(Voice in my head: Don’t start off by writing why and how you haven’t blogged for a long time and end up not even posting that.)
*Listens to the voice in the head*
Turned out that Deepti was traveling to Hong Kong on an offsite with her office folks during the Independence Day long weekend. I realised I hadn’t traveled anywhere outside India since our trip to Thailand in Oct last year and started looking for places I could travel to.
I thought of traveling to Bangladesh (yes!) so that I can visit the same India-Bangladesh border at Tamabil/Dawki in Meghalaya that we had visited in Feb this year, but from the Bangladesh side. And I thought I could combine it with a trip to the Sunderbans. I reached out to some tour operators for the Sunderbans cruise and to generally check on the travel plans I made, but found out that it’s not the season as it was raining heavily there. Also, I had to get a visa.
I didn’t want to go through the hassle of getting a visa and then considered Jordan as it has visa on arrival for Indian citizens. But then, Deepti and I wanted to visit Jordan together and so Jordan trip was to happen another time.
I don’t remember how exactly Taiwan came up as an option, but imagine my surprise when I found out that an Indian passport holder has a visa-free and a free entry into Taiwan if they have a valid US visa and visas of a few other countries! One just has to fill a form, take a print out of it and is all set! There I was earlier, worried about arranging for a visa and then was trying to look for a country that gave visa on arrival, and here I find a country which not only doesn’t need a visa but gives you a free entry! What also piqued my interest was this news item – Swimming in the train? Taipei turns metro car into pool for Universiade 2017. 70% of my decision to travel to Taiwan was made as soon as I read this article. The other 30% was made when I found out that there’s an HSR in Taiwan as well and wanted to post ‘from one HSR to another’ and contrast the speed of movement of traffic in both!
Did some basic research, booked flight tickets and the hostels, even booked the train tickets for travel within Taiwan and I was all set for the trip. I was to leave early morning on Friday, the 11th (take the day off on that day) and return back to India late night on the 15th. Most of 11th and 15th would go in travel and I’d get 3 full days to go around Taiwan. My planned itinerary looked something like this: 
All set to Scoot!
There was a 4 hour layover in Singapore and it was good to visit Changi after nearly 6 years. I had spent almost a full day at Changi then and had even watched a full movie!
You can’t escape GST even in Singapore!
Swachh Singapore Abhiyan! (It anyway is swachh already)
Breakfast at the T2 food court.
After the breakfast, spent some time roaming around T2 – checked out the movie hall, the Orchid garden, the sunflower garden on the terrace and the gaming room.
The Dreamliner 787 getting ready for the Singapore-Taipei leg.
Some photos shot mid-air.
Taipei is about 5 hours from Singapore. The flight was quite comfortable, however I didn’t quite enjoy the food served onboard. I’d also spent some extra money to book a seat and realised that for journeys up to 5 hours it’s really not worth booking a seat. I watched two movies downloaded on Netflix – Pyaar Ka Punchnama and Te3n. Strictly time pass movies both.
Clearing the immigration check hardly took couple of minutes and there I was, officially entering Taiwan! I had read that it’s better to get currency exchanged(I had carried US dollars from India) at the airport itself as well as get a local SIM. Got both these done at the airport itself and I was ready to head into Taipei city, which is about 50 kms away.
There are multiple ways to get into the city – take a bus, take the HSR (High Speed Rail) or the MRT (metro). The hostel I was staying in was very close to both the Main Taipei bus stand and the Taipei Main Station. I decided to take the MRT and it was super easy to get to the station at the airport. I also got the EasyCard at the airport and it was such a super convenience for all of my time in Taiwan.
Blurry photo, but found this large screen at the departure area. There’s a video feed of people walking out of the airport. Makes it easy for people waiting outside to see who’s walking out and look out for them.
Not just the airport, almost every major train station has these smart lockers as well. 
At the platform waiting for the train.
First glimpses of the Taipei city through the train:
The journey was quite enjoyable and I reached the Taipei Main Station in about 40-45 minutes. The hostel was a short 10 minute walk and it was probably the first time I really used the walking directions on Google Maps.
I was staying at Flipflop Hostel – Garden and it turned out to be a really nice place. It’s a very vibrant place and has a very energetic feel to it. There’s a lounge kind of place where different events keep happening, a small pop-up shop set up by two friends – a Vietnamese and a French.
I completed the check-in formalities, went to my bunker bed, rested for a bit, freshened up and then headed out to explore the Zongshan/Taipei Main Station area.
I asked the folks at Flipflop regarding places I could visit that evening and they suggested I could visit the Ningxia night market. Very well, a night market visit on the first evening itself!
The first stop was at the nearby 7-11 where I had to get the tickets for the HSR ride the next day. One can book the tickets online and get the tickets from any of the convenience stores for a small fee. I wonder why we don’t have these in India yet. Oh, the mom and pop kirana stores will go out of business? 
I was at the street where the night market was after a fairly short walk and being amazed at how organized and orderly the traffic was. The night market had very interesting sights, sounds and smells! It wasn’t very crowded and so I was able to take my time and soak in the new environment I was in.
Let’s play some games?
Fishing? Why not!
These were super delicious cakes and pastries. The first food item I had in Taiwan!
The busy man.
One gets pretty much the same fruits as in India.
Fancy some ‘small intestine in large intestine’?
My next dish – a dosa variant, served like a cone.
Some more photos from the night market:
One thing that really struck me from whatever little I saw of Taipei was how clean it was and how organized the traffic was. 
With many thoughts in my head (mostly around how to fix traffic and address cleanliness back in India), good food in my stomach and a lot of sleep in my eyes, I walked back to the hostel.
<End of Day 1>
Nikhil Kulkarni 
Leave a comment