台湾之旅 - 1. 交通篇 / Transportation

台湾之旅 - 1. 交通篇 / Transportation

1) AIRPLANE

Our Cathay Pacific plane to Taipei via Hong Kong. Food's quite good! Rather turbulent sia..

2) FREEGO BUS

The interior of the Freego bus 飞狗, to bring us from Taoyuan Airport to Ximending area, where our hotel is located. Very comfortable seats.
two-way ticket: NT 120

3) TAIPEI METRO
Interior of the Taipei Metro. Thought the seat arrangment was interesting. Like the fact that there are plenty of handgrips, 3 rows in total.

Impressed with the presence of "priority seats" 博爱位 reserved for elderly, pregnant women etc... very obvious, and lots of big big signs. Many people usually don't take up such seats.

Also like the LED display system, indicating what stations the train will stop at, as well as the present stop.

4) TAIPEI BUS （ 客运）
The "destination" ticket card, which we have to return to the driver upon alighting. We took the 新店客运 from 乌来 to 公馆. NT 57. Such buses usually require paying by coins. Not sure if can use the Easycard 悠游卡 (similar to our EZlink card).

5) TAIWAN RAILWAY

Tzi Chiang 自强 train (fastest of the 3, and most ex)

interior of Tzi Chiang train. comfortable la. got toilet also, which is clean!

typical railway train ticket

6) ALISHAN FOREST RAILWAY
1 of the 3 mountaineering railways in the world. very cute old steam locomotive .

the 阿里山 train ticket ( 嘉义 - 奋起湖）

the train ticket (阿里山 - 祝山) to watch sunrise. train departs at 4.30am!

7) TAIWAN HIGH SPEED RAIL

the high speed rail station at Chiayi - just like an airport terminal hehe... nice nice..

the front of the train, quite high-tech looking haha..

inside the high speed rail train. like airplane!

the high speed rail train ticket. nicely designed hehe..

the seat pocket, also like airplane. there's high speed rail lunch set 高铁便当 too.. but very expensive..

my graduation trip to Taiwan - overview

Haven't written anything about my Taiwan graduation trip since I came back. It was my first time away from home, my comfort zone, so it was quite an unforgettable experience. Fun, but super tiring! think I haven't walked so much since a very long time, but I thought we were all very li4 hai4, to plan and carry out everything ourselves, and we stuck to most of our plans heehee... Well, after this trip, I believe it wouldn't be my last visit to Taiwan. It's a nice and fun place, with many friendly and nice people around as well as beautiful scenery, and not forgetting the unique and good food as well as the many interesting shopping areas!

Some things that left an impression on me.

1) TRANSPORTATION
From the Taipei metro system to the high speed railway, getting around Taiwan and Taipei is a breeze. Convenient and easy to commute by, it is an important mode of transport for many, including tourists. will talk abt it in detail soon....
oh super impressed with the queuing when waiting to board the train. so orderly~! If only we q over here as well.. much "neater" ha.. and the "priority seats" in trains.. and they never fail to keep to the right on escalators.

2) TOILETS
Was impressed with the emergency bells they had in every cubicle. Quite "thoughtful" of them, I thought. And the toilets in the metro stations were so clean! so much cleaner than those over here. One thing that wasn't used to, was disposing the used toilet paper into the bin instead of the toilet bowl, for fear of clogging up the sewage system... hmmm...

3) PEOPLE
Friendly Taiwanese never fail to answer our queries regarding directions or bus fares hehe...and most youngsters dress rather well... as for the senior citizens, I find that a lot of them are really fit. See a lot of them travelling up and down hills and mountains, and even walking the trails (which "killed" me) at Alishan!

4)STREETS / CITY
Find it rather similar to Hong Kong. But the drive from airport to Taipei city reminded me of Malaysia hee..most places are really clean, despite having very few rubbish bins around.

5) SHOPPING
Not as cheap as I expected. Fashionwise, they seem to like layering a lot, in terms of clothings..

6) JAY CHOU
lots of shops play his songs. wonder if it's coincidental or he's really popular hehe..

sodagreen's back with a concert tour! yay!

check out this site :
http://www.sodagreen.com.tw/main/weekly35.html

2 August 2008 - Singapore @ Max Pavilion (Tickets will be available on May 29th.)

heard that the most ex would be $148.

GET READY TO BE BLOWN OFF BY SODAGREEN!