The Taiwan Megathread 2.0: Vacations, Jobs, EarthquaJEREMYLINJEREMYLINJEREM

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Tourism & Travel > The Taiwan Megathread 2.0: Vacations, Jobs, EarthquaJEREMYLINJEREMYLINJEREM

«‹›12 »

Spanish Matlock: Sep 6, 2004; If you want to play the I-didn't-know-this-was-a-hippo-bar game with me, that's fine.

RocknRollaAyatollah posted:

When you come into Taoyuan they have that scary sign that says that drug smuggling carries the death penalty. They're not even that hardcore in the PRC, well at least in the cities I've flown into.

They're pretty much exactly that hardcore in the PRC.

http://articles.cnn.com/2009-12-28/world/china.britain.smuggler_1_akmal-shaikh-mentally-ill-man-execution?_s=PM:WORLD

# ¿ Mar 5, 2012 08:35

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ¿ Apr 29, 2024 13:47

Spanish Matlock: Sep 6, 2004; If you want to play the I-didn't-know-this-was-a-hippo-bar game with me, that's fine.

We have two bedrooms a kitchen and a living room (kind of) and a bathroom and we pay like 20,000? For the two of us. Which means we each pay like 10k.

Our apartment is also like 5 minutes from shuanglian station, 5 minutes from zhongshan elementary school station, and right in the middle of all the whores you can eat.

# ¿ Mar 6, 2012 09:00

Spanish Matlock: Sep 6, 2004; If you want to play the I-didn't-know-this-was-a-hippo-bar game with me, that's fine.

We should just start hitting some bars as the weather warms up. A night at Carnegies would be hilarious, Wax for all-you-can-drink some night, maybe Barcode or Room 18 or LAVA or etc. if you feel like spending a lot of money on some drinks.

# ¿ Mar 6, 2012 21:24

Spanish Matlock: Sep 6, 2004; If you want to play the I-didn't-know-this-was-a-hippo-bar game with me, that's fine.

Man you don't go to Carnegies OR Wax if you want to have a high class do for chirssakes. You go there to get plastered, possibly make out with a hooker and make fun of all the people who go there because they think its good. Last time I was at Carnegies I saw a girl get dragged out of the front kicking and screaming and thrown into the street for reasons that I am to this day totally unaware of.

If we want to go hang out at a good all-you-can-drink bar PASoul has pretty quick lines (last time I was there, haven't been since they reopened.) Wax is a good place to get your bed warmed for the evening or meet interesting degenerates. And if the line's too long at any point just pop out to the local seven and drink with the waiguos on the corner for a bit.

Also if anyone's interested a friend of mine is playing with his band at Revolver on Thursday (I probably won't go) and Underworld on saturday (I will probably go) Underworld is at least in Shi Da night market, so again plenty of opportunity to get wasted in the street with the other foreigners.

I don't exactly need a foreigner "bubble" or whatever, but if you can't have fun hanging out with degenerates at a shithole bar, you may need to go back to fun school.

Edit: Oh! We should also book a table at Strike! sometime, it's a bar AND a bowling alley!

# ¿ Mar 7, 2012 09:50

Spanish Matlock: Sep 6, 2004; If you want to play the I-didn't-know-this-was-a-hippo-bar game with me, that's fine.

Apparently facebook informs me that there is also a this, which should be awesome:

# ¿ Mar 7, 2012 09:58

Spanish Matlock: Sep 6, 2004; If you want to play the I-didn't-know-this-was-a-hippo-bar game with me, that's fine.

https://www.facebook.com/events/330820180302729/?ref=notif&notif_t=event_invite

St. Patty's day festivities at Speakeasy (a good bar)

quote:

I got into a fight with some gangsters in Pasoul 4 years ago. Haven't gone back since.

Don't be that guy.

# ¿ Mar 7, 2012 14:41

Spanish Matlock: Sep 6, 2004; If you want to play the I-didn't-know-this-was-a-hippo-bar game with me, that's fine.

