{"id":13305,"date":"2013-03-18T08:00:33","date_gmt":"2013-03-18T14:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dailyimprovisations.com\/?p=13305"},"modified":"2013-03-11T20:47:49","modified_gmt":"2013-03-12T02:47:49","slug":"helpless-female-turns-left-in-taipei","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailyimprovisations.com\/helpless-female-turns-left-in-taipei\/","title":{"rendered":"Helpless Female Turns Right in Taipei"},"content":{"rendered":"

I wandered all around Taipei<\/strong> last week by myself. \u00a0This worried my husband, but since I made it back every evening, he began to relax. \u00a0I walked several miles around the hotel, down to the river and the fabric market, and regularly to the local Cold Stone Creamery…to practice ordering in Chinese! \u00a0I made it through subway systems and taxi rides to meet friends.<\/p>\n

The street signs<\/strong> have an English version of the Chinese names on them; and I had a map that showed most of those for main streets. \u00a0That doesn’t mean it was easy getting around, though. \u00a0There is not a uniform method of displaying the street sign in relation to the direction of the street, or a standard placement location of the sign on the street. \u00a0The signs are not on every street, either.<\/p>\n

There are plenty<\/strong> of other signs on the streets, so attempts to glance about are often bewildering. \u00a0There are shop signs, construction signs, government notices. \u00a0Most of the time, the buildings in that older downtown section were close to the two lane main streets, and tall.<\/p>\n

This doesn’t even count<\/strong> the lanes and alleys that form a web between all the main streets. \u00a0These do not have any apparent pattern or reliable width. \u00a0You could be exploring down one and it could dead end into a point, like someone changed their mind all of a sudden.<\/p>\n

All of this meant<\/strong> that it was hard to keep track of landmarks. \u00a0Add the fact that many of the stores were chain stores that repeated on every street, or vendors that looked like identical copies. \u00a0And try to look up at street signs AND be wary of scooters shooting out of hidden corners.<\/p>\n

There was one corner<\/strong> that was particularly crucial. \u00a0It was close to the hotel and it was the portal to many of my excursions. \u00a0It was a very large street, so I often used the underground passageway, instead of waiting for the crosswalk signal above ground.<\/p>\n

About the third time<\/strong> that I used the tunnel, I noticed it had signs on the walls pointing me to important destinations, like the MRT (subway station). \u00a0Very handy. \u00a0But, on the way back to the hotel every time, intending to make a right turn and cross under the street, I was always somewhat perplexed. \u00a0It didn’t feel<\/em> like I was turning right.<\/p>\n

The tunnels<\/strong> at this intersection were not a simple square from corner to corner. \u00a0There were two entrances at each corner, one for each street you might be coming or going from. \u00a0Those met, then converged with the tunnel from another corner to connect to the main passage under the streets. \u00a0Then, every thing split up again in the same way. \u00a0So, there were 8 options for entry and exit, but only one main passageway.<\/p>\n

When Greg finally<\/strong> got to go about with me, we were heading back late Saturday night. \u00a0We arrived at this crucial corner and I recognized a couple of landmarks. \u00a0He likes to cross above ground and figured I was the expert by this time, so asked me which way to the hotel. \u00a0I said, we turn to the right here, but I always use the tunnel. \u00a0He thought a moment and started to laugh. \u00a0No, if there was one thing he knew after thinking about it for a moment, it was that we needed to go left.<\/p>\n

All of a sudden,<\/strong> I knew he was correct. \u00a0I had had it wrong all week, but thanks to the tunnel signs, ended up in the correct place. \u00a0I just never understood why.<\/em>\u00a0 Hmmm. \u00a0Just when I had him nearly convinced it was safe to let me out…<\/p>\n

\"I<\/a>
I used a couple of the overhead walkways, too but they didn’t seem to be popular with the locals and I don’t like heights.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I wandered all around Taipei last week by myself. \u00a0This worried my husband, but since I made it back every evening, he began to relax. \u00a0I walked several miles around the hotel, down to the river and the fabric market, and regularly to the local Cold Stone Creamery…to practice ordering in Chinese! \u00a0I made it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9,26,31],"tags":[35,69],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyimprovisations.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13305"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyimprovisations.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyimprovisations.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyimprovisations.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyimprovisations.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13305"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyimprovisations.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13305\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyimprovisations.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyimprovisations.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyimprovisations.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}