Need shoes? Head down to Taiwan’s beaches…
I’ve never really understood the whole “take your shoes off before going inside” rule people religiously follow.
Obviously not strictly Taiwanese, whenever I go to someone’s house I always roll my eyes when I’m asked to remove my shoes (or see the stinking shoe tray outside their front door).
In principle, it seems that it’s a matter of cleanliness – which again I don’t quite understand. It’s the floor, it gets dirty and you’re going to have to clean it anyway so who cares.
If you’ve got nice carpet to walk around on then ok fine, but everyone in Taiwan has cold hard tiled (or linoleum) floors. And no, I don’t want to wear grandma’s blue or green century-old thongs thankyou very much (no pun intended).
Anyway, that’s people’s houses and regardless of how retarded I might think their silly rules are they’re entitled to them. My house will always be a wear whatever you’re already wearing inside zone.
The other week I was cruising by a beach down Taiwan’s west coast when I came across this sight:
What you’re looking at there is about 30-40 pairs of shoes, left about a km from the shoreline of what was evidently a pretty deserted beach.
Now before anybody points it out, yeah I get it – they don’t like sand in their shoes… but seriously?
If I couldn’t see the people who owned the shoes then they couldn’t see the shoes. Now I don’t walk around with diamond studded footwear or anything but how exactly am I supposed to enjoy myself at the beach worrying that someone might nick my shoes?
With nobody in particular around and the shoes so near the bike track, there wasn’t really anything stopping someone grabbing a pair and running off.
Now stealing shoes might be the most appealing of theft booty, but tell that to the person who stole my seven year old pair of sneakers out my car all those years ago…
People steal anything these days yet nobody really seemed to be all that worried about their shoes disappearing from the beach.
Maybe it’s the “western” in me but I can’t help myself from being paranoid and watching my things like a hawk when I’m in the water.
Anyway, free shoes in Taiwan? Now you know where to find them.
February 22nd, 2013 at 5:16 pm Virgilcat(Quote)
I am with you on this. Just wish I could post a pic of in laws apartment it’s like a rubbish tip but make sure you take your shoes off before coming in don’t want to “dirty” the floor.