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duckfarts posted:Don't think they take cards normally, it's usually cash only(I remember a Family Mart nearby rejecting a lot of mainland tourists' credit cards because they didn't take them in general). If they do take cards, some places may take RFID stuff like VISA's PayWave thing, but most need an IC chip; they probably called yours a "swipe" card because I'm betting you don't have an IC chip on yours. Perhaps this FamilyMart is the same way. My card does have a chip, they call it 'EMV' but claim it can be used anywhere that uses a chip-based system. Looks slightly different than the one in your post. This is my card https://www.citi.com/credit-cards/credit-card-details/detail.do?ID=citi-thankyou-premier-credit-card&category=travel-reward-credit-cards Mine is a MC not a Visa as in that example. Maybe I will try the 7-Eleven again first. Will make life a little easier. CovfefeCatCafe fucked around with this message at 03:11 on Oct 6, 2014 |
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Oct 6, 2014 03:09
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YF19pilot posted:Perhaps this FamilyMart is the same way. My card does have a chip, they call it 'EMV' but claim it can be used anywhere that uses a chip-based system. Looks slightly different than the one in your post. This is my card https://www.citi.com/credit-cards/credit-card-details/detail.do?ID=citi-thankyou-premier-credit-card&category=travel-reward-credit-cards Mine is a MC not a Visa as in that example. Well, that looks about right, so you could try using it at a Cosmed, Watson's, or Carrefour or whatever place definitely takes cards in general, and you'd find out whether it works or if it's a bank agreement thing. In general though, you should keep in mind that Taiwan is definitely more of a cash-based society than a card one, and finding an ATM that works with your card will probably help out much more than a store that takes your card. e: works with your bank card rather, hope you're not trying to run everything on credit
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Oct 6, 2014 03:27
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duckfarts posted:Well, that looks about right, so you could try using it at a Cosmed, Watson's, or Carrefour or whatever place definitely takes cards in general, and you'd find out whether it works or if it's a bank agreement thing. In general though, you should keep in mind that Taiwan is definitely more of a cash-based society than a card one, and finding an ATM that works with your card will probably help out much more than a store that takes your card. No, definitely not. My bank ATM card is a Plus card, so far have not found an ATM that won't take it. Credit card is my folks way of helping with stuff, I forgot to try it at Carrefour yesterday. The cash based society is certainly hitting home much harder now that I am in Chiayi. Just means I will have to be more careful until I get paid.
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Oct 6, 2014 03:41
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THE LUMMOX posted:Im in Taipei as a tourist next weekend. What is closed for the Oct 10 holiday? Will things like museums etc be closed? Restaurants? You said bottle shop so I'm going to guess you're Australian. if you want Australian beer, try Woolloomooloo. They had three fridges full of Australian beer and almost nothing else. I don't know Aussie beer, but they had probably every major brewery plus a few microbrews. I don't know if they do take away, but most places with beer like that on offer do. Other than that, Beer & Cheese has a good selection, but I don't like the owners or the patrons. But beer is beer, and they've got it. Something Ales near Taipower Building MRT exit 3 is the place to go. It opens after 8pm, and the owner is a great bartender who knows his beer. He also knows everyone else's beer, too. Mainly Belgian beers plus West Coast microbrews, but the selection rotates and you'll find beers from everywhere and certainly something you'll like. His only rules are : "No lagers and no ice." And he's got beer for take away. If you don't know what you feel like drinking, tell him what you like and he will find a beer for you that you will like. Those are for microbrews. Any Wellcome or 7-Eleven is going to have Corona, Guinness, Carlsberg, Heineken, and that kind of thing. Horatius Bonar fucked around with this message at 03:57 on Oct 6, 2014 |
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Oct 6, 2014 03:54
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YF19pilot posted:Perhaps this FamilyMart is the same way. My card does have a chip, they call it 'EMV' but claim it can be used anywhere that uses a chip-based system. Looks slightly different than the one in your post. This is my card https://www.citi.com/credit-cards/credit-card-details/detail.do?ID=citi-thankyou-premier-credit-card&category=travel-reward-credit-cards Mine is a MC not a Visa as in that example. Ain't nobody got time for that. Just use cash for day-to-day expenses.
