This is the first in a multi-part series about my 2026 visit to Taiwan. I’ve tagged them all with the
taiwantag so they should be easy to find!
For over a year now I’ve been dating a girl from Taiwan; it’s an interesting long-distance relationship since she actually lives in London (and we met in Amsterdam – one of these days I’ll write about that) but we make it work, and I’ve been out to visit her in the UK a few times and she’s come to Victoria a lot. Throughout our courtship, I had come to learn a bit about her family back home, but not a lot, assuming she would divulge more information as time went along, so it came as a bit of a surprise when I was invited to come with her back to Taiwan over the Lunar New Year to visit her family.
Only having visited Asia once before (high school trip to China) I was a little hesitant, but ultimately decided I should go an support her, so I booked a 10 day trip leaving from and returning to Victoria and planned to meet her in her home town of Kaohsiung
Actually getting to Kaohsiung was an interesting challenge. There was, of course, the flight from Victoria to Vancouver, then from Vancouver to Taipei (fortunately they run direct flights), but once arriving at the airport I still had a lengthy journey ahead of me – one that would take several more hours before my reward of a hot shower could finally be realised. But let’s not jump ahead – the flight is the first part of my journey.
I had booked tickets through Eva airlines, a Taiwanese airline, which runs daily direct flights from Vancouver to Taipei. Through their partner agreements, I was able to book travel directly from Victoria, with Air Canada fulfilling my flight into Vancouver. Booking on a single itinerary way actually led to a bit of consternation; after receiving two separate check in notifications – one from Air Canada and the other from Eva. Not knowing what to do, I figured I might as well check in for both. While the Air Canada check in process went as expected, my check in via Eva was less streamlined. First I couldn’t get the actual check in page to load (private browsing tab resolved that), and then I struggled with trying to get it to accept a photo of my passport! Of course, I eventually realised that I could bypass uploading a photo altogether and simply enter the details manually. Next time, read all the directions, Chris! Checking in for my flight home was actually much simpler, maybe because I was in Taiwan, or maybe my first check in was just a bad day!
In the days leading up to my departure, I also received an email from Eva offering to let me bid for an upgrade to “premium economy.” This is something that seems to be getting more popular with various airlines – rather then setting a fixed price for the upgrade you make passengers “bid” on it, and the offers are accepted in order from highest to lowest as availability permits. Since I was flying overnight (with a departure at midnight Pacific time and arrival at 5:15AM Taiwan time) I figured “what the hell” and put in a bid for the lowest allowed amount. I figured the extra sized seating might come in handy while trying to sleep – and given the overnight timing I wanted to ensure I had as much sleep as possible! My bid was accepted (I guess not a lot of upgrades on this flight) and so I got to look forward to multiple meals along with bigger seats and expedited de-planeing upon arrival. I hoped it would be worth the roughly $300.
There were no upgrade options for premium economy on the way back, and business was more then I was willing to spend so I had an opportunity to compare premium to regular and I have to say I’m not sure the upgrade was worth it. The food menu is the same on both sections, alcoholic drinks are also available in both, so really the upgrade only got me a bigger seat and a complimentary toiletry kit and a larger in-seat TV screen. The larger seats were more comfortable, but I managed to get roughly the same amount of sleep on both flights, and after neither one did I experience back or leg pain. If I was a bigger person, then the extra legroom in premium might be worth it.
My flight into Vancouver was a non-issue, and I made my way to the “D” gates to find my next flight. Upon check-in I presented both my Air Canada boarding pass, and the Eva boarding pass but neither were acceptable to the gate agent. I needed to go see a different agent, get my passport inspected and be issued a third boarding pass before I was allowed onto the flight. Maybe the high resolution image of my passport was a requirement after all? Either way, it was a minor nuisance and I was quickly on my way.
The flight itself was great. We departed on time, and arrived 60 minutes early – at the ungodly hour of 4:10AM! I estimated I managed to get around 5 hours of sleep on that flight – broken up a couple of times. Not great, but not terrible, and I think I managed to beat the jet leg because of it.
