Still no Water
May 6th, 2006 by MarkWhen I got up this morning, the water was still off, so I had to make do without brushing my teeth, taking a shower, or taking an ahem, #2. After getting back from school, I was hoping the water would be back, but it wasn’t. On the good side, people at the Linkou water CO. answered the phone at least. They gave me the numbers for the Guishan local water office (329-4899 and 329-7999). I called them and they told me that the water problem was restricted to just my street and that they didn’t know when it would be fixed.
I guess I’ll go to McDonald’s, since I can brush my teeth, use the facilities, and maybe, if nobody’s looking, even wash my feet and switch to clean socks. After that, I think I can make it through the rest of the day. If there isn’t any water by morning, I’ll catch a bus into Tabei and shower at California Fitness.
Update: Water’s back and life is back to normal.
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May 7th, 2006 at 6:24 am
When I was in Changchun the first time, in the summer of 2001, during a pretty major drought, the water would go off for four or five days at a time, with no warning. Everyone would fill up a giant bucket of water whenever the water came back on, so the toilet could be flushed at least once a day. Showers during those times just didn’t happen.
I totally feel your pain :).
Did you ever find out what caused the outage?
May 7th, 2006 at 11:16 am
Mark, I not only feel your pain, but I think I can smell it all the way up here in Nanjing. Or maybe that’s just the damn lake again! We don’t lose the water supply very often up here, but the last time we did was the middle of last summer. I got up one morning to go to work and the water is off. No shower, shave, toothbrushing or flush. If you’ve ever been to Nanjing during August you’ll maybe know that’s it’s like sleeping in a sauna and tossing and turning in an inch of sweat all night so going to work without showering just ain’t gonna happen.
May 7th, 2006 at 4:07 pm
Wow, all of you mainlander laowai have had it quite a bit tougher than I have. It sounds like you had some decent planning and dealt with it pretty well, though.
The rumor is, this outage was caused by construction interfering with the water lines under my street. None of my neighbors seem too sure about it, though.
May 7th, 2006 at 5:28 pm
The water’s out again. Screw this, I’m going to Taibei for tonight.
May 11th, 2006 at 2:31 pm
I was laughing when I saw you wrote that “and maybe, if nobody’s looking, even wash my feet and switch to clean socks.” It must be not easy for you to be used to water will be off unpredictable. yes,go to taipei as soon as you can. by the way, ask someone to figure out when water will be on.