Monday, October 27, 2014

Taiwan Trip 2014 Day 1 - Taking the long distance Bus from Taoyuan Airport to Taichung (how to go to Taichung from Taoyuan International Airport)

Finally, am back from Taiwan to post my travel story about the trip.

This time, we took China Airlines cause the fare was attractive but the negative side was we could not select our seats in advance but we managed to get window seats on the day we checked in.

After take off, we were give some mixed nuts as snack, love the ball shaped nuts was easy to bite and crunchy but we were not be able to find the same type of snack in Taiwan hahaha.

For lunch, hubby had hainanese chicken rice.

I had the curry fish rice.

The flight was pleasant and we reached Taiwan in less than 5 hrs.

From the plane(approaching Taiwan,still in flying mode), we could see the peak of the mountains protruding out of the clouds, wow the mountains must be very high.

On landing, we were in Taoyuan Airport Terminal 1, after claiming our luggages, we proceed to the bus station to continue our journey to Taichung. It was easy to locate the bus station, just follow the sign directions.

We decided to take the long distance bus to Taichung which was about 2 hours ride. There wont be any toilet break/rest stop, so best to empty your bladder or get some drinks/food from the convenience shop located on the same level as the bus station.

There were a few companies offering these bus services, going to different areas/town of Taiwan. If you choose to travel via the High Speed Rail, you need to take the shuttle bus from the airport to the high speed rail station and the fare is NT30. The shuttle bus ride would take about 15 mins and the HSR would take about 1 hour to travel from Taoyuan HSR Station to Taichung HSR Station and I estimated it would take about one and half hour from Taoyuan Airport to Taichung via the HSR Train while the long distance bus leaves direct from Taoyuan Airport to Taichung and takes about 2 hours. So the bus ride is our choice.

Depending on the location of your hotel in Taichung, you have to make sure whether to alight at Chaoma Station (2 hours bus ride) or Taichung railway station (2 and half hour ride). Our hotel is about 15 mins cab ride from Chaoma Station, and we choose to take U Bus 1623 to Chaoma Station cause the bus was leaving in 5 minutes time.

The bus fare is NT240 from Taoyuan Airport to Taichung.

The bus is really very comfy and the air condition is cold, remember to take luggage receipt if you placed them in luggage storage of the bus. You need to show the receipt to the driver on arrival to collect them from the driver to prove ownership of the luggages.

After two hours, we arrived the first stop in Taichung, i.e. Chaoma Station, (did not take any photo cause was too dark to take any photos), we just waved for any available cabs along the street. The cost of the cab fare by meter is about NT130(lesser if no traffic jam) to our hotel (Kun Hotel) about 15 mins away. Most cab drivers dont speak English, best to print our the address of the hotel and telephone number so they can find the hotel via their car's GPS.

For more information on different bus companies offering the bus services from Taoyuan Airport to Taichung,you can view the official website. For other town/cities within Taiwan, you can view from the same website by just clicking the name of the town/cities.

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