Taiwan - In the Air

In January Korea celebrated the Lunar New Year, as such I got a few days off school. Having a few friends in Asia I decided to visit them where they were and due to my schools policy of accepting sick days as personal days I had a week to play with.

As it turned out there was a pretty good flu that came through the area and as a result of working in an environment that not only has a large amount of people for the area and iffy sanitization, I got sick the day before I was scheduled to leave.

I pushed through the day of school, seeing as I was frivolously using all of my sick days for the trip, I had not choice but to press on. After school I took some decongestion, tied up the loose ends, spend 5 minutes learning about Taiwan and then it was off to bed. I slept well and was in good spirits when I awoke so I decided to try to make my flight. I threw a few things in my bag and off I went to the bus station.

I ended up missing my bus and having to take a later one which meant that I was still on the bus with less than 1.5 hours before I was to take off on an international flight. Thankfully you only have to check in 40 minutes early. From Sasang Bus Terminal there is a great new line on the metro that takes your right to the airport via the Busan Gimhae Light Rail. Three stops and 5 minutes later you are at the airport preparing to check in.

I as I rushed to the desk they asked if I was on the Tokyo flight, leaving in 20 minutes. Apparently they would have pushed me through a mere 20 minutes before an international flight. Good to know. I checked in and found myself waiting due to some kind of delay. A little time to catch my breath and get better.

Upon entering the plane I found that they had given me a whole row to myself, which was awfully nice of them and helpful in recovering. I flew AirBusan and found that their service was fantastic. The flight was without incident and we made it to Taiwan.

Just to tell you how much I knew about Taiwan prior to the trip, on the flight I got an immigration form to fill out and noticed a box for type of visa. I just about lost it. I like to think of myself as a pretty savvy traveler but I couldn't believe that I hadn't even looked in to something as basic as a visa. Especially for a country related to China. It was so foolish all I could do was laugh and wait to see if they let me in.

(I will update the story as I have time)