Every so often here at Jaunted, we get a dispatch from The Newbie Traveler Andy Miles, who, despite his passion for travel, is still working on getting out there in the world. His unique perspectives are those of a first-timer, and today we're excited to hear about his very first trip on a subway in Asia. In this case, the fateful journeys went down in Taipei, Taiwan:
Air conditioning worthy of combating the most oppressive humidity, surfaces clean enough to eat off of, concierge-like customer service, and a type of thorough organization that is exceptionally rare. No, I'm not describing a 5-star hotel, but rather Taipei's Metro system.
The subway stations and cars on Taipei's metro are spotless. This means no paint marker tags or key-scratched initials on windows. While this cleanliness is most likely due to the ample security cameras, my more romantic view is it's because even the youth take a certain pride in the appearance of their mass transportation. Seeing as how the metro system carries over 1.5 million people a day, staying this spick-and-span is quite a feat.
During my journey underground around Taipei, I found out the hard way that Google's mass transit directions aren't always accurate sherpas. More than once I had to rely on the eager kindness of strangers to reach my destination station. As it turns out, if you stare at a subway map long enough, someone will eventually take pity on you and offer their help in almost perfect English. And before you think you'll be able to figure it out on your own, take a look at these directions provided to me by my stupid phone:
Tickets to ride the Taipei Metro can be purchased from self-serve kiosks at each station and are sold based on the distance you are wanting to travel. A single journey ticket is actually a blue plastic token and, instead of depositing it to enter the station, you place it over a digital reader and the turnstile opens. However, when you reach your destination, you will deposit the token into a slot to open the turnstiles to exit.
The Taipei Metro is an organized and clean method of transportation I cannot recommend enough. The city should be very proud and I can only wonder at how it compared the rumored awesomeness of other public transit systems in Asia.
[Photos: Andy Miles/Jaunted]
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