None of these are “wacky” per se, but different then my homeland experiences.
In some countries, in the hotel room in a noticable place, such as mounted to the desk will be a discrete arrow. Took me a while to figure out; it was pointing to Mecca. Obvious in hindsight to see that in Pakistan or Egypt, but I’ve seen it in Tokyo as well.
Being in some Eurpopean places (Hamburg comes to mind), and seeing everything completely close down on the weekends was different.
In Pakistan, there was a Kentucky Fried Chicken, and the slogan (it was in a text bubble that Colonel Sanders was saying) was “I’m a Chicken Genius!”
Absolutely no offense taken (by myself, at least).
America quite possibly has a monopoly on really senseless and crazy crap. The Puritanical roots of our social mores can render even the most sensible concepts utterly invalid within our borders. It’s heartwarming to see people from other countries checking in here and making note of just how wacko Americans can be as well.
Wacky things I can find in the US (overseas to me): American cars. You US’ers have the most ugly and poor handling cars in the occident (excluding the Corvette, of course). Man, didn’t you learn anything from the Italians and the Germans? Things like extracting a good size/performance ratio from an engine, or make a car that you can actually drive fast in a curvy road?
In Verona, Italy, every trash dumpster in the city (and I mean every single one) is beautifully painted the most vibrant of colors. Sort of like mini-murals, they embrace all sorts of themes, styles, and genres, and they never fail to liven up every street or alley.
In Chiang-Mai, Thailand, there aren’t any taxis. Anywhere. Oh sure, there are “taxis”, covered pick-up trucks with benches in the beds, and there are the ubiquitous tuk-tuks, but your traditional taxi (as in “car”) can’t be found.
They play Fur Elise now? When I was a kid, they used to play Maiden’s Prayer. When my cousin was learning to play that piece on the piano in the US, I described it as the garbage truck song. She refused to believe until she visited Taiwan herself about 10 years later. One morning around 6, a familiar tune played thoughout the neighborhood…
Since this seems to have pseudo-morphed into “Wacky Things in Taiwan,” I just polished off a pack of “Hot Mentos”. Just like regular Mentos (only pebble-shaped instead of the flat marbles we have in the US) but mintier than usual. I guess that’s what they mean by “hot.”
They also (used to?) make their french fries out of sweet potatoes rather than russets, or whatever, white ones. I actually prefer the sweet variety.
Australians in the middle of the Sahara drinking cans of beer they had slogged along. Beer was hotter than my tea. I think the temp must have been 50C or so.
Followed shortly thereafter by what I call, “the Japanese Space Bus,” an ungodly super-duper off-roading super-lux buslike thing carrying, as you might suspect, rather stereotypical Japenese tourists.
All these years later I still don’t understand how the fuck it got out where I was. Of course they, the Japanese tourists, promptly descended up on the ouasis camels and hired every single one of them to go traipsing about.
Later that evening there was the screaming Japense fuck chick and her camel master, but I shall leave that story for other venues.
Coll, Eva Luna, you can’t just dangle these tidbits in front of us and then shut up. A new thread please. Entitled “Russian whore/Japanese fuck chick/Camel master”.
Matatus in Kenya. These are private vehicles (usually, but not always, vans) that run regular routes like busses, but they aren’t coordinated or run by a central company, at least not as far as I could see. It looked like people just got a vehicle and decided “Hey, I will drive from the market to the United Kenya Club to the State House and back.”
Bah, that is nothing. Typical. Desert taxis (aka toyota pickups) coming out of nowhere at 100 km+ with a bunch of folks sitting in the open back, even on the sides as the bloody thing careens across the sand, now that’s fun.
In fact such things are coordinated by the way and exist all over. Services, Grands Taxies, Rapides – they go under many names but their semi-organized chaos is the rhythm of developing world transport.
Adding to the ‘Wacky things in Taiwan’ part of the thread, when I was in Taiwan 2 years ago, I came across two of those skill tester machines on the sidewalk.
One of them had a variety of sex toys (vibrators, furry handcuffs, mugs with naked chicks on them, etc, etc, etc).
The other had live crabs and a lobster wallowing around in water. The crabs were tied up, but the lobster was allowed to roam free. I tried to catch him, but who would’ve guessed that lobsters could move so fast? Slippery little suckers…
