Adventuring by taiwandaily

Adventuring

Depending on the day of the week, I can love one thing about Taiwan, and the next day hate that same thing. A good example of this is how Taiwan is either unexplored or inconvenient, depending on how you look at it.

In Taiwan there just isn't much information about places, what is available and where it is. If you are looking for a specific item than you are in a for a journey because even if you track down some place that had it at one time, there is no guarantee that place will still have the item you want or that the store will even still be there.

One big problem is that the big social media and other websites that are used to let people know where things are, what they are, and how good they are; aren't really used in Taiwan, and there is usually no Taiwanese equivalent. In fact a lot of places don't even have websites. So even a google search doesn't help.

So when you really need something, this can be a bit of a pain, but on the other hand it means that Taiwan is rip for something that I truly enjoy, exploration. When I'm trying to find something, depending on my mood, it can feel good when you've found that thing after days of looking around. Also it means that it's very beneficial to just walk around places you haven't been or hardly ever go, as you never know what you will discover. More than half the things I need are from places I discovered just walking around and seeing that that they had something I had been looking for and pretty much given up on finding.

The picture above is of a Western Union I stumbled across at the beginning of the year. I remember about five years earlier trying to help a foreigner friend find one here. Western Union's international website didn't have the info we needed. A google search in English didn't come up with anything, which means we had to figure out what it would be called in Chinese if it had ever even been given a Chinese name. Then it was on to asking for help and trying to explain to people exactly what Western Union does, so they'd have an idea what to search for. It was a whole escapade, and in the end we just figured out another way to do what he needed to do.

Anyway coming across this Western Union made me wonder if it was here all along and we just never found it, or it has just newly arrived here. No matter what, I now know where one is, so i'm just dying for somebody to ask me where a Western Union is. Maybe for my next adventure I'll try to hunt down somebody who will ask "Hey, do you know where a Western Union is?"
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