Evergreen Transit Hotel, Taoyuan Airport, Taiwan

On my way to Seoul I waited out a nine hour layover in Taipei’s Taoyuan Airport at the Evergreen Transit Hotel. My flight from Seattle arrived at 5:35 AM, which is 25 minutes before the airport turns on its air conditioning. I worried that I might be sweaty enough to set off the swine flu-sensing thermal cameras, but I got through fine. The fat guy behind me got stopped. Apart from that, Taoyuan airport was fine, so far as airports go. There is an incredible availability of duty free shopping  (which is popular as it is plentiful), some interesting art and photography exhibits, public internet stations, and Hello Kitty themed nurseries and play areas for kids.

Enough to occupy you for two or three hours, but not for nine. That brings us to the hotel room which, incidentally, is the first I’ve ever rented by the hour.

It’s NTD$1,050, or about US$31, for a room for three hours. Each subsequent hour comes at NTD$350. The room I got was small but fine; clean enough, but nothing fantastic. Worth the money by the hour for its convenience, certainly. And, as a bonus, the tinting on the windows makes the room an emerald hue usually unseen outside of Oz:

For NTD$300 you can use the Transit Hotel’s “shower room”, but getting a room was worth it. I took a nice air conditioned nap, showered, shaved, and watched a bunch of bad Hong Kong movies (Maggie Cheung in the 80’s; that fat guy from Infernal Affairs as the lead in a comedy; one of the installments in Andy Lau’s God of Gamblers).