So it’s like Day 4 here …. and it’s all a blur.
AJ has been giving me the low-down and the “hi-down” of living in Taipei … kinda like Living la vida loca AJ style. I learned about the Green Party and the Blue Party. The powers of beetlenut and its cultural implications on the people of Taipei itself. The more interesting aspect of vehicular traffic laws, the complete and utter lack of them has been really fascinating. I think by far this has been the most wild-wild-west of the major Asian cities. You find that there are traffic rules permitting far left lane right turns, thereby cutting off 1 or 2 car lanes plus the moped lanes. Now the mopeds are quite interesting by themselves. The appear to “own” the roads but seemingly without rhyme or reason. They’ll go wrong way on a one way road, sidewalks are just another vehicular pathway for them to get where they need to go. Yesterday I almost poked some guy’s eye out with my oversized umbrella when he pulled right up next to me at the curb waiting for the same pedestrian green light to cross. Sidewalks, ah, another Taipei cultural feature. It’s not really for pedestrians. It’s an opportunity for a night market or place to hawk your wares. You can be trying to drive down a small road, and have mopeds and pedestrians in your way, but the sidewalk is empty. Wheee!
So today the sun is out! Hurrah, it’s a happy day. The non-stop rain has been driving me nuts. I think been like 2 weeks and I’ve barely seen sun. Coldest Taipei winter in like 30 yrs. I think there’s something to global warming. I’m definitely going to be exploring the bus and subway system more. The subway is like Singapore’s very clean and efficient. Time to explore the old part of Taipei.
More updates laters….
=YC