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How much did a bottle of that run you?
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Mar 8, 2018 08:06
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A friend and I got the tea liquor and a bottle of taro liquor for 1500 NT. She took the taro liquor and I took the tea liquor.
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Mar 8, 2018 19:29
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My wife and I are (suddenly) planning on taking a vacation to Taiwan around end of April to start of May. Our Taiwanese-American friend invited us to join him, so we'll have a native language speaker even though we don't speak any Chinese. Unfortunately our friend hasn't really explored outside Taipei as an adult, so he's not much help planning seeing anything outside his grandparents' house. In other words, I'd love any words of advice for a rough itinerary. Current plan is ~12 days. I'd like to avoid jumping between a ton of lodgings, so that we can chill and enjoy an area a bit more. Goals are just to experience the culture, eat food, and see more than just typical tourist spots (but those are good, too). We like hiking in our day-to-day lives, but I'd like to avoid being out in a wilderness that isn't uniquely Taiwan or unconnected to civilization (want to experience Taiwan, not just go hiking, if that makes sense). Current very rough plan is something like:
I know that's a really broad question, but I can research and figure out local sights once we have an idea where to set up base. My only concern is whether I'll wish I had a rental car for exploring rural places (i.e. not Taipei)--I'd rather not, given some of the dire warnings about driving there I've heard, but I don't know if buses or hiring cars is practical for more distant areas. incogneato fucked around with this message at 21:58 on Mar 10, 2018 |
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Mar 10, 2018 21:36
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Do I want to move to Taiwan to work for my American company's Taiwan office with admittedly cool people but I'm only good at English? For three years. I have been to China a few times and also Japan. I hear Taiwan is between Japan and China in terms of hustle and bustle and cleanliness so it sounds reasonable. Also I can't speak Mandarin save for some pleasantries and generic phrases. And my wife gets to come with me but she's also a generic whitey.
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Mar 11, 2018 16:24
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French Canadian posted:Do I want to move to Taiwan to work for my American company's Taiwan office with admittedly cool people but I'm only good at English? For three years. I have been to China a few times and also Japan. I hear Taiwan is between Japan and China in terms of hustle and bustle and cleanliness so it sounds reasonable. Also I can't speak Mandarin save for some pleasantries and generic phrases. And my wife gets to come with me but she's also a generic whitey. You'll be fine. You don't really need much Mandarin at all, especially if you're in Taipei. The more rural you get, the more it helps, until you end up needing Taiwanese instead of Mandarin. Most goons who end up in Taiwan come in with no Chinese and leave speaking it to some degree or another.
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Mar 11, 2018 16:29
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Will you still be getting an American salary?
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Mar 11, 2018 16:31
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simplefish posted:Will you still be getting an American salary? I assume they will make adjustments but try to enable the same standard of living because it's the same type of job. If I make $81k now, in the Midwest, what should I ask for there? The office is in "West District, Taichung City". I know zilch about Taiwan geography except "island with mountains".
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Mar 12, 2018 00:37
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French Canadian posted:I assume they will make adjustments but try to enable the same standard of living because it's the same type of job. If I make $81k now, in the Midwest, what should I ask for there? The office is in "West District, Taichung City". I know zilch about Taiwan geography except "island with mountains". Taichung is the middle city on the island (chung is one of several romanizations for the Chinese word for "middle'; likewise "pei" in Taipei means "north" and so it's the northern main city). Of the big three cities (Taipei, Kaohsiung, Taichung), it's the smallest of the three. It has easy access to the other two on the High Speed Rail. There's no airport, but again it's trivial to get to either airport by taking the HSR. As the third largest city, you can expect it to be less foreigner and English friendly, but it's still going to be fairly accessible to a foreigner with no Mandarin. There are plenty of foreigners living and working there who get on just fine. It has a decent bus system, but I don't believe it has an internal metro yet, though I believe there are plans for one. Overall, you're in a good location to take trips on the weekends to see the rest of the island.
