Tearing around Taiwan

[OZDUCK]

The view. We were now back in the more densely populated part of Taiwan.

At night



And in the day



It had been planned to have a final meal at a well known roast goose restaurant for our last night together but this was not doable. Instead we went out and bought some 'comfort food' for the others at a large convenience store. For my son and his friend we got a sort of chicken and soupy noodle dish that was the closest thing we could find to chicken soup. For my daughter we found her version in the form of rice porridge with century egg.

Our guide suggested that we walk a couple of streets over to an area full of roadside food stalls. We ended up buying a simple, but tasty, meal of hot pork and rice with some vegetables - which were served cold with mayonnaise much to our surprise.







The streets in daylight





Unfortunately the next morning I woke up at about 0530 and had a look at my phone to find more bad news. My brother had been monstered by the Norovirus and needed some medical attention. I was the only one awake so I went down to see the front desk for help. The night staff could speak no more English than I could Mandarin but my superb miming of vomiting and diarrhoea got the message across and they kindly produced the hotel van and dropped him and me at a small 'Christian' Hospital about 600 metres away that had a small ER. My miming skills again came to the fore until he saw a doctor who could speak good English. He was given some injections and a bag of medicines to take away. He was only there for about an hour and again it cost around $150. The hotel sent the van back for us.

I then went down and had the worst breakfast of our trip. This was really the only disappointing hotel we stayed in.

 

[OZDUCK]

Eventually we all got loaded up for the final part of our trip. The plan was for 3 people -my brother, my son and his friend to fly out of Taipei-Taoyuan Airport in the afternoon on SQ. My wife and I were stopping one night at a nearby hotel and my daughter in law was staying another couple of weeks with her parents. In the end my son and his friend left but my brother was still unwell and not really fit enough to fly. He dearly wanted to leave but my wife convinced him to stay a night at the same hotel we were using. Apparently the flight he would have been on had pretty uncomfortable turbulence all the way to Singapore so he would have really suffered. It only cost him US$50 for the flight change.

Our last days drive



We still had some hills to drive through to get to Taipei but it was all on motorway style roads.



Part of the way there we had to stop for my brother to get some fresh air. This little park had a no nonsense warning to parents letting their kids use the playground.





We passed via central Taipei on our way



The large red multi-storey building is the Grand Hotel Taipei



Plenty of elevated roadways as usual

 

[OZDUCK]

At the airport

Construction of the new terminal





There was this large display made out of 'almost Lego'.





We stopped at a hotel that is about 5 minutes away from terminals. We had to leave at about 0530 for our flight and booked a taxi at check-in for about $7. There is an airport hotel but it is expensive and because of the construction of the new terminal can only be reached by taxi or the MRT - which doesn't start running until 0600.

There was not a particularly enticing view from our room but it was great for plane spotting.









The MRT is walking distance away from the hotel but you have to use the back trails.



The MRT station is at the left of the picture.

 

[OZDUCK]

The reason we stayed the extra night was that it was several hundred dollars cheaper to fly the following day. And as our 'near to' airport hotel was also about half the price of a Singapore Hotel it seemed a good move.

We stayed at the City Suites Hotel. It seems run almost purely to cater for travellers. There is a good buffet meal in the evening and breakfast is included in the price. If, like us, you are leaving too early for breakfast they will automatically hand each person a pre-packed breakfast bag as you check out. We gave ours back because we were going to visit the China Airlines lounge. And as I said previously they will book your airport taxi at a set price. When we left at 0525 there were about 5 taxis waiting out the front.



It backed onto a creek/industrial drain





There was a small footbridge across it which let you walk to/from the MRT station - about 8 minutes walk. The person on the bridge obviously had done just that. It is not a pretty area but the hotel does its job.



Again a number of photos I took have mysteriously disappeared from my phone. But for some reason there was a display of teddy bears in the foyer.



The rooms were small but well enough equipped. However neither my wife or slept well and we blamed it on a hard bed and poor pillows. But in retrospect it could have been because the dreaded Norovirus was just about ready to strike.

However I had to watch the step up into the bathroom.

 

[OZDUCK]

The China Airlines lounge we used is a bit cave like and in the early morning seemed very dark. The food offerings were just ok.



We left a few minutes late but arrived on-time.

Take-off

The west coast of Taiwan - facing the Chinese mainland. Much of this coast seems to be like this - scattered industrial sites and suburban areas interspersed with rice paddies and pig farms.



