Traffic in Tainan

Some additional sidenote...I just realise/discover (to my horror) that Canon Ixus doesn't seem to give me as good picture qualities as Canon Powershot! Shit!

Back to my Tainan trip. The second and third day in Taiwan, being on the weekends, was a relaxing one. Dr Wu and SX kindly kept me company over the weekends and tried to bring me around the National Cheng Kung University (NCKU) campus. The entire campus is extremely big, and hostels are like satelite towns in the Tainan central. There are many shops and foodstalls nearby, so it is extremely easy to get around IF you have a scooter or car here. Not so if you only rely your legs (like me). Having a pair of legs here in Tainan is equivalent to being physically handicapped. There are practically no public transport and everyone relies on scooters and cars. Dismay.

My first scooter experience was both terrifying and exciting. I have never ride on a motorcycle before. So when SX came to fetch me that day on her scooter, she has to ride extremely slowly (she says it is very slow already...even though I think it is still very fast) as I tremble behind her. With the wind blowing against my face so strongly, I had to clutch to the grips very tightly for fear I will fall off the scooter. At times, the passing cars and scooters are so near I thought they will collide. Tainan streets are buzzing with cars and scooters. Though traffic is not as orderly as the streets in Singapore, no one flouts the traffic rules (yet).

Besides the scooter experience (now that I think of it, it is rather fun actually), crossing the roads can be a bit tricky as well. Many roads and junctions do not have the traffic lights. You will have to rely on the cars' traffic light to turn red and then cross the road. They also do not really have the junction traffic lights to indicate to drivers if they can turn into the lane or not. So you really have to be careful when crossing the roads so that you do not get knocked down by reckless/ impatient drivers. I still get jitters from crossing the roads here.

Another interesting thing however, is that when you do see the passerby's traffic lights, the green man is no longer standing still. It is walking and running, indicating that you should walk faster! It's rather hard to walk faster because the green man is so distracting! You just can't help but look at it while crossing the roads. I heard there are some which show the green man falling down (in Taipei). I definitely would like to see that! Haha!