Shady Nasty

It is 3:59am, and I am sitting in the bathroom of the most disgusting hotel I've ever been to in the middle of Taoyuan, Taiwan. Mr. Roger and I are staying here so we can catch an early flight to the airport to go home, but I really regretted my choice. I just asked my taxi driver for a cheap hotel, cuz I would be here for less than 5 hours. After driving around at midnight asking 3 different places, this hotel was the only one with an available room, but the receptionist told me I would have to wait until 1:00 am for the guest to check out.

Why would anyone check out of a hotel at 1:00 am??

Turns out this is one of those pay-by-the-hour hotels.

UGHHHHHHH.

When the room was finally cleaned and available, there were 2 sets of doors to walk through to get in the room, for extra privacy. Then, upon walking into the main chamber, a wave of cheap air freshener hit my nose, followed by the faint smell of cigarettes leftover by the guest(s) before us. I gingerly set my luggage down, immediately regretting this choice of lodging. I didn't want to touch anything in the room, fearing I might contract some disease. Roger and I didn't even bother changing into sleep clothes and kept our socks on because we just felt so grossed out. Roger is sleeping peacefully now, but I was tossing and turning the past 2 hours, trying not to think about what transpired in this room just a few hours ago. I tried to think about crafts, about my cute grandparents and the great time I spent with them this last week, I tried to think of babies, but nothing worked to help me sleep. Every time I tossed and turned, I'd get a whiff of cigarettes in the air and would wonder just how clean the blanket was. By 3:00 am, I couldn't take it anymore. I figured the bathroom was probaly the cleanest part of the room, and was probably no worse than a public bathroom. So, I've been sitting in here for the past hour, reading blogs, Facebooking, and checking work email. Only 45 minutes to go before I leave this crummy hotel room.

What a way to end this trip to Taiwan. I'm sure in a year I'll be laughing about this...