上班族必備軟實力

At first glance, in Taiwan, riding a scooter looks impossibly dangerous. Seeing all the cycles swarming through the streets is intimidating. Scooters are supposed to keep to the right, but in reality, they are zooming all around between cars and each other. It looks impossible that accidents don’t happen every minute.

Newcomers to Taiwan are often intimidated by the prospect of getting on a scooter and joining that mess in the street. Getting out in traffic, you quickly see that things look a lot different from inside the swarm. You just need to go along with the flow of other bikes.

I was here for a year before I started scootering. I started riding shortly before the government made it mandatory to wear a helmet. But that was fine with me because without my helmet, my toupee kept blowing off. I was soon zipping merrily on my way on top of my SYM Chacha 50, but soon I blew out the engine by going too fast.

I would be driving along the road and pass an old guy who was just puttering along. Then stop at a stop light. After the green light, I would have to pass that same old guy who was just puttering along. No matter how fast I went, he would always pass me at the light.

Today, my scooter is a beautiful 125 cc of raw, blinding fury. I don my helmet, gloves, and shoe covers and put my jacket on backwards and scoot off to adventure. I glide through traffic like a bullet through cheese, and I love it.

I’ll see you next week with a new article about life in Taiwan.

【作者介紹】

Richard 是一位台灣女婿，在台灣生活15年，喜愛台灣文化，以風趣幽默的文筆，細膩獨特的觀點，介紹在台灣生活的趣事，一起跟著Richard探訪外國人的台灣世界吧！