Jinmen 101

The room was old and in poor shape, and there were ants all over it on the first day, including on the floor, under the pillow, and near the door. They bit my hands and feet. My hands swelled badly, and my feet became inflamed and started festering. The bathroom fan was also extremely noisy. In the morning I told the staff that, even though they had some medicine to apply, I wanted ice packs. There was no freezer in the hotel, so I had to ask them to buy ice from a convenience store before they would get any. At first they didn't want to move us to another room and seemed content to wait until we checked out so they could kill the ants. Other people in our tour group also found lots of ants and switched rooms. We eventually moved too, but the new door was so hard to open and close that it took real effort. Breakfast was barely enough to eat. The first morning it was a small bowl of noodles with fried dough sticks, and the second it was a small hamburger and hot tea. Even after I was bitten so badly, nobody on staff offered any comfort. Our local guide took me to a doctor on the first night, while the hotel seemed to act as if the situation had nothing to do with them. The morning staff were awful, though the evening staff member was much more attentive. This was a terrible stay. When I get back to Taiwan, I have to take time off work to see a doctor again because the redness, swelling, and pain still haven't gone away.

There are convenience stores close by, and the old street is about a 10-minute walk away. The room was generally clean. Hot water worked on the first day of my two-night stay, but on the second day there was none. At 7 a.m. I let it run for over 10 minutes with no result, and staff told me I needed to wait more than 15 minutes. Then at 7 p.m., when lots of people would be using hot water, it still wasn't working. We only got hot water after 9 p.m., when staff checked the boiler after I'd let it run for nearly 30 minutes.

The room was filthy.

The room was roomy and the location is very close to the city center. Both the hot water and air conditioning worked well. I asked the owner to order breakfast for me to pick up, and I'm thankful for that. Since the pandemic, a lot of guesthouses have stopped making breakfast themselves and use delivery instead, which I honestly don't enjoy. Thanks again to the owner for arranging mine.