Blackout in Taipei

I am now in a hotel room in Taipei, Taiwan... Sitting in the dark... Supported only the light from my laptop screen..... Typing this blog entry....

Blackout.... in Taipei...

The whole HsinYi area is in darkness. My hotel and the buildings around us are all in darkness. It all started with a strange rumbling sound that lasted for about 10secs and then everything when black. Went to the corridor to check on my colleagues. All the same thing... My colleague in the room beside me was still in the bathe and I could hear the water running... Cold water he says... bathed in the dark... dressed in the dark.... Then we chatted for about 5 mins... the fire alarm sounded.... what the hell... an ang moh came out and went down the emergency stairway. We ran back to our rooms... grabbed our essentials and siam. Went to the emergency stairway... everyone was walking down.... very surprisingly... in a very orderly manner... an indian guy beside me brought both his laptops but no shoes.... ??? walked all the way down from the 13th floor... the smoke smell starting to get reeeaaallllll bad....

Reached the ground floor.... and a small gathering with our colleagues... Some colleagues half asleep.... some came down in their sleeping wear....

Found out from the building pple that the sub-station in Taipei has done down... reason unknown... how long it take to start up... unknown... all they know is that the whole area is dark... the best part is... after the substation went down... the building's generator started up... which explains the rumbling i think... but after about 5 mins... it short circuited due to long period of inactivity and started giving out smoke.... which explains the bad smell and the fire alarm... hahahaha....

So we went back to our room after 20mins.... and now i am sitting here in the dark typing this entry.... with only the light from my laptop and cellphone... no aircon... lucky can open a bit of the window... still got some air... can hear the policemen blowing whistles, directing traffic on the streets below... fire engines sirens wailing down the streets...

57% left of my laptop battery... 1hr more to go before total darkness...