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Mar 12, 2018 01:02
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French Canadian posted:Do I want to move to Taiwan to work for my American company's Taiwan office with admittedly cool people but I'm only good at English? For three years. I have been to China a few times and also Japan. I hear Taiwan is between Japan and China in terms of hustle and bustle and cleanliness so it sounds reasonable. Also I can't speak Mandarin save for some pleasantries and generic phrases. And my wife gets to come with me but she's also a generic whitey. Committing to a three year overseas contract could be disastrous for personal relationships regardless of the destination country. Are you and your wife really ready to give up all of your social connections in the USA? Do you have children or do you have plans to have children soon? What will your wife do while she’s here? The biggest problem will be social isolation for your spouse and the fear of isolation before the move. This might sound stupid, but check out the recent film Downsizing. Plot spoiler Matt Damon’s character wants to make a massive life change, but his wife backs out at the last minute. Also watch Lost in Translation. I fixate on time and social relationships for good reason: a lot will happen while you are away. Important life events will be missed and you might be resented for this. There must be more that draws you here than just your job. Start searching Facebook, meetups, forumosa, and google for the types of activities, clubs, hobbies, etc. that you could and want to fill your free time with. Only a handful of the goons are married. Marriage and kids take time away for social activity. I would not count on forming relationships with married expats, unless you have kids who will be attending an international school. I used to live in Korea where there was a community of 20,000+ expat American military families - Taiwan doesn’t have that. Now add on top of that, the fact that most people in Asia rotate out after a year or so, once their teaching contract/university is up. A lot of long term expats turn toward friendships with locals instead of other expats because the social investment doesn’t pay off; people leave. However this is the same reason why a lot of locals don’t want to form friendships with expats. People are more chill in Taiwan, but it’s a gamble - you might meet a bunch of assholes or people who have world views that don’t mesh well with yours. As far as work and Mandarin goes, I also work for an American company, but we use five languages in our office, and it’s awesome. The foreign head of our local business unit married a Taiwanese woman in his home country and came here ~10 years ago, has two kids, and doesn’t speak more than 5 words of Mandarin, yet overseas 100+ people. He’s made it work because he came with built-in authority and respect - whereas I’m good enough at using four languages already, so I’ve been taking my time learning Chinese. Your bosses can’t and don’t expect you to speak fluently. They likely want you to use your job skills and background to perform your job role, while serving as a liaison to improve international communication. You can try to learn the language, but you will lack most of the extrinsic motivations for learning. For example, you will not have access to a, as a Filipino friend once told me, “long haired dictionary”. By being in a relationship already, there’s one less resource, and motivating factor, to learn from. Are you prepared to start reading Chinese language comic books, consuming Taiwanese dramas, and more to pick up the language while your wife streams 10x more addictive Hollywood content and insists on watching only American movies at the cinema and eating only American food... it could be a nightmare.
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Mar 12, 2018 01:15
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I think those are definitely points to consider, but as long as the wife has a degree, she can pick up work teaching English just to get out of the house. Frankly, that's probably the best way to approach English teaching since so many people get stuck in jobs they hate under bosses they can't stand but need to work in order to survive. She can be picky, work part-time, or just tutor on the side. Regardless, it can help her get immersed in Taiwanese culture and can avoid some of that isolation. I've known married couples who came to Taiwan and made it work, even having kids while in Taiwan. Some of them have been in the country for decades. But it may not be for everyone. Three years is definitely a long time and politicorific is right in that you're going to miss major life events back home. This may or may not bother you. It also depends on where you're from in the states. Taipei to LA or SF is like 10 hours direct and mostly affordable. On a good salary, going back once a year shouldn't be an issue (and may even be a paid part of your contract, it was for me as an English teacher).
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Mar 12, 2018 02:07
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Atlas Hugged posted:Taichung is the middle city on the island (chung is one of several romanizations for the Chinese word for "middle'; likewise "pei" in Taipei means "north" and so it's the northern main city). Thanks for this. I'm also reading the op which is super helpful. Not super worried about lack of non-bus transport within the city. My wife is a public transport master regardless of country so I just follow with my head down... She does seem very excited and we don't really have many connections in our current location. Myself and the people at my company have a specific shared interest so I'm not worried about finding people to hang with. But yes she would have to bank on finding at least a few expat friends or those who spoke good english. In Taichung this sounds more challenging so we'll have to discuss it. Teaching English is something she'd be up for. So yes point taken on having to help her become comfortable over there and find a place to exist. We'd mainly fly to LAX to see friends and family so that is not a big deal. More questions: flying to Japan and HK. I would go to Shenzhen pretty often for work. And Japan is one of our favorite vacation spots. Is the latter an expensive flight? And while 3 years is a long time...I dunno. Feels like there isn't too much to miss. We don't have big families and air travel is nbd to us. I'm not sure what we'd miss that we aren't already familiar with missing given that we picked up and left our prior home 2 years ago and it seems ok. No kids...though we are curious to adopt and wonder if adopting in Taiwan is even permitted to foreigners.
