Taiwan Travel 9 - 17 March

9 March 2011

My mother has given me a surprise Ang Pao and expressed her joy in view that I will be going for the wedding photoshoot soon. Her words have given me a lot of comfort and assurance. Victor’s parents have sent us to the airport boarding us and leave us with a warm hug.

I am so silly to have thought that I have lost my wallet on the plane journey and had unnecessarily given myself a bad scare. After running around the Taoyuan airport and checking with the flight crew onboard, my wallet was later found at the hidden compartment of my bag. Obviously, I did not know this new backpack well and have caused the distress.

We met a fresh graduate who stayed in Keelung and chat with him throughout the train journey. He was doing Amway sales and has been observing us since the time we stepped into the train station.

After the 2hrs of bus ride and train journey, we have finally reached Keelung train station. We took the yellow cab to K-hotel.

10 March 2011

Breakfast was a simple fare with my favourite dish - eggs, which is a true contentment for me as I will be satisfied with any meals that include eggs.

We make our way to the Bridal Studio as our first stop but were told that we had come too early. One of the photographer suggested that we could hangout the temple street for food and return by 1pm.


Reminds me of the daily 7pm drama series.

As we already have had our meal, we took the hour-long train ride to the Taipei Main Station for shopping. The price was most reasonable that the street stall outside the malls. We had our own DIY bouquet made by the shop owner of a handicraft stall.

Back at the Bridal Studio, the entire selection was open to us for choosing, which is unlike the local studio that we weren’t given any choice. The coordinate, Xiao Ping has been very extremely enthusiastic about showing me all the nice dresses that the studio could provide. She relentlessly got me all the beautiful dresses and persuaded me to try on more nice gowns before making the selection. I tried to make fast decision, as I did not want to trouble her too much. Through her recommendation, I brought a set of Nubra from the studio in the appropriate size.

The tailor took my measurements and we were told to return to the studio after 7pm. When we asked for recommendation on which hair saloon, Xiao Ping asked for permission to show us the way and bring us to her frequent saloon - Ming Liu. She has a designated stylist and had introduced us to her service. As we had a referrer, we were both given a 30% for the hair services (Color Dye + Trim - $75, hair treatment - $35).

Upon returning to the studio for the final fitting, the lighting assistant, Xiao Yang started to do the matching suits for the Victor. The MUA, ZhiYi has started to paint my nails and we had entrusted all our belongings to the bridal studio for the next day photoshoot.

11 March 2011

I arrived at the studio 7am in the morning for my make-up. The photographer, Jin-sir took us to the indoor studio and the other staffs were surprised that we started our sequence the other way round, as most other couples would usually do indoor shoot last in Taiwan. I liked a particular gown so much that I am willing to do indoor shoot for my first set of photos.

The morning surprise came when I noticed that the bridal studio is listening to my request and had the extra ‘padding’ removed. On the night before, tailor and the sales girl keep insisting that I could look better with the additional padding. I wouldn’t mind being different from the others, as I would prefer not have my bust almost bursting out. Luckily Anqi took in my words in and had instructed the tailor to remove the padding. I am really happy to have my request granted.

Xiao Yang has been uncontactable during the studio shooting. He has accidentally stepped on a nail during the photoshoot yesterday afternoon and was already limping. Even though I would very much like him to join us as he has the best fashion sense for Victor’s matching suit, I also hope that he could recover faster with sufficient rest. Xiao Yang appeared at the doorstep just before we are setting off to do the outdoor photoshoot and he said that he would very much want to witness our photoshoot process.

Together with ZhiYi, Jin-Sir, Xiao Yang and the driver, we headed towards Taichung. It was still raining in Keelung, and we need to top-up an additional $100 for traveling to Taichung, it brings the transport cost to $300. The MUA charges us $200 for following our transport.

The driver was very caring and he took care of me by placing his hands at the top part of the car door to prevent me from knocking my head each time when I move up and down the car. He took care of getting all the props for us and we are very pleased with his service. Jin-Sir and Xiao Yang keeps cracking jokes to lighten us up, while ZhiYi is always there to take care of our appearances. Their service has been so good and they have been constantly checking on our needs, giving us the necessary travel tips, ensuring our safety and took care of our belongings. They would inform us to remove our shoes and careful with our steps when we need to move to wet area. Zhiyi has kept warming up the heat pad for me and kept covering me with the coat before and after even scene. Even though the weather is very cold, their sunny attitude is very heart warming.

