Tag: taipei

A couple nice things that struck me about Taipei’s MRT:

• Most MRT stations had clean public restrooms, clearly marked, with toilet paper and at least a few western toilets, in their unpaid areas. Excellent. In Hong Kong’s MTR, there are restrooms on the platforms in the paid areas… but they’re a secret! You have to grovel before a platform supervisor (either in person or by a call button requesting “information”) before they’ll unlock those unmarked doors for your newfound urgent calling.
• People actually wait for alighting passengers before boarding.
• The EasyCard is fully-refundable, including deposit, after just five uses. It’ll take you three months before you can get the full value of an Octopus back. The Octopus is still better and I will still miss it terribly when I leave, though: I didn’t see any non-transit EasyCard uses in Taipei. There was some kind of contactless credit card reader from Visa branded “Wave,” though.

My blogging and pictures definitely went downhill from day 1.

The last day, I decided to see both Danshui and the hot springs. Unfortunately, both places were cloudy and it actually started drizzling. Got to see some bubbly water, but that’s about all of notice—I didn’t even go in the old Spanish/Dutch/British fort at Danshui because I wouldn’t have been able to see anything.

The flight back was not bad but definitely not good. I am now the proud owner of a resealable clear plastic bag less than 1 liter in volume (the better to beat out EU and now Taiwan and soon Hong Kong regulations with). Unfortunately I was not the owner of a working Eustachian tube during the flight. This manifested as ears which were slow to pop on the way up, and impossible to pop fully on the way down (which in turn manifested as my head feeling like it was going to explode). It didn’t, much, and I think I still have my eardrums intact, but barely. It wasn’t a very fun half hour or so (the descent is nearly half the flight time), and I’ve still got some pressure problems. Still, no delays, and with my bag carried on I just had to wait for the immigration officer to look through every stamp on his desk before finding the STUDENT monstrosity and I was on my way back to campus.

I’m up too late.

The National Palace Museum (national as in China, so there’s a lot of stuff there) was great, but I discovered that the breezy, empty transportation system of mid-weekdays turns into a crowded, slow, snarled mess on weekends. After waiting for around an hour to catch any bus, I curtailed my schedule for today.

No pictures in the museum, of course.

I’m coming down with something (well, I was yesterday) so I’m going to try to take it easy tonight, going out to get a light dinner at the most. And maybe tomorrow. I’ll at least try to see Danshui though; if I stick to the MRT the traffic problem will stay manageable, I think. I’ll try to leave around 5 p.m. tomorrow for the airport, so that should give me good time for a lazy morning, checking out barely on time, and zipping off to the shore.

Last evening, I left off after a streetside dinner which had left me wanting more. So, I got more. I went out to Din Tai Fung, which is a world-famous (among snobby food critics, anyway) place specializing in xiaolongbao (Shanghainese-style soup dumplings). It was what it was cracked up to be.

Also, the lantern festival (which actually starts today) was, for some reason, even more fun at night. My pictures probably didn’t come out well though.

Today, I’m going to the National Palace Museum, and perhaps one of CKS’s old official residences near the corresponding MRT station, before probably paying a return visit to the food court in the basement of Taipei 101. Tomorrow, I’ll be trying to get a bit outside of the city, either toward the hot springs at Beitou or the mouth of the river on the Strait at Danshui.

Here I am in Taipei, my feet destroyed by underestimating the scale of some guidebook maps. My journey was about par for the course; minor delays, unexpected niceties of flying in Asia, and so on.

At the airport my check-in took about 25 minutes—with no line—because “something was wrong.” I was half-expecting to find myself extraordinarily rendered, but it seems that “something” was taken care of. The flight was barely over an hour and a third on a very empty, very new EVA Airwarys Boeing 777-300ER, in their “Premium Economy cabin” (which they don’t mind if you sit in with an Economy ticket on short-haul flights). I can see why they didn’t mind—there couldn’t have been more than 60 people or so on the plane. I wonder why?

EVA seems to have its own (or nearly its own) little terminal at TPE. Immigration was surprisingly quick, even for non-citizens, but I guess that happens when you have just 60 people coming off a wide-body jet. After wandering around the airport, finding an ATM and a bus company, nothing exciting happened until I arrived at the Taipei train station… around midnight, requiring a painfully expensive roaming call to keep the hostel’s doors open.

I’m in the Happy Family Hostel III, a decidedly basic place with a nice owner. Maybe I’ll remember to take a picture or two of my quarters before leaving.

Today I’ve seen Taipei 101, the Sun Yat-Sen and Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Halls, the 2-28 Peace Park, City Hall and its Discovery Center… hmm… lots of big streets… OK, I don’t remember everything. Maybe my pictures do. I’ll try to upload some from here.

HONG KONG         TAIPEI            BR0858  H  01MAR07   2105       OK
TAIPEI            HONG KONG         BR1851  H  04MAR07   2010       OK

Fares to Taiwan Taipei, China this weekend are about as low as they have been, but much more available than they have been in the post- New Year work frenzy.  I might book for Thursday evening… it’s around 1400 HKD tax-in r/t to Taipei.  Hmmm.

The next weekend, I might make it to Yangshuo; it seems like the Sri Lankan delegation is considering it.  No Weekend Left Behind?