Haraksha posted:

Privates are not allowed. Having worked in Korea and Taiwan, it's not even comparable. Basically everything you hear is how the flow of teachers goes strictly from Korea to Taiwan but never the other way.

Privates are not allowed? I've got a couple.

# ¿ Mar 8, 2012 19:03

Spanish Matlock: Sep 6, 2004; If you want to play the I-didn't-know-this-was-a-hippo-bar game with me, that's fine.

The way I did it was come here on the landing visa, go to hong kong for the visitor visa and then come back to taipei. Hong Kong or Bangkok trips will run you about 9000NT round trip (300 dollars or so).

I usually sleep on a park bench in Hong Kong, because I'm a giant beast man and no one's going to gently caress with me anyway. Just find a park with a couple homeless dudes around and you're set. (Homeless dudes mean that there'll be no cops and the prospect of getting shiv'd is pretty low).

# ¿ Mar 14, 2012 06:36

Spanish Matlock: Sep 6, 2004; If you want to play the I-didn't-know-this-was-a-hippo-bar game with me, that's fine.

Who the gently caress wants to live alone anyway? I'd rather have a place with a bedroom and a living room and not just a bedlivingkitchen.

# ¿ Mar 14, 2012 17:31

Spanish Matlock: Sep 6, 2004; If you want to play the I-didn't-know-this-was-a-hippo-bar game with me, that's fine.

Ravendas posted:

Ugh, was thinking about getting an APRC soon too.

I got a two year ARC from my school which is good until next december, and I qualify this december. So I literally have all the time I need to make it happen.

# ¿ Mar 16, 2012 06:56

Spanish Matlock: Sep 6, 2004; If you want to play the I-didn't-know-this-was-a-hippo-bar game with me, that's fine.

Yeah, that's real low.

# ¿ Mar 16, 2012 19:21

Spanish Matlock: Sep 6, 2004; If you want to play the I-didn't-know-this-was-a-hippo-bar game with me, that's fine.

Haraksha posted:

I liked when they asked me what I'd do if I needed to buy toilet paper and couldn't find any. There's basically no safer answers than, "I'm willing to be a clown for free on the weekends."

The answer is "This is Taiwan, I get handed like 20 packets of tissue with ads on them hourly."

# ¿ Mar 22, 2012 08:40

Spanish Matlock: Sep 6, 2004; If you want to play the I-didn't-know-this-was-a-hippo-bar game with me, that's fine.

Haraksha posted:

My friend is salaried and doesn't get a reduced salary for time off.

That's almost the same, I'd be willing to wager that he doesn't get reduced workload for time off either.

# ¿ Mar 30, 2012 13:36

Spanish Matlock: Sep 6, 2004; If you want to play the I-didn't-know-this-was-a-hippo-bar game with me, that's fine.

Haraksha posted:

I'm really having a hard time figuring out what this means.

He has a monthly salary. If he wants time off, he takes it. His salary for the month remains the same regardless of hours worked. He doesn't get extra classes to make up for the hours lost. He just continues on as if the vacation didn't happen.

Ah he's a teacher. A lot of jobs here will just make you do twice as much work in the lead up to or just after time off.

# ¿ Mar 31, 2012 04:44

Spanish Matlock: Sep 6, 2004; If you want to play the I-didn't-know-this-was-a-hippo-bar game with me, that's fine.

Haraksha posted:

Yeah, at the very same school that has a full time job opening. You too could get paid leave maybe!

I would never leave my job teaching adults to go back to those snot-nosed germ factories.

# ¿ Mar 31, 2012 09:23

Spanish Matlock: Sep 6, 2004; If you want to play the I-didn't-know-this-was-a-hippo-bar game with me, that's fine.

Ravendas posted:

When I re-sign for Hess again this year I'll be at the pay cap of $750/hour

Does that mean they will be passionately trying to fire you so that they can replace you with a know-nothing tourist who just hopped off a boat six days ago?

# ¿ Apr 2, 2012 03:26

Spanish Matlock: Sep 6, 2004; If you want to play the I-didn't-know-this-was-a-hippo-bar game with me, that's fine.

thegoat posted:

I don't assume that at all. I know that as a ~~teacher~~buxiban mascot that enrolment is more important than learning.

