Travel Diary

The final day. I was heading home. I had numerous alarms set but I think I woke before even the first one went off. My mind and body just knew.

Terry and Lesly still slept. I had a little cold coffee and took some videos of the city. Quite a nice view in the daylight, even only nine floors up. Then I headed to the elevator. Someone else had gotten in and thought I wanted the parking garage, so that button was pressed. I then exited at...yeah, the parking garage. Without a key card, I could not even go back up to the proper level, so I wandered around the garage a bit and finally found the exit as others were going to the same place. It was a little worrisome a short bit, but was nice to be on the streets again.

Now, it was time to summon Grab. Despite being about the 12th day in Vietnam, it was my first time summoning one. No scooter of course, not to reach the airport. I selected a car and waited. Alas, “no cars in your area.” Hmm...okay, let’s do this again. In fact, I see many on the map. Did they all just decline the fare? On the second attempt, one accepted the ride. About five minutes later, I was in a car and heading to the airport. While it was only about 24 minutes the night prior, this time it was about 35 minutes. Just lots of traffic to deal with. I had plenty of time I guess. But it was going by fairly fast now.

At the airport, I paid a little more to the driver for the extra airport fare. Weird that’s not factored in but it was the Grab app that noted it and not the driver. I handed over an extra 11k VND but I guess I could have done a lot more in hindsight. I thought I would need it for snacks in the airport, but everything switched to USD very fast, and the low prices were instantly gone. Back to western pricing now. Pity.

The airport was crazy crowded. Fun fact: fly at night whenever possible in Asia. I wandered aorund to try and find the Starlux agents, but ended up on the wrong side. Then went through the thick mass of people and found the desks. The line was very small compared to others. Some of the lines seemed like 30 to 40 minutes of waiting, Starlux had about three people in front of me, although that still took over 10 minutes. The lady did check my details and then I got my boarding passes. Next was immigration.

Wow! It was as bad as entering the country, and here I was just trying to get out. Funny how America does not have this and other countries do. The wait was about 40 minutes and it moved incredibly slowly. Honestly, I think computers have actually slowed down this process by a great deal. They seem to now take about 30 seconds to a minute per person. While I could not see the agent’s monitor, I did notice via the reflection on his glasses that he was on some site where he scrolled through a few pages of information. Perhaps my boarding info on Starlux? Hard to say, but I was allowed through.

Next was general security. This too was a long line, but it took only 20 minutes instead of 40. Eventually one reaches an agent where they AGAIN check your passport and you go through the conveyor belt process. I also noticed what perhaps was a hundred or so water bottles all sitting out on the side tables. I guess people forget about them pretty quickly. When this part was done, I headed to my gate. I had allowed about three hours when leaving the Airbnb, but now there was just one left.

Boarding wasn’t too bad. I was in Zone 3 again, which meant waiting for special needs, then first and biz, and then Zones 1 and 2, which I believe were premium economy. But Zone 3 is the final rows of the aircraft (rows 60 to 69), which was a smart thing to do. Too bad other airlines don’t learn from this, but I guess old habits die hard. Thankfully, the row was mine. It was a treat. I spread out and enjoyed the room, even though this was the shorter of the two flights (about three hours).

I accepted the meal, which was tasty. There wasn’t enough time to sleep so I spent most of it fiddling with my AirPods and trying to connect them to the bluetooth of the plane. No luck. I even had the flight attendant trying to help but she could not figure it out either. Apple had just really altered the process. We soon were ready to land in Taiwan. I took photos out the window of the scenery as we got near. It was west of Taipei, so some greenery mixed in with developed areas. Also, the sun was already getting quite low. I guess winter has quite an effect there too.

This time I was familiar with the layover process, so the 30 minutes to get off the plane was fine. Just no need to rush. It was a four-hour layover and not much to do. Once off the plane, I wandered around a bit and finally did some walking. It was then I finally put on my Garmin exercise watch to track my walking. I figured I could walk about three to five miles during the wait. But after reaching D-gate again, I noticed the entire area was completely empty. Again, way fewer flights at night. This meant the massage chairs were open to use and again, they are free. I sat in one for probably 30 minutes and just used the fee WIFI to surf the net. It was nice and relaxing, especially since the next flight would be very long.

