Our alarm is set at 5.15 to repack our luggage into 3 instead of 2 suitcases as the weight limit on our next flight is lower. Tim wakes at 5.00 and Olga and Zeno wake up from the alarm, Cleo wakes from nothing and we let her sleep until 5.45 when we have to lift her from bed before she awakes.
At 6.00 our hotel’s airport shuttle leaves on time and 15 minutes later we are at Incheon airport. The whole check in procedure is so much smoother and more relaxed than in Uzbekistan and China. There are 15 plus check in desks open and we are helped straight away. We have our own small line for families and 10 minutes later we have passed two passport checks and our luggage check. Time for breakfast.
Eggs, pho and Chinese breakfast are very popular and no tables are free. At the other side it’s almost empty so we settle for Korean bimbimbap and a burger and fries for the kids. We wait at the gate, play at some airport play grounds, and leave on time to Taipei airport.
It’s just a 2.5 hours flight and since it’s an hour earlier in Taiwan we arrive at 10.50 local time. We pass the checks quickly and at the luggage carousel our first three bags are there immediately, sadly we have to wait a little bit longer for our last bag (filled with laundry so we considered leaving as that would solve two problems;-)) , but all in all it went very smooth.
Now we need all our luck as Tim discovered a prize draw for every arriving tourist. He registered all four of us to maximize our winning chances. Olga scans all our qr codes to see if we have won and the third one (her own) is our lucky one. We have won a 5000 Taiwanese dollar (€140) voucher to spend in stores and public transport. Hooray! Cleo quickly calculates that she wants a share of 500 ice-creams from our price.
Now we have to get to the metro to pick up our pre bought metro cards and take the metro to the high speed train station of Taoyuan to take the train south to Tainan. We also bought a three day high speed rail pass for everyone and reserved the 13.10 train. That’s just two hours after our arrival time while it’s also a 30 minute metro ride to the railway station and we have some administrative issues to sort out. But so far it goes super smooth, and so does the pick up of the pass and our reservations. With time to spare we are ready for a real high speed adventure. As the trains here go 300 km/h and not just 160 km/h as in Uzbekistan.
We use the extra time to try out our lucky gift card and buy lunch at the convenience store, and it’s indeed our first free lunch of many more to come. We bought tofu sushi and it tastes good. The train arrives on time and everybody sticks to the queuing system, a refreshing break to the sneaky Korean queue skippers. The train is a Japanese shinkansen and we enjoy a smooth and calm ride 250 KM south, to Tainan. Well, not very calm as the children prefer to climb on the train chairs. It’s clearly a long travel day for them.
When we get out of the train we are immediately hit by the heat, it’s a humid 30+ degrees Celsius. As we have a lot of bags we get an Uber to our airbnb. It’s a 20 minute drive to a huge three level villa where ten people could stay, in a quiet street of a busy neighbourhood of Tainan. We put our laundry in the washing machine, and the children enjoy a cold bath, while Olga does some grocery shopping as we could not import any oatmeal etc from Korea.
Then, it’s already dinner time and we enjoy a delicious vegan dinner around the corner of our villa. Well, according to google translate, but nothing says “welcome to China” better than a random animal eye in your noodle soup. Olga puts the children in bed while Tim goes on a quest for some evening shots.
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