Let me help you with that.

# ¿ Apr 2, 2012 08:57

Spanish Matlock: Sep 6, 2004; If you want to play the I-didn't-know-this-was-a-hippo-bar game with me, that's fine.

khysanth posted:

http://www.weather.com/weather/tenday/Taipei+Taiwan+TWXX0021

Leaving for Taiwan tonight for two weeks.

Does this really mean it is going to be raining the entire time? Or is it more of an on/off thing? This will be my first time to the island in the spring.

How will it affect going out/getting around? Hiking? etc.

Well poo poo. Guess it's plum rains time. Thought it was extra rainy today. Yeah, that means it'll pretty much piss down for the next month or so I'd suspect. Happens every spring. It's been an unusually dry March, so I guess it'll be a lovely April.

# ¿ Apr 5, 2012 17:45

Spanish Matlock: Sep 6, 2004; If you want to play the I-didn't-know-this-was-a-hippo-bar game with me, that's fine.

Thinking about getting monumentally wasted this thursday (I have a light friday schedule) anyone else interested?

# ¿ Apr 6, 2012 11:00

Spanish Matlock: Sep 6, 2004; If you want to play the I-didn't-know-this-was-a-hippo-bar game with me, that's fine.

The realest of real men rock pink-ish shirts.

# ¿ Apr 11, 2012 18:36

Spanish Matlock: Sep 6, 2004; If you want to play the I-didn't-know-this-was-a-hippo-bar game with me, that's fine.

OrangeGuy posted:

For someone whose smartphone is probably going to go kaput in the near future and wants to buy an iPhone 4S with the possibility of using it in Taiwan as well as the US, what should I do?

Should I:

A.) Buy it in the US through AT&T (currently still under the family Verizon plan) and switch out the SIM card in Taiwan despite having a two-year contract

Do phones in the US even come with SIM cards?

quote:

C.) Just wait until I get to Taiwan to possibly buy it cheaper there

WINNER!

# ¿ Apr 25, 2012 15:38

Spanish Matlock: Sep 6, 2004; If you want to play the I-didn't-know-this-was-a-hippo-bar game with me, that's fine.

Tamsui is pronounced like "Tom-Swee" right?

# ¿ May 4, 2012 07:20

Spanish Matlock: Sep 6, 2004; If you want to play the I-didn't-know-this-was-a-hippo-bar game with me, that's fine.

HappyHelmet posted:

Don't pretty much all buxibans do this for you though? My boss just asked me for my info, and gives it all to his accountant who handles everything.

Also gently caress trying to find an oven in Taiwan. Hopefully the place I'm going to today will have a few that aren't ridiculously overpriced.

What kind of oven are you looking for? In my experience Carrefour sells the counter-top models for like 2000-3000. Big enough to cook a chicken maybe. If you're looking for something big enough to do thanksgiving turkeys in you may be SOL.

# ¿ May 7, 2012 08:45

Spanish Matlock: Sep 6, 2004; If you want to play the I-didn't-know-this-was-a-hippo-bar game with me, that's fine.

Without going into too much detail, no the ARC test does not test for THC or amphetamines.

# ¿ May 19, 2012 21:23

Spanish Matlock: Sep 6, 2004; If you want to play the I-didn't-know-this-was-a-hippo-bar game with me, that's fine.

Well 18% tax is only for the first year, then it's like 9-10% or something. Plus cost of living in Taiwan is probably lower than most other places. I mean you can really scrape even in Taipei, if you go out into the sticks you'll earn more and have to pay less. But yeah, your average teacher here is a trouble drifter with a shady past.

Edit: Whoa poo poo, apparently that's also just about median income for women in the US too.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_income_in_the_United_States#Income_distribution

Spanish Matlock fucked around with this message at 20:35 on May 24, 2012

# ¿ May 24, 2012 20:31

Spanish Matlock: Sep 6, 2004; If you want to play the I-didn't-know-this-was-a-hippo-bar game with me, that's fine.

