D-1
Departure day minus one: Finally time to take the luggages out from the attic and shake off the layer of dust. Never thought packing for a long oversea trip requires some details planning. Unlike domestic travel which involves dumping everything into a carry-on and carry on. That’s just me, talk to Claudia and she will have a different view on packing. There is a method to her madness in her preparation. First she had all her clothing and accessories out on the bed and foot bench and any clean surfaces in the bedroom. Next they are neatly folded and stacked up as pair sets, ie matching combination that she would wear together. She would go through iterations of rearranging the matching sets till she gets the combination she likes. This whole process takes hours and all this time i kept looking at my static pile of clothing, jeans, shorts, polo-shirt, etc all in 2 piles and whole what the difference! A woman’s mind is really a complex one. She has answer to every question I asked about why she does things this way. My way is take everything I think I would need for the 5 weeks plus 10% more just in case. Put everything in my assigned suitcases, yes she decide which suitcases she wanted and “assigned” the rest to me. Of course everything stayed in my suitcases for long as she comes along and tell me she needed space in mind! Like I said, a woman’s mind is a complex thing.
Of course, there were a few tag-along from a close friend for her family members in Taiwan in our suitcases.
D - Day
The long await day finally arrived. Well actually night and technically it is still D – 1 since our flight doesn’t take off until 4 mins past midnight. Our shuttle arrived with another friend who is also going to Taiwan. The drive to the airport on a Sunday night wasn’t as bad and it took just 40 minutes. Chanel, who left a few days ahead of us called to warn us about the expected travel crowd at the airport check-in, so as we exited the shuttle and gather our luggages, we entered the terminal expecting a big crowd. To our surprise, there wasn’t a crowd as we breezed through our check in process and headed to the boarding gate to await our flight. There was one thing we needed to do prior to boarding was rumored requirement that we need to fill out the Taiwan entry form 48 hours prior to departure. Apparently, it would saved us the hustle of standing in line at Taiwan immigration. There were many versions of this depending to whose friend of a friend you talked to. We heard Chanel’s version that it doesn’t work for her and she had to redo her filling upon arrival in Taiwan. She mentioned something about using a US cell phone. Not know what the form looks like and what is being requested, we decided to attempt filling the online form. The China Airline ground crews at the gate were very patience and helpful. They provide the URL to the form and provide a quick overview on the steps, since this isn’t their jobs we tried not to bother them too much as they were busy preparing the boarding process. That cannot be said about our friend who continued to pestered them for help.
There are 2 version of the form, one in chinese and the other in english. Though the form is neatly laid out, we still struggle to complete it for various reason. One of the issue we encountered was that sometimes the information you enter does not registered as you navigate to the next page and when you press submit, it errored out. After several unsuccessful attempts, Claudia and I decided to give up as it was almost time to board and also remembering what Chanel said about having to redo it at arrival. While we were struggling with the online form, I did glance around and noticed that we were the only 3 person fumbling with it. Everyone around us seemed to be going about their own business they normally do while waiting to board. We must be doing something wrong.
All On Board
Since I am not a frequent world traveler, I have no idea how boarding works. Looking at my boarding pass, I did see that I am in group 2. Not bad. So we sat and waited for our group 2 to be called while they boarded the VIPs. Claudia commented that there aren’t many passenger around, only a few standing around. As we stood up to get ready, I noticed 2 long lines of passenger waiting the other side blocked from view by a big pillar. They were lined up behind two upright banner, one stating “Group 1” and the other “Group 2”. So that’s why we didn’t too many passengers around us. I sheepishly guided Claudia and the friend over the back of the Group 2 line.
The boarding process was pretty smooth unlike those domestic flights I had taken. Since it was a bigger plane, there is literally not waiting in the aisle while someone in front of us decide what they want to do with the carry on and seats. Found our seat quickly and since we checked in all our luggages except for 2 backpacks which I quickly placed them in the empty overhead compartment. Claudia had the window seat and I had my aisle seat. As we sat, we were wondering who has the middle seat between us. After a while Claudia said, there’s no taking it because the closed the door already and so she spread across and made herself comfortable. I was fine with my sitting position as with all my previous flying experiences, I know that I will fall asleep in a jiffy. In the meantime, I would explore their inflight entertainment options. Found the new Top Gun movie and starting watching, thinking that I will soon fall asleep like always
Boy was I wrong. Not too long into the movie, the guy in front started bouncing his seat back and forth trying to get into a comfortable position, while I had to keeping adjusting my focus on the screen that keep moving. And he did this several time over the course of the trip. In the meantime, I had to slightly recline my seat just to be able to watch the movie. I didn’t want to do the same thing to the guy sitting behind me since he is also watching something. Anyway, I thought I would soon fall asleep. Wrong again. The entire trip I could not really stretched out my legs as this guy in front had his seat so completely reclined that I had to spread my legs out side way. Hope I don’t meet this same guy or his like on my return trip. And looking around, I don’t see anyone reclined their seat the way he does without total consideration about the person behind him. Well he did look back once to see if I am done eating and reclined his seat again while I still had a cup of coffee on the tray. Had to grab it before his action cause a spill. Had to find a way to get over the 13 hours uncomfortable flight. As uncomfortable a watching position as I was in, I managed to watch 3 movies and catch a few winks in between to kill time and overcome my discomfort.
An hour from arrival, I started to feel relieved as the end to the torturous flight is near. Looking forward to seeing Taipei – Taoyuan Airport post pandemic Arrival looks like.
Pingback: Travel Taiwan 2022 - parityd.com