During the last December holiday, my family and I went to Beitou, Taiwan. It was a 7-day trip. We were staying at a hot spring resort there.
My sister and I were excited to immerse ourselves in the warm, relaxing spring waters, so although we arrived at the resort pretty late at night, we were still very energetic.
We were led to our room after my father was done with the checking in. He told us that he had booked the largest type of room there was - the Japanese squad. My sister and I became more excited. 'The largest room' sounded very appealing!
To our surprise, the room we entered was not very large! Not only that, the floor was bare! Well, there was a small square table in the middle, with tea cups and small snacks on it. A big cupboard was at the side and a television was placed beside it. It seemed very plain.
Moreover, where were the beds? That question left my mother anxiously rummaging through the cupboard, seemingly the only thing that held the answers.
My sister and I were confused too. The room was just strange, though my sister was not really bothered with the empty room once she saw the television - her anti-boredom lifesaver.
I decided to have a look around the room. I walked to the big bathroom, where our private hot spring was. Wow, the hot spring tub was big and spacious! There were separate water taps to allow water of different temperatures to flow into the tub - hot, cold and lukewarm.
It was a while later that we realised that my father had booked the wrong kind of room! Based on a picture in the resort website, he had thought that the Japanese squad was a large room with proper beds. However, it turned out that it was a picture of two joined rooms.
I wanted to laugh at his blunder, but my mother was not very pleased. She felt that we could not sleep comfortably on the Japanese beds (tatamis) - which she found in the cupboard - because it was too cold to sleep on the floor during winter.
Honestly, I did not mind sleeping on tatamis, as it would be a new experience. My sister was pretty neutral about that too, but after some consideration, my father agreed with my mother.
Thus, my father called the receptionist to request for a room change if possible. Much to my mother's relief, they brought us to an available room with two king-sized beds. The bathroom was the same as the previous room, with an equally big hot spring tub.
After all that fuss, we unpacked, settled down, took turns to soak in the hot spring and then went to bed. It certainly was a new and memorable experience, arriving at our destination, only to have booked the wrong room!
Overall, the trip was very enjoyable. The food was very delicious and cheap, the service was excellent everywhere we went and the hot springs were heavenly.
I definitely had a fun-filled December holiday!