Despite the endless massage (sort of—it only lasts about three minutes and then you have to reset it) I grew restless and wanted to walk around more. I was also tempted by the duty free prices, like would I be saving a lot on a bottle of 13-year-old Glenlivet? Well, sort of. It was incredibly challenging to check Washington prices without a VPN as sites just don’t like to divulge the prices outside of the area. Strange, but there it is. Yet, I had a friend tell me the Florida pricing at least. It’s also weird that they sell a 13-y-o version and not the standard 12. Maybe to prevent direct price shopping. Hard to say. In the end, I determined that since I would have saved the insane liquor tax of WA (24%) and the sales tax (10%) it would be a good deal; however, I could also just buy in Florida during my next trip and save way more, as airport prices are still greatly inflated.

What I did buy was some snacks. I had to get the pineapple cakes of course since that was a big Taiwan treat, and I got some nougat and dried mango and guava. Yeah, a little overpriced, though about what you’d pay in Seattle and made with much fresher fruit. Worth it.

Then I did walk around more and explore the great variety of gates at TPE. Each one seems to be themed with something special. Some even have free activities like pretending to surf, or exercise machines. It’s easy to kill time there just exploring and learning about Taiwan. Food prices were of course greatly overpriced. I skipped even coffee and such as I would be getting two meals plus snacks on the flight. Then it was time to board.

I figured I still had my empty row since it was the situation back when I checked in Vietnam before my first flight, but I also wanted to board as soon as possible to ensure the overhead space was open for my bag. My treats and suit coat bag could go under the seat—or rather behind, as the last row has that extra bonus since no one is putting anything under my own seat. Travel tip for you.

It took quite some time but Zone 3 was activated and I headed to the back of the plane. Open row so far. I sat in the middle. But alas, in time a young Asian woman slowly approached and pointed to the row and window. Argh! Okay, fine. Maybe the middle would still be empty. I moved over and she entered the row. A minute later, an Asian man approached too. No! Full row on the long leg of the trip?!? Oh well. I at least was in better condition to ensure it this time around. And as always, I did have the aisle.

With my bag in overhead, the foot room was better this time. Starlux is good in many ways, but the tight space between seats and limited width are annoying. Price you pay for economy I suppose. The first meal seemed to take a long time to arrive. I guess that’s because I was very hungry and the last row gets fed...well...last. Just takes a long time to arrive and you’re smelling the tasty food for a while. Nevertheless, I tried to limit my intake and save room for later.

After the meal, I watched some videos on Prime on my iPhone. During the layover, I was able to download “Mayor of Kingstown” Season 4 locally. That was a nice treat. This lasted a while and I then dozed off for maybe an hour or two. Once I arose from that, I knew sleeping was done for the flight, but I also was finally able to connect to the bluetooth on the plane and could watch the shows with my AirPods now. Nice! I selected “Jo Jo Rabbit,” and that got my to the next meal.

I accepted the breakfast meal and it was fine. Nothing was exceptionally good for the flight meals, but they are still tasty and edible. And if you’re hungry, so much the better. They even came around at least twice after that to offer snacks to people. Service on Starlux is outstanding. Five stars in that arena.

Finally, it was time. We were landing in Seattle! The weather was predictably gloomy. Cold, cloudy, and rainy. Oh well. One last long wait to exit the plane. But then, I was in the airport and heading to immigration. This time was different. I had Global Entry and veered off that direction. I can’t even remember what the regular lines are now as it’s been so long since I had to go through that process. But Global had zero people in front of me. Like not one single person. I had my face scanned and then spoke briefly to an agent, and was back in the regular airport again. I moved quickly out to the parking garage and then to the Link train.

It was good timing. The sign said three minutes to the next train, so I ran for a spell and had maybe 30 seconds until it arrived. Then I boarded and headed towards Capital Hill Station. Nothing notable on the train ride. I had my Verizon account active again so could start catching up on things. But nothing was pressing. Soon, I exited at the station and walked the half mile home. Then it was back up into my condo. The adventure concluded.