Food and the Streets of Taiwan

The Taiwanese people - at least those on the streets of Taipai - were remarkably friendly, helpful and far more willing to speak English than folks in Korea.  For example: on our first day, while trying to find a subway station, Nick asked a young woman for directions.  She responded clearly: "Straight here. Then walka-walka-walka to the big temple. Then walka-walka into the MRT station."  We were so delighted.  You just can't make this stuff up.

Along Incheon airport's early-morning moving sidewalk, we considered Weeny Beanies,
Snoopy Café, and Hello Kitty Café as breakfast options.  
And then we saw Subway.  How could we pass up the smell of home?

Taiwanese street food: Nick noticed a line of locals and decided these breaded meat patties must be great.  
And they sure were.

A restaurant ad in our hotel elevator kind of freaked us out.

The sumptuous breakfast buffet at the Park City Hotel included clear labels in two languages.
I smiled every morning at this one,which is really so much more useful than using the French "crouton."

Convenience store food included some interesting surprises.

We enjoyed more street food and McDonalds
(remember: the Taiwan dollar is equivalent to $0.03 USD)

With all our walka-walking about, we noticed a LOT of scooters driving around. As a social scientist, I starting taking random samples and calculating the ratios of transportation types: scooters, private cars, and taxis/buses.  Scooters (at least in Taipei) made up roughly 50% of the traffic, followed by private cars (about 25%), taxis/buses (about 20%), and a miscellaneous category (e.g, delivery trucks, bicycles).

Scooters are serious transportation - folks carry not only themselves and often another person on their scooter: we saw bags of groceries, 24-packs of toilet paper, huge packages, diapers, little kids, and even some dogs.  Helmets are required by law (only a white guy and the little kids/dogs didn't wear one); scooters are given plenty of room to park on the sidewalks and in the rare parking lots, and we even saw several scooter repair shops.  What a great way to get around in a city that never sees snow.

Golden Retriever on a scooter; an adorable happy kid; a scooter seat repair shop.

One of my favorite street scenes - a very fancy private car alongside a man collecting boxes to make some extra money.
All under the watchful eye of Mary.