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Oct 6, 2014 04:16
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If you want an actual bottle shop, Bottle Shop Taiwan is one of the only places I can think of that actually sells decent craft for off-premises. The Mayan also sells bottles, but they have a bit of markup for off-premises. If you just wanna drink, Beer And Cheese is good but Something Ales is better (because cheaper) and there's a billion little bistros in Gongguan/Shida area that have a decent selection of Belgians. I quite like Cafe Odeon. And nowadays every cool kid bar worth its salt at least has 台PA, whichbodes well for the future of craft in Taiwan.
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Oct 6, 2014 05:45
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Oddly enough the bottle shops are better down in Kaohsiung. Have no idea why, but even better selection and almost better price than Hong Kong.
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Oct 6, 2014 06:03
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quadrophrenic posted:If you want an actual bottle shop, Bottle Shop Taiwan is one of the only places I can think of that actually sells decent craft for off-premises. The Mayan also sells bottles, but they have a bit of markup for off-premises. If you just wanna drink, Beer And Cheese is good but Something Ales is better (because cheaper) and there's a billion little bistros in Gongguan/Shida area that have a decent selection of Belgians. I quite like Cafe Odeon. And nowadays every cool kid bar worth its salt at least has 台PA, whichbodes well for the future of craft in Taiwan. The Bottle Shop is owned by the same guys that own Beer and Cheese and is not really a bar, there's only a few seats, its more just a storefront for the beer they sell at Beer and Cheese. The prices are better because they don't have the overhead or staff that B&C has. That is probably the cheapest place to buy craft beer, particularly in larger quantities. Not sure what the other guy has against the owners of Beer and Cheese. I'm not great friends with them but they're a lot more on the level than some of the owners of other bars. Also their Beer and Cheese prices are intentional to try and avoid the typical foreigner riff raff that wants to drink as much as possible for as cheaply as possible. They also want to try to target that group of young Taiwanese socialites that aren't doing the traditional making a family thing and are instead out absorbing culture by spending money on things from different ones. I think its a decent business model actually, and I was just in there on Saturday night and there was mostly locals with only a few scattered foreigners. Odeon used to be a lot better. Now they're trying to sell it more like a restaurant and the food was always the worst part of that place. Thankfully they still have the couches but they used to have a nice long table in the middle of the room and now they have a circular counter there and they serve teas and coffees. I guess they weren't making enough as a standard bar so they started catering to the local TaiDa crowd and making it more like a "proper" cafe. Sad times last time I went there, whole vibr just feels different in a bad way. PaybackJack fucked around with this message at 06:46 on Oct 6, 2014 |
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Oct 6, 2014 06:38
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DontAskKant posted:Oddly enough the bottle shops are better down in Kaohsiung. Have no idea why, but even better selection and almost better price than Hong Kong. It's true! Kaohsiung has a couple shops that have a good selection and one grocery store / beer store that has a crazy selection
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Oct 6, 2014 06:59
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PaybackJack posted:Not sure what the other guy has against the owners of Beer and Cheese. I'm not great friends with them but they're a lot more on the level than some of the owners of other bars. Also their Beer and Cheese prices are intentional to try and avoid the typical foreigner riff raff that wants to drink as much as possible for as cheaply as possible. They also want to try to target that group of young Taiwanese socialites that aren't doing the traditional making a family thing and are instead out absorbing culture by spending money on things from different ones. I think its a decent business model actually, and I was just in there on Saturday night and there was mostly locals with only a few scattered foreigners. Yeah, it's exactly that attitude I don't like. I don't mind that they want to keep rif-raff out, the problem is the pretentious attitude they hold because they do that. If it was the only bar like that in Taipei, I'd suck it up and go there, but not when there are better options. Seconding any Tai.P.A. (Redpoint seems to be most common) if you like IPAs and want to see what Taiwan's beers are about.
