South Korea & Taiwan Blog 8: Seoul to Taipei
Day 15 – Friday, 21 April Seoul to Taipei
Fine, 18ºC in Seoul
Cloudy, 23ºC in Taipei
T$20 ( Taiwan dollar ) = NZ$1
We got up at 7am, downstairs for breakfast at Butter Finger Pancakes ( W27000 ea ), back to the room, packed etc and left at 8:30am, checked out etc. then out to the street.
Grabbed the subway to Seoul Station then through to the AREX ( AirPort Express Train ) area. We accidently bought a ticket for the all stop train first, which we didn’t use, and then bought the express ticket ( W8000 ea ). Liz refunded her T Money card then we bought tickets for the AREX express train to Incheon airport ( W8000 ea ), got on the 9:35am train and left Seoul.
Thoughts on Seoul: We both really liked Seoul. From the minute we got to our hotel and had a look around the area we found it to be a very organised, easy to navigate city. As I have commented the city never felt overly crowded ( even on the subway trains at rush hour ) and there was never an issue with personal space; the locals were always friendly and polite. The mix of old temples and palaces with modern business district was really interesting. And surprisingly for a city of the size that it is, the central area felt very walkable. As an area we found Myeongdong to be good for us with a good mix of touristy and authentic areas/streets and lots of good restaurants, and most importantly our hotel had the subway right out side the door.
Key tips for Seoul: get a T money card, charge it up and use it. And try to walk and take buses where possible to see more of the city. Stay at the L7 Myeongdong; we couldn’t fault the place.
And our thoughts on Korea: We loved our time in Korea. All the things we like about travelling the world are in Korea; history, scenery, people who are pretty happy and keen to help, civilisation and a bit of roughness around the edge as well, and lots of good food. We were really glad we got out of Seoul and saw the countryside and met people in smaller towns. Seoul was definitely our favourite place, but everywhere we went was worth the effort. And if you have travelled to other parts of Asia then the following may be of interest to you; there were no homeless, beggars, people trying to sell you things on the street, or scam artists.
The only things we don’t like about Korea are that It is so far away from New Zealand, they don’t do breakfasts, and they are all glued to their mobile phones especially when walking down the street.
We arrived at Incheon Terminal 2 at 10:24am, up to the departures and queued for the check in / bag drop, then through immigration, bag check etc and out into the shopping mall at 11:00am. We had a look around the shops then walked out to Gate 257 at the far end of 1 arm of the terminal building. We sat in the gate lounge for a bit then boarded the flight to Taipei at 12:10pm ( this is a China Airlines flight, code shared with Korean Air and a couple of other airlines ). We were seated in the middle of the 4 central seats ( Boeing 777 in a 3-4-3 configuration ) down the back. We took off late at 1:00pm, had a good flight which went fast, and landed in Taipei at 2pm local time ( 3pm Seoul Time ).
We headed through quarantine, long queue for immigration, then bag collection, and then out into the arrivals hall at 2:45pm. We changed our Korean Won to Taiwan Dollars ( NZ$1 = T$20 ), drew some cash ( T$4000 = NZ$200 ) then found the route through arrivals to the MRT line. We bought a ticket bundle that included a purple token for the train into Taipei Main Station and an Ipass card with T$200 credit for the MRT lines ( T$425 ea = NZ$20 ea ).
We jumped onto the next MRT train and headed up and over some big, mist covered hills on the Taoyuan Airport line ( not sure why a tunnel wasn’t an option ) and then in through New Taipei. The change in scenery from Korea’s pastures and pine tree nature reserves into Taiwan’s rice fields and rain forest was very obvious.
We arrived at Taipei Main Station at 4:30pm, walked ( for what felt like miles… turns out it was about 300m in a straight line ) to the Red line MRT station and caught the MRT ( T$20 per trip normally ) to Daan Park. Got out of the station ( lots of stairs on the exit we used ) and across the road to the Dandy Hotel ( NZ$620 for 4 nights, incl breakfast ), checked in and up to Room 205. It was a small room and a bit tired feeling with a view of the building across the street and the MRT exit; but clean and tidy.
