Yeah, I am here. The first day of my trip is almost over. Time to look for an internetcafe and type some words.
When I arrived I could not believe that none of the stories seemed to be true. The airport was silent, almost boring, though I really liked the Asian-style architecture of some of the airport buildings there. There were also no Taxi drivers yelling at me, trying to pull me in their car.
I just choosed the next best one and asked him to use the meter. The 30 km ride from the airport to downtown was not very stressful, considering that I am used to some Asian traffic by now. Though I have to admit that you feel and see right away that there is quite a difference between Taipei and Hanoi. The "freeway" was in some parts not completed yet and scooters are allowed to use it (without helmet of course). The whole car traffic is packed to the left lane, as the right lane is occupied by slow two-wheelers.
Entering the city by taxi was a good choice, having windows around you makes it a lot nicer to be around here. Traffic is chaos and everyone honks his car or scooter horn as often as possible.
People here definately look poorer (as expected) and there is a lot more life on the streets. Some really nice Mediterainian feeling, with small bars offering chairs outside to take a rest and have a drink.
My experience so far is that people here a open-minded towards white foreigners, they like it to talk to you. An old man (maybe 70) sat besides me on a bench and told me about his children, in French (colonial influence, which is also captured in the architecture here and makes a lot of buildings look nicer then in Taiwan), and you see a lot of white foreigners walking around (most of them look like properly tanned tourits).
People's spoken English is a lot better in Taiwan, but here they try to speak it with a lot of passion as well.
You get offers at every corner and every minute; people trying to sell you fresh fruit, books or offer you rides on scooters or rikschas.
A book vendor was not satisfied with my offer for his copied version of the Lonely planet and actually threatened me after a while, that I should not meet him again, or he would hit me. That is something I never experienced in Taiwan and the general attitude of vendors here seems to be a lot more aggressive, or desperate.
But my general impression is still positive. I booked two trips out of the city and my hotel's travel agency, totalling about 100 US Dollar for 5 nights and all transportation and accomendation. I hope that the money is properly invested and I will experience a lot of interesting sights with my properly tanned travel mates.
When I arrived I could not believe that none of the stories seemed to be true. The airport was silent, almost boring, though I really liked the Asian-style architecture of some of the airport buildings there. There were also no Taxi drivers yelling at me, trying to pull me in their car.
I just choosed the next best one and asked him to use the meter. The 30 km ride from the airport to downtown was not very stressful, considering that I am used to some Asian traffic by now. Though I have to admit that you feel and see right away that there is quite a difference between Taipei and Hanoi. The "freeway" was in some parts not completed yet and scooters are allowed to use it (without helmet of course). The whole car traffic is packed to the left lane, as the right lane is occupied by slow two-wheelers.
Entering the city by taxi was a good choice, having windows around you makes it a lot nicer to be around here. Traffic is chaos and everyone honks his car or scooter horn as often as possible.
People here definately look poorer (as expected) and there is a lot more life on the streets. Some really nice Mediterainian feeling, with small bars offering chairs outside to take a rest and have a drink.
My experience so far is that people here a open-minded towards white foreigners, they like it to talk to you. An old man (maybe 70) sat besides me on a bench and told me about his children, in French (colonial influence, which is also captured in the architecture here and makes a lot of buildings look nicer then in Taiwan), and you see a lot of white foreigners walking around (most of them look like properly tanned tourits).
People's spoken English is a lot better in Taiwan, but here they try to speak it with a lot of passion as well.
You get offers at every corner and every minute; people trying to sell you fresh fruit, books or offer you rides on scooters or rikschas.
A book vendor was not satisfied with my offer for his copied version of the Lonely planet and actually threatened me after a while, that I should not meet him again, or he would hit me. That is something I never experienced in Taiwan and the general attitude of vendors here seems to be a lot more aggressive, or desperate.
But my general impression is still positive. I booked two trips out of the city and my hotel's travel agency, totalling about 100 US Dollar for 5 nights and all transportation and accomendation. I hope that the money is properly invested and I will experience a lot of interesting sights with my properly tanned travel mates.
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