11 in 4 years, with one staying on until now.
I’m surprised that the #'s are so low on this question. Interesting topic.
YOu told them about the place and they all went…to Thailand
When I first arrived in Taiwan, a home town friend was part of the adventure. He left after two months. He couldn’t stop coughing and didn’t like the rushed pace of city life. Of course, if he had stayed longer, he would have realized all of the natural treasures (East Coast, hiking etc) and could have sampled the local tacos (instead of going home and getting hitched ASAP).
ZERO.
I can’t stand the Canadian fuckwits that are already here, why would I want to bring more over?
Not that all Canadians in Taiwan are fuckwits, but one does get the impresssion that all fuckwits in Taiwan are Canadian.
Not a single soul has ventured forth to this island on account of yours truly.
In my early days here, in the late 1980s to early 1990s, the parents wanted to come and see me, but I was so worried about what they’d think of the place and what I was doing here, and the danger of them getting knocked down trying to cross the road, that I persuaded them to travel elsewhere in Asia, and hopped over to meet them in China, Hong Kong and Malaysia during their travels. If they were still alive, I’d be glad to have them come here now, but they’re not, so I can’t.
My siblings have often toyed with the idea of paying me a visit, but their small kids have prevented it happening thus far. Now that the kids are older, the chances of them coming are much higher. If I move into a bigger home with a spare bedroom or bedrooms (as I hope to soon), I’ll start to positively encourage them to come.
As for friends, well, having come here in the old pre-Internet days, and not being much of a letter-writer (except to the family and lasses), I lost touch with every last one of them after a year or two, and have never made the effort to try to reconnect. I doubt I’d have much in common with any of them now, anyway, except memories of times past - I’m quite sure we’ve all gone on to tread very, very different paths in life and changed beyond recognition from our callow preoccupations, pursuits, and perspectives of way back then.
Wow, that’s surprising omni. I hope you drag a sibling over eventually.
As for me, in 8 years:
-
Bro came over and had a great time but returned home exhausted. It was mid summer, we did lots of hiking and nonstop adventures and was also SARS time.
-
Mom came over to see our baby at a week old. Dad could never fly that far due to his bad back, etc. Mom had a great time, surprisingly strong and full of energy.
-
Childhood friend dropped by on way home from Vietnam.
-
College pal dropped by on way home from Japan.
-
21 year-old nephew took a 3 week program here with his school (Colorado College), so he’d have a chance to stay with us for a week afterwards.
All had a great time. Despite the obvious ugliness of this place, and all the endless irritating habits of the locals, my visitors were ALL happy, upbeat and impressed with the place – with the old geriatrics climbing mountains and dancing in the parks, with the people lined up politely at the MRT, with the Natl Palace Museum and Ju Ming, with the great food, etc. None stayed, but they all seemed to have extremely favorable impressions, which I found a little surprising at first.
Gosh, in terms of actual people, quite a few, and nearly all disastrous at that.
Low points:
My mother, bless her departed soul. The poor woman had an awful penchant for getting and abusing prescription drugs. While I was worried about her getting back from across the street, she somehow managed to get a taxi to every hospital in Taipei while I was at work and loaded up on bucket loads of Valium from each. I only discovered this when she went to my local hospital and tried squeezing an injection out of them. They refused because they’d given her a bucket load the previous day and she said they were all gone. I was called from work and narrowly managed to get her out of a trip to the psychiatric hospital after she hurled an ashtray across the Casualty waiting room. She also played havoc with my ex’s family. Mercifully she left before I murdered her.
My father. An intrepid traveller and life long alcoholic, my father arrived post retirement with a Cambridge ESL cert and plans to teach in Taiwan for a few awhile to get some experience. His early ventures were promising - a round island trip included a wonderful sounding romantic encounter with an aboriginal woman in Taidong. He settled into Taichung with a Canadian chap out on some farm, found a job, bought a motorcycle and things were looking swimmingly . . . until I got the call from the Canadian about the motorcycle being dumped in the middle of the road and my father so drunk it took him more than an hour to cover the 100 yards to get home. The next call was from a former student of my father’s abusing me for being “unflial” for letting the drunken olkd bastard live in some derelict doss house near the Taichung railway station. After a couple of weeks of these abusive calls I broke my personal vows of non-intervention in my father’s suicidal binges and dragged him back to Taipei, where he promptly collapsed in an alcoholic fit on my loungeroom, leaking voluminous amounts of claret from a crack in his head all over the floor. I got him hospitalised, stabilised, and packed him off back to Oz, thus leaving before he murdered himself.
