Day 11: Travel Day to Taipei

Well, we did hit the night spots one last time in Taichung last night. We started at Frog and hung out with Queenie for awhile, then took a cab to a night club. I was in fear for my life in the taxi. The driver was apparently working on volume and got us there as quickly as possible. Because there were five of us in the cab, I didn't even have enough room to put my seat belt on. The club itself was actually quite fun. I'm too old to frequent these types of places very often, but the company was good and it was a nice change from the pub atmosphere we were used to at Frog. We were encouraged to check this place out by a girl we met the night before, and we quickly found her and some friends. There was a whole group of young Taiwanese singers and dancers. Their dancing in particular was pretty impressive. Some of the songs were ones I vaguely recognized and some were not. It was the full dance club scene with strobe lights and a pounding bass. We danced some with the people who invited us and had a great time. The usual suspects were in attendance: Willie, Corrie, Neil, Fred, Oswaldo and of course, Johnny. After leaving the club we went back to the karaoke bar one last time. I hung on until about four and headed back.

The bus for Taipei was scheduled to leave at 10:30 AM. We were dismayed to learn that we would be sharing rooms in Taipei for the remainder of the tournament, and were a little grouchy on the trip due to learning this fact and also perhaps because some of us were a little hung over and tired from the night before. We were told shortly after our scheduled departure time that we would be delayed because our Korean umpire had just gotten up and would need time to pack. Approximately an hour later, he showed up in a suit, smelling as if he had come directly from the bar to the bus. In addition to this delay, he could not find his room key to turn in to the desk. The keys they used were the old-fashioned variety, and apparently this was a big deal, because I watched as the Korean unpacked his suitcase outside the bus and dug through all of his stuff until he found the key. Upon doing so, he boarded the bus, took Corrie's seat (he had stepped out for coffee) leaned it back and slept for the entire three hour trip to Taipei. We created a strategy on the trip for keeping as many of our tribe alive as possible once we got to Taiwan and "merged" with the other tribe. I warned everyone to keep their ears open, as the umpires from the other bracket were sure to try and make alliances with us. It is our hope to keep as many of the Taichung tribe alive until the end. We have the numbers, and hope to pick off the "Taipei" members one by one once we drop our buffs and merge as one tribe.

We learned the reason for the doubling up once arriving at our new hotel. Runch told us that the final rounds of the tournament were budgeted for sending not only a number of the local umpires home, but for cutting several of the international umpires as well. Runch, to his credit, refused to agree to send the international umpires home, and to stay within the budget we were forced to share accommodations. I'm with Mark, so it's not that big a deal, other than the principle of the move. In any case, we settled in, reacquainted ourselves with the umpires from the other bracket, and had lunch. After lunch, Mark took Corrie and I for a walk to show us a few of the sites downtown. We went into a temple and wandered the streets for a while and I shot some pictures and video. We had a 7:00 PM meeting, at which time the assignments were made for Friday. I'm working the noon game between Australia and Japan and have first base. Mark has the plate on the Chinese Taipei vs Netherlands game. The other teams that made the final rounds are the United States, Cuba, Korea and Mexico. Mexico got in from our bracket as a replacement for Panama, who had to forfeit a couple of wins due to paperwork problems. After the meeting a bunch of us went out to one of the night markets in Taipei, then Dits, Corrie and I got a late dinner at TGI Friday's. It's off to bed now so as to be ready for tomorrow.