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Oct 6, 2014 07:01
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Horatius Bonar posted:Yeah, it's exactly that attitude I don't like. I don't mind that they want to keep rif-raff out, the problem is the pretentious attitude they hold because they do that. If it was the only bar like that in Taipei, I'd suck it up and go there, but not when there are better options. Unfortunately that seems to be the only way to cater to that local audience. If you aren't pretentious; the pretentious locals who are "cultured" because they're fortunate enough to have disposable income(basically any Taiwanese person that lives in Tianmu) don't tend to give you the time of day. If you've ever been to Somallier or the American Club, you get a pretty good impression of that crowd. The B&C guys are trying to grow a brand/chain sort of like Cafe Bastille except with craft IPAs instead of Belgian Beer. I'm not a fan of Redpoint but this market has definitely exploded in the last year and there are more and more options all the time. Even Taiwan Beer seems to be responding to the shift, albeit a few years late, with that wheat beer they introduced last year.
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Oct 6, 2014 08:43
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Thanks for the tips. Yah all I want to do is buy a few bottles of things I can't get in Korea to take back with me. I'm more than happy to drink the Taiwan Classic while I'm in town.
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Oct 6, 2014 09:00
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How much cheaper is it to build a computer in Taiwan versus the US? If it's that much of a difference, I might gift my current desktop rig to a friend and build a new one there versus shipping it. Specifically, I'd love to build one with an nVidia GTX 970 single-card and a 4k monitor now that 4k monitors are drastically cheaper than even a few years ago.
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Oct 6, 2014 12:30
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TheRamblingSoul posted:How much cheaper is it to build a computer in Taiwan versus the US? If it's that much of a difference, I might gift my current desktop rig to a friend and build a new one there versus shipping it. Most components will cost the same to slightly more. Try checking autobuy.com.tw; they're pretty good about having competitive and/or the lowest prices whenever I stop by guanghua market, and their site is actually usable to boot.
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Oct 6, 2014 13:15
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duckfarts posted:Most components will cost the same to slightly more. Try checking autobuy.com.tw; they're pretty good about having competitive and/or the lowest prices whenever I stop by guanghua market, and their site is actually usable to boot. Really? I was under the impression computer parts are a lot cheaper to buy in Taiwan when I asked about shipping my desktop PC a few weeks ago in this thread.
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Oct 6, 2014 13:29
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I don't actually recommend going to Guanghua, the prices in the streets there are competitive with newegg, but if you check yahoo auctions you can generally find a store out in Sanchong, Banqiao or Yonghe that sells the same things for cheaper. As an example my classmate was looking for a power mac charger, sold new in the ipad store was around $2000nt, the stores in and around Guanghua were selling it for around $1500nt, but checking yahoo auctions we found one just over the bridge in Yonghe from Gongguan for $700nt. Basically you can find a lot of things cheaper than Guanghua but you gotta be willing to look, and maybe take a trip out of the center of the city.
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Oct 6, 2014 13:51
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on the left posted:Ain't nobody got time for that. Just use cash for day-to-day expenses. Doesn't matter they only take EasyCard, and I gave mine to another teacher in Taipei because I didn't think I'd need it if I wasn't riding the MRT. Otherwise, got a loaner scooter. My baptism into the two wheeled world has begun.
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Oct 6, 2014 15:56
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PaybackJack posted:I don't actually recommend going to Guanghua, the prices in the streets there are competitive with newegg, but if you check yahoo auctions you can generally find a store out in Sanchong, Banqiao or Yonghe that sells the same things for cheaper. As an example my classmate was looking for a power mac charger, sold new in the ipad store was around $2000nt, the stores in and around Guanghua were selling it for around $1500nt, but checking yahoo auctions we found one just over the bridge in Yonghe from Gongguan for $700nt. Basically you can find a lot of things cheaper than Guanghua but you gotta be willing to look, and maybe take a trip out of the center of the city. Another excellent resource is ruten.com.tw
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Oct 6, 2014 16:22
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TheRamblingSoul posted:Really? I was under the impression computer parts are a lot cheaper to buy in Taiwan when I asked about shipping my desktop PC a few weeks ago in this thread. thegoat posted:Another excellent resource is ruten.com.tw When I'm looking for tech poo poo, I generally go:
I also like guanghua because they're pretty good about helping you with warranty service and stuff. e: also has a good shop for PC games duckfarts fucked around with this message at 16:53 on Oct 6, 2014 |
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Oct 6, 2014 16:51
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I usually go to the same computer guy I've been going to for the past ten years. I check ruten for cheap prices, go to him and he finds / orders what I need. This is in Kaohsiung so if someone here needs a PC built hit me up.
