Welcome to Taiwan!

Taiwan is the place that my mum wanted to go for quite a while, maybe having too much of entertainment shows from Taiwan? Not really to me though.

Since there’s no other places is of their interest, Taiwan it is for this year trip. One thing good about not having much of an interest about a particular place is that you won’t be having much expectation either, which also means you have nothing much to lose. In fact, surprises always come along when you have plain feeling about something. This is true, at least for this trip…

This is my first time coming to Taiwan. Before I first came here, Taiwan was never a place that I’d look forward to, as I always thought of it as a mini-China- anything that can be found in Taiwan, could possibly be found in China as well, except those things that you could see in China, might be much bigger and even more spectacular. This time round, I was wrong, as usual. I am not good in estimating things, aren’t I? Taiwan amazed me quite a bit (despite some unpleasant/ annoying events happening along the trip).

For a start, Taiwan is a country where the main spoken language is mandarin, which is very good to us. When I am speaking a common language with someone, regardless of where I am, I could instantly feel the friendliness. Taiwanese are generally, be it a real or fake, extremely polite. I am not sure where they learned/ practice it from. It might because of the way the parenting is being carried out over here is different or maybe being polite is simply the culture here? All I can tell is that it is a complete opposite from what we have experienced in Mainland. Taiwanese are generally willing to help. At least, I met a few when I was asking for direction.

For sightseeing, Taiwan does have those places that are like replicas to those you can find in China; those are the places I excluded from this trip. I went for the places that can truly represent Taiwan instead. To me, travelling is about experiencing, not living a good life in other countries, hence places ranging from visiting, chilling, relaxing, sightseeing, jungle trekking, hill climbing and many more are all included in the itinerary. It amazed me quite a bit that Taiwan has them all!

Transportation in Taiwan is considered convenient. They have a pretty good MRT system in Taipei, high speed train from south to north, slow speed trains that are connected to some of the small towns/ villages, and rather crazy bus network around that can bring you to the rural areas. Those places where you can’t reach, you can always wave for a taxi and there are plenty over there. To enjoy the more local way of travelling, I would suggest traveler to rent yourself a scooter! According to our driver, the number of scooter in Taiwan is as much as half the population in Taiwan, which means excluding the young and the old, each Taiwanese has their very own scooter?

Food wise, it’s a preference thing. From what I learned from previous trip in Beijing, the tour guide used to say: “there’s no awful food, it’s whether the food suits your taste or not”. I kind of agree and disagree. To me, this statement is only true when a group of people is eating the same thing and not every single person is complaining about the food. Taiwanese does have a rather good culinary skill, especially those specialty restaurants, I was amazed by the way that they use simple ingredients to come out with something that’s so memorable. While for the snacks from night markets, some of them are good, some are not. Whether it’s good or not, you need to experience it, as the night market is kind of like a culture here in Taiwan.

Switching through their TV program, I realized that the media here is really one of the best around the region, or maybe around the globe? I think this has something to do with the liberty that they are having in this country. Taiwan is a country that’s practicing multi party democracy, and it’s one of the most democratic countries that I have ever seen. I think a well-practiced democratic country would give the citizens a sense that they are having the basic human right and not being oppressed by any kind of monster. Liberty leads one to creativity, gives them a chance to say/ criticize from the bottom of their heart when they are baffled by something that’s wrong. That’s something that we could hardly see in most of the Asian countries. I was impressed.

To conclude, Taiwan is a pretty nice place to be, to visit or even to stay. It’s quite safe and not too expensive. I personally love the simplicity of this place.

One day, I would definitely be back here for a more thorough visit! 🙂

Something about Bangkok, Thailand

I always have a habit to have afterthoughts or some kind after visiting any country. Recently, I took a couple of days off for a short and relaxing trip- Bangkok, Thailand.

Thailand is a place that I have never been until about a week ago. To me, it is a strange place for one very reason- This is one of the countries that is literally “connected” to ours (without the need of a bridge, like what Singapore does), but the language that we speak are totally different! I know this is normal to many, but still, I find weird when it’s actually happening to me. It left us no other choice, but to use what we know best to communicate to each other- Malay-ish VS Thai-ish. The entire process was fun, despite the fact that I wasn’t really sure what they were on about most of the time; likewise, I believe they didn’t really catch what we said either.

Bangkok is, without a doubt, a paradise to many. As the capital of Thailand, it has anything that we might possibly need. There’s good and reasonably priced food, good massage, cheap drinks, great night life (heard from others, but didn’t get the chance to have a look this time), and endless shopping experience which staggered me quite a bit.

Despite the goodness, under the busy and flourishing camouflage, the gap between “rich and poor” is quite bad. That’s something that I’m not really comfortable with, because I know the bigger the gap, the bigger problem it might lead to. Bangkok is a busy city (just like any other cities) whereby traffic congestion has become a routine to the locals. It makes this relaxing trip rather not relaxing. Also, I realized that there’s no such thing called traffic rules in this country. One of the best examples would be the TUTU car, this is one of my greatest experiences on the roads thus far. This thing simply makes many seemingly impossible routes very possible. A gentle reminder though, ones have to be prepared, mentally and physically, before getting on to the ride, because it is quite dangerous. The driver of the TUTU car that I was in, had violated every single traffic rules that we could possibly imagine, which makes me wondering if they have attended any traffic course at all. Despite the wonderful experience of TUTU car, I personally do not like the taxi service here in Bangkok. It’s somewhat similar to that of in Malaysia, whereby it’s clearly stated “meter-taxi” on top of the taxis, but they don’t use it whenever we hop in. Somehow, I feel that this kind of tiny little cultures may well be the spoiler that ruins the image of a particular city.

Despite all the shortfalls, I personally think that Bangkok is a good place to have a short trip, as there’s good massage, good food and cheap drink around, not so much on shopping though.

I would come back to experience more out of this city.