I’d arrived on a Sunday in Taipei, starting work at Conoco Taiwan on the following day — which was a bit foolhardy, given that I’d never been abroad before (except as a tourist: with family [Kuala Lumpur, when I was 12]; shown around by a local contact [Jakarta, 1973/4], or on a package tour [Penang, when I was 11; Jakarta–Bali–Jakarta, 1973/4]).
On Monday morning, my flatmate took me into work, showing me how to walk to the bus stop from our flat, then where to get off at the office end a few miles later, and how to walk from that bus stop to my office (negotiating the underground passages at the crossroads that took me from one side to the other).
Being of an independent and daredevil disposition (plus Oriental, brought up constantly reminded not to trouble other people), I told her I’d make my own way home that evening (only my second day in Taipei!), which was even more foolhardy. I had a good sense of direction — it should be easy, just do the whole process in reverse.
Left work at 5pm, which was dark as it was winter. Headed for the crossroads where I’d got off the bus in the morning. I could see the bus stop where I’d disembarked that morning, so all I needed to do was to head that way, just find the bus stop on the other side of the road to go home.
The problems were (I can now tell you but couldn’t quite see them properly at the time, as it was dark, making it difficult to find one’s bearings that easily and confidently):
- the traffic system in Taiwan is American, which means that my orientation had to be flipped over — I’d be looking towards where my flat would be, but the traffic going there is on the other side of the road from the British/Singapore system;
- the subway / underground passage system at that crossroads had eight exits (two at each corner, at 90˚to each other), which were quite difficult for me to visualise when I was underground, unable to see the street level;
- the central reservations in the four roads radiating from the crossroads had railings, which meant that one couldn’t cross those four roads on the street level (where one could see where one was going) to get to the correct side; one had to dive back into the underground passage network to get to that spot — or try to, anyway.
Which was what happened to me at the end of that first day at work:
- I kept emerging, on the street level, onto what I thought would be the correct side for the bus stop home, only to find the traffic going the wrong way;
- I then plunged back into the underground passage web, heading for what I thought would be the correct exit, only to find that I was wrong yet again.
This went on and on and on, until suddenly my colleague, Peggy Lǚ 呂映華 the accountant’s assistant, loomed up, and asked in great surprise, “What are you doing here? You left the office at 5pm, and it’s now 6.30!” So, I’d been wandering around in that labyrinth for an hour and a half!!
She led me to my bus stop, and waited with me for my bus.
When it arrived, however, it was full to bursting point. Bursting point = people standing on the steps all the way down to the door.
I recoiled and said no. The bus left. The next one came along, same situation. And the next.
After three refusals (yes, I was like a horse at a fence), Peggy decided to take matters into her own hands, or she’d end up hanging around until midnight with this delicately-brought up girl from Singapore who refused to push and shove her way onto a bus. She had to get home herself after putting in 1.5 hours of overtime at the office — she lived in a suburb that needed two different bus journeys (one from the office to the train station downtown, then another one to her house).
When the fourth bus arrived, equally packed to the gills, and the doors opened, Peggy shoved me with both hands INTO the bodies at the bottom of the steps, just before the door shut.
I had just enough room to park one foot, on the bottom step. So, there I stood in this position, like a stork, with my back plastered against the door, all the way home to my flat. (This was the door for boarding, so there was no risk of me falling out and onto the pavement, as it was so full that the driver wouldn’t open that door to let anyone else on.)
No, not the end of the horror yet.
After I got off at my end (八德路 Ba De Road), I couldn’t find my way back to my flat from the bus stop, because yet again, it was the same “brain had to be flipped over” situation with the American system.
As my area wasn’t downtown Taipei, I didn’t have the underground passage labyrinth to fox me, but I still had to wander around in the dark, lost for a while, asking for directions from more than one person on the pavement.
So that was how my first day at work in Taipei ended…
(Taipei, 1974)
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