All the Different Ways in Which we Live the Same Lives

It’s amazing how much you can enrich your travel experience by stopping and observing sometimes. It’s my favourite thing to do, if you hadn’t already noticed. When you look through a window, you observe little things and it’s the little things that make all the difference.

It’s a good opportunity to calmly compare and contrast, without judgment but only curiosity. There are always similarities and differences in the world, and there always will be… what I find interesting is how many different ways we can all do the same thing. We all speak, but we speak different languages… choose different words and phrases for the same emotions, and express them individually within the environment of the life we have lived.

Or it could be much less abstract. One night, while walking around the neighbourhood, I got a little lost and had to stop and check a map. As I lifted my head from my phone, I noticed the garbage truck pass by. It’s hard not to notice it here, it plays a loud tune… kind of like ice cream vans in Australia. I smiled at what I saw.

The truck was driving very slowly, and there were three staff members in the back who seemed to be sorting through the rubbish. One worker was at the edge of the truck, receiving fully packed, pink rubbish bags from a steady stream of residents.

I thought it was amazing, since in suburban Australia we have a different system. We fill up our bins, put them out on the front verge, and once a week a truck comes by early in the morning to empty them. In Taipei, the rubbish truck is much smaller, it comes every single evening, and people literally walk out of their houses to physically hand the rubbish over as the truck drives by.

It’s so interesting, that a high tech city like Taipei still has these elements of human interaction. This is the case even when paying for things here. If you ever travel to Taiwan, then make sure to bring cash. I think I used my card at a store only once here. It’s really nice to see the survival of these physical aspects of life, given how easy it is to do things online these days. It’s part of what has made my stay in Taiwan a unique experience.

All the different ways in which we live the same lives… it opens you up to perhaps looking at your own routine and asking: what would happen if I did this differently?