Taipei: Day 1

Alright, I don't know that I'll do daily blogs about my trip, but since I'm chilling out in my hotel room resting my hip I figured I might as well tell you about my adventures thus far!

So back in March or April I decided to go on vacation to Taiwan. Why? The Hello Kitty train of course! Well, that was what put Taiwan as a destination into my mind. Then I started researching it and it was an affordable option that would allow me to feel comfortable travelling on my own, not involve beaches and hammocks and shit, but would involve exploring a city and going to the mountains (and just a little beach)!

And here I am!

Yesterday I flew Melbourne to KL to Taipei, a journey that involved about 16 hours being on a plane with no in flight entertainment because my Kindle battery died as soon as we took off and my laptop is a mess and I didn't have any backup plans. I ended up reading pretty much the entire flight magazine. Let me tell you something: airline magazine journalists are...not great. I also read an academic article and got some insight into how academics actually manage to get shit done on planes.

My layover in KL lasted about 15 minutes. I actually had more time than I thought I did, but, having a history of missing flights I wasn't taking any chances. The second flight was shorter and warmer and the people on the plane in better moods (probably because, like me, they were headed for a vacation). I was befriended by the young woman sitting next to me, who shared snacks and smiles.

We didn't get in to Taipei until 10:30pm, which is 12:30am Melbourne time. I'd been up since about 5am and hadn't really slept on the flight so was pretty well delirious by the time I got to the baggage carousel. I watched all the bags go around and around, as the people from my flight collected them and headed on their way. I started to think "I'm so tired I don't even care about this suitcase I just want to go to the hotel and deal with it later!" Be careful what you wish for, that almost came true! My bag hadn't come off the plane, almost everyone from my flight was gone, and there was no indication of any more baggage to come. I eventually found the airline services people I needed to talk to, just in time for a young couple from my flight to inform me there had been a delay in offloading and there was more baggage coming. Sure enough, when we got back to the carousel our bags were all there. Happy ending!

I'd been debating if I should book a pick up from my hotel (it wasn't cheap) or take public transport, and let me tell you, that airport pick up was worth every penny! We didn't get back to the hotel until about 12:30am and I didn't have to do anything (my poor driver would have been waiting about an hour and he didn't speak enough English for me to explain why).

A sight for sore eyes

I was pretty happy to get into my room and see this glorious bed waiting for me! I'd made the decision to stay in mid-range hotels for my whole trip because although it stretches my budget, it gives me peace of mind. I have my own room that is nice and air conditioned and I can be here whenever I want. Given my hip problem, having a nice space to relax in and rest is well worth it. Plus I do plan on finishing something I've been working on for a million years, so, having a nice office space is an added bonus.

I'm staying in Taipei until the 10th, when I head out to Taitung, then coming back to Taipei for a few days (but staying at a hotel in a different part of the city). My booking here comes with breakfast, served in a little cafe down the street. I'll have to write about the breakfast situation another day, because when I went down this morning I didn't know what I was walking into and hadn't brought my camera.

After breakfast I came back up to my room and got my stuff together. I have a power adapter, but the wall plugs here are 2 prong and my adapter is 3 pronged. So I set off to get some cash and find something to deal with that situation. The cash was easy, but finding a place that sold what I needed took a bit of time. I used that time to get oriented (*lost) in the area I'm staying (Wanhua/Ximending). There are lots of little laneways around here, filled with all sorts of things. Some are markets, some have cafes and street food stalls, some just provide a reprieve from the traffic of the main streets. I found a street filled with shops that make trophies and plaques. I also found all sorts of mechanical and technical repair type shops. Eventually I wandered into a little dollar store type grocer and found something I could use to fix my adapter problem. Now to just find my way back to the hotel!!

The entrance to my hotel is in a cute little laneway

I've been really impressed with the amount of English in Taipei. Like, I knew it wasn't going to be a particularly challenging city to work out, but, I swear every sign is in Mandarin and English. Not only that, but any time an announcement is made it's made in both languages. And even the people I've encountered who don't speak English speak more English than I do Mandarin. I mean, compared to when I was in Buenos Aires where it was very rare to encounter any English at all, I feel spoiled. Like almost to the point where I feel like there's no language barrier. As I said, I wasn't expecting it to be hard, but I wasn't expecting it to be this easy!

So when I'd had enough of being lost I got my guide book out and easily figured out where I was on the map and where I needed to be and how to get there. I mean, I took a wrong turn at pretty much every opportunity, but, it didn't take me too long to figure out my mistake.

After having a little rest and a recharge of my phone battery, I headed back out for my big important task of the day: booking my ticket on the Hello Kitty train. Now, this is peak tourist season, the train only runs on weekends, and I rather stupidly forgot about how I'd need to book this well in advance. So in the days before I left when I tried to book a ticket online the website told me it was sold out. I decided not to freak out and just see what I could do about it when I got here. Surely there would be cancellations or scalpers or something!

Choo choo imma be on you!

The first step was to go to the metro station near where I'm staying. I wasn't sure where I needed to go to buy the actual train ticket, so I asked at the information desk and eventually we worked out I had to go to Taipei Main Station, which was only one stop away. I got on the metro (which, again, ridiculously easy to navigate) and headed for the train station proper. Then to another information booth to ask where the train tickets were sold. Then I stood in a rather long queue for the wrong trains. Then I finally found the right ticket counter and showed the lady my little post-it note with the train details on it (understanding writing can be easier than understanding accents, this was a very handy little piece of paper to show all the wrong people I talked to). She looked up the train and informed me it was sold out. I knew this was a likely possibility so I didn't get upset and instead just asked to book a ticket to Taitung for the same day. Miraculously, as she was looking up alternate trains, a seat opened up on the Hello Kitty train!!! So Sunday I am booked in for an absolute overload of cuteness. I'm so happy that worked out! I also booked my return ticket, so now all my logistics are pretty much sorted!

Black sesame ice cream

By this stage, having only eaten breakfast, I was starving. There was a food court at the station, so I figured I'd grab something there. This is, of course, when everything stopped being in English and I got a bit overwhelmed (mostly because it was like 4pm and I'd had breakfast at 9am). There was a Thai restaurant that was insulated from the noise of the food court, so I went with the easy option. The staff at this place were amazing! I was bored and excited and wanted to go online but the wifi required a password. Nobody knew what it was, so the manager set up a hotspot from his phone for me. It was entirely unnecessary and completely lovely. The food was delicious, and one of the waiters eagerly offered me a coupon for a free ice cream with my meal (which obvs I accepted, black sesame is one of my favourites).

After eating I figured I'd see what the main station part of the city had to offer, but, going outside it seemed like mostly busy roads and office buildings, and seeing as it was very hot and humid I figured I'd wander around in the air conditioned station. Turns out there's a giant mall under the station! So I wandered around there for awhile and nearly got pressured into buying a rather expensive sun hat. The mall seemed to span the length of the city, seriously, it was huge! At no point did I find it's outer boundary. My hip was starting to get sore though, so I figured I'd better head back to the hotel. This again involved a bit of getting turned around, but I feel like I'm well oriented to the area now!

It's been a good first day. My feet are pleasantly sore, my hip is less pleasantly sore but not in that bad painful way I got from marking essays for 9 hours a day. I'm thinking of wandering out to get a bite to eat from one of the nearby street vendors and then calling it a night. Tomorrow I'm going to check out a cat cafe, and now that I know how easy the metro is to use, I'll probably do some more sight seeing as well.