Splurge

So it has been awhile since I’ve updated and I do have quite a bit to update. For the past week and a couple days more the next part of the program I’m in includes a round island trip where we take a bus around Taiwan and visit different cultural sites and whatnot. I must say it has been an enlightening experience with many great pics along the way (as you can see if you keep up with my photo portfolio d40dan.shutterfly.com), but as the trip has gone on there has sadly been more cons than pros. But we’ll get around to that.

One thing that has always amused me was whenever I went somewhere touristy like Disneyland or around Hollywood there are always those tour busses full of fobby Asians following a tour guide with a flag. We may find it strange in the U.S. but in Asia it seems to actually be part of the culture. Our trip consists of taking the busses around to different sites and along the way we stop for meals and at these places we stop at, it seems to be dedicated for tour busses to come through. All the places have vendors selling Asian snacks that you see in 99 Ranch, and the meals always have the same thing and hold other people on tour busses. At every place we’ve stayed or stopped at to eat there has always been stale chicken nuggets, soggy French fries, and of course corn. I know for a fact that corn was never a native plant to Taiwan so who knows how it got so integrated into their diet. And those vendors haggle non-stop to always try and get you to buy Pineapple shortcakes and dried squid.

Another funny thing, as we go out farther and farther from Taipei the places we stay get more and more ghetto. No longer do people civilize the jungle, but the jungle takes over everything, houses, streets, and cars. I feel like I’m living in a zoo haha, there are mad bugs everywhere as well as other wonderful wild life such as geckos and lizards running around on the walls. In the forests I also saw a few spiders bigger than my hand; out here people don’t run things f’sure. So one set of pics I had to upload was one of the hostels we stayed at. Somehow someone thought it was a great idea to put the toilet in the same stall as the shower as well as have the whole bathroom outside. Perfect for the user who whenever needs to step outside to used to bathroom gets eaten alive by bugs and mosquitoes.

I must say the scenery and the sites we’ve seen has been breathtaking but if you’ve noticed a pattern in my pics, it does get repetitive after awhile. There are only so many rock structures, mountains, and green I can take before it’s all just one mashed up blob of green.

I think one thing that everyone notices about Asia is how small everything is compared to America, especially the food portions. A medium sized portion in America is a large in Taiwan. Food is cheap here in Taiwan but ironically by the time I eat enough to get full I’ve spent about the same amount as I would have for a meal in America.

The one thing that saves the tiny portions here are the 7-11’s. Unlike American 7-11’s where chances of you getting shot or getting E. coli from a hotdog run high, the Asian 7-11’s are pretty high end. Offering all kinds of actually good food at decent prices; think of it as a Nijiya/Mitsuawa at 99 cent store prices. If it wasn’t for all the rice balls and ham sandwiches they sold, I would probably look like a stick right about now.

And the bathrooms, man are they small. Now, I’m not a big person but one bathroom I went into I couldn’t even close the door fully because my knees stuck out into the door. That’s just ridiculous.

A cultural thing I noticed in Taiwan that I’ve never seen anywhere else is their receipts. Apparently, every receipt that is printed is also a lottery ticket. And every couple of days they announce off a few numbers and you can win different amounts of money per lottery ticket. Now that’s pretty cool, never thought I could win more money by simply buying groceries. And if you don’t want to keep your receipts you can donate them to charity or homeless people hang around outside collecting them.

But since I’m in the middle of nowhere right now, internet is pretty spotty so I’ll call it a night for now and upload before I lose everything I wrote. Try not to have too much fun without me guys haha jk. Till next post!