I used to lurk here, I lived in and worked in Taiwan for 3 years when I was earlier on in my career. I’m in the process of moving, and I’m finally getting rid of the last bit of Taiwan related stuff in my belongings. It’s causing a lot of memories to come flooding back.
Just want to say, for those of you who are homesick and questioning your choice to come to Taiwan, that those feelings will pass and you will look back on your years in Taiwan as some of your fondest years. I’d love to go back, but with a wife and kids now, that’s probably not possible.
For those of you worried about your career stalling in Taiwan, don’t. There’s time, enjoy your time in Taiwan, and when you go back to the states, you’ll be doing fine in no time. Just speaking from my own experience, my time in Taiwan helped me get my first job back in the states which was a massive promotion, and things snowballed from there.
Try not to get upset and the small problems of Taiwan. You’ll look back on it, and think it was so very funny.
Go drink beer with ice cubes, cause you’ll never do that again. Do as many things you can that you wouldn’t be able to do in your home country, even if you think you’ll hate it (and actually do, in fact, hate it). Every single one of those memories will stay with you.
I promise you this, 5 years after you leave Taiwan, you’ll even miss the bone shards in your chicken.
Honestly, I think most of that is just a nostalgic earlier-in-one’s-life thing and could just as easily apply to anywhere (it wouldn’t be Taiwan for me, because I came here quite late after living in several other places).
I see this as more of a Thailand/Southeast Asia thing and don’t recall ever seeing it in Taiwan. It’s an easy problem to solve though if you want to see it again, wherever you are in the world!
I believe you that it happens, just saying that it’s extremely common in Thailand whereas I’ve personally never seen it here. And if OP wants to experience it again, they can just add ice to beer.
It’s not quite the same as ice cubes in beer, but my father (Taiwanese) always used to put ice cubes in his bowl of corn flakes and milk. I guess milk out of the fridge wasn’t cold enough.
Ok…to steer back to OP’s theme and not ice in beer, I still reminisce (only to myself) about my first half decade in Taiwan, even over 3 decades later.
I have so many great memories of that time that I think my children, who are Taiwanese, might not understand.
One can leave Taiwan, but Taiwan will never leave you.
How true. What a relatable post. Don’t forget to add the plums. I am glad you suggested reliving the glory days with the ice cubes in beer rather than by jumping on a stolen scooter helmetless with wife, 2 kids and white fluffy barking cat (lap dog) ripping down one-way streets the wrong way and treating red lights as if they are just a different shade of green. Although the scooter does sound a tad more fun…
When I look back on my early years here in Taiwan, I recall . . .
frequently getting sunstroke as I did not know what I was really doing;
frequently getting food poisoning and vomiting, as I had not yet arrived at my later maxim: No meat on the street;
feeling disgust at how badly some people in Taiwan treated the environment;
listening with amazement to an old KMT soldier telling me, without a hint of irony, that then-President Chen Shui-bian was “just like Hitler.”
I think Taiwan has gotten a lot better since those days. I’ve also somewhat (not completely) upped my game in figuring out what I could, and could not, get away with.
Does anyone else remember the days of sitting at a Goodman cafe and the like until the early morning hours? It was something my future wife and I would do often with friends. It was always so lively, scooters buzzing, groups of friends surrounding tables for good times and laughter. We still go back, but the experience is not the same. Tables are empty or filled with youngsters staring at phones. Hardly a peep. Almost feels like a library.
Idk about Goodman, but I lost count the number of times coming out of a basement disco or bar in Da-An district (typically near 師大) somewhere at like 5am to sunrise during the summer after a weekend night of bar/disco-hopping.
This thread encouraged me to look up some pictures from one of my early trips to Taiwan in the early 2000s, back when Taipei 101 was the tallest building in the world. I think the following pictures were taken in Taipei.
This picture is somewhat blurry, but in the middle there is a snake hanging by a hook and being drained of blood. The shop owner is casting me the evil eye…
From another angle, you can see the hooked snake and also another live snake, coiled and ready to strike, in the middle of the counter. The surrounding jars also seem to contain preserved snakes or parts thereof.
I don’t recall seeing this type of place in any of my recent visits, so I guess that these kinds of places have probably died out?
And, here’s the obligatory “sunrise at Alishan” photo. Despite not speaking the language, I somehow managed to book a room+morning tour with no prior reservation. I recall getting out of the train (or bus?) at some resort spot, where several hotel owners would rush out and try to get you to stay at their place and join their tour. I probably ended up paying more than I should have, but in the end it all worked out okay.
I spent 2 years stuck in England during covid. And the country seems to just be getting worse and worse, So i am probably the least homesick right now that i have ever been in my life.
Thanks i am enjoying it and plan to keep enjoying it and don’t plan to move back home to England, as that will stop any enjoyment in my life.
I don’t, its the big problems that bother me.
Never seen it. But i do like to drink a beer with lemonade (shandy). Its classic.
Such as not being depressed, getting a sun tan, not paying 20 quid to get a bus into town etc etc.
You must miss Taiwan a lot if you miss something as nasty as that.
Agreed. Disco/bar hopping for sure, although that was pre future wife days. Kaohsiung back then had DNA, Honkey Tonk and Pig & Whistle who unknowingly donated a really nice picture that my brother and I liberated from their establishment - of which still hangs on the wall of my parents house to this day.
