I was passing by Hsinchu yesterday (May 3). I intended to walk from the train station to Tsinghua university. On an intersection a scooter with a white caucasian guy ~35 years old stopped nearby and the guy offered me a lift. I agreed. When we were passing by the place where I thought Tsinghua was, he told me that it was still very far and we were less than half way to the place. After a while, I realized that he was getting to the suburbs and heading outside of the town. I asked him to stop, but he told me that he had to go to his place first to pick up car keys and that were were still very far. When he stopped on the next intersection, I just got off without warning, he tried to convince me to get back on but I just walked away.
It turned out that he had actually passed by Tsinghua without telling me… He told me that he had been living in Hsinchu for 8 years, so he could not have not known where Tsinghua was… He said he was Australian, he sounded kind of Australian too, but I’m not too sure. His hair was rather blond.
I am a young tall man, so, to do anything bad he would have to be armed or have accomplices. I hope it was just a misunderstanding, but I doubt it. PLEASE BE CAREFUL!
P.S. Moderators: I wasn’t sure where to post this message, so feel free to move it to a different part of the forum.
Yeah, you are right. I apologize for an overgeneralized title. What I meant was: be careful, don not get into a car or on a bike with someone you don’t know in Hsinchu.
I dunno… I’ve travelled around Asia and lived in mainland China for a while and all kinds of trouble were always from locals, not from “foreigners”… Maybe that’s what surprised and worried me.
Nah… for me those were always locals…
Well, you know, most of the time, worldwide, when people offer help they actually want to help. If I were a girl or if it was in some deserted place, I might have been more careful. I had thoughts, but, you know scooter is rather easy to get off. That’s what I did easily. If he refused to stop, he would have been putting his life into just a much risk as mine.
Anyway, just wanted to share.
You are right to post up here, there are some nutters floating around Taiwan…blend in easily here and nobody knows their background…good to be aware of.
Yeah good constructive OP. Don’t think many of us would pass up an offered lift by a waiguo, i certainly wouldn’t. So if there are madmen out there, we should know about them. Still, all seems a little strange, White Man tries to pick-up White Man. You’d think if he was here for a bit of murder and necrophilia (and I can’t think of any other reason he would try and ‘kidnap’ you) he’d be keener to try the smooth yellow manflesh.
Are you kidding? You have to be kidding, right? That’s just pure dead mad.[/quote]
I lived in Asia for ten years and only ever got assaulted or stolen from by white males. The last person I’d get in a car with in Taiwan would be an unknown white guy. Top of the list for potential mental health or substance abuse probs with a little added extra hostility towards women ‘from home’.
Obviously, as in your own country, it’s a small chance of running into a nutter, but it’s still a chance, and with expats, the whacko to norm ratio is higher than in your own population.
Be safe, and don’t fall into the newbie trap of thinking that nothing bad can happen to them because you’re on holiday from the ‘real world’. be more cautious than you would back home, not less.
having said that, it doesn’t sound like anything weird was going on from the way you described it. But if you were feeling uncomfortable, you should always listen to that.
It’s sad but true. The real nutters in Canada are mostly the hippies bumming the rides and the whack jobs who actually pick them up. Everyone else is just predictably cold and boring. That’s why we get out of there in such large numbers.
About the Hsinchu incident(I feel a made-for-TV-Taiwanese-movie here), anyone overly friendly freaks me out - especially when they’re white and they should know more about western etiquette(ie. looking away and pretending the other foreigner doesn’t exist).
Well lets just assume for one second that the guy is not a homosexual out to rape and murder our hitchhiker just for one second. Since Hsinchu is not really all that big and its really boring as all fuck (maybe its better since i was last there in 99 i give it that…but it was pretty frickin useless then) this guy just thought it was pretty cool to have a chance to make a friend. So he thought he could drop by and as a by the way, show you his pad and just sort of chill and hang out a bit then take you to the college? Maybe he really is desperate for a wingman to hang out with?? I guess his approach freaked the shit outa you (and who wouldnt get freaked out in that way).
But maybe he could be just harmless, maybe. Still I guess the phobia that is modern America will make it to Taiwan sooner or later. IN the USA we are all deathly afraid of strangers and often , sadly , for good reason.
But maybe hark back in time a few decades and running into someone offering you a ride into town wasnt considered life threatening? And was a proper prelude to just making friends?
