From Taiwan, with bewilderment
Sep. 13th, 2010 04:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
indigo_rose99It is Tuesday morning. Yes, I know this will post sometime on Monday afternoon. We will all have to live with modern time travel. "I speak to you from the future! With the wisdom I have gained...."
After our luggage (slowly!) appeared, my traveling companion and I went in search of an ATM. We found two, both of which refused to give us local currency. And not in an "Your card is rejected because you are not Taiwanese" up front kind of way. It was more "We have accepted your password and request for currency. Here is your --- No. No money today. Too bad for you!" He at last got one of the machines to work (no idea why they did not work the first 5 times), but I never did. I changed cash, which does have an end point -- I only brought so much US currency. I changed only USD$100, which may be too little for a 3 week trip. I'll see how much I spend the first week.
You will notice that in all this commentary about changing money, there was no mention about our lift to the hotel? That is because he did not appear. Our long wait for the luggage, wandering back and forth between ATMs, and no sign of someone searching for us. Of course, it could be one of the many hotel-name signs and We Would Never Know. See, they did not tell us the name of our hotel. Or the city we were going to. All mysteries.
We knew:
(1) We would be met at the airport. By someone.
(2) Our flight was supposed to land about 4:50am (it was on time), and our drive to the hotel would take about 90 minutes.
(3) Once at the hotel, we could shower and change clothes, then the bus would take us to work at 8:30am.
We did not know:
(a) Who was meeting us.
(b) Contact information for the person(s) meeting us.
(c) Our hotel name.
(d) The city or town where our hotel is located.
Plenty of time, right? More than 3.5 hours! I was dreaming of a nap in an actual bed before work.
But it was not to be. ...Was the doom music too much?
Yes, someone showed up to collect us. Eventually. There were sort of apologies that were not in good enough English to make sense. Perhaps he was caught in traffic at 5am? Perhaps he forgot us (not that he would say that!)?
We made it to the hotel by 7:55am. *sigh* I would like to say that I then took the fastest shower of my life and got in breakfast before work. But it would be a lie. Because the Fastest Shower Of My Life involved MY OWN HOUSE. It did not involve UNPACKING EVERYTHING just to shower and change clothes. Not that I unpacked more than the exact minimum to shower and change clothes! But unpacking still takes time.
So I found myself in the lobby at 8:30am on the dot... With no breakfast. And also missing an article of clothing. I just spaced on it until I reached the lobby. We won't mention which article, but let's just say that I was super self-conscious all day trying not to flash the ENTIRE WORLD my undergarments. As long as you were not sitting on my left and I never slumped, I was perfectly decent. Of course I ended up sitting to the right of an entire room of people. Figures.
I did ask if we had 3 minutes for me to slip back upstairs.... Or for me to catch a bite of breakfast. But no. No time. Work must be attended.
And it was. For the next ELEVEN HOURS. They finally let me out at 8:30pm. Yes, really. Based on their attitude, this may be a perfectly ordinary time for them to leave work. Which means it will be for me, too. I may not care when I am work-busy and bored with my hotel room, but for now I am wistful of more time to unpack and sleep and perhaps wander the local area...
Back at the hotel Monday night, I skipped the idea of dinner in favor of unpacking, doing laundry (I have been on the road for 5 days now), and sleeping. Sort of in that order. I got about 50% unpacked before falling asleep.
And OF COURSE I woke up at 2:15am this morning. Which is good for finishing unpacking, but not so good for another 11 hour day today.
On the good side... My hotel room is huge and beautiful. I have a full sized tub separate from my shower. Yeah, soakings! I have a frig -- VERY unusual in European and Asian hotels. The fitness center is two doors down, as is a laundry room (discovered this morning).
I hope to actually look outside today. Perhaps I can make it to some sort of convenience store and fill my frig with yummy things (to eat when I wake up tomorrow at 3am).
I brought Mr Kitty and the cable for my camera to connect to my laptop. Sadly, the inside of my hotel room looks exactly like a hotel room. Really no picture necessary.
