Taichung's bus signs are almost entirely in Chinese except the terminating stations. The arrows on this one are pointing in the reverse direction, making it even more confusing.
Route 500 is a typical city bus. There are no luggage racks and it is not designed for people with large suitcases. The front part has wheelchair space which you could use to store your large cases. It certaintly is not a comfortable long ride out on city roads with many stops along the way. There are no BRT lanes and the driver certainly liked to press hard on the brake and gas. He was driving barefoot most of the way, too.
48 dollars poorer and 81 minutes later, I hopped off the bus into a fancy lounge that has been improved since my last visit. From here, it's a walk along a covered outside corridor past the taxi line to the terminal.
Like other Taiwanese airports, departures and arrivals share a single floor, but rightfully placed so they don't interfere with each other.
There is 1 long line of check-in counters, and with only 2 flights left for the night, only a fraction of them were open. There was no line and I went straight in.
I believe Hong Kong Express has set a standard script for outport check-in staff to follow, because I seem to get the exact same thing no matter it is Nha Trang, Bangkok, or here. The agent weighted my hand carry, which was a little over and he asked that I re-arrange the items but stuck the cabin-approved tag anyway. He didn't weigh my backpack but stuck the cabin-approved tag too. He noticed I had a middle seat and offered to move me, although when I asked if any window seats are available, he remarked it's automatically assigned by the system unless I pay for an upfront seat. Nevertheless, I got a left window in the end but a few rows further back.
With the time at barely 7pm and an 8:35pm departure, I explored land-side a bit and headed down the hall to the domestic section - both are under the same building. It was even quieter here with flights only to the outer islands such as Penghu and Kinmen.
I had initially thought of flying out to Penghu to explore for a few days as a side trip from Taichung, but my Taiwanese friends advised this is not the right time of year to go, so I headed up Alishan instead.
I faintly recall from my visit to Taipei's Songshan Airport that you can waitlist for flights to these outer islands.
This small airport is quite nice and well-kept. It looked renovated compared to the last time I was here and I would rank it in the top 3 for the smaller airports I've used. Too bad there just aren't that many flights out of here, and the public transport situation isn't ideal.
Not seeing any restaurants yet, I spotted a convenience store and headed in hoping to find dinner. I had eaten at a Michelin-recommended meatball joint just before getting on the bus but it wasn't enough to last the night. There wasn't anything of interest in the microwavable section although the steamed buns looked good. I had them a few days earlier so I passed. They also had a local specialty, sun cakes, in stock. They're as healthy as a Krispy Kreme donut and I'm not a big fan.
Heading back to the international section, I saw another convenience store and a proper sit-down restaurant. Prices are a lot more expensive than in the city, at the 200-300 dollar-range, which is still reasonable by international standards but very expensive locally. To compare, a TRA bento box sold at Taichung station costed only 100 dollars, and I paid 150 for the most expensive one at Taipei station last week.
I found a frozen Taiwanese beef noodle at the Family Mart and with a discount, it only came out to 85 dollars. They had microwaves to heat it up and I quickly gulped it down in the small lounge at the arrivals hall. A flight from Vietnam had just arrived but nobody has made it out yet, so it looks like everyone seated here are for departures and probably my flight.
Security and immigration are both upstairs and there was no line for either. Air-side, there was a large duty-free area which was empty - the Vietjet flight was already boarding. I saw a sit-down restaurant down the hall by gate 1 and surprisingly, they charged the same as land-side.
There are various seating areas along this hall between shops and restaurants that don't belong to the gate area. They were well-furnished with nice tables and chairs and I found a window spot with a laptop desk and an outlet to charge my phone.
Exploring the 5 gates in the international section, the shops sold the typical fare such as local tea, bubble tea, and more sun cakes. They even have a computer corner, a blast from the past.
As I neared my gate, I heard an announcement in Cantonese that they'll check how much baggage you will bring on board again and not to exceed your allowance, and that duty-free is not exempt from your cabin luggage allowance and you can't offset any residual bought checked baggage weight if forced to check a bag at the gate. This was the first time I heard such a thing with this airline. Perhaps Taiwan is such a great place for us to buy things. I had actually bought quite a lot of food items on this trip - oolong tea and some sun cakes. Knowing I would exceed the 7kg hand carry limit, I had mailed the goodies back to Hong Kong earlier in the day at less than 1/3 the price of buying a checked bag.
Boarding was timely beginning with priority and special needs customers, then by row section with the back of the plane first.
I settled into my window seat happily satisfied with this Taiwan trip. The A320's slim seats are comfortable with decent legroom. We pretty much settled in with a pretty full loading by 8:20pm with 15 minutes to go before scheduled departure, and I ended up having the row all to myself.
The flight deck announced a journey of 1h20 and we pushed back 10 minutes early at 8:25pm. The taxi was long and we seemed to have passed through a forest and a bunch of military installations. By the time we roared into the sky, I couldn't see the terminal anymore.
We took off towards the north at 10:39pm then looped around with Taichung's bright lights on my side.
The crew sprang into action quickly, offering to sell meals and duty-free, but given the ample time we had at the airport waiting for this flight, there were no takers. I suppose with such a short flight time, there's no point to eat on board.
Our descent started at 9:24pm and we hit bits of bumps along the way, although nothing too serious, touching down at 9:56pm. Unfortunately, we ended up at remote stand 307 less than 10 minutes later, requiring a bus ride into the terminal. I guess with these late evening arrivals, they're pretty much done for the day and they don't bother to park at the terminal overnight.
The bus wasn't so packed and we got dropped off at the satellite terminal to change to the train. It was the exact same route as my Bangkok arrival a few weeks back, which was even later into the night.
I ended up having a train car all to myself towards immigration.
About 35 minutes after parking at the remote stand at around 10:40pm, I reached land-side with plenty of time before public transport shuts for the night. I was going to take the S1 bus to Tung Chung to catch the MTR, saving a fortune compared to taking the Airport Express.
With my 4th Hong Kong Express flight in 2024 already and it's still early February, I've so far beeen quite satisfied with the airline. Considering this flight was only shy of 3500 Asia Miles to redeem without baggage, it's a real steal.
