Land of Oz

Crowds

People mountain - people sea. This is a Chinese phrase to talk about crowds. And boy are there crowds. You have to remember that we were down here for Chinese New Year. That's when everyone in Asia goes someplace else. The people in the south go north, the people in the east go west and people from Hong Kong go to Taiwan and people from Hong Kong go to mainland China. Mostly to visit family and friends. When I got married I went from only one brother to a wife, her mom and dad, and four sister and brother-in-laws, plus assorted nieces and nephews. And we all came to visit each other.

To top it off, it's a week long holiday where most people don't have to work and have also gotten their end-of-year bonuses. More money to spend and to travel. In the first week, we went to some tourist places - along with half of Taiwan. One day we went south to Taichong and stopped at Lu Guan which was an old fishing center with many Buddhist temples - and half of Taiwan. Most cities have an "old street" which you'd recognize from the US. The little shops and places that sell souveniers and food - a lot of food. And to me, pretty strange food. Since these are old - hundreds of years old - they are narrow. A pea in a pod has more room that a big strange westerner walking the aisles. I just kept my arms against my side and tried not to push too many people out of the way. The one good thing was that I could see over probably 70% of the folks in the crowd.

We went to a couple cities like this. And of course half of Taiwan has to get there somehow, so the roads are packes. But surprisingly, rarely at a stand still. The bus ride to Taichong took about three hours longer than normally but for a 5 hour ride was still only less than US$15 for the both of us.

And I have to mention one kind of crowd - the bus riding tourist. There are ugly tourists from every country. We were at the Matyr's Shrine in Taipei getting ready to watch the changing of the guard - similar to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Washington D.C., when some idiot Japanese tourists in their 20s showed up. Laughing and making faces and acting just like what you'd expect from a twenty-something American. The place has signs all over in English, Japanese and Chinese calling for quiet and restraint and those four idiots had to ruin it. They did finally quiet down, but I was really hoping one of the Honor Guard would loose his cool and smack one in the head with his Garand.