As much as I wanted to have this all as one post, Blogger doesn't like letting me save, so it is divided into two parts!
I'm posting this from China, having now finished my time on JET and beginning my last trip. Unfortunately, China blocks blogger, so I had to do some work-arounds.
I was leaving around Tanabata, which is something I really wanted to celebrate, but ultimately didn't, despite not really having anything better to do on that day (which was several days after I returned). So a lot of places had Tanabata decorations up.
Though I thought I had lost my knife a long time ago, security helped me out by finding it in my carry on. However, this means I had to check in luggage. Oh well.
More Tanabata.
After arriving in Taiwan, I felt like the place was run by germaphobics (not to be confused with germanphobics). There were signs about diseases everywhere, even this carpet and those disease scanners up ahead of it.
Also, this guy dodging kunan.
Got my knife back in an oversized box. This is the second time I have had to deal with this.
Apparently the airport was not linked to the city by train, so I had to bus. Also, apparently Taiwan is big into breastfeeding, which is probably good. It is nice to see they are enabling the option at least.
So I eventually figured out how the buses worked, and hopped on one. Here are some terrible pictures from the bus. I saw a robotic construction worker flag-waver from the bus, but my camera was too slow to get a picture of him and I couldn't find him later, which makes me sad. So just Google it I guess. (It looked something like this http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1125/5140666835_1ac9653fef.jpg but without the mask [I am sure that link will become dead before this blog does]).
I couldn't get a picture of the school, which had giant hands signing something, which was cool, but if you care, you can probably Google it. Also, some of the pictures taken on my lesser camera appear to be rotated wrong. Oh well, deal with it.
Well, two of them. The first thing you will notice about Taiwan is the mopeds. Mopeds are to Taiwan what bicycles are to the Netherlands. Just trillions of mopeds.
Finally arrived at the main station, but before I could enjoy the scenery, I was attacked by a swarm of presumably college kids. Maybe high school. They began asking me a bunch of clearly scripted sentences. They were almost foaming-at-the-mouth excited and basically (or actually yelling). One of their questions was what Taiwanese food did I like, but since I had literally just stepped off the bus, I had no idea what my choices even were. One of them told me to say chicken pie, so I said that. One of them tried to set me up with one of the girls as a joke, then one of the boys wanted to hug me, so we hugged, and then they all ran off excitedly.
It wasn't more than a minute before they ran off that I ran into another similar group. They also asked me similar questions and took pictures with me. Or hugged me. I don't remember which group did which, but they were super excited to see a foreigner.
There were a lot of people practicing dancing outside the station, too, for some reason. Later I saw ads for some kind of dance contest or something, so maybe it was for that.
The whole sudden interview thing caused me to get spun around (now that I think about it, I am not sure how) and I always try to get a picture of a city from outside the main station (which I usually arrive at first in a city). But I ended up getting rather lost for a while (even escalatoring past one of the groups [though their enthusiasm had seemingly dropped to normal human levels the second time <maybe the more excited ones just didn't notice me>]). I ended up going down into the train station, but when I popped up to where I thought I was originally (I think that's what I was trying to do?), I was already in a new location, and trying to walk around what I thought was the train station, only got me farther from where I started.
The train stations are pretty standard. They have three different rails though so it is rather confusing. A subway, a regular train, and a high speed rail. But everything is abbreviated so it can be confusing. At least it is all abbreviated in English. And also I can read the Chinese characters, so I figured it out eventually. However, finding the right area for your rail can be rather difficult.
They also have this fancy bathroom thing that lets you know when a bathroom is full.
Why fly a bunch of flags when you can glue them together into several massive flags?
So, like Germany, Taiwan has a special crosswalk dude.There are even several myths about him. They also have timers for crossing, when the wait is up, and even for cars' (read: mopeds') red and green lights. Which is awesome.
I had a lot of difficulty finding an easy picture of McDonald's logo with Chinese, so I ended up taking a lot of photos of various McDonald'ss. There is a better photo later in this post.
Some scenery and stuff.
KFC apparently delivers in Taiwan. I wonder if it is as awful as Japanese KFC.
I like to believe they sell houses for whales.
Having now been armed with the knowledge that something called a "chicken pie" existed and having admitted it was my favorite Taiwanese food, I was glad I was able to find one to eat. It's basically the same as Japanese-style chicken. Still pretty good though.
Much like Japan and Korea, Taiwan seems to have an unnatural fixation on plastic bags.
KFC is apparently a big deal in Taiwan.
(These moved up and down, by the way)
It is good to know that One Piece is popular in Taiwan as well. I think most countries have these underground train station malls. America is missing out.
I eventually, finally, made my way back to the main station.
And got the photo I wanted.
Inside the train station.
Looks like the middle of island isn't very popular. I was excited to see that Taiwan also had free wifi, but I didn't know you need to go to the tourist center ( I still don't know where that is) to make an account. There were a few other wifi providers, so some of them time, I was eventually able to get internet.
Automated library, seems like a cool idea. Reminds me of Germany, but more high tech.
The subway uses these tokens, which seem cool, but can cause problems when you're rushing through the gates and you're trying to get it to touch the sensor, but they are so small, and there is a line behind you, and you drop it. Word of advice: It has a bit of range, so just hold it in your fist and punch the sensor.
When you're done riding, you drop it into a coin slot. Which is harder than it looks sometimes, and I might have dropped it instead once or twice.
The trains are pretty standard. With gates to prevent you from ending it all without at least a little effort.
The place I was staying, Ximen, had like 20 movie theaters. They were seriously everywhere.
Also, a random shrine tucked into the middle of nowhere.
Mopeds have special lanes sometimes and apparently get to go first.
You can't tell me what to do!
For some reason, the elevator on this floor has been sealed with an assortment of talismans.
