My Taiwan Gold Card is approved, my boss has approved my trip. Time to book!
I’m still having daily calls with my language exchange partners in Taiwan. They are giving me ideas about what to do in Taiwan in my free time. I started a to-do list of places to visit, things to eat, things to do.
I am also trying to figure out where I want to live in Taipei. There are two accommodations I need to book. First I need a quarantine hotel for 15 days. Then I need an apartment for the remaining 2.5 months.
I also needed a plane ticket. I knew from the beginning I wanted to fly with EVA Air, as I really like that airline and their service. So I first checked on which days there were flights from San Francisco (SFO) to Taipei (TPE). I decided to depart on Friday March 4th, this way I would have the weekend to get over the jet lag and I could resume work on Monday.
While searching for quarantine hotels I found a spreadsheet with a list of all Taiwan quarantine hotels. I found a website specifically to find vacancies in Taipei quarantine hotels. In the end I booked with MrHost which was the most convenient. I could have gotten a better price by booking directly with the hotel but I just wanted to get it done, as many hotels were running out of rooms. I chose the Tango hotel in ChangAn. My advice is: don’t go cheap – pick a nice room. Your entire world for two weeks will just be that room, so it better be nice. In my case it will also be my office so it needed to have a desk or work area. Do not pick a room in a basement. If you don’t have windows and don’t see natural sunlight for 2 weeks, it will mess with you.
Next I needed to figure out which part of Taipei I wanted to live in once out of quarantine. I am mostly familiar with Da’an from my previous trips. The first time I stayed in Taipei I was right at the Da’an MRT station and only one station away from the Sogo shopping center – very central.
To get oriented in Taipei I use 3 landmarks:
- Taipei 101 / 台北101 (which used to be the tallest building in the world)
- Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall / 中正紀念堂 (monument, concert hall, national theater)
- Da’an park / 大安森林公園 (the biggest park in Taipei, the “lung of Taipei”)
I want to live next to Da’an park because I want access to nature and a place to run. In addition, it is close to one of my favorite streets in Taipei: Yongkang street (永康街). I chose the Dongmen area (東門).
Initially I was going to get an AirBnB near Ximending (西門町) but at the last minute I picked a place right in Dongmen at the perfect location: 5 minute walk from Yongkang street and 10 minute walk to the Da’an park.
Lastly I booked the plane ticket directly on the EVA Air website. I’m all ready to go: quarantine hotel, apartment, and plane ticket. Time to make a list of things to pack! I haven’t travelled for 4 years.