People, I am going to look at the short skirted girls in the company diner, one of the terrible, terrible things in Taiwan. When I come back with a rice-filled belly and that dreamy look in my eyes, I expect a lot of funny posts and rants here so I can enjoy a bit before my lunch nap (Taiwan style head on the desk).
BobHungry
[quote=âFoxâ]I think Taipei city is a shithole. It staggers the mind. I think the analogy to hell is actually not too far wrong.
If there were a hell Iâm pretty sure it would look something like SanChong or Yonghe [/quote]
I lived in Yonghe for a year and a half. While it is Satanâs armpit, SanChong is his butthole.
There are certainly worse places⌠like many developing countries without clean drinking water (Taiwanâs tap may not be perfect but drinking it wonât kill you), little to no electricity that shuts off every now and then, draconian police that will haul you to jail for saying the wrong things, riots and war everywhere⌠you name it. Also realize that a majority of the world makes less than 2 dollars a day, imagine trying to live in Taiwan using only 60nt a day (including rent and stuff), you will understand that Taiwan is not that bad.
[quote=âTaiwan Luthiersâ]There are certainly worse places⌠like many developing countries without clean drinking water (Taiwanâs tap may not be perfect but drinking it wonât kill you), little to no electricity that shuts off every now and then, draconian police that will haul you to jail for saying the wrong things, riots and war everywhere⌠you name it. Also realize that a majority of the world makes less than 2 dollars a day, imagine trying to live in Taiwan using only 60nt a day (including rent and stuff), you will understand that Taiwan is not that bad.[/quote]Phew, that makes all the bad things in Taiwan OK then.
I guess notâŚbut I can say I went to Egypt for a week last year on business, boy was I happy to come back to Taiwan!
This poster seems to have summed up the general opinion on Forumosa.
This poster is prepared to be slightly more generous.
Looking through a few posts, we find Taiwan has more armpits than an octopus.
Sanchong gets a strong mention:
Jilong likewise:
Yangmei also gets two votes:
Kaoshiung is another favourite:
Zhonghe is popular:
Pingdong has been proposed:
So has Xinzhuang:
And Yilan:
Taoyuan receives repeated votes:
But Yunlin gets some serious stick, currently leading the pack:
To put it another way:
[quote=âOmniloquaciousâ]⌠The only reason Iâve been feeling more than usually cranky about things lately is that I have a baby who wakes me up many times every night and whose needs prevent my getting out and doing the things I enjoyed so much pre-parenthood. But I know better than to blame Taiwan or the Taiwanese for that.
âŚ[/quote]
You are in denial ⌠it is Taiwan ⌠the baby can feel the nervousness, can smell the stink and hear the noise ⌠blame Taiwan for it ⌠
There is no great fantasy utopian land on this planet. Iâve travelled enough to learn that you canât expect the place you live in to make yourself happy.
The most you can do is to just ignore it, or at least not to take it personally. Yes, the people here piss me off. I live upstairs from a pool hall and a net cafe, so the scooter monkeys and random tai-ke are a constant aggrevation.
Itâs a materialistic society, but that shouldnât bother us because we make more than 90% of those ridiculous people with their ridiculous cute dogs in their LV bags financed by a dozen or so maxed out credit cards. Anyway, think of a society that isnât materialistic. Would you really want to live with a bunch of dirty hippies in a forest? If the answer is yes, more power to you. Personally, I couldnât take it(Iâve tried!).
Think of a society where people donât judge you based on looks. Would you really want to see nothing but absurdly obese, unshaven, track-pants wearing, foul smelling fast food addicts all day? If your answer to that is yes, try moving to Buffalo NY.
The good thing about Taiwan - especially if youâre a foreigner - is that itâs so easy to ignore the world around you when you choose to do so. Thereâs really no need to pay any attention to the riff raff. Hate your job? Find a new one. People stare? Stare back and call them a too-bow-tzi(peasant). Tai-ke scooter monkeys causing too much noise downstairs? Close the windows. Cops asking you stupid questions at a check-point? âWo ting-bu-dong!â.
[quote=âwudjamahuhâ]The good thing about Taiwan - especially if youâre a foreigner - is that itâs so easy to ignore the world around you when you choose to do so.[/quote]Doesnât matter how much I close the windows, thereâs always some selfish twat wanting to make too much noise 24 hours a day 7 days a week. I couldnât afford the sound-proofing to block out the explosions and things being shot at my flat.
Doesnât matter how much I try to ignore them, thereâs always some twat who wants to ruin my day and deprive me of my sleep.
I think the OP is just compulsively fixated on the negative aspects. I mean, if you want to be negative, doesnât life suck? We get old and then we die. There are bad people. Dogs shit on the ground. We donât always get what we want. Other people get more. Everything could be so much better than it is. Womenâs vaginaâs are too close to their buttholes.