Immediately upon leaving the airplane I felt the humidity hit like a ton of bricks. I knew Taiwan was supposed to be hot, but I had forgot about the humidity. It was worse then Southern Ontario in the peak of summer, and this was the middle of the winter season!
Upon my arrival, I was shocked to be one of only three people in line for the “non-citizen” passport control, and I breezed through it with ease. I figured my 4AM arrival was part of it, but my girlfriend mentioned that Taiwan is not particularly popular with foreigners, so the line is usually pretty short.
I must give a shout-out to the ease of navigation in the Taipei airport. I was quite concerned that I would get lost trying to find my way out, but the signage includes English and was very easy to follow. There are also painted stripes on the floor which guide you right to your destination. Super easy to follow, and I didn’t need to worry at all.
Total time from the gate to the arrivals hall was less then 10 minutes, so it was about 4:30AM that I found myself inside a mostly deserted, mostly closed airport.
Taiwan uses a system called EasyCard for boarding buses and the metro, and following the advice of this blog I pre-purchased both an EasyCard and a local SIM card since my Canadian cellular provider didn’t have roaming agreements in Taiwan. Fortunately, the pickup counter was one of the few things open at this time of the morning, so I was able to quickly get my phone on line and headed downstairs to catch a metro train. Unfortunately, it was so early that the metro station wasn’t even open yet! So I headed back upstairs to sit down and charge my devices for a while.
Getting to Kaohsiung from Taipei is an adventure in and of itself. First, you need to take the metro to the Taoyuan high speed rail station, then you need to purchase new tickets and get on a high speed train south. The stop for Kaohsiung is the last stop on the line, so at least getting off the train was easy! While my EasyCard would get me onto the metro, it’s not accepted at the High Speed rail stations, so I needed to purchase another ticket upon arrival. In theory, it’s possible to pre-purchase tickets for this line, but doing so is a complicated three step process, in which you purchase a voucher, use the voucher to reserve a seat, and then finally pick up your ticket from a customer service agent. I opted to simply purchase a ticket from a kiosk at the station which seemed much simpler and I didn’t need to know in advance what train I would be on.
I hung around the airport until the station opened, after 5:30AM, tapped my Easy Card and then immediately was confused as to where to go next. I wandered around for a bit (my train wasn’t departing until 6:00 anyway) and eventually found my way onto platform 2, which was not what I wanted. Back up I went and eventually found my way to platform 1, which seemed to be the place I wanted to be and waited, along with a hoard of other people, for the train.
10 minutes later my tranquillity was interrupted by an unexpected musical interlude – the announcement that the train would be arriving. Musical notifications on public transit would end up being a common occurrence in Taiwan which is an interesting way of differentiating it from every other mass transit system I’ve ever used.
I am pleased to report that the rest of my journey was uneventful. I did, in fact, board the correct metro train, and did make it to Taoyuan station on time. The platform was bonkers busy, but after about 10 minutes we all managed to filter down the single escalator and I was able to purchase tickets from the kiosk. Down another set of stairs and I found myself at a fare gate which happily gobbled up my ticket and spat it out the other side. I made my way to the platform, and then realised the advantage of following the complicated pre-booking roller-coaster – most of the cars in the train are dedicated to “reserved seating” meaning I had to go to one of the back three cars and cross my fingers for a seat, otherwise finding myself standing for a while. Next time I might try booking in advance, but the process seems so arduous that I may just opt for the kiosk method again.
Fortunately, there were available seats (and the car emptied out pretty quickly after just a few stops) and I was able to snag a window seat and catch my first glimpses of Taiwan as the sun began to peak out for the day.
Taiwan, as seen from the railway tracks, was kind of underwhelming. I could see lots of tall buildings and greenery, just as I had experienced elsewhere in the world. Every now and then, I would spy a temple; a good reminder that I was in Asia, but otherwise I could have been transported to any major metropolitan area with high speed rail and been none the wiser. My opinion would quickly change though as soon as I left the train station and entered the city, but that will be a post for the next instalment!