Spring Break 2010: Singapore, Taiwan, Singapore, Tokyo (Day 3)

Day 3: Singapore to Taiwan

The way the scheduling worked out, it was cheapest for us to spend one day in Singapore, then go to Taiwan, return, and spend a few more days in Singapore before heading back to Japan. Having spent one day in Singapore, Taiwan was now on the menu.

Our flight was at the reasonable hour of just past noon, so we could sleep, eat another pretty good hotel breakfast, and then take the MRT out to the airport. This proved to be cheaper and probably faster than the bus we'd used coming in. This leg of our travels was with Singapore Airlines, which some frequent travelers we'd talked to had talked up as one of the best airlines in Asia. We found that they annoyingly limit the weight and size of carry-on luggage so that if you're carrying more than a handkerchief and pocket lint you have to check it. This meant that even though our bags would certainly fit under the seat or in the overhead bins, they made us check Ana's bag on the way to Taiwan and both bags on the way back. The overhead bins were about a quarter full going both ways. As the cherry on top, we'd lost a half-full container of sunscreen* that was just over the 100mL fluids limit (107mL) clearing security that we could have kept if we'd checked bags from the beginning rather than having gate agents grab them. Singapore Air did have the most legroom, best entertainment options, best food, and free Singapore Slings (the violently pink signature cocktail of Singapore), so overall they are the best airline we've flown, but not without an irritating quirk or two.

We landed outside Taipei around 4PM, quickly cleared customs and immigration, and then found ourselves in the airport with a somewhat less than clear idea how to get to our hotel. We had called the hotel previously and been given the oh-so-illuminating response of "take a bus". We had "hire a taxi" as our backup plan, but seeing that the airport had free wireless we booted up our laptops and asked the internet for guidance on how to get from the airport to the city. The internet replied with "take a bus", but included a few more details than the hotel, so we found the bus terminal and paid something like $3.50US each for the hour-long bus ride to Taipei Main Station, where all the bus, subway, and train lines meet. From there it didn't take a lot of doing to find the subway line that went closest to our destination and follow the street map loaded onto Ana's iPod to find the hotel itself. We didn't try taking pictures of things because it was too dark out by this point.

The lobby of the hotel was apparently under re-construction, and our hotel was sharing the lobby of another hotel on the third floor of the building. It was easy to find because it was the one entirely full of college students on spring break from NC State. Why they took spring break in Taiwan, we never found out. During check in, we found it mildly curious when they appeared quite relieved to determine that we were married (they asked). Anyhow, we picked up our keys and took the elevator up several floors to our room, where one of the biggest surprises of the trip awaited us.

Extremely round bed

Wallpapered-over huge window into the bathroom - this view is from the shower

This is the same wall from the other side.

The room we'd been given had clearly been built to serve in a love hotel. Several features supported this theory (see above pictures, also mirrors were in abundance), and the internet confirmed that love hotels are not uncommon in Taiwan.

After making this glorious and amusing discovery, we needed to get some food. The day of traveling had left us without the energy for a major adventure, so we headed across the street to Mos Burger, a local outpost of the Japanese burger chain. We were fully prepared to point to burgers on the picture menu and mime to be understood, and were therefore taken quite aback to be greeted by something like "Good evening, please take this English menu. What can we get for you tonight?" Which is pretty much more English than we've ever had in a restaurant in Japan not run by expats. We'd been told by a friend of ours that English is hard to come by in Taiwan but that was not what we experienced - on the whole there was a lot more and better English than we normally encounter in Japan, and it made a lot of things much easier and more pleasant than we expected. Anyhow, we burger'd up (they had Sprite, and a large in Taiwan is actually, you know, large, unlike in Japan) and headed back to the hotel to get some rest before a long and exciting next day that will be written about later.

* Sunscreen is difficult to find in Japan and completely overpriced because the target market for sunscreen in Japan is middle to upper class housewives who don't want to get freckles. They wear long skirts or pants and long sleeves with gloves, then cower under umbrellas any time the sun is out, year round, as well as purchasing tiny little bottles of designer sunscreen that's good for your face. I'm not sure what everybody else does to not get burned - stay at work while the sun is out? Could be. I think we paid nearly $30 for the 107mL high SPF bottle we finally found.