There’s a thread about it, but I don’t feel like looking with things being so slow. Basically, I got here able to read pinyin. Told a co-teacher I wanted to go to Peitou (Pay Toe) to see the hot springs. She said “You mean BEI tou!” and laughed at me. Then I found out Taipei is really pronounced Taibei. Decided to protest the current spelling of Taibei since then 
[url=Taipei or Taibei? for it anyway (that old thread that got me started)[/url]