So I departed the plane into Taoyuan Airport wearing a backpack with my company logo on it that we received for an "end of year" present a few years ago. We typically get some sort of schwag imprinted with the company logo. As I passed one guy, I heard someone call out my company's name, I turned and looked at a guy with a baseball cap embroidered with a golf course name.
He removed the cap and said, "I worked for the Connecticut division".
I said, "You're Ray!"
My company is big enough that you don't know everyone and like I said, this guy was a legend, so I knew him but he didn't know me. He was shocked that I knew him and we had a good talk about how much he hates retired life. He was a workaholic type that was probably encourage to retire. His wife came by and he introduced me.
She was also surprised, "You know Ray?" To which I responded, "Ray's famous!" She had a look as though all I need to do is pad his ego even more. I noticed they exited immigration through the "Diplomat" line. Maybe he's senile. Or maybe his fame has transcended the workplace.
Getting through customs was a piece of cake and I strolled along the line of limo drivers looking for my name. Not there. I wrapped around the exit line and walked over to the group of drivers and asked if anyone knew/saw my guy. Nope. So I wait for a few minutes and then break out the laptop as I didn't have his # handy, assuming that I wouldn't need it. I got a hold of him and he was strolling around the airport looking for me. He said most people from my company exit to the left when coming out of the immigration hall so that's where he was, not with the other 40 drivers to the right. He even said he saw me come through the door and thought it might be me, but didn't track me down.
He thoroughly interrogated me on the ride to the temporary apartment and made it through much of my life story, and my wife's life story. When he picked me up, he indicated that he wasn't entirely sure where my apartment was. Again, I was assuming that he would be there and would know where to go so I didn't have the exact address handy, but I could have pointed it out on Google Maps in a second. Luckily he was able to find it and parked on the curb with his hazzards on. Parking in Taipei seems to involve walking a fine line regarding what will or will not be tolerated. This may supersede what is/isn't legal.
We went into the lobby which had a security guard behind a desk. The driver got into a detailed conversation with the guard that I could tell involved much frustration. This was at 7:45 or so in the morning and I suspected it might be an issue to check in so early. So the driver explains that they have no staff available to check me in now. OK, no big deal. Here's the drill as he explained:
The Spring Apartment lobby is on the second floor, we are on the first. The lobby is not even open yet. I must sit in that chair over there and wait for the guard to tell me it is OK to proceed to the lobby on the second floor. I can wait in the lobby until 9AM when the staff will come to check me in. OK, no big deal, I took a chair and fired up my laptop. No Wi-Fi. Oh well.
At about 8:21 the guard called me and sent me up to the second floor. He came with me and told me where to sit and directed me to the English newspaper on the rack. At about 8:30, the girl that works the desk on the second floor came in wearing street clothes. The guard must have briefed her on why I was there and she fired up a coffee grinder and made me a cup of fresh espresso. Awesome!
Before I could even finish the coffee, the next lady came by. She spoke English quite well and said that we would move me into my apartment. We first went to her office on the 12th floor where she took care of some paperwork and gave me a security badge, that scans the lock at the front door and the elevator. We went down to my apartment on the 11th floor. There is a big iron door in front of the regular door, it's quite impressive, if for no other reason than being quite heavy and a bit noisy. The regular door has a keypad with a cover. She opened the door and then set it up so that I could input my own 4 digit pin. You slide the cover up, punch in the pin, then slide it back down, and the mechanism electronically opens. The apartment is about 26' long and 10' wide with a nice sunny view out to the street and a nice shower stall with glass walls that affords a view of the TV. It's small but nice.
Just to explain the situation: it is in a building with various businesses. The guard on the first floor controls a good chunk of the building. On the second floor is the lobby of the Spring Apartment, which is just part of the building. Then on the 12th floor is the lady that controls the 11th and 12th floors which is the ex-pat section. Hence, the hierarchy of the people I had to deal with. I realized that I had plugged in the camera charger in the lobby, the first floor lobby with the guard, that is. So I grabbed my security badge and headed down to grab it. After coming back up, I couldn't get the pin # to take. So I was off back to the 12th floor for the boss lady. We went down to the 12th floor and as we were getting out of the elevator she said, "you pushed the cover back down, right?" Well, of course NOT. I apologized and she said not to worry as many make that mistake. Sure enough, pushing the cover down unlocked the door and I was back into my home for the next month.
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