After a long drive, for Taiwan, via highways clogged by weekend visitors returning to the cities we finally arrive at the Taipei airport where the last hotel of our trip awaits us. We are leaving tomorrow midday and have to return the car in the morning so we decided it makes no sense to spend one more time in the city and instead spend it at the airport. Luckily there is more than enough parking in the hotel underground parking lot and then we take the elevator to the lobby. A security guard decides to check us out, guess we do not look like regular visitors to this hotel after two weeks in the hot humid climate but we make it to the front desk before him and check in safely.
The room is a typical hotel room with all the expected amenities included a welcome A/C. We are quite hungry by this time but with the restaurant closing early, for whatever reason, the only choice is to order room service.
It is also the better choice, it is much easier to eat undisturbed in the room and we can even keep any leftovers for next morning as we do not have breakfast at this hotel.
The food is quite good for a hotel restaurant, we enjoy the steak, fries, salad and good dessert. And there are no leftovers, not that we really needed them as we have other plans for tomorrow morning.
Next day we check out okay and drive to the airport to return the car. It goes much easier than expected and also we can pay the highway toll fees now which is great, more countries and car companies should allow us to use an automated toll device and then pay, without anything extra, on return. Our plan now is to enter the airport and get to the lounge however unfortunately we cannot check in yet so we have to wait in the unsecured section. As such we decide to visit the outdoor viewing area which overlooks the runway and watch planes take off and land until the check in opens.
It is a nice spot to watch the planes with some people with professional cameras just sitting and take photos of all the planes taking off or landing, it seems to be a serious hobby here.
Three hours before departure we can finally check in and then pass through security and search for our lounge. It is a busy airport with lots of fun stuff to see and do and we are distracted quite a bit as we look for the correct lounge.
The lounge itself is busy but has lots of food and quite interesting too. We sit there for a while eating our breakfast and just relaxing before going through the gate and buying some last minute souvenirs in a hurry.
The flight to US is uneventful with bad food but reasonable entertainment options as expected from our inbound flight to Taipei.
In San Francisco we see a robot barista and we cannot resist buying some iced coffee from it, it is reasonably ok but not exceptionally good. Also the croissant doesn’t seem to be fresh, after eating all the good in Taiwan we have become picky.
And then it is time for the last leg flying towards Phoenix from San Francisco. We return home after two weeks in a tropical paradise, we are surprised in hindsight of how much of Taiwan is protected and how many endemic birds managed to survive compared to other islands we have seen. And we are already starting to plan our next trip as we really enjoyed the area and the culture!
