It’s been a long two days—I have made it to Taiwan. It’s been a very hard transition to my time here in Taiwan. The first thing was the flight.
I got a discount flight which connected in Shanghai and I didn’t think too much of it at the time because that’s how things go. Sometimes you get so much of a discount that it’s worth actually taking the connecting flight versus taking a straight flight because the prices were unreasonable. It was around 2,200 for the straight flight. I think that’s a little bit too much to spend, especially since I want to keep a reasonable budget for this time that I’m here, and I want to see if I can lengthen it out.
I got the contract, but there’s still so many things that are unknown. It’s only a 30-day contract at this point. The plane ride was long—It was long. I have never taken a plane ride that long in my life. I think I actually did really well on the flight; I got up during the flight three different times. I went to the cabin. Because it was a bigger plane that had the configuration of three, four, three; It had this space in the back—right where the food is.
I took a moment to stretch there three different times during the flight. The first flight was 14 and some hours. That was a long time to be on the flight. You wake up. You go to sleep. You’re still in the air. They serve you a meal. They wake you up. You’re still in the air. You think to yourself, oh, I’ve finished this entire Netflix series. Yes, I am still in the air.
Once I got to Shanghai (PVG), They deplaned us because we actually had to go through customs. I was transiting through to Taiwan, so it wasn’t as bad. They really didn’t require me to fill out too much paperwork.
You get to sit in the airport for a little bit, but I did have to go back through security check the way that they organized it. You get all your bags because you’re deplaning, and you have to check your bag; but you go through a separate area of connecting international flights. When you go through that area; you go through a secondary security screening point where they put your bags through X-ray. I guess because different countries have different laws on what they allow in their check luggage and in their carry-on luggage. You do have to be wary of that, luckily mostly travel with clothes and my laptop, that’s it.
I had gone to the lounge in Shanghai and had a drink or two, so it wasn’t so bad coming on the second flight because I was feeling nice. I was already there—basically. I had already come off of 14 hours, a very long flight, so by the time I got there. I was feeling myself and colored my hair because I wanted to try something fresh and new for this nomadic journey. The flights combined tired me out. By the time I got here, to the apartment, I was so tired because I took the public transport. It’s very convenient in Taiwan, the MRT connects directly to the airport, you don’t really have to do too much. You walk from the terminal, I think it’s maybe 10 or 15 minutes, and straight to the MRT station. The MRT can get to downtown Ximen and most of Taipei city from the airport, very easily and quickly, it’s around 45 minutes. I think it is, it was very quick ride. When I got to the apartment though, I was so tired and I fell asleep.
It’s a very small space, but it has a nice balcony that I can go out and look and see what else is out here. It is a nice Airbnb space. I didn’t know it was so small I should have looked next time on the spacing, but it has a balcony so that’s a big plus. You can actually go outside and see and feel fresh air and open the door when you feel like it. That’s a very good plus, but that jet lag it was so difficult for me. I tried to wake up it, was it was sluggish, it was very slow-going on that one. I could not; that’s why I’m writing you two days later. I finally got the energy today to go out.
I’m so happy that I decided to pull the trigger and come because I feel good again about being on the road; about being in a different space. Having that cocktail tonight, I’ve never had that kind of taste. I am trying to describe it now—it’s very hard to describe. It has hints of jasmine, it has hints of elderberry; and then there’s the way that they’ve presented it. They serve it in this very beautiful floral arrangement; you smell the rose petals, the daffodils and all the other floral scents as you’re also having this drink. It creates a very aromatic experience that’s paired with the drink itself being very nice. Don’t take it lightly, it’s strong. Then, I had another one. I really wanted to see what the restaurant had to offer.
In this neighborhood, it’s a lot of touristy things here, especially since I’m in Ximen district. Ximen is, I would say, the center from what I looked at the map. It’s near the center of Taipei and it’s really accessible. When I got up, there were so many people outside; oh my gosh. When I arrived, there weren’t a lot of people, and then the other times that I went out it also wasn’t so many. I think because it was late at night, but in the evening there’s so many people in Ximen. When you’re walking on the street, as you cross from one side to the next, and you look down the street, all you see is a sea of people. They’ are all close, so you know there’s a lot of them. It’s not like there’s a lot of people all spread out, it’s a lot of people compacted, and they’re just walking. It’s really quite crowded and interesting to see so many people just walking together.
-Tall Black Nomad