This was originally posted on blogger.

This morning I walked outside for the first time in Taiwan! What a lovely experience. People were quite friendly. I got the sense that it’s a bigish city so not super common to talk to people, but some people still said “zao” or “ni hao”. I looked into the courtyard of some retirement complex and an old man – I didn’t understand his occupation, but looked like a cleaner or garbageman? – said “how do you do?” in English. It was funny, kinda with a Texan accent. He asked me in Chinese what I’m doing in Taiwan and I told him. In general, I think a lot of people were looking at me cause I stick out being a foreigner (when I looked back, they quickly glanced in a different direction). I only saw one other foreigner – a 30-something bald guy walking a beagle at the park.

I mostly saw old people around town, since I set off at 6am. I enjoyed looking around at 7-11. They are super common and seem pretty useful – they have printing, garbage, different foods, toys, etc. 7-11 was the only brand I recognized. I can’t say for sure, but it seemed like here, there were mostly small businesses and restaurants, though some fancier, perhaps multi-restaurant chains here and there. It’s a nice contrast to Berkeley/America, where almost half of the businesses you see are national / multi-national chains. Around the 7-11 and the MRT there were some young people at / heading to work. The MRT at the Central Park was incredible in its design, even though all I saw was the escalator. I also saw one ad for a city-council candidate. I believe the local elections are in November, much like in the US.

My favorite part was the Central Park here in Kaohsiung, which was 15ish minutes from where I’m staying. It’s a beautiful place with a lake, island in the lake, bridges. Lots of groups of old men and women doing Taichi. Some playing tennis, or stretching, or massaging their backs on the trees. The best sight was a group of old ladies who were using the thick roots of an old tree as a place to lounge. No chairs, but they were all sitting or leaning on the undergrowth (which was in the air) and vibing. Like elves, truly. If I grow old, I hope I can live in Taiwan or be as active as all these people. One old guy even did pull-ups after me, he said, “hen bu cuo. Hen bang.” I was flattered, but really, he’s the “bang”one.

The streets here are super large. Like, five lanes wide on the biggest streets, and 2-4 on the small ones. I wonder if there are places in the city which are more pedestrian (maybe the night markets), or if those settings are more found in Taipei. I enjoyed walking through the alley ways which were adorned with plants, and some small businesses and homes. On the biggest streets, there were loads of vehicles whizzing by – many cars and many more scooters. They were all going very fast. And my, at one traffic light there was a huge slew of scooters at the front of the line. I saw a good number of people biking (maybe about one third of the number of scooters). On the big roads, I was pleased to see that there were sidewalks, and the sidewalks were big enough to bike on, so it’s safer than being on the road. In general, Kaohsiung so far reminded me of Bangalore of Chennai, except everything’s in Chinese.

I’ve had some degree of sensory deprivation sitting in this hotel room. So it was incredibly vibrant and refreshing to go out. Maybe we should make it a worldwide requirement for tourists to spend 3 full days in a hotel before they see the country they’re visiting.