Goodbye Taiwan, Hello Malaysia

On the last Saturday before I left Taiwan, I decided to knit some random pouches for each of my co-workers, as well as bake them some chocolate chip cookies. There are always last minute things that need to get done before leaving a place. Finally, once all those errands were done and the packing was done - the apartment was empty, I was ready to leave.






My flight's departure was super early in the morning, so I figured I could get my butt to the airport the night before and perhaps get a good nights sleep in a hotel. I headed to the Erlin bus station and I have never seen it so busy the whole year I was there, so instead, I took a taxi to the Taichung HSR station which is about a 1.5 hour drive by car (the taxi only cost $30 CAD) I walked inside and it was packed like never before. All trains were sold out except for business class on the last two trains of the night. So, I bought a business class ticket for the 10:30pm train, which meant I had to wait the whole day as I arrived at the station before noon. I have no idea why it was so busy that Sunday, as it was just a regular Sunday, not a holiday, and I have travelled on Sundays before and it had never been that crazy. By the time I got to the station in Taoyuan (where the airport is), I was afraid there wouldn't be any transportation to the airport, but luckily there was. I got to the airport at about midnight, so I no longer wished to pay for a hotel for a few hours of sleep, since my check-in time was at 4 a.m., so I tried to sleep on a bench. It was freezing there and as you can imagine I didn't sleep much.

Finally, it was time to board the airplane and say goodbye to Taiwan.












I can't remember much of the flight as I fell asleep as soon as I had buckled myself in. I woke up while they were serving the meal, and fell asleep again once I was done eating. I think the flight was about 5 hours but I mostly remember having a great sleep, so the flight didn't feel that long to me. Malaysia was hot and humid - quite the opposite from Taiwan, but I can tell you it was a nice change as I had been seriously missing the heat. My lovely Matthew was at Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) waiting for me with a car and driver to take us back to my dad's place, just north in a small city called Bentong.