So, as part of my Sisyphean task to photograph every Costco in the world, I needed to get to the third Costco in Taipei and the fourth and last remaining Costco for me to photograph in Taiwan.
The problem, as explained in my original post, Costco – The Plan, was that none of the Costcos in Taipei are conveniently located near subway stations.
On my last trip, I was able to locate Costco #3 on my map of Taipei, extrapolate GPS coordinates, and make the 1+ mile trek.
The fourth Costco presented a greater challenge, as it was far enough outside of Taipei that I could not find a map of the area. Freak chance presented with an opening when, returning from Keelung by freeway at night, I saw the Costco lights in the distance and managed to snap a GPS waypoint along the freeway. Using that coordinate and Google Earth, I made my best guess for the location, built a series of waypoints between the nearest subway station and the Costco and waited my chance to make the 4.3km hike through unfamiliar territory.
My plan was to make the trek tomorrow, but, as I had time this morning, I decided I’d time how long it took to get to the subway station, and when I arrived, I decided I’d hike to the first waypoint to determine how accurate my Google Earth-derived coordinates were.
I also had a secondary motive: to see what bus routes were in the area. It seems that something as logical as a bus map is not part of the Taipei bus system, instead they have abstract route charts that only make sense if you know the names of the streets and are already familiar with the area. As it’s been alternating between brutally hot and humid and torrential rain, I hoped to have a backup plan for either getting to or from the Costco. By studying the bus signs and taking notes I hoped my wife or father-in-law could make sense of the bus routes in the area.
The first waypoint was about 1.7km from the station and I’m happy to report that Google Earth and the GPS brought me dead on target.
I plotted the waypoints without paying much attention to the distances, so when I checked to make sure the next waypoint was where where I expected it before returning home, I was surprised to find was only 220m away – too close for me to just turn around and not check before returning. Again, the coordinate was spot on.
The next was only 300m away, and I had found a potential bus route to take me back to the station, so I decided to press on a bit more.
You can probably guess where this is going. The next waypoint was only 200m further on, so I kept going. By now I was positive that busses Blue 15 and Blue 23 would return me to the station, so I decided to commit to the last 2 legs of the journey.
The next leg was only 800m away as the crow flies. (It turned out to be farther because the road curved around a river.) The final leg being only 400m away, and I was on the Costco in no time.
Too bad it was too early in the morning and they were closed.
Still, I got my photo, and then the bus pulled up to the stop, so I hopped on board, hoping my readings of the bus signs wasn’t wrong. It wasn’t.
Mission Accomplished!