Journey to Taiwan

I wrote this on my laptop the other day and now that I have the internet at home I can post it:

I am in Taiwan! I have to tell you all about the trip, it was pretty crazy for me. My dad's best friend Stevie drove me to the airport, DCA, we left at about 6:30 am. I arrived at the airport and checked in with Alaska Airlines. It only took like 3 mins to get through security so I had a looooong wait until the plane took off. It seems everyone I know gets through the security pretty fast, I think 1 hour early should be enough, not two.

Checking in bags and everything was easy. I had everything at the correct weight. Then I was on that plane to LAX, that took about 5 hours or something, pretty boring, I just read my Taiwan Guide that my mom bought for me. After arriving in LAX I had to leave the buidling I came into, and go over to the international building to look for China Airlines.

Before leaving the first building I had some of my US$ changed to NT$, they didn't have enough NT$ for the amount I wanted though. Once again I had to go through security, and it was not a big deal, took slightly longer, maybe 10 or 15 mins. One annoying thing was that I was wearing my coat and sweatshirt that I needed back in Maryland but LA was much warmer. So after security I came to another money transfer station and changed the rest to NT$. Waiting for the plane didn't take too long and I called a few people on my phone. I was disapointed, however, that in all the airports on my trip there was no FREE wireless to use. If you forgot some info or need to send an e-mail you will need to pay, and I wasn't even sure how you were supposed to do that.

Then I got on the CRAZY LONG flight to Taipei. It took 1 hour longer than it was supposed to. I sat next to some annoyingly quiet people who I assume were taiwanese. We had two meals, Dinner and Breakfast, they were both delicious. I also have to comment that China Airlines has some VERY pretty Flight attendants. I think I spent about half the trip just watching them preform their tasks. Each seat had its own TV thing with a headset so you could watch movies, tv shows, and listen to music. I watch Balls of Fury, and 3:10 to Yuma, listened to some taiwanese music, which sounded old to me, and watched 3 TV shows. One was a japanese show where a guy went around Taiwan eating all the yummy foods. Another had my Favorite Taiwanese musician Chang Chen Yue visiting his home-town. Lastly was a talk show, with the very cute Xiao S, they had Andy Lau on the show, sha sha's favorite actor.

So then I arrived in Taiwan, now the real challenges start. Well one piece of advice I can give international travelors is PRINT YOUR ITINERARY!!! You MAY need it for checking in with your airline to prove you are the one who bought the ticket, and also when you go through immigration you need to list your arrival and departure flights on the little imigration card. So I lugged by bags to immigration not knowing I needed a imigration card so when I got to the front of the line I was sent back to fill it out. I didn't have my itinerary and was freaking out, durring this time a TON of people showed up and all the lines trippled in size. So I didn't know what to do, so I just made up a flight number. I was watching the immigration people and decided they were not using a computer to check the information, just making sure all the fields were filled out and stamping them. So I got to the front of the line again, I had one thing filled wrong but the guy fixed it, he didn't catch the made up departure flight number. Keep in mind, however, I DO have a departure ticket to Hong Kong, I just didn't have any way to find out what it was.

So finally I got through to the baggage claim. My bag was over by the China Airlines since I took so long. With the plane being an hour late and the immigration delay it was getting late, about 10:30. I took my 180lbs of luggage over to the express bus window and bought a ticket to Taichung for $250 NT. I got my stuff onboard and then went to sit down. I fell asleep and when I woke up again we were aproaching taichung, it was about 12:45 by then. I was TOTALLY exhausted I was by far more tired than I have ever been in my life. I felt almost delirious, I could barely move my body. I think the change in time and temperature really got to me, and in addition I didn't sleep well on the plane and was dragging around my own weight in bags, not to mention I was getting over being worried about the immigration form.

I asked another passanger when I should get off since I was going to Beitun District. He was really helpful and talked to the bus driver for me. After getting off there was a Taxi driver waiting. He spoke pretty good english and we had a good chat on the way to my apartment. I showed him the address in chinese that I had printed. We got to the general area and couldn't find the right house number. We stopped by a 7-11 to ask directions. I was sitting in the car squashed by my luggage, the driver and the 7-11 kid stood in the street discussing, then a police car showed up and 4 police officers poured out and joined them. After some discussion it was decided that we passed the house. Then they must have asked why the passanger didn't know where he was going and it was pointed out to the group that I was a 'Laowai' (forreigner) then they all peered in the taxi to confirm. It was pretty funny. So we went back a bit and down a side street. There it was, and my lessor came out to help me with my bags. I paid the taxi 200 NT$, about 6 bucks american.

My lessor Ben walked with me down to the same 7-11 and I bought some drinks and thanked the clerk. I went back, paid the rent and deposit, and took my ass to bed. Suprisingly I didn't sleep all that late, maybe I was too excited. So that's how my trip went. I think most people would be better off breaking the journey into two or three parts, staying in hotels between sections of the trip. But after about 30 hours of travel I had made it.

PHEW!