Out for a walk around the block at 5:00pm, bought some supplies at the 7 Eleven under the hotel, then back up to our room. We had a problem with the safe not working in the room so the receptionist got the maintenance man to come and replace the safe for us. While we were chatting to the receptionist ( Cynthia…probably not her real name ) we got some suggestions for where to head for food and shopping ( we hadn’t seen a lot of options around our hotel ).
We headed out at 6pm, walked along Xinyi Rd to Kongyang Rd ( near Dongmen MRT station ), found a small restaurant and grabbed dinner ( T$170 / NZ$9 for 2 pork and rice dishes and 2 beers; simple but very tasty ). Afterwards we walked back to Xinyi Rd and found a Louisa Coffee shop ( which is a chain of shops ) and had coffee/cake ( 1 piece of cake, 1 coffee and 1 tea T$170 / NZ$8 ).
Walked back to the hotel at 8pm.
Taiwan / Taipei Immediately has a different feel to Korea; humid, things seem cheaper, people are a bit louder, but also things are very similar; friendly people, organised transport systems etc
Day 16 – Saturday, 22 April Taipei
Cloudy, hazy, breezy, 24ºC
We got up at 8am, headed downstairs to the basement for breakfast in the breakfast room ( traditional fare of eggs, bacon, curry, fried rice etc ), then back to the room to get ready.
Headed out at 9:30am, down to the Daan Park MRT and headed to Taipei Main station , with the plan to catch the ‘hop on hop off’ bus. We got out at the station and walked to the bus stop only to find ( despite what the website said ) the bus hadn’t been running as hop on hop off service since Covid times ( 2020 ), but was running as a normal type tour of the city. And the next tour wasn’t until 12pm.
We decided that this isn’t what we wanted so back to the MRT and on the Red line back south to Liberty Square / Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall. Got out and walked to the square. This is an impressive square with a memorial to Chiang Kai-Shek on one side, the National Concert Hall on another, National Theatre on the third side and the Liberty Square Arch on the fourth. We walked to the square through the gardens and then walked up into the Memorial Hall and inside at 10:45am. We photographed inside for a bit then sensed something was about to happen so waited to watch the changing of the guards at 11am ( this happens every hour on the hour )
We walked back down to the Square then out through the Liberty Square Arch and north past East Gate ( now a round-a-bout ) and on to the NTU Hospital Station, and caught the MRT to Taipei 101, arriving at 12:15pm.
We walked out of the station into B1 level of shopping mall and had lunch at food court ( T$350 for beef /rice dish ), then walked up through some of the mall ( not our sort of shops; Chanel, Gucci etc )
Up in the lift to 5F to get tickets for the observation floor ( on the 88th floor (88F) ) at 1:15pm, bought tickets ( T$600 / NZ$30 each ( after being warned that visibility wasn’t good today )), joined the short queue then up to the 88th floor, which only takes 38 seconds in the lift.
The view was ok given the haze/cloud. We walked around the observation floor then looked at the Tuned Damper in the middle of the building ( this is large weight that counteracts the sway of the building in strong wind or an earthquake ). We headed down again at 1:45pm.
Had a quick stop at the supermarket in the basement of Taipei 101 then back on the MRT to Daan Park. Then had a walk through the station building then up to the park itself, walked around taking photos of birds ( egrets and herons ), turtles, fish, squirrels etc. A very pleasant place to wander around on a Saturday afternoon.
Headed back over to our hotel at 4pm and rested.
We planned the next part of our trip, booked the train and accommodation for Hualien, for 25-28th of April; train T$880/ NZ$44 for 2 tickets, and accommodation for 3 nights at Meci Hotel, T$4500 / $225. We booked the train online direct through TRA ( Taiwan Railway Authority ) and we then just had to collect the tickets from the Main Station ticket office at some stage.
I headed out at 6pm to photograph the Daan Park Station building, then back to the hotel and booked a tour for Monday ( to Jiufen and Shifen, T$980 ea / $50 ), then out at 6:45pm, caught the MRT to Dongmen ( 1 stop ) to Kongyang St again for tea. Pork and Rice and 2 beers, T$330 / NZ$15.
After tea we walked around the streets of the Kongyang area then walked back to Dongmen station, and back to hotel at 8pm.