Yilan or Bust, Moving House

At the end of July while I worked my last week, my mom and daughter helped pack boxes. The whole month I was giving away and throwing away bags of clothes, toys, books. And I wouldn't consider myself materialistic or a pack rat, so I'm not sure what happened except six years with a kid at the same place  I had amassed a whole lot of crap.

AJ, Andrew and my Mom

When it was time to move my friend AJ and I rented a truck (he has a local driver's license) and together with one of his friends Andrew, they quickly and efficiently packed. I went to get some lunch and drinks for everyone, I was gone maybe 15 minutes and was astounded to find they were nearly done when I returned. What a strange coincidental blessing that Andrew for one miserable summer, worked as a professional mover, so he pretty much managed the whole packing of the truck. All 6 years of my life took an hour and a lot of sweat to pack into one truck.

Renting the truck was probably the easiest part of the whole move. Unfortunately the company is located in Yongkong district, but the man Yo-yo spoke perfect English and they were all very fast, efficient and professional. (Tainan Car Plus rental offvce in Yongkang 06-243-6655, No 169, Zhongzheng N. Rd, Yongkang 71081). It cost around 3,200 to rent the truck for 24 hours and after so many miles it was 4 nt a mile that added up, plus all the tolls that are automatically scanned by blue lights, that added up to 800. All in all, it was significantly cheaper to do it ourselves. (A moving company would be around 15,000 or more).

I'm very thankful for my dear friend AJ, who significantly helped be there to pack, move, get boxes, drive the truck, which wasn't easy. We played good music and were following this double rainbow between Chiayi and Chunghua, were caught in a thunderstorm around Miaoli, and stuck in Friday eve traffic between Hsinchu and Taipei. We arrived in Yilan around 830 pm but lost didn't find the new apartment until 9:30. It was a long day. My friend Steve who helped find me a temporary place was there with my new landlady and we all busted ass for twenty minutes  until our little studio was filled with boxes.

The next day bright and early AJ and I gassed up the truck and head back to Tainan to drop off the truck and the following day bring my mom to the airport. As you can see from the above map, Yilan at the northeast is in the exact opposite direction of Tainan in the southwest. It took about 6 hours one way.