I'm always surprised when i meet people in Taiwan who can't swim. In my mind since Taiwan is an island, everybody should know how to swim cause you never know when some huge earthquake will happen and you need to swim to china. Which of course is absurd, as even though china is pretty close, I don't think that anybody but the top percentile of swimmers could actually do this, leaving the rest of us to die.
As such swimming pools aren't really that popular here. There isn't a culture or an idealized vision that when it gets hot, you have to go to the pool. A lot of this has to do with that fact that there are no pools that are just for playing. All the pools are for lap swimming. Meaning no childhood summers spent playing at the pool with friends.
There being not so many pools, also means that what pools there are, are very crowded. Up to eight people in a lane at a time. There is one type of pool that doesn't get so crowded though...outdoor pools. I've said it many times that most Taiwanese hate the sun as it's considered bad to have a tan. So outdoor pools aren't frequented much during the middle of the day.
There used to be one right by my previous apartment, but I've been a bit sad that there isn't one near my new apartment. That is until i stumbled across this pool. It's quite sad that I actually go right by this pool several times a week. It's because it's right by the river, and every time I go running, I'm up on that wall behind the pool. In my defense, in order to not get heat stroke, I will wait until night time to go running, well after the pool is closed. It's pretty dark in this area, but i'm still shocked that I never noticed a pool. I was only lucky enough that eventually there was a rainy day, so I was able to go out running in the afternoon, and that's when I saw the pool.
I am hoping to now get to this pool in the afternoons and do some swimming. A bit of a disappointment is that its closed during the hottest time of the day. Which makes sense cause if you know nobody wants to be outside under the sun getting a tan, you can save some money by closing the pool in the afternoon. Granted i'm guessing the cost of having a pool open a few hours in the afternoon isn't that much of an extra cost. Anyway I'll still try to go as close to the afternoon as possible, and just pray that at that time isn't a swim class for hundreds of kids.
