day four, trip two

Today has been a surreal day.

There are geckos everywhere in the house, but until now the only ones I’ve seen are the partially fossilized remains of unfortunate beasts that got trapped in the door. Perhaps it’s the frogs’ short break from their choiring that provoked it, but I’ve seen two scuttling across the walls and floors in the last five minutes.

I’m not their biggest fan so thankfully haven’t seen any in my room.

This morning I sat outside reading. Nothing too out of the ordinary. But this afternoon I was picked up by a friend. No, actually, I was picked up by her driver. Who has a driver?

I felt pretty uncomfortable with the idea that this guy was chauffeuring us round the city all afternoon, but I guess that’s his job. It certainly made it easier to get to places.

Someone recently commented on how they felt so much better about my safety knowing I’m with my uncle in Malaysia. If you are that person, you might want to stop reading now.

Malaysia, especially KL, is nowhere near as safe as Taiwan. You can’t walk down the street with any loose bags as there are people snatch they while on motorbikes, dragging you along with them if you don’t let go. (This has happened twice to my friend, once she couldn’t let go, so she was ultra cautious.) Taiwan is maybe not the safest place in the world but stuff like that just doesn’t really happen. You can walk in Taipei with friends in the late early hours of the morning, and feel perfectly safe.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s still a great place to visit so long as you’re not careless (and stay away from the gangster that lives in the inordinately large house down the street,) and I’ll definitely be coming back for a proper look around in the future.

(Then again, there is the constant impending threat of gecko attack here…)