scary hotels and such
26 Dec 2010 06:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mayoraaseiSo let me tell you the story about a scary hotel that I once lived in (LOL)
Last weekend because of some lapse in communication between my dorm, the uni and me, they were apparently pre-booked for a conference over the weekend and proceeded to kick everyone out. Because it was such last minute notice and it was December and most of the inner city hotels were booked out over weekends, I ended up being booked into a dingy little place opposite 師大 called 泰安.
Frankly if I had done the booking I would never look for a hotel that charges by the hour...especially this close to Japan LOL.
Taiwan only recently enforced the non-smoking indoors rule, so the hotel stank in spite of huge "No Smoking" posters everywhere. There are huge windows on one side of the room, but the windows can't be opened because they're not tinted and there are rows of highrise units just across the road. The bed has a sheet that's about as thick as...a curtain. It was FREEZING at night and I was sleeping in my jeans + shirt + thick vest. Didn't have any extra clothes with me because the hotel didn't have a lift and there was no way I was going to lug my 20kg luggage up five flights of stairs. Had to leave it in the dorm in an unlocked air conditioning room ==;;; No reassurance there.
Really did not want to touch anything more in the hotel than I had to. In its heyday it would have been a beautiful room. Thick red carpets, green marble-like wallpaper with gold-coloured trimmings, black marble...shelf tables(?) which crossed as sofas installed around the circumference. Unfortunately, the carpet is numerous dark stains that look (fortunately) like spilt coffee; and the green sofas/stools are covered with what looked suspiciously like spots of blood >_>;;;; There was a complimentary (unopened) condom on the tissue box.
The bathroom was surprisingly clean, given the state of the room. Everything that was supposed to be white is white, and there are no suspicious spots here. The only suspicious thing was that the entire toilet looked like something BS Johnson might have designed...or at least, by someone who have read about bathrooms/toilets but have never used one themselves.
Starting with the bathtub...I have never used such an uncomfortably curved bathtub. The curvature is so steep that if you stand on the bottom, the water doesn't drain fast enough and covers your foot, but it's curved so steeply it's almost impossible to try to stand on the side. The only towel/clothes rack is placed at about halfway across the tub, in the perfect position to get soaked if you hitch the shower head high. But you can't actually use the shower head by itself because the water pressure isn't high enough and if you don't put it on the hook on the wall, the water comes out of the lower tap instead.
There is no curtain or place for a curtain near the tub. The toilet is right next to the tub, which means it gets soaked wet. There is no drain on the floor next to the bathtub - instead, it is on the other side of the toilet. So you'd basically have to drown the entire toilet before the water gets drained.
The toilet itself is a curiosity. It is so stupid that it must have been designed by a genius. The toilet paper is placed on the wall behind the toilet at a height that if you lift up the toilet lid to - you know, use the toilet - THE TOILET PAPER GETS COVERED BY THE LID. WTF.
Now back to the room - the windows are single layer. The ones in my dorm are double glass windows, and one has no idea how important they are until they've lived with single glass windows. I wasn't even on the main road side and it was almost impossible to sleep at night with the traffic.
At 3:45am on the first night, I was woken up by people yelling on the streets, and one guy screaming "放手! (Let go!)" over and over again, and people shouting at each other, and sounds of metal poles hitting the ground. It stopped after half an hour but started up again about 15 minutes later, and about 1.5 hours later (that's 5:15) the ambo came with wailing sirens and there was more shouting. Finally I fell back asleep at 6am =____________=
The next morning there were just people laughing and squealing really loudly on the streets and I was once again awake from 3am to 6am because that's when they finally all went home =_________________= Ended up watching really boring Hong Kong movies on TV because even earplugs (which I had the foresight to bring from Aus XD) didn't cover the noise enough.
So at least it had cable TV, and a hot water tank which I used for noodles every night because did not want to go out after dark even though it was like two blocks away from the famous 師大夜市. Especially not with a sign on the door saying "Please do not leave valuables in your room. Please take it with you or leave it at the front desk." Which I did with my laptop on the first day...and they just dumped it in a guest lounge with unlocked doors once again =___=;;;;;;
Was an absolute relief when I got back to my dorm after three nights =0=;;;;
Spent most of Christmas having 2min noodles in dorm because overblew my budget buying REALLY CHEAP TEXTBOOKS *_____*
Don't worry guys, my 2min noodles are always 豪華版（群毆） XDDDDDDDDD Noodlesx4 ($41) + lettuce 4 servings ($41) + tofux4 ($39) + eggsx4 ($24)...less than $40 a bowl, which is less than $1.50AUD XDDDD
Last weekend because of some lapse in communication between my dorm, the uni and me, they were apparently pre-booked for a conference over the weekend and proceeded to kick everyone out. Because it was such last minute notice and it was December and most of the inner city hotels were booked out over weekends, I ended up being booked into a dingy little place opposite 師大 called 泰安.
