Day 4: The First Glimpse of Taiwan...

~ 17th March 2014 ~

U-bus counter...

You can choose to either take a taxi to Taipei City or enjoy the High Speed Rail ride that's built on the western side of the country. There's a reason to why only the western part of the country has the best mode of transportation while it's difficult to travel along the eastern part. Either you have been there before and you know why or else you would have to wait for me to share with you my experience. I'm a slow coach in sharing stories due to my lack of free time to spare.

We chose the High Speed Rail. Pinky wanted us to take the bus or taxi because the cost of taking the high speed train is higher. I wouldn't want to get myself bounced along the road for another hour plus to reach our destination. I want everything to be fast. I've done a thorough check of how to transit from the airport to the high speed rail station. I really studied everything before we made our journey here. My first time in studying a country and knowing the map without even having to look at it. But no English signboards, I became redundant.

Go search for that Ubus counter. 

Transit...

That's the U705 bus. You will need the bus to bring you out of the airport and back to the airport. Other than that, go get a cab. It's not that expensive I think. I can't remember any of the price but since you're travelling, you shouldn't bother about the price. You're meant to spend money, not save money. As long as it's reliable, hop on.

The belly of the bus...

You won't be the only person with a luggage. Everyone has their luggage with them. The bus is not crowded with passengers. The luggage of all sizes and weight outnumber the passengers. By the way, Taiwan is a first world country, not a developing nation. So, it's not surprising to see everyone's faces glued to the smartphone screen. I said smart phone, never mention smart people. 

My tix....

Get your train ticket from the counter. They are friendly people. The country boasts of having the friendliest people. Hey, the train ride was for 20 minutes only. If you want to save money, you have to waste time. You can never have best of both worlds. It's either save time, waste money. Or waste money, save time. I chose the latter. Let's not use the word 'waste', it should be spent wisely albeit uneconomically.

Only us at the station...

The whole station was totally deserted. Just the three of us. The tripod proved to be very handy. Love you tripod, but only for day one. Then you became a burden to me. Thank God I didn't get a really good tripod which will weigh more. Maybe next time we go for holidays, we need to hire a person who would help us carry our stuff. 

Whoa~! Blown away~!

The train has arrived. It's a high speed train, really fast. If we have this in our country, maybe we can reach Singapore from north in less than 30 minutes. We have no idea where we're going. Bravo to us. There was a public phone waiting for us to use. No crowd so no noise. Pinky has all the contacts for the places we're going to stay. I had no idea about anything because every place that's available from the website written in English is really expensive. Pinky came out with a blanket deduction through this observation: English speaking people are thought to be rich. The catch-word here is 'thought' thus, every freaking place written in English has been over-priced. Pinky is really good. She found really cheap places. I'm not the type who will want to stay in a luxury hotel. Not that we're going to spend our time there in the hotel. We just need a place to wash up and rest at night.

Reminds me of how KL looks like with all the construction...

First impression is very important. It's like food. If the food does not look presentable, the mind tells you that the taste wouldn't be good. During our bus ride to the train station, I see a lot of construction work going on. It just messed up the eyes. The billboards are huge. And it doesn't seem to portray what we've been looking through the computer screen for one solid month. I'm a tad disappointed with how rundown the whole place looks like. Maybe because the airport is at the outskirt so hopefully the scene will improve as we head off to the city centre.

Gloomy looking buildings...

The apartment buildings.... what's with the look? It looks like snippets of old movies where China has not undergone modernization. My head was screaming with the word rundown, rundown, rundown. We're going to spend almost two weeks in that country, it better be good. I like modern places. Everything that I've seen in the Internet was really beautiful, not like this. Please change the scene. Even our kampung looks nicer with slim chickens running around.

Please don't be offended with what I've written. This is solely what I have in mind and you don't have to like what I write. I write it for myself to browse through in later years, if this world hasn't end yet. I think I know why I don't like the buildings at all. They are dull. The colours are too dull. Cheerful colour might give a positive touch. Gloomy looking buildings do not bring the joy out. A building may look old but the heritage-feel brings much excitement to whichever generation of humans looking at it.