Tokyo Narita Airport

Interminal 2 I headed to the Red Carpet Club, where I could check in and get my boarding pass for the next flight – and again was able to catch a window seat in the Upper deck. The Red Carpet Club is very large and has also a number of showers. I signed the shower list and got a pager. After only four (!) minutes, I was paged and able to take a refreshing shower. The shower facilities were large, also I missed more hooks to hang my clothes on. The hairdryer was something slow and not really warm; the soap, foam and lotion was by Molton Brown. All in all a nice refreshing shower in a nice and large shower cabin.

The Red Carpet Club at Narita

The Lounge itself was full, and I could only get a seat in the window section, which was very hot due to the sun but offered some fantastic views to the tarmac and the starting and landing planes. But after some US bound flights left NRT, the lounge became empty and I could change get a seat in another part of the lounge. The food section was not very big, only some cookies, but I still was not hungry, so nothing to worry about.

After my flight was called, I headed to Gate 35, where the boarding process just had started.

09 April 2004
NRT – TPE
[Tokyo – Taipei]
UA 853 (United Airways); Boeing 747 – 400
18:35 – 21:00 [18:40 – 21:00]
Business Class
Seat 17 A

I took the Business Class Door and passed the Business Class Cabin to reach the stairs to get to the upper deck. A male flight attendant greeted me and took my jacket. This time, he wanted to have my boarding pass to mark my jacket, while the ANA crew does not need it.
I am not sure, but on the ground champagne and orange juice were offered. I again discovered the functions of the seat. Also this seat was manually operated, I found my favourite position at once – and this seat had a food rest.

The menus and the immigration forms were distributed. The seat beside me remained empty; the space in front of my seat was larger than on the inbound flight with NH. I began to fill out the immigration forms while the Economy Class assengers were still boarding the plane.
Soon airborne, the male flight attendant asked for my choice of main course while his female colleague started the beverage service.

I looked in the menu , which was in comparison to the NH flight very small.

The tables were laid after the beverage service was finished, again I only get a plastic knife and I had several difficulties to cut the chicken with this dull knife. The salad was fresh and tasted very good, but one should have written caper instead of capers, as I only had one. I choose the “Five-Spice smoked breast of chicken” as main course and again had chosen a white wine – the Alsacienne Pinot Blanc – instead a red wine. The beef was tough and the broccoli somewhat hard, as if it was cooked to short. The dessert was a tasty sorbet and in my eyes again the best part of the menu. After I finished the coffee after my dessert, I tried to get some more sleep.

I woke up, after another hour of sleep and we soon began our approach to TPE after this short three hours flight; Taipei is one hour behind Tokyo time. Our jackets were handed out and I prepared myself for passing immigration and changing EUR to TWD by putting this in the inner pocket of my jacket.

The flight was a little bit bumpy, but the seatbelt sign was not switched on during the flight. The crew was friendly and attentive. Their work was good and they did a very good job. Although on this flight, only two flight attendants served the upper deck – on the ANA Flight there was one flight attendant more – one had not the impression, that they had not everything under control. The only thing one could mention it the fact, that they made less rounds in the cabin after the dinner service was finished. Having read some worse comments about United crews, this was a good one.

We landed in Taipei just at the scheduled time and I was one of the first persons leaving the plane.

Taipei Chiang Kai Shek

As our arrival gate C 9 – if I remember correct – was far away from the main building it was quite a long walk to reach it. One had first to pass a medical check, where an infrared camera shows the temperature of each passenger on a screen. Before I passed immigration, I changed money, which took me only 90 seconds, so the big passenger crowd of the plane had not yet reached the immigration hall, as I had passed it and could go the belt area. My friend gave me a very helpful information sheet about TPE from his visit in January and the homepage is also very helpful.
Please note, that the airport is now named Taoyuan Airport.

The belt had just started and – hooray – my trolley was the second one. I took the luggage and headed through customs without any problem (I did not want to think about the fact, that I had my second piece of hand luggage in this luggage and to explain this fact to a customs officer).

Two days before I started the trip, I thought that I could also book a limousine transfer offered by the hotel instead of taking a taxi, which would nearly cost the same, as my friend in Taipei e-mailed me. I did not want to take one of the public busses, as I was tired and not in the mood of a long ride in a bus. The Limousine service offered by the Sheraton hotel was TWD 1800. So I looked for sign with my name and found it after some search right hand side. The Sheraton Airport representative greeted me and called the driver. She took my trolley and we headed outside. Soon the Lexus LS 430 arrived.

The car was fond oriented equipped with two electric adjustable single seats in the fond with massage function. A very silent and comfortable car and as I could judge after the transfer as good and comfortable as a 7er Series BMW or a S-Class Mercedes. Our drive to the hotel took us round about 55 minutes due to heavy traffic in the suburbs of Taipei – CKS airport is a couple of kilometres outside the city of Taipei. But I must say, the people in Taipei drive in the same chaotic way, than the Italian does.

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