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Mar 12, 2018 04:30
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I still currently live in Taichung. The bus system is vast, but there is not that much in regards to English support. Other than it being cheap. They have been constructing one metro line ever since I got here in 2011. It is still far from finished, but once that is online it would probably help you because it would go through the area your work is in (but the West district is pretty big so it make not help at all.) Honestly, if you care about your own time, getting a scooter is the best way to move around this city. I hate taking the buses because they all drive like maniacs and I get sick on them, even if they are essentially free for short rides. I'm probably more comfortable driving a scooter now than I ever was driving a car. The one train line would basically only be used by you when you want to go to the high-speed rail station. The city center is kind of built around a fan with large ring roads that surround most of the city so it is not too hard to get around by scooter, and parking with a car can be a headache. In terms of your job, that would really separate you from the majority of expats who work in the city, because most of them are ESL teachers. But there is a large community here and depending on what kind of person you are there will be a group you can socialize in. I'm part of the tabletop/board games club but I never actually go there. There is also the larger, more hippy-ish crowd that mostly live and hang out in Dakeng, the eastern mountain area. https://www.facebook.com/groups/519370751446460/ This is the Taichung info exchange FB, where you can see the general kinds of questions people ask. Alot of it is about where to find good english speaking doctors. For the HK and Japan question, the Taichung airport has flights to Hong Kong every 2 hours, and on the cheaper airlines it should cost around 100-150 US round trip. Something like 50% of all the flights from the Taichung Airport are to Hong Kong. Sometimes it is actually cheaper to take a bus up to the Taoyuan airport (the Taipei airport, even though it is an hour away from Taipei) and fly from there. The flight is 70 minutes and is the easiest flight I have ever taken. You can fly to Okinawa from there but for real Japan you need to go to Taipei. The cheaper carriers to Japan can also be around that price if you get a good deal. Last year I flew to Osaka from Taipei on Peach Airlines, and those tickets were 117 bucks roundtrip. GoutPatrol fucked around with this message at 09:04 on Sep 8, 2021 |
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Mar 12, 2018 05:18
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French Canadian posted:And while 3 years is a long time...I dunno. Feels like there isn't too much to miss. We don't have big families and air travel is nbd to us. I'm not sure what we'd miss that we aren't already familiar with missing given that we picked up and left our prior home 2 years ago and it seems ok. Ok, this is a better answer than “my wife gets to come along”, but I’ve met people who cannot handle simple things like there not being Reese’s peanut butter cups available. I asked a colleague just now where a nice place to live in Taichung was, he suggested this area, here’s an example apartment: https://m.591.com.tw/show/rent/R6072302?_ss=qr%3Fref%3D0 28,088 TWD/ month including the building management fee (trash, upkeep, doorman). Your salary question has me thinking. Most of the goons here are on teachers salaries (50-60,000/month? 800,000/year?) There is a cost in coming to Taiwan. Your USA salary converted to TWD is probably around 200,000 gross/month. I don’t know you, your field, your skills, your experience, or your job. Chances are you’re putting equity into your home, paying into social security, a 401k, and maybe a pension plan. If you are paid a local salary, you are on your own- there is no equivalent of these things for foreigners. I’d calculate how much of your future retirement you sacrifice by coming to Taiwan. Also, there is a chance you’ll have to liquidate your investments since many US brokerage firms will not do business with expats who take the foreign income exclusion when filing taxes. These are deal killers for a lot folks, but are important to bring up during negotiations. Luckily the health care system is good, but I’d take a long look at how much you stand to lose financially if they offer you something like 100,000/month (1,200,000/year)
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Mar 12, 2018 06:58
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politicorific posted:
holy poo poo you do not want to move to Houli. That is far, far away from the main city. That is like a good 70-80 minute drive in good traffic. And that price also sounds ridiculous but: I live in an old building I take out my own trash I have no doorman
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Mar 12, 2018 08:21
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What are your favorite places to eat in Taipei? I've been exploring off-and-on for the past two weeks and here are some recommendations I've gotten and personally enjoyed. These are in Daan because that's where I spend most of my time, but I want to venture out of the district too. 山玖鍋貼水餃 - Good kimchi potstickers Yong He Soy Milk King 永和豆漿大王 - A great soy milk and Chinese breakfast restaurant that's open 24 hours. Though they sell more than just breakfast food (the 小籠包 are pretty good), they're primarily a breakfast place. Ruian Soy Milk - Similar menu and nearby to the above, but with a larger selection of food and roomier dining area. 喜樂滿足牛肉麵 - Classic beef noodle soup ANTICO FORNO 老烤箱義式披薩餐酒 - A very good but expensive pizza restaurant in a quiet and convenient area. I noticed a lot of foreigners here. Bravo Caffè 布拉弗咖啡 - Small cafe run by deaf people that sells delicious Belgian waffles and good coffee for typical Taipei prices (eg. $65 latte). Right next to a Kavalan store. 小樽早餐店 - A breakfast restaurant right next to Bravo Caffe that sells sandwiches and milk tea. Pretty tasty and cheap. Yiihotang - A delicious bakery in the East District. Get the "sea salt butter rolls" (氣海鹽奶油捲). You'll know which ones they are because there will be a line for them. Yang Shin (養心) - A really tasty all-vegetarian dim sum restaurant. 巫雲 - A tiny and special Yunnan-style restaurant near the Taipower Building. Reservation only and the chef decides the menu and can work with dietary restrictions. Now post your favorite places so I can try them 
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Mar 15, 2018 03:34
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Wasn't there a map?
