Day 6: The Day I Felt Insulted by General Remarks...

 ~ 19th March 2014 ~

How old is that building?

Our third day in Taipei and we're still marching on. Our initial plan was to wake up at 6:30a.m. to catch the earliest bus to Yangmingshan. And we sleepyheads couldn't even wake up as we slept around 1 or 2 am the previous night. We cleared our room in the speed of lightning but you don't expect us to carry everything with us to Yangmingshan. We got Miss Chen to babysit our luggage while we swing away. The bus to Yangmingshan would be stopping outside Taipei Railway Station. While walking, you could wash your eyes on some things which was not much of a difference whether you're in a developed country, a developing country or an underdeveloped country.

The homeless' shelter...

The poor you will always have with you... They are the senior citizens, homeless and the only shelter they have over their heads was the concrete ceiling of the train station. Some can be seen sleeping on the bench. They have make shift tents and yes, it's an eyesore. Isn't there any social welfare to put them into homes? How are they going to survive the cold winter? The cost of living is Taiwan is not low, it's really high and then again, there was just a fraction of society who couldn't meet the mark in life. Did they even try to run the crazy rat race of city life? Or they just gave up on life and decided to live this way? I thank God for the shelter we have. I couldn't imagine mi mama living on the streets like this. I will give my best to mi mama.

The scooters....

Scooters everywhere. Nothing like our motorbikes. How come? Is it safer riding on scooters? Not everyone can afford a car. Some never have any vehicles except for their two feet. I keep on thinking how would my life be if I'm not who I am and what I am now? Will I be so poor? Or will I be a filthy rich person? Or I would just lead a mundane life working in a factory. Can't imagine... I like my life now. It's the life that I've always wanted. Don't think so much... take one day at a time :D

Bus #260 to Yangmingshan

We're at the right pick up point. Wait for bus #260 which will take you straight up to the entrance of Yangmingshan. I can't read anything so I'm sorry, I cannot tell you much about where else the bus is gonna stop. I read about this bus #260 from another blog, so thanks to that blog, we got to our destination without any hiccups. So, I'm just sharing with you now the same information of taking the bus #260 to go to Yangmingshan. No public transport which depends on the flow of traffic would reach on time. Please don't be ridiculous and accuse the bus for being not on time. Even trains and planes got delayed or arrived earlier at times.

Queuing up....

The government knows that Yangmingshan and bus 260 are two inseparable organs. A temporary tent was put up to shade you from the bright sunshine or the rain. We queued up like any civilized human would do upon waiting for anything. 

The long awaited bus..

Finally, after I've calculated about 989898 scooters wheezing passed us, the bus came. The bus looked big from the outside but inside was so.... without much space to even breathe. There were three empty seats at different part of the bus. Pinky went straight to the back while I sat next to a lady. I am, naturally, a very friendly person, but my main itinerary while on the bus, was to take a forty wink. But, this auntie beside me tortured me through and through mentally.

The auntie....

There are things that I would remember till the end. This auntie tortured me mentally, so that makes her in the list of people I would remember for life:

1. She asked me not to sit too near her because it was really suffocating. She has her stuff and I have my stuff but there's no place to even move so I shrink two sizes from my normal size. Yes, you can do that at times. Then, more space appeared between us.
2. I started closing my eyes. I have the ability to sleep anywhere, whenever I want it, no matter how noisy it is. This auntie poke me awake and asked me where I came from. I told her Malaysia.
3. .... silence for a few minutes.... pure blissfulness except for the loud engine from the bus....
4. Auntie said she has been to Malaysia before and she went on to mention that Malaysians are dirty people. Oh, my goodness~! I felt so insulted that I was so wide awake and ever ready to launch into fighting mode. She said the skin colour of Malaysians are dirty... got dark brown and various shades of brown... and she said I, as a Chinese, should look fair... Oi, auntie~! I got tanned skin also because of the sun in Taiwan~!!!!!! And Taiwanese are not even fair and lovely~!!!!!
5. I did not argue with her out of respect for an older person. I kept quiet and thought to myself, what kind of toilet brush should I use to scrub myself clean. Then, I shut my eyes and ears and went off to dreamland.
6. Then, auntie poked my arm to wake me again. Auntie said Malaysians are unhygienic people. Auntie, why you insult me over and over? I really felt like punching her, excuse my brutality. She said that when she visited Malaysia, she saw people using their hands to eat. Hello, auntie~! That's called the joy of eating... finger-smacking good food like nasi lemak. I would use hands anytime~!!!!!
7. Auntie then took out her lunchbox and the smell of bamboo shoot was so nauseating. She went on to show me that, hygienic people would eat using chopsticks. I became very rude to her and I told her that I also used my hands to eat, sometimes forgetting to wash my hands after bombing the toilet with stink bomb... then went on to show her how to use hand when eating, but not touching her food though...
8. Auntie quickly closed her food container. She has this horrified look on her face.
9. I went to dreamland shortly after with a smirk on my face.
10. Auntie poked me again. She asked whether I could understand Taiwan's local language which sounded like Hokkien or more like Singapore's Hokkien, so I told her, yes, I could understand.
11. Auntie refused to let me sleep. She tested me on colours. She pointed to one of the passenger's bag, their clothes, their shoes and tested me on the colours in Taiwan Hokkien. I didn't answer wrongly just that some of the words were different. Then she said,"Hah... you don't know!" Wahlaueh, auntie... let me go please...
12. Auntie forced me to take out my EasyCard so she could see how different it was from hers, a senior citizen's card and she laughed at me saying I don't have the discounted card for senior citizens.... auntie.... do I look as old as you? I'm very nice to entertain her... 

Pinky, my travel buddy, was laughing like a hyena at the back of the bus, then she used her hat to shut out the world. Mi mama wasn't helping me to find a route of escape also. When we arrived Yangmingshan, I was glad that she walked away. Then, she ran towards us and said she should accompany us or we might get lost and all three of us almost fainted upon hearing that. Thank God, she decided not to follow us after that.

But then again, I should thank the auntie for she planned for us the time we should get out of the place so we could catch our bullet train to the next county. It was, give and take, a 2.5 hours journey from Yangmingshan back to Taipei Central. We overlooked that and without her mention of time and her questions of our whereabouts after that actually helped us. It's worth being insulted. She doesn't even know I felt insulted to the max and maybe she's just very lonely. She talked about her family, her life and I think she talked to me more than anyone else. Auntie, thank you.

PS. Don't ever mention to me about how dark Indians look like and how come some Malays look fairer than Chinese and how come some Chinese look darker than Malay, I will skin you alive and you can see for yourself, under that skin, we're all PINK~!