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Sore feet...

Damn, has it already been 2 weeks? Can't believe I'll be leaving back to the States tomorrow. Definitely not enough time here. Since most of it was spent on mandatory family functions this didn't seem to be much of a vacation. More like a giant 2 week long feast.

Anyway, today I had some free time since Erin ditched me to go kroakin' with her cousin and high school friend. And since I've recently become infatuated with these things (even though I know I really shouldn't), I decided to hit 5 of the 6 major department stores in Kaohsiung to check out if any of their toy departments might have the ones I was looking for. On foot. And also pick up some reading material for the trip home, look for a pet fish store and pick up my contact lenses while I was at it. I started off at around 2 and had four and a half hours to kill before having to meet up with all my relatives for one final dinner near my last department store destination.

So with nothing but a somewhat deceptive tourist map that my dad picked up from somewhere which looked sorta like this but with the more popular tourist destinations on it and my Canon dRebel stashed away in my lil' Timbuk2 messenger bag, I walked out into the 90 degree, 80% humidity midday air.

Those Taiwan veterans reading this will probably say, "So? What's the big deal. Take one of the ubiquitous and cheap cabs from place to place and you're done in two hours or less." Yes, that's what the weak/mentally sane would do. I decided I needed to get down and dirty (literally, since you get pretty nasty after being outside for awhile, what with the humidity and car and scooter exhausts and all) and walk everywhere instead.

Now walking in a Taiwanese city is quite unlike walking in say, New York City. In New York, you only really need to worry about other pedestrians and maybe an aggressive cabby or two. In Kaohsiung, as became clear to me pretty quickly, there are no other pedestrians. The only people walking around during the day are young school kids and old people (who aren't going very far to begin with). "Great!" you US pedestrians would say, "You get the whole sidewalk to yourself!" Ha ha, foolish pedestrian, Taiwan cities don't have what those of us in the US would deem proper sidewalks. Except for the blocks that contain the department stores. What you get instead on a typical Taiwan block is actually a rather wide "sidewalk", half of which is conveniently covered by the building that this portion of the sidewalk is in front of, while the other half is exposed to the elements. This layout is actually quite nice except for the fact that: 1. You share this space with parked scooters and merchandise (if the first floor of the building happens to be a store) and 2. These sidewalks, while generally of the same layout, vary greatly in condition, building material, and most disconcerting of all, height.

Fact #1 is worse than it might originally sound. Remember my comment that there are no pedestrians in Kaohsiung? That's cause everybody and their dog gets around in a scooter. And where else are you gonna park these scooters except on the sidewalk? They're usually parked in double rows in the unshaded areas of the sidewalk but in the more populous areas, they start creeping into the shaded areas as well.

Fact #2 is what makes walking in any Taiwan city an adventure in and of itself. In New York City, the sidewalks are mostly uniform. From block to block, the sidewalks are mostly flat and look pretty much the same. Not so in Taiwan. Picture an entire block of brownstone-width buildings, each having its own sidewalk area that matches the building itself. If the building happens to be a car-repair shop, there is no sidewalk, it's actually a driveway leading into the garage. If it's an eatery of some sort, you have outdoor seating year round. Some of these sidewalk areas can be more than a foot taller or lower than the neighboring sidewalk areas. There are also small sewage trenches between some sidewalks. Some sidewalks are relatively flat while others can slope in one direction or another.

So combine fact #1 with fact #2 and basically walking in Taiwan is like traversing your own lil' maze. Sometimes you'll walk in the shaded areas (preferable cause of the weather), sometimes you'll have to pop out onto the unshaded areas and when it gets really iffy, you gotta step onto the street for awhile. No daydreaming while on the go either cause you can find yourself flat on your face in a hurry. And to cap it all off, I get the distinct impression that "pedestrians have the right of way" is not something that holds much weight over here. While the scooters and cars won't blatantly run you over, it's safer to just walk defensively and get the hell out of their way (or let them go by first) when you're crossing streets.

But anyway, I didn't have that bad of a time walking to my destinations. It wasn't massively hot (unless I had to step out into the sun) but still warm enough to work up a good sweat after awhile. When that happened I just stepped into a 7-Eleven and made a couple of loops around the aisles to cool off for a bit before continuing on. It was a very, very long walk though as I pretty much walked the width of the major city area and a good chunk of the north-south axis (multiple times even) as well. It helped that 2 of the department stores were right next to each other while another one was only a few blocks away but that was mitigated by the fact that the fish store I was seeking was quite a distance away from everything else.

Speaking of the fish store, the one I found didn't really have that much different fish than what we have in the US but they were cheaper. What I was really impressed with was that their foreground plants were pre-weaved into wire mesh so that like sod, you could basically buy patches of these mesh/plant combos and plant them right into the substrate. Heck of a lot easier to deal with then trying to plant those things individually or in bunches. And the aquariums themselves here are soooooo awesome. They're mostly the completely clear acrylic tanks that don't seem to have made their way to the US yet. None of those boring block shapes with black plastic edgings. Simply gorgeous and they're damn cheap too!

Anyhoo, it was a pretty good day and I made it to dinner with a healthy appetite going. Unfortunately the toll of today's walk didn't hit me until now. Sore feet and ankles. Real bummer. But oh well, it was an interesting day. =)

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Comments (3)

Hey Ben... you pick up... disposable contacts in Taiwan? Just wondering, because actually even though I now live in the U.S., I always buy my U.S. brand contacts in Taipei... MUCH cheaper and you don't need a prescription. You don't do the same, do you?

Ben:

Eh, yeah I did actually. I picked up a new pair of glasses (last pair I got was also in Taiwan right before I left 5 years ago) and since I was also out of contacts and had just gotten an eye exam (which I like getting in Taiwan cause they're free), I decided to pick up a few boxes too. It's been awhile since I've actually purchased contacts in the US so not entirely sure how much cheaper they are in Taiwan.

anticar:

Eh, you've been in the northeast for too long! You forget that sidewalks are a rarity in some places here too, and not quite as interesting as Kaoshiung -- just wide swathes of concrete sustaining speeding, gasoline-guzzling SUV behemoths...

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This page contains a single entry from the blog posted on June 10, 2005 11:48 AM.

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