Taiwan – Day 1 (Arrival – Taichung Tour)
Itinerary for the day: Taoyuan International Airport, Taipei Main Station, Diary of Ximen Liu Fu Branch, Taipei Main Station, Taichung Station, Taichung Tour, Taichung Station, Taipei Main Station, Diary of Ximen Liu Fu Branch
For this trip to Taiwan, I went with my two best friends Shiela and Sheila. To be honest, this was a rather spontaneous trip. The two were talking about Cebu Pacific’s ongoing seat sale late one night when I was already sleeping. The notifications woke me up and before I knew it, I had joined their discussion. A few minutes of deliberation and I had already booked our flight.
Fly to Taiwan’s Taoyuan International Airport
Our flight to Taiwan was at 10:00 pm on a Friday. After meeting-up at the airport and paying our travel taxes, we went ahead and checked-in ourselves at Cebu Pacific’s counter. Since I came from our business and the two came from work, we had a quick dinner at Terminal 3’s Jollibee. After eating, we settled in our seats near the gate and waited for boarding. Thankfully, the flight to Taiwan was uneventful.
Check-In at Diary of Ximen Liu Fu Branch
Although we arrived in the wee hours of the morning, it took us around 30 to 45 minutes to clear the immigration. This, despite having an efficient process. On the other hand, we didn’t have to wait long for our luggage so you could say it was off-set. Now, if you can avoid having a flight when train operations are out (I call them unholy hours: late in the evening until early in the morning), I encourage you to do so and I’ll tell you why.
To get to Taipei Main Station from the airport, you can take a bus, taxi, train or a private car. Because of the time, trains were out and because of tight budget, taxi and private cars were out as well. Thus, we were left with the option of taking Bus 1819 to the station.
You can find the ticket counter inside the airport and the terminal right outside. Once you’ve purchased your tickets, you are to queue up at Bay 5. Sounds easy and great until you realize your waiting time would be around 2.5 – 3 hours.
After arriving at Taipei Main Station, I hailed a taxi to get us to Diary of Ximen Liu Fu branch. There, we had a quick nap before starting the exciting and long day ahead.
Travel to Taichung via HSR
We had our breakfast at our hotel buffet. Afterwards, we took a taxi and headed for Taipei Main Station. Here, we took our Klook vouchers and exchanged them for actual High-Speed Railway tickets. If you are following a tight schedule, it is essential you do this early as seats reservations are required. Moreover, seats do get sold out and you will be forced to take an earlier or later schedule than what you had originally planned.
Since we will be travelling to Taichung, we took HSR Train No. 1209. Taichung (or 台中- 中literally translates to center) is located in central Taiwan and is where we will be having our 1-day tour.
