Taiwan in My Eyes

After 11 days in Taiwan, below are some titbits on Taiwan. 

1. Taiwan is really the Land of Scooter
Many Taiwanese were not familiar with public transport because most owned a scooter. It's convenient and fuel saving. Somehow in the Taiwanese novel, many heroine owned a scooter, but not the hero. The hero would normally own a car. That's odd. Almost half of the motorists were male, as far as I could see on the road from my 11 days there.

Scooters in Taiwan

Scooters in Taiwan

2. Generally, Taiwanese are friendly, but it's not true for some of the bus drivers / taxi drivers

We met many helpful and friendly Taiwanese along the way, however, some of the Taiwanese bus drivers were on par with the Malaysian drivers, they were impatient and didn't talk nicely to the commuters. Well, I get it, the road was jammed, the bus was packed to the brim, and the clueless tourists still kept asking the dumb questions, etc. (Well, although we tourists already researched about the price or schedule, sometimes,  we need some assurance!). And the most important thing was they also drove dangerously. When I went to and left Alishan, I took bus and taxi respectively, both speeding on the hilly area, and even overtook car in front of them although it was a blind spot! I was so scared, but I refrained myself from correcting the drivers, I was afraid they would drive more crazily. I just prayed in my heart. I am very thankful that I am well and alive.

3. Personally, I like the Taichung BRT concept, too bad, it will be abolished soon
The concept was like train station, the commuter swipe the easycard to enter the stop and waited for the bus, then boarded the bus and upon reaching the destination, depart from the stop after swipe the easycard. In this way, the bus driver didn't have to spend time to collect the bus fare, he or she just concentrate on driving. Plus, since there's a dedicated lane for the BRT, it wouldn't be so affected by the traffic jam. I hope that the Sunway BRT will be a success and do not follow the path of Taichung BRT.

Taichung BRT

4. Coin laundry shop is not as easy to find as I have imagined

It is easier to find coin laundry in big cities, however, in Alishan and Cingjing, I didn't see any coin laundry shops. Maybe we were staying in the more touristy area. Well, not many of my friends would laundry their clothes during any trips, most would bring enough to last the whole trip. However, I am not the kind who is strong enough to lug the big luggage around. For me, a 20kg luggage is the max, anything more than that, it will become a burden and slow me down.

a coin laundry shop in Taichung

5. Other than human, the traffic light have icon for bicycle too

I saw one in Taipei, so cute!

icon for bicycle for the traffic light

6. Most of the takeaway drinks were sealed 

Well, I didn't know whether it's standard or not. But, most of the restaurants / eateries I went have a plastic cup sealer, so the drinks would be sealed nicely. It's very convenient, no danger of spillage. 

sealed paper cup (for takeaway)

7. MIT  stands for Made in Taiwan

When I first saw this MIT, I couldn't catch the meaning. After that, then only I understood it. It's 'Made in Taiwan'. Well, I bought 2 MIT shoes. LOL! The quality was good and it's very affordable. 

MIT (luggages made in Taiwan)

8. Political Campaigning was very intense in Taiwan, if not more than Malaysia

When I was in Taiwan, it was the campaigning time for local elections to choose the mayor for each state. In Malaysia, we will see many small political flags, but in Taiwan, it's just a big huge posters of the candidates stuck to some buildings. I wondered the owners got paid for this posters or not. I think one big poster is good enough, the flags war was quite wasteful, there's no use for the small flags after elections and it's a mess to remove the flags. One big poster is good because after elections, it could be removed easily and maybe could be reuse. I saw some market vendors use the used posters as the top cover for their stall. LOL!

an election campaign poster in Jiayi

an election campaign poster in Sun Moon Lake

Well, I was in Taiwan for eleven days, but I met quite a few politicians there, not really met, but observe from afar. Hahaha! One of them using a car convoy to meet with the voters.

using car convoy for election campaign in Changhua

The biggest surprise was when I back from Jiufen and stopped at Ruifang, the politician was using a concert to campaign. Initially, I thought it was a normal concert, then Miyoshi san told us it's due to elections. Wow!

using songs for election campaign

Other than that, the campaigning was extended to TV advertisements, not only to advertise themselves, but also to smear the opponents. Overall, I think all the politicians are the same, no matter it's in Malaysia or Taiwan. What they did was just to get the votes.