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Northwood
Joined: 08 Nov 2005
Posts: 66
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 Posted: Wed Apr 19, 2006 9:57 am Post subject: |
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| By the way, how's the swimming......? |
It's safer than the walking.  |
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Northwood
Joined: 08 Nov 2005
Posts: 66
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| Posted: Wed Apr 19, 2006 9:59 am Post subject: |
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| Sorry zaneth, couldn't resist. Will leave your question to those who know........... |
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saloma
Joined: 07 Jul 2005
Posts: 211
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| Posted: Wed Apr 19, 2006 10:23 am Post subject: |
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I lived in Taipei for 7 years.
I walked to work everyday.
I am still alive.
When I first got to Taipei, the sidewalks were a mess. I fell down several times, but then Mayor Ma fixed most the sidewalks. Sure, there are still scooters zipping down some (and some of those scooters are being driven by foreigners), but it is nowhere near what it was.
Might I add, after walking the streets so many years, I know Taipei better than most locals and I have taken some excellent photos. |
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lumber Jack
Joined: 09 May 2005
Posts: 91
Location: UK/ROK
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| Posted: Thu Apr 20, 2006 11:24 pm Post subject: |
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Your alternative to the sidewalk - uneven or otherwise - will probably be the highway.
ie A place where you will travel very fast on a piece of steel, surrounded by many other hurtling pieces of steel. Being hit in that situation is the leading cause of death for young people in all industrialized nations, usually by a long margin.
Please think about this carefully! |
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Aristotle
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Posts: 1388
Location: Taiwan
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| Posted: Sat Apr 22, 2006 5:05 am Post subject: |
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When I first got to Taipei, the sidewalks were a mess. I fell down several times, but then Mayor Ma fixed most the sidewalks. Sure, there are still scooters zipping down some (and some of those scooters are being driven by foreigners), but it is nowhere near what it was.
Might I add, after walking the streets so many years, I know Taipei better than most locals and I have taken some excellent photos.
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I have to agree Taipei is really turning into a nice city to take a walk in. Unfortunately Taipei is not Taiwan.
I spent a few days in both Taichung and Kaohsiung on way to Spring Scream this year ( no, I didn't get arrested).
It is literally like a different country. I saw a school kid get run over by a hit an run motorcycle in Taichung. When this kid, not more than 6 or 7, was able to get himself up off the now bloody street (there is no sidewalk) his mother slapped him for not looking both ways before he climbed off the motorcycle with his other three bothers and sisters, all without helmets and under ten years old. People in nearly every major city on Taiwan claim this scene is a daily occurrence and the ROC enforcers (Taiwanese police) are too busy extorting bribes and sex from Casinos, KTV's and adolescent prostitutes to do anything about it.
I am so glad I live in Taipei.
Good luck, you may need it if you walk on the streets on Taiwan.
A. |
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SanChong
Joined: 22 Nov 2005
Posts: 335
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| Posted: Sun Apr 23, 2006 8:47 pm Post subject: |
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Aristotle says:
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People in nearly every major city on Taiwan claim this scene is a daily occurrence and the ROC enforcers (Taiwanese police) are too busy extorting bribes and sex from Casinos, KTV's and adolescent prostitutes to do anything about it.
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Yet another silly, offensive comment from someone who just doesn't seem to realize that no one is listening to him.
I'm getting really tired of wasting time refuting the intellectual equivalent of a 5 year old complaining about recess. |
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lumber Jack
Joined: 09 May 2005
Posts: 91
Location: UK/ROK
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| Posted: Mon Apr 24, 2006 1:42 am Post subject: |
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Our whole SUV-ridden society (worldwide) has the mentality of a five-year old on these kind of issues.
Despite the fact that walking is much, much safer and much, much better for the environment and your health - even in a country where there are a lot of wild scooter riders - some people will advise others to avoid it, and use alternatives which amount, on a cumalative daily basis, to the most dangerous thing that most of us ever do.
If you worry about bird-flu, planes, war with China, serial killers - that's fine, normal. If you want to avoid the only thing which is actually really risky - driving or scooter riding - you must be some sort of freak. |
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DirtGuy
Joined: 28 Dec 2004
Posts: 529
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| Posted: Mon Apr 24, 2006 6:26 am Post subject: |
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Hate to say it but I think Aristotle has this one right. Chastise him all you want for some of his more outrageous statements, but his description of an unfortunate event is spot-on. My experience is that any difficulty with navigating city sidewalks in TP is magnified many times in other cities and towns. The street with all its attendant dangers is often the only place you can walk and pedestrians and motorized vehicles of any size simply do not mix.
As far as anything following "the ROC enforcers" is concerned, I 'll let the rest of you flame him on that one.
DirtGuy |
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lumber Jack
Joined: 09 May 2005
Posts: 91
Location: UK/ROK
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| Posted: Mon Apr 24, 2006 11:43 pm Post subject: |
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Are you seriously suggesting, therefore, that zipping a scooter through the same streets is going to make you safer? (Even if you don't ride without safety gear with your whole family on the bike!) O.K, I've only spent a week pounding the sidewalks in various Taiwanese cities, but maybe some of you have only ever been to Tabei and Chicken-Poop, Iowa. Taiwanese sidewalks are not really so bad by Asian standards.
