Day 14

The day today focused on travel. We had to take two flights: one was Shanghai to Hong Kong, and the second was Hong Kong to Taipei.

We had our final farewell breakfast at the Westin and then left Kerry's gift card that he won at the brunch at the concierge desk. (I hope Blair picks it up soon.) Then our new and final guide in China, Rong, joined us on a taxi ride to the airport that took about an hour. He really didn't say much at all to us on the trip, and, while he did help us check in, I frankly think we really didn't need his services to do so. The airline agent spoke English pretty well. 

Once we went through the lines in China, the fun REALLY began. First, we realized that we were supposed to show another "health declaration" form that generated a QR Code UPON EXIT. We had no idea we were supposed to do this; we thought it was just an entrance requirement. So I hurriedly tried to fill it out on WeChat, but my Internet was not functioning properly. I tried to show the agent this, and she just gestured me on to immigration. Kerry got his to work, but here is the irony--THEY DIDN'T EVEN CHECK THE HEALTH DECLARATIONS. They just let us go onto immigration, where they took pictures and fingerprints and asked minimal questions. 

Security was another story. I had some drama in that they insisted on putting my carry-on through a second time, and the woman insisted on opening it up and going through every single item in it. But Kerry had the worst time: they gave him a problem over his battery chargers--they told him that he couldn't have them in his carry-on. He was shocked at this because they had no problem with him carrying them in to China. The security agent then led Kerry away and I waited for him there. I began to get worried after about 20 minutes of waiting. Kerry eventually got in touch with me and told me to go to the gate: which was, of course, at the opposite end of the terminal. Consequently, boarding had started by the time Kerry finally made it to the line--he almost missed the flight. He told me what happened: he was sent to three different desks and then they made him go through security again. This time, for no particular reason, they had no problem with his battery chargers. The arbitrariness of China continues to elude me. 

The seats on the first flight were pretty tight and not particularly comfortable. I tried to keep myself amusing by watching the film Women Talking, but I just couldn't get fully into it. They did serve us a full meal, though, of chicken with some sort of tomato sauce, potatoes, fruit (dragon and watermelon), and even Haagen-Dazs!

Once we landed in Hong Kong, we took our own sweet time to get to Gate 3: stopped at the toilet, stopped at stores. Eventually, we made it, but it took FOREVER to get boarding started for Economy. The seats were more roomy on this second flight; most of the time, I just listened to my iPod--Beyonce, Jessie Ware, Hole, Honeymoon Suite, Howard Jones (yes, I was going through the "H"s). The flight was not long--and we landed in Taipei.

In contrast to Shanghai, going through the airport in Taipei was MUCH less dramatic. Yes, there was security, but it was very brief, and the immigration line wasn't all that long. We just presented an "Arrival Card" we filled out on the plane and that was pretty much it. I didn't even get asked any questions. Our bags were ready right away, and then we went to the taxi area and we were asked, in English, "Where would you like to go?" We told that taxi lady the name of our hotel, and she found a driver for us immediately. The drive took about 40 minutes.

When we got to the hotel, we had to go up an escalator, and then the sign for the front desk was mismarked, with the sign pointing right when it should have been pointing left. We were assigned to room 509. (It would have been 409, but this hotel, like many Asian hotels, had no fourth floor--the number four is too close to the word for "death" in Chinese.) The hotel and the room had a musky odor: kind of like a moldy scent, really. It was quite gross. To top this off, we had a crappy experience in the restaurant we chose to eat in. I asked for a steak with the salad bar, and Kerry just asked for the salad bar. While we were still eating, they brought a bill for two salad bars. I asked if my steak was still coming, and we were informed that "they had no meat." It's like, why didn't you tell us this when I placed the order???  And then we were paid for the meal, the woman brought back the same amount of money we gave her...with no change. She didn't seem to be able to speak any English, read any Chinese (we showed her the Google translation of what we wanted), or do basic math. Finally, one of the managers gave us the change we desired. What a horrible experience! We complained to the front desk, but we were told that there was nothing they could do about it because that was the restaurant (!!!). 

Kerry had had it by this point, but we still toured the gay district a bit after dinner. There's a central structure in Ximending called "The Red House," which is kind of a bar, and there are a lot of outdoor bars around it. There are also shops that sell underwear and adult paraphernalia. Toto, I think we weren't in China anymore! After our little jaunt outdoors, it was time to crash in the smelly room. (I should point out that I had to call our tour director to ask him what time our guide was picking us up in the morning....he never bothered to respond to my texts...)