Or you could look at it positively: we get to live in an amazing universe. There are great people. We have lovely cute pets. Sometimes we get real satisfaction. We are doing better than many others. Things could be much worse. Women have vaginas!
Why do people focus only on the negative? Anger, hatred, bitterness.
Like Buttercup said, take it easy!
[quote=âmupsâ][quote=âFoxâ]
I lived in Yonghe for a year and a half. While it is Satanâs armpit, SanChong is his butthole.[/quote][/quote]
Stoppit with the SanChong knocking. At least I donât have to see an American fast food joint on every corner when I take a walk. Provincial Chinese morons are way preferable to Amerikan wannabe bin lang store owners.
[quote=âjimipresleyâ]
Provincial Chinese morons are way preferable to Amerikan wannabe bin lang store owners.[/quote]
QFT
Taiwan is what you make it, and it offers:
-good pay (from English teachers to expats, all are well remunerated)
-easy travel overseas (a great base for backpackers to rest and cash up)
-fun nightlife
-hot women who WILL do you no matter how much of a dolt you are (look around you)
-lots of food choices
-cheap rents
-mountains within 15 minutes ride of all Taipei housing
-decent surfing (especially for beginners)
-cheap transport
-good expat sports leagues
-fast internet (try downloading your fave shows in Southeast Asia)
-cold beer sold 24 hours a day 7 days a week 365 days a year
-great KTV hostesses
-steady supply of green or black to smoke
-people who will leave you the fuck alone
-no snow
-better air quality than anywhere urban in East Asia outside of Japan
-beaches
If you canât find your comfort zone in Taiwan you are not cut out to live overseas.
That is the bottom line
100,000ntd/mth, excellent wage in Taiwan = 22,000 euro⌠money here is crap, why do you think all the real expats and English teachers left! (crouching to avoid the flak now 
)
Guess a lot depends on the fluctuations in exchange rate. 100,000NTD a month=2000 pounds. Not bad considering lower costs of living and much much lower tax rates.
[quote=âDeuce Dropperâ]
If you canât find your comfort zone in Taiwan you are not cut out to live overseas.
That is the bottom line[/quote]
I have lived in a number of countries on 5 different continents, and Taiwan was the least livable place of everywhere I have livedâŚand I have lived in some heavily poverty-striken places! I saw Taiwan as less of a comfort zone than anywhere for various reasonsâŚbut mostly because of how entirely unhealthy of a place it is to live in, from the food you eat to the air you breathe to the water you bathe in. Not to mention how unhealthy it can be in terms of the high stress that many foreigners feel, just from every day living experiences. I mean, how many people do you know have sleeping problems and back pain? Most of my friends who were living in Taiwan started having trouble with both when they moved there.
Even the least developed countries in sub-Saharan Africa are much more pleasant to live in, IMO.
Yup, that was about ÂŁ1400 when I lived there, and absolutely not worth the hassle.
I have more cash and a higher standard of living in the UK, though (not a grad though). Itâs never been my primary motivation, however. I donât much care as long as I can pay for what I want.
Sleeping problems! Search âButtercup Insomniaâ and flob will crash. Slept like a baby both before and after Taiwan. Itâs the noise and humidity and maybe the bugs.
[quote=âButtercupâ]Slept like a baby both before and after Taiwan. Itâs the noise and humidity and maybe the bugs.[/quote]Me too. I put it down to the stress of just being here.
That might help you sleep.
Never really found it stressful. Just irritating. What I like about Taiwan is that there are little âsanctuariesâ everywhere: cheap, cool, spacious, clean coffee shops, malls, mountains, etc. Although there is this density of population, you can always get off the bus for half an hour.
What annoyed me most about the UK is the donât give a fuck rudeness everywhere (much worse in the south than the north). People on buses, in supermarkets, etc, are just feral. You donât know how lucky you are to have Taiwanâs street markets and the cheap, fast taxis. In Britain, buses and food shopping are expensive, dirty, unpleasant and time consuming.
Where I live is so beautiful, though. Breathtaking. I can walk by the Thames, write in the Bodleian, drink in a pub with a thatched roof and climbing roses⌠Britain would be amazing without 21st century British people in it.
Seriously, though. What ever is âwrongâ, youâll take it with you. The things that wound me up in Taiwan still wind me up here. A different county is not an different planet, and a different group of people arenât a different species. Moving doesnât make âitâ better. Iâve done it often enough to know that.
Deuce Dropper wrote:
If you canât find your comfort zone in Taiwan you are not cut out to live overseas.
That is the bottom line[/quote]
What an arrogant, idiotic statement to make. By your reckoning, if youâre not happy and absolutely delighted about living in Taiwan then you should go back to your home country!
Let me make a guess- this is your first big trip overseas and youâre still wearing your rose-tinted glasses (wow! this is so glamorous and exciting living here) or your smoking far too much of the green stuff you mentioned.