14 March 2012
Travel day
Today I went from Osaka to Taipei. I often think my favourite part of travelling is the actual travelling. Today was one of those days.
There were trains, busses, motorised autonomous busses, planes, bullet trains etc.
The Osaka Kansai airport was actually quite dissapointing on the inside. Its impressive that its on a man made island, but they dont have nearly as many flights as other airports and the lounges and facilities were frankly, crap.
Its also a long way from any city region, dull and dated looking.
Taipei airport is STILL under construction. I cant see that they have done anything since I was here a year ago. But there were thousands of workers making a hell of a noise, perhaps they are building a new airport underground.
Like Osaka, the airport that serves Taipei is a long way from Taipei, in fact its in a completely different sizeable city called Taoyuan. It was pouring with rain and foggy so I decided to take the short bus to the bullet train stop and go for a bonus 300kmph train ride.
The photos will be quite boring today unless you like transportation!
First train of the day is the Kansai Rapi:t (they use a random colon for no known reason). This was pretty dissapointing. It runs on the normal tracks at normal speeds, but skips many stations. Which means we went really slowly as a regular train in front of us stopped at all the stations.
It does however have huge windows to enjoy the view, a beautiful day it was too.
Despite Japans best effort to not allow you to see the sea whilst travelling out to the island, I managed to get this photo by standing and holding my camera above my head like an idiot.
Inside the departures hall of the airport. Check in was easy as Cathay has a first class line and some really bored looking people thrilled to have something to do. Customs however was a zoo, no priority lane and lots of people pushing and shoving etc.
The view back to natural land with the bridge to fake land on the left.
This is the Cathay Pacific lounge. It is without a doubt the worst airline lounge I have ever been to in the world. By comparison, Launceston in tasmania is bigger. They had a coke machine and little cups with peanuts in it and thats it.
I turned around and went straight back out again! The girl on the desk that took 5 minutes to scan my passport and boarding pass was very confused.
I took the autonomous bus to the other terminal, where JAL have a sakura lounge. I hadnt had any breakfast! This bus is silly, it goes all of 50 metres. But they dont let you walk it for some reason, even though the buildings connected.
The JAL lounge was hardly any better. They at least had real drinks and some food, but it was small and very crowded. The bathroom was tiny, there was a line to use a urinal.
I exited the lounge and bought a green tea kit kat. Some Japanese people nearby were amazed that I ate the whole thing in about 3 bites.
This is my plane. The flight was good, Boeing 777's are very comfortable due to being 9 across rather than the 10 across of an airbuas a330. The meal was good, beef with rice and some soba noodles, I didnt take a photo of the food.
After arriving in Taipei and clearing customs (where some black people were getting the third degree), I took a bus to the bullet train, this only takes about 10 minutes and costs $2
Next up, the bullet train ride, takes about 20 minutes. I bought an un reserved seat, but didnt know what carriage to get on as they all said reserved. So I stood up in between 2 cars. No one seemed to care.
Final mode of transport for the day, the Taipei Subway. Very shiny. They have added a couple of lines in the last year too.
My hotel room is great, such excellent value!
Bonus hotel room view. Now I just need it to stop raining so I can go out.