31 March 2017
Indeed more beef noodle
Getting to Taoyuan airport end eating cake at the Singapore airlines lounge
Now I am at Taipei Taoyuan international airport, waiting for my flight. As usual I am many hours early, not to worry, I am able to check in, and the Singapore Silver Kris lounge (their top tier thing is called silver kris not platinum kris) is actually very good.
They have full meals available and a great buffet.
Before that, I stopped at the airport food court as threatened and had a good bowl of beef noodle soup, for about $6, evidence below. Now there really wont be any more beef noodle soup.
Before that I rode the new subway line out to the airport, an express version of the service takes under half an hour and costs about $3. Great bargain.
Before that, I wandered around Taipei for a while, had too much coffee to spend my remaining money, and watched the weather roll in. I have timed my departure to perfection, it is now pouring with rain.
I hope its not raining to the point that my flight gets delayed because my transfer time in Singapore is only about 90 minutes.
Alarmingly, I tried to change my seat for the flight from Singapore to Melbourne, and they tried really hard but told me the plane was 104% full! So that might be an uncomfortable flight.
The funniest thing that happened today, I followed a guy onto the subway who scanned his ticket and tried to enter the wrong barrier, 3 times. Sirens were going off and he was getting mad as hell.
I tried to help him by showing he had to pass to the left of where he was scanning his ticket, not the right. Eventually he pushed through as someone was exiting from the other side of the barrier with the big red cross on it he was trying to enter.
Then he stands at the top of the worlds largest escalator, and lets go of his suitcase, which proceeded to plummet all the way to the bottom. Luckily the people below stood to one side as it passed them by.
Western breakfast, I will not miss you.
I did a mornings work before I left.
Then I still had time for a mass ribbon dance. I have been here on leaving day before, and I think the same old guy was giving the same kung fu class at this time 3 years ago.
A girl and her pet squirrel. These things are all over the park, they do not appear to be afraid of humans, however this human (me) is afraid of squirrels.
Final temple, in the peace park.
This is the Taiwanese parliament, the executive yuan as its called (I think). When I last visited you could not get this close to it, as I previously mentioned streets were closed for many blocks as students were living inside it refusing to let the soldiers in.
On the train now, and here comes the rain.
I had no idea these guys existed in Taiwan. They are in Korea and mainland China too.
The Taoyuan airport is huge, but too small. The check in area is completely overwhelmed. They have every single xray machine and customs desk open but there are still lines. I think there is a further expansion plan but they only just finished the last expansion.
THE FINAL BOWL OF BEEF NOODLE SOUP!
And this is where I am sitting right now, guarding the buffet in the silver kris lounge.
I couldnt resist a bit more cake and some cookies.