Dolphin & Whale Biology/Conservation
in Tropical Asia
Travel Information
Travel Insurance
Travel emergency medical insurance is highly recommended if your university does not cover this. You will find some websites where other useful information about Taiwan and traveling to Taiwan (please at least read over the information provided by the Canadian government on Taiwan) on the links page.Passports
To visit Taiwan, you will need at least 6 months of validity on your passport on the date of entry into the country. No visa is required if you plan to stay for 30 days (not a month) or less and even one day beyond 30 days is a serious issue. Due to recent changes in rules to enter the US, there is a sizeable backlog in the passport office to process applications (some reports suggests up to 2 months for regular passport applications so make sure to get your applications submitted early if you need a new passport).Air Flights And Other Transportation
We are looking into group rate tickets with a travel agent to try to get the best price for you. Once the reservations are made, you will have a limited number of days to call to pay for your flight to guarantee the ticket price and seat on the flights. If you decide you want to book the flights yourself, you will need to make sure you are scheduled to arrive in Hong Kong Airport at or before the field course meeting time (to be announced soon). We will have transportation arranged to get everyone to our accommodations in Hong Kong. For your onward flight to Taiwan, this will be on DragonAir (owned by Cathay Pacific), which departs Hong Kong (HK) and arrives into Kaohsiung (a short flight of about 1.5 hours). We will announce the flight one which everyone MUST be confirmed; no standby or other irregular tickets should be used (confirmed ticket using loyalty rewards is fine). We need everyone to travel together on this flight. Again, we will have transportation arranged for you to get you to the National Museum of Marine Biology and Aquarium. You will need to clear both customs and immigration in Hong Kong and then again in Kaohsiung upon your arrivals into those cities
Flight costs in 2007 and 2008
were between $1500 and $1700. We will work on trying to find the
cheapest price flights for you.
Because this is such a long
flight, it would be worth signing up for a frequent flyer program to
get the mileage from your trip. This trip (return) will get you about
15,000 points, which is enough for or close to a short haul flight
within North America.
While
on route:
HK airport is one of the best airports in the world. It's quite easy to get around and people are efficient and friendly. There is only one terminal, all gates are accessible and there is an underground train to take you to more distant gates. It's also a shopper's dream airport with all kinds of duty free shops.
Seeing HK or Taiwan after the course:
Once flight reservations are made, you can always ask the travel agent for different arrival and departure times if you plan to tour HK or Taiwan before or after the course (usually at little to no additional costs but you have to let the travel agent know BEFORE you pay for the flights – don’t provide your credit card information UNTIL you are completely fine with the details of your flights; CHECK the flights, departure and arrival dates and times well). IF you decide to arrive early, make sure you are at the HK airport in time meet the rest of the field course group (date, time and meeting place to be announced).
Immigration and Customs Forms
You should get the HK forms on the plane to HK and the Taiwanese forms on the DragonAir flight to Kaohsiung. In the worst case, if the airplanes happen to run out of the forms, you can still get forms at the immigration gates in HK and Taiwan before you meet up with passport control agents. You may also be asked to complete a customs declaration form or a disease monitoring form. But there has not been any consistency with these last two forms so you will have to wait and see what they want you to do. We will provide information for you to fill out the immigration forms closer to your travel date.