Sunday 13 September 2009

Back from Taipei

I was back from Taipei a few days ago.

We ran into a major problem when we were checking in at Changi Airport.

My sister's passport will expire in 5 months' time and she's not allowed into the Departure Gate.

When I questioned the lady, whose name was Cadbrine (yeah, I know. I heard the same line before,"What kinda name is that?"), who is going to pay for the $150 for the change of flight and another $100 plus of Visa charges, she refuted,"Eh ... you can't say that you know? I did ask you if your passports were expired."

Of course our passports were not expired!

The trip was marred by this impossible woman.

The one-day tour was postponed to the 3rd day. As a result, my itinerary had to change and we missed one or two places I'd intended for my parents to go as we didn't want to go without my sister.

We also missed the Danshui's sunset as by the time we rushed there upon my sister's touchdown, the sun had already set.

We had other places to visit on other days so it didn't make sense for us to go Danshui again. And there wasn't many evening places for us to go in place of Danshui.

Fortunately we had our eldest sister's temper to count on. She went to Nam Ho Travel Agency and made a scene there, which of course didn't daunt the impossible woman. It seems to us she's had such an experience too many that she knows exactly what to say,"Be my guest (if you want to complain)!" "I've done my job!" "Wah! You win liao lor!!! (when my sister asked her why she didn't check the passports)"

My painstakingly-planned itinerary managed to save the day all in all as we managed to cover most of the tourist spots or the must-see and must-do in Taipei.

When I reached Singapore, I felt so exhausted I napped intermittenly on the first two days of touchdown.

No comments: