So, we begin to fill the shipping containers next month for the move to Taiwan. We’ve read a lot about what’s not readily available and what people miss the most. Now we’re down to some "I never thought of that’ items. For those of you who are domesticated, take a moment to rate the availability (not your view of desirability) of the following items. I’ve got a huge space in the shipping containers to fill and I want to choose wisely. Thanks for your inputs.
Please rate as to availability:
Everywhere,
Easy to get
Hard to Find
Nowhere to be Found
Butter, breakfast cereal, vacuum cleaner, cleaning products, toilet paper? You can’t be serious right? Are you kidding? Where do you think you’re going the moon?
Taipei is a modern city not some fourth world place in the middle of a remote jungle. Every single item on your list can be found here. Believe it or not there is also a Costco. Also try RT Mart, it’s similar to Walmart
I would suggest to stock up on lots and lots of vitamins, cold medicine and pain relievers like Tylenol and Advil. There’s GNC but they are 5x more expensive. They don’t seem to have a great selection of drugs as what we are used to.
I’d be more worried about bringing suitable clothes than anything else. Especially shoes. If you have “average” western feet you may be SOL. If you’re a woman who wears over a size 7 shoe I’d definately stock up on those.
Okay, it was too much to expect all the items to go unquestioned. Example: butter is a critical ingredient for cooking. If it is not readily available (I
Be careful on vitamins/supplements. We were told only 12 bottles of any one type are allowed without an import license. I haven’t been able to find that in writing anyplace yet, but the gov’t held our stuff we were shipping to Taiwan and only let 12 bottles of each kind go through. The rest had to be repacked and shipped back at our expense. This also caused about a week in gov’t and paperwork delays.
Just take the stuff you need, and the stuff you can’t live without. You can get anything you want here, if you are willing to be a little flexable. If you have a good job lined up, and a little cash in the pocket, you’re good.
jesus h christ! i just came here with my 20kg limit in a suitcase and sent a few books and my pc in a box.
you don’t need to bring your canada bubble with you…oh you didn’t mention ziplock bags…
canadians…so predictable
This is what I am missing in Taiwan (most of the stuff on your list is available here):
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Good wine at reasonable prices
Olives from an Olive bar - e.g. from Wholefoods. You only get that cheap soft vinegar/water olives in a glass.
Soft italian mozzarella - 200NTD is not cheap, in Europe it’s 40NTD
Good stink-free bread
Vegetarian food that does not try to imitate meat taste.
Zucchini (Nowhere on that damned island, I think I will open a farm or something)
Tea
Taiwanese websites with english content. (cht, emome and other crap)
real Limes (not green Lemons)
Computer hardware is overpriced compared to US.
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That’s all I guess. Shortly said: make a list of special things in your life you think you can not live without and ask again. Everything else is just wasting space in that container.
There is zucchini for sale at the little grocery just above the circle in Tienmu…of course they want like NT$100 for a tiny one, but they’re there. I too have considered smuggling seeds in in the past! And to think at home you can’t give the darn things away (where I’m from, they come under the category of “drop the bushel basket on the doorstep, ring the doorbell and run” vegetables…)
Mmmh… free Zucchini… I think I would like that place where you are from
I am already growing Tomatoes from smuggled seeds… somehow I forgot to buy Zucchini before moving here.
Back ontopic… @OutofChaos: I went through that list again, the hot pics would be:
Dishwasher + Accessories (not popular here, except those desktop minis)
Kitchen Stove with Oven +Accessories; (make sure it is 110v… in Germany we have 2*230/400 Volt ovens, would make trouble here).
Another thing to consider would be all the electric tools if you can get them cheap and branded, otherwise you can get bosch tools here in B&Q
edit: Tea: english, indian, fruit, flower, rooibos tea… I am not into that green tea stuff. Yeah, I am spoiled.
Admonishment? I didn’t know your circumstances. Mostly you asked about pretty commonplace stuff. Some of the other posters gave you advice on B & Q, Watsons, and the like. Some gave you a little sarcasm. Being a "little flexable’ in your case might mean hopping the train to Taipei once in a while. Since you can afford to buy a house, I can imagine you can buy a car as well, or order online and have things delivered.
good luck.
B&Q is a British home repair company, like ‘Home Depot’ in the US. They’re all over Taiwan and they have everything from toilets to faux-wood plastic floors and drills and goggles for drills and all that. Here’s all their locations: http://www.bnq.com.tw/where1.do
[quote=“OutofChaos”]With the lack of central heating in most homes are ceramic heaters widely available or should I plan on binging a couple? I know folks don
Lime Monkey,
Is there no deli-type place in Kaohsiung? If not, go to Finga’s when you’re next in Taichung - they will have decent olives and probably mozzarella, although you’ll pay for them. BBR, a couple of minutes away, has excellent bread - I think the bakers are French.
For teas and tisanes (fruit/flower teas), try the food sections of large department stores. I’ve certainly seen Earl Grey bags and loose tea, other ‘British’ teas and a lot of flower teas loose in jars. I don’t remember having seen flower teas in teabags but then I haven’t looked very hard. The loose stuff’s fine, anyway – just use an infuser. There are lots of different kinds available.
By the way, the fact that you say that you don’t like green tea makes me wonder if the only place you have tried Chinese-style tea is in your home country. The first time I tried decent, fresh-tasting jasmine tea (basically not available in the U.K.) it was like a revelation. All the jasmine tea I have tasted in Taiwan, even the teabags, has been far far better than that sold in the U.K.
Anyway, Taiwan’s speciality isn’t green tea, it’s oolong (semi-fermented – inbetween green and black tea). Even my mother, a long-term tea-hater, quite liked the smell of the oolong tea I had in a teahouse, served in the traditional way with tiny cups and the whole process of ‘washing’ the tea, warming the cups, steeping the tea for gradually increasing times etc.
Butter? Butter? THe butter available here is far better than the stuff you can get in the US as it’s imported from NZ or Europe.
But great huge bottles of Advil should not be forgotten, nor the oven.
Items you left off the list:
plenty of bras for women
plenty of hair colour (primarily light or blondes)
Oven pans, etc. You can find them here, but they’re not that cheap, nor is the quality that fantastic.
grits
You can’t be serious right? Are you kidding? Where do you think you’re going the moon?
