KLIA2  

We smoothly boarded the plane without any issue. However, it started to drizzle. And then the captain announced that we had to wait in the plane for 40 minutes before we can fly due to the weather. Haha, not a good sign to start your journey, eh?

During the flight, we experienced some minor turbulence. Could it be due to the typhoon? The flight was 4 hours. I didn't expect 4 hours on a plane would be this boring.

Finally, I saw something out the window. Windmills in the sea I think. Not long after, I started to see land. Fields and fields of green and brown crops, all neatly presented before my eyes. Of course, from ten thousands feet above the ground, what I saw was like a cloth with countless patches haha. It's quite different than the land in Malaysia because our plantation fields weren't this neat or concentrated in one area I think lol. It's pleasing for the eyes to see. I suspect I only saw the West coast of Taiwan from above because I only saw plantation. Duh, its definitely West coast because Taoyuan is located in the West of Taiwan! If we could see the East coast I think we would see the beautiful mountain range. That would be quite awesome as well. Too bad I didn't take out my camera to snap a photo of this because I was too obedient with the no-electronic-device instruction haha also partly because I was lazy.  No, I did take out my camera and took a short video of it haha!

Snapshot from the video

  Taoyuan International Airport 桃園國際機場  

Big alphabets spelling out Taiwan greeted us at the immigration area. Those were real plants! How lovely!

I was a bit surprised when I saw how Taoyuan Airport looked like. Maybe coz I expected it to be modern and new like KLIA or any other main airport of a modern country. But Taiwan's Taoyuan Airport just looked like an old airport which was quite well maintained. And of course, it's incomparable to our KLIA2 in terms of number of retailers.

I think we walked for quite a long distance before we finally reached the arrival hall, probably because we took a budget airline. First thing to do in my mind was to collect the SIM card that I'd booked online and to buy Easy Card for everyone. Read: How I bought my 4G SIM card through KLOOK

It was very easy to find the booth for SIM card and WIFI modem collection. It's just located near the exit of arrival hall. The collection process was also hassle free. I just showed my KLOOK voucher and my passport, sign some documents and done! Got my 4G SIM card and inserted it into my phone right away! They even provide a SIM eject tool so worry not if you forgot to bring yours! But I did bring my own eject tool anyway haha. Once I inserted the SIM card, I checked whether the Internet was working and called my dad's phone just to make sure the telco line is usable too. Yup, everything was working fine.

Available in 5 days, 7 days, 10 days and 15 days package

Comes with instructions to check balance, top up, etc. Mini, micro, nano SIM card

Next thing to do was supposed to be buying Easy Card but we were famished. It was already 2.40 PM! So we decided to find a place to eat. I suggested to eat at McDonald's because they usually have special menu exclusive in different countries. I wanted to try Taiwan's pork burger which is probably a rare thing in Malaysia. This should be easy, right? That's what I thought. Somehow, my dad decided to ask for direction from one of the airport staffs. This Taiwanese uncle apparently was a volunteer working as a airport guide (according to the words stated on his shirt). He said he wasn't sure if there's a McDonald's in the airport but he could bring us to the place where all the restaurants were and maybe we could find McDonald's there. So we followed him through the shortcut route and reached the food place.

Hmm... apparently it's just a small food court. It's a little disappointing to be honest. Eventually, I had Burger King for lunch and they were only selling chicken and beef burgers :( It wasn't different from the burgers we ate in Malaysia at all. Sis was the only one ordering noodle soup and it tasted very bland. We didn't dislike the taste but it's probably tasteless to people who prefer a strong flavour. Well, it's expected because Taiwanese food are known to have a milder taste than Malaysian food.

After our lunch, we went looking for Easy Card because we had to take the MRT to Taipei. From my research, I knew that I could either get Easy Card from the convenience stores or from a booth that sells Easy Card. However, I'm not sure why my dad took the lead and started asking around. Maybe because I was tired and so I took some time to recall what I had read online and he thought I had no idea.

First guy we asked was a policeman on duty at the escalator I think. He looked like he wasn't sure and he told us maybe we could find at the food place. So we went all the way back to the food place again! Then, my dad asked an aunty staff at the food place. She said she wasn't sure too. I couldn't remember well what happened after that. Basically, we just wasted like 20 minutes walking around the airport. I actually wanted to just buy at the convenience stores because I thought they might have those Easy Cards with cute designs. However, I don't know why I lost my sense of direction during that time. Maybe because I was too overwhelmed with all the new things I saw in Taiwan. I need time to calm myself down after too much stimulation.

In the end, we asked a guard standing at the entrance to the MRT station. She pointed to the MRT station lol. After all the hassle of finding where to buy Easy Card, it's just at the most straight forward place --- the place where you're going to use the card =_=

So we went into the MRT station, and we saw a booth that looked like it's selling cards. Apparently it's a booth that caters to foreigners. The staff explained to us that we could buy the package of Easy Card with return tickets to Taipei. By this way, we could get a little discount for the return tickets compared to if we use Easy Cards for the ride to Taipei (both ways). So, we bought the Easy Card 悠游卡 for NT$ 300 (100 for the card + 200 top up) and return tickets for NT$ 290 (Normal price: NT$ 320). Actually we only saved around RM4 lol. But we did get an information leaflet of Taoyuan airport MRT and some gift vouchers for souvenirs. And and... the design of Easy Card was Hello Kitty one! Not that I like Hello Kitty but it's still cute and that's good enough for me. I'm not sure whether this design is exclusive for foreigners or not though. I never did check out the cards at convenience store simply because I forgot haha. However, the staff asked us to choose from two designs and I asked to give me two cards from each design. I didn't realise that the card with another design was not an Easy Card!!! It was another type of card from the company called iPass 一卡通 and we only found out on the last day of our trip lol. (Tips: Only get Easy Card, don't get other cards! More about that in another post!)

Easy Card 悠游卡

iPass 一卡通

Taoyuan Metro information leaflet with ticket price, platforms and route

BTW Taiwan's MRT is also called Metro. So after we got our Easy Cards and Metro tickets, we went into the platform to wait for our train. Clear signage were available so it's easy to find the platform. The train arrived shortly and we just boarded on.... without realising that it's not the "Direct train" that we wanted to take! Actually I'm not sure what train we hopped on because I forgot to check when we left the train but I think it was not a direct train because it stopped at every station and at one of the station my sis heard announcement that asked passengers to switch to direct train to Taipei Main Station. Arghhh FML. I didn't pay attention to the announcement because I was so sure that we took the direct train lol. In the end, I think we took around 1 hour to reach Taipei instead of the 30 minutes I planned T.T I should have read the information leaflet they gave us before we board on any train!

Direct Metro are purple in colour while Normal Metro are blue! Take note if you want to save time!

Next: TAIWAN TRAVELOG 2018 臺灣寶島之旅 DAY 1: Taipei Main Station > Jiufen