Epilogue

NOTE: I recommend reading the following two entries in reverse order before you read this one. It'll all make more sense that way.

It wouldn't be the tropics without at least one monster rainstorm, and that came on my second night in Cherating. Remember how I said the cottages looked rickety? Well, I discovered those aluminum roofs can take quite a beating. The rain also makes quite a noise hitting them, though, so I found myself up for quite a bit of the night watching the torrential downpour from my window. Like everything else about those couple of days, it was somehow not boring even though it sounds that way as I read my own words here now. I can't explain, you'll just have to go there and see for yourself!

The rain had passed by the time the sun came up, though, so I had no problem getting up in time to catch my ride to the bus station back in Kuantan. Well, at least the rain didn't give me a problem. I got up a couple of times to look at my watch, which read shortly after 4:00, meaning I had plenty of time to sleep yet. Except that the sun was much too bright for it to be that early. On closer inspection, I discovered that my watch had stopped, since I hadn't worn it at all the previous day. Oops.

Luckily, I noticed this just in time to get my clothes on and get down to the bistro for a cup of coffee before the ride was due. I also got to chat briefly with a British tourist who had been all over Southeast Asia, and came away with all sorts of advice on more great places to visit next time. Can't wait for that to happen!

With my watch and me both back on time, I got to Kuantan in plenty of time to get the next bus to Singapore. Since I was now on the opposite coast, I got to see more countryside and such, but I didn't enjoy it quite as much as I was nervous about getting back in time to catch my plane back to Taipei. Had the trip been as quick as advertised, I would have just made it; but it wasn't even close. It ended up taking about two hours longer than it was supposed to. There were no traffic jams or breakdowns or any other good reason for the delay - as far as I could tell, they simply hadn't told the truth about how long the trip was. Oh well. There was nothing waiting for me back home until work on Monday anyhow, so one last night in Singapore didn't strike me as so bad. The only additional hangup was getting back into Singapore, since they don't stamp your passport on the Malaysian side when you take the train up to KL and I therefore didn't have documentation on when I'd entered Malaysia. The travel guide had said to expect this and to just show customs your train ticket as proof of when you'd come in. I did so and had no further problems, but it did make me wonder. If this is such a known problem that it even leads to preemtive advice from Lonely Planet, why don't they just start stamping your passport on the train? At least they do give you a stamp on the way back out of Malaysia. They're pretty neat looking stamps, too.

I got a room in a cheap but very clean (hey, it was Singapore) hostel, and indulged in a few last hours of urbane abundance. Getting to the airport in the morning was simplicity itself: it's at the end of the subway line. Actually getting on the plane proved dicier. It probably should have occurred to me that Sunday flights are likely to be more crowded than Saturday ones. I made it to Hong Kong on standby on the next flight out, but then missed the next four flights from there to Taipei. (I also had to clear customs in HK to claim my luggage and get it back on the next plane - if I ever need security clearance again, it ought to be fun explaining why I have a Hong Kong stamp on my passport when I've never actually been there. But then, since it's so close, I do hope to go there as well one of these days.) So it was a long and somewhat nerve-wracking afternoon; but I did finally get on the last flight out, at 9:45 that night - and once again got an upgrade to first class for my troubles.

And that was the end of my first big vacation over here. Worth every penny (and new Taiwan dollar and Singaporean dollar and ringgit). As we touched down in Taipei and I saw the blue neon "CKS INT'L AIRPORT" sign from the runway which had marked my very first sight in the country I currently call home, it occurred to me that that same week marked my half-anniversary in Taiwan. It's been a blur! And to think those first few hours back in February had seemed like months in their own right.

Getting off the plane, to be honest, didn't feel all that different from that very first time. I was traveling lighter and it was a less ungodly hour, but an airport at night always looks about the same if you ask me. I changed my Singapore dollars into NT just as I had done with my American ones way back when (I saved the Malaysian money as a souvenir), and had an offer for a cab ride back to Longtan before I even got out to the curb.

In the cab, I told the driver the town and the name of the apartment complex, which most cab drivers in that part of the country recognize. He didn't. I repeated it again and again, and he called a friend on his cell phone who spoke English and had the friend tell me to tell him the address I wanted in Longtan. I explained that I had. He suggested I could just give the cabbie directions once we got to Longtan. I explained that I had already agreed to do that, only my Chinese wasn't good enough to get the point across. He said he'd tell the driver that. It didn't look like the driver got the point as he continued trying to say "address" in English all the way down the highway towards Longtan.

Yep, I was definitely back in Taiwan. And I did get home without too much of a hassle.