Weird Things
HBO - we get HBO Asia in the hotel and we have noticed that they cut scenes that contain excessive violence and nudity. We watched "Final Destination 2" last night, this movie contains a lot of blood and gore when people get killed, but every scene that had excessive blood was cut from the movie. Very strange. Yet, on other stations here, they do show violence and nudity. Just depends on what station it's on.
Night Markets - they have these places called "night markets" where store owners set up little stalls and sell items for way below the price you would find in the department store. This is a good thing obviously, although you have no way of knowing the quality of what you are buying. We walked through one last night and Ashley found some shoes - they like shoes here and since this seems to be Ashley's favorite item to shop for right now, along with fancy dresses, the night market is a great place for her. The cost of her sandals - NT100 (about $3.00 US)! Who knows how long they'll last, but who cares for that price - she loves them. The market we walked through last night closed at 8 pm. We thought that was odd since most night markets open in the evening and stay open until midnight or so.
Taiwan World Trade Center - now a Convention Center - has a round water pool with flags surrounding it from different countries - Japan, Mexico, Korea, Switzerland, Sweden, US, Canadian and the best one of all - TEXAS! Yes, they have a Texas flag as a country.
Seat Belts - Anthony requested a cab with seatbelts in the backseat for his drive to work from the hotel. The attendant laughed at him and told him that seatbelts in the backseat and good for sleeping, resting head on shoulder strap, but not for driving around. He said they have seatbelt in the front seat. It is a new law here that seatbelts must be used while in the front seat of a car - so cabbies are required to wear one and if you ride in the front seat you must wear one. But, in the back seat it is not required and most cabbies hide the seatbelts under the seat so you don't have access to them. There are a few you can find, but it's rare. Good thing is they rarely drive fast due to the amount of traffic, so there are few accidents here.
Showers - Many bathrooms don't have shower curtains or separate areas for taking a shower in the bathroom. There will be a drain in the middle of the floor and there will be a sink, shower head and toilet in the room. Most of the places we've looked at aren't this way since they tend to show us more "Western" style apartments, but we have seen a few.
Toilets - Many toilet stalls here are called "squat toilets" - you don't sit on it, you squat over it. Interesting concept. Most modern places will have some stalls with squat toilets and some stalls with sitting toilets. Ashley doesn't like the squat ones so we are always on the lookout for regular ones. There are many places also where you aren't supposed to put toilet paper in the toilet, you're supposed to put it in the garbage. I don't think some of the sewer systems were built for it. Unfortunately, since I can't read Chinese, I have a hard time knowing which ones you can and which ones you can't. Ashley has refused to put any paper in the trash since she has only known that it goes in the toilet.
Slides in Parks - At several of the parks here, where there are kids play areas, they have concrete slides, yes, concrete slides. They are usually fairly wide and HOT from the sun. We've seen Ashley hurt herself on plastic slides back home, I can't imagine how hurt a kid could get banging their head on a concrete slide. They also will have a ground cover all around the kids area with BLACK spongy stuff. Now, the spongy stuff is nice, but since it's black, it soaks up all the heat and is so HOT, which makes the play areas even hotter for the kids.
Taipei 101 - this is the tallest building in the world right now. There is a five story mall built into it and there are many entrances into the building, probably a set of doors, every 50 feet or so, around the building. But, each entrance is blocked off, except for 2 - yes, only 2 are usable. We assume this is for security, and also for SARS - the first time we visited there, they were taking the body temperature of everyone that walked in the building.
cellophane - Everything is wrapped in Cellophane here. Books, clothes, toys, magazines, food, everything. At the bookstore, all the books are individually wrapped. Fortunately, in the kids section, kids have taken it off of some of the books so you can see what the book is about, otherwise you have no idea. Clothes are individually wrapped also. They'll have one or two on display. We bought bibs and each one was individually wrapped. We saw some tricycles in the mall, they were all wrapped in plastic.
Stinky Tofu - one of the most disgusting smells on earth. They have tofu, which has been marinated in the ground in cow dung (at least this is what we've been told) and it smells absolutely disgusting - and people eat it! We've smelt it in the night markets where there are food vendors selling that along with squid on a stick and other odd items. At least this is in the open air and you can walk away from it. But, one mall we went into had a vendor selling it. You could smell it for three floors - it was so gross!!!
