Day One

It's officially my 9th day now in Taiwan. And updating the blog isn't as easy as I've expected o.o

Anyway, back to where I've stop........

I woke up around 330am on August 24th, 2009 (Mon). In anticipation of going to Taiwan that morning. But the real reason that I've wake up very early that morning is that I was gonna transfer my old My Book (wts 2kg) 500GB files to the new My Passport 500GB (around 750 grams) I bought earlier in SM North. The transferring of files took longer than I've expected! By the time 90% of the files were transferred it was already 620am! and I'm bound to leave my uncle's house by 630am...... So I have to sacrifice not to transfer the remaining 10% of my files from my old hard disk (which were mainly all movies) and rushed out of the house. and I left my bulky old My Book harddisk with my uncle danny for safekeeping. :3

We drop off Uncle Danny's children at St. Stephen School in Ongpin Binondo area and we head straight to NAIA 3. I arrived at the airport at around 830am which is less than 3hrs from my departure time. Everything went on smoothly from check-in to customs.


Before entering the waiting area, I saw something that I shouldn't have see!

Perfume in Duty Free! I can't resist buying good perfumes... I ended up buying Lacoste Red (Motion in Play i think) and it cost 70USD. Oh well, at least these perfume last me 2-3 years. Kinda worth the money.

There weren't much people when I reached the waiting area, guess I was kinda early being there. But it's better to be early than to be late, especially for international flights o.o


NAIA 3 Waiting Area

1040am was the boarding time for our plane bound for Taiwan (I boarded Cebu Pacific this time). The plane was actually 85% full when we are ready to take off, and I was seated next to a kid and her mom which they look like Filipinos. And suddenly the kid said, "Pang-Pang Cong Chang" which means "Chubby factory" (I was like LAWL!!) and her mom suddenly said, "Don't be rude to him, he's Taiwanese and he could understand you!" (in Mandarin). I replied them by saying "It's Ok, and I'm not Taiwanese... I'm a Filipino" (in Mandarin too.) And suddenly the mom said "Filipino ka pala?! Sensya na... Kala ko Taiwanese ka eh...". and as we talk to each other during the flight, I found out she was an OCW before in Taiwan and got married to a local Taiwanese and start living in Taiwan. Luckily I also found out that she's also gonna ride the Bullet Train bound for Kao Shiung which is only a station away from Tainan. (Boy was I glad that I had company during the travel to Taiwan! God never ceased to amaze us, it's as always said... "God will make a way~!"). So we kinda chatted until halfway of the trip and eventually fell asleep, guess we're all tired by waking up early. :3



By the time we arrived in Taoyuan International Airport it was already like 1:30pm. We took the bus to the Taoyuan Bullet Train Station, it cost 30 NT for one way and the trip only took like 15minutes. Oh, the bus leaves the station whether it's full or not! 'Coz there were only like 5 of us in the bus when we left for Cao Tie (高鐵).

Purchasing ticket in the Cao Tie or Bullet train station is as easy as ABC, First find out your destination, then go ahead to the counter and tell them your destination then pay. That's it o.o! (Taoyuan to Tainan cost 1,010NT one way).

The trip only took me like 1hr 30mins to get to Tainan, but if you take the bus it'll take you around 5-6hrs while traditional electrical train will take you 3hrs or so. The Bullet train travels so smoothly without any "bumpiness" along the way. and the interior of the train is more spacious than the plane I took earlier.



Arrived Tainan at around 4:30pm, and luckily the university arranged someone to fetch me at the station. I also met someone in the station that who's also going to the university, he was from Finland, (forgot his name though... I'm really bad with names... HONESTLY!) and he's here to take the 2 weeks cultural and mandarin class. Then we met the chauffeur who'd take us to the university. By the time we ended up in the university... it was already like 6pm. And I WAS BEAT! >_< !!



I was brought to my room in my dormitory, and that's when I met Benny (The one who took me to my room) and Mohammed aka Mome, my roommate.

And the rest is history..... nah, just kidding, I'll update my next entry soon. :3 (This is one of the longest post in months!)