Lessons Learnt

Taiwan Trip 2013

1) Never bring 2 towels:

Hotels will provide them everyday for you, just one is enough as you might need it for outdoor water activities. 

2) Never bring medium sized bottles of shampoo and body foam:

Hotels will provide them too, just bring a small bottle for emergency. 

3) Always change more money:

Money exchangers overseas are not as commonly seen around in malls like in Singapore therefore it is wise and better to change more money when you visit the money exchanger. It's always better to have extra money with you. Don't you worry about having extra and have to bring them back to Singapore because who knows you might travel to Taiwan again?

4) Don't ever go Formosa Cultural Village:

Why? There are SANDFLIES there and you will definitely end up with many sandfly bites on your limbs even if you were to wear pants while you're there. Furthermore, there's nothing much to see and play over there. SERIOUSLY. DON'T EVER GO THERE unless you're really interested in the culture of the different tribes in Taiwan. 

5) NEVER EVER scratch sandfly bites:

Yes, I know, they are SUPER DUPER ICTCHY LIKE NOBODY'S BIZ but DON'T EVER SCRATCH IT!!! I really regretted of what've done. Every night when I reach back to my hotel, I'll start scratching my leg. This is really bad. The marks of the bites are really ugly and they are all over my limbs. I have been wearing long pants to school everyday until I fell down and got wounds on my knee. Now that my wounds are healed, I'll be back wearing my long pants. Hais, no choice. Of course I won't wear long pants forever....just hope that the marks will fade off a little one day......according to the doctor, they take a looooooong time to fade off. :( 

I saw online that if you want to ease the itchiness, you can take a metal spoon, dip it with hot water and use it to apply some pressure on the bites. This will help to ease the itchiness. Not sure if it's true though but no harm trying! 

6) Always bring extra pair of contact lens, not 1 but 2 or even 3. Extra rubber bands for hair too:

I brought 1 extra pair of contact lens and this pair together with the one I wore that gave away. =.= The extra pair gave away in 2 days time. =.= Don't ask me why.....maybe I'm really just too rough while cleaning the lens. I wore my lens and found out that one of them is really uncomfortable in my eyes. I tried to blink and gently rubbed my eyes to fix the position but it's still the same. In the end, I took it out and wanted to clean the lens then I found out that there's a slit in the middle of the lens which I didn't see it when I put it on. Basically, the middle of the lens was torn apart. This explains why you see me in spectacle in the photos at the last part of my trip.  

What about rubber bands? I'm not that rough to break them.....I.....misplaced them, WITH THE SAME WAY OVER AND OVER AGAIN. OMG. Let me tell you how I always forget my rubber bands. Whenever I go swimming, I'll tie up my hair. After the swim, before I bath I'll remove my rubber band and hang it at the shower head/knob. THEN, I WILL JUST FORGET ALL ABOUT IT UNTIL I'M ALREADY HALF WAY BACK HOME. =.= So same thing happened. First part of my trip was to Kending. I went snorkeling and so have to have a bathe outside before going back to the hotel. I hung my rubber band on the shower knob and only realized it when I'm on the van, on the way back to the hotel. =.= =.= =.= Somemore, it's the start of the trip. So, always bring extra pieces of whatever you'll need because who knows you might need them? 

7) 2 hangers is not enough, especially you are washing your clothes during the trip:

I brought 2 hangers along as I know I'll be washing my clothes. After this trip, 2 is just not enough as normally I will wash only when the stay is much longer or the clothes are much thinner which dry up easily. I have to borrow extra hangers from the hotel during one of the stay as the weather is just too good to not wash clothes and there's a balcony in my room. 

8) Don't need to bring water bottle:

I actually brought my 600ml of water bottle as I thought I might use them. In the end, I didn't, NOT EVEN ONCE. When I touched down in Taiwan, I bought a bottle of mineral water and that became my water bottle throughout the trip. Hotels also provided mineral water too. Thus, there's really no need to bring water bottle. 

9) Always bring long pants and long-sleeved shirts:

Long pants for pyjamas because there's air-conditioner in the hotels....it gets soooooo cold at night. I brought sleeveless tops and FBT as pyjamas so I was always complaining that it's cold at night.

Long pants and long-sleeved shirts for day use. They can be useful to protect ourselves from mosquitoes and if some of the places you are going might be cold, they can be very handy too. So do pack them in even if you know it's summer there. 

10) Apply sunblock evenly and the correct way:

I applied them dutiful but not the correct way. How am I wrong? Well, you need to make sure to apply sunblock on those covered parts which are near exposed parts of your body. Our body movements can caused them to be exposed to the sun and you will find yourself getting sunburn at those parts at the end of the day. These areas can be your shoulders (when you wear a sleeveless top) or your neck area. 

I saw this on facebook and I thought it's quite interesting....

I'm definitely in between Discoverer and Activitist and sometimes Thrill-Seeker. :) What about you?