I’ll take the honor and start this badboy off right here:
1. If everyone in Taiwan refused to use a straw for sipping purposes for one day, and you link those straws that they would have used together, end-to-end, you could take a sip of tea crouching in Beijing while the cup of tea was hidden in Taipei.
2… If you stand on a busy street in Taipei for one day, you will see more scooters than you will for the rest of the days in your life, combined (if u live in an non-asian country).
3… There is a sticker that people stick on the back of their scooters in Taiwan that is similar to the “share the road” sticker that encourage drivers to share the road with bicycles…except that this sticker suggests that pedestrians should learn to share the sidewalk with scooters.
Whose got #4?
Bonus Question: While typing “end-to-end” why did i suddenly think of me and you and everyone we know and requiem for a dream?
In nightmarkets and other crowded places, if you walk with your head facing to either side or just don’t pay any attention to where you’re walking or what/who your walking on (as apposed to facing straight ahead or watching where you’re going), you’ll be bumped into a lot less.
It’s almost like a Taiwanese 6th sense, if they know you’re watching the road, then they’ll mostly presume you’ll give way, if you don’t - then you can expect a sharp elbow as you pass; however, if they feel that you’re unaware of them, then their survival sense kicks in and most of the time they’ll give way.
I’ve tried this quite a few times and it REALLY does work!
Do not expect merchants to let you return something you buy, either for refunds or exchanges for something else. Every sale is effectively final despite of what they may say or advertise on TV or in prints.
heyhey dont knock the hotsprings. THere are a few hovel type ones on YM shan that are basically shacks but have a big tub and a lot of nice sulfurous hot spring water. Took my gf to one yesterday. ITs the first time shes ever been to one and shes lived in Taipei the last 3 years. At first she was all “this is not five star” but later got into the groove and discovered the beauty of being in a nice hot tub of hotspring water in a shack on YMS, taiwanese ktv blaring away a short distance away. Thats the beauty of it, in its simplicity.
Yea, that’s the problem with mom and pop shops, every sale is pretty much final. The big warehouse store however will often allow returns in a reasonable time. I wish they have large music stores though because everyone of them are pretty much mom and pop and all sales are final. I remember in Guitar Center you could return anything if you were not satisfied with them within 30 days for any reason.
[quote=“Chris”]Here’s an “incredible fact” I came across in a Taiwanese publication not so long ago:
Taiwan boasts the highest mountain in Southeast Asia!
Hmmmm… Malaysia’s Mt. Kinabalu is higher. And Taiwan’s not even in Southeast Asia!
[/quote]
Hmm, yes, I questioned a student’s Taiwanese mountain claims in an essay once. ‘Taiwan have the JADE MOUNTAIN there is biggest in the Asia.’ Poor dear seemed quite confused about them ole Himalayas being considered ‘Asian’. Where could that confusion come from? Simply random daftness?
BC is probably a step ahead of everyone else. To clarify:
Chimborazo is furthest from the centre of the earth in the world. It’s in S America. If you measured Asian mountains in that way, Kinabalu would be the highest.
But BFM that’s a daft way to measure it. You have to have some sense of how high the mountain is to climb, and even though most people don’t set off to climb tall mountains from the seaside, sea level does make a good notional starting point. Also the heights of the mountains would all be measured in thousands of miles, with only tiny differences.
#6 Scooters have absolute right to win when involved in a crash
my future brother in law actually hit one that turned left through his car and ended up shelling out for the following:
40k damage to his car
scooter driver’s medical expenses
scooter driver’s scooter
scooter driver’s personal damaged property
Dude, when I hit your car I broke my leg, my scooter was in almost new condition before, and err, you broke my cell phone, my digital camera … and dont forget my oakley sunglasses!.. laptop… and err did I mention I was also carrying an original picasso sketchbook that was destroyed?
It depends how much of a thug you look like. When a scooter with two scooter punks hit my car I got out and told them to wait right there while I go and find a pay fone to call the cops. Needless to say they took off (I had a cell fone on me but chose to use this ruse).
The other time I was backing in and there was a scooter (brand new it seemed) in the way between my car and this blue truck. Two teenagers were in the truck watching me. Well I kinda scrunched the scooter and I heard a loud crack. The kids jumped outa the blue truck but upon seeing me told me no problem they will go and fix their scooter themselves and even though they just got it that afternoon it was no problem really!!
I guess when you have a perm and the police put an M16 in your face at a check point, you can get away with scooter bashing??
“Ten years ago, Ma recalled, during his tenure as mayor of Taipei, he took the lead in offering free e-mail addresses to 250,000 city residents as part of his efforts to promote e-government. At the time, neither hotmail nor yahoo had done so.”
“Ten years ago, Ma recalled, during his tenure as mayor of Taipei, he took the lead in offering free e-mail addresses to 250,000 city residents as part of his efforts to promote e-government. At the time, neither hotmail nor yahoo had done so.”[/quote]Priceless!