Driving an SUV to work, now in Taiwan that would probably put the burden of damage on the other poor sod, I'll admit that. |
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DirtGuy
Joined: 28 Dec 2004
Posts: 529
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| Posted: Tue Apr 25, 2006 2:27 am Post subject: |
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You raise an interesting point, lumber Jack, regarding how TP and TW compare to other cities in Asia. I have no idea as my travel experience is mostly in the US and Europe but now you have have piqued my curiosity.
How about it posters? What are the sidewalks and city walking in general like in other asian cities?
DirtGuy |
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twinkletoes
Joined: 05 Jan 2005
Posts: 76
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| Posted: Tue Apr 25, 2006 6:37 am Post subject: |
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I like walking in Taipei. Always something to see.
Sometimes the crowds of people get on my nerves.
For the girls reading this: please be aware that it is extremely innappropriate behavior for a man to try and pick up a woman on the street. When you walk around Taipei you WILL have TW men approach you and try to ask you out and such. If you talk to them, they will see you as a "bad girl", and no good ever came of that. So just keep walking if any strange man tries to talk to you.
However, people are extremely helpful to foreigners and will be happy to help you with directions or anything you need. I don't think I've ever stood on the street with an unfolded map for more than a minute without someone stopping to help me. Don't know about other Asian countries, but it sure isn't like this in Toronto. |
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trukesehammer
Joined: 25 Mar 2003
Posts: 168
Location: The Vatican
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| Posted: Tue Apr 25, 2006 12:16 pm Post subject: |
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Aristotle wrote:
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| Walking to work in Taiwan can get you killed |
OMG, fellas, he's right! How many of us haven't heard the stories of hit-and-runs and tiger trucks that squish pedestrians and then back up to "finish the job"?
For those of you who are abroad or wondering what the heck I'm talking about, every once in a while you'll see these people on the news screaming and yanking a truck driver out of his cab and beating him senseless (okay, so the above is a pic of a campaign dispute, but I just love the local pics, don't you?). The reason is because there's this rumor that says if you hit somebody and severely maim him, you'll be responsible for his maintenance forever. So it's cheaper to just kill the poor unfortunate shmuck.
But this brings me to another bone of contention. I know you guys get annoyed by Aristotle sometimes, but wishing he would DIE? Come on, that's a little too extreme! Life is too short and the world is already filled with enough sourpusses as it is.  Even if you can't stand the bloke, you gotta admit that most of his posts are, like most rumors and stereotypes, based upon a kernel of truth. So Aristotle has his place here.
Ok, so maybe his job is to post all kinds of inflammatory rhetoric to get your goat(s), but it's everyone else's job to tell him he's crazy. 
To put it another way, let me tell you another one of my TKH stories. There's this wonderful student at our university who's preparing to immigrate / emmigrate to the US. She wants to transfer to a good school in California and Professor V is helping her. A couple of Fridays ago, Professor V took the student to a cafe to discuss her options. He brought along two others: Professor W and Professor Y.
Professor Y was full of negativity: "You can never be too careful in the States. All kinds of guns and violence and robberies and rapes and yadda-yadda-yadda. Wear a chastity belt blah-blah and don't look strangers in the eyes and yammer-yammer-yammer, etc. etc."
Professor W was full of encouragement: "Oh, you are gonna have such a great time there! Your professors are just gonna LOVE you and you'll make so many friends and America is the greatest country on earth, blah-blah-yammer-blah and maybe you'll even meet Britney Spears while walking across campus and yackety-yack-yack."
Aside from kicking back and enjoying the fireworks, Professor V provided a voice of reason or balance. Now why do you suppose Professor V did this?
Okay, I'm done preaching. But one more thing. I've never heard of a local custom that says it's bad to pick up girls / or get picked up while outdoors. What the heck is up with that? |
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dangerousapple
Joined: 18 Apr 2006
Posts: 292
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| Posted: Tue Apr 25, 2006 1:37 pm Post subject: |
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| Maybe it's all about comfort zones? We need more personal space in general than the Taiwanese, so we get freaked out about people getting too close, and they just think we're weird. But even after 10 years it still gives me the willies, so thank god it's easy to get out to the mountains on weekends. |
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jonks
Joined: 29 Jan 2006
Posts: 1240
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| Posted: Tue Apr 25, 2006 7:24 pm Post subject: |
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Sorry trukesehammer. I didn't mean I want the living Aristotle to die. I just meant the repetitive and unbacked comments that he was making.
I think a lot of Aristotles comments have got grains of truth too.
But it is upsetting to hear such negative comments about Taiwan repetitively. |
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trukesehammer
Joined: 25 Mar 2003
Posts: 168
Location: The Vatican
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| Posted: Mon May 01, 2006 4:22 pm Post subject: |
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| twinkletoes wrote: |
| For the girls reading this: please be aware that it is extremely innappropriate behavior for a man to try and pick up a woman on the street... If you talk to them, they will see you as a "bad girl"...just keep walking... |
EGADS, TWINK WAS RIGHT! 
In my conversation class, we're on the topic of "Dating Behavior" so naturally I asked them about the "Macking Outdoors" issue. 33% of them confirmed what Twinkletoes was saying while another 33% said they'd never heard of it, and the last 33% said sure-the-taboo-exists-but-attitudes-are-a-changing.
--Oh, the missing 1%? You know.
Totally clueless. |
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