This was unbelievable…I am taking my smoke break between classes one Saturday afternoon and had the opportunity to see a car get towed…Taiwan-style…the car in question, is of course hemmed in on all four sides by scooters, chains, another car and a building. The tow truck…a flatbed version with a crane also already has another car on it’s bed…and it is blocking traffic in a fairly busy alley…solution…wrap a chain through the front windows and around the roof of the car and hoist it on out,…yep…straight up…plunk it down on top of the other car…yes…right on top…and since we are in a hurry (time is money after all), let’s not bother with winching the car down with tedious, time consuming ropes and knots and cleats…no no no…take that fancy crane and apply even, downward pressure to the roof of the car…smashing and crushing it, in fact smooshing it into the car below…and drive away…3 minutes tops…hadn’t even finished my smoke…
have you faithful contributors seen other sights that make you think…“oh the humanity?”
What you describe is towing an abandoned vehicle away, not your Joe Six-pack parked in the red zone.
Nothing odd here – they will all be taken for scrap.
I’m sure we’ve all seen all manner of stuff being carried on scooters.
My list includes, pig carcass, twelve foot ladder (sideways!), wardrobe, poodle in the front basket, dogs being taken walkies running along side scooters (good exercise tho!)…dammit, there are more whacky scooter tales but I can’t remember them right now!
Ha! About six months ago, while getting the first of my twice-yearly haircuts, sitting in the barber’s-chair, a group of Taiwanese Christians entered the barber shop and began singing “Jesus Loves Me” :shock:.
You’re car being hoisted reminds me of watching them paving a street, using a forklift to pick up and move all the cars that hadn’t heeded the warning signs and were parked where they wanted to pave. I don’t think they do that back home, but actually it seemed like the logical thing to do.
I was in Taichung last week in a Mercedes on the passenger’s side. An old lady in helmet comes walking towards us as we’re driving along, on the traffic side of a line of parked scooters carrying a two-meter long bunch of old metal pipes on her shoulder. She looks right at us, then swings around to get on her scooter and knocks the hell out of my side of the windshield with the backend of the bundle of pipes she’s carrying, cracking the windshield. The driver of the Mercedes just shakes his head as if it happens all the time and keeps going. I look back to see the old woman slowly picking herself up off the road alongside her scooter with her pipes sticking up everywhere around her like matchsticks.
Around 8 years ago down South (Tainan) saw the most ever passengers on a motorcycle (not scooter) 6 persons![u]
The father was transporting his whole family. So one kid on the gasoline tank, the father, then another kid behind, the mother. And to top it off, they had put a wooden plank on the motocycle with the end sticking out on which another 2 kids were clinging to eachother & their mother! Naturally none of them wore helmets. [/u]
They should tow away all cars parking illegally like that - and the scooters, too.
Perhaps than those people will finally learn that they cause the traffic jams and obstructions with their selfish and ignorant attitude.
This is weird, if anything else. Once at 3 in the morning I was driving home on my motorcyle, on that narrow road at the start of the runway by Songshan Airport (where people plane watch). There was an old woman, like really old, slowly walking naked along the airport fence. It looked like a scene from some Blair Witch type horror.
I saw my car fork-lifted a while back. My car was parked opposite a factory. A container truck couldn’t get proper access to the factory for loading. So, they probably decided that my car was the problem and just fork-lifted it to another spot.
In Taiwan they actually fork-lift a lot of cars when they replace the road’s top layer. I saw it several times.
On another occasion at our local temple I saw these guys dancing and hitting their head and back with spiked balls and swords, really bloody, while another guy spit rice wine over them. After a while one of them had enough and dropped to the ground, blood flowing freely.
You all probably now these foot reflexology paths with the stones sticking out. I used to go to the one in 2-28 park. Anyway, one of the regulars there jumped on one foot the total length of the path, ouch!
And what about going on a barbeque at 1:00 AM on a Thursday night (or is it Friday morning?). That’s what I call Taiwan time. I thought it’s weird, my Taiwanese friends didn’t.
Seeing Nox’s post reminded me of the time they resurfaced the road outside work in Hsin Tien. People had left their cars - so along came the forklift - moved them.
Resurfacing completed - the cars were returned (in pretty much the same places as before).
I once saw an old chap riding his scoot while asleep. I pulled up at a red light about 3:00pm on a Saturday afternoon and looked to my right just in time to see him about to meander thru a rather busy intersection (Taizhong Gang and Wen Xin Roads - Taizhong). I quickly caught up and yelled at him and he pulled over apologizing profusely.
A few nights before I’d been riding with two pillions in a back street when I was overtaken by an old geezer who looked stunned to see three foreigners on the same bike. He kept staring at us and we kept staring back until I had the good sense to look ahead and fortunately see a parked car in our path. Alas he didn’t. I turned back but before I could get a warning off, bang, straight into the drivers door as they were getting out and down he went. I made to stop but saw the poor old bugger get up and dust himself off only to then walk into a barrage of abuse from the car’s driver. The last I saw he was lamely pointing in our direction. Unfortunately the car owner didn’t look at all interested.
Come to think of it, there’s lots of crazy scooting tales from Taichung.
I once saw a dog dragging behind a scooter. The guy had obviously forgotten about the dog which had become exhasted and fallen to the ground. The dog was just looking up ahead whining and had red blood tracks behind him for couple of hundred feet.
Saw a naked foreign guy at Q bar when it first opened. What was weird was that there was a quiet, laid-back atmosphere in the bar and the guy was just hanging out at at a table talking.
Not long ago, I was treated to the sight of a naked Japanese band member lighting his pubes on fire in Underworld. Later, he stuck a straw up his ass and stood on his head.
Saw a topless woman dancing at a weiya with numerous kids present.
I know it’s a common sight, but I will never get used to seeing the shirtless, legless beggars pull themselves around on the ground around snake alley. Off topic really, but has anyone noticed how much shorter the crowd is around Snake alley.
Actually, now that I think of it, I see much weirder shit in the States.
Ah, that would be “Ian.” Australian chap, used to work at Ulead as a marketing specialist. If you bought him a bottle of tequila he’d get naked and spend the rest of the evening like that enjoying his free booze.
