Episode 8: Taipei, taiwan

Leg 8: Nanjing, Jiangsu (江苏南京) → Taipei, Taiwan (台湾台北)

Nanjing → Taipei

Detour: 'Take Flight' @ Shihfen Train Station

Shihfen Train Station

Roadblock: Paragliding @ Fei Cui Wan

Yeliu Geopark

Pit Stop @ Danshui Fisherman's Wharf

Result for Leg 8...our farewell episode

Ximending

Wikipedia

Our Truly Amazing Journey ~ Episode 8

Leg 8: Nanjing, Jiangsu (江苏南京) → Taipei, Taiwan (台湾台北)

After racing in the same region for 4 legs, we were very excited that we were finally flying to the next destination!! And for the first time ever in China Rush history, we're venturing out of mainland China to Taiwan...awesome!! Before we found out that we would be going to Taiwan, bro & I was quite worried coz the maximum stay for our visa was 30 days and no matter what, we'll have to get out of China in 6 days. We were very relieved and happy that leg 8 would be in Taiwan so all our problems solved...woohoo!!

The remaining 6 teams went back to the stadium to shoot our pit start for the next leg.


While waiting for our cameramen and camera assistants to arrive...we got bored and started comparing the sizes of our legs & arms...lol!!

And did yoga!! We were a bunch of people with no gadgets to play with so this was one of the ways to entertain ourselves...lol!! 

Time to get serious and shoot our pit-start. This time we had Jonas as our cameraman. Our clue was for us to go to Pudong International Airport to look for the Eva Air counter and didn't say where we would be going but we knew that Eva Air is a Taiwan airline. =) 

We had to travel 4 hours by bus from Nanjing back to Shanghai to catch our flight to Taiwan. This leg was the toughest to plan and the most expensive leg...mainly because of all the troublesome procedures that they had to go through for all the Chinese crews and contestants. Ours was easy coz we didn't need any visa to travel to Taiwan. =)

Eva Air was one of the sponsors for China Rush 3 so it's time for advertisement!! When we arrived at Pudong Airport, the Eva Air staff greeted us at the clue box and brought us into a room to help us book our tickets online. Our tickets were actually pre-booked already so we just pretending to purchase our tickets online. It was funny when we tried booking the flight that we were supposed to travel on, the system showed that there were no tickets available...lol!! Thanks to the sponsor, we got to travel on premium economy seats but too bad it was just a short journey. 

For this flight, the cameramen had to shoot the scenes of us checking-in our bags, boarding the flight, the stewardess greeting us, us enjoying the in-flight entertainment system, enjoying our meals, sleeping, etc. It was funny when one of the cameramen started shooting us getting into our seats and zoomed in on us fastening the safety belt. Another cameraman saw this and laughed and asked if he was taking the safety video...lol!! Then there was another scene where Karin had to pretend to sleep while the stewardess put blanket on her...she couldn't control her laughter so they asked Steven to do it instead...lol!! 

It has been 6 years since our last short trip to Taipei. Apart from knowing some Taiwanese language, we can't say that we're familiar with Taipei. 

We started the race from our hotel at Wanli the next morning and according to our clue, we'll have to get to Badu Station to take a train to Shihfen Station. We were released according to the sequence that we arrived in the last leg and took a cab straight to Badu Station. We arrived at the train station almost the same time as the girls and when we bought our tickets, we were told the next train would be 50 minutes later. That means all of us would be travelling in the same train. I checked the train schedule later on and realized that we missed the first train by 3 minutes...damn!!! 

The train ride from Badu to Shihfen took about 50 minutes so we just chilled in the train. I have completely no idea what was I doing in this scene looking retarded...lol!!

The moment we arrived at Shihfen train station, everyone just dashed out of the train and ran to get our next clues. 

The clue was a detour between 'Take Flight' - Make a lantern and 'Hang Tight' - Hang 150 bamboo chimes. We chose this detour mainly based on what we thought was fun. =P We know what 'tian deng' was but it's now banned in M'sia so we wanted to try making one.

Our 'yao yeng' cameramen and director...hahaha!