I'm sure I could go on, but I'll save some more for another day.
By the way, each post has a comment section at the end of the blog and you can post comments or questions that you have and I will try and answer them if you have any.
Night Markets - they have these places called "night markets" where store owners set up little stalls and sell items for way below the price you would find in the department store. This is a good thing obviously, although you have no way of knowing the quality of what you are buying. We walked through one last night and Ashley found some shoes - they like shoes here and since this seems to be Ashley's favorite item to shop for right now, along with fancy dresses, the night market is a great place for her. The cost of her sandals - NT100 (about $3.00 US)! Who knows how long they'll last, but who cares for that price - she loves them. The market we walked through last night closed at 8 pm. We thought that was odd since most night markets open in the evening and stay open until midnight or so.
Taiwan World Trade Center - now a Convention Center - has a round water pool with flags surrounding it from different countries - Japan, Mexico, Korea, Switzerland, Sweden, US, Canadian and the best one of all - TEXAS! Yes, they have a Texas flag as a country.
Seat Belts - Anthony requested a cab with seatbelts in the backseat for his drive to work from the hotel. The attendant laughed at him and told him that seatbelts in the backseat and good for sleeping, resting head on shoulder strap, but not for driving around. He said they have seatbelt in the front seat. It is a new law here that seatbelts must be used while in the front seat of a car - so cabbies are required to wear one and if you ride in the front seat you must wear one. But, in the back seat it is not required and most cabbies hide the seatbelts under the seat so you don't have access to them. There are a few you can find, but it's rare. Good thing is they rarely drive fast due to the amount of traffic, so there are few accidents here.
Showers - Many bathrooms don't have shower curtains or separate areas for taking a shower in the bathroom. There will be a drain in the middle of the floor and there will be a sink, shower head and toilet in the room. Most of the places we've looked at aren't this way since they tend to show us more "Western" style apartments, but we have seen a few.
Toilets - Many toilet stalls here are called "squat toilets" - you don't sit on it, you squat over it. Interesting concept. Most modern places will have some stalls with squat toilets and some stalls with sitting toilets. Ashley doesn't like the squat ones so we are always on the lookout for regular ones. There are many places also where you aren't supposed to put toilet paper in the toilet, you're supposed to put it in the garbage. I don't think some of the sewer systems were built for it. Unfortunately, since I can't read Chinese, I have a hard time knowing which ones you can and which ones you can't. Ashley has refused to put any paper in the trash since she has only known that it goes in the toilet.
Slides in Parks - At several of the parks here, where there are kids play areas, they have concrete slides, yes, concrete slides. They are usually fairly wide and HOT from the sun. We've seen Ashley hurt herself on plastic slides back home, I can't imagine how hurt a kid could get banging their head on a concrete slide. They also will have a ground cover all around the kids area with BLACK spongy stuff. Now, the spongy stuff is nice, but since it's black, it soaks up all the heat and is so HOT, which makes the play areas even hotter for the kids.
Taipei 101 - this is the tallest building in the world right now. There is a five story mall built into it and there are many entrances into the building, probably a set of doors, every 50 feet or so, around the building. But, each entrance is blocked off, except for 2 - yes, only 2 are usable. We assume this is for security, and also for SARS - the first time we visited there, they were taking the body temperature of everyone that walked in the building.
cellophane - Everything is wrapped in Cellophane here. Books, clothes, toys, magazines, food, everything. At the bookstore, all the books are individually wrapped. Fortunately, in the kids section, kids have taken it off of some of the books so you can see what the book is about, otherwise you have no idea. Clothes are individually wrapped also. They'll have one or two on display. We bought bibs and each one was individually wrapped. We saw some tricycles in the mall, they were all wrapped in plastic.
Stinky Tofu - one of the most disgusting smells on earth. They have tofu, which has been marinated in the ground in cow dung (at least this is what we've been told) and it smells absolutely disgusting - and people eat it! We've smelt it in the night markets where there are food vendors selling that along with squid on a stick and other odd items. At least this is in the open air and you can walk away from it. But, one mall we went into had a vendor selling it. You could smell it for three floors - it was so gross!!!
I'm sure I could go on, but I'll save some more for another day.
By the way, each post has a comment section at the end of the blog and you can post comments or questions that you have and I will try and answer them if you have any.
posted by The Armstrongs at
8/08/2004
