Once the clock had struck 12:45pm, Roger came back downstairs to inform her that her tour guide was in the lobby. Bella followed him upstairs and was met with an upbeat character of a woman. At least that was the impression of her that Bella had. She had wild curly hair. Her black hair had light brown highlights. She was in a crisp white button-down shirt and black leggings. "Leila Ysabelle Torres?" she asked.
Bella nodded and smiled. "That's me."
She nodded. "Okay, you follow me." She instructed. Bella followed her out into the street where a white coaster van was waiting. Inside, there were about nine people seated and waiting. Six looked to be of Chinese descent, three sets of couples apparently, and the other three turned out to be a Filipino couple and their young toddler daughter. Bella took a lone seat by the window near the back of the coaster.
"Okay, we have one more set of guests to pick up. Thank you for being patient everyone." The tour guide said.
The driver started the coaster van and soon, Bella and her fellow tour mates were snaking in and out of the side roads until they came to a hotel. The tour guide exited the coaster van and entered the hotel lobby. Bella looked at her watch, 12:52pm it said. While waiting, she closed her eyes. She was getting a little dizzy.
Bella opened her eyes a few minutes later and saw that they had not moved an inch yet.
She checked her watch again. 1:10pm. "Hmmm, that seems a bit rude to make everyone wait this long." Bella thought. A few minutes later, a family of five were leaving the hotel lobby behind the tour guide. Once they had entered the coaster, Bella could hear that it was another Filipino family comprised of the grandparents, parents and a baby.
"Okay, maybe the baby was being fussy." Bella reasoned for them.
Once the family had settled in, the driver sped along and the tour guide picked up the microphone and officially started her tour. "Hello once again, everyone! My name is Eileen. I will be your tour guide for today. Since we have both Chinese and non-Chinese guests, I will do my best to speak both Mandarin and English for you all as we tour Taipei City. I would like to formally welcome everyone to Taipei, Taiwan."
Bella closed her eyes again and drowned out her speech. Motion sickness was not her friend.
Bella opened her eyes once Eileen said that they arrived at their first official tourist attraction: Chiang Kai-Shek memorial.
Everyone filed out of the coaster van and followed Eileen onto the grounds. It was expansive to say the least. There was a structure painted in white at the top of some steps. And further away within the same grounds, there seemed to be two structures and one archway.
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"Alright, everyone. You are free to roam around for an hour or so. By 2:30pm, please be back here to witness the changing of the guards." Eileen instructed. At that, everyone went their own way.
