I cannot believe what I just witnessed. I’m here at our apartment. Moments ago I stepped out onto our porch where our washing machine and clothesline are (dryer’s in Taiwan are only for laundry mats and rich people) for some air. It faces Heping Road which isn’t a side-street by any stretch of the imagination. It is a four-lane road after all. This is important now so remember, too many cars and mopeds were zipping by to count while all this was taking place.
As I was standing there and gazing out at the traffic going by I saw a cab stop along the opposite side of the street. There were no passengers. The cab-driver got out of his car, walked to a little wall, and after looking up and down the sidewalk urinated with his back to me and the traffic. Finishing he walked back to his cab, climbed in and drove away.
Needless to say I am dumbfounded.
I feel its important to note that Taiwan, and especially Taipei, are quite westernized and well off. Taiwan is nowhere near a third-world country and if its developing instead of developed (no idea where the experts put Taiwan in this regard) then its on the upper end of developing. GUYS PEEING IN THE STREETS ISN’T NORMAL!
Oh the memories we make.
Hey Michael!
Thanks for making me laugh! Although I totally agree with your description of Taiwan’s development (well, maybe I wouldn’t call a clean and developed city “westernized”), I’d say I’ve seen this several times already – actually, you should have a look at my profile picture on Facebook :-p
More interesting, however, your reason to step on your balcony: “for some air” right next to a 4-lane street with “too many cars and mopeds”… LOL
Vacation is passing too fast! We should meet up again, what do you think?
hm.
I don’t know about this not being a common thing…
I can think of two separate occasions where I’ve witnessed this in Taipei.
Once, I was walking towards the GuoGuang bus station from Taipei Main station and thinking that I was taking a shortcut, I walked around the back of a building and found myself picking my way through excrement and very suspiciously foamy puddles. As I came back around the other side of the building, back onto the road I’d been walking on before, I suddenly became aware of the lines of taxis, waiting for a chance to pull up next to the Taipei Main Station. Obviously… where are taxi drivers going to go? they want to stay in line and there’s no public restroom in a convenient place for their use…
The other time, I was in a taxi with a friend, and we pulled under a bridge to get to the other side of the road. The guy I witnessed “doing his thing” was under the bridge and was using a metal structure to block MOST of the traffic from seeing what he was doing. But I couldn’t avoid seeing a very long-lasting, steady stream.
EEEWWWW, Rachel! Your use of words to describe details is usually a good thing, but in this case…actually being able to see these things in my mind is NOT a good thing, lol!
“a very long-lasting, steady stream”…. ew.
lol… sorry.
the image is, unfortunately, permanently burned into my mind…
I had no idea that public urination was so common in Taiwan. Having received these other accounts it seems as though my original statement that peeing in the streets is not common in Taiwan is incorrect.