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Oct 7, 2014 01:07
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Can someone please recommend me a clean and nice private hot spring room in Xinbeitou? I keep seeing hotel resorts but is it possible to get a room for a few hours without staying overnight? Thanks in advance!
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Oct 7, 2014 08:11
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I was at Raohe Night Market tonight, and they've completed a lot of the new MRT, it looks like. They were still doing some work inside exit 5, but it looks good, and the MRT literally goes right up to the night market. You can pick one of three exits and be less than a minute from the food stalls. They're also doing some expansions on the Songshan train station which is across the street, so it looks like the whole area is getting a facelift. I imagine within a year it'll be pretty swanky, and a huge tourist hub with a train/MRT interchange and Wufenpu also a short walk away. (of course I didn't stick my head inside the tunnel and look, so it could still be a year away from opening)
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Oct 7, 2014 14:59
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THE LUMMOX posted:Can someone please recommend me a clean and nice private hot spring room in Xinbeitou? I keep seeing hotel resorts but is it possible to get a room for a few hours without staying overnight? The 'clean' bit is key. I went to a hotspring in Xinbeitou a few months back and may have caught a (fairly common) virus from bathing there. I can't remember the name but if somebody suggested it I'd recognise it at least.
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Oct 7, 2014 20:56
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BottledBacon posted:The 'clean' bit is key. I went to a hotspring in Xinbeitou a few months back and may have caught a (fairly common) virus from bathing there. I can't remember the name but if somebody suggested it I'd recognise it at least. HIV?
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Oct 8, 2014 02:46
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I went to the public one in Xinbeitou and didn't smell sulphur or chlorine, and the water just came out of a pipe so who knows what ends up flowing around in those pools.
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Oct 8, 2014 03:02
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Moon Slayer posted:HIV? Well, The glamour of HIV has so far alluded me. I meant 'suggest' the hot spring I went to, not my possible infection! It's certainly nothing that bad, but i've been suggested to have a pee test. Thanks hot spring.
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Oct 8, 2014 13:19
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The sulfur smell isn't overwhelming, but I can definitely smell it at the public hot spring at Xinbeitou (Millennium Hot Springs is the name). I mean, sulfur is a pretty easy to distinguish smell I think. If you're going to Xinbeitou, I suggest walking the few extra minutes to see the Thermal Valley. It's not huge or overly majestic, but it's super close to the public hot springs and would only add an extra 10-15 minutes of walking to the trip. Also the hotels around it look a little nicer, though I haven't been to any of them.
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Oct 9, 2014 10:12
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I apologize for my negativity a few weeks ago. I just got back from a 6 day/5 night trip. I loved every minute. This Korea goon is gonna make the jump pretty quick. I'll be inquiring about that in a few days, but until then; I just wanted to add some useful information for travelers looking for cell phone service: Before leaving Korea, I checked my South Korean cell phone carrier KT offerings for international roaming at the airport. They quoted me 11,000 KRW/313NTD/10.30 USD for each 24 hour period. That would be 55,000KRW/1572NTD/51.50USD; basically double my monthly service. I balked at this and decided to take my chances at Tauyaun Airport's kiosks. After going through immigration and customs I went over to the airport cellphone provider kiosks. One providers was out of sim cards for the day, so I chose to go with Chungwha Telecom. http://www.cht.com.tw I asked for a nano sim for my iPhone 5 (Korean market version, all unlocked). Setup was super easy. Girl at the counter spoke good English. pre:3G Unlimited Mobile Daily plan - I believe these come with a little voice calling credit as well 1 day pass NT$100 | 3.28USD| 3506KRW 3 day pass NT$250 | 8.22USD| 8749KRW 5 day pass NT$300 | 9.86USD| 10519KRW 7 day pass NT$450 | 14.79USD| 15778KRW 10 day pass NT$500 | 16.44USD| 17531KRW 30 day pass NT$900 | 29.59USD| 31557KRW - for reference my 2gb/200minute LTE Korean plan costs me 33000KRW pre:up to 100MB NT$100 up to 1GB NT$180 5/5 - I guess there was some way to turn on wifi auto hotspots, but I'm not sure. It worked well everywhere except a nice coffee shop near Jhongjheng/original Din Tai Fung; guess the walls were too thick. Using it on the MRT was sometimes a bit slow. Tried to have a FaceTime and LineChat's voice call feature and video call feature at the airport, but it didn't work well. 3G burned up my battery, or the IOS 8.0 planned obsolescence is kicking in on my 1.5 year old iPhone 5. I forgot to check how much data I used, but I was sucking down tons of images and streaming a lot of music. Google maps worked very well also. Saved $40 by not going with international roaming. politicorific fucked around with this message at 09:02 on Oct 17, 2014 |
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Oct 17, 2014 08:58
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If I have an International Driver's Permit from AAA, do I need anything else to be able to legally drive in Taiwan? What about for getting a scooter if my license covers cars only? I saw a website saying I need to also get the permit verified at a TECO (Taiwan Economic and Cultural Office) branch but I'm not sure if this is the case and I'd rather not go all the way to Chicago just to get it verified.
