An Amazing Race, without the Race part

Today, my colleague and I decided to be brave and take public transit. I remember the words in MacBeth when one of the characters was encouraged to “screw thy courage to the sticking place.” Well, that’s what I had to do, muster up the courage and just do it! There is a system called the Bus Rapid Transportation (BRT) which is faster than regular city buses. We thought that we would just go to the end of the line; walk around and come back to where we are staying which is at the beginning of the line for BRT. It seemed like the safest way for fewer mistakes. We also didn’t want to be gone too long as our bodies are still adjusting to the heat.

I was able to get a map of the stops on my computer. I copied the names of the stops and roughly drew a crude map. Armed with my picture dictionary, we walked down the path behind where we are staying to the first stop. Now, you must realize that pedestrians are expendable around here. Although they may be small, those drivers on electric bikes are aggressive: they wait for no one. We got to the bus gate and I showed my list of stops and pointed to the last one. The gate attendant held up 3 fingers and I gave her 10 Yuan and thankfully, she gave me change. It roughly cost 50 cents to go across town which turns out to be a 40 minute ride.

The gate attendant gave me a blue token. I hung on to it, but watched carefully what people were doing with it. The token got us through the gate and we waited for the bus. Thankfully, we do look like foreigners and another bus attendant showed us which bus to get on. We got on and we were on our way! I felt like the people on Amazing Race as they have to try different ways of getting around. You’re trying to be alert and be observant of the the scenery at the same time.

I find that the buildings are an odd mixture of old and rundown and new. It’s almost like the rundown buildings are being squeezed out by the newer and much taller buildings; like they are going to take over eventually whether the tenants like it or not. There definitely is no prize for architectural creativity. The buildings tend to look the same. The only thing that is the same is the fact that people hang their laundry out to dry. There are no dryers and people just hang their clothes out on makeshift lines anywhere they can.

Our bus took us right to the waterfront of Taiwan Strait. We left the bus, making sure we knew what the building looked like. Our blue tokens were not given to the bus driver but dropped in the slot to allow the turnstile to let us in.

We walked along the waterfront and across the street to the shops. Everything is compact and I can see why Canada is considered a large, spreading expanse. The shops seemed to be oddly placed. A high end clothing store was right next to a cheap trinket store. Around the entrances of the stops for the city buses were beggars, or others trying to sell fresh food and other wares. It was a bit overwhelming at times. I didn’t buy anything, but just looked for now.

We walked back to the bus stop and did everything in reverse and got home with only one mistake. I was quite proud of myself. I, for one, didn’t take the bus for a race, but I thought the accomplishment of the task was truly amazing.