Taoyuan Nights

One look at this sign on a bus, tells you all you need to know - that it isn’t fun to be a duck with places to go in Taipei.

These signs started popping up on buses around Taipei in response to the bird flu epidemic in Asia, as a means of helping control the outbreak. Literally overnight, it seems, it became necessary to either leave your ducks at home, or take them on the scooter. One thing for sure is that duck-accompanied public transport has become a definite no-no.

Ostensibly, this kind of thing helps control bird flu transmission. In reality, it just makes ducks’ lives awkward, and forces them to take taxis instead when they’re in Taipei.

What is strangest of all though is that these signs seem to be confined to Taipei. In Taoyuan, we welcome ducks. If a duck can scrape together $15 TWD and explain to the bus driver where it’s trying to go, then as far as I’m concerned, it has earned the right to use public transport.