All teams started off the race with 4 blue backpacks, 4 green backpacks, and 3 red backpacks. Out of the Top 6, 4 teams had blue backpacks. =P

We were provided with all the materials to make the lantern and after a very brief tutorial by the shop owner, we started glueing our papers to make the lantern. I folded the edge of the paper and asked bro to put the glue on it but he was putting so much glue that I was afraid that it would tear the paper. When there's too much glue, it was hard for the papers to stick together as well. So here starts our sibling bickering again...look at how frustrated I looked...lol!!

While we were all focusing making our lanterns, the cameramen were also busy shooting.

Once again, I had to complain bro's slowness. He was slowly 'patting' the glue on the paper instead of spreading it across quickly...me very pek-chek!! We're in a race la!! 

I tried to avoid getting glue on my hands coz I need to fold the papers and it would be very difficult if my hand is gluey but he was glueing it so carefully and slowly...arghh!! 

Here comes the bossy sister...instructing him how to glue quickly!! We screwed up the first one so we switched to another one and had to do it from scratch. Lost some time there and it was nerve-wrecking seeing everyone else getting done with theirs!! 

We were finally done with our lantern and dumb us we didn't expand the lantern before lighting the fire. Since bro was so tall, he was holding the lantern while I light it up...butttt....he obviously didn't see that the other side of the paper was not expanded and he still didn't know what he had to do when I shouted "It's burning!!! It's burning!!!" I was underneath watching the fire burn and trying to 'rescue' the lantern by frantically pushing the paper away from the fire...as you can see above...we were so close to burning our lantern!!! OMG...I would be so pissed if we burnt our lantern...that was close!! 

Our lantern finally expanded fully but it took off really slowwwly...just like bro...haha! =P Bro was holding on to the lantern and following it. I told him to let go but I think he was trying to steer its direction maybe? Or he plans to fly off together with the lantern? Lol!!

We were the last team to complete the lantern detour and will have to take the train back to Badu Station. When we ran back to the train station, we thought that some teams may have caught the earlier train but surprisingly, everyone would have to wait for 1.5 hours for the next train. Great...now everybody's together again...lol!! While waiting for the train, we went walking around the cute lil' town of Shihfen and bought some souvenirs. =)

A very memorable souvenir that we bought in Shihfen. =)

During our 50 min train ride, the train attendant realized that we could speak some Taiwanese so he was very excited and chatted with us throughout the journey...lol!! We asked him how to get to our destination 'Fei Cui Wan' and he provided us with some guidance but it wasn't really helpful...haha!! Not sure if anyone noticed but I was speaking Minanyu to the train attendant. =P 

After we got off the train at Badu station, everyone dashed out to catch a cab to head to Fei Cui Wan. All the cabs were together all the way and it took us quite some time to look for the clue at Fei Cui Wan. We bumped into people taking wedding photos again...lol!!

We wasted some time looking for the clue box and finally found it at a hidden small door near the place where we first looked for the clue. =.= When we saw the roadblock "Who's ready to stand strong?", we knew that it was gonna be a paragliding task. Either of us is fine doing this roadblock and I would like to do that but coz I've already done 4 roadblocks, we decided to let bro do the roadblock. 

Bro read the clue in the again in the cab and realized that this was a reverse road block so I was supposed to be the one doing it. Oh yeah!! =D

Anyway, this roadblock was pretty cool and easy...haha!! We didn't have to do anything at all...just sit back and enjoy the coastal scenery...lol!! The instructor was the one controlling everything. =P I felt like Statue of Liberty holding a GoPro cam during the ride. 

The disappointed bunch of people enjoying their 'horse ride' while waiting for us to fly down...hahaha!! =P Apart from the both of us who were neutral on who to do this road block, all other teams were either surprised or disappointed by this twist...hehe!

Our next clue was a picture and I knew immediately where this place was...Yeliu Geopark! 

All of us arrived Yeliu together again. =.= We thought we were supposed to look for the clue near the Queen's Head rock coz that was what we saw in the clue. 

We saw the Fiances walking past us as we were looking for the clues and thought they've already found the clue further down. All of us ended up looking for the clues around the rocks area until I finally spotted a flag at the top of a view point. 

