[Trip Two To Taiwan] Day 2: Scootering Around
(Written back around 2003)
For my second day in Kaohsiung, my cousin lent me a scooter for the day. This was the second time for me to ride a scooter - the first time was when I last visited my cousin about 2 years ago. I followed my cousin around for a couple hours and then he had to go to work. He gave me a map of Kaohsiung and then I was on my own.
The first place I wanted to check out was the Dollars supermarket to pick up a pair of sandals. I passed as I thought that I could find a better deal elsewhere. So I got on the scooter and started my search for the nearby Carrefour. Needless to say, I had no idea where I was going, I was not used to riding a scooter, and I was not used to the traffic and the rules (although I don\’t think there are any real rules).
I ended up visiting all sorts of places - just wandering around on the scooter, stopping at places that seemed interesting. On a constant lookout for a pair of sandals - went to about half a dozen shops.
At one point, it was my fault, but I decided to go through a yellow light and almost got run over by a taxi. Without skipping a beat - i just carried on looking for other shops.
It was starting to get dark and I still had NO IDEA where I was so I took out the map to try and figure out where I was. I took a chance and headed down this one street which I thought might lead me the way. Along the way, I passed a shoe store and picked up a pair of sandals.
Hmm… still 2 and a half hours to kill before my cousin got off work. I decided to go and get a haircut plus colouring - the hair stylist did not speak English nor Japanese - so somehow he managed to communicate the idea that he would suggest the colouring/style and i was to leave it to him. Well, 2 hours later, when he rinsed off the dye, I was shocked to find it a light brown / reddish colour. OH well, nice for a change.
I headed back to the apartment to get cleaned up and then we went for dinner at a place called ‘Smokey Joes’ — which is like a tex-mex-italian meets chinatown type restaurant. There must be about 20 pages for the menu with half the menu with things like spaghetti, tacos, etc. The other half is Westernized Chinese food. It was quite good (especially in comparison to what I get in Japan).
Afterwards, we went to a someone’s car shop - a guy named Tun, and we went to a foreign-run bar. We met up with another of my cousin’s friends and just had some drinks. Finally we headed home…
Filed under: Taiwan
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