What brought me here: Sense of adventure, boredom with my US job, wanted to live abroad before I got too old, met someone who was set up here and she told me to come over and got me set up, telling me she was saving a thousand US$ a month. I didn’t know the first thing about Taiwan, not really, so hard to say what drew me beyond the promise of something completely different.
What kept me around those first few years: Easy money teaching English, it was novel and even fun, for a while; learning Chinese, a big one; as you get set up and meet people you find better jobs and even easier money, you’ve invested in a scooter, etc., and you’re starting to figure out which way is up. The Wild West aspect, the feeling you can do whatever, pubs open til sunrise; and yeah the women, it was a fun place (and time) to be young and single.
Why I’m still here so many years later: Mainly the practical stuff, low cost of living (rent and insurance in particular), low taxes, safe environment to raise kids. Found a more interesting job when I tired of teaching. I miss the cultural aspect of the US, great live music in abundance, I miss having a wider circle of more interesting friends, I miss used book stores and libraries, and lots of food (crazy good bakeries, taco trucks, gyros, etc.).
We are currently in Taipei to visit for around a month.
When we come back in August we are going to give Kaohsiung a solid try for one year. After that we will re-evaluate, and if we aren’t happy with it, move to Taipei.
Yes, Taiwan does have an abundance of decent Japanese restaurants. If you know where to find them, there are a lot of good hole in walls from our southeast Asian friends, mostly catering to the blue collar immigrant market. Major problem with those is the infrequent hours, as they’re scheduled around the workers.
The Teaching English in Taiwan forum is all but dead. When’s the last post, a year or two ago? The glory days are long over. It was fun when it lasted. Given the stagnant wages that haven’t risen in two decades (!) and declining population of kids making jobs more scarce, I’m assuming the buxiban scene has dried up. There were already ominous signs when I left. Why would any young backpackers want to come like they used to?
I’ve made peace that I don’t like Taiwanese food, I just wish more foreign restaurants actually gave a damn. I’m in Taoyuan and many of the Western/Mexican/Indian restaurants have super bland food, menus that have a lot of unavailable items, and ridiculous prices for such low-quality fare.
I know a few guys who own bars/restaurants here and they refuse to improve anything. One complained to me that alcohol is the only thing keeping his restaurant alive, all the while his pizza is some of the worst I’ve ever had in Asia. I guess, from my experience, many of these restaurants only exist so the foreign owner doesn’t have to go back to English teaching.
This location rarely comes out on top in discussions of food in Taiwan, with some exceptions: the Thai food is top shelf (perhaps Indonesian too, though I know less about this) and some snacks like runbin can be good too (for a while I was fond of Da Runbin close to Zhongli Station).
But aside from these exceptions, not the best place in Taiwan to eat, that’s for sure.
I know three good to very good pizza places in Taoyuan area , it’s not that bad at all.
In fact the best one I know in Taiwan is located in Gushan/Linkou area. And this is so off topic…
I can’t say what made me fall in love with Taiwan - that a woman’s voice can drug you; that everything is so intense. The colors, the taste, even the rain. Nothing like the filthy rain in Birmingham. They say whatever you’re looking for, you will find here. They say you come to Taiwan and you understand a lot in a few minutes, but the rest has got to be lived. The smell: that’s the first thing that hits you, promising everything in exchange for your soul. And the heat. Your shirt is straightaway a rag. You can hardly remember your name, or what you came to escape from. But at night, there’s a breeze. The river is beautiful. You could be forgiven for thinking there was no Trump; that the fascists weren’t winning; that only pleasure matters. A can of Taiwan beer, or the touch of a girl who might tell you she loves you. And then, something happens, as you knew it would. And nothing can ever be the same again.
Now we are talking.
The Taiwan I experienced when I first came here and the Taiwan I experience now seem very different. And my hobbies and lifestyle and job and family circumstances changed completely. Which is why the question of why I came here seems irrelevant to me. Like even camping and picnicking and surfing and cycling barely existed as hobbies then.
Yes I almost gave up my soul when the smell first hit me.
These days they have actual sewers. And I later realised that the sewer smell in Taoyuan night market was actually a food product that people ate. Oops don’t mention food again.
That’s true. My wife is a gem. We had a bit of a rough patch in the beginning when I thought what she wanted from me to make her happy was for me to let her push me around untilI realized that was really just a test to see what I was made of. When I grew a spine and stopped letting her push me around things settled down into a nice groove that’s only getting better with time. I keep trying to tell @tommy525 that’s how it works but he hasn’t caught on yet.
Wanted something different after military service. So I threw darts at a map in asia and settled on Taiwan. Got an MOE scholarship to study chinese and have been a student for the last two years.
Quiet American (changing Taiwan from Vietnam and Trump references). Great quote though in original form lol.