Yea its pretty amazing, one can survive off 500 a month in Kaoshiung…I believe it though., I also heard it can be done in Chiang Mai…
btw one free way to make extra income at home is to List things on Etsy or Amazon from Alibaba and just buy it from Alibaba and have them ship to buyer when its sold lol.
I don’t have the time to try that, but nice arbitrage going on there.
In an efficient market (and online trading places are not that efficient yet), that loophole will close quickly. But, I’m sure it’ll be there for a while for those things in small quantities.
Yes I estimate this will work for another 2 years. One can literally jack the images copy/paste off Aliexpress.com and use it on Etsy. I’ve been doing it for a while just for side income… I dont earn a lot some months nothing but it does average about 2000NT a month for doing next to nothing
LOL, I lived in Chiang Mai as an EFL teacher in 2011. My rent was about $50 USD per month there.
As for Kaohsiung, I think I ALMOST break even on $500. In the first six months I dipped about $300 into my savings, but that includes 2 visa runs. Of course, Taiwan food is fairly cheap, and pretty good IMO. Kaoh ya fan, kong rou fan, shao rou fan, nui rou mien, chao fan, all can be had for under 80 NT.
50 bucks a month! wow, did you share rooms? Man thats Spartan living like 50 NT a day. Why did you leave Chiang Mai?
Most 自助餐’s in harbortown you can eat healthily under NTD 60.
No, private studio with no AC on 6th floor of a building with no elevator. Thankfully I was only there during the cool season. Otherwise it would be too hot to live like that. Only reason I found it is because the owner spoke English and none of the other landlords did.
The secondary school I worked at only paid us about $700 US per month, and we worked 40 hours a week (about half office hours)! Disrespectful kids bouncing off the walls. Had to wear dress shirts, pants, and ties. It sucked!
I would not want to live in Thailand, and not even because of the crappy job I had. It’s okay to visit for a week or two, but not great for living. Garbage piles up in the streets. Annoying foreigners are everywhere and have developed a somewhat bad reputation with the locals. As one man put it to me, “If you aren’t here for the pussy, then there’s no reason to be here.”
The best thing about Thailand is probably the temples, which are immaculate, probably best in the world.
IMO you’ll enjoy much higher quality of life in Taiwan. Taiwan is cleaner, more developed, more respect for foreigners if only because we’re a rarity here.
The buffets, I do those often. Usually about 70 NT. Quality may vary.
Thats good savings though… Make 700 but spend only 50 on rent… Food prices gotta be on par or cheaper than Kaoshiung also. Yea I heard Thai people dont like foreigners. Heard Chiang Mai has a notorious digital nomad scene. Been to Thailand a few times but not Chiang Mai, still on my list to check out.
Add car plus insurance. Depending on salary, once baics are barely covered, there is no moeny for savings or insurance. More than half the population doe snot have teh resilience to withstand an accident or disease.
Work in places you cannot afford to shop at or eat at. Cities divided by color of skin and income. Food that is not food, and people living in barren silands where nearest supermarket is kilometers away. that is teh price of a culture based on the car and not the people.
You talking Taiwan, Thailand, your home country?
Sometimes your responses are not clear about what you are referring back to.
Agreed. And let us not forget health insurance. 
It’s well worth a visit. Interestingly, there are a lot of rich people living there. The supermarkets have an incredible selection of top-end western products. I wasn’t overwhelmed by the Thai food on offer, but that may have been because I was sticking to the touristy places.
US. Got family and friends there, worked there before coming here, visit as often as can be avoided.
In my experience the Thai food can be lousy even outside of tourist areas. It takes time to find good places. Look for roast ducks and chickens hanging in the window. This is usually a sign of good food anywhere. Also, most Thai shopping malls have a chain restaurant that sells khao man gai (delicious but simple Thai meal of rice cooked in chicken broth with chicken breast on top and peanut ginger sauce)
Funny he mentioned I just saw that in the paper about influencers in Europe doing the same , the loophole will close quickly.
And yet they still find enough money to flock to Haidilao Hot Pot. Hey let’s waste all of our hard earned money at this mainland restaurant so our mainland buddies can take us over.
I though Shabu Shabu hotpot was where all the taiwanese go.
IMO Haidilao is better than most hotpot places in Taiwan at the same price point. I don’t get hotpot places offering premium wafer thin slices beef…
good beef = steak…
How much is Haidilao for 1 person?
Looking at their pictures looks good.