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Oct 17, 2014 17:51
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TheRamblingSoul posted:If I have an International Driver's Permit from AAA, do I need anything else to be able to legally drive in Taiwan? What about for getting a scooter if my license covers cars only? I saw a website saying I need to also get the permit verified at a TECO (Taiwan Economic and Cultural Office) branch but I'm not sure if this is the case and I'd rather not go all the way to Chicago just to get it verified. Depends on your state's reciprocity with Taiwan, which usually means you have to take it to the DMV to get stamped and it's either good for a year or for 6 months(and you get it stamped again for another 6 months). You are then allowed to drive cars and 50cc scooters. If you want anything above it(like a normal scooter), you have to take the written and practical tests here, which aren't terrible but are annoying.
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Oct 17, 2014 17:55
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TheRamblingSoul posted:If I have an International Driver's Permit from AAA, do I need anything else to be able to legally drive in Taiwan? What about for getting a scooter if my license covers cars only? I saw a website saying I need to also get the permit verified at a TECO (Taiwan Economic and Cultural Office) branch but I'm not sure if this is the case and I'd rather not go all the way to Chicago just to get it verified. To add to what duckfarts said, the IDL is only valid in Taiwan for thirty days after entry. You can get a temporary card on a landing visa, but you need your ARC for a more permanent one. When you get here, HESS will have you run out and get ten passport photos from a shop that is on the way from the hotel, that shop normally will produce twelve, so save one or two or order more for the application. (Don't try to jump the gun and buy those photos in the states, the dimension requirements are different than what AAA and what not will produce).
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Oct 18, 2014 00:35
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You can also call or e-mail your local TECO instead of making the trip out there. TECO Boston are pretty much the only Taiwanese public servants I've ever known to be nice or pleasant. e: And one guy at the NIA who actually grew up in America. e2: And the only professor I've ever met who had actually had a good handle on what was going on in America was a former diplomat who was stationed at TECO in America for awhile. This is including professors who've done their PhD in America. but come up with such great insights as "American cats are fatter than Taiwanese cats because it's just in white people's genes to be fatter than us Asians" hitension fucked around with this message at 02:32 on Oct 18, 2014 |
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Oct 18, 2014 02:29
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That's weird, I've always had people in Taiwanese government offices bend over backwards to be nice and helpful to me, which is such a pleasant change from what I got used to in America. In 6+ years, I've literally had only two bad experiences, one was at the post office during my second year where a lady made me fill out a long form three times because she "couldn't read my English handwriting." I was sending money back to my US account, and it was little things like "r" looking too much like an "n" to her, or two letters were somewhat close together, almost touching. The other time was before my first trip to Taiwan, applying for a visitor's visa at the TECO office in America. The old Taiwanese woman working there was totally rude and acted like every question I had was somehow a personal offense to her. It gave me a bad taste in my mouth before I ever hit the ground here, but since then, it's been great.
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Oct 18, 2014 06:36
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You lucky prick. Almost every time I go to renew my ARC it's like a fresh hell of bullshit and stony-faced no-fucks-to-give obstinacy, from waiting three hours to be told some minor detail I'd already checked about was wrong to the Council of Labor Affairs not understanding Taiwanese labor law and loving around until my ARC had expired. The time I had to go renew my visa in Macau was OK though, they were actually totally professional.
