Taiwanese peculiarities and interesting anecdotes

Almost everyday I encounter things here in Taiwan that are very different and a bit special about the way that the Taiwanese do things. Here are some examples.

I saw this while driving down a road and I had to stop take a look. This is, eh, indoor Taiwanese fishing. People sitting down indoors around an artificial pool and fishing. Some of those pools have fish, some have various kinds of sea-food. Somehow, although it’s quite crowded, the place is very quiet. I guess people like to think when they’re fishing… indoors…

The garbage truck system in Taiwan is probably one of the most annoying things here. I have nightmares with the awful ice-cream truck music those garbage trucks play and sometimes I wake up from those nightmares to find-out I’m really in one. Anyway, one of the odd things about the Tainanese garbage trucks is that they try to encourage English language knowledge among Taiwanese. Legend also claims – in Lonely Planet – that before this awful music was played the trucks actually played English language lessons. So, take a closer look at the photo and you’ll see what I’m talking about. How efficient can that be?

In Taiwan, people leave their shoes outside, and change into different more comfortable shoes for the indoors. I’m still not used to that, although I do try to keep this in mind when visiting others. Anyway, this brings up some interesting problems. Here’s a snapshot of what’s hanging next to my building’s elevator. Leaving your shoes on the stairs might cause people to accidentally slip over them and roll down the stairs.

True, they don’t have cheese products and some of the western delicacies are missing, but there’s plenty of other interesting things going around in the super-market. There are a million kinds of meat and sea-food that I’ve never considered trying before and they come in an amazing variety of colors. They also have a few odd machines that I’m still not sure what they’re meant for. I try to implement the golden role of "you need to try everything at least once", but – I admit I’m having trouble with some of what I find there.