Day 1: Flying In Darkness

Actually, the entire journey from the choosing of the airline, to the eventual flight itself was nothing less than eventful.

One month before the trip, I'd checked the prices of various airlines and was fortunate to chance upon TransAsia. "Trans what?" was my immediate reply. No, I've never heard of them, and my colleague was even asking, "safe or not?". Well, I'm back home in one piece. To share more about this airline, it's a Taiwanese owned company. They have been in business ever since 1951. In Singapore, they have started on this route about 3 years back. So they are still rather new on the scene.

For the booking of tickets, I'd tried to do it online via Facebook, but I could not see the link. So, I took some time on a Saturday to stop by the representative agent to sort out the tickets. I was told that the link will only show on the computer, not via mobile nor tablet. Aww. There's also an admin charge of about S$30 for each ticket if you book through the agent. So it would be smarter and cost saving of me if I had booked using the computer, yes? Well, a small catch. The airline was giving away S$10 NTUC voucher for every ticket booked and you'll still need to go down to the agent to collect these vouchers. Ok we learn.

The pluses of taking this airline? Cost! Per ticket is only S$438 and this is a full service flight with your own individual entertainment set with movies, and food all thrown in. Also, you'll be travelling in a new aircraft - Airbus A330. Also timing is wonderful. The aircraft leaves at 12:55am and reaches Taoyuan airport at about 5:30am, leaving you with a full day to do your travels. That is if you decide to not be distracted and take the entire 4:30 hours for siesta. Coming back is also wonderful. The flight is at 6:55pm. My wife and I could still do sightseeing, had lunch and do a little bit more of shopping before heading to the airport. One other plus point, both going and coming back saw only about 50% occupancy rate. This means lesser people to fight with you for the toilets, and less noise too!

Now for the one minus point, the food is edible, though at times it stands at the fringe of it. The fried rice is so-so, the bee hoon was a little on the hard side. Can skip the meal and just head directly for some close eyes.