Bird seed is tasty and good for you. Plate does need more protein, though, like a piece of ham or something.
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Need to change title to “Life in Penghu” and continue with your observations. I’ve always had a soft spot for Penghu after visiting it over 15 years ago. Wife and I loved the place.
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I’m really enjoying reading this thread and I hope the OP will continue to update us.
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Life in Penghu Day 16- After 3 days of productive exploring, nearly two weeks have been lost to windy, cold, and rainy weather. Today is the first day of sun in sometime so I will hop on the scooter and try to find some beach spots close to my house as well as a decent pizza joint. Wish me luck!
After 2 weeks in Penghu I’ve managed to find 4 buxibans that hire foreigners (Joy English, Dragon English, Emmanuel Language School, and Andy’s English), 2 public schools that hold 5 positions for foreign English teachers (Wen Ao and Chungshing) 1 all day kindergarten with 3 foreign staff (Geng Dao Kindergarten), 1 pool hall (24hr billiards), 2 swimming pools, 1 gym, 1 movie theatre, 1 western bar (bam bam barama), 1 taco shack (Penghu Fish Market), and about 3-4 friendly westerners who live on the island. This week I’m on the search for a decent pizza place and a few scenic hiking/biking trails along the beach. As always if anyone can point me in the right direction please share!!!
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Curious about when you state all those buxibans or schools that hire or hold positions… are those jobs vacant now, or already filled?
What is the hiring situation in the field there, so to speak?
Most of these positions are currently filled. The public schools hire the middle-end of March each year for the following semester which begins end of August. The buxibans hire year round and seem to keep teachers for 1-2 years. The “job market” consists of about 20 positions in total and you’ll need to keep in contact with schools if you want to secure a position.
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One assumes the COL is considerably lower than the big centres, have you found this to be the case? And are pay rates commensurately less, or does one’s Teaching Buck go a lot further?
Was that really an open fire in the corner of the bar in that pic?
Yes the cost of living is much lower, food/housing/a night out, all of it. The buxibans pay 600-700 like most cities and the public schools follow the government pay scale which is the same in all counties. Yes that was an open fire in the bar which was selling 60nt beers and 100nt mixed drinks.
Yikes, brother, that is friggin CRAZY cozy. How did you even get out of there??
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Day 17 in Penghu was the best yet. It was the first day of sunshine since we arrived and I must say the contrast of what the island looks like depending on the weather is amazing. It was nice to see the sunny side 
I have a feeling April-September is going to be a blast. We also found a small pizza place called California Pizza but ended up at Domino’s 
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So, as Chinese New Year gets closer, are the islands there getting quieter or are some of the young residents coming back to be with their families for the break?
Nice scenery, and weather, but…Domino’s?
The goal was to find pizza, I found pizza LOL
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It’s actually quiet busy, lots of people home for the holiday.
Yeah, I’ve seen some pretty crappy rando one-off pie joints out there to which Dommo’s would be vastly preferable.
Pretty kookoo bananas to see an eat-in Domino’s, anyways. Bizzarro the stuff you see out in the sticks where real estate isn’t a mungogingillion bucks a ping. Like 7-11s with parking lots and McD’s with Drive Through.
Mental.
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Drive thru Starbucks a particular favourite in Taichung.
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Taipei has at least 2 drive through McDonalds. One near 101 and one near Shilin.
If you want seafood when on the other side of Penghu, go here to this spot you’ll never find just driving around. The fresh sea urchin is amazing plus more variety.
清心飲食店 Ching-Shin Seafood
And then check out Erkan Historic Village
and take up fishing and windsurfing. Maybe both at the same time.
Really loving these updates! After getting my fill of “office work” in Taipei, I’d consider packing my bags and moving to somewhere like Penghu to teach English. The fact that they pay Taipei English teaching rates somewhere with such low living costs sounds wonderful. But I guess landing an English teaching job there must be quite competitive, because there are so few schools hiring foreigners?