Today was one of those seldom occasions where I actually arrived at the airport well before the boarding time. I tend to be fashionably late as I detest waiting at the gate and stare at the people who I’d probably never see again for the rest of my life, it is as boring to me as watching grass grow. Anyways, I am glad I gave myself enough time today tho, as I had to go thru some interesting time consuming experiences today at the Taipei airport.

You see, I had to check-in two rather large suitcases to take back to US. “Rather large” doesn’t really describe the situation, for one of the suitcases was stuffed with books and stamp collections and more books, and I broke my back probably twice hulling it in and out of the car on the way to the airport. Naïve as I am, I thought that since I was flying business class, the lady at the check-in counter would just smile, tag my ultra-heavy luggage and send me to the lounge to sip on green tea... that didn’t happen, the heavier of the two luggage weighted in at 40kg or 8kg (~20lbs) over the weight limit (which explains my back-breaking experiences), and I was asked to “lose some weight”. I tried to play cool, flashed my frequent flier Gold card and offered to pay extra for the overweight, but she declared that the US airport luggage handlers are protected by Union and might simply refuse to move my rather large suitcases. Out of options, I proceeded to operate on the suitcase, took out the entire 1990-2000 Taiwan stamp collection I was carrying back for my soon to be father-in-law. I used to laugh at those poor idiots who have to dig out all of their underwear and strap-ons in-front of the check-in line, I have always thought them to be poor planning and thus put themselves in that rather embarrassing situations at the airport. Today I was that idiot... after removing the entire stamp collection and toss out Vivian’s sandal and my four cans of 鲁肉罐头, I made weight and wasted half hour...

Custom and security wasn’t too bad, I got thru them in less than 10 mins, I still had an hour before boarding time. That weight control incident really worked a sweat out of me, and at this point I was really looking forward to some tasty 小笼包 and porridge they have at the airline lounge.

Walking pass all the duty free shop and the Cartier store in the corner caught my eyes, “oh crap” I said, as I remembered that I needed to request VAT tax refund for the wedding ring I bought at Taipei Cartier last week. The information desk lady told me the tax refund is outside of the custom... I muttered few four letter words and approached the custom to see if they can let me go out and come back in.

This is where I really should credit Taiwan’s airport services, very impressive! The custom agent called up another custom agent Lily on the walkie-talkie, and Lily ran over to assist me by re-admitting me back into Taiwan, in another word, she pretty much void my departing custom stamp and sign a bunch of documents, took me over to security, ran my bags thru security again, signed a bunch of documents, took me to the entrance to security, signed a bunch of documents, and 20 mins later, I was standing in the main check-in lobby again, shouting distance away from the check-in lady who made me “lose weight” about an hour earlier. I refunded my VAT, got the money, and Lily took me back thru security, cutting lines at the custom check point, and another 20 mins later, I was back in the terminal section staring at the duty-free stores

Ten mins to departure, I am now dying for some 小笼包 and porridge. I limped down the terminals, hulling the entire 1990-2000 stamp collections in one hand, a bag of Taiwan sweets and treats in the other hand, and a big backpack with laptops on my back, sweat dripping down my cheek, and my eyeglasses slipping off my nose, but I didn’t care, I had my mind set on 小笼包.

Finally made it to the airline lounge five mins before boarding, the entrance lady was puzzling why I still wanted to go in as others on my flights were now leaving the lounge to head over to the gate. Two flights of stairs down, I’ve made it to the lounge’s dinning room!! I can now smell the aroma of 小笼包 by now... As luck playing joke on me, damn! there is a long line in front of the food window, seems like everyone in the lounge shared my fancy for 小笼包. I can feel the rage building up inside of me, and picture myself grabbing the steamy plate of 小笼包 the first in line fat lady who just received, and kick her all the way to the lobby’s check-in counter to have a face-to-face with the “lose weight” lady.

Needless to say, I made the decision that catching my flight was more important than the much desired food. Not eating was a big dismay, however, I was able to check in my luggages, bring back the stamp collections (brownie points with future dad-in-law), got be VAT refund, pretty lucky I should consider myself to be. And to top everything off, the gate lady swapped my seat to a window seat on the second floor where I have more storage space between the seat and the window. Not bad, not bad at all.