A School Trip to Taiwan

22rd July,12   The first day of the trip!

Two months ago, I joined an interesting school trip to Taiwan for a week with teachers and twenty schoolmates. Actually, my school had planned to go to London this summer holiday but it would be very expensive during the London Olympics. So we went to Taiwan. We went to Taipei first, then Taichung. However, I did not want to go Taiwan very much before the trip because it was like going to just another Chinese city. Actually, I wanted to go to Europe or America, like Canada, France and England.

On the first day of the trip, I woke up at about five o’clock. I brushed my teeth and got changed quickly. Then, my dad, mum and grandma took me to the airport by taxi. I felt a bit nervous because this would be my first time to go overseas without parents.

When we arrived at the airport, the sun had already risen. We went to Delifrance, a restaurant serving French food in the airport, to have a delicious breakfast. After the breakfast, our teachers, students and I gathered in front of the departure entrance. I was pretty glad to see my two best classmates,Chung Tak and Hugo.

About seven o’clock, our plane took off. I felt a bit disappointed because the flight only took two hours, so I couldn’t watch movies for too long. I played some computer games and watched some cartoons, like Kick Buttowski and Ben 10 Alien Force. I like the alien character, Big Chill the most. He is a super hero who is an intangible, ghost-like creature with a breathy, ethereal voice.

We arrived at Taipei at last! Then, we went to a hotel restaurant by a special double-deck coach . All the schoolmates sat on the upper deck because the lower deck was used for storing our luggage. There were three TVs on the bus but we didn’t bother to watch.

The hotel restaurant looked new and beautiful. However, I did not like Taiwanese dishes because they tasted very strange to me. One of the dishes was pig’s hearts! No one wanted to eat them, even our teachers. After that we went to the huge Sun Moon Lake which was the earlier area where the ancestors of Taiwanese people lived. We sailed around the lake in a sightseeing boat. I thought that this activity was a bit boring because we could only appreciate the lake on the boat.

About six o’clock, we went to Wenwu Temple which was located beside our hotel. Some schoolmates wrote down their wishes to the Chinese god. But I didn’t because I thought that they were silly and useless. The hotel we stayed looked like a traditional Chinese house. Then, we had dinner in the hotel.  At last, Chung Tak and I shared a room. The old small room was pretty comfortable.

23th July, 12   The second day

We woke up early at six o’clock because we had to take breakfast at seven. After brushing my teeth and packing up my backpack, I watched the cartoon, Ben 10 Alien Force while my classmate was packing up his rucksack. Then, we went to the restaurant which was located one floor below our room.

After breakfast, we went to the zoo of peacocks and birds. I saw many graceful, beautiful peacocks. Sometimes, we could see them spread their beautiful feathers. The most special thing was that my camera bag was taken by a naughty blue bird! Lucky, a zookeeper gave it back to me.

Then, we went to a sheep farm. We were allowed to pat the sheep and even buy food to feed them! I thought the sheep were cuter than dogs and cats. But I had no coins to buy a bag of sheep food from the vendor machine. Lucky, some schoolmates gave me the sheep food and I fed the sheep with five bags! I was really satisfied. After that, we watched a sheep show. We also saw a worker shave the sheep’s wool. I really liked this place. How I wish there is a sheep farm in Hong Kong!

About five o’clock, we spent an hour in a bookstore to buy books. Actually, I wanted to buy a DVD series of Masked Riders. But it was very expensive. At last, I bought two books about America and Japan for my brother and myself. I also bought a Shinkenger Gold’s robot model from a Seven Eleven convenience shop. In the TV programme, the huge robot transforms from a lantern with a Chinese word on it.

At night, we stayed in another hotel which was located on the hill. It is an old western-style hotel. We could see a lot of stars at night. We could also watch beautiful scenery on the public balcony. The most special thing was that Chung Tak and I slept on the highest storey of the hotel, so we could see the roof. What a great day!

27th July,12   The sixth day

I felt a bit disappointed when I was packing up my backpack in the morning because there were only two days left of the trip. Last night I had another roommate from the other class to share the room with me. I thought that he was also friendly. Then, we had a delicious buffet breakfast at the hotel.

