I had the good fortune of visiting Taiwan last week and here is my account of how and what happened there from 6th December - 13th December 2014.
We landed at Taiwan's Taoyuan International Airport at around 2pm ( TPE Time ). The airport is pretty artistically done. Our hotel - Sheraton Grande Taipei was located on the Zongxiao East Road, adjacent to the Shandao Temple MRT station.
The cab ride from Airport to the hotel was something around 1200 TWD and since we had just exchanged some cash for the first day, we chose to travel frugally and the travel paid off.
The frugal travel though was brewing ever since i started doing some research about the local travel, and this bit of using the HSR was all over TripAdvisor
We took a Green bus (U bus ) from the lower parking level at Taoyuan airport. The bus tickets cost us about TWD 30 per person and it drops you to the Taoyuan HSR station ( HSR - high speed railway ). Trains to Taipei are scheduled at every 30 mins. The train tickets cost you about 175 TWD per person and the ETA to Taipei is 20 mins ( as opposed to 40 mins or more by road ).
The trains are a class apart . Spotlessly clean, properly thought out and very very ccomfortable
Each train has a scrolling LED board informing you of the next station and announcements in 3 different languages.
Our journey to Taipei was on point 20 minutes. Once we go down at the main station, we had no clue, the taipei main station was a converging point for 2/3 different types of trains - HSR , the Blue line and the Red line MRTs.
We followed the crowd and found ourselves a little overwhelmed at the expanse of the shopping mall we stepped into as soon as we got down the first level of stairs.
None of the maps were in English, but thankfully - Taipei is a city of free wifi, that told us the hotel was not far, but it couldn't tell us how to come out of the station. Finally we gambled and started looking for Caesar park hotel which was opposite the Main station and our gamble paid off.
We came out right next to Caesar Park and with it on our right, i knew Sheraton was about 1/2 km from there and hence we walked.
That is when we started getting jolt after jolt. The temperature read 20 but i am sure it was lying. The wind gusts were insanse, our luggage which was decently heavy was being swayed to the side, we were in flimsy clothing and the wind was giving me goosebumps.
Cussing in telugu we continued walking trying to use the pillars of the buildings for some shelter and finally arrived at the Hotel at about 4.30 TPE time.
We checked in and decently fresh from the travel decided to check out the places around the hotel. Since we had already tasted the awesomeness of the public transport, we decided to continue using it as much as possible and use we did.
After freshining up , we headed to shandao temple MRT station which happened to be right next to the hotel.
Our first ticket to the Sun yat Sen Memorial Hall was purchased for 20 TWD and we travelled. What a contrast to our trains, the less i describe of them the better. They are everything our trains are not. Well maintained , no harassing ladies, men being cognizant of elderly/disabled/pregnant ladies etc etc.
All the while in the train, when i saw the coin like ticket, i was wondering what happens to the ticket when we alight at the destination and i was more or less hopefull that i get to keep the ticket, but unfortunately that hope was dashed when we had to drop the coin at the exit gate.
We came out of the Sun yat sen memorial station ( no pictures of it in the night ) and we headed to Taipei city happ station which was the next stop. There is a Taipei City Dome under construction near the Sun yat Sen memorial which i think is going to be a amusement park or sorts.
The taipei 101, which was on our list was visible from far, lit in blue - was looking mmagnificent If we had continued on the train and alighted at Taipei City Hall station, we would have had to walk about 10 mins to Taipei 101, but since we got down earlier, we walked a litlle more.
THe Taipei 101 is in line with the Taipei City Mall that happened to be bang opposite the Grand Hyatt Taipei.
There is a mall in the first 5 floors and then there is an observatory on the 89th floor.
Thanks to the walking, me and Raghuram were hungry as hell and when i get hunger pangs i tend to get crazy untill they are satisfied...
We dove right into the supermarket / food store in the ground floor of the taipei 101 mall and started searching for food. While was a carnivore, Raghu was a strict vegetarian, i could have survived but i guess it was my duty to ensure he ddoesn'teat food that he is not supposed to, so finally we roamed around and found an Indian restaurant and Raghu breathed a sigh of relief.
I had my eyes set on McD across the hall, but Raghu emerged with a plate full of Baingan Masala and naadnfor 300 TWD - i kept staring at him not knowing what to say. First of all i detest aubergine as a vegetable and second, in a meat paradise the guy is making me eat a baingan - wow, whattay start to the Taiwan trip i thought to myself.
That was not it, it was start of a night of bad choices. With Brinjal, I need something to down it with so i hopped to the "Chatime" stall and ordered for a QQ Passion fruit and a QQ Mango something, the passionfruit was bitter - the poba and coconut jelly were making matters worse. This was one of those rare dishes that i couldnt finish when i eat out. Horrible it was, probably needs me to develop a taste but 2 hours in taiwan was too much of a short notice.
Once our hunger was satisfied , we roamed about the mall only to realize it was a Brand paradise. Everything from Piaget to cartier to Gucci to Versace were there, which meant it wasnt a place i was going to shop. So we decided to check out the Taipei 101 observatory.
After trasfering a couple of escalators, we finally reached the ticket counter to see that the ticket was 500 TWD and it would take atleast 45 mins in the line - both of us looked at each other smirked and got out of the line.
I ventured in the the souviner shop and got my self a magnet - a hobby that i have recently acquired. That will remind me to make a trip to Taipei once again perhaps.
We retraced our steps back to the escalators and headed out of the building. While walking back to the Taipei Main station, thanks to the walking, we were hungry again but nothing was seen around that we could eat , finally at the Taipei City hall station i spotted a NY Bagel store and we headed inside.
I had a Bagel with bacon cream and Raghu had a bagel with chives and onion cream,with our hunger relativelty satisfied, we returned to the hotel by MRT.
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