Ravendas posted:

Have you left Taiwan or something? That taxes info is from like 4 years ago.

Now its 18% for the first 6 months you pay every year, with the rest of the year being 6%. You get a refund the following year for the 12% difference the first 6 months. If you have dependents or other things you can actually get your tax rate lowered to almost 0% for a huge refund.

So if you come late in a year, say August, you'll pay 18% for August, September, October, November, December, then the year rolls over and you have to pay 18% for the next 6 months as well. It's pretty terrible.

Month and a half till the taxes lower for those of us who've been here since the beginning of the year though! It's like getting a bonus.

Edit: About the 'ugh how can you live with that 18 hour a week blah blah blah!'
I never said 18 hours is a good/average workweek. That's what the person was asking about, 18 hours. The starting pay at Hess is 580, I think it's less at Kojen, so I just multiplied it out.

Though my first job was only 16 hours a week, but they paid 800/hour. That was a nice place.

I don't pay a lot of attention to my taxes in Taiwan obviously. As far as I'm concerned the tax people here are a kind of magical elf that give me fat refund checks every year to spend irresponsibly on something shiny and unuseful.

# ¿ May 25, 2012 08:46

Spanish Matlock: Sep 6, 2004; If you want to play the I-didn't-know-this-was-a-hippo-bar game with me, that's fine.

I got my first phone with just a passport.

# ¿ Jun 1, 2012 05:47

Spanish Matlock: Sep 6, 2004; If you want to play the I-didn't-know-this-was-a-hippo-bar game with me, that's fine.

quote:

Being an English speaker alone doesn't make you all that special here - there are already thousands of us. poo poo, there are even plenty of English-speakers here who speak amazing Mandarin.

Caveat: Being an English speaker (especially a white one) will make it easier to get free drinks at a bar and sometimes help with the cops when you're driving a scooter without a license.

# ¿ Jun 13, 2012 03:16

Spanish Matlock: Sep 6, 2004; If you want to play the I-didn't-know-this-was-a-hippo-bar game with me, that's fine.

How about "Keep your loving buses, cars, taxis and scooters out of the goddamn bike lane (Dunhua, I'm looking at you)"

# ¿ Jun 13, 2012 11:15

Spanish Matlock: Sep 6, 2004; If you want to play the I-didn't-know-this-was-a-hippo-bar game with me, that's fine.

duckfarts posted:

I can't blame drivers on this one because the implementation of this "bike lane" is incredibly dumb and was doomed to failure right from the start. If this was an actual bike lane/path, it would be part of the sidewalk with a curb keeping traffic out of it like the bike path near that one park near xinsheng or jianguo south of Zhongxiao. Instead they make it part of the regular 2-lane road that already has major traffic congestion. They should just stop with the dumb charade and make it a proper third lane like it was supposed to be in the first place as it's pretty much the opposite of where you'd want to be when riding a bike and dunhua needs a third lane badly.

What's even worse is that there's a purely decorative strip of trees and grass running down the entire center of the road that would be an awesome place for a bike path. gently caress Hau Lung-bin.

# ¿ Jun 13, 2012 15:28

Spanish Matlock: Sep 6, 2004; If you want to play the I-didn't-know-this-was-a-hippo-bar game with me, that's fine.

They will wait too long from stubbornness, then finally cancel so as not to look like total assholes, then the rain will stop and they will look like assholes anyway. Again.

# ¿ Jun 19, 2012 17:08

Spanish Matlock: Sep 6, 2004; If you want to play the I-didn't-know-this-was-a-hippo-bar game with me, that's fine.

So the answer was they'd wait until about 2pm to cancel this time. All my afternoon classes are cancelled.

# ¿ Jun 20, 2012 07:41

Spanish Matlock: Sep 6, 2004; If you want to play the I-didn't-know-this-was-a-hippo-bar game with me, that's fine.

Well after six or so beers into this typhoon day, I have to say, good show Taipei city government I guess we'll call this one a success.