The nephew. A promising university student, he came in the summer break to make some money teaching English. He left owing me money, having lost an old scooter of mine, getting his head split open and robbed when he decided to go drinking with some new friends, under cover cops, in Vietnam despite strong protests by his travelling mates. Mercifully I also wasn’t there when he crashed cyclo into a restaurant. Oh, and me with a black eye from a lucky punch he landed when I had to put the bastard down when he started threatening people in a drunken haze. He returned to Australia before COIuld murder him, where he decided he was an alcoholic and stopped drinking. He did leave me with the delightful image of coming back from the local shop with a bottle of Whisbih scoffing, “Ha! These fuckers don’t know how to spell!” Then guzzling a large quantity before throwing it all back into the sink.
Merciful Jesus, my sister has never been to Taiwan, or else I would likely be up for murder.
The highs: Missus Huang, who has visited several times, loves the place dearly and won many an admiring fan among my good friends. Several friends that have visited and had a fantastic time, but because of their work commitments, could never stay as they all dearly wished.
HG
wow what a story huh? gee.
Iv never really pushed for anyone on my dads side of the family to visit Taiwan. IT woudlnt fit them at all, not in the least bit.
Fits me just fine tho
No kidding. I feel like he vomitted all over my post. Guess it’s true what they say about Aussies. 
Technically that would be chundered on your post, and sorry about that, but . . . can’t you hear, can’t you hear the thunder? You better run, you better take cover . . .
HG
Oh, visitors, I’ve had a few, my excolleagues in the airline industry.
I thought you meant people to stay over for a long time.
I wish my family could come here. Alas, work and kids and stuff always gets in the way.
If someone has a good argument for me to convince my second brother, that’ll be most welcome. He’s got “bad luck with the ladies” and getting away will help his perspective. Furthermore, being an engineer, I guess he would enjoy the high tech gimmicks here.
Only my sister and her two kids, all of whom were extremely taken with Huangy and Missus Huang. Good times.
The Huangs didn’t punch them or throw up on them?
Damn Huang,
I hope the missus’ genes dilute yours in your offspring. Can’t have polite-looking cute little Eurasian children suddenly take swings at people and chunder all over them. Then again…
Aye, there was good reason to run off and join that shearing gang when I was 14, it was insane but certainly saner than home. Fortunately I’ve only spawned one kiddy, and mercifully he has more of his mother’s good sense. The little Thai princess is my stepdaughter, and she’s frightfully sane like her mum.
Indeed, Sandy, good days, and great people. A delightful memory.
HG
Yeah, Huang, wow. I had one friend follow me over. She was having a problem getting over her married lover who decided to go back to his wife after the baby was born. She’s not the smartest of my friends when it comes to relationships (but I’m no smarter than she, unfortunatly). She’s had a doozy of one with a her Taiwanese husband, too. But she is the only person in my life to be adventurous enough to leave her home town, so there’s that! She loves Taiwan.
[quote=“Huang Guang Chen”]Technically that would be chundered on your post, and sorry about that, but . . . can’t you hear, can’t you hear the thunder? You better run, you better take cover . . .
HG[/quote]
YESH! :note:
The joey that fled the pouch early wrote: [quote]Aye, there was good reason to run off and join that shearing gang when I was 14,[/quote]
Christ mate, your tribe sounds like a fucking Salvation Army wet dream “poster family” for the evils of grog and sundry addictions.
Party on. You can blame it on the genes. 
:bravo: 
I can party, but not like they can. Call it a genetic fuck up if you must, but when I turned 35 and realised I hadn’t had the shakes once, I thought life was pretty good. Worth a toast or twenty, at least.
HG
Might not be a genetic fuck up—maybe you’re the milkman’s son.