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Mar 15, 2018 03:58
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meatpotato posted:What are your favorite places to eat in Taipei? I've been exploring off-and-on for the past two weeks and here are some recommendations I've gotten and personally enjoyed. These are in Daan because that's where I spend most of my time, but I want to venture out of the district too. Totto Ramen - chicken soup based ramen that's legit as gently caress Revel - they have a chicken 'n waffles fusion variant that's in fact really fuckin good despite being fusion cuisine i think there's a goon-gle map of places somewhere
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Mar 15, 2018 04:17
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imma be honest maybe i just don't know ramen (i don't) but totto hasn't really impressed me particularly the handful of times i've been, like it's fine calcutta and out of india do some good rear end curry, and mayur's curry is p good but the serving sizes were a bit on the small side best chicken rice is on the corner of Linsen and Linsen Lane 399 too, top poo poo also phone pizza hits a good balance between cheap and good
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Mar 15, 2018 08:56
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One more, this one is out of the way in the mountains above Xindian (you'll need a vehicle): 大山無價 - A fancy set-menu Taiwanese restaurant. Delicious food and beautiful scenery. Somebody posted photos of their lunch here http://w741215.pixnet.net/blog/post/33606368-1
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Mar 16, 2018 04:16
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Also I really should be studying for my Chinese test right now, but it would be wonderful if could dig up that map of Taipei food One last thing, what's the deal with the Bayan hot springs right now? I've never been there but a friend invited me to go this weekend. Is it actually off-limits? Is the rumor I heard that last year's typhoons damaged it true?
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Mar 16, 2018 04:19
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oh yeah speaking of out in gently caress-all nowhere, bruce's kitchen out like ankeng way does some good vegetarian food and i found the map y'all
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Mar 16, 2018 04:34
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Food talk also goes strong in the Line chats so if you want in to those we can hook you up.
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Mar 16, 2018 05:42
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That reminds me, I should see how many burgs are accounted for in that map
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Mar 16, 2018 05:50
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Pirate Radar posted:Food talk also goes strong in the Line chats so if you want in to those we can hook you up. Hell yeah I do TetsuoTW posted:oh yeah speaking of out in gently caress-all nowhere, bruce's kitchen out like ankeng way does some good vegetarian food Nice
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Mar 16, 2018 06:02
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Shoot me a Line ID or phone number by PM
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Mar 16, 2018 06:06
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Case in point we’re talking rn about Whelan’s being closed and how hard it is to find a loving Reuben in this city
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Mar 16, 2018 06:51
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Closed forever? Where can I get poutine now?
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Mar 16, 2018 07:10
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GoutPatrol posted:Closed forever? Where can I get poutine now? Their poutine stalls at Maji and down by TaiDa are still open, but at the restaurant itself they had this Montreal sandwich that wasn’t exactly a Reuben but definitely (in both senses of the word) Reubenesque and it was great. There’s a place in Tianmu that makes pastrami sandwiches but it’s more out of my way than Whalen’s was and their bread isn’t as good.
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Mar 16, 2018 07:13
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BaBa Kevin's has pretty good pastrami sandwiches but the pastrami is crumbly chucks rather than sliced deli style.
