THE DRAMATIC END TO MY TAIPEI TRIP

wet Thursday morning - view from my room

2nd June 2016 ~ It was time to bid farewell to Taipei but I had to make it more dramatic this time. It was hot and sunny on the 4 days I was in Taipei but it rained on the very last day. In Taipei, when  it rained, it really rained.

First I had to brave the rain to get to the Ximen MRT Station from the hotel. After arriving at Taipei MRT Main Station, I had to find my way to get to the airport bus. The bus terminal is actually located in another building across the road. So again I had to make a dash there, with a backpack on my bag (obviously) while dragging my luggage bag.

Ximen Station across the road

Then the drama continued. I managed to get on the 12 noon bus leaving for the Taoyuan International Airport. However, the bus got stuck in a bad traffic jam and I was so worried I would miss my 3:00 p.m. flight. Only at 1:30 p.m. the bus arrived at its destination and people were literally running from the bus to the check-in counters, something like you might have watched in the reality TV programme "The Amazing Race".

I thought the drama ended there but I was wrong. The flight to Kuala Lumpur was delayed for 2 hours and there would be a very high probability that I might miss my bus back to Johor Bahru which was scheduled at 10:30 p.m. The plane landed at KLIA at 9:55 p.m., I ran again to the immigration checkpoint and then to pick my luggage. My bag came out on the carousel at 10:20 p.m. The next sprint was to the bus terminal located on the ground floor of the airport and the bus left the terminal just after I had taken my seat.

Then only I realized that the rain was real heavy on that day (after reading people's post on FB) until the airport was flooded and things got chaotic. Terminal 2 was badly affected and thank God, I was in Terminal 1. That should explain the bad traffic jam all the way to the airport, and perhaps the flights' delay the passengers had to encounter. What a relief I still managed to get home on time. Just imagine if I got stranded at the airport longer. Here are some pictures found on the internet of the flooded airport.

And with all that running, I hope I should have burned all the unnecessary fat on my body. That could be a memorable way to end a holiday in Taiwan - and still I hope I could make a comeback one day.

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