Manila to Taipei

Today we journeyed from Manila to Taipei.

We started the day with coffee, and then we headed to the airport to use Chelsea’s lounge access.

We did have an incredibly sad experience on the way to the airport- When our Uber stopped at a stoplight, Chris was looking out the window and there was a woman with a baby that looked emaciated in her arms. He accidentally made eye contact with her, and she called out to her other two kids who looked to be 5-6 years old. They ran to our car and repeatedly knocked on the glass and opened and closed their hands in a gesture asking for money, and it was very sad to see the extreme poverty. We didn’t have any cash left or we would have given it to them… starving children and cats and dogs were a recurrent sight in Manila, and it made us feel incredibly fortunate. It also really hurt to see. We both don’t think we will be back to Manila.

Manila airport is a ZOO. When we got there we saw queues everywhere, and it all felt a bit disorganized. That said, we got through security decently quickly and starting hunting for a lounge- we tried all three in the terminal, and they all had over an hour wait which has never happened before(usually you get right in).

We opted to eat at a restaurant in the terminal, and put our names on the lounge waitlist. Eventually we got into a lounge, and then shortly after we boarded our flight.

The flight was long but uneventful, and upon landing we had a long journey to our hotel as the Taipei international airport is far outside the city. We chose to avoid the traffic and take the public transit express train which was really easy and got us within walking distance of our hotel - cheap too!

When we finally got in it was pretty late, and we opted to go to a night market for food. The night market was more than we were ready for when we got there, as it was insanely packed with crowds of people pressing into us. We decided to pivot and try the restaurant Din Tai Fun which we had heard great things about(it’s a worldwide chain now, originating in Taiwan).

We got on the metro and headed to the restaurant and were shocked when we arrived that the wait was so long they weren’t seating anyone else that night(apparently it’s typically a 1-2 hour wait, and this place has many locations just in Taipei!). We pivoted and tried a different Taiwanese restaurant in the same shopping mall- which we thoroughly enjoyed! The mall was pretty cool as it had 12 floors absolutely jam packed with food, stores, etc. the whole thing was indoors and air conditioned, which is a welcome respite from the heat.

After we wrapped dinner we called it a night with a big exploring day tomorrow. Tomorrow we will go back early to get Din Tai Fun as well!Read more