As you can see, we left Yeliu together with Trainers and Harvard. This leg was really frustrating coz it was entirely a cab race and we didn't get any time advantage in doing the tasks. We were asked to make our way to Bali Pier and take a ferry to Danshui Fisherman's Wharf. I know about Danshui Fisherman's Wharf but we had totally no clue where in the map of Taiwan we were at and how far Bali Pier was from Yeliu. We could only hope that our driver knows the direction. 

Our 1-hour cab ride was just like a cab race coz all the cabs were together AGAIN!! At one of the traffic light, I saw 5 cabs together. Our driver is from Wanli and was not familiar with the roads in Taipei but he told us that the Fiancés cab has GPS so we just told him to follow them. We knew that we wanted to go to Bali Pier but when the Fiancés suddenly made a u-turn at one of the traffic lights heading towards Danshui Fisherman's Wharf, we decided not to follow them and asked our driver to head to Bali Pier.

We stopped twice to ask for directions coz our driver wasn't sure of how to get to Bali Pier. We weren't sure how far away Bali Pier was and since our driver didn't know the direction, we made the decision to follow the sign-boards and turn back to Danshui Fisherman's Wharf then take a ferry to and fro Bali. Having bad cab luck on such a crucial day totally threw us off. =.=

Our initial plan was to take the ferry over to Bali and we were asking people where the dock was at once we arrived at Danshui Fisherman's Wharf. I have no idea how bro can pronounce 'ma tou' as 'ma tong' and 'ma kou'...lol!!

When we wanted to buy the ferry ticket to Bali, the lady told us that there's no more direct boat to Bali coz it's low tide. So we'll have to change boat at Danshui Old Street before getting to Bali and both ways would take at least an hour.

The moment we found out that we would have to take 4 trips of ferry and she said that we may miss our boat back, we decided to just get our clue there and go straight to the pit stop. We knew that we would be penalized but didn't know how long it would be. At that point of time, we were kinda prepared for the worst and all we could hope for is that someone else screwed up or missed the boat.

We kinda knew that this would be our last leg but we still kept our fingers crossed as we ran to the pit stop.

As expected, we were the first to get to the pit stop but had to incur a 60-minutes penalty. We had no idea where the other team was and the only thing we could do was to wait. If we had taken the ferry back and forth, it would probably take even longer than 60-minutes so we were fine with the penalty.

As we were waiting by the side, we overheard the director saying that all the teams were in the same boat heading toward's Fisherman's Wharf. We knew for sure that it was pretty much over for us unless it was a non-elimination leg. =(

All the teams checked-in before our 60-minute penalty was up and we were the last to check-in. I was still hoping for a NEL but unfortunately, it marked the end of our Amazing journey when Allan told us that "you have been eliminated". Kinda sad and disappointed but we were prepared for it. That's why we were able to end our journey smiling. =)

We weren't really prepared for our 'oscar speech' so we just babbled random stuff...lol!! Hahaha...not bad la hor?? Quite touching right?? =P

I can't believe this 'girlfriend' part made the final cut...hahaha!! I've officially helped bro to promote his availability...hmm should I help set up a dating website for him??

The Fiancés won this leg and won 2 nights' stay in a hotel in Australia in the desert and 2 nights' stay in Hilton Guangzhou.

Result for Leg 8...our farewell episode. Thanks to everyone who have been following the show and supporting us. It has been an AMAZING experience!! Read more about our thoughts on our 'farewell episode' here.

I think the producers must be happy with this big 'twist'. Front-runner for the last 5 episode got eliminated...drama drama!! =P Based on our previous performance, we stand a big chance of being in the final 3...but oh well...we'll just have to settle with 6th. =P

Posh cabs in Taiwan...Mazda, lotsa Toyota...helping Toyota to advertise...lol!!

Our last post-race interview at Fisherman's Wharf...I'm so gonna miss racing around!!

Danshui Fisherman's Wharf...a place that I'll probably never forget. =P

We had one day free to walk around and it was good that our hotel was near Ximending. We've went to Ximending in the afternoon and all of us followed Christine and Steven to a night market for some Taiwanese delicacies...good times!!  

Tough job behind-the-scenes...hahaha!! =P

8th episode air dates:

ICS (English version) - 8pm, 14 October 2012

Dragon TV (Chinese version) - 4pm, 20 October 2012