I'll frame my adventure last night in terms of Diamonds and Coals.
Diamonds: I took the precaution of taking a picture of the building so I could recognize "home."
Coals: There are several buildings in the vicinity that pretty much look the same so it wasn't as helpful as I had hoped.
Sorta not so helpful precautionary photo since there are several buildings that look the same to me
Diamonds: Unlike the US, the naming convention for addresses in Taipei is very rational and logical.
Coals: Woulda been helpful to realize this before I ventured out on my own. I spent a good half hour wandering around my building totally disoriented and looking like I was casing the joint.
Diamonds: People were very friendly and helped point me in the right direction when I asked for directions or asked what they had on the menu.
Coal: People were very helpful AFTER they realized that I'm illiterate and that I wasn't just asking stupid obvious questions in Mandarin like "what do you sell to eat here." The answer is always "[no duh] we sell everything [read the freaking signs you idiot]." I'm learning to preface all my questions with, "I'm illiterate, please pity me, can you tell me what you sell to eat."
How did I get so lost? Turns out addresses in Taipei are organized in a hierarchy. Major street name, lane number, alley number, building number and then floor number. Key piece of information that would have been super helpful when I was wandering around aimlessly. Basically I walked around my neighborhood for a good half an hour running into streets with the same name. What the heck? It's like walking in four directions and finding every street sign (small and major) named "Mass Ave." The street signs were actually saying something like, "This is the 3rd lane and 45th alley south of Mass Ave," but I thought they all said Mass Ave in my confused state. I have to admit the system is pretty genius once you understand it, but super confusing if you don't know what's happening.
Finally, I gave up trying to orient myself using a paper map and pulled out the iPhone. I ended up walking toward Taipei 101 since it's the tallest skyscraper around and was in the direction of civilization or at least very good eats. Once I got going, I was able to find the major streets and figure out where the landmarks were, but the little residential alleys threw me for a giant loop on the way out and on the way back home.
Walked towards Taipei 101 like some sort of beacon...I figured they at least had food there and cabs if I got lost
I cobbled together a very random dinner mostly because I couldn't visually figure out what street stands were selling and I was concerned about getting swiped by a zooming moped. I did enjoy a red bean pancake, a pork filled pastry, some iced tea and a bowl of minced pork rice for a grand total of about $3. The biggest Diamond is [knock on wood], I think I got all of my "getting lost" out of my system yesterday and it's been smooth sailing today.
Barely figured out how to order a bowl of minced pork belly rice for dinner
Nearly got run over by mopeds at the local night market
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