The Flight to Taipei
That was the longest flight I’ve ever been on. How could it not be? I’ve never been off the continent of North America. Twice to Vancouver, B.C. and once to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico – and there you have it, the entirety of my international travel summed up in ten words.
And now we’re in Taipei. It took a “short” flight of just over two hours to get from Portland to San Francisco, and then almost 13 hours to go from San Francisco to Taipei. We survived and flew in style, this being the first time I (we) have flown business class. The first of many firsts. Thankfully, this flight was covered by Nike, who sent us on this assignment/adventure, and I found myself imagining the kids (and me!) trying to sleep in seats that don’t fully recline. I’ve never been able to sleep on flights, so my respect for all the folks in economy grew with each passing minute. That will be us in a few months…
We flew United, who refer to their Boeing 777 business class seats as Polaris, and my seat buddy was KJ. She owned first class like a boss. Surrounded by stuffed animals, pillows and blankets. Movies running the entire time. Extra snacks and treats. Immediately became the favorite passenger of an attentive stewardess.
TJ did pretty well for himself, too. He took the opportunity to run his iPad dead playing games, enjoyed a few movies, and even got to sit in the cockpit before takeoff.
Even with the reclining seats, I only managed an hour or two of sleep, which left me delirious when we finally landed in Taipei. I felt like I had no idea what was going on, probably a combined result of sleep deprivation, COVID regulations, and the fact that I don’t speak Chinese yet. We followed people from our flight and stood in the same lines they were standing in, and found a few signs in both Chinese and English.
Arrival and COVID Protocols
Current COVID quarantine regulations in Taiwan are referred to as the “3 plus 4” schedule, which means that you have to spend three days in hard quarantine and then get four days of limited outings. If you don’t have a Taiwan phone number (we didn’t), you have to buy a SIM card from a table right there in the hallway of the airport, download an app called Line, and send your phone number to a local police agent assigned with tracking your quarantine status. Very thankful that other expats gave us some Taiwanese cash (New Taiwan Dollar; NTD or NT for short). $400 sounds like a lot for a SIM card, but $400 NT is about $13 USD and sounds like a great deal when you’re overwhelmed and exhausted. Also, that was like half my cash, and I just got here!
After getting our SIM cards, COVID home tests for quarantine, and getting through customs, we then went outside to makeshift stalls along the sidewalk adjacent to the airport so we could do a saliva COVID test…so we filled four jars with spit…
Quarantine
Since we didn’t have our own home/apartment yet and our assigned quarantine hotel could only accommodate two guests per room, we had to split up for the week. TJ and I were in one room, KJ and mom in the other. Oh, and did I mention that our quarantine hotel was in Taichung, so after 20+ hours of air travel and layovers, we still had a two hour car ride to the hotel? To say we were wiped out would be an understatement.
The three days of hard quarantine went better than expected. The first challenge we ran into was one of meal acquisition…the itinerary provided to us stated that the hotel would provide three meals per day, at specific times, placed on a try outside the door of our room. However, by the end of the first day, no food had been delivered. I used Line to message the front desk of the hotel, who replied, “Meal delivery is Taiwan cuisine. We think you not like it, so we not bring. You can UberEats.”
Time to learn how to use UberEats in Chinese, and fast! In the meantime, we survived on the granola bars we packed and on the snacks in the welcome kit gifted to us by another local Nike expat family.
TJ and I found a coffee shop called Louisa, and found some panini-like food we loved and I figured out how to order a caramel macchiato. KJ and mom realized we were in the home of Din Tai Feng,and ordered themselves a feast of soup dumplings. Also, KJ tried her first bubble tea, or “boba” tea, first created right here in Taichung!
Thanks to the previously mentioned expat family, who saved our skins with snacks, games, and entertainment. TJ and I got a little rhythm drum machine, board games like Jenga, and a bucket of LEGOs.
We also brought our own entertainment. Each room had half of a window dart game, TJ and I hooked up our Nintendo Switch, and KJ brought room decorations and her favorite doll.
I had to figure out the hotel WiFi so I could get some work done, so my makeshift “desk” squeezed a laptop and photo (gift from my business partners!) amidst a sea of snacks.
Everyday, we had to swab a COVID test and check in via the Line app with our names, health status (“Negative tests, no symptoms, we feel fine, and no we haven’t left the room.”). There was no laundry service available, so we were creative with what we wore, “repurposed”, and how we handled dirty clothes. There was nowhere to put suitcases in this room, and we had a LOT of them, so the floorspace Tetris was a daily challenge. Cute wallpaper, though.
Released Into the Wild
Finally, we made it to day four and took our first outing. We had to send a Line message to the hotel front desk 24 hrs ahead of time and ask permission to leave for a few hours during each of the final four days. They never declined, but we did have to say where we were going and why, and that we weren’t going to go indoors with crowds of people. We just walked the streets because it felt so good just to get outside!
We can’t wait to explore Taichung and settle into our new life here!
-Jeremie
Island PDX 