I find the China Airlines interior fit out to be very nice. I do like the open look of the cabin without central lockers. Some of the staff on this leg seemed to struggle a bit more with English than on our first trip. But the service was still very good.






I am sure that this was a dragon fruit juice PDB



Printed Menus. As on our previous trip the food - except for some of the bread - was excellent.





The smoked Duck starter



We both had the stir fry chicken





The Passionfruit Mousse

 

[OZDUCK]

We had a few bumps with the seat belt sign on until we passed the south coast of Taiwan. It was pretty smooth after that.

In flight views.









Unlike most of these photos I know exactly what is being pictured. It is Pulau Ubin in the Straits of Johor. We have walked on that curving boardwalk. It passes through the mangroves.





Another familiar spot - Changi Cove. The Village Hotel Changi is in the middle of the photo. We stayed there several times.



A line up of Singapore Airforce transport planes



We were on one of these Vietnam Airlines A321's last Boxing Day.

 

[OZDUCK]

We had booked for three nights in Singapore and intended to have a good wander around and eat plenty of food. As we booked in we were still congratulating ourselves on avoiding the illness the others had been stricken with. Unfortunately hubris comes before a fall.

After we had unpacked I felt a bit queasy and decided to lie down. My wife also began to feel a bit unwell and then all our plans fell into disarray. She was stricken with the full effects of norovirus. I was lucky in that while I felt unwell and was unable to eat for three days the worst I suffered was a couple of short bouts of diarrhoea. About 2130 we walked, very slowly, to the Raffles Hospital ER which was luckily only about 300 metres from our hotel. We both got goody bags of medicines. It took about 40 minutes to be seen by a nurse and then a doctor and then receive the medicine. The cost was about A$190 each. The ER was, surprisingly to me, a bit worn but it served our purpose.

My wife never left our room for our stay. All she saw of Singapore was Changi Airport and the taxi ride to and from it. I was able to get out for about 5 hours in total. In those 3 days I ate half a ham and cheese sandwich, three dry croissants and a few cracker biscuits. We were about 200 metres from the Zam Zam Restaurant and every time I left our room I could smell lovely spicy food from it and other restaurants but could not stomach the thought of eating any of it.

So there are very few photos of this part of our trip.

We stayed at the Sultan Hotel in Sultan Street in Kampong Gelam. The Sultan Mosque was within about 150 metres and we could hear the call to prayers. For Singapore it was reasonably priced and the room big. It was constructed by amalgamating some old shop houses.





A model of it was in the foyer


.


The view from our window. We could hear roosters crowing in the morning. The palms in the background are in the gardens of the Sultan Mosque



The room was thankfully pretty comfortable. The only trouble was that the shower was lukewarm,. At checkout we asked about this and were told about the hot water switch on the wall outside the bathroom. We had been too 'out of it' to even notice it.



You can even see the hot water switch in this photo!



There was free mini bar

 

[OZDUCK]

Luckily on the morning of our flight we began to feel a bit better and while we weren't eating we at least felt safe enough to take the flight home. It took the best part of a week before our stomachs began to feel normal.

We used the early self check-in at the Jewel and had a bit of a slow walk around.





I could not bear walking on these nets with that long drop beneath them



The greenery they have managed to grow at the Jewel is pretty impressive



When we got to our gate I was a bit worried because there was no plane there. This worry proved to be correct as we were nearly two hours late leaving. In his pre-flight briefing the captain explained that a 'part' had broken and a new one needed to be installed. We were also delayed as the plane was being refuelled while we were boarding. We were told to keep our seat belts unfastened while this was in progress.

Mention was made of the recent SQ turbulence incident and we were told to keep our seat belts fastened at all possible times. Of course some on board ignored this. Luckily after the initial bumps I always experience coming out of Singapore it was a very smooth flight.

Our plane was beginning to get a bit worn inside with tape holding on part of my armrest. It needs a refurbishment-, But it wasn't as scruffy as the QF A330 we flew to Singapore last year.



The gate was kept empty as long as possible. Once it began to be used they initially opened only one security lane and this caused a big bottleneck. I am another who is not keen on the Changi 'security at the gate' process.

When boarding was eventually called ScootPlus pax were given priority but they were trying to catch up some time so the other groups were called hot on our heels.



Because of the delay all passengers were handed a snack pack. Remember a 'normal' ticket of Scoot comes with no food or water. My wife managed to eat her pre-ordered meal but I only risked a few mouthfuls. Close to Perth I ate the so-called croissant in the goody pack.



