Wednesday, March 5, 2014

Taipei Intl Cycle Show - Part 1

UnGodly hours.. 

Michelle my wife dropped me off at the KLIA last night.
We had dinner and parted ways. 
She's off to St Antonio in Texas, US, on her annual conference while I was headed to Taiwan for the Cycle Taipei 2014 show.
It's an exciting event for me as it's also my first bicycle trade show.
I am featuring this on the Malaysian Foldie e-magazine.
So, there I was, catching the midnight flight to Taoyuan Intl Airport in Taiwan, been there at least twice on transit, but never got off to see what lies beyond.
The flight took about six hours and sleep deprivation is something that I fought all the way..

At the KLIA departure gate early this morning

It's gloomy in downtown Taipei

Tern's Road Warrior, one beefy bike!

Best of the bicycling industry under one big roof!
Beyond the Immigration counter...

I cleared Immigration and Customs without any issues.
The first thing I did was to get onto a bus to the Taipei City Terminal.
It's about 45-minutes ride from Taoyuan Intl Airport and I must say that the journey was smooth. When I arrived at the East gate of the terminal, I had my Easy Card (prepaid card for MRT, bus and retail purchase) topped-up.
Destination: Ximending, a popular pedestrian mall in the heart of Taipei.
Things didn't seem much as the district was still "asleep".
I asked around on how to get there via MRT and was told to take the Bannan Line, which is just one station away from the Taipei City Terminal.
Now, the best part was to search for a motel I booked three months ago.
I asked around and was shown to the South Xining Road and finally located the reception.
A lady who manned the desk told me that I can only get my room after 12 noon.
I agreed, paid up for the five nights I've booked and made my way to the Nangang Exhibition Hall which was at the end of the Banan Line.

Tern's booth at the Taipei Cycle show

Eric Mah giving me a tour of Biologic's latest products for 2014
 The Nangang Exhibition Hall was packed with folks from the bicycling industry.
I made my way to the pre-registered visitor's booth and picked up my pass.
It was amazing to see everything and everyone under one roof.
I located the Tern Bicycles booth, which was an amazing place to hangout and spoke to Eric Mah who is in charge of marketing.
He showed me around and explained to me about Biologic and Tern's new products and I must say that I am amazed with a few new bike gadgets that came out of their stable.
I also got to see the Tern Eclipse S18i up close. 
This is the bike that I came all the way to see and it's just awesome!
By noon, I left Nangang and headed by to Ximending.
My cosy little room at the motel was ready as I was led to it by another lady.
She gave me a bunch of keys and I told her to confirm my taxi ride to the Taoyuan Airport on early Monday morning.
I did explore part of Ximending in the late afternoon and ended up having late lunch at a Ramen shop.
Later, I made my way back to my motel and crashed. I was just too tired to do anything else.
Woke up after four hours of slumber and made myself some instant noodles where I downed it to line my stomach.
I am headed back to Nangang tomorrow noon to join the Tern Social Ride where a bike was prepared for me by the Tern guys! So, stay tuned.. 

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