We spent quite a few days earlier in our jaunt through Vietnam exploring options to extend our one-month visa - to no avail as it seems the only way to do so is to do a border run and get a new stamp. Reluctant to employ such a resource-intensive solution, we settled on leaving on the mandated date (in hindsight, not a bad decision!) and spending our extra week in Taiwan, which had always been on my bucket list. We both started with very low expectations for Formosa the beautiful, but the more I’ve researched it, the more excited I’ve been getting as it seems there are tons of fantastic things to see there. Ollie’s not convinced yet - but after a couple of days of admin, everything is booked and we’re flying today. With some trepidation to be visiting the Republic of China - although is seems much safer than its mainland counterpart.
Our plane comfortably departs at lunchtime, and our host Bing arranged for a taxi to pick us up this morning for the transfer. After an absolutely classic piece of Vietnamese driving, with about 50% of the way spent using the hard shoulder as an extra lane to overtake slower commuters, we get there without trouble. We’re both a bit anxious, as this is the first time in a while we’re actually travelling by air, and we know our bags are overweight by Asian airlines standards. To complicate matters further, we’ve got our additional bags of souvenirs to check (we didn’t end up trusting Vietnam post to send it home), and we’re read that Taiwanese customs are extra pernickety.
We get past the first hurdle easily though as Ollie turns on the British charm and manages to convince our check-in attendant to overlook our extra two kilos each - and exit through Vietnamese customs is similarly seamless. We end up with lots of extra time in the airport, but Noi Ba is rather nice and we have a chilled hour and a bit waiting to board. Soon enough, we’re on the plane, and in our very own row of just two seats - luxury! We’ve jettisoned our nuts (not allowed into Taiwan) but China Airlines provide a rather nice lunch, and all in all we have a very pleasant flight.
After landing at Taoyuan airport, it’s a bit of a trek through, and we have to fill in arrival cards, but it's all rather fast: we’re both allowed visa-free into Taiwan, get our hold bag back without troubles and the potential customs check never materialises - all clear! Once out of the terminal, it’s an easy matter to get a local SIM card and transport cards. Within a few minutes we’re on a direct metro to Taipei centre. We even get seats together, thanks to a friendly man switching with us.
We get one quick glimpse of the world-famous Taipei 101 (briefly the tallest skyscraper in the world before being dethroned by Burj Khalifa) as we ride in, but mostly we’re amazed at the sheer size of the city we’re traversing. It’s been a while since we saw such a metropolis! Buildings of all sizes and shapes spread around river loops, skyscrapers popping up in a few different districts. But we can always see lush green hills rising in the background: nature is ever present.
Our hotel is right by Taipei Main Station, although it’s going to be a distinct step down from our rather opulent standard of living in Vietnam - and also twice the price! Leaving South-East Asia certainly comes with a cost. As we get off the train, it takes us a while to find our way in the giant, multi-level maze that is the central station: it combines the airport train with a couple of metro lines, the main railways, a bus station and a handful of underground malls. That last aspect turns out to be helpful though, as it’s pouring down with rain when we arrive. Between multiple underpasses and the nice habit of the Taiwanese to leave pedestrian arcades beneath their main buildings, we’re barely wet when we find the entrance to our accommodation! Our room is nothing fancy but it’s got a window (an unexpected perk) and a free water dispenser - it’s more than enough as a base to explore.
We were planning to just crash this evening after a full day of travelling (both of us still not quite back in shape after my accident) but we need food and we’re tantalisingly close to Taipei’s hipster district - including a few shops where we might top up our rain gear. Off we go then before the bed claims us - time to see if Asian cities really never sleep! As we start across the neighbourhood, we are suddenly hit by the lack of cacophony. We got so used to the absolutely mental state of the roads and traffic in Vietnam that we were instinctively dreading our strolls, but here, no-one uses their horn, and the few cars and motorbikes stop in orderly fashion at the ubiquitous traffic lights. Plus, there are actual pavements!
All to our delight at finally being able to safely wander around, we end up exploring quite a bit of Ximending. It’s a popular shopping area, with a few street food stalls to boot, where we find a delicious spring onion omelette and some dumplings for dinner. The streets are busy and fully lit up, with a few little craft markets dotted around picturesque older buildings. For us newbies though, nothing is more exciting than the shop signs and adverts plastered all over the buildings in beautiful ideograms - for some reason everything being spelled in Chinese just makes this extra exotic.
Taipei certainly seems more active at night than a few of the other mega cities we’ve visited: most of the shops are open until nine or ten, and plenty of other people are strolling around with us. We end up walking for a few hours while running our errands - while we do spot a couple of monuments, we’re quite content to just soak in the pedestrian-friendly atmosphere and the general niceness of the Taiwanese. Despite the steep language barrier, everyone takes the time to help us with a smile, and some go out of their way to make sure we have everything we need. After Vietnam which sometimes felt rather like a free-for-all this is amazing, and for the first time in a couple of weeks our anxiety levels finally start dropping - it feels like Taiwan is exactly what we needed!
Comments