20 Things About Taiwan

Well, we’ve left Taiwan.

So how do we feel about it? It’s a bit of a mixed bag I guess. It was certainly wasn’t easy to say goodbye. We made some great friends in Taiwan over the last year, BUT the fact that we have just embarked on a 4 month back-packing trip gives us little time to dwell on it.

Just before we left we made a list of the top 10 things we will miss about Taiwan and the top 10 things we will NOT miss! So without further ado, I’d like to share it with you:


First, let’s start with the bad – things we won’t miss. We certainly won’t miss our job – or should I say, the assholes we worked for - but ASIDE from that…. the top 10 things we will not miss about Taiwan:

1) Pollution
2) Crowds

3) Post-dumpling indigestion
4) Pizza with mayo, squid, and kimchi on it

5) Sweet, soft bread
6) Squat toilets

7) Ice in our beer

8) Our bathroom that smelled like piss – no matter how much we cleaned it
9) Blue advertising trucks – especially the ones that drove past our house at 9am every morning
10) Sales people with mega-phones… or people with megaphones…. Or just megaphones - all by themselves – replaying the same advertisement, over and over and over and over


What will we miss? Well, a lot! I already mentioned the cheap beer place, our amazing friends and Taiwanese food, so BESIDES that… the top 10 things we WILL miss about Taiwan:


1) KTV (Karaoke)

2) Badminton
3) Scooters
4) Night Markets
5) Eating Family Style
6) Studying Chinese
7) Old ladies exercising in the park every morning
8) Pearl Milk Tea
9) Taiwanese people – always friendly and helpful
10) The silence in a public place that comes from not understanding anything people are saying

The list of positives could extend much longer than the list of negatives – we certainly had a challenging and rewarding year in Taiwan, and we will certainly look back fondly on this last year. But for now, it’s off to new adventures!

My Favorite Place in Taiwan

Over the last year Nick and I have seen a lot of places here in Taiwan. We've been to Sun Moon Lake, Ilan, Hualien, Kending, Taipei, Tainan, Puli, Xitou, Green Island..... and after all of that, it turns out that my favorite place in Taiwan is just a block from my house. A place we affectionately call "the cheap beer place."

It doesn't look like anything special, just a hole in the wall restaurant with concrete floors and plastic chairs, but it is - by far - our favorite place here in Taiwan. Actually our friends found this place before we even moved to Taiwan, and Nick and I just happened to move to an apartment a stone's throw away from it.

How cheap is the beer at the cheap beer place?

We can get 3 of these large bottles for $100NT ($3 USD) - pretty good deal! huh?

And how often do we go to the cheap beer place??? Well, at least once a week (typically on Friday nights) but we also go on Thursdays after playing badminton with our friends - and we've been known to show up there on the occasional Wednesday as well.

But at this point I have to make it clear that cheap beer and convenience are not the only reasons that we go to the cheap beer place. We also go there because their food is fantastic. Everything we've had at this place is absolutly delicious.

Our three favorite things to eat at the cheap beer place are:
Kung Pao Chicken (宮保雞丁)

Ha Ma (clams)

and water spinach (kong xin tsai - 空心菜)

But we also love to order these little tiny crispy fried shrimp (xi sha 溪虾) which come complete with shell and head - they go great with beer!

sweet and sour chicken (糖醋雞)

and Nick especially likes their Tofu

好好吃!

Well... I guess you get the picture! Everything is delicious there, and if I could pick this place up - with their concrete floor and filthy bathroom - and take it all back home with me to the states, I would do it in a heart beat.

Some of our best times have been had at the cheap beer place - hanging out with friends

occasionally playing cards

Making new friends....

and just having a good time

We spent so much time at the place, that we made pretty good friends with all of the ladies who work there - they're all like our Taiwanese aunties :-)

Without a doubt, this is definitely the place we will miss the most!

The Sea of Flowers 花海

This weekend, Angel took us up to Taichung County to see the "Sea of Flowers" or 花海 (Hua Hai), which is a 30-hectare plot of land filled with a literal sea of flowers up in the mountains.

As it was a beautiful Saturday afternoon, I was expecting a pretty large crowd up there - and there certainly were a lot of people - but I was pleasantly surprised. It didn't feel very crowded to me at all.

Of course, there is a distinct possibility that my sensitivity to crowds has gone down considerably after almost a year of living here in Taiwan.

We walked around for almost an hour, checking out all of the different flowers, people watching, and taking lots and lots of pictures. It was a lovely afternoon.

The bees were having a field day - literally - check out the huge pollen sacks on this one! (the bright orange ball to the right of the bee's bottom)

Anywhere a crowd has gathered always makes for good people watching, and this was no exception. Here is a fun picture of a middle aged man very seriously posing for a portrait on a little bicycle:

The best part of this scenario was that the photographer here was his son - no more than 5 or 6 years old!

Among the crowd was one particularly fun group - the bikers.

Nick almost felt like he was back in Boulder for a minute!

(Nick asked me to take this picture for you, Ingrid!)

It just goes to show you that no matter what part of the world you are in, bikers still look ridiculous!

But hey, to each his own, everyone was enjoying the flowers and that's what's important :-)

The Modern Toilet

Tonight, I went with two friends to a quirky theme restaurant here in Taichung called The Modern Toilet (便所)

As soon as you are seated you can tell this is a special restaurant because instead of sitting on chairs, you sit on toilets:

The hallway even has some urinals in place - for decoration. Unfortunately, my friend Neil got a bit lazy on his way to the bathroom and decided that this one