Prices, temples, garbage

Today's post is dedicated to the little things that i had always wanted to write about, just never actually got to it.

Garbage
Taiwan has a unique system of collecting and recycling garbage. Unlike most other places, there are no garbage bins outside houses. Every day of the week (except Wednesday and Sunday), the garbage collection cars (always 2 of them together) go around the city, following a strict route and time schedule, so that they are always in the same place at the same time. In our case, they come at 7:40 p.m. So we, as the other neighbors, wait around that time to hear the familiar tune they blast - one of the cars plays Beethoven, the other one some random tune. At around 7:35 p.m., a crowd starts forming just outside the house - all the people from the neighborhood wait with their garbage bags, because the only way to get rid of it is to chuck it directly into the garbage car, at the specific time it comes. I think this system was designed in order to encourage people to get to know their neighbors, as everyone has to come out at the same time. It doesn't seem to work too well, as the local people seem to be quite ignorant of the neighbors. It's surprising even to hear a simple Hello when we take the lift together in my building. But, back to topic: In order to encourage recycling, the Beethoven car collects recyclable stuff - different kind every day. Paper on Monday and Friday, and plastic, glass, cans and such on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. These things are collected for free. The other car accepts the general garbage. The trick is, they will only take it when it is in a special blue bag. These bags can be purchased everywhere, but they are rather expensive, so buying them also means paying for the garbage collection. This encourages people to sort out the recyclables and not put them in the general waste, as their blue bags would get full quickly, hence having to pay more money. To make things more complicated, the blue bag car also accepts biological garbage, which does not have to be in the blue bag.

Prices
Before my trip to Taiwan, I was trying hard to find out what the price level of Taiwan is, with little success. Therefore, here's a little overview of what things cost here.
As of today, the exchange rate is: 1 NTD (New Taiwan Dollar) = 0.62 Czech Crowns / 1 CZK = 1.6 NTD. 1 Euro = 44 NTD. 1 US Dollar = 33 NTD.

1 Toast bread .............................. 45 NTD
Milk - 1,5 liters .............................. 120 NTD
Twix chocolate bar .............................. 28 NTD
Bottled water - 1,5 liters .............................. 30 NTD
Yoghurt, small one .............................. 16 NTD
Beer - 0,5 liters (in a shop).............................. 45 NTD
Breakfast sandwich.............................. 12 NTD
4 bananas .............................. 35 NTD
Instant noodles .............................. 25 - 45 NTD
Beer at a club .............................. 150 - 200 NTD

Simple rice / noodle dish at a restaurant, enough for lunch ......... 60 - 100 NTD
A better dish at a better restaurant ........ 120 - 200 NTD
Big Mac Menu @ Mc'Donalds ......... 115 NTD
Grande Latte @ Starbucks ........ 115 NTD
Big Latte @ 7-11 ......... 50 NTD

Bus ticket in Taipei ......... 15 / 30 NTD (depending on distance)
MRT ticket in Taipei ......... 20 - 60 NTD (depending on distance)
Bus from the airport to the center (1 hour trip) ......... 150 NTD
Bus ticket Taipei - Kaohsiung (i.e. across the whole island, 300 km) ......... 600 NTD
Taxi from the center back home (around 7 km) .......... 250 NTD

Renting a studio apartment (~ 40 sq. m.) , outside the center .... 10000 - 15000 NTD/month
Taking a course of Chinese, 3 months, 3 hours every day .... 25000 - 30000

If anyone is particularly interested in a price of something else, let me know.

Some recent pictures follow:

The BaoAn temple, around 200 years old, is one of the oldest and nicest Taoist temples in Taipei. Visited by Japanese tour groups, but also men in suits and ties who come bow to the gods and pray for good luck.

Lanters in front of a different Taipei temple.

Hiking outside Taipei, just this Saturday.

Met a large group of children along the way. They were extremelly excited to run into foreigners. It took a while for them to overcome the shyness, giggling, pushing around and trying to figure out the perfect sentence in English to approach us. In the end, I had to talk to them first, then we had a nice chat in Chinese and occasional English. They were particularly interested to find out whether Noora and I were married.