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Mar 16, 2018 09:29
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The pastrami there is pretty good, yeah!
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Mar 16, 2018 09:39
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I should finally go there so I can try that because I literally have no idea what pastrami even tastes like.
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Mar 16, 2018 09:45
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TetsuoTW posted:I should finally go there so I can try that because I literally have no idea what pastrami even tastes like. It tastes like smoked beef. Because it's smoked beef.
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Mar 16, 2018 10:30
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PaybackJack posted:BaBa Kevin's has pretty good pastrami sandwiches but the pastrami is crumbly chucks rather than sliced deli style. Kevin is one of my best friends and he definitely puts his heart and soul into the BBQ! He’s been working on the business for years, imported a ton of smoking equipment to get it set up. His wife makes the awesome cornbread and brownies.
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Mar 17, 2018 03:56
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I didn’t know he had a Xinyi outpost now! Just walked past it. He’s a cool guy, I’ve talked to him a few times at his other shop.
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Mar 17, 2018 06:04
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CaptainEO posted:Kevin is one of my best friends and he definitely puts his heart and soul into the BBQ! He’s been working on the business for years, imported a ton of smoking equipment to get it set up. His wife makes the awesome cornbread and brownies. Yeah, we used his catering service a bunch of times before he had the restaurants. Really, reasonably priced for what you get. He's a very cool guy as well, when he found out that we run a board game group he got all excited and talked to us about chess for 20 minutes. I hit him up a couple times over the holiday season because his turkey plate was fantastic. Pirate Radar posted:I didn’t know he had a Xinyi outpost now! Just walked past it. He’s a cool guy, I’ve talked to him a few times at his other shop. I hope he does well there, rent on that place must be insane. His other location is pretty out of the way, but it's in an area that I think he could probably manage even if the foot traffic isn't so high.
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Mar 17, 2018 09:23
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Hey there! I'm going to be in Taiwan for 9 days in early November (technically 11 but I arrive very late and leave early so 9 days that count). Still considering my itinerary, but wondering if I can throw a few questions your way: 1) Any issues with late check-ins for Taipei hotels? My plane doesn't arrive until 10:20 pm so I assume by the time I actually get out of the plane and pick up my luggage, taxi will be the only option, but wondering if someone will be at the front desk at the end. 2) Any recommendations for good vegetarian food in Taipei or elsewhere? Don't get me wrong, I plan on consuming some beef noodles and oyster omelettes and fried treats at night markets. But between Japan and Taiwan, something other than meat and noodles or meat and rice might be a nice change. 3) With only 9 days, I gotta make some sacrifices on what to see. Out of Kauhsiung, Tainan and Taichung, which would you say is the most skippable? 4) I'm thinking of staying at Hualien overnight and then doing a big long day of walking at Taroko Park, walking some trails near the gorge, climbing the easy path of Mt. Shimen, and spending the night in Cingling. Anyone have recommendations of a private driver to help me achieve this? I'm an overly anxious driver so don't want to tackle the mountain roads myself. 4b) Anyone ever do Zhuilu Old Trail? Also considering applying for the permit to do this and staying an extra day. Wondering if it's worth it. kuddles fucked around with this message at 20:19 on Mar 18, 2018 |
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Mar 18, 2018 20:16
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Taipei has lots of excellent vegetarian food and vegetarian restaurants, here some nice ones I recommend: Yang Shin - An all-vegetarian dim sum restaurant next to the Songjian Nanjing MRT station. I've been there twice and really recommend it. Fruitful Food - High quality vegetarian buffet with both Western and Asian food. Usually has pretty interesting and tasty dishes. Flourish - A vegan restaurant in the East District that I've been too and is very good. Also, if you're looking around for restaurants you should know that Buddhist-style vegetarian means the food is pretty bland and contains no hot pepper, ginger, and garlic.
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Mar 19, 2018 02:21
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Su Food is a pretty good set vegetarian multi-course set meal place that's like 400NT for the whole thing. http://www.sufood.com.tw/en/menu.aspx
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Mar 19, 2018 03:11
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Late check in is never a problem if you tell the hotel beforehand or prepay
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Mar 19, 2018 04:32
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meatpotato posted:Taipei has lots of excellent vegetarian food and vegetarian restaurants, here some nice ones I recommend: I really like Saladay as well in Taipei. Close to Taipei Arena MRT.
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Mar 19, 2018 04:58
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