Road Trip to Birmingham & Visit National Sea Life Centre

Let's us talk a break for a while for my Taiwan travelogue and I'm gonna bring you to UK this round. Not Ulu Klang lah but it's United Kingdom.

Back in few years during my summer degree program, weekend use to be our favourite day because no class was conducted and most of the time, we fully utilised our weekend by joining the school's trip or organise by our own. Unlike currently where I had my class on most weekend and worst case scenario was my class start from 10 am until 9pm - soon I'm gonna be zombie.

Out of sudden, 2 of my group assignment members suggest that we should try for a road trip. It's was a brilliant idea but unfortunately non of us has even reached the age of 25 at that moment. In United Kingdom, to rent a car, besides having a valid car license, you should at least 25 and above. But thanks God, one of my housemate who was eventually 25 at that moment heard of our idea and interested to join us. Thanks for the blessing, God.

Yeah! No wait for more and let's us start our road trip

Don't you admire with UK's road system? Smooth, clean, no traffic jam, no holes on the road, etc.

The item besides the spec is GPS. Not included the rent of the car but it was bought by my housemate himself. Too rich, no idea where to spend his money :P

Approximately less in 2 hours, finally here we are in Birmingham city.

Birmingham is a metropolitan city located outside London and it's United Kingdom's second most British city.

Wander around Birmingham city

We spend most of our day at here.

National Sea Life Centre of Birmingham is an aquarium which displays more than 60 of marine and freshwater life sea creatures. There are 35 centres of sea life located around the world and I happened to come across the other one while I was in Berlin, Germany. All of these 35 sea life centres only available around Europe and USA.

Anyhow, there are few countries around Asia that have these kind of aquarium which might slightly differences such as Singapore and its Underwater World located in Sentosa Island, Malaysia with its Aquaria KLCC and not forgeting Underwater World situated at the Langkawi Island, Japan with its one of the biggest aquarium in the world located in Osaka, Coex Aquarium in South Korea and etc.

My assignments groupmates, my housemates and I

Say hello to Nemo!

There even has this glow in the dark room.

A big and giant green sea turtle that really exist and swim happily in the sea tank but unfortunately we unable to snap using our low and unstable compact camera.

I almost forgot! Before I end my this post entry, let me introduce the car that we rent.

Tadaaa.....

Oooppps... The wrong photo. How could this car accommodate 7 of us?

This is the one...

Ok! I fool you for the second time. Nice to see but unfortunately not this one.

This is the actual car that we rent. I am serious this time, no more fool you guys around.

Not bad at all. Comfort, elegance, stylish

I even bring along my pillow xP. By the way, the guy behind me is the one who has reached 25 at that moment. The guy on the other side is my housemate too.

Let's take a group of happy family travelmate photo before start our journey.

Hey wait! Our journey doesn't stop there. We rent the car for 2 days. But anyhow, I will continue the other half in upcoming upcoming upcoming post. So, stay tune!

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3 Historical & Cultural Heritage of Taipei City

Date of Visited: 25th December 2010

If you plan or decide to visit Taiwan, here is my recommendation these 3 most famous and interesting spots you shouldn't miss out around Taipei city.


The National CKS Memorial Hall - is Taiwan famous monument and it was built for remembrance the memory of their former great president, Chiang Kai-Shek. Located at the heart of the Taipei city, CKS Memorial Hall has become the landmark of Taipei City.

Entrance of the memorial hall

Memorial Hall consists of four sides which were made from white marbles while the octagonal roof is made out of blue glazed tiles.
And if you happen to have a sharp eyes, you will notice that...


The photo above was taken using the maximum optical zoom of my camera because

See, the memorial hall is extremely far from where I was standing. We were given only 10 minutes to strolling around this place or I can said being given 10 minutes to have a pee...

There are even locations for international art performances. Situated right in front of the entrance, those are the National Theater and National Concert Hall.

The National Concert Hall

The National Theater

We were given no extra minutes and even a few seconds to sight what's located inside the memorial hall because our local tour guide was seems to be in the hurry to the next destination. Maybe we were almost out of schedule on that day due to the heavy traffic jam and you know what - it was Christmas day when we arrived Taipei city. Guess have to use to it when it comes to public holiday.


Move on the next destination was the Martyr Shrine Taipei. It is a shrine built to to commemorate soldiers who sacrificed their lives for the country during the Sino-Japanese war and the Chinese Civil war.

Mistake #1: Please forgive me, I don't mean to pose in this way.

Mistake #2: I really never realise until recently when editing the photo.

One of the main highlight you shouldn't miss out when visiting this scenic spot be the performance of the changing guards.

You got to salute these guards. They are being trained well and they can eventually stand still like expressionless statues. Do respect them too by don't get too close or even touching them. Similar to the guard at the Buckingham Palace, London.


Then, we're heading to a museum this time around and I seems to quite fancy this kind of museum, not like the one in my previous post (here).

National Palace Museum

Apparently it sounds to be exhibition of the palace but it is actually an art museum where exhibits a fine collection of priceless Chinese art treasures.. Unfortunately, phototaking is prohibited within the exhibition hall. Too bad!!!

So, this is one and only photo I can take. Damn! I hate my chubby looks :(

Although I don't have any knowledge regarding the Chinese history, I do enjoy watching every collection in this museum. It is a place you must go if you want an exploration on cultural heritage and cilization of the ancient Chinese.

[Credit to: wikipedia, National Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall homepage, Welcome to Taiwan

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Taiwan Day 5

Date of Visited: 24th December 2010

The first place we're heading to was Museum of Taiwai Hinoki.

Well, I guess it was written wrongly. Apparently, suppose to be "Taiwan" but being written as "Taiwai". At this museum, everything is made out from Cypress, Taiwan's world famous wood. Cypress is known to be an exceptionally stable and durable wood that can last long up to thousand years. For further information, you may click here to find out what is Cypress about.

Honestly to say that I have no any idea of the wood because I was not really quite interested with it. Let's the photo (as usual) do the talk.

Touch up a bit because the original was too bright.

Next, we proceed on to Sun Moon Lake and Wen Wu Temple.

Then, Chung Tai Chan Monastery.

And finally, as usual went to the Night Market before heading back to the hotel for a nice and wonderful sleeping beauty sleep.

The night market is located nearby the hotel that we stayed. Even though on the night we arrived, it was Christmas eve night but it seems to be that area is so isolated and so quiet. I guess maybe most of them are heading to Taipei. What a silent night?

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