The quirky Taiwanese.

1. They are too friendly.
Not that friendly is a bad thing. But it's such a huge change from Singaporeans, who are nasty by default. Over there, everyone is like happy on Prozac. We stopped strangers to ask directions and they ended up telling us much more than that. I met a retired teacher on the train (he sat in the wrong seat, ended up next to me) and we happily chatted for the next three hours. Also there was a young man who just helped us fetch our luggage from the compartment without even stopping for thanks.

They were so friendly someone actually stopped Merllie in the middle of the street and offered to take her to see a doctor, to share his expertise with acne! Wah.

2. They enjoy queuing too.
This must be one of the ridiculous things I saw when in Taiwan. There was a perpetual long queue outside this Tamagoya egg-dish three-storey restaurant. The dishes and branding were rather cute, I give you that, but it looked like an overpriced omelette to us. Surprise surprise though, when for the next few days we saw stretching long queues that spilled across the tarmac. Curiously, each time we approached someone who was in the queue to ask what was so special, no one could tell us why they were queuing.

3. They love a camera and the peace sign.
Perhaps it's the magic of a Nikon D70. Instead of like Singaporeans who duck and madly rush to get out of the picture, the Taiwanese put on bright smiles and peace signs with panache. So much more complementary that way!

4. They speak in such a cute way.
I believe it was Merllie who remarked ACS boys should be taken to Ximending to experience how cool Mandarin is. Everyone speaks Mandarin in such a cool way...

But even the young men speak in a "teh" or "act cute" way. It would be taken as "act cute" in anywhere else but in Taiwan. Even the 40+ year old bus driver told us we'd reached our destination in a super cute way. Fwah.

5. Their delicious bian-dang (packed bentos).
In Singapore, we'd only resort to packed food as a last resort, right? But there, everyone eats bentos, with much gusto! And they're quite delicious. I bought one, which costs about $2.50 to $3, came in a wooden box package, had a chicken leg, two kinds of vegetables, egg omelette, and pickles! And you know where that came from? CONVENIENCE STORE! It came piping hot and was nice and filling. I ended up eating two square meals a day, and actually lost weight. Heh.

More on quirky Taiwanese later.