Friday, 3 October 2014
I was actually meant to stay with a friend of a friend here in Buenos Aires. When I emailed this person while still in Malaysia, he sounded really enthusiastic about hosting me and showing me around the city. However, due to my exceptional skills in not trusting human beings, fortunately I emailed this person way in advance, that is, when I first arrived in Chile, to announce my impending arrival. And then I was told (not surprisingly) that he could not host me after all, as he was already hosting 2 students from Chile. Why he couldn't tell me this of his own accord earlier, I have no idea. Did he deserve the benefit of the doubt? Maybe. When I confirmed my date of arrival in Buenos Aires, I immediately informed him when I would be arriving and where I would be staying. No response. Still deserving of the benefit of the doubt or to be written off? I thought the latter but one more try couldn't hurt.
I arrived in Buenos Aires at about 9 am. I took a taxi to my hotel, which is the epitome of simplicity, but it's comfortable enough and quite close to the centre. Then I had no idea what to do, and the hotel reception while helpful, couldn't speak English at all. I emailed this guy I was supposed to stay with to inform him that I have arrived, that I will be in Buenos Aires for 3 days and to let me know when he is free to meet up. He emailed back to say he was busy with work the whole of today. 3 chances, and he failed all 3. I decided to plan the rest of my holiday on my own, and to write him off.
If he didn't want to show me around he should have just said so from the beginning instead of giving me false hopes and wasting my time sending emails all around. This is why I don't like human beings. They say things they don't mean, for whatever reason that is justifiable only to them. It's a good thing I've learned to become a bit more decisive and a lot more independent on this trip. In the end, you really can't trust anyone but yourself, something that I already knew for years. And sometimes you even let your own self down. But now, I must learn to forgive myself because I am all that I have out here. While I somehow expected this turn of events, of course I was disappointed for being let down.
Anyway, I noticed that the hotel organized city tours, and I booked a tour for the afternoon, I guess a good way to start would be to see the city at a glance.
My pick up was at 2.15 pm, and the tour started at about 3 pm on a tourist bus. The population in the heart of the city of Buenos Aires itself is approximately 3 million people, but the population in the area surrounding Buenos Aires is about 15 million (like Kuala Lumpur and the Klang Valley). The city is divided into 48 barrios or neighborhoods. We started at a neighborhood known as Microcentre. Here there is the Retiro train station, an old building that quite resembled our train station in Kuala Lumpur. We passed by Plaza San Martin, where there was a monument in honour of San Martin, the person who was instrumental in gaining Argentina's independence, and was also involved in the fight for independence for Chile and Peru.
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