Landing at Taipei Airport
I’d just landed at Taipei Airport. It was my third stopover after having departed from Venice and changed planes in Frankfurt and Hong Kong.
My first impression of the airport was neither very good nor very reassuring. After walking down a long corridor, I came to a small duty-free shop right beside the barriers that lead to the customs check. This airport was just not as nice as most Asian airports, in particular Bangkok, Singapore, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Seoul or even Shanghai, which I used to think was the worst.
My first impression became a certainty after looking for a restaurant to have dinner in. I had already tasted Taiwanese cuisine and liked it. What a disappointment! The airport had no restaurants at all!
If you stopover in Taipei, try the 101, which has wonderful international restaurants, or the top floor of the Shangri-La. There you can enjoy an amazing dinner with a view of the world’s second tallest building, which is certainly first in terms of creative design, as it’s basically a palm tree trunk standing out against the city skyline.
Back to the airport. In my disappointment, I went off to the departure lounge area to relax and wait for my flight. It was loud, chaotic and very far from the usual peaceful Asian atmosphere.
In quiet desperation, I went to the shopping area to check out new hi-tech items. Taiwan is a high-tech haven but not at the airport. The shops were full of telephones and cameras of a much older generation than even in Italy.
It was finally time to go to the boarding area and another surprise was waiting for me there; a flight of stairs that led down into a cold, inhospitable room. Then, I finally got to have a relaxing and satisfying moment. As I entered the plane, I was greeted by a smiling Cathay Pacific flight attendant offering me a glass of fine white wine.
See you soon and I hope that my next flight will be a better one!
Technorati Tags: Taipei, airport, Shangri-La
28 December 2008 at 10:21
Airport parking at Taipei is great. Contrast this with Australian airports…
Parking is a problem at airports and in Australia the airports are owned by the Airport Corporation. They effectively have a monopoly on parking at the airport. What some enterprising individuals have done is sell parking spaces close to the airport and offer a free shuttle service to the terminal. This can be very cost effective and is really taking off in Australia.