Ten Hours Stopover at the Airport? What Would You Be Doing to While Away the Time?
Christmas season travel has always been and is always going to be busy, and getting a ten-hour stopover for a connecting flight is something that you will have to live with when travelling during the holidays – unless you book your flights at least eight months in advance. Or you are willing to pay much more for the plane ticket, which in my case is the total opposite. So ten hours it was at Taoyuan International Airport in Taipei, Taiwan. Having that long stopover time makes you wonder whether you would find yourself a little comfy corner somewhere in those airport lounges then snuggle and sleep away, or find a way to entertain yourself or do something that will help you forget about the time; at least for the next nine hours. Yes, the tenth hour is boarding time. After verifying my next flight's boarding gate number, I proceeded to locate my boarding lounge at the upper level of the northeast wing of the terminal (the terminal is about 1.4 kilometers long - moving walkways along most of the entire length).
Along the way, one would notice that the waiting lounges (separate from the actual boarding gates located at the lower level) have unique, individual designs or themes. One of the waiting lounges is themed like a huge cozy video room with a big Sony display screen on the middle wall. The seats are just like the ones you would find in cinemas. Displayed at the wall on the left side of the lounge are milestones of Taiwanese movies. Another lounge is themed like a music museum, with tidbits of music trivia from different decades displayed on the walls, and a huge set of headphones set up on one side of the lounge.
There's also a post office-themed sitting area with a postal bicycle and a motorcycle, and an aviation history-themed lounge. Wall AC outlets for charging electronics devices are conveniently located at most of the lounges. Of course, there's always the usual duty-free boutiques and shops in the departure area. One shop sells beer and honey at the same counter. Kids (and once-kids) will be happy because surprisingly, the terminal has a big Sanrio specialty shop. The terminal also boasts of easeful restaurants, with a variety of food choices that are reasonably priced. At one of the restaurants, you can have a full meal with braised pork rice, mushroom pork thick soup and quick boiled vegetable for NT$ 195.00 (roughly US$ 7.00). Would you complain about that price? By the way, the meal also comes with a glass of the local version of iced tea. Sitting at one of the chummy restaurants will make you feel like you are dining at a plush tourist-area club. If you still feel that the shops, boutiques, bookstores, restaurants and themed lounges are boring and uninteresting, you can visit the specialty booths/halls like the Phalaenopsis garden and the Taiwan Tourism hall. An authentic chinese kiosk with a chinese board game neatly arranged on the centre table, sits inside the Taiwan Tourism hall.
If you will need assistance or additional information, the Information Center/Customer Service desk is located at the middle of the long terminal corridor (upper level), which actually is right above the passengers transfer area in the lower level. The EVA Air airline counter is also located in the passenger transfer area. There is no EVA Air counter in the upper level. So who's saying that a ten-hour stopover is all that bad? Fancy the sleep? Sure – and miss the opportunity to see what's inside one of the cleanest and well-designed airports in the world.
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