Taiwan

What can I say about Taiwan? Well firstly, Taiwan is an island populated by mostly the chinese. The main spoken language is Mandarin. When I first arrived in Taiwan, I was surprised by its weather. The weather in Taiwan is really erratic... one day it can be hot and humid and the next, it can be cold and windy. Though the only thing not surprising is the time the sun falls. Since it was in the winter season when I went to Taiwan, the sun falls very early at around 5 pm.

Taiwan is a outspoken country in my opinion. Everytime you visit a night market (which is a very popular thing among the Taiwanese), you can see stall vendors shouting and trying to attract customers to their particular stall. Sometimes, I really wonder how these stall vendors make ends meet since there are many, many stalls and they all seems to sell the same stuff. For every country, you can say a particular food that you can relate to that particular country. For Singapore, its Rojak and Durian (you may not agree with me but its just an example) and for Japan, its Sushi and Udon. As for Taiwan, I would have to say its Finger Food. Taiwan has quite a huge variety of Finger Food. Some like the Fried Chicken Fillet (I think thats what you call it in English) are surprisingly good while others like the Fried Fishballs are not so good.

Taiwanese are generally very friendly. Whenever you pass by a stall, the stall vendor would stop you and ask you to try out one of their products. What is commendable is that even if you leave after sampling and without buying anything, they would bid you farewell with a warm smile. Speaking of which, hygiene is a problem in Taiwan. Even in a restaurant which is frequently booked by tour groups, you can find dirt and stains on the utensils. However, that didn't shocked me. What shocked me was when I encountered a man barbecuing some fishballs while smoking. It was clearly obvious that the ash from his cigarette was landing on the fishballs yet there were still customers willing to buy from his stalls. After that incident, I was silently grateful that all stalls in Singapore had to pass a hygiene test before they could start selling their food. But hey, don't let my words scare you! I tend to exaggerate sometimes. Its perfectly alright to try out other country's local delicacies!

One of the first things I noticed about Taiwan was that their traffic police is really efficient (or so it seemed to me...). When I was on the tour bus, every so often I would notice a police car and another car parked by the side with a policeman questioning the driver of the other car. Really impressive... at least for the first day of my tour (the other days there were less police cars).

Taiwan is a big dog-loving country. Every time I'm on the streets of Taiwan, I see passerbys with dogs by their sides. Some of these dogs had a leash on them while others did not and some dogs worn clothes while other dogs worn hats. Taiwanese generally treat their pets really well. In my short stay in Taiwan, I have never seen a stray dog or even cat, though I have never a cat in Taiwan actually.

Another thing to note about Taiwan is that they do not really celebrate western festives like Christmas. Throughout my stay during the Christmas period in Taiwan, I had only seen 1 Christmas tree. After knowing Taiwanese do not celebrate western festives, I was shocked to be informed by my tour guide that there are around 100+ days of holiday for the working class in Taiwan. That meant that roughly every 3 days in the year, there will be 1 day of holidays. Isn't that shocking?!

Well, I can say that I did enjoy my stay in Taiwan though I got a bit travel-sicked at the end (this always happens when I go overseas; I got stomach flu last year in Australia and diarrhoea the year before in Japan). There were some parts I didn't enjoy but hey, that's life! There are bound to be things you don't enjoy in every experience you undergo...