How much can you enjoy of Taipei in 7-days-6-nights?

A lot – that was what we planned. Looking back, we wish we could have done more!

Come relive those moments – of where we’ve been and what we’ve done in our unforgettable honeymoon experience in Taipei.

Let’s play!
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Again, we created our quirky Scoring Stars for rating – quick and fun..

The Stars Rating:
* Better stay in hotel (or home).. :-)
** If weather’s looking bad – go somewhere, do something else..
*** I miss Taipei!
****Will go again – relive the moments!
***** Must experience, must do! Don’t leave Taipei without checking this out!
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01. Airplane flight from Singapore to Taipei – and return
Place: Jetstar Asia Airways plane
Location: From Singapore to Taipei – and back.
How much: SGD524 for 2 persons

What’s there?

Budget airline facilities and services in more than 4-hours long flight each trip.

From a printed menu, you can buy ready-to-serve food and drinks onboard. For example, a tin-foil pack of local rice with dishes costs about SGD6 while beverages cost from SGD2.

Or pay SGD12 – rent a console bursting with movies to entertain yourself. Apparently, prices for plane tickets and onboard stuff have increased dramatically since we travelled in 2006. Yikes!

What we did:

It was only 2 of us occupying 3 seats in our row.

So we had the extra space – entire row in fact, to ourselves! Psst, if we knew how our return flight would be like, we would appreciate this extra space even more! Read on to find out.. :-)

After boarding, we bought a 7-Up soft drink for a refreshing taste while we were adjusting somehow to wildly fluctuating air pressure as the plane took off and flew into air currents..

At about 3pm I bought a cup of hot tea for wife as we snacked on a MacDonald’s cheeseburger (bought earlier in Singapore’s Changi Airport) each for tea-time.

Food bought from outside was prohibited onboard. But we snacked anyway, before the male crew saw my wife munching her burger and came to politely remind us of the ban.. Even suggesting that we might wish to keep our snacking sight from the chief stewardess haha!

For the first hour, we tried chatting, playing cards then reading some travel notes. It was hard to stay mentally sharp. We could not even take naps!

We felt the stuffiness around. Tension was mounting in our heads. We belted up as the plane encountered air turbulence in the first hour of flying..

What’s unforgettable?

We do like the no-frill in-flight environment.

Just simple food and drink to buy, plus a rent-to-watch-movies entertainment onboard if we wish. And crew services when we need them. A flight to get us to our destination – in a low-cost (hey, we’ll use the savings for the touring expenses!), and hassle-free way.

Some traveller got bored during flight and stood around chatting.

It was raining when we left Singapore. A few passengers were all sniffy and covering their sensitive noses. Maybe they had caught a cold? Or was it the air pressure?

We were thankful we were just uncomfortable – but didn’t catch any cold bugs from anywhere or anyone! :-)

There was nothing much we could manage about the pockets of air disturbances our plane flew into, so can’t suggest much about this haha!

Oh yes, besides the fun of flying, we’ll always remember the friendly and professional crew who was such a welcome delight when we flew out to Taipei!

Could be more enjoyable if..

Going to the washrooms at the back of the plane could be made a tad easier..? But that’ll be really tough to do, we know!

The narrow aisle would be blocked by the serving trolley manned by crews, while passengers lined at both ends (!) to squeeze pass it.. :-(

Can the tight spaces make one feel claustrophobic? No, it had not made my claustrophobia worse. Anytime you feel “stuffy”, try looking out the window, moving around, or occupy yourself with fellow travellers, rented entertainment or even napping!

The crew service we encountered in our return flight left much to be desired.

Although it was a quick flight of a few hours, service could best be described as “budget” – truly minimal, lacking the cheer and professionalism shown by the crew who flew to Taipei with us.

On our flight home, we chose the seats beside the plane emergency exit out of curiosity.

Indeed the seats had more leg room. We shared our 3-seats in a row with a tall guy who sat in the seat by the aisle. Oops, what a mistake! Each time we needed to use the washroom, we needed to get by him, often interrupting him in his laptop work, or brief naps.

How would you like such “stiffy” acts of having an airplane seat metal buckle thrown beside you, hitting your thigh each time this heavily-left-brained fellow goes to the washroom? Or obvious expressions of disdain our inconsiderate “workaholic” showed you when he adjusted his laptop and body each time you indicated you needed to move pass him to the aisle..?

I would not continue on here sharing how unfortunately, this tall guy was as structural in behaviour as his physique was. In a nutshell, despite numerous friendly interaction from my wife and I (we even gave him a chewing gum!), we tolerated this chap’s rigid and uncooperative behaviour as the hours dragged on..

It wasn’t till the hour before we landed that I finally made my displeasure known (in a language our structural friend would understand) when I commented loudly to my wife over his behaviour. Sigh! :-(

…. Wife’s verdict ….

***
Can the quality of the flight crew service and pay-onboard food be better? Otherwise, nothing much to really like or dislike..

…. My verdict ….

***
Interesting and eye-opening! Surely, we get what we pay for huh?

I don’t have much expectations except – get us to our destination as quickly as possible please! Ehh, by the way, can the airplane tickets be cheaper than what it is now?

Still, thank you very much Jetstar for this budget way of getting to and from our overseas tour! :-)
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Where in Taiwan will we check out next? Get TaipeiDreams – free by email. Thks. :-)

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