Taiwan - Day 1 (14 Sep 08)

SATS called us last night to inform that our delayed flight has been scheduled to 10am but when we arrived at 8am, they were not ready for check-in. We have to continue waiting…

It was in the news that Taoyuan International Airport announces all domestic flights canceled, as well as most of the scheduled international flights until 12 noon. All other airlines to Taipei have also been ‘delayed’ indefinitely.

We went over to T3, Wang Jiao for breakfast while waiting… waiting for SATS or Jetstar to call us.

Aiyo, the coffee & tea at Wang Jiao was so diluted. So disappointing. Next to us was Pan Ying, one of the Xinyao pioneers who sang Rang Ye Qing Qing Luo Xia (Let Night Fall Gently) having breakfast with her family.

About 10am, James suddenly decided to check the flight information display board and to our horror, it’s boarding!!!

We rushed to take the skytrain to T1 and ran to the check in counter. A couple of pple are stilling checking in. We than rushed to the gate which is right at the extreme end (you got to walk being cheapo… I mean budget). Most of the pple are already there. How the hell they knew the boarding time.

Granted that poor service is expected from the budget carrier but this is too much, it is their obligation to inform passengers of the “unconfirmed’ flight status. We were this close to miss our flight.

About 11am, we took off for Taiwan. The 4 hr flight was rather bumpy with plenty of clouds and rain near landing.





We decided to head south to Kaohsiung straightaway, staying away from Sinlaku.

Ubus to HSR Taoyuan Station
- Coming out terminal 1, turn left and walk to the end
- Buy bus ticket (TWD 30) at the counter
- Locate the bus at the bus platform
- Journey about 30 mins
HSR to Zuoying Station
- Purchase standard class tickets (TWD 1330) at the counter
- Journey about 2 hours

7-11 at the HSR Taoyuan Station is a must visit. They have such a wide range of yummy healthy products. The burgers are so much nicer than MacDonalds. We bought some snacks from 7-11 although food and drinks can be purchased on board the HSR.





From HSR Zuoying station, take Kaohsiung MRT to Kaohsiung Main Station. It was raining and it took us a while to find out where is King’s Hotel. Apparently it’s at the opposite side of the railway track and we have to pay TRA (TWD 6) to cross the platform.

After settling down, we went to the nearby night market. It was miserable. Probably due to the rain, there were only a few stalls opened and few pple loitering at the short street.





I glued my eyes on the TV and hands on the remote for the rest of the night. 100 channels of program to watch… madness!

More pictures...



Event of the day:
Hou-feng Bridge collapsed