XXXIII: Getting around

 Last year at the same time, I took on a local holiday. This year, sick of people giving me the eye after I answered "just stay home & chill" to their question of why I was doing on my day off, a holiday sounded like a more appropriate answer.

Can you guess where I headed to? 

Here's another clue. My flight is listed in there. I kid you not ;)

It was a rather impromptu decision. It was between Yogyakarta, this or another local island destinations. At a spur of the moment, I decided, heck, why not go to a foreign land where the people looks like me but speak an almost entirely foreign language? After all, I should make use of my mobile translator who turned out to do a rather crappy translation job.

 Flying off one night after the super moon, I was hoping to catch a glimpse of it, high up in the sky. It wasn't my first night flight but the moon seemed about the same even when we were above the clouds. Or is it that one day really makes that much of a difference? Sure, it was big and bright but nothing phenomenal. Still, it was a sight to behold. Apologies for the blurriness. My Mi3 doesn't fare well in low light photography.

 Yes, this trip was about Taiwan. Taipei specifically. For Malaysian citizens, no visa application required so no need to go thru the hassle of paying for it. Despite it being a Tuesday night flight, it was rather packed so we had to wait a fair bit at the custom for clearance. They had counters especially for foreign residents and alien residents. Yes, alien.

For the most part, their English translation is commendable, good even whenever it is present. At other times, you're better off asking. Since tg can read and speak Mandarin, there wasn't much need for me to bring my deplorable Chinese skill onto the table. Sometimes, they still do turn to me of which I'd divert them to my travel companion. I suppose I could very well struggle and ask them in English but that would probably end up being disastrous and annoying for both ends.

This series will be about my Taipei trip. There are more, far better posts on this topic but here's a first time encounter for your viewing (and probably laughing) pleasures.

So, how do you get all the way there? And once there, what are your options?

Plane

 This is quite a no brainer. The real question should be: which airline?
There are a number of airlines that go between KL and Taipei. There are equally as many websites that will compare them for you. The one that  I would have killed for is Eva Air's Hello Kitty Jet. Unfortunately, this is one route that they don't serve.

Tiger and Jet Airways do fly this way, along with Vietnam Airline but some of them are not direct flights with stopovers in Singapore or Ho Chi Minh city for a couple of hours. Not that they are significantly cheaper either. Air Asia was still the cheapest. When I first toyed with the idea, the air fare alone (sans luggage, meals) were well below RM 600. By the time my mind was made up (about 1month later or 2months before the travel date), it shot up by about RM100. Obviously, the earlier you purchase, the cheaper it'll be. However, how do you guys stick to it? Heck, I can't even keep my coming week's date up.

The direct flight is about 4hour and 15minutes. Neither too long or too short. My flight there was an evening one so it coincided with dinner time. My suggestion would be to buy your meals online as they cost a bomb should you decide to buy on the plane itself (RM 20 for a nasi lemak with one piece of chicken though you can top up RM10 for a glass of wine to go with that, but why??).

Alternatively, you can buy something that's durable and stuff it in your hand carry. They do have a no outside food policy onboard but it's not something that they enforce strictly.

Taxi
 Once you've arrived, getting around is quite a breeze. Except when you are in the airport. At close to midnight. Then it isn't so easy. For starters, the airport is located really far away from Taipei city. Despite its well connected train lines, the airport doesn't happen to be one of it. Currently, they are working on a line that'll enable visitors to take a train from the airport to the city directly. But that's due to be completed in 2017.

Until then, your only choice of public transportation would be the taxi or bus. The latter don't all run 24hours and the ones available at the airport may not service your final destination. Thankfully, their taxi is pretty good. The iconic yellow cars are lined up waiting to send you to your hotel and they run on meter, no question. For our ride to Min Sheng E District 1 Road, it was close to NT1200. Uber would have been cheaper by NT100. The ride itself was about 1hour long with entertainment from local channels broadcast onto mini display behind the headrests. It was really entertaining even if you can't understand half of what is said.

Overall, taxis are plenty in Taipei 

Uber
If you have Uber in Malaysia, rest assured that it'll still work in Taipei. Just make sure that it is linked to your credit card. Getting a ride can be rather tricky. We tried to get one to the airport since we didn't want to be hopping buses and risk missing our flight. Close to where we stay, it was difficult to get any that they placed a surcharge.

However, as we made our way to a shopping mall, there were more options at a more affordable rate. Not an Uber user myself, would it be safe to assume this is how it works locally?

Train

This is going to be your best friend during your stay. Or at least until you've returned it to the station. This is a single journey token for their MRT lines.There are many other types of passes available and depending on how much you travel in a day, the daily passes that stretch up to 72hours would make more sense. The maximum fare would be NT60 of which you're likely to be traveling from one end to another. All the lines are interconnected so you can easily switch to another at specific stations.

Taiwanese are more civilized compared to us as they queue up or at least let passengers disembark first before going in. They have a campaign running to instill proper train riding etiquette that covers special seats for special people (elderly, pregnant, families), removing your backpack once in the train to avoid bumping other people, lowering your phone/voice volume. Basically, all the basic stuff to make the train rides a comfortable one. The train frequencies are high so even if you missed one, there's bound to be another in few minutes.

The carriages are well air-conditioned. The fact that you don't sweat much in there also means not having to endure any stench. Do study the lines to fully utilize your trip there. Yes, it's in English. If only the same could be said for the following....

Bus
Now, their buses are rather on par with their trains. In the main city areas, there are digital signboards to announce the ETA of the buses. My main complaint with their bus system is that they have boards displaying the routes of buses that go through that station.
In Chinese.
Thus, if you can't read Chinese, you are pretty much lost when it comes to buses. Or you could take a gamble and hop on to one and hope that it goes to where you want. The buses themselves do have digital boards that show the next stop in both Chinese and English.

On foot
The weather in Taipei is walking friendly. There isn't much humidity that'll cause you to break into a sweat. It does get sunny but that won't hurt much either. Rain isn't that big a deal either if you are accustomed to our tropical rain as theirs would be at most a heavy drizzle. Their roads have special lanes for pedestrian and bikers even at junctions.

Their traffic junctions operate in a rather queer manner. Although it's green for pedestrians to cross, the traffic from another direction is likely to be green i.e. they are OK to turn into the road that you are crossing. In Malaysia, this is nothing short of a large scale genocide. In Taiwan, it somehow works. Cars and bikes are likely to slowly turn into a corner to ensure the road is clear. If not, they'll either stop entirely or slowly inch forward.

Bicycle
Believe it or not, the Taiwanese government started an initiative few years ago to encourage cycling in an effort for a greener commuting solution. There are bike stations around for you to rent. While I've not tried it myself, it seems to work like this:

1. Tap your EasyCard to initiate the rent 
2. Pick your desired bike
3. Cycle to your destination 
4. Park the bike at the station
5. Pay using your EasyCard

No cash is involved in the entirely process. Everything is automated so no operator needed either to hand you the bike.  As mentioned previously, there are special lanes for bikers so you don't need to fight for space with the big boys.

~
So that wraps up my observation on the different methods you can opt for to travel within the country Obviously, it's not 100% accurate given that mine is merely an observation and I didn't have any travel guide or a local to verify with.