There is never a dull moment here in Hsinchu, Taiwan. It may be hard to believe since Hsinchu’s claim to fame is primarily a science park full of high tech. factories and work hour traffic congestion. Yesterday’s slice of excitement helped provide the kind of wake up kick that coffee can’t come close to providing.
The shower in my house has trouble from time to time. Having only one water pump the water pressure tends to slack off as you reach the top floors. The result is almost always water that is too hot. Here in Taiwan (and many other places I am sure) we heat our water with a gas heater situated near the shower. This one is outside a window by the shower head allowing quick death if it ever explodes. Yesterday in yet another attempt to regulate the water temperature I opened the window to adjust the heater when what dropped in on my naked body was a bat. Quickly I covered my private parts in case it’s one of those ‘penis chomping vampire bats’ and yelled some expletives. Bats falling on me during my shower is not an experience I generally think of in the shower.
Luckily for me and ultimately unlucky for him the bat was not quite as alert as I. I proceeded to cover him/her/it with a plastic trash can and continue with my shower. After I showered and got dressed I grabbed some gloves and tongs with the intention of grabbing him/her/it to return to the ‘wild’. Unfortunately the bat had started to be more alert this time and was threatening to do unspeakable things like fly around my house and shit over everything. Well I assume bats are not to be taken too lightly as God knows what happens after a bite so I couldn’t let him/her/it escape and in the process I killed it. I’m a bit soft and felt pretty bad about it.
A rather traumatic start to my day but yet another in a long line of offbeat experiences that form my life in Taiwan.