Ted Su Random Blog

Since I arrived at Taipei I have been trying to find places I can stand still and not get bumped around. This is a lot harder than it sounds as most public places in Taipei are very crowded. If there is less than a foot of space between me and a wall, there is a good chance that someone will try to bump their way through the gap. So far, I’ve only found a couple places that were not so crowded. First place was Starbucks, yes, they are everywhere. Also its the only place one can get decaf coffee in Taipei. Try ordering decaf anywhere else and you get a strange stare. Anyway, coffee at Starbucks costs as much as in America, but by local standards its quite expensive. So, unlike in America, Starbucks is not crowded and its easy to find a place to seat. We were actually able to take over a couch and a couple of armchairs, something I’ve never been able to do at Starbucks in the States. Second place was at the second, outdoor observation deck at the Taipei 101 Tower. It costs extra to get to the second deck, so not a lot of people left the indoor first deck, leaving the second deck quite devoid of crowds.

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As my mom keeps pointing out, Taipei is a place of many dining choices. One can either choose to eat at a sidewalk cart for a couple of bucks or spend lavishly at a posh restaurant. During this trip, we’ve done the opposite ends.

On the low end, we ate lunch at one of the many night markets. These markets are essentially large warehouses packed end to end with stalls selling everything from oyster omelettes (tastes much better than it sounds) to fruit juices to steaks. The environment is less than hygenic and the squalid conditions shocking (by Western standards anyway), but damn if the food isn’t good.

On the high end, we ate at one of restaurants in the Taipei 101 Tower, the tallest skyscraper in the world. Not much to mention here, these restaurants are just like any high-end places in the world. So the funny thing is that its much more interesting to eat at the local hangouts than at the fancy places.

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There are two things that really stand out about traffic in Taipei:

1. Although lanes are painted on the road, they are strictly suggestions. Cars weave in and out of lanes at will, no signaling required. See an opening? Just go for it. Need to stradle the lanes to avoid the merging traffic and onslaught of pedestrians? No problem. Need to fit a few cars in a lane? Sure, why not? People seem to expect this sort of driving, so you don’t really see people getting mad about it. Between all the pedestrians, buses, and scooters (see next point) its any wonder why there are not more accidents. As if things weren’t confusing enough, several of the main streets have been turned into one way streets, so they look bi-directional, but they are not. Some of the concrete dividers made sense when the streets went both ways, but now its a real adventure to watch cars weave from one side of the street to the other in between breaks in the dividers.

2. Scooters are just about damned near everywhere. With the traffic (and parking) situation and need for cheap transportation, they make perfect sense. There are probably just as many scooters as there are cars and they even have special spots marked out for them to stop at intersections (see picture above). This way, they can queue right in front of all the cars at red lights. With the recent opening of Taipei’s first elevated train system, there does seem to be fewer scooters and motorcycles than I can remember from the last time I was here 8 years ago.

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I’m in Taipei, Taiwan for my Grandfather’s funeral. I’ll post pics throughout the week on my moblog.

Today we went to place where my Grandfather will be cremated to pay our respects at his “shrine” (see pic above, his spot is the upper right one on the white tiles) and burn fake money so that he will have enough money in heaven. Death is an interesting affair in Taipei. The cremation place is almost like a big factory with many, many services going on at once and seems like this is the only place in Taipei for this, so there are lots of people at this place. It almost has a massed produced feeling.

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Rachel, my cat for over 10 years, died this afternoon. She had been really sick the last couple of days and I could tell that the life was draining out of her. I took her to the vet and they recommended that she be put to sleep. They could have done a bunch of work to keep her going for another couple of months, but I couldn’t put Rachel and myself through that. Rachel looked like she was ready to pass away. With her on my lap, Rachel passed away very quickly and quietly after she was given the shot. I am actually greatful that we could be together when she passed. I had known that this day would come for that last couple of years ever since she was diagnosed with Chronic Renal Failure. Still it was hard to accept when the time came. Vet said she had live a long and good life. I still remember the day my brother and I found her in the apartment garage in Lake Forest. We put her back in the garage, but she came back to my apartment and she was with me ever since. Its hard to believe that she is gone, the house feels so empty now, this will now be the first time in my life that I’ve truely lived alone.

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