Does anyone know some good relaxed public places, like coffee houses or bars, etc., where there is a nice relaxed atmosphere making it possible to work with a laptop? My room is too distracting and my assigned office is sometimes a bit too quiet and depressing. Some amount of human activity (but not too loud) is the perfect setting for me to work.
Buy a bamboo chair, and sit outside a coffee shop using their Wifi. Or try a public library. Or Familymart + 711 often have Wifi.
Starbucks and MOS Burger helped me through my master’s thesis and with a lot of translation work I’ve done over the years. McDonald’s and 85 Degrees C are popular with a lot of people, too. There are also a large number of public libraries, but I don’t know how good they are for doing work.
If you have a bigger budget and need somewhere in the middle of the night, last I checked Swensen’s is 24-hours. There’s a coffee shop near Shilin MRT on Wenlin Rd. that’s open all day, as well. I’m probably forgetting a few, but these are what I relied on during grad school.
[quote=“HenHaoChi”]Buy a bamboo chair, and sit outside a coffee shop using their Wifi. Or try a public library. Or Familymart + 711 often have Wifi.
youtube.com/watch?v=pUQN44doG9I[/quote]
Or, instead of behaving like a cheapskate, he could order a sandwich and coffee in the coffee shop.
There are several around NTU and NTNU. I also used to frequent the row of tea houses on the alley behind Luxy, near Dunhua and Zhongziao Rds. Always fairly quiet there, and plenty to do in the area if you get bored.
Harder and harder to find those little independent tea shops these days, but they’re great for what you’re looking for. If you go fairly frequently you’ll soon be treated as a regular too – perks like no-frown electrical outlets (McDonald’s are total prats about that, or were in the past at least) and little treats here and there.
If you can go some, there’s a coffee shop out in Tamsui – here I go again with no precise location – it’s like way up in a historic building that’s fairly tall…oh, forget it. But it was a nice place to work. Great views.
I don’t remember what it’s called but I found a place near the Eslite spectrum when I was there, it was a western-style restaurant/cafe in a park, big swan statues, open air tables, really great hangout place. I don’t remember if it has wifi though.
If you want to be indoors I think just about any Eslite would be cool and they often have wifi. The trick would probably be finding a place that isn’t going to become really packed during rush hour so that you don’t inconvenience people by taking up a table depending on what you’re working on.
I sometimes like to say “all Taiwan is my office”. I find it incredibly easy to locate good working spaces pretty much anywhere… and with high-speed internet on my phone I can tether anyplace, anytime. Just go looking; there’s lots of places around, from libraries and public parks to cafes and actual co-working spaces.
Don’t bother with the chain restaurants or convenience stores. You’re in Taiwan. Get out and explore. Taipei has a high concentration of independent coffee shops with character. It’ll probably take you a year to visit all the good ones in the city if you go to a new one every week. Check out taiwanlovescoffee.com/ and find a place near you. Personally, I like the places in the NTU area, like Pica Pica, Picnic, AGCT Apartment, Cafe 8 mm, just to name a few. The Minsheng Community also has lots of cool places. Just go into the alleys and you’re bound to find a coffee shop where you can while away an afternoon over a nice cup of joe.
I used to say that. Why rent a big office when you can find a park or a coffee shop? The only problem I have with tethering is a boosted wifi signal right next to you plus a 2.4 aGHZ laptop. Those are microwave frequencies and we don’t know the long term results.
Why don’t you give it a shot to the public library in BeiTou? the building is nice, so the location is. Not sure if they provide wifi to hook up to, but most likely they do. You didn’t mention anything about wifi, so I guess that you don’t really need it. When you want to make a break, you can head to any of the restaurants around or even to the hotspring.
I like some TW coffee shops. Others look like 2nd rate Starbucks clones. When I lived in China there were traditional teahouses all over the place. Dark, roomy places where you could spend hours. I might be looking in the wrong places but I havent seen many low rent tea houses here.
There’s a whole mountain of them in Muzha. But as incubus said, it’s coffee now in the city. A good place to work is Director Tsai’s Cafe in Zhongshan Hall near Ximending MRT.
There’s a whole mountain of them in Muzha. But as incubus said, it’s coffee now in the city. A good place to work is Director Tsai’s Cafe in Zhongshan Hall near Ximending MRT.[/quote]
Sounds good. I just resent paying 100-150 for a mint tea in one of those pseudo-euro joints. Can’t stand the staid atmosphere + the anaemic music. I like musty old book cafes + chaguans that look 200 years old.
I used to say that. Why rent a big office when you can find a park or a coffee shop? The only problem I have with tethering is a boosted wifi signal right next to you plus a 2.4 aGHZ laptop. Those are microwave frequencies and we don’t know the long term results.[/quote]
When you go to cafes, all of those people sitting around you are also transmitting their Wi-fi signals. If 3G causes cancer, jumping on the MRT at rush hour is a death sentence.
I suppose I just don’t worry about such things.
Thanks for all the tips, much appreciated!
The best place to work? The beach.
Bring a cooler filled with drinks and snacks, and a phone with internet sharing capabilities. 