18 March 2014
Further orientation required
Doing no research on where you are other than knowing how to get to your hotel, then setting out on foot in no particular direction in the dark, can lead you on some real adventures.
I am not entirely sure where the main part of the city is, perhaps there is none! I found streets full of hardware stores, scooter shops, LED lighting, books, anime, cameras, and pop up markets full of things deep fried on sticks, but what I didnt find was any proper restaurants, parks, nice areas generally with modern looking stores.
Now, Taipei has areas like this too, but every mile or so you come to a new area of ultra modern cleanliness, I didnt really find any yet!
Springing up out of a construction site for the Bus Rapid Transit (effectively a bus lane up the middle of the road), is a massive Sogo store, its here where I ate.
The problem is I got there right on closing, so choices were limited, as you will see. I really just wanted somewhere to sit down for 20 minutes!
As the night went on, I think some of the smog went away, because in the distance, perhaps nearer where I had been, or started from, I could see some big modern looking buildings, but as of right now, I dont know how to get to them.
I did see lots of massively uneven footpaths, every store maintains their own, its dangerous, much of it is polished marble tiles which they then spray with a hose every 3 minutes.
I saw more scooters than I have ever seen, and tasted them too, they are all still 2 stroke petrol motors. Mainland China has banned them and replaced with electric only.
I also saw a huge number of bakeries, in every sort of street, these were very modern and all had tables and chairs and many had waitresses to take your order. But I didnt really think cake was appropriate for dinner.
I also saw a lot of dogs just wandering about, a sure sign you are in the shitty part of town.
Now I have seen on google images and whatever, lots of photos of nice areas of Taichung, so I know they exist!
Despite the relative filth (coming from Japan), you still get the whole community thing going on, with markets popping up everywhere, dancing, card games in the middle of the road, rollerblading lessons, dog dress up parade, break dancing, do your homework at the bus stop with a tutor etc.
Photos arent anything special, just snapped a few times whilst wandering for 4 hours.
These markets are literally, in the road. The road is not blocked off. People just wheel more and more crap out into the road and expect pedestrians and buses to play nice.
Sometimes the markets go around blind corners, with big woks of boiling oil precariously placed.
A random brightly lit street with no restaurants. In Taiwan, pedestrian crossings do not mean cross the road, they mean cross the road when nothings coming, cars and scooters just ignore them.
More scooters than the eye can see. At least here they left a path for pedestrians, often the entire footpath is taken up by parked scooters and you must walk on the road in the traffic.
As dangerous as this sounds, you just have to place faith in oncoming traffic to swerve to avoid you, like they do everyone else, most of the time.
There are many tiny little unattended shops like this, with these amusement games where you try and get something out of the glass case. I mean I saw 50 such places, all without a single customer.
Every neighbourhood has its own temple of some description. Usually with Neon, often with people playing the lottery, perhaps they take their scratchie lotto tickets to the temple for good luck.
I spotted these twin towers and decided there must be some sort of centre of commerce nearby.
Indeed there was, with quite a few new looking buildings.
And a giant ice cream, out the front of yet another upmarket cafe serving cake and bubble tea.
So I ended up with Japanese Omurice. Boring. But $2.
Unfortunately it came with all the fishy tasting things on it and in it and with it. These things taste better than they smell.