Pardon me while I gush about what is possibly the best bookstore in
the world – the new Eslite superstore in Taipei, near the city hall
MRT stop.
Yes I said the world. Where do even begin? First of all is 8 stories
tall. They have full selections of books in at least 3 different
languages. And magazines too.
Oh yeah, and they’re also a department store too, with cool
departments selling everything from Japanese stationery and bags (my
favorites) to clothes. It is mind blowing.
Of course you may know of a better one… But I doubt you’re right.
If you read my post about moto-scooters, you might have read that I hadn’t seen any deaths or maimings yet. Well stop the presses, cause today during a long walk in downtown Taipei, I saw an old lady get hit by a car!. I took only one pic, cause she looked like she was hurt pretty bad, and I didn’t want to seem an ass. She was crossing at a crosswalk, (with the signal) when she was hit by a dude making a left turn. She was carried off the street by Mr. I’m-in-a-hurry, and she was conscious, so I guess that’s pretty good, all things considered.
A big problem for Taiwan is that, despite the fact that according to the CIA factbook there are over 22 million people living here, the place is simply not fit for human habitation. Taipei is basically a city in a jungle. It’s humid and hot, as you might expect, but perhaps worse, it is simply infested with insects, many of which I fought a personal battle with last night. You see, they installed a new air conditioner in the room I’m staying in yesterday, and when they pulled the old one from the wall, hell, in the form of a small hornet’s nest in the AC unit, was unleashed. In order to get the hornets out of the house, we had to use those electric fly swatters, except that they were powerless against such large insects. Well, not powerless, but let’s just say that the hornets and I (and my cousin’s wife) were evenly matched. It was touch and go for a while, (the AC installation guy was such a big chicken – he totally ran away) but eventually we prevailed. Except that last night at 4, I woke up with 6 mosquito bites. We had opened the screen for a few minutes to get the hornets out, you see. As I have already mentioned, Taipei is in an uninhabitable jungle, and the jungle is angry. I eventually killed the 4 mosquitoes which had infiltrated the house, as well as the one remaining hornet which had escaped detection. Anyway, it took 2 hours. Taiwanese mosquitoes are very tricky, and it took all of my considerable mosquito tracking powers. In the words of Gandalf, “I have never met such a challenge.”