# ¿ Jun 20, 2012 11:15

Spanish Matlock: Sep 6, 2004; If you want to play the I-didn't-know-this-was-a-hippo-bar game with me, that's fine.

url posted:

Hahaha American wine, that's like American "cheese" ... (I kid I kid)

I'm down for some debauchery this weekend. The grapevine suggested a curry, which I am seriously jonesing for.

If we fo Haraksha's buddy's bar, I can not recommend the Mojito highly enough.

Quite simply a spectacular experience.

e: Li Laoshi fuckn loves you Haraksha. Where I was holding favoured new student status, I am now being told how god drat awesome your vocab is, and how hard you work. gently caress you!

I know a great curry place in ximending.

# ¿ Jun 27, 2012 08:53

Spanish Matlock: Sep 6, 2004; If you want to play the I-didn't-know-this-was-a-hippo-bar game with me, that's fine.

What bar are we going to? There's a bunch of good ones over thataway. Including all-you-can-drink at MiCasa.

Huh. This is apparently happening at MiCasa this saturday:

http://www.facebook.com/events/383909298332566/

MiCasa posted:

30. June AFRO-CARIBBEAN Foam Party
Foam! Foam! Foam!

We Africans and Caribbeans in Taiwan are bringing it to you live and direct, the biGGEST, FUNNEST and A MUST GO FOAM party at MICASA with the BEST OF BEST AFRICAN and Caribbean music .

Dj Garvin

invite ur friends come !!!
dress on ur bikini , lets get wet !!!
beach style foam party + caribbean DJ & hip hop music + All u can drink !!!
Dont miss this party after exam !!! LETS PARTY ALL NIGHT LONG ><
RSVP & PER-SALE : 0988973200 Reagina

dlink posted:

Nope, i'm going to be in Taiwan from the 9th til 19th of July, i'll be in Taipei from the 14th onwards

Edit: wow thats pretty far from where i'm going to be in Taipei, i'm going to be staying in Rainbow hotel, around Ximending.

Not really. The MRTs are pretty fantastic in Taipei. Ximending isn't really that far from anywhere.

# ¿ Jun 28, 2012 19:24

Spanish Matlock: Sep 6, 2004; If you want to play the I-didn't-know-this-was-a-hippo-bar game with me, that's fine.

Well I was more interested in the soapy half naked girls. But it is telling that they don't seem to factor into your mental image. :crossarms:

What bar then? The other ones I know in that area are like... pasoul, maybe Sappho? Not a ton of AYCD choices and I do love me some AYCD.

# ¿ Jun 29, 2012 09:04

Spanish Matlock: Sep 6, 2004; If you want to play the I-didn't-know-this-was-a-hippo-bar game with me, that's fine.

You can dress however you want pretty much anywhere. The only place I could get a suit that fits me in Taipei would be if we found a freshly killed luchadore.

# ¿ Jun 29, 2012 11:12

Spanish Matlock: Sep 6, 2004; If you want to play the I-didn't-know-this-was-a-hippo-bar game with me, that's fine.

I noticed not many people have signed up for the facebook thing.

# ¿ Jun 30, 2012 03:40

Spanish Matlock: Sep 6, 2004; If you want to play the I-didn't-know-this-was-a-hippo-bar game with me, that's fine.

That is true. I've got to get a new fan.

# ¿ Jul 3, 2012 19:03

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ¿ Apr 29, 2024 13:47

Spanish Matlock: Sep 6, 2004; If you want to play the I-didn't-know-this-was-a-hippo-bar game with me, that's fine.

The easiest answer to this is that Taiwanese national health care is miles better than anything in the US, so would have no trouble meeting and exceeding any guidelines set in a US law. So you can consider it employer provides healthcare, and the IRS will never check up on it anyway. US government institutions are almost pathologically averse to dealing with anything foreign. I haven't paid student loans in FOREVER. But actually bugging me about them would require dealing with *shudder* foreigners. So my providers have basically stopped pestering me about them completely.

# ¿ Jul 7, 2012 19:02

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Tourism & Travel > The Taiwan Megathread 2.0: Vacations, Jobs, EarthquaJEREMYLINJEREMYLINJEREM

«‹›12 »