While we are at the lakeside, the driver tie up a swing on the tree for us. As we move to seaside, Zhiyi got me changed with the new hairstyle and accessories within 5 minutes.


Lunch was a treat from the crew and we had noodle soup in a famous store.


Xu Hsiao Soon was spotted eating in the same stall too.

While eating, we received Tsunami warning on the earthquakes in Japan, the Taiwanese was told to stay away from seaside as the tsunami may hit Taiwan at 5.30pm. Jin-sir says that we are lucky the done the seaside photoshoot.

After meals, we went to Sky Palace for our next scene, even though the famous restaurant was closed, we let Jin-sir decide if we should proceed to pay the entrance fees. After some consideration, he says that we should probably give it a try and we went ahead with the plan. The setting at the top of the hills was made so beautiful with the splendid designs against a summit of skyscraper peak that we felt almost like the prince and princess for the day. It seems like this palace will take us to the happily ever after and marked the beginning of a blissful marriage. It is good to have a once in a lifetime romantic moments, which could stay alive in our minds the rest of our lives. At this moment, crews are equally excited about this new location and it could be more sense awakening for them too. We played with the fire sparkers at nighttime before our long journey back to the studio.

Maybe it was the scenery, maybe it was the people, or maybe it was the whole experience that has brought us closer and has imprinted so much nice memories on us. The friendly and caring studio crew – the photographer, the lighting assistant, the bridal coordinator, the MUA, the stylist and even the driver have together made this day so wonderful.

I just felt like the romance we have experienced today was beyond my every imagination. This could have possibly been the most romantic day in my life. The whole series of events has exceeded my expectation and everything was so beautiful. An important reason that has made this journey special is that I am grateful for what it adds to our relationship, I almost felt like I am falling in love all over again.

We are so grateful to the synergy we had created throughout the process and we intend to buy them a steamboat dinner but all the eateries are closed due to the news warnings and we had to buy our dinner from the convenience store.

Aside, Zhiyi is asking for my photographs on a separate request for her portfolio.

12 March 2011

I did not have any hair conditioner nor make-up remover and had to wait till the morning for the shops to reopen. We headed first to the hair saloon, got the directions to the facial parlour, and were given vouchers to the onsen. There have been so many connections among the service industry that we could get good discounts from all the referrers.

Our photos selection starts at 1pm, and we simply love the photos so much that it took us almost 5 hours to choose the pictures, but we ended up buying all the raw photos. I felt that these pictures were so beautifully taken which made it hard to choose. I was being very critical with the selection at first, deleting all the nice photos while keeping only the significant piece from each scene. There is a change in the bridal coordinator halfway through the process and I was being convinced to look through the remaining half of the photos for a later decision.

At one point, the lady boss came and suggested to us a package for the remaining photos purchase. I find their offer rather unattractive as I already removed many nice photos from the favorite categories. I told them that if I have known of the package offer from the start, it would have made a lot more meaningful to pay the extras. Since I have already part with many of the nice pictures, paying additional for the balance photos with filtering did not make any proper sense.

The bridal shop owner could actually reset the system and opens all the pictures for our reselection, stating that it is possible because our selection has not been saved onto their system. True or not, I am still pleased to be able to access to all the photos again, but this time I would rather pay for the whole lot of pictures than to go through another long process of choosing. I felt happier to getting back all the digital copy of the photos, as the pack of memories came attached to the pictures has made every cent worth.

We had a seafood dinner at the temple street, but I must have been too excited to eat enough that I had woke up in the middle of the night feeling hungry. Victor is nice enough to wake up and pack my favorite cheese bagel for me from the convenient store.


I love the cheese bagel to the max. Available at all the 'Seven' store.

13 March 2011

We packed our luggage and move to the East Dragon hotel after breakfast. We had lunch at XiMengDing and were waiting for the return call from our local studio. I was thinking that if they did not respond by the end of the day, we could just let the whole issue pass and not blame them for not coming to Taiwan in light of the recent events.

We spend the whole afternoon searching for the money exchanger as the banks are closed on Sunday. For dinner, we went to the Shilin market and had received a call from Michelle by around 8pm that they would turn up at our hotel 7am in the morning. It was a late notice for us and once again another early day to start.

The unexpected twist of event is that we had initially felt insecure with our Taiwan BS that we agreed to pay the remaining sum to our Singapore BS as a ‘transfer’ of package. After realizing the actual amount paid to the Taiwan BS from my old credit card bill, we decided to proceed with the Taiwan package.

