Briathrail // Albert 2MNG

I woke up at 5AM, and unlike most days when I just go ignore the alarm or sleep a bit more, I woke up alert. I never want to fuck up a flight.

I immediately popped in a couple of those nice nutty bite-sized crackers in my mouth and washed it down with cold Americano. Thankfully the TV was still on (I slept with it on low volume) so it helped me stay on alert. As I have my go-home flight by 12PM, I have some leeway. So I opened my big luggage to finalize my stuff to bring home. I folded all the used clothes to tight rolls, I bunched the slightly more fragile souvenirs near the top so they won’t get squished down, and the more sturdy ones at the bottom. But I had to make decent space for one more big souvenir. See, I ordered ChiaTe pineapple cakes via Klook, and I chose airport pickup for it. The less jostling the better. I chose the 6 packs of the 8-piece gift box. This is my planned give-away souvenir as I already earmarked the SunnyHills pineapple cakes for my family. I computed the potential space by using the SunnyHills package and estimated it times six, so there’s that.

After that, a warm shower and prepping my backpack, I finally had cleaned up and was ready to leave. But as custom for me, one pic of the lodging before I left.

I went down to the basement to check out at the main counter, and after a few minutes, I was cleared and now on my way. This time unlike when I arrived, I used the bus that went to the Taipei Main Station. I boarded the express train to the TPE, and off I went. I was glad everything went smoothly from the hotel to the airport. Because when I got to the airport, I nearly fucked up. If I made some errant decision to buy more stuff at those tourist tours I went on, I would’ve been forced to make very drastic decisions.

See, I messed up the calculation earlier. When I got to the parcel courier branch that held the box of cakes I was to take home, I was suprised at the size. It was a big decent box, nearly the size of my own luggage. I thought, oh no, did I mess up? Was the ChiaTe cakes like, big-ass cakes? And it was heavily wrapped in packaging tape. Thankfully I brought sharp scissors with me for my foot tapes.

I went to the section where there was a weighing scale for people to weigh their luggage before checking in, and fortunately the area only had two people – me and one Chinese lady rummaging through her luggage near two seats. So I plopped open my luggage to get the scissors, and warily opened the box. Fortunately again, the box size was actually packed with air bags. The pineapple cakes rested snugly in the middle – along with complimentary gift paper bags for me to use, around 12. But still, I messed up. The ChiaTe pineapple boxes were still larger than the SunnyHills, so I had to do triaging. I brought some 5+ year-old clothes I kept around in Singapore to bring home back with me, so that became my starting point. I eventually discarded four worn-out t-shirts – two from Decathlon – and one baggy pair of shorts. Finally, everything fit in the luggage, but definitely tight. I barely made it – 20.85kg – and my backpack had to gain some extra as well for the luggage to stay in weight.

I felt bad while I was putting my to-discard clothes in the packing box to put near the bins, but then I spied that the lady earlier had discarded legitimately-usable stuff in two bagfuls – I saw a fur coat, a Thermos bottle and bags of candies. Holy shit woman, you must be rich to throw those away. The kuripot in me wanted to ask for those from her but I held myself back – not my problem, not my weight. These are enough.

I checked myself in at the China Airlines counter, and fortunately the counter lady waved off the 0.85kg extra, and I was on my way to the departure area for processing. Long lines, but still decently moving along. After getting processed and checked, I was in. I decided to burn some calories by walking the area and see the shops. Nothing to buy anyway, I already bought what I liked days earlier. But near my flight’s assigned gate, I spent some chill time at an Illy’s. Cake and coffee should perk me up.

And after an hour or so, I was on a flight, homeward bound. As Taiwan is north of Luzon, the flight was only about less than 3 hours. Dad picked me up at the NAIA as well, and the ride home wasn’t bad either – afternoon and no traffic.

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Ok, post-travel assessment time. Did I like Taiwan? Absolutely. It was like being in Singapore, but less geared towards English. Roads are decently clean, air was also clean, and there’s always things people can do there. Like, provinces. Taiwan has so many things to offer to people, citizens and tourists alike. I mean, even in a hyper-touristy place like Jiufen, there were still locals visiting that just want to see what their country’s best spots are really. And they are fiercely proud of what they have – history and present in hand.

With that said, I have some tips for the tourists that might find their way in the place:

• Get the EasyCard. Look for packages that have either an eSIM or a physical SIM bundled with them. Do not fucking mess around with data roaming if you will visit remote provinces in tours – I’ve seen tourists in Yangmingshan curse their local SIMs because the roaming was spotty, while I had zero problems with the local SIM. Gambling with mobile data reliability is not worth it.
• Bring a powerbank, if you will do a daylong tour and you plan to do a lot of photos. Trust me, your phone battery will drop big time after lunch.
• If you can spare it, do not try to visit everything you can in Taiwan. Leave some for the future you, unless you only see yourself visiting only once in your life. For me, I crossed off Taipei 101, Beitou and Shifen/Jiufen. Basically the big names. Next time I visit, I have a couple more spots planned, like Sun Moon Lake and Taichung. And lots more night markets as well. Good thing I didn’t get to visit a lot of them, so I have more to visit next time.
• Again, like Thailand, you can’t go wrong with signing up for day tours in Taipei. They come with buses/cars and decent tour guides. Very knowledgeable and are multilingual. Just be more punctual here in Taiwan than in Bangkok – I had my Jiufen tour pick up two hapless dunces that unwisely thought their tour bus will wait for them even if they were late 15 minutes. They learned quick that the tours mean business when they stress punctuality. Fortunately their tour bus were in the same day route and same tour company, so they hitched a ride to Shifen to rejoin their guide after a confirmation call. Don’t be the stupid tourist, always plan your free time.
• If your tour is going to mountainous places, and the weather app predicts rain, always bring the requisites – umbrella or windbreakers with hoodies.
• If you’re in Taipei, no problem with food. They have Western fare for the picky eaters. But if you go on tours in remote provinces, please try the local food.
• Taipei’s not that complicated when it comes to train and bus. But I think bus is a bit of a level-up for most tourists. I rode the bus in Taipei several times and I only saw at most three Caucasians. Trains had more of them. Maybe intimidated? But to be honest with you, I was also intimidated until I steeled myself to think, this is probably just like Singapore. I was able to ride that way. But of course, do your research before attempting.
• When it comes to expenses, Taipei ain’t that expensive unless you only ate at luxury restaurants and expensive places. I budgeted SGD500 for four days and I barely cracked 400. But keep a close eye on that wallet when it comes to tourist traps – that confidence of spending will shrink quick when you get home.
• When it comes to dressing, Taipei is a prime first-world-esque city so dress like you are an educated tourist. Jeans and a shirt are decent.
• You are in Asia, so sometimes, sudden rainstorms are to be expected. Weather app may say sunny but if you get caught flatfooted by a sudden downpour, that’s on you. Bring an umbrella at all times.
• A tip on touring if you get one of those tours with a nice SUV or van – if the front seat is an option, take it. Nicer views and you get a solo seat.
• Also, if you’re going to opt to have a food package delivered and picked up at the airport, be generous with pre-estimating your luggage space. And bring scissors with you.

As always, the world is a fun place so enjoy what you can. Have fun touring a new country. If you’re not having fun, what’s the point even.

I hope I can revisit someday.

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