After our luggage (slowly!) appeared, my traveling companion and I went in search of an ATM. We found two, both of which refused to give us local currency. And not in an "Your card is rejected because you are not Taiwanese" up front kind of way. It was more "We have accepted your password and request for currency. Here is your --- No. No money today. Too bad for you!" He at last got one of the machines to work (no idea why they did not work the first 5 times), but I never did. I changed cash, which does have an end point -- I only brought so much US currency. I changed only USD$100, which may be too little for a 3 week trip. I'll see how much I spend the first week.
You will notice that in all this commentary about changing money, there was no mention about our lift to the hotel? That is because he did not appear. Our long wait for the luggage, wandering back and forth between ATMs, and no sign of someone searching for us. Of course, it could be one of the many hotel-name signs and We Would Never Know. See, they did not tell us the name of our hotel. Or the city we were going to. All mysteries.
We knew:
(1) We would be met at the airport. By someone.
(2) Our flight was supposed to land about 4:50am (it was on time), and our drive to the hotel would take about 90 minutes.
(3) Once at the hotel, we could shower and change clothes, then the bus would take us to work at 8:30am.
We did not know:
(a) Who was meeting us.
(b) Contact information for the person(s) meeting us.
(c) Our hotel name.
(d) The city or town where our hotel is located.
Plenty of time, right? More than 3.5 hours! I was dreaming of a nap in an actual bed before work.
But it was not to be. ...Was the doom music too much?
Yes, someone showed up to collect us. Eventually. There were sort of apologies that were not in good enough English to make sense. Perhaps he was caught in traffic at 5am? Perhaps he forgot us (not that he would say that!)?
We made it to the hotel by 7:55am. *sigh* I would like to say that I then took the fastest shower of my life and got in breakfast before work. But it would be a lie. Because the Fastest Shower Of My Life involved MY OWN HOUSE. It did not involve UNPACKING EVERYTHING just to shower and change clothes. Not that I unpacked more than the exact minimum to shower and change clothes! But unpacking still takes time.
So I found myself in the lobby at 8:30am on the dot... With no breakfast. And also missing an article of clothing. I just spaced on it until I reached the lobby. We won't mention which article, but let's just say that I was super self-conscious all day trying not to flash the ENTIRE WORLD my undergarments. As long as you were not sitting on my left and I never slumped, I was perfectly decent. Of course I ended up sitting to the right of an entire room of people. Figures.
I did ask if we had 3 minutes for me to slip back upstairs.... Or for me to catch a bite of breakfast. But no. No time. Work must be attended.
And it was. For the next ELEVEN HOURS. They finally let me out at 8:30pm. Yes, really. Based on their attitude, this may be a perfectly ordinary time for them to leave work. Which means it will be for me, too. I may not care when I am work-busy and bored with my hotel room, but for now I am wistful of more time to unpack and sleep and perhaps wander the local area...
Back at the hotel Monday night, I skipped the idea of dinner in favor of unpacking, doing laundry (I have been on the road for 5 days now), and sleeping. Sort of in that order. I got about 50% unpacked before falling asleep.
And OF COURSE I woke up at 2:15am this morning. Which is good for finishing unpacking, but not so good for another 11 hour day today.
On the good side... My hotel room is huge and beautiful. I have a full sized tub separate from my shower. Yeah, soakings! I have a frig -- VERY unusual in European and Asian hotels. The fitness center is two doors down, as is a laundry room (discovered this morning).
I hope to actually look outside today. Perhaps I can make it to some sort of convenience store and fill my frig with yummy things (to eat when I wake up tomorrow at 3am).
I brought Mr Kitty and the cable for my camera to connect to my laptop. Sadly, the inside of my hotel room looks exactly like a hotel room. Really no picture necessary.
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no subject
Date: 2010-09-14 01:58 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-14 12:54 pm (UTC)I hope you do get a chance to look outside. Heck, maybe you can *go* outside!
Hang in there!
Date: 2010-09-16 03:42 am (UTC)