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Chinese New Year deals are hard to come by, but I found one for Osaka. Although I flew there on the red-eye, maximizing my day sightseeing, O returned home on a morning flight that stopped in Taipei. Nevertheless, I was happy with the package and headed to Namba to catch the airport train.
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The rapid train looks ultra-modern and would "rapidly" take passengers to Kansai airport in comfort. Most of it was empty, and soon I knew why. Apparently, this is a premium service and an agent soon walked along the aisles checking tickets and selling that premium add-on. With no English ability, she carried a card that had various languages on it saying the extra fare is 500 yen. The English words were brief and had no explanation as to why I had to pay an additional fare on top of my ticket. Verbal exchange didn't help, and it wasn't until after I returned to HK when I was able to research this "premium" service.
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Kansai airport had various engineering features that make it quite earthquake-proof. The design looked ultra-modern with ample natural lighting.
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I needed to ride the people mover to the gate, which offered a panoramic view of the planes parked at the terminal. The airport didn't seem very busy today actually.
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I was happy to be seated at the back of the plane, where the wing could not disrupt a few snaps of this Thai neighbour.
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We departed at 10:50am, 10 minutes earlier than scheduled. With barely any traffic around, take-off was quick and wonderful aerials awaited outside my window.
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A full meal was provided for the short shuttle to Taipei. It had all the necessary items - fruit appetizer, main course, and dessert.
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Today's service was nowhere near full. There were plenty of empty seats to create your own lie-flat bed in Economy!
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Taipei was grey, as expected during the winter months. The flight arrived a few minutes ahead of schedule at 1:07pm, where passengers that were continuing to Hong Kong could head into the terminal for a stretch. With only an hour before departure, I rushed past security and headed back to the departures area. The clock was ticking, because boarding would commence about 20 minutes before departure once again.
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Terminal 1's gate area has been renovated into a modern and bright facility. The vegetation wall looked very nice. It looked nothing like the dingy building of before.
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In no time, I had to get back to the gate to re-board and continue to Hong Kong, which would be a full flight.
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