After breakfast, we went on hiking in a country park. But I don’t like hiking because this activity makes me tired, hot and sweating! We hiked for many hours until noon. We saw many insects and cows, even snakes. We also saw a special thing, an insect skin!

Then, we visited an insect museum in a secondary school. Actually, the museum was not a grand one and its decoration was very simple. First, two guides introduced the information of different insects, mainly butterflies. The most special thing was that all the schoolmates could touch the living stick insect, Hercules beetle and even an empty beehive under the supervision of the guides.  I thought that the Hercules beetle’s skin was very smooth. Some schoolmates were afraid and thought the insects ugly, so they didn’t dare touch them. We also saw many beautiful butterflies, specimens of the world’s biggest ant and thinnest stick insect.

In the evening, we went shopping at Ximending. Although there were many things to buy, I didn’t buy anything. My classmate Hugo and I went to a toy shop to buy some toys. I saw some of my favourite toys there, like Masked Rider W, Ultra Man and Iron Man. Lastly, I decided to buy a Masked Rider 000 figure. However, it cost 300 Taiwan dollars which was too expensive, so I dropped the idea. Suddenly, we saw a schoolmate buy a One Piece pirate ship toy which cost 900 Taiwan dollars! He was so crazy. The teacher, Ms Wong, also bought a bottle of juicy watermelon milk for me and a bottle of mango juice for Hugo. Yummy!

At night, we had a delicious hot pot and a buffet for dinner at a Chinese restaurant. We could eat French fries, grilled beef, ice-cream and many more. However, two naughty schoolmates put all the noodles in the hot pot which made Ms Wong punish them to eat all the noodles. They eat about ten bowls of noodles! Ha ha, what a laugh! At last, we had the Mongolian roasted food. We could choose as many different meat as we wished, like pork, beef, lamb and chicken. Then, we could add some seasonings, like prawn sauce, vinegar, onion and chilli. Lastly, the chef cooked our selections on a large heated pan using special, long chopsticks. After dinner, we returned to the hotel. I was absolutely full!

28th July,12   The last day!

We needed to pack up the luggage in the morning because we would leave Taiwan tonight. We went to Taipei’s Anti-disaster Museum after the buffet breakfast .

When we entered into the museum, we saw some old red fire engines and fire-fighting equipment which were made in Japan in the past. Then, we watched some videos and cartoons about horrible natural disasters. The passionate guide also taught us some basic ways to protect ourselves when disaster happened. After that, we had a funny game to learn about escaping from fire in a special, dimly lit room which was in a long shape with many partitions. We could not see clearly when we crawled with wet towel covering our mouth and nose to stay away from the smoke.  But the smoke was actually water mist. I thought that the room was just like an exciting maze! We also had another game. We sat dawn on a special floor which could move quickly to imitate earthquakes. The things from the wardrobe might fall down so we needed to be careful. 

After a rest, we played a funny game again. Then, we went inside a special room with yellow raincoats on so that we would not get wet. First, water drops dripped quickly to imitate raining. Then, a huge fan in front of the room blew out strong wind to mimic typhoon. At last, some fluorescent tubes flickered to make a lightning effect. “What an exciting game!” I thought to myself. But I didn’t play the game because I didn’t want to get wet.

Lastly, we had the chance to use a fire escape lift which was built on the outer wall of a building. It used a person’s body weight instead of electricity to operate. We went into the fire escape lift one by one on the fifth floor to have a go. We all landed safely.

In the afternoon, we went to Eslite Bookstore, the biggest bookstore in Taiwan. It had six floors and was as big as eight football pitches. I couldn’t wait to buy the books when the teachers gave us two hours to do shopping. There were a lot of things to buy, like books, DVD titles, babies’ toys, stationary and so on. However, I didn’t really want to buy them. Actually, I did not know why I had this idea. Finally, I bought a bag of Jelly Belly with my classmate. My favourite Jelly Belly favours are coconut and cheesecake with strawberry. Although I had three thousand dollars, I only bought five things from Taiwan.

After shopping, we went to the Taipei 101 which was near the Eslite Bookstore. Taipei 101 was the tallest building in the world in 2005 to 2010. It is 508 metres high. It is pretty tall.

Oh no! We had to leave Taiwan. Actually, I wanted to stay in Taiwan for two weeks. We arrived at Taipei airport at four o’clock. Goodbye Taiwan!