As our promised to the Singapore BS was made, we had to go ahead with the plan. Wilson, the boss has given us the promise that he would be following us on the trip. I think it would be a trade-off as the boss has already organized the Taiwan photohoot, adding another couple with a nominal fee would still be a win-win situation for both parties.
The only part I feel uncomfortable is the limited choice of gown and they looked old fashioned. On the optimist side, we may not have many difficulties choosing good pictures within the given quantity.

It turned out that the Taiwan BS photoshoot experience was better, as their service is good and we were given the access to all the beautiful gowns. Everything was exceeding our expectation level that we are willing to buy all the pictures from them.

14 March 2011

The Singapore BS MUA Coco came to our room and help me with the styling and change of dress, she was surprised at I opted out for the ‘double padded layer,’ as it has been extremely popular nowadays. My lipstick was left in Zhiyi box, and I did not bother about my nails and was readily accepting the color range and hairstyles from Coco. Within me, I am very satisfied with the earlier photoshoot and felt complete.

Wilson has brought along his wife and God-ma for the photoshoot. Together with our photographer and Coco, we had a 7 seater MVP for the trip. It was a bright and sunny day and the driver commented that we are really blessed because it has been raining for the past few days. It is a true relief to know that the Singapore BS is only familiar with the regular route; it feels safer to work within the known range.

Like many other couples, we took the Yang Ming Shan route for our phototaking, and went Waterfall, Yang Ming Park, the Cala-lily farm, the Tatun farm, the Shimen wedding plaza and the Miramar ferries wheel.

I would expect that the photoshoot would turn out fairly common with the typical locations. The gown and the suit were once fashionable many years ago, so it could means negligible temptation for us to buy additional photos.

The transport came up to be $250, which is higher than what we were told originally. Wilson has treated us to a good 12 courses lunch, the table seems to serve more food than a wedding dinner. Sky told us that it is unusual for Wilson to follow the photoshoot, as he does not like the waiting. Maybe it was for us that he has come, or also probably his wife and God-ma has wanted to come along. I just hope that they don’t pin hopes on us in doing the top-ups.

Sky is very professional and really get down and dirty when it comes to work. We get equally dirty as well, our shoes are covered with mud and the dress and suit are also soiled. The Taiwan team has got us so clean and comfortable that we felt like the royalties, while with the Singapore team had transformed us into the action-packed subjects. Sky has been less patience with us and we were made to have walked across the algae filled slippery stones and across the splashing waterfall.

At one part, Victor was made to carry me for a very long time, while Sky is still adjusting his camera. The pathway to stand is so narrow and yet he has to turn around and about carrying me in tilted angle. I felt bad but obeyed all instruction so that the photoshoot could complete faster.

Despite wearing a heavy gown with a large can-can underneath, I was told to climb up high on the pillar and I need to work on the heights.

All I could interpret that this could be simply a lack of awareness but all was done in effort to get good photos. It is not any fairy-tales day for us but maybe we could add it into our sequel that could perfectly compliment our fairy tale story shooting. This time, our smiles are more naturally and we are more comfortable with each other despite lacking the nice crew. Overall, the weather in Taiwan has been so perfect that we feel energetic throughout the day despite having to wake up early.

15 March 2011

There has been so much fun and excitement to talk about and the photos are so beautiful as they have embedded our happy feelings in it. This place has been so sweet and filled with lots of good memories contributed by the nice people we meet along the journey.


Willing to offer a helping hand?

We had breakfast at a Japanese restaurant and revisit the Miramar Ferris Wheel to reminisce the moments. I felt so happy to have finally found the God of Fortune doll in the shopping mall and Victor to have caught this doll with the first try. We went back to Taipei main station for a bagel dinner as I have fell in love with eating bagel.

16 March 2011

Our return flight was in the evening, we have pack our bags by noon time and went to the ZhongXiaoDongLu underground mall for shopping and lunch.



We went back to the hotel before 5pm, but took a long time finding the right way back to the airport. Both of us had a bad fright as time is running short and we had spent almost 2hrs running in circles, dragging our heavy luggage desperately trying to search for the correct bus stop. Luckily we have managed to hop onto the right bus in time for our flight. There have been so many beautiful memories that give us many valid reasons to visit Taiwan again. We are lucky to have the 3 seaters to ourselves on both our departure and return flight.

17 March 2011

Even though I reach home during the middle of the night at 3.30am, I am so eager to tell my mother everything that has happened. Although I got to know that the average age for the wedding photoshoot was 30+, but I prefer to have my picture taken earlier so that I could space out the wedding event and look younger on the photos. I am looking forward to view my Singapore BS photos soon.