31 March 2011
Taiwanese people hate fancy shops
Tonight I set off into the fancy shopping district.
Despite every little side alley and night market being chock full of people, the fancy shopping area was all but deserted.
It was all the regular chanel/gucci/louis vutton stuff that is of no interest to me, but I wonder how these shops are remaining open.
I did manage to get completely lost walking around the area, not really an issue you can navigate by Taipei 101.
So because theres not much to tell except for my dinner which the pictures will tell (this makes little or no sense) I will now take this opportunity to tell some stories from earlier in the day I neglected to include.
When I was riding the subway there was a small boy in a baby stroller, he was very happy and kept standing up in the stroller and bouncing up and down. His mother was repeatedly trying to get him to sit down, but he kept pulling his legs up out of the holes they go through and trying to climb out.
Eventually, the mother had had enough of this, and pulled the canopy all the way over the stroller so that all you could see of the baby was his legs. His legs soon disappeared again, I was watching intently at this stage inside the stroller there was a lot of commotion going on for a few minutes, then it all stopped. Had he suffocated?
Then, all of a sudden, his head popped out of one of the leg holes, and he had the proudest look on his face I ever saw.
Now for some language stories.
Whilst I was at the flower fair there were a lot of school children, and many of them would look at me and say Hello!
The game went like this each time
(child): hello!
(me): good morning, how are you today?
(child with confused look on face): ...........hello!
Now the other language story, each time I buy something, I assumed I was being spoken to in Taiwanese (Hakka I think its called), pretty much everyone say the same thing.
I have since worked out they are actually speaking english, and saying 'preciate', which is chinese for 'appreciate', which is short for 'we appreciate your custom, good day to you fine sir'.
Why they are taught to try and say appreciate rather than thank you, I have no idea.
A random furry beatles cover band was appearing inside a giant abandoned mall for no reason, playing yellow submarine, with dog barking noises for vocals.
Whilst we're on a dog theme, these dog grooming places are everywhere, theres competing franchises like 711/familymart is for humans.
Looking down inside a giant mall, with no people.
And this is the high end luxury goods outdoor mall, also abandoned.
I said I wouldnt post any more photos of the building, but I lied. I had no tripod and nowhere to balance my camera, so instead you get post modern neonist.
Heres my dinner, this is the national dish of Taiwan. Beef Noodle Soup. I loaded it up with chilli as well, it was delicious. My eyes were watering, it felt fantastic, the fire was quickly put out with a bubble tea afterwards.
Theres not a lot of big buildings in Taipei, due to earthquake concerns, but a few are popping up in the new taipei area. Plus you get some light streaming effect from long exposures for good measure. Now all I need is a waterfall and some fireworks for the cliche trifecta.