Tell that to Rosa Parks.[/quote]
Charlie, thank you! :roflmao:
But biggie, maybe you don’t travel around the island as often as I do.
HSR: too expensive
Bus: takes too damn long
But with the train, especially in the summer, ifya dont buy your ticket early, ya wont have a seat! But guess what Einstein, not everyone lives next door to the train station nor has loads of time to take a special trip there just to buy their ticket. So it makes perfect and total absolute sense to buy it beforehand. Unless ya wanna either stand in the aisle or sit between cars, in the blazing summer, with no AC there. Especially if your trip is 3+ hours or so…then more travel once you get to the station (rural Taiwan is hardly accessible by train, and buses just take too long). So when I have a 2-3 hour rented scooter ride AFTER riding the train, I would like to be able to have a cumfy seat. The color of my skin should not keep me from being able to do that easily.
So yeah, there are plenty of reasons to both take the train and be able to buy the ticket beforehand, without going to the station.[/quote]
- I appreciate that you feel I am of advanced intellect, but I am not actually Einstein, though I do love his gnarly mustache.
- Life is only as hard as you make it. The world you live in can be an absolute nightmare, or paradise on earth, with no difference except the way you view it. You don’t live next door to the train station? Ok, then either travel to the station one day when you have time, or move next door to a train station. Want to buy the ticket beforehand? Then do it. Or don’t. Your choice. If you get a seat, then sit in it. If you have to stand in the isle, then stand in the isle. If you have to stay between cars, then stay between cars. Since this form of transportation was chosen by you despite other options, because it is the best mix of price and time effective, then why complain about the downsides? There are obviously up sides, and you chose it. No AC? So what? Choose a form of transport with AC if you need it. You mentioned that you have to ride a scooter for 3 hours after the train. Well, it seems to me that you would want to stand on the train then, so that your butt is fresh for the scooter ride. I would hate being in a seated position on the train for hours, then hop off and sit on a scooter for 3 hours.
- Everyone is responsible for their own situation. The color of your skin is not a problem. You can’t read or speak Mandarin? That’s your fault, learn. You can read and speak? Great, then you must have a problem because you’re not a citizen? Then become a citizen. You are a citizen and you can also read and speak Mandarin? Well, then the problem you are facing with the crappy website is still not designed to single you out, it’s obviously just as crappy for everyone else. It’s only crappy for foreigners? Ok, then that means its just as crappy for foreigners of every race, not just your race.
- Too far? Move closer. Too expensive? Make more money. Too slow? Choose something faster. Don’t like sitting? Stand.
I guess what I am saying is, things could be much, much worse. The environment you are in, every advantage, every disadvantage, every single detail, is a direct reflection of the choices you have made, and you have the power to change it how you see fit.
Of course if Taiwan is just such a racist, backwards, corrupt, incompetent place, then you could always… leave?
Just my two cents. I know the “tone” of a conversation can be lost in translation when reading it in text form, but I mean no disrespect to you at all, just trying to illustrate my view on the situation. I hope it works out for you, and I hope you have a safe trip.