Double Booking in Taipei

This story is a bit long because it is worth explaining the context. And the context is Taiwan, which deserves to be visited more than once. Taipei is a great city: easy to walk around, public transport works, people are friendly, nature is immediately accessible and good food is everywhere.

The first time I went there was during a long break from work. I was with my mate Kostas. We spent an entire week going out in the evening. I am not a big clubber and I always need to be dragged along though in the end it’s fun. He planned the week like a professional: every evening we visited at least two new venues, quickly discovering the city one club at a time. The last Friday we went to a club that was offering all-you-can-drink alcohol for a fixed fee. That sort of thing would not work in London: it would only cause chaos. Kostas decided to book a booth, which in Taipei was dirt cheap. We started inviting girls back to our booth with cheap bottles of sparkling wine. At one point I was walking near the dance floor when a girl with a long dress and a very sweet face started talking to me. Most Taiwanese girls are petite brunettes, she wasn’t petite and she had visibly large hips -I like hips- that she was hiding under a long dress while everyone else was wearing short skirts. We talked, clicked and briefly made out but she had to follow her friends so we just exchanged numbers.

The following day we texted and agreed on a date on Sunday evening. We met in a place I picked from Foursquare, some kind of old-people Whisky bar with deep leather sofas. I was flying out with Kostas the following morning. When I took a chance and suggested to go back to my hotel she simply said yes.

I have a very happy memory of the night we spent. The hotel I was staying at was a recommendation from a friend of Kostas who was Taiwanese. Very good boutique hotel pick: large colourful bedrooms with very cool unique décor and large jacuzzi-style bathtubs. She didn’t really care about the décor though and she made a point of keeping the lights off. I guess she was self-conscious because of her body shape standing out from the national average -for the better. Large hips, thin waste and nice bum: it works for me. Keep those freaking lights on!

In the morning she left early for university and it was time for me to check out and go to the airport.

The real point of the story is coming: still traveling as part of my long break I decided to come back to Taiwan two months later to visit her. She had been a bit unresponsive over text and I didn’t know how it would pan out.

I landed in Taipei for the second time. I had arranged a room in a flat share hosted by a cool French dude who was making money from online poker and Airbnb to complement his main income of teaching English. Getting to his place was not obvious: Taipei residential areas are a maze of small streets and even smaller lanes identified with numbers. No news from my Taiwanese girl who kept rejecting date requests, busy with Uni. So I put my mind to other things such as visiting coffee shops, studying and daygaming.

On a Saturday morning of exploring sunny Taipei I walked past a Starbucks and saw a beautiful petite brunette sitting inside and looking out. Our eyes locked, I smiled and she smiled back but I kept walking. Approach anxiety, inner dialogue: should I go back, should I talk to her? After five minutes of dithering, the tedious internal decision-making process ended with fuck it, I’ll talk to her: I turned back and walked to the Starbucks. She was still there. She saw me and smiled. I made a hand sign suggesting I was going to walk in and join her. I opened with a compliment, saying I had seen her and decided to walk back. The conversation went well, she was on her way back from a night out clubbing which explained the heavy eye make-up. At one point in the conversation she drew my name in traditional Mandarin Chinese on a piece of paper. The eye contact was intense and less than an hour later, still sitting at Starbucks, we started kissing.

I walked her to another place that was on my little Foursquare coffee shop trail. Taipei is big on coffee shops, they’re everywhere and they’re all kind of unique. We had food. The afternoon was drawing to an end so I suggested we walk back to my apartment. We spent the rest of the evening in bed.

Over the weekend we kept seeing each other when she was free from studying. Two days later after dinner she was at my place again, the day before I fly out. There was another guy living in the flat, an American guy who was doing his own thing with his Japanese girlfriend and didn’t seem to be bothered I bring a girl back. We spent some time playing under my bedsheets. Around 8pm she said, “I can’t stay overnight because my parents are expecting me back home.” I said “Ok” and we started kissing again.

A bit later I checked my phone: there was a message from hips girl saying “this is your last night in Taipei I have to see you before you go. I’ll take the metro to meet you.” Great, so Starbucks girls could not stay but instead I was going to see hips girl again! I replied, “Good I’ll pick you up from the metro station.”

Now here comes the good part: while I was texting hips girl, the Starbucks girl who was still in my bed was on the phone with a friend. She hung up and said, “It’s all ok, I’ve arranged an alibi for my parents with a friend, I can stay with you tonight.” What? I immediately checked my phone to recall hips girl but it was too late. Her latest text said, “I’m on my way.”

Collision course.

I had never been in this type of situation before: I was lying in bed with a girl who didn’t intend to leave, another one was about to turn up. What do I do? Cancel the one who was coming or tell this one to go away? Or don’t cancel anything and hope it ends up in a threesome -is it a violation of Airbnb terms and conditions?

I was keen on seeing my first friend, the one with the beautiful hips. But I had to tell this girl who was lying naked in my bed that she had to go, just after she had arranged something to make it possible for her to stay without her parents knowing. I was feeling a bit shit.

Eventually I opted to tell her the truth, “I’m sorry you cannot stay with me tonight because a friend of mine is coming to visit before I fly out.” She was visibly shocked but took it ok. I walked her back outside, said goodbye, ran back to the room, did a bit of emergency clean-up (condoms, stray hair, etc.) and went back outside to pick-up hips girl from the metro station.

When she entered the bedroom I quickly switched off the lights to hide the messy sheets. We had a very good night again, just before I fly away. We kept in touch and a few weeks later we even decided to meet again for a trip to Japan.

But the following day while boarding the plane to fly out from Taipei, I was still feeling bad for Starbucks girl. Just before take-off I texted her to apologise and she answered, “it’s ok but that really made me feel like shit.”

Sometimes life throws tough choices at you. But let’s be honest: there are worse problems to have.