Shopping in the city

I just need to get this out... the garbage truck that drives around this neighborhood every day between 8 and 8:30 pm is driving me insane. You know how ice cream trucks play loud cheesy music to entice you out to the street to buy their products? Well here, the GARBAGE TRUCK plays loud quasi-classical music to get people to bring out their trash. Even with modern windows, it's LOUD. I can't explain why it torments me so, but I can't stand it. Did I mention how LOUD it is?? OK, I'm done now... moving on...

The subway system here is brilliant... it's efficient, clean, and cheap. On a Saturday night, the MRT is also hella crowded, but everyone is still very polite and orderly. People helped each other, gave old people and little kids seats, and picked up dropped things for other people. They wait in line patiently and don't shove. The walk left-stand right escalator rule is uniformly observed here, excellent if you are in a hurry or just can't stand to stand still in a huge crowd. The busiest stations actually have glass walls at the edges of the platforms, I guess so people don't get pushed accidentally onto the tracks (yes, it's THAT crowded). There are lines painted on the floor where people are to queue up, and there are arrows indicating the getting-on and getting-off lanes.

Note that there's ALWAYS English AND Chinese... brilliant for tourists! We can get around the system without any trouble, without asking anyone for help, as long as we can read the system map and know where we're going. The trains run every four minutes or less and there are signs telling you how many minutes until the next one. My 47-minute, three train journey from Dapinglin to Zhongshan Junior High School cost NT$35, or just over $1.

I am SO glad that I am a good map reader, because getting around in Taipei itself can be a bit daunting. The big roads are BIG, often five or more lanes in each direction, with hundreds of scooters and cars whizzing through the major intersections at each cycle of the lights. The good news is that the crosswalks are clearly marked and the walk-don't walk signs are sensible and people follow them. They do allow enough time to get across too. Many streets, ironically especially the larger ones, are not signed very well for pedestrians (you have to hunt around for a sign that's in good line of sight for vehicle drivers, which is often hard to see from the sidewalk). If you pay attention to the numbering of the alleys and lanes, though, it's really easy to figure out where you are; the system is pretty brilliant really and the signs for the smaller streets are easier to find.

So anyway, after the subway journey to Nanjing E Road, I walked several long blocks to Asia World to go to IKEA. Honestly, what was I thinking? EVERY IKEA is a train wreck on Saturday! Crowds! In an odd way, it was all very comforting... the same laminate flooring, nearly the same product line (I'd say there's less than 15% difference in product lines between IKEA Renton and IKEA Taipei), the same food, the same arrows painted on the floor, and the same people, if you know what I mean. Some of the prices were much lower -- the Poang chair was very cheap at about $40 -- and some were much higher -- memory foam pillows were essentially $45 US each! In the end, I didn't buy a thing as the crush of the crowd got to me. This too is no different from IKEA at home.

Asia World is in a posh district, and apparently posh districts spawn American chain restaurants... I saw an Outback Steak House, a TGIF, a Trader Vic's, a Ruth's Chris Steak House, and coming up on countless Starbucks, 7-Elevens, and McDonald's. I couldn't believe the prices at TGIF... having already accepted the notion of lunch costing NT$100 and dinner at about NT$200, their meals running NT$800 to NT$1000 seem shocking. My entire budget until next Wednesday is NT$2500, so there's no way in hell I'm blowing a third of it on a single meal that I could eat at home!

I was walking towards Costco, but I could tell that there was no way that it was a good idea... my foot was killing me, and even if I survived walking the 2.5 km there and then the shopping itself, I was going to have to face the 4 km walk back to the MRT station and then probably another 1.5 km of walking to transfer between trains and then from the station home. Not happening. I did enjoy the sunset:

So having decided to bail on Costco and RT-Mart, I started looking for food. Guess where I ended up? You already know...

In my defense, it's open 24 hours, you can order in English, and I knew I wasn't going to have to worry about being allergic to any of it. Weak excuses, I know. It IS true that in that neighborhood it was the only meal I was likely to find for less than NT$600... save buying a crappy sandwich at 7-Eleven.

On the way to the station, I noticed an interesting store and wandered through it... Santa Cruz Organic Foods. What it had to do with Santa Cruz I haven't a clue... but the products, even though they were all labeled in Chinese, were familiar, some of them. Tiger balm, Dr. Bronner's soap (Dilute! Dilute! OK! OK!), and Celestial Seasonings tea were all on the shelves, along with kefir capsules, calcium citrate, hemoglobin capsules, and other interesting products. The prices ranged from "no way!" to "WTF!!" so needless to say, I did not buy anything. To give you an idea, the bottle of 100 calcium citrate tablets (which would last me 12 days) was NT$800, or $25... I can get twice that many at Target for less than $15.

Some firsts on this journey... I saw an albino Taiwanese guy with incredible brilliant white hair and lovely creamy-brown caramel eyes. I saw a guy driving a scooter with a golden retriever standing on the floorboard (and I thought I'd seen EVERY possible scooter-passenger combo!). I heard my first French, and first English, "in the wild" -- all my other trips out into the neighborhoods I've only heard Chinese. I don't think I saw another natural blonde all day, and given how nice people are to babies and little kids in general, they are just going to eat Felix up with those strawberry blond curls of his when I finally get him here! :-)

I think that's all. Man, I am TIRED. Tomorrow, I am going to take the MRT in the other direction, to Xindian, and then I will walk ~8-10 blocks (~1.5km) to another RT-Mart. I've heard that that's the best grocery store around, and I hope it's true. I'm almost out of spaghetti sauce and I'm totally out of all other foodstuffs.

After I come home from the store, I'm off to Gongguan on the MRT to meet up with a bunch of ex-pats who play board games at 2 pm at a cafe. I'm looking forward to that.