Getting to Taiwan....

It all started with an invitation from the Taiwan Cetacean Society, the National Taiwan University, and Providence University to come to Taiwan and speak at the 12th Cetacean Ecology & Conservation Symposium. Lien of NTU organised everything, and I was to head off on the 6th October. However, a couple of days before the planned departure it was announced that there is a typhoon to be expected. Thanks to modern technology it was easy to google it and see the predicted path. Rest assured, it was straight through Taipei and the northern part of Taiwan (see graph at the end of this post). Thus, I regularly checked on the Singapore Airlines webpage to see whether the flight(s) from Singapore to Taipei were to be canceled. This was not the case, so I thought I'd give it a go and I'll make it to Singapore anyway. If I have a day or two in Singapore that would be just fine - I could have a good time there and see my friend Kevin again...;-) So I checked in at Auckland and we took off at 00:55 on time, and arrived in Singapore a bit more than 10 hours later. The flight was fine - I had a window seat and the middle seat next to me was empty. SIA was good as always, with good service and friendly crews. I was even able to sleep most of the time. After arrival in Singapore I quickly checked the status of the connection flight and since the flight was still on as planned, I hopped into the SIA lounge and e-mailed my parents that all is fine and that I'll go on to Taiwan as planned.

B 777-300 (9V-SYE) in Star Alliance livery at Singapore's Changi airport, getting ready for the flight to Taipei

So we boarded the aircraft and were sitting on the ground for almost an hour. The captain announced that they needed to call a specialised load master to double-check weight and distribution of cargo in the hold. But eventually we took off and headed towards Taiwan. All went well until we reached the south tip of Taiwan, when the captain announced that the weather closed in and that it was too bad for a safe landing. Thus, we would be redirected to Hong Kong, and possibly wait out the typhoon and fly over to Taipei later that day.



However, already at arrival in Hong Kong it was announced that all airlines diverted to other airports and nobody would get in or out of Taipei that day. We were all herded through immigration and to buses, and then driven to the pretty flash Regal Hotel on Hong Kong Island. Check-in here was an ad-hoc exercise in the bar, and it took some time to get 300+ passengers through the system. I met Ross, a guy who lives in Australia and was on the way to Taiwan, where his girlfriend is teaching English. They were supposed to fly to Japan two days later to get engaged! A bit later we met for a nice dinner at the hotel (courtesy of SIA), before we finally went to our rooms for a well-deserved sleep! Overnight we got a note pushed under the door, saying that the flight will be further delayed, from the planned 9am to about 11:30am (weather permitting...). We had breakfast in the hotel and were shuttled back to the airport, where we got new boarding passes at the check-in. I made quick use of the UA lounge to send another e-mail update home, and rushed to the gate for boarding.

A new day in Hong Kong - sunny and warm, ready for the short flight to Taipei

When boarding, we got a SIA pen in a gift pack, with a note apologising for any inconvenience caused by the delay. How sweet - after all it wasn't SIA's fault at all! There was once again a slight delay, but we eventually took off, heading for Taipei. We had the same very friendly crew, who greeted us with a good sense of humour. The flight was quite bumpy, but overall uneventful. I overheard the flight attendants saying that the captain mentioned that it is going to be a very rough landing, which they also announced. In anticipation of some major turbulences did we pass Taipei and kept flying north for quite some time, before we finally turned around and made a very long shallow approach. It was slightly bumpy, but overall the landing was actually quite smooth. In Taipei it was raining cats and dogs, but we all made it. There were another bunch of SIA staff handing out gifts - this time boxes of chocolate :) The immigration queues were quite long, and once we passed this without problems the luggage was there quickly as well. I bode Ross farewell and went through customs to look for my name since I was supposed to be picked up. And there were literally rows and rows of signs with hundreds of names to both sides of the exit. Of course I walked along the right side first, and after I haven't seen my name, gave the left side a go. Almost at the end of the row I finally spotted my name - hurrah! I was greeted and escorted to a taxi that took me straight away to the hotel. I can't believe it, but I am in Taipei!!!

The path of Typhoon Krosa. The red line indicates a category 4 (out of 5!) typhoon, which is quite hefty. Sadly, some people lost their lives (I saw reports between 18 and 25). Click on map for a larger picture.