Republicans demand the door to be closed.
Just a crosswalk button (the photo is upside-down, sorry)
Whole ducks!
A fleet of police mopeds.
Something historical I stumbled upon. I guess.
A temple I also stumbled upon.
It was called Dragon Mountain Temple apparently. There was some kind of of service going on, so people were singing and whatever.
Cyclists inexplicably speak English.
If this isn't a gay bar, I don't know what is.
"To Run A Business" sounds like some kind of novel.
More of Ximen.
Decided to wander over to the Taipei 101, some kind of tower.
Are you only allowed to protest here or is here some kind of specialty area?
Found it! I then spent the next forever trying to get the whole thing into one shot.
I see what you did there (eventually).
It lights up!
If I ever encounter anything like this, I will give it right of way.
Inside was all just super expensive stuff.
Rental bikes!
That lady with the shield isn't helping at all.
Sometimes the gates just stay open. So if you want to commit suicide without putting in effort, just wait I guess.
They seem confused on what symbol to use for their money sometimes.
This is the kind of stuff I had expected from Japan.
My diet consisted of 90% bubble tea.
I guess it's night time. Time for night burgers.
The picture didn't work, but instead of a dollar menu or anything like it, you get a low price menu.
Chinese characters, woo!
"Big mouth [something] set"
That random temple again in the light.
Something cool and 1984y about this building.
While trying to go the museum, I mistook this concert hall or something for it and spent a little while waiting for it to open.
Then I realized my mistake and went to where the museum was and walked through the garden to it.
Confucius!
There was some kind of something going on outside the place that they were setting up for. I waited outside for a while and when it seemed like they were opening, I talked with the guard (kind of) and realized JST is different the Taiwanese time.
I thought it said no pictures, but everyone was, so now that I look at it, I realize that it probably said no flash.
The museum wasn't as awesome as I was led to believe, so I figured I had found the wrong one (I had). Then I got outside again and tried to find the real museum.
Delicious.
Free water! Take THAT, Germany!
Wandered over to the 228 Museum they talk so much about, but it didn't look interesting so I gave up on it.
While not as painful as I thought it might be, this path was not a comfortable one.
Someone stole the chair?
This looks like it belongs in a video game.
There is something in your foot connected to your anus as well as your heart. And your grnital glands [sic] apparently.
Something creepily hilarious about this man.
They have my favorite ice cream!
Better picture of the non-dollar menu. It's called a coin menu. I guess that's cool.
Night has stopped. Now the menu must feature green fields.
There's the Chinese characters for you.
I didn't eat there though. I tried to get some real food. I found a place and through my use of kanji, I was able to communicate "recommendation?" and got this.
They would rather wrap the plates in plastic than wash them.
Apparently the palace museum is not reachable by train, so I had to take a bus.
Also, they have hammers!
Found the palace museum!
My best photo of the place (unfortunately with my recharger cable blocking part of it).
The museum was no photo. I spent upwards of five hours there.
When I got out, there was a strange rain. The sun was shining, and it was still very hot, but it was raining. The rain turned to steam as it hit the ground.
The other building of the museum seemed to feature more contemporary and artsy stuff, so I opted out.
The buses had seatbelts for some reason.
Also, don't let old people take the escalator. There was even a video about a guy saving an old guy heading towards the escalator and redirected him to an elevator and the old man was thanking him like he had just helped him somehow.
Taiwan is way into the breastfeeding, even advertising for it. There was a more boobful image I didn't get a picture of, but oh well.
I had to pay when I got on the bus, and then later again when I got off. The sign originally said pay when boarding, but at some point switched to pay on alighting. So I got double charged for going too far.
Bus routes are very confusing when you can't read Chinese.
Delicious street food.
Taiwan is way into Adventure Time, which is good.
More chicken pies.
I couldn't help myself and bought one.
More Adventure Time.
I honestly thought this was a picture of me. I was just supposed to be a picture of how the subway trains look though.
Ash Ketchum and a few other copyrighted characters popped up from time to time in the mind your manners / law videos.
We went out to some kind of somewhere at the edge of the city. There were some outdoor shops and things and ferries we didn't take.
Here are those tea eggs you never heard of. They are cooked in tea, then broken open to get more tea flavor in them.
I didn't even want it, but I didn't want to pass up ridiculousness.
Managed to finish it somehow though.
The tea eggs again, reduced to small black pearls.
Taiwan, like Japan, doesn't understand what Playboy is and it is just a line of clothing here.
More Adventure Time!
Found a temple again.
Germany!
More Playboy confusion.
This smelled awful, but tasted alright.
Funny sex store.
Rather than a Taiwanese lady, we have some blonde lady to tell us about safety and Ash Ketchum.
Who makes a lot of appearances.
Some kind of fried milkness.
Milk is not a vegetable, but okay.
They don't even actually sell frog.
Guns! Just like back home (not Japan).
Found snake to eat!
And Korean food!
More street food.
Stinky tofu smells AWFUL!
Who, me?
Found yet another temple.
Escargot.
Back to the temple.
Accidentally found the penis waffles my friend told me to buy a pair of. Unfortunately, I bought the wrong type (the kind for eating immediately) so they kind of melted before I could get them back. Still tasted good (even days later [though I ate mine for breakfast]).
Gamble away all your money problems next to the waffle dicks.
It's Luffy!
Train ads on the train (also, the gates just remained open so now's your chance to Sparta someone to death).
Got back and here are some pictures of the waffle dicks.
By morning, it was looking a lot less appetizing.
I can't imagine why they missed the opportunity to make these cream-filled.
And that was my first two days in Taiwan. I was scheduled to meet my friends the next day (well, the last three photos are from that day, but whatever) in different towns. Or at least that was the plan.
No comments:
Post a Comment