ORZ in
(Part 1 of 4)
It's all very
confusing. All you need to do is get on a plane (or a few planes, as the
case may be) and then, twenty-eight hours later, you’re in
a strange place... like southern
Once at JFK, and
once we were finally on the plane, the flight turned out
to be much easier than I had anticipated. Taylor, Olivier, and myself lucked out and got window and aisle seats in the bulkhead (just behind a dividing wall, which means a lot
more leg room). We were also able to watch movies
on Olivier's laptop computer (thanks to a clever new device that Apple makes
that allows you to plug your computer into a small outlet under the chair.
Who would have thunk?). Joshua and
Timothy were a bit less fortunate, sitting in the middle
of the middle of the middle of the plane. But, all in
all, it wasn't too bad. Plenty of on-flight
entertainment. A mere fourteen hours and we
were in
Eventually we were on the plane, and eventually we taxied through the rain to the runway. For those of you who know how much both Joshua and I hate flying, get this: Just as we were taking off, maybe 1000 ft into the air, a loud explosion and flash of light jolted the airplane. Ahhhh! Did a bomb just blow up? No, we got struck by lightning!!! We're going down! This is it! Needless to say, everyone on the plane instantly shat their pants. (Not really. We'll at least I don't think they did. At least I didn't. Maybe someone did? Who knows.) I waited for the plane to nose-dive. We all waited to die. But somehow, with an excruciating amount of turbulence, the plane continued to climb. And eventually we leveled off. Shewwwww!
Three hours later we were in Taiwan. We made it! And so did our luggage. Always a good thing. No problem with customs, either. We were met by a young lady who easily spotted us. After all, we were the only white people in the entire airport.
After loading
everything into a small white van, we drove for two hours
along the coastal road to Kenting National Park.
Although it was dark out, we were able to make out
lots of small open-air noodle bars and grocery shacks with twirling neon signs.
There was also an exuberant amount of 7-11s (yes 7-11s) everywhere. They
lined the narrow roads along the southern coast marking one town after another.
We arrived at our hotel, a sort of campground resort that, as far as I could tell, had no actual name, but did have a "wild west" theme. In the main lobby was a mechanical bull, and all around were old wagon parts (tarps and wooden wheels). There was also bad 1970's American pop music pumping through the speakers at all times, often skipping on the same riff for five minutes straight. A small room off to the side of the lobby revealed several middle-aged women lacklusterly sipping beer and staring at a large movie projection. One woman sang along into a cheap microphone.
Back at the desk, we were given a single key for our room/cabin, which, we were told, was just around the corner from the main lobby. We headed to our cabin to try to get a decent night (or day, depending on how you look at your watch) of sleep. It was one large room with wooden floors and high ceilings, not unlike a dude ranch in the Catskills. Unfortunately, there were only three full-sized beds. Olivier and Taylor were not happy.
I walked with them back to the main cabin/office to see if we could get a second room. On the walk, I looked around and noticed the palm trees and mountains. Rabbits and deer hopped around on the opposite side of a wooden fence, and a display of Native American teepees lined the campgrounds. (What? Oh right, the Wild West!)
Back in the front office, one of the festival organizers suggested we wait until the next day to see if we could get another room. Another way of saying, Sorry, it’s not going to happen. Whatever, I was too tired to care. We returned to our cabin and fell asleep until 6:30am (Taiwan time).
Breakfast was in the main cabin next to the mechanical bull. More
seventies music blasted through the speakers. Under
several tent-covered wagon facades was a spread of food consisting of
ham, eggs, toast, baby octopus, lotus, congee, edamame, rice buns, seaweed,
small brown cubes, large green blobs, flat orange things, and any other shape
and color you can imagine. I had three plates of food! I wanted to
try one of everything. I loved it all.