The King's Hotel, Taipei, Taiwan

Before we could move into our apartment on Grass Mountain, we needed a place to live. The King's Hotel ended up as our choice since it was close to everything and was reasonably priced. 

Our room had no windows and was probably a partition from a suite. The wall between us and the next room was very thin. Interesting conversations came through that wall.

The Signal Compound was very close and a short taxi ride would take you to it. From there, the bus would take us up and down from the work site.

We stayed there for about 4 days until housing gave the thumbs up for renting.

Everyone seemingly has a picture of the King's on their Taiwan blog or website. Here's mine.

You can almost see the stoplight which was the only one around. On the morning after my wife arrived, a taxi picked me up and proceeded east on Min Chuan Road.

The only problem was that we had the red light and the driver ignored it. The car was smashed in the middle of the intersection by oncoming traffic.

No injuries were incurred, so I hopped into another cab which proceeded east to LinSen North Road where the Signal Compound and the bus awaited.

 

Here's the King's Hotel as it looked in 2006. It was refurbished and converted into the BEST one-stop-shop for all of a bride's needs.



This is the punch list for repairs to our apartment. It was thorough, but several items were not caught.

A few electrical outlets were dead. There were no fuses or circuit breakers in the electrical panel. So, off came the plate covering the outlet.



Yes, this is a bobby pin.

At the bottom of the outlet were additional screws on each side of the fixture.

On the dead ones, there was a melted piece of solder connecting the 2 screws. One on the hot side and one on neutral.

It was actually quite clever. If the electrical circuit became overheated, the solder melted and the circuit was broken and a fire was avoided.

So, the electricity wasn't flowing. This is where the bobby pin came into play.

I just pryed apart the pin and connected each end to a screw, and the circuit was restored. No meltdown here!

That's the way they stayed for a year. Maybe that's why we were surprised that the apartment complex was still standing in 2010. Probably, someone eventually caught my solution.

From the King's to LinSen North Road was a distance of about .2 miles or 350 yards.

Turning left (north) onto LinSen North Road, the Signal Compound was about .4 miles straight ahead.

This is the intersection of LinSen North and Min Tsu (MinZu) East Roads.

The white building in the background is approximately where the STRATCOM headquarters entrance was.

This picture still amazes me. Anyone who served there knows that Min Tsu East Road was lightly traveled. Just 2 lanes wide, the street traffic was slow moving.

Photo by Ted Baxter; courtesy Taipeiairstation.blogspot.com, 12/04/2010

Of all the pictures I've seen of the Signal Compound, this is one of the few that is recognizable.

The barbershop and Mr. Loo's East Compound Tailors are both seen here.

The arrangement of the main STRATCOM building, motor pool, Navy barracks, Chinese Army barracks and mess hall are really fuzzy in my memory. Later maps don't help.