I know most of the regulars still live in Taiwan, but many of you have left and come back and others plan to leave relatively soon. So, what do/did/will you miss the most?
The first time I left it was beef noodles, for some reason.
Others include
Beijing duck for NT$350 (and without having to give 24 hours’ notice)
riding my scooter to 3 different jobs every day
being able to walk around the corner at 2 AM for some congee
Jiou Fen
Wedding photos at CKS Memorial Park, the middle of Tun Hua South Road, and anywhere else with a little green space
real fried apple pies at McDonald’s (in the US they’re all baked now)
The Indian Beer House (the one with the dinosaurs on Batehb[/b] Rd), watered down beer notwithstanding
Yeah, I sure would miss the undercooked eggs, the limp toast, the deep-fried hashbrown triangles that are still frozen in the middle and the tepid coffee. Not.
Having spent time in a few countries in the region, I would say the people are the best thing about Taiwan. The locals are open, friendly, and not afraid to try new things. The ex-pats, well - Taiwan seems to attract oddballs. After all, without knowing the place, who in their right mind would choose Taiwan over HK, Shanghai, Singapore…etc?
Is Nitti’s not good these days? Seems like there was a thread about this last year, with mixed opinions. I stopped going so much after they moved to the Shr Dab[/b] area, simply because it wasn’t in walking distance and started getting pretty crowded. But back when they were in that alley near the corner of Fuxing and Heping we lived right down the street and ate there about 5 days a week. It was good, and pretty cheap, too.
Being able to walk outside anytime of day or night and being able to find something to eat. It’s also nice that some of the stores are open much later in the west.
What would I miss? The girls, the girls, the women and the girls. That’s such an easy question to answer! I missed them before I even arrived here, so God knows what it would be like if I ever left.
But I hope that, for me, it will always be just a hypothetical question.
Amos, you must be the only foreigner who’s been to the teahouse to the left of Grandma Nittis and the restaurant on the right, but never to Nittis itself The best thing about Grandmas is popping in on Sunday afternoon (before the Games Club) to buy second-hand books. Second best is buying cheese and stuff they have for sale. In third place would be browsing the notice boards. 4th place is overpriced breakfast, and 5th place burritos. This should really be over in the thread about Grandma Nittis though, so I’ll get to the topic.
What will I miss about Taiwan (and miss when I go on holiday):
My scooter, xiaojies, night markets, convenience of being able to buy anything anytime, zhen zhu nai cha, buddhist veggie food, che lun bing, chou dofu, the opportunity to speak Chinese all the time, spas, Super Supau, man niu, fan tuan, dan bing, cai bao, Moon Festival, hot pot, renao, MTVs, coffee in a can, the Taipei Times (strange but true), and much more I can’t think of at the moment I’m sure.
I was just thinking as I rode back to work, what I’d miss the most (and I know there’s some of you out there who’ll think me crazy) is Taipei. The city itself. I love it.
I am not the kind of person that drinks until I pass out but it seems to be missing something when people don’t drink alcohol at special events. I miss the drinking competitions, games, and table to table toasts with liquor. It seems meaningless to toast with tea or juice. I remember when I was underage and getting
GUAVA JUICE!!! I had forgotten about that. Hard to come by in the States. I used to love to mix it with OJ at boring weddings and dinners. At the good one’s I was busy toasting with gaoliang or some other nasty concoction, of course.
I’m with Omni. I would miss the girls (been in Taiwan too long - refer to any female who isn’t an obasan as a girl). No matter where I have flown into Taiwan from, whether New Zealand, England, Thailand or Mongolia, the women are strikingly attractive. And don’t snigger at Mongolia; the women there are lovely - checkbones a model would die for and pretty good figures.
Sorry, back on topic, I would miss the convenience of everything in terms of closeness, opening hours, and cost.
There are a wealth of opportunities in Taiwan in so many different fields. I wonder how future ex-pats will look back on our era.
Perhaps they’ll wonder what it must have been like to live in Taiwan when it was separate from the PRC and before the great Sino-US confrontation made life here so difficult for Westerners.
I will miss 24 hour convenience stores that are actually at convenient locations (read: everywhere). I will miss banana plants, morning glories, and bamboo growing wild along side the road (at least they do in Muzha). I will miss my students. I will miss being able to walk everywhere. I will miss being able to walk around at 3am all alone and not having to worry about having a weapon on hand just in case. Another thing I will miss is Taipei’s amazing public transportation system. There’s not a single place I can’t go if I know the right bus or MRT stop to get me there. I will miss sago balls in coconut milk (coconut milk drained off). I will miss the option of swimming in the Pacific during Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Chinese New Year via Kenting like I did this year.
Most of all, I’ll miss the mangoes. Yeah, they sell them in the US…picked unripe and then ripened with gas. Ugh. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to eat mango there again after having the real thing here.
The best thing about Grandmas is popping in on Sunday afternoon (before the Games Club) to buy second-hand books. Second best is buying cheese and stuff they have for sale. In third place would be browsing the notice boards. 4th place is overpriced breakfast, and 5th place burritos. This should really be over in the thread about Grandma Nittis though, so I’ll get to the topic.
