My impressions of Taiwan are based on only a 2-1/2 day visit. Taiwan has a population of 23 million people and is roughly the size of the state of Maryland. Taiwan was our “resting” stop after a 14 hr flight from San Francisco to. We found the airport unbelievably large, modern, and efficiently designed—easy to traverse through baggage claim, customs, and exit. I loved the art-filled walls throughout!
Walking the downtown area we immediately noticed that there are very few non-Asians traveling throughout the city. In fact we only saw 2 Caucasian males the first day so we learned how it would feel to be in the minority! We also found that very few Taiwanese speak English even in the hotel, restaurants, and shops so it was very difficult to communicate and get to know the people. While taking a couple of Ubers, the drivers would politely say “thank you” but that’s the extent of our conversation. Food, transportation and lodging are very inexpensive and readily available. For a city of 2-½ million people, we found that the streets are not nearly as crowded as we anticipated.
Also worth noting, the streets were very clean with little trash if any. The bus station and the train station are bright clean and not as crowded either. People are polite, but I wouldn’t say they’re friendly. This is probably because they’re not comfortable speaking English and therefore we do not have opportunities to engage in conversation.
Last night we had dinner in a seafood restaurant which appeared to be filled with families seated around large round tables. We were the only non-Asians in the restaurant and they had to find a server who spoke English to take our order. It was also interesting that there was no silverware in sight only chopsticks. We ordered abalone, large stuffed prawns, asparagus, and fried rice. Each dish was brought to our table individually so that we could share, but we were not provided with our own plates.
The public restroom situation in Taiwan was unfamiliar to us. In the photos you’ll see that the toilet stalls are marked either standard western toilet or urinals on the floor. Sometimes there is a map of the stalls posted near the door so that you can tell which ones to go into and whether the stall is available. Also, you must retrieve your toilet paper before you enter the stalls as the individual toilets do not have toilet paper containers.
All in all it was a pleasant stay, seeing some beautiful countryside, and a good start to the rest of our journey.
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