About a year ago, I mused that the vehicle of Lagos was the VW bus. Now I'm here to say that the vehicle of Taipei is the scooter.
No, it's not like every single person has one. But there are a lot, and they change the whole dynamic of vehicle street life in Taipei. It's easy to see. They're fast, maneuverable, economical, easy to park, and don't take up much space. You see grandmothers in flipflops, young couples, businessmen with jackets and ties, casual commuters, people from all walks of life, all wearing helmets, zipping through traffic on the things.
Between the parked ones and the active ones, depending on the time of day, there could be a hundred or so scooters per square block. Then the cabs. After those, you wonder if there's any room left for cars. But there are. And yet, even during the busy times, the traffic seems to flow. Maybe because I'm not driving but resting in the backs of cabs that seem to know their way around.
I wish I could give you a sense of life in Taipei, but I can't. There simply hasn't been enough free time. On my day off, I went to the National Museum, followed by a long walk in crushing heat and unremarkable stretches of road because I'm stupid and stubborn, took a nap back in the room because jet lag is driving me crazy, and went to the market to pick up stuff for the Descendants. I took a few pictures out of all that. The limited experience I've had is much like Korea or Hong Kong, charming in its own way, somewhat routine after you've been through it a couple times, but always with the dynamics and charm of the people to make it a unique experience.
Charm of the people. Customer service, like in Seoul, is off the charts. The nice ladies in the hotel club room arranged a free shuttle ride to the National Museum. The driver was friendly, polite, and refused a tip. Once I got back from the Museum (and showered and changed) and indicated a desire to visit a market, they huddled and decided which market I'd like. I got a cab that they arranged, got to the market, and asked the driver about the fare. He said the hotel picked it up. Seriously, where else do you get service like that?
When I was talking with the lovely hotel people about the museum trip, I asked for a card for a cab. It was one of my few smart moves. PLEASE REMEMBER: If you travel overseas, hotels will generally have a card that you take with you to hand to a cabbie. I imagine it says, "Bring this ignorant passenger to this hotel without screwing them over too badly. Here's our address." Who knows, but it's worked for me every time so far. My first cab ride cost 165 dollars. The second, 205 dollars. Gasp! you say. Not so fast. At the exchange rate, that's five and a half bucks US and $6.80, respectively.
It is Hot here. And Humid. Maybe that doesn't mean so much to you folks who are used to that stuff. But when I decided to walk from the National Museum, and it turned out there was nothing close, and a few miles later I was drenched in sweat and thankful for any place that was halfway cool and could feed me, it meant something.
After getting wet-scorched on that walk, I finally came to what I was looking for, a little local restaurant that appeared as an oasis on the far side of an otherwise drab expanse of highway and sidewalk. It was all right, and I'm being generous. The proprietor kept pointing to things I couldn't read, and I presume she was asking me what I wanted. I finally conveyed to her, "You choose." She said, "You want hot?" "Sure." So good so far.
The resulting meal was tasty enough, plentiful enough, with beef, vegetable, and noodles in a bowl of broth, not particularly spicy but spicy enough, but with the place having an ambience that would have leave my hometown Health Department in shock, a few gristly pieces in the bowl that I had to surreptitiously redeposit, and the complete absence of the proprietor except to bring me food and collect my money, kinda made me wonder if I should've waited. That question was answered after I paid my four bucks US and left. A string of establishments fronted the sidewalk as I continued my walk. A couple of them looked nice.
I had left the Museum with the thought that I would figure out public transportation to somewhere else or catch an Uber, which I was told isn't entirely legal, which appealed to the bad boy in me, especially since on my arrival I'd caught an Uber from the airport to the hotel before I knew I was in the Services Black Market. But my phone simply wasn't finding a signal. You rememember that little restaurant, right? Come on - it was only a paragraph ago, and I couldn't stop talking about it. One of the reasons I stopped in there was because there was a "WIFI" sign in the window. I asked the lady about wifi, she pretended to look for a piece of paper, then gave me the charge for the meal.
So anyway, no telling if public transporation would take me home or to Hell, no Uber, and I finally surrendered and flagged a cab. If I'd simply done that at the museum, I would've saved myself an hour or so walking in draining heat and sweating out about 14 pounds of water. Hence the "stupid and stubborn" comment a few paragraphs ago.
The market that the hotel sent me to and paid the cab fare for, again, was fine. Much like a narrow-street market anywhere else, with little shops packed together with all kinds of things. It apparently catered more to locals, because I was looking for clothes that said "Taipei" or "Taiwan," and what they offered was the more exotic and cool fare that indicated everywhere else. I finally came across one young man running a shop who hustled to find what I was looking for, and he was rewarded with cash for handing over a stack of DescendantWear. By then the day was winding down, and after a few more saunterings, I caught a cab back to the hotel through "rush hour" traffic that the cabbie negotiated expertly, and dinner in the club room.
That was my time out on the town. That aside, it's been pretty much work, hard work, throughout the weekend, and not much travelogue to show for it. I don't know the difference, if any, between Taipei and New Taipei City. I don't know what district my hotel is in. I still have yet to get on public rail transportation, which is generally interesting.
I'm not complaining. It's a business trip, after all. And, well... we're supposedly in typhoon mode more or less, but aside from driving rain one evening and the stuck elevator (related elsewhere), weather hasn't been a factor.
One more day of work, then hustling to the airport early morning after. Traveling is always nice, and Taiwan is a place I hope to return to someday with a little more time to call my own. But right now I'm kinda tired and ready for one more day of work and get back home.
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Just an interesting gate across the street on the Long Hot Walk.
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At the main entrance of the National Museum. A mist, hinting at the distant typhoon, falls gently on the grounds.
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Outside of the street market, more on the main drag, to give a sense of the neighborhood and the proliferation of scooters.
