Taiwan impressions

There were a whole host of fascinating little things that we have experienced throughout our time in Taiwan. Number one has to be the pedestrian traffic lights, which are unique in our experience. The little green man has a hat and is animated (walking) when you can cross. The last 10 seconds of the allowed time see him speeding up to a jog. It's very amusing, although with some of the very wide streets, careful judgement is called for when you see him on the move. 

Rubbish collection is a complex issue, especially in the little laneways throughout the cities (and towns). It turns out that they have rubbish trucks that play tunes, like ice cream vans in Australia. And yes, including Greensleeves. This is the signal to bring out your rubbish to the truck, and it is still hard to get used to - especially if you're at street level when the Pavlovian reaction to the music is not matched by the wafting smell accompanying the truck. 

An amusing part of the stay came from our tendency to be prepared to walk in to any place we deem "interesting". Google translate is a wonder, but it was fun to watch the panic play out across people's faces as we walked into some of the less touristy venues. This was universally followed by someone running off to drag the best English speaker in the store/restaurant away from whatever they were doing to come and serve us. For all that, everyone was extremely accommodating of our almost complete lack of any Chinese language skills, and we always managed to make ourselves understood - and even have a few google-mediated conversations along the way. 

Taiwan is a place of street markets and night markets, with a staggering variety of foods available. At every single night markets we went to (and there were a lot!), we found new dishes that we hadn't seen before. We tasted a glorious number of new dishes, with highlights including stuffed chicken wings, scallion pancakes (with various fillings), and the traditional Thao food we found at Sun Moon Lake. 

Each of the cities we visited were quite different from each other - Taipei has a combination of history and busyness you'd expect from the capital, Tainan felt more historical (befitting the old capital, Taichung was not really touristy at all, and Kaohsiung felt the most modern of all. For all that, it was when we moved out of the cities into the less inhabited areas that provided the most amazing experiences. Getting up into the hills was just glorious with lush greenery and less crowds. The chance to walk along wooded paths and stone steps to have another new view open up in front of us, kept reminding us why we love traveling and exploring so much. 

All-in-all Taiwan proved to be a really interesting and fun experience, and we would be happy to recommend a visit to anyone.