Roll back to the 80s . I had a car and a boring Saturday afternoon to myself. I went to get an icecream at the Foremost in Shihlin and sat next to two young white guys bout my age, a few years younger. I just said “hey you guys wanna go to the beach and check out some chicks?” Both dudes said “ya sure” . We had a great time out in Fulung. Dint manage to score with any hot ladies but it was just a fun afternoon. Me just a bored guy with a free afternoon. Them just two bored guys with no ride and an offer to check out chicks at the beach. That was the only time i hung out with those guys and it was just a “hey we are here, lets make something out of it” kinda thing. Imagine today what those guys will write on forumosa ???
They will write “Man some FAG tried to pick us up in his car today” and there would be five pages detailing how sick the world has become?
That reminds me of the time way back when me and my mate were chilling out at the Foremost in Shilin, and some dude offered to give us a ride to the beach in his car. We like went along with it, and got to the beach and back safely, but looking back on the incident I’m pretty sure he was just trying to get laid. We still argue about which one of us he really wanted .
I may have been a bit general with my views earlier, but if it’s daylight and some friendly Aussie dude with a good rap offers me a scooter lift downtown (and he’s got a spare helmet), I’m jumping on the back. My big worry is that he can drive safely, not that he’s gonna chop me into slices. Perhaps I’ve been out in the rice fields too long - we’re all family down here.
[quote=“Nuit”]That reminds me of the time way back when me and my mate were chilling out at the Foremost in Shilin, and some dude offered to give us a ride to the beach in his car. We like went along with it, and got to the beach and back safely, but looking back on the incident I’m pretty sure he was just trying to get laid. We still argue about which one of us he really wanted .
I may have been a bit general with my views earlier, but if it’s daylight and some friendly Aussie dude with a good rap offers me a scooter lift downtown (and he’s got a spare helmet), I’m jumping on the back. My big worry is that he can drive safely, not that he’s gonna chop me into slices. Perhaps I’ve been out in the rice fields too long - we’re all family down here.[/quote]
Thanks for the laugh nuit
Honestly speaking though, its really just a lot harder to even make friends to hang out with these days dont you think?
Go to any cafe in Berkeley these days and everyone has their own computer and absolutely no one will speak to anyone else there who didnt come there with them or they know. We are becoming more and more impersonal as a society today. And ladies think any guy paying them any attention is some axe murderer and rapist out to case them and get them the second they leave the cafe and guys who dont pay attention are all gay. We are certainly not open to any person of the same sex talking to us because they may be gay?
So whereas for sure danger exists everywhere, but the PHOBIA is far greater.
I did a greyhound tour of the USA by myself in the 80s and ended up in Miami waiting for another bus to Miami beach. ONly two other people there besides the workers. Some older black pimp gansta dude trying to talk me into something and this other white dude who was also going to Miami beach. Turns out hes on his second visit to see the space shuttle blast off. He suggested a good hotel where its cheap and next door to a bigger and more expensive hotel (where there are a lot of brit girl tourists). So we ended up sharing a room to save costs and spent a few days girl hunting next door. Met up with a few hot ladies and I almost scored (but he did cuz he stayed longer and had more rico-suave). So it turned out to be an ok thing. He later visited me in Taiwan and I set him up with one of my lady friends (and he called me later and said simply WOW). I went to Germany and the only person he could rustle up was his sister (I passed). Girls are bitchin difficult in Germany even for hot German guys apparently Or perhaps once again I was missin the rico-suave?
Can you imagine that sort of stuff happening today? Most guys would be freaked out by some other dude at a greyhound bus depot suggesting sharing a hotel room??? We would be like “are you shittin me dude?”
so times they are different. The weirdos are out there (they have always been), but I do think the PHOBIA is way way bigger today.
It’s sad but true. The real nutters in Canada are mostly the hippies bumming the rides and the whack jobs who actually pick them up. Everyone else is just predictably cold and boring. That’s why we get out of there in such large numbers.
About the Hsinchu (Xinzhu) incident(I feel a made-for-TV-Taiwanese-movie here), anyone overly friendly freaks me out - especially when they’re white and they should know more about western etiquette(ie. looking away and pretending the other foreigner doesn’t exist).[/quote]
Hey!!! I am Canadian!
That guy was anything but Canadian
.
