Gifts and such…

The funniest thing about the gifts we bought is not the gifts themselves, but how we got them home.

We were out with Bangjie on the Saturday before we left, first going to the Observatory, then taking the bus back into town, and finally shopping for the gold artifact we came home with. But, as we entered one of the malls (we hit several, all huge and multistory) there was a vendor selling luggage in the middle of the mall hallway (this was very common, not a lot of wasted space!). Bangjie asked us if we needed another suitcase to get the things we bought in China home, and we said, of course not, we didn’t buy that much…

Which we thought was true until Monday morning when we started to pack our bags, and realized there was no way we could get all the stuff we came with, plus the stuff we bought, in the luggage we had. So, the Fraser Suites came to the rescue.

I have mentioned the mall that was attached to our hotel. It opened at 9:30, and our flight was not until 3, so we should have had plenty of time, but, that typhoon thing…

One of the hotel staff, Yuya, was very kind and offered to go to the mall with us to help us get a suitcase. Good thing she did, or we might have either not gotten one, paid too much, or something. The first luggage store we stopped in had a piece of luggage that would have held everything, but, it cost way too much, i think in the hundreds of dollars. Fortunately Yuya understood we basically needed a one-time piece of luggage, not a family heirloom. We looked in an REI-type store, and they had a large backpack that would do the job, but if we could get a hard-sided suitcase that would be preferable.

We found one more luggage store in the mall, and it had a reasonably priced piece of luggage that would do, more like $60 than $600. But, the store wasn’t open yet, and time was running out. Yuya found a security person, and that person called the store owner. the store owner said she would be there in ten minutes or so, and was, and that worked out.