Page 4 of 6
Taipei, Taiwan
Convinced I’d be free at dawn
Now that we’re already four pages deep into this slideshow, it’s finally time to talk a little bit about some of the things going on in the background. I still have a lot of frequent flier miles on Delta and United, and earlier this year I started looking at the best way to use some of those Delta miles. This led me to discover a wonderful truth about Delta, and that is that if you book a business class flight from a destination outside the US to another destination outside the US, suddenly the required miles drop significantly. This led me to looking at where I could go from Mexico City (something you may already know) and then, with a few add ons, led to a somewhat insane, Russian nesting doll of a trip. From my local airport of Newark (it’s not great but not as bad as you think, once you get to know it), I headed off to Seoul via Mexico City, San Francisco, Taipei and Kansai, then headed back from Seoul via Kansai, Taipei, Los Angeles and Mexico City to Newark, ten different flights on four different airlines with three different US customs entries where I finally put Global Entry to good use.
The two California layovers were designed to be uneventful (despite the In-N-Out visit at LAX), but the layovers in Taipei promised to be a little more interesting. Both were about 8 hours long, and once you subtract the time clearing customs, getting to and from the CBD, clearing security and customs and getting back to the airport early enough to avoid getting too stressed, it gave me two different very short opportunities to see a little bit of Taipei, somewhere had never been but somewhere I was really looking forward to visiting, even if it was only for a few hours.
When I left Mexico City at 5:40 PM on a Sunday, there was still light outside. After watching the darkness envelop Mexico, I landed and departed from San Francisco and then, after a 12 and a half hour flight in total darkness, the sun finally rose here in Taipei where it was now Tuesday with Monday nowhere to be found. The flight (on China Airlines) was uneventful in a good way- the seat and service as good as I’ve seen, but 12 and a half hours is still 12 and a half hours, no matter how good the seat and service are. I landed at 5:25 AM, quickly cleared customs then got tied up trying to find non existent lockers and closed banks (nothing was open that early). After that confusing start at Taoyuan Airport Terminal 2, I rode the easy to use MRT into Taiwan Main Station, the Penn Station of the East, and then finally outside to climb the nonstop stairs at Elephant Mountain.
I did not climb all the way up Elephant Mountain, and stopped at just over 500 steps up for a few reasons. One was the late start (the airport ate up way too much early morning time from my already quite tight schedule) but the main one was that it’s hot and humid- Taipei is closer to Manila than it is to Osaka- which made me think that skipping those last hundred or so steps to see this same view was a pretty good idea. That great big tower in this kind-of-near-the-top-of-Elephant-Mountain-view is Taipei 101, once the tallest tower in the world. Its opening times weren’t especially conducive to a visit on an early morning trip, but luckily I’ll have another chance to see it since I’ll be back in Taipei again before you know it.
The other main site that I went to on my first layover was the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Complex in the heart of Taipei. Its entrance is an arch, with newly built theaters on both sides, the memorial itself in the back, gardens all around and some type of temporary festival construction going on in the middle.
Chiang Ka-shek himself is buried inside and guarded by guys with super shiny helmets. Or at least everyone thinks he is buried inside. On Sunday night (or, for me, last night), the China Airlines agent at SFO paged passenger “Shek, Chiang Kai”. Sure he would be like 150 years old if he was still alive, but there were a few really old looking guys in wheelchairs on the plane last night. Just saying.
We’re already back in Taipei for our second super short city layover trip, and just as the first one took place as the sun rose at dawn, this one saw the sun set and dusk approach from the Airport MRT as we raced into the city for another rushed visit. A visit that almost didn’t even happen- the day of my second layover in Taipei was the same day that Typhoon Jenny (aka Typhoon Koinu) decided to only hit every other part of Taiwan with its Category 4 winds, sparing only the airport and city with only some sporadic showers.
I had one goal on this second layover trip, and that one goal was to see Taipei 101, the tallest building in the world at one point (it’s in 11th place now), and I decided beforehand that I was going up the observation deck regardless of the weather or visibility or any nearby typhoons. The weather and visibility was not great but at least the typhoon clouds were very fast moving, so if you looked at the same place for a minute the city would appear and disappear and reappear.
Luckily I wasn’t all that concerned with that disappearing and reappearing view outside since the real thing that I came to see at Taipei 101 was inside. Its tuned mass damper is not only visible, it’s a star attraction, complete with its own weird mass damper baby mascot (not pictured).
With not that much time in Taipei left, I did still find time to stop at the Shilin Night Market, which was breezy and drizzly and, just like its name implies, a market open at night.
And the last pictures from Taipei are a day/night view of the OMA designed Taipei Performing Arts Center, just steps away from Shilin.
Taipei was a tough trip, and the way that I saw things probably would have been far different if I had a day or two (or longer) in Taipei. Going in, I new both layover trips would be rushed, and it sometimes felt like a military operation more than a visit. I had to be back at the airport by a certain time, meaning I had to be back at Taipei Main Station by a certain time, and back on the subway at a certain time, etc. Still, in my two short quarter day visits I still was able to walk most of the way up Elephant Mountain, see the awesome tuned mass damper at Taipei 101, see the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Complex and the Shillin Night Market, and still had enough time to drink all the orange juice I could find at the China Airlines Lounge at Taoyuan. Not too bad for a first trip to Taipei.
