I Don’t Know Why I Wanted to Go to Taiwan, So we Went (and it was Glorious)

This is it! I’m back in the United States. I can’t believe it. But it the meantime, I’m going to be chugging out these blog posts, before I forget all of the crazy memories that the trip has given me. You can read my other posts here.

This is a 100% real photo of us flying into Taipei back in October. Those smartphones do the darnedest job of oversaturating things.

Putting It on the List

Sometime much earlier in our trip (think Hong Kong earlier back in May, 5 months before we arrived at our final stop in Taiwan), I got it in my head that I wanted to go to Taiwan. Quite badly, in fact. The conversation went (something) like this.

Richard: “Hey Lena, how do you feel about going to Taiwan?”

Lena: “You’ve never even talked about Taiwan. What is there even to do there?”

Richard: “I have no idea.”

Lena: *Visible confusion*

It turned out that since we were heading from Hong Kong to Hanoi (West), and Taiwan was Northeast, that we decided not to upend our itinerary at that point in time. (Nonetheless, our itinerary got completely upended in Vietnam, and our trip was the better for it).

A hastily made map to give a sense of geographical placement in this big planet (Well, google did 99.9% of the work and i spent about 45 seconds on Microsoft Paint circling stuff. But let’s not pay too much attention to that).

So Taiwan got shelved as we flitted from country to country, and as October rolled around, an opportunity presented itself. Instead of ending our trip in Southeast Asia, we could do one last stop in 1st world Taiwan, which had three benefits. First, airfare to the US was cheaper. Secondly, it was faster. Not only did Taipei have direct flights to the US, it would shave off a lot of flying time, as Taiwan is closer than Southeast Asia geographically. Third, we would get to go to Taiwan, the land of…something? We still had no idea. A win-win-win, if you ask me.

Did you know it only takes 7 (seven) forms of transportation to get to Taipei? Me neither.

Ko Pha Ngan in the distance. Heading South to Ko Samui.

Our final stop in Southeast Asia involved getting scuba certified in the Thai Island of Ko Tao. Which was undeniably cool. There’s just one thing, though. The island was 3 hours from the mainland, and another hour to an airport. Making any sort of sensical itinerary to the Taiwanese capital would be near-impossible. Many options involved a 12 hour layover in Bangkok, or a night in the Thai town of Surat Thani, the closest (cheap) airport from Ko Tao. We were looking at 36 hours in transit, which would be even more than our entire journey from Richmond to Tokyo.

But wait!

And there is was, a glorious Air Asia flight from Surat Thani, Thailand connecting in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia en route to Taipei, Taiwan. Not the cheapest option, but not outrageous and a reasonable 2hr layover, 10 hours less than the other flights. On top of that, I have a distinct love affair with Air Asia, with their plentiful direct flights cutting mainline carriers prices by over half, their wonderful handwritten red and white logo, delicious Asian food on board (they even opened a restaurant in KL due to the rave food), and acting as Spirit Airlines in price, but not quality.

Flying Air Asia X (the X signifying Air Asia’s long haul arm) from Kuala Lumpur (their hub) to Taipei Taoyuan Airport.

Okay, that’s cool, but we still have to get to Surat Thani, and as the flight was not daily, we had to get there the day after we got scuba certified. Thankfully, there was a boat/bus combination ticket that would get us to the airport. Not so thankfully, it shaped up to be a brutal itinerary, involving a taxi, a huge boat, nausea from said boat, a bus, 2 planes, a second taxi, and collapsing onto our bed in the Ximen District of Taipei. Check it out.

5:00a: Hear Alarm

5:01a: Snooze Alarm

5:10a: Wake up

5:20a: Taxi from Ko Tao Hostel to Ko Tao Pier

6:00a: Boat to Surat Thani Pier, making stops at Ko Pha Ngan and Ko Samui (this also involved meeting several cockfighters and their roosters who were on their way to a fight in Ko Samui)

9:30a: Bus to Surat Thani Airport

*Wait at airport (involves eating sad airport food)*

1:15p: Fly to KL (1.5 hr)

*Layover*

5:40p-10:25p: Fly to Taipei

*customs, money change, other airport to-dos*

11:40p: 40 minute unofficial taxi to hostel (some dude’s BMW, so better than a taxi, IMO)

12:30a: collapse

Including that Taipei is 1 hour ahead of Thailand, it was about 18 or 19 hours door-to-door, but gosh darn it, we did it, and everything went incredibly smoothly (except the boat, which did not go smoothly in a literal way, but did go smoothly in a logistical way). No delays, no fuss, nothing like that. A crazy itinerary with many moving parts, a shoelace of wiggle room, pulled off in spectacular fashion.

And just like that, we were teleported out of the bulk phase of our trip, out of the motorbike adventures, out of the wild chaotic cities, out of the blistering heat, out of the incessant haggling, out of the omnipresent tourist traps, out of the digital nomad enclaves, out of the saturation of Buddhist temples, and into what became my favorite city in all of Asia, and probably my favorite country on the entire trip.

你好,台北.

Hello, Taipei.