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Oct 18, 2014 06:50
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I dunno, come to think of it maybe it is the language thing. Civil servants are pretty much the only Taiwanese people who use English with me at this point, but they're uniformly terrible at it. Also, they seem to be well aware of their terribleness and angry at me for "making" them "speak English" despite not actually doing so. 99% of Taiwanese people stopped doing this to me after I actually learned Chinese with a decent accent, ONLY civil servants pull this poo poo: Actual Interaction One Civil servant:  (ohshi foreigner approaching..) : 不好意思，想請問一下，我要辦理[xx], 要去哪裡抽號碼呢？ Civil servant  U GO THERE (points in random direction) : 嗯... 不好意思 我看不太到 Civil servant (exasperated sigh) THERE!!! Actual Interaction Two Once at the DMV I had a guy handle the entire interaction with me in Chinese, while being like "You. Ride a scooter. You???" the entire time, and then when he was done he wanted to direct me to some other staff, so he walks over to the other staff and says in very loud English "YOU COME HERE". Like he was trying to show off to his coworker that ~*communicated with the foreigner in English*~, BUT HE DIDN'T EVEN DO SO. It was just pathetic. Also. I have tried going to the exact same government offices (for example, NHI, NIA) with a Taiwanese friend and without a Taiwanese friend. They are infinitely nicer to you if you have a Taiwanese friend with you. The only disadvantage there is that they completely ignore you and only talk to your Taiwanese friend. I mean yeah, white whining about "microaggressions" should probably take it to Tumblr, pales in comparison with the crap Vietnamese/Indonesian/etc get here*, but it does wear on you over time. *It could get so, so much worse. One day my Malaysian grad school classmate posted about how she went to the NHI and they just casually referred to her as a 外勞 (foreign laborer) and a shitstorm was raised. hitension fucked around with this message at 09:58 on Oct 18, 2014 |
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Oct 18, 2014 09:55
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Roommate and I are coming up for Pride this weekend. See you there and hopefully afterwards out at that outdoor row of gay bars y'all showed me last time. Unless you know something more FABULOUS going on elsewhere, in which case, let a sister know.
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Oct 20, 2014 16:10
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That should be pretty cool. I hope my wife can come this year. Is there a facebook page yet?
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Oct 20, 2014 19:04
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Yup https://www.facebook.com/Taiwan.LGBT.Pride I should be there too! I missed it last year so I am looking forward to seeing what the hype is about. Oh, and in contrast with my last angry post about being hassled at the DMV, I went to an internet cafe the other day where this exchange happened -{Blah blah I would like to make use of a computer here in your fine establishment} -Ok, I'll need to see your ID card -(hands over ARC) -(stares for a very long time) So... wait... this means... you're a foreigner?!?! -Um... yes... note that basically imagine the whitest looking white person you can imagine and that is me. This is not even the first time somebody has reacted with surprise when I told them I was a foreigner. Taiwan is so all over the place.
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Oct 21, 2014 09:03
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I find old people seem to not give a poo poo. Whether it be Taiwan or the mainland I've had old people come up to me and speak in full blown whatever fangyan they speak asking for directions or whatever without any concern about the fact I'm the about whitest boy on the planet. When I answer they just go "Ok" and go on their way. Meanwhile when I go to 7-11 the clerk gets nervous and tries super hard to say the total in English then goes on about how 棒 my Chinese is when I say 谢谢 or something. I kind of prefer dealing with old people.
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Oct 21, 2014 09:32
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Yeah, old people sometimes rule. Barely a couple months after I got here I ended up sitting in the park one day listening to an old man tell me about what it was like being in the bombing of Matsu in 1958. Unfortunately my Mandarin was comparatively garbage at the time so I probably missed a lot, but what I did get was super fascinating and about a subject us crackers don't normally get to hear about. Then there's one of our "doormen" who came over from the mainland in 49 and is of the firm belief that there will be a war between Taiwan and China within our lifetimes - and considering the "us" in that conversation included him, we're talking like 10, 15 years tops.
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Oct 21, 2014 12:58
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