I almost died last night. But in a good way.
After a late night of teaching observation, I decided to reward myself with some of Taipei's more famed steamed dumplings. I returned to the restaurant at which I dined my first evening and let my teeth sink into the delicious sin. It was the only tasty morsel my mouth would be privy to that evening.
Outside it occured to me that I was nearly 30 minutes from the closest MRT station. Determined there was a more convenient route home, I took out my map and began to orient myself in the labyrinth of chinese characters. Basically, I was lost. Fantastic.
Standing there, the only Caucasian for about 3,000 miles, holding a map in a night market seemed to scream "mug me." It was not long before a Taiwanese man approached me and offered to help me find my way. With one hand on my wallet and camera, I began to talk with this man. His name was Tony and he spoke a little English. After I explained where I wanted to go, he thought for a moment and said, "come with me, I will carry you there." He had to think of the word "carry", so I automatically assumed he meant that I should follow him there. Cautiously, I proceeded.
The walk was fine until we turned down an alley. Now my gaurd was up. Luckily, there were still a fair number of people around, so I just placed the situation at "orange" according to the Department of Homeland Security's threat level. Tony stopped and said, "wait here." I waited. He went into a door.
A few moments later, and my hand still wrapped around my wallet, Tony came back out with two helmuts and told me to follow him. We proceeded to his scooter where he handed me the spare head gare and told me to hop on.
A little on the scooters in Taipei: there are three scooters for every person in the city. On any given day, there are thousands of these wizzing down every street disobeying all traffic laws put in place. Green means "go fast". Red means "go faster". Driving on sidewalks are permissible. And I am pretty sure that they are ultimately aiming for pedestrians. And why not? More driving room.
Now that you have a fair sense of how these vehicles from hell operate, you can understand the flutter in my heart and dread in my soul when Tony told me to hold on tight. And tight I did. That man was wizzing and whipping around turns and on sidewalks and in between trucks. I have never said so many Hail Marys in my entire life! But for all the danger and life threateningly close attempts to hit other cars, I was smiling and laughing all the way. What a rush and how much fun my first Asian scooter ride was. Tony, a great guy, brought me all the way to my apartment where I thanked him profusely for his absolute kindess.
Tony drove off into the distance while I walk home silently, thinking about the times I almost died and the genuine Taiwanese hospitality I just experienced.
From your life threatening, dare deviling Evel Knieval of the far East, Michael.
After a late night of teaching observation, I decided to reward myself with some of Taipei's more famed steamed dumplings. I returned to the restaurant at which I dined my first evening and let my teeth sink into the delicious sin. It was the only tasty morsel my mouth would be privy to that evening.
Outside it occured to me that I was nearly 30 minutes from the closest MRT station. Determined there was a more convenient route home, I took out my map and began to orient myself in the labyrinth of chinese characters. Basically, I was lost. Fantastic.
Standing there, the only Caucasian for about 3,000 miles, holding a map in a night market seemed to scream "mug me." It was not long before a Taiwanese man approached me and offered to help me find my way. With one hand on my wallet and camera, I began to talk with this man. His name was Tony and he spoke a little English. After I explained where I wanted to go, he thought for a moment and said, "come with me, I will carry you there." He had to think of the word "carry", so I automatically assumed he meant that I should follow him there. Cautiously, I proceeded.
The walk was fine until we turned down an alley. Now my gaurd was up. Luckily, there were still a fair number of people around, so I just placed the situation at "orange" according to the Department of Homeland Security's threat level. Tony stopped and said, "wait here." I waited. He went into a door.
A few moments later, and my hand still wrapped around my wallet, Tony came back out with two helmuts and told me to follow him. We proceeded to his scooter where he handed me the spare head gare and told me to hop on.
A little on the scooters in Taipei: there are three scooters for every person in the city. On any given day, there are thousands of these wizzing down every street disobeying all traffic laws put in place. Green means "go fast". Red means "go faster". Driving on sidewalks are permissible. And I am pretty sure that they are ultimately aiming for pedestrians. And why not? More driving room.
Now that you have a fair sense of how these vehicles from hell operate, you can understand the flutter in my heart and dread in my soul when Tony told me to hold on tight. And tight I did. That man was wizzing and whipping around turns and on sidewalks and in between trucks. I have never said so many Hail Marys in my entire life! But for all the danger and life threateningly close attempts to hit other cars, I was smiling and laughing all the way. What a rush and how much fun my first Asian scooter ride was. Tony, a great guy, brought me all the way to my apartment where I thanked him profusely for his absolute kindess.
Tony drove off into the distance while I walk home silently, thinking about the times I almost died and the genuine Taiwanese hospitality I just experienced.
From your life threatening, dare deviling Evel Knieval of the far East, Michael.
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3 comments:
what a way to try and save a cab fare...you are braver than I...
Mike when I read your headline I almost died. As I started to read it I thought maybe you had food poison. But it ended up being such a wonderful story thank you for sharing it with us
Your story doesn't add up, Mike. We both know that there are no acts of absolute kindness in the world... What are you hiding, sir?!
... If you got molested, I don't want to know. Just go ahead and repress that.
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