Frankly if I had done the booking I would never look for a hotel that charges by the hour...especially this close to Japan LOL.
Taiwan only recently enforced the non-smoking indoors rule, so the hotel stank in spite of huge "No Smoking" posters everywhere. There are huge windows on one side of the room, but the windows can't be opened because they're not tinted and there are rows of highrise units just across the road. The bed has a sheet that's about as thick as...a curtain. It was FREEZING at night and I was sleeping in my jeans + shirt + thick vest. Didn't have any extra clothes with me because the hotel didn't have a lift and there was no way I was going to lug my 20kg luggage up five flights of stairs. Had to leave it in the dorm in an unlocked air conditioning room ==;;; No reassurance there.
Really did not want to touch anything more in the hotel than I had to. In its heyday it would have been a beautiful room. Thick red carpets, green marble-like wallpaper with gold-coloured trimmings, black marble...shelf tables(?) which crossed as sofas installed around the circumference. Unfortunately, the carpet is numerous dark stains that look (fortunately) like spilt coffee; and the green sofas/stools are covered with what looked suspiciously like spots of blood >_>;;;; There was a complimentary (unopened) condom on the tissue box.
The bathroom was surprisingly clean, given the state of the room. Everything that was supposed to be white is white, and there are no suspicious spots here. The only suspicious thing was that the entire toilet looked like something BS Johnson might have designed...or at least, by someone who have read about bathrooms/toilets but have never used one themselves.
Starting with the bathtub...I have never used such an uncomfortably curved bathtub. The curvature is so steep that if you stand on the bottom, the water doesn't drain fast enough and covers your foot, but it's curved so steeply it's almost impossible to try to stand on the side. The only towel/clothes rack is placed at about halfway across the tub, in the perfect position to get soaked if you hitch the shower head high. But you can't actually use the shower head by itself because the water pressure isn't high enough and if you don't put it on the hook on the wall, the water comes out of the lower tap instead.
There is no curtain or place for a curtain near the tub. The toilet is right next to the tub, which means it gets soaked wet. There is no drain on the floor next to the bathtub - instead, it is on the other side of the toilet. So you'd basically have to drown the entire toilet before the water gets drained.
The toilet itself is a curiosity. It is so stupid that it must have been designed by a genius. The toilet paper is placed on the wall behind the toilet at a height that if you lift up the toilet lid to - you know, use the toilet - THE TOILET PAPER GETS COVERED BY THE LID. WTF.
Now back to the room - the windows are single layer. The ones in my dorm are double glass windows, and one has no idea how important they are until they've lived with single glass windows. I wasn't even on the main road side and it was almost impossible to sleep at night with the traffic.
At 3:45am on the first night, I was woken up by people yelling on the streets, and one guy screaming "放手! (Let go!)" over and over again, and people shouting at each other, and sounds of metal poles hitting the ground. It stopped after half an hour but started up again about 15 minutes later, and about 1.5 hours later (that's 5:15) the ambo came with wailing sirens and there was more shouting. Finally I fell back asleep at 6am =____________=
The next morning there were just people laughing and squealing really loudly on the streets and I was once again awake from 3am to 6am because that's when they finally all went home =_________________= Ended up watching really boring Hong Kong movies on TV because even earplugs (which I had the foresight to bring from Aus XD) didn't cover the noise enough.
So at least it had cable TV, and a hot water tank which I used for noodles every night because did not want to go out after dark even though it was like two blocks away from the famous 師大夜市. Especially not with a sign on the door saying "Please do not leave valuables in your room. Please take it with you or leave it at the front desk." Which I did with my laptop on the first day...and they just dumped it in a guest lounge with unlocked doors once again =___=;;;;;;
Was an absolute relief when I got back to my dorm after three nights =0=;;;;
Spent most of Christmas having 2min noodles in dorm because overblew my budget buying REALLY CHEAP TEXTBOOKS *_____*
Don't worry guys, my 2min noodles are always 豪華版（群毆） XDDDDDDDDD Noodlesx4 ($41) + lettuce 4 servings ($41) + tofux4 ($39) + eggsx4 ($24)...less than $40 a bowl, which is less than $1.50AUD XDDDD
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no subject
Date: 2010-12-26 10:42 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-12-26 10:59 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-12-26 11:01 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-12-26 10:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-12-28 12:46 am (UTC)And wtf with that bathroom o.O Whoever designed it probably loved to mop.
You and your stuff are troopers for surviving those 3 days.
no subject
Date: 2010-12-28 01:50 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-12-28 01:57 am (UTC)How about now?
/is a twitter noob ^^;;
no subject
Date: 2010-12-28 02:58 am (UTC)am clearly a bigger twitter n00b than you LOL