Taiwan Journal #4 - Random Observations about Taiwan

(Greg again...)

1. This is not a place that gets a lot of American tourists. Yesterday we were out in the city for most of the day and saw a total of 5 white people and we're pretty sure most of them were European. Jessica especially has been getting stared at a LOT! We found out today that Taiwanese men are very attracted to pretty blonde american women because of the popularity of Hollywood movies here. So yeah... Jessica's basically a rock star over here. She's really hates being stared at so it's been tough for her.

2. Taiwan is a much more "green" nation than the US. That's probably not surprising but here, recycling is everywhere. In fact, if you don't recycle your garbage, you get fined. When the garbage man comes each week, not only do they expect you to have your trash sorted, they also have 2 buckets they empty... one for compost waste and another for all other food waste. Leftover noodles... uneaten meat... whatever... throw it in a bucket and the trash truck will take it. We were told they use it to feed pigs and other animals. They don't waste anything at all! I'm pretty sure they do all of this because they have to... Taiwan is a very small island with a LOT of people... I'd hate to think what it would look like if they didn't recycle.

3. EVERYONE and I do mean everyone drives a scooter here. On the road it's pretty much nothing but city buses, taxi cabs, and scooters and the scooters outnumber all of those probably 5 to one. As you can well imagine, the streets are total chaos... I can't even begin to imagine what it would be like to drive here. We've been sticking to taxis and riding the public transportation trains (MRT) and that's been suiting us just fine. I'll try to get some video going of the scooter madness.

4. We were under the impression before we came that almost everyone here speaks at least a little English. We were under a wrong impression. At our hotel, they speak wonderful English. Everywhere else, none. I'm starting to get pretty good at pointing to what I want on menus and signs. We would be completely lost were it not for our wonderful hotel staff here at the Riviera... whenever we are going out, they write down all of the places we want to go on little cards in Chinese... we show those to taxi drivers or anyone else and they help us get where we're going. Fortunately, all of the street signs, bus signs, and MRT signs are both in Chinese and English. I'm not sure why though, it doesn't seem like anyone here really speaks it and seriously, we are yet to meet another American 2 days into our trip. We did meet 2 people this morning from Canada but heck, they probably spoke French.

5. The people here are VERY friendly. Taipei is a lot like many big American cities... parts of it feel very similar to New York with one difference... everyone is very, very nice. Even with the language barrier and with us pretty much sticking out like sore thumbs, everyone has been incredibly friendly towards us and very, very welcoming.

Okay... we're headed out for the evening... much more later including hopefully some pictures and video. Sorry we've been slow getting that together... it takes a long time and we're staying pretty busy!