Genius Taiwan

When in Taiwan... I regularly found myself saying "Ooooohh.... what a GREAT idea! This was followed by: "Why didn't I think of that?" or "Why don't they do that in Africa/U.S.A./any other place I've ever been?"

The place has got great ideas. Amazing ideas! It's like a hub of genius thinking and efficient stuff.

I have like, such a great way of describing things, huh?

I'll get to the point. I'd like to share some of these incredible innovations (might be a strong word for some of these) things we saw while in this super smart country.

1. Sealed drink cups



Um, is it just me or is this the greatest thing EVER? This is a made-to-order drink, not just an straight-outta-the-cooler one. When they're done making it (Bubble Tea, in this case) they just use the handy machine to actually seal the lid on. Then you poke a hole through the top with your straw and you've got a seriously non-spillable customized drink.

Would someone PLEASE start doing this in the rest of the world?!

Thank you.

2. Bus wait countdown signs



You can't tell from the pic, but this sign lists the wait time for the various buses. So you can glance up and know whether or not you have time to run to the nearest Mos Burger for quick bite before your bus comes. Maybe this is done in other places, I dunno.

Love it.

3. Menu ordering sheets



Lots of restaurants had these menu ordering sheets. So great. So instead of waiting for a waitress to come to the table to ask what you want, and then listing off a half dozen kinds of dumplings, a soup or two, some noodles, a rice dish and a type of tea...



...you just fill in the form yourself and hand it in when you're ready. Or in our case the one or two people in our group who could actually read Chinese and actually knew what it was they were ordering filled in the sheet and handed it in when we were ready.



Such a great idea!!

4. Space shuttle plate



This worked wonders. Maybe other places also serve food in cool containers for kiddos, I dunno.



But my boy even ate broccoli cause it was served in a space shuttle. BROCCOLI!

I need to get me one of these.



This was the place where the space shuttle flew in to serve my boy's dinner.

Thank you Royal Host. I owe ya one.

5. Elevator progress TV thingy



I realize this is a totally frivolous technology item. I mean, there is really no need to ever show the progress of an elevator to this degree (unless you're in an Oceans Eleven movie or something), but I thought it was neat-o.

That's all.

6. Fancy crayons



Also at Royal Host, instead of giving him three little crayons with his place-mat coloring sheet, they instead gave him one of those nifty pens with a rainbow of teeny crayons inside. My boy was exponentially more occupied because:

A. There were more than three colors
B. He could color with them
C. He could move them around inside the pen
D. He could crawl around on the floor looking for the tiny pieces when he inevitably dropped them.

It kept him so much busier than just three crayons!

This concludes my list of Taiwan Genius-ness. I am sure there is more where that came from, if I only had time to discover it. I have to say that I really appreciated the country's innovations and efficiency!