Wandering Fel

Showing posts with label Taiwan Transport. Show all posts

"As I sing this song, I will go back to you."

The last day is always hard to go through but every trip must end and the time comes when we have to come back slaving in the reality. But if you love taking train in Taiwan, you have one more thing to try out now. Since March this year, the Taiwanese has finally completed the construction of its equivalent of Airport Express in Hong Kong. Yes, you now have the option to take train all the way from Taipei Main Station to Taoyuan International Airport. If you are scared to get lost at Taipei Main Station, you don't have to worry because there are signs everywhere which lead to Taoyuan Airport MRT line.

10D9N Taiwan Trip: How to take the Taoyuan Airport MRT?

The train looks clean and brand new because when we rode it, a week has just passed from the opening day. We were quite excited to board the train but we could not get seats. Being lazy to wait for the next train, we decided to just stand all the way since we will sit for hours on the plane anyway.

Taking the new Taoyuan Airport MRT in Taiwan

There are few stops to make before you will reach Terminal 1 or 2 of Taoyuan International Airport so it's better if you exercise patience and wait for the next train if you cannot stand for a while. The whole journey takes around 40 minutes-ish if I recall correctly.

The train passing by a lot of industrial and settlement areas. Kinda remind you of the HDB houses and the industrial area in Singapore actually. The whole trip only costs us around SGD 4 which is way cheaper than taking cab from Taipei city (which can cost around SGD 50). We love this train line already. Hahaha.

The view from Taoyuan Airport MRT in Taiwan

Since we manage to finish the check in procedure quite fast, we still had ample time to enjoy our last meal in Taiwan. We made our way to the food court area at the basement level and I was so happy to be able to find Formosa Chang and Coco Bubble Tea. Oh yeah, I'm not losing any chance to enjoy my favourite drink in the world, bubble tea. Hahaha.

Last meal in food court at Taoyuan International Airport Taiwan

This time around, I had my braised pork rice (lu rou fan) with pork chop. The size of the pork chop seems to be smaller compared to last time I ordered the same dishes but thankfully, the taste remains the same.

Lu Rou Fan and Pork Chop from Formosa Chang

Close view of the now-leaner pork chops. I wonder how do the Taiwanese fry their pork chop until they can reach certain crispness without losing its flavour.

Pork chop from Formosa Chang at Taoyuan International Airport

It was finally time for us to walk to our gate. We will miss Taiwan so deeply but I guess we'll see when we are going to come back to this lovely country.

Until then, zai jian Taiwan!

"This is not goodbye she said."

That day was the last day we spent in Kaohsiung. After chilling out at J Cafe for a good two hours, it was finally time for us to explore the nearby park, Central Park.

10D9N Taiwan Trip: Central Park, Kaohsiung

I think a park is a must-have thing in every big cities. A place for the locals to walk around after work, to walk their pets, to walk with their kids, to enjoy the weather or to feed the birds. Ironically, I never have the time to do that in Singapore because by the time I get out from office, I am too tired to even walk around in the park. Plus, the weather is usually so hot and humid, I lose the motivation to walk in the park. Hahaha.

If you are taking the MRT to Central Park station, once you exit the MRT station, you will see a large open area which is also a big fountain. The water will splash out from the ground for every hour.

When it's spring, there are so many flower beds across the park. Love the colorful shades of flowers, you just feel like laying on them but I don't think you should do that despite how wonderful it gonna looks on IG. Hahaha.

Oh right, talking about taking the MRT. We actually used our Taipei's MRT card (the YouYongKa) because there are some balances inside. But the thing is, although you can use the MRT card that you bought from Taipei here in Kaohsiung, you cannot top up the balance inside. Funny, eh? Since we ran out of money inside our YouYongKa, we have to buy return ticket for our last trip to the next destination, Rui Feng Night Market. The ticket for Kaohsiung MRT is a tad special because it is in the shape of a plastic coin.

It really looks like a game money but make sure not to lose the coin because this is your ticket for your journey to the next destination. Otherwise, you will have to pay again for a new ticket.

By the time we reach our next destination, it is already night time. Befitting of our last foodie journey in Kaohsiung at Rui Feng Night Market. A nom-nom-nom post coming soon!

Kaohsiung Central Park is located at the intersection of Zhongshan Road and Wufu Road in Kaohsiung city. The easiest way to reach the park is by taking MRT to Central Park MRT Station and exit from Exit 1.

The park opens 24 hours everyday.

We had a situation here:

- Want to visit Kaohsiung but only have 2 days to spare
- Budget is kinda tight to prefer to avoid taking High Speed Rail (HSR) [if money is not an issue, taking a HSR is the best way to go to Kaohsiung as it only takes 89 minutes from Taipei to Kaohsiung).
- Willing to travel at weird hour (i.e. right after midnight)

If your situation is kinda similar to us, poor students, well this approach may be suitable for you.

1. Buy the cheapest midnight train ticket to Kaohsiung days before

Cheapest Train Fare from Taipei to Kaohsiung

1170NTD is the cheapest you can get if you want to travel by train to Kaohsiung. This is way cheaper than taking a HSR. A HSR ticket from Taipei to Kaohsiung costs around 3000 NTD. However, it takes 6 hours for the cheap train to reach Kaohsiung from Taipei. Make sure you book seats unless you want to regret it later like us (see below).

And that's the reason why we decided to take the midnight train. So we can just sleep inside the train and welcome morning sun in Kaohsiung. Sounds like a good plan?

2. Taipei Main Station at night

Taipei Main Station at Midnight Hour Taiwan

Since you are taking a midnight train, you must ensure you reach Taipei Main Station right before the end of Taiwan MRT's operation time. Just to be safe, we left our rented room near Taipower Building MRT Station around 11pm-ish. And this is how Taipei Main Station looks night at night.

And now, if you are a solo-traveller, there's a thing that you may want to be a bit careful...

Homeless people in Taipei Main Station Taiwan

Other than those passengers waiting for the train, there are some homeless people taking "refuge" (or "making-their-own-home") at Taipei Main Station at night. During the day, they stay mainly outside the station because the security will make them do so. But at night, they are allowed to stay inside. Although they most likely just sleep, it's not recommended to approach them or pick a fight with them. In addition, they are smelly. Well they don't have a house, so you don't expect them to take a bath now, wouldn't you? #harshlife

3. Making your way to the train platform

Taipei Main Station Train Platform from Taipei to Kaohsiung

When it's around 15 minutes left to the departing time, you can start making your way to the train platform to wait for the train and board accordingly.

4. The importance of booking a seat

Now, if you notice above, our tickets did not have seat number. And we only realised this when we are inside the train. This means, we can sit on whichever vacant seats as long as there are no people booking that particular seats. This created nightmare along our journey because we could not sleep peacefully as the train made a lot of stops (remember, this is the cheap train, peeps!) and hence, there is a risk whenever the train is making a stop that someone gonna come to us claiming him/ her seat. Oh my gawd. Some people has started sitting on the floor (yes, I'm not kidding you).

Thanks goodness, nobody book our seats until 3AM. So we can sleep peacefully after that until we reach Kaohsiung.

Lesson learnt, we quickly booked seat for the trip back to Taipei the next day to ensure that no such thing happening to us again. #lessoninlife