I woke up late and 二叔 made me a type of 燒餅夾蛋. It was essentially brunch because it was about 10:45am when I finished eating. I just tidied up the rest of my luggage, and folded up my sheets and pillowcases ready for laundry, gathered my last min stuff, and swept the floor of my hair.
Then I was about to go out to buy some more period pads from Watsons because the one I got last night was super cheap ($99 for a twin pack) and it seemed to be on clearance? But I went to drop off the big bag 四嬸 lent me to take my wares home the other day. Just as I was going out, 二叔 came home and said that the 涼麵 and 中興素食 was closed. Welp. I'll have a look at a vege place that says open on Google Maps when I'm out.
So I stopped by 四嬸's house, and they let me in to have a look. I've never been in their house before!! 四叔 was changing his soil over for some of his bugs. He took two out from 1 container and put them in a new container each. And then checked to see if another one had started to cocoon yet, but it hasn't. 四嬸 was doing taking the opportunity to air out their duvets, and also do some cleanout (rare). They let me look and see what their house is like. They had a table left from the purchase from the $10000 grandma gave them when they first got married. All the other furniture from that time had been retired but only the table is left. He also showed me some of the hardening bugs in a half-formed state, which was cool and creepy. He makes a bed for them from the green floral sponges.
He also showed me his special fridge, which was full of his bugs. Lmao 四嬸 can't take it. xD It felt like a lab fridge when he opened it. The soil he uses is the same type for mushroom growing so fungus grows from it too. Super cool.
四嬸 handed me a soy bean pudding, which was quite nice. They showed me the other rooms and talked about how back then they had no money and 4F was the cheapest and they didn't mind the superstition of 4. The old shop storefront, used to be all farming and rice fields. Imagine that now! Wow. There was a time when they rented 4F out and they lived on 1F for a while. The apartment next door to theirs on 4F was bought for 二叔's when he first divorced and came back to Taiwan. Then later 二叔 had the opportunity to buy his current house. So the 4F apartment was rented out.
And then they said they'll take me to go eat sushi/sashimi/takeaway. The shop they wanted to take me to was closed, so they took me to another one, which was super busy. They were going to dine in but they had takeaway option so thankfully I could go for that. I looked at their takeaway menu and they also had temaki - but 四叔 said it's only nice when eaten fresh cause it'll go soggy. So I said, that's OK, I had one in Kaoshiung I can choose something else. And 四叔 ended up ordering so much for me... I said it's too much! And he ordered a temaki against what I said and made me eat it in store while my takeaway order was being prepared. Please. 😭 There's so many people here I feel anxious. I ended up eating with my mask on and holding my breathe to pull it down. 😭😭😭 Soon my order was done and I thanked them and left. They said I can go to Watsons through the alleyways, do I know how to walk it? I said yes (vaguely had an idea), and ended up walking through with the help of Maps to a different, smaller Watsons. They had the pads on promo, where you pay an exra $1 and get another item for $1. Wow!! Got two packs of pads and 1 pack of liners. Then I walked home to eat.
Since I was still full from breakfast, I ate one of each type of nigiri. There was fruit as well so I had some pomelo, dragonfruit, and grapes. Then I finished packing up and got ready to go. 二叔 came back from an errand and said time to go. It was like 3:30pm at this stage - time went fast! He brought the car around and dropped me off at Ho-hsin bus station at Chaoma. I went to buy a ticket first before unloading my luggage as prompted by 二叔, the next bus is at 4:11pm and the only seat left is next to the driver. They say you just can't recline the chair. The next bus would be at 5:21pm... I decided to go for the 4:11pm one. The bus station was so full. I said goodbye to 二叔 and he hugged me real tight. He said he'll be sad when I'm gone. Awww. Off he went to go pick up Meilin ayi who is coming back from Taipei today.
After waiting a bit I realised the reason the station was so full was due to the buses all being delayed and coming late. My bus came around 4:34pm and I got on. I greeted the bus driver and he asked me to unlock the door since I was sitting in the seat, and he will enter from the other side. The lock was like a tiny knob/nail in the armrest part. He would talk on the phone during driving and I feel asleep soon after.
I woke up around 5:30pm and he asked if he woke me up - I said no, you're good. I said I had never sat in this seat before. How did you know there was this seat to buy? The lady at the counter said this was the only seat left to purchase. You don't often take ke'un buses? Yep. Are you studying in Taoyuan? I'm staying there overnight and heading to the airport early morning. Alright.
Soon I started to feel ill... it was like indigestion I thought at first, but then I started cold sweating and I tried to keep it down and I didn't want to throw up and unmask on the bus... Please... I battled with it for about half an hour and ended up throwing up into my zimi mask. 😭 It was all red from the dragonfruit. The mask contained most of it but I panic rummaged in my bag and found a ziplock and chucked my puke in there. I threw up some more. There was spill on my bag, my clothes, and some of the seat/floor. I apologised to the bus driver, I felt so mortified. And started to clean up the seat and floor with some wipes. The bus driver said that there's bags on buses if you feel ill. Some at the stairway. I went to grab some. He gave me his box of tissues to use after asking if I had enough. I felt so awful for the bus driver. He could probably smell the puke. I fished out my mask frame from the puke and wiped it and popped it into the regular ziplock I use for it to clean up properly later. I ended up puking a couple more time and feeling horrible. Initially I thought it might be carsickness but now I know it's not, and Mr Driver said that typically if youre carsick you throw up only once. I said I think I must have ate something... he said something unclean? Yes probably. The driver was so nice. And since there was traffic he was calling someone else saying that they might have to carry his bus since he was still stuck at xxx place. So the ride was closer to 3 hours than 2.5 hrs. I could only wear an earloop since it was what I had on hand and was easy to pull down to puke... The bus arrived at Jingguo station closer to after 7pm. I managed to haul my luggage just inside and then had to puke into the bag again....
The bus driver asked if I would be OK and I could only say yes and give a weak thumbs up. 😭 I saw him check the seat after as I got off. He closed the bus door and drove off shortly after checking. I ended up having to go to the toilet and sharted really watery poo. By the time I felt ok enough it was 7:45pm. Thankfully they had taxis just outside. I was feeling so weak by now, and I walked out a taxi driver asked if I wanted to get a ride. I nodded and they arranged for a taxi waiting to take me. I let them know that I was feeling stoamch ill and apologised, and they helped me with my luggage. The person who was coordinating (I guess they have a station coordinator) said that if I needed to go to a pharmacy while the shops were still open, I can ask the taxi driver too. So nice.
The taxi driver asked me if my motel where my motel was since there's 2 with the same name. I checked the address and said it's the one on this road. We arrived very shortly after and what's surprising is that the check in process is done like a drive through! The reception desk is like a freeway toll booth, but an actual office inside. The entrance to the elevator is also at the drive through side. The taxi driver parked and asked me if I wanted him to come get me tomorrow morning at 6:30am, (he can't do 7am), or ask the motel to arrange it, since the motel confirmed with me during check in. I was not in a state to decide, and breakfast is at 6:30am. I said I'll let the motel decide. Fare was $105.
I thanked the driver and struggled up into my room. It was freezing when I walked in, and managed to figure out the HVAC panel on the wall. It was so bad. I managed to wash out my backpack, and change my puke clothes (I got puke on my Golden Kamuy shirt that grandma had commented on TToTT). I managed to wash most of it out and hoped it would be dry enough to pack tomorrow. I was in no state for dinner. I took a shower and managed to get to sleep around 10:30pm. At least my stomach has settled mostly now. This was no fun at all. I had to worry if I would be well enough to fly tomorrow.
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