a good time. Spending time with your best friend no matter where you are is heaven 🙂 Thanks Chris for the time! See you soon.

The rest of our pictures can be found here.