Last week was the annual Southeast Asia Workgroup meeting. All the workers in Southeast Asia are gathered together at LCMS headquarters in Chiayi, Taiwan for a week of training and other matters. It’s a time for learning as well as reconnecting with our fellow workers to receive updates on the work they’re doing in their specific contexts.
Those who know me know I view meetings as a form of necessary evil that will thankfully be done away with eternally when our Lord returns. Until then, I do the best I can. I acknowledge and confess it is the sinful part of me that finds the cry Come Lord Jesus, come! all the more poignant and applicable when faced with the prospect of multiple days of meeting. Mea culpa.
To get to Chiayi requires a bit of effort. First, I fly from Medan to Kuala Lumpur, which functions as my gateway to Southeast Asia. Then, it’s a nearly five-hour flight from Kuala Lumpur to Taipei and the Taoyuan International Airport there. But that’s the easy part.
The tricky part – after getting through immigration, customs, and scans for illicit food imports – is finding the city bus station under the airport. This leads to a subway train. It is necessary to take this local subway to the High Speed Rail (HSR) station a short distance from the airport. The fare for the subway is inexpensive – about $.30 – and results not in a ticket but a purple plastic token about the size of a quarter. This gets you through the turnstiles to the subway platform. The subway then takes you a short distance before stopping and requiring you to get off the subway and get on another subway car. The signage at this point – other than being mostly in Chinese – is not very clear and it can be confusing where you have to catch the second subway line. After you do, it’s another 15-minutes or so first underground and then elevated over thetyscape to the Taoyuan HSR station.
Here you disembark the subway car. That purple token is placed into the machines allowing you to exit the station. Then you head down another flight of stairs to the HSR station. You buy your ticket for the HSR train from Taoyuan to Chiayi, a distance of just over 150 kilometers. There are automated kiosks where you can buy your ticket on your own if you know what you’re doing, and there are multiple language options to choose from to further assist you (including English). Otherwise, you wait in a short line for a live person who will process your ticket needs. The HSR ticket is just about $30 US.
You scan your ticket (pictured above) to get to the platform for the southbound HSR train to Chiayi. The ticket is extremely helpful and chock full of information. At the top you have the date the ticket is valid for and the train number you’re waiting for. Each train has a different number and trains are clearly announced both over loudspeakers and on digital schedule boards. The ticket indicates your starting point – Taoyuan – and your endpoint (Chiayi) and what time you depart Taoyuan and what time you will arrive in Chiayi. These trains are extremely efficient and timely so you want to make sure you’re ready to get on as soon as it arrives as it won’t stay more than a minute or two!
The ticket finally indicates the car number of the train you’ll be on, and the seat you’re assigned. There is an option to purchase an unreserved ticket, which means you have no assigned seat and have to battle it out with other passengers for an unreserved seat in the two cars at the end of the train reserved for such travelers. I opt for the reserved seat as the price difference is not too great and then I don’t have to stress about potentially having to stand the whole trip.
Not that it’s an overly long trip!
First off, this particular train is an express train, and it only makes four or so stops between Taoyuan and Chiayi as opposed to the more local trains that make stops all along the way. Secondly, it’s a high-speed train. You travel at speeds up to 255 km/hour, and the trip as a whole is just over an hour. Impressive! There are announcements both on scrolling digital screens as well as over loudspeakers on the train announcing each upcoming stop. Thankfully English translations are provided in both formats! A snack cart makes its way back and forth through the length of the train and all the cars at least twice on each trip, so you can purchase snacks or drinks if you need them.
Once you arrive in Chiayi you scan your ticket once more to exit the platform area and enter the station proper. There’s a Starbucks there if you need caffeine, as well as a few food and snack outlets and a 7-11. The ready-to-eat food options at 7-11 are rice wrapped in seaweed rather than hot dogs or pizza slices. Just outside the station is the taxi area. Not much English is spoken in the Chiayi area of Taiwan, but between Google Translate and Google Maps you can make it known where you’re headed. It’s a 30-minute drive into and through town to either the hotel we typically stay at or LCMS headquarters. It costs about $15 for the trip.
If you arrive in the evening much of this trip is in the dark, and you can only make out the lights of the city and illuminated signs for stores such as IKEA. Then long stretches of relative darkness outside on the train, with more distant city lights. During the day you flash through various cities and suburbs and alongside blindingly green rice paddies and other agricultural endeavors.
While I don’t think I’ll ever learn to like meetings, at least the trip to and from Chiayi is beautiful and challenging!
The Nelson Family Indonesia 