We took off just as the sun was setting and my wife got a couple of nice photos. The windows were dimmed after take-off but were not locked.



I will come back with a full precis of my final thoughts of our trip soon.

 

[OZDUCK]

To complete this TR :-

Firstly my wife wanted to mention these 'automatic flag waving robots'. We saw quite a few of them around Taiwan and they do seem to work. After watching last nights Tour de France stage where they kept running into road furniture she thinks they should be used there.

Taiwan Road Safety Dummies 1 台灣的工程用假人一號 | Spectral Codex

Road safety dummies are a distinctive feature of the streets of Taiwan. In Chinese they are generally known as engineering dummies 工程用假人 (pinyin: gongchengyong jiaren), warning dummies 警示假人 (jingshi…

spectralcodex.com

- Departing Taiwan on a ticket to Singapore we had to show an onward ticket - Scoot in our case - at check-in. As was normal no-one in Perth showed any interest in such a thing when we checked-in. This has always been the case for our money saving 'self connecting' flights to another airline via Singapore.

- China Airlines were very good. Their own lounge in Taipei was ok and the Marhaba one in Singapore poor. But the cabin layout, inflight food and service were all well up to scratch. They were also the cheapest 'full service' airline between Singapore and Taiwan by a reasonable margin. The only note of caution is to be aware that one of their two daily flights on that route is flown by a narrow body instead of the A350 we flew.

- Scoot was --- Scoot. It did the job and we were not squashed in our seats. As usual on-time performance is very much not guaranteed.

- Village Hotel Katong was again very nice with friendly staff and large rooms. Now that the MRT is open only a 100 metres or so away it is an even more convenient choice.

- With regards to the Sultan Hotel we both liked it especially for its room size, location and reasonable price if booked direct. Unfortunately our stay was ruined by the bug we both had. But we would be happy to stay there again and check it out properly. The MRT is not far away but there are also very convenient buses close by.

- We both enjoyed Taiwan. The majority of people were friendly and while there was a language problem at some places it was not hard to work around it. Especially with a translation app on your phone.

The food was pretty good but I think I have been spoiled by experiencing so much 'Chinese' food in Malaysia and Singapore. The assimilation of Malay, Thai & Indian influences seemed to have made that style of cuisine preferable to me. It is also the style of food we get in most of our local restaurants. My wife probably enjoyed it a bit more than me but she did complain about a lack of stir fried options at many places.

Everything 'works' in Taiwan. The roads while some may be twisty and slow were all in good condition and well marked. The MRT in Taipei was easy to use and at least as good as the Singapore MRT. Toilets are clean and modern. The public infrastructure seems well cared for. Based on our groups experience the hospital system seems to be pretty good as well. In Taipei there is very heavy traffic at times and journeys could be slow.

Prices of food and drink seemed to be mainly dearer than Malaysia but not as expensive as Singapore. Because we paid a 'package' price we are not sure of the exact price of most of the hotels we stayed in but it seems that they are priced similarly to Malaysian ones - or perhaps even a little cheaper. They were all very clean and mostly offered a 'free' breakfast. The beds were normally on the 'hard' side of the ledger. Adjusting the A/C could also be a bit of an adventure. Most of them had individual room systems with non-intuitive controls.

The west coast was by far the more densely populated side of the island and there seemed to be a bit of smog around. I don't know whether it is local or has come from the mainland. The majority of the faster roads are on the west coast with lots of motorways. On the west the roads are much slower as they have to pass through mountains. There is a lot of roadbuilding going on. The roads up to the national parks in the mountains are very windy and narrow and travel is pretty slow.

Our driver/guide was very useful outside of Taipei. As I have said previously we have never done this sort of trip before and I was a bit sceptical. But his local knowledge and driving on difficult roads were very useful. His language skills were very useful as well. Again, as the price we paid was in one package I am not sure what his services actually cost but it seemed to be a pretty fair and reasonable amount. The larger cities are pretty easy to get to via high speed rail but transport off the beaten track is a lot less reliable.

In short we would be happy to go back again but at a much less frenetic rate and with multiple nights spent in some places. I would especially like to spend longer in the mountains and on the east coast.

 

[RB]

Thank you. A very enjoyable & educational report to read

 

[OZDUCK]

Thank you. A very enjoyable & educational report to read

Thanks

 

[VPS]

Thanks for the comprehensive TR. It always sucks when you get sick while travelling

 

[drron]

A very good and informative discussion. Really enjoyed travelling along. Would also like to spend a bit more time in Taiwan.