No Standing Please

I love walking, I have nothing against it and find it a great invigorating activity, especially if you live close to everything.

So many people despise it like it's a show of poor evolution. Humans are suppose to have evolved so much that we only can only move from one locale to another with the aid of technology. Be it car, bus, train, truck, tractor, bicycle, tram, ferry, subway... In Taiwan, two forms of people moving technology are worth noting:

The Scooter and The Bullet Train

I haven't researched this, but I'll bet you scooters outnumber people on this island. Or that they cover every inch of this land like ants. Motorised ants. It scares me a bit to be on the back of one of those things, zooming down a main street with a billion other motorised ants carrying FAMILIES on their two-wheeled backs. The most I've seen on one was a mum, a dad and three little ones wedged here and there. As if that wasn't flying in the face of danger, the kids didn't have safety helmets either. There's a running joke that if you see a family on a scooter and figure there's still room for more, then you've been in Taiwan too long.

I've been here six months and I've witnessed five accidents. Not fatal ones, not even broken bones were involved. Somehow people here know how to ride their scooters to avoid major injuries. It's a skill. Or the miracle of Mazu, the Goddess Protector of Taiwan. What's even more amazing is that I've seen an almost head-on crash between two scooters where one guy swung out of the way at the last minute, crashing his scooter sideways while his body fell and slid a few metres the opposite direction. His counterpart stopped and watched him stand up, walk over to his scooter, pick up the scooter and then ride off without a word or even a look at his potential face-plant mate. It was as if near crashes are so commonplace that no expression of incredulousness is needed at the other driver's inept motoring ability. It was simply an accepted fact of Taiwanese road culture. Accidents, much like shit, happens. What are you going to do about it?

Now for a small small island like Taiwan, the size of half a Tasmania, from tip to toe about the distance from London to Manchester, where about only half of its surface is actually commutable (much of it is very mountainous terrain), we have a modern, expedient Bullet Train/High Speed Rail system.

How many countries out there have high speed capabilities? France (think Eurostar), Japan (think Shinkansen), Germany (practically their entire train network - they're Germans), China, Russia and others. It seems practical that high speed rail exists there. But in little teeny tiny Taiwan? High speed rail is classed at speeds of 200km/hr and more. The Taiwanese one shuttles folks back and forth at around 300km/hr. You'll have to be careful not to speed off the end of the island a minute after take off. Just kidding.

It is a marvel of human ingenuity to be fair. The procarious balancing of different sized family members on the smallest motor vehicle that is. And yes too, being able to hurtle along at break-neck speeds, a privilege known only to a handful of first world countries in this world. Hoorah for Taiwan.