My Taiwanese hosts have put me up in a little motel in the city of Dajia. There isn't much in Dajia. It appears to be an industrial center, but is not very large. The motel is interesting, however, and bears a mention. The name is the "Hotel Hawaii". The word Hawaii is the Chinese name, however, so you probably wouldn't recognize it. It seems appropriate since there are palm trees all over strung with lights. It is small, but very clean and comfortable.

First, there is the bathtub you can see on the right. Taiwan was occupied by the Japanese for over 50 years in their history and some of their customs seem to have rubbed off. In the bathroom, I have a seperate shower and a tub for soaking in. This is exactly the same as you would find in a Japanese bathroom. We also have the toilet slippers. (No. I'm not going to explain. You'd have to have gone there to fully understand the ramifications) The part that fascinates me is the working television perched directly over the tub. This immediately made me think of Dorothea and her deck. Perhaps she was Taiwanese in a former life! :)

The next thing we have is this massage chair. Apparently, it comes with the room. There is no place to put change so I assume it is not something I have to pay for. I'm a little afraid to use it since my Chinese is bad and I can't read the controls. Heaven only knows what happens if you hit the wrong button. I'll probably wind up sitting in the thing before the week is up, but I'm going to have to raise my courage first.

My room is on the second floor, but that is only because there is no first floor. On the ground floor of each unit is a parking garage where you can put your car. This means that, in order to get to my room, I have to first open the garage door. At the bottom of the steps is where you take off your shoes so that you don't get the floor dirty. My room is at the top of the stairs, through a door on the right which uses the same key as the garage door. In the morning, the hotel staff brings my breakfast upstairs and leaves it by the doorway outside. It isn't anything complicated. This morning I had a sandwich and two containers of milk.

This is more than adequate, however. The room also comes with a refrigerator and there are 7-11's all over this town where I could stock up on snacks if I wanted. The hotel provides free coffee and tea bags along with a water fountain. There are two buttons where I can get hot or cold filtered water. So far, I get the impression that the Taiwanese are gadget people much like the Japanese are. I've noticed a lot of similarities between this hotel and a normal ryokan (Japanese B&B). All in all, it is a very pleasant place to stay.