Despite all the planning we have been doing leading up to this 12 day Taiwan trip, our plans were still slightly messed up by a flight delay during the connecting. One would have expected that rescheduling of flights are par for the course for budget airlines but not full-priced airlines like Cathay Pacific – but that’s exactly what happened during our connecting flight from Hong Kong to Taoyuan. Apparently, the plane that was going to ferry us was itself coming from Taipei and had been delayed, leading to our flight eventually taking off Hong Kong International Airport at 1:15PM instead of the originally scheduled 12PM. I observed during my September trip that HK Airport is a major air transportation hub and the runways sees very scary numbers of plans taking off and landing with little pause. So, by the time our plane had taxied out of the terminal, it was still but no. 6 in the queue to take off even.
Still, better late than never. Upon arrival, there were literally hundreds of arriving passengers from other flights cramming the immigration counters at Taoyuan, though clearance itself was brisk. I’d already reserved a 15 day 4G Data Sim card a couple of days earlier, so a quick pick-up from the Chunghwa Telecom counter, we loaded up into a large limousine van for the two hour drive from Taipei to Taichung.
The drive itself was uneventful, though there were numerous points where traffic slowed as we were solidly smack in peak hour traffic on a Friday evening. We reached Taichung (population 2.8 million in 2018) at 6:20PM when all sunlight had gone. Our driver had already been briefed on our accommodation location, so brought us right to the correct spot where our host was waiting for us. I have to say: that our host was meeting us was a really nice bonus, since they were not staying in the apartment itself but had rented out the entire unit. A quick introduction to our apartment followed, including how to use the various amenities and facilities – after which we headed right back out in the general direction of Feng Chia Night Market to find grub.
The Night Market itself is an easy 10 minute walk away, though – as these cities go, there is a general absence of a pedestrian pavements, though walkways are still clearly marked out when you’re walking on the road itself. But vehicular and motor traffic seem to be quite alert to humans on the road, and we never felt harassed as we made our way in the general direction of the Market.
The Night Market certainly has eating options up the wazook – we didn’t know where even to start! But in good part because it was already just past 7PM, we went with the safest of options: ducking into a Japanese-styled restaurant called Steak Akaoni. No, we didn’t have a reference point, but the restaurant had a queue – and that’s always a good sign LOL.
Picture from the first day over the 13 hours from the point we arrived at T4 till dinner in Taichung.
Day 1 is a pretty short day for us. The real itinerary begins on Day 2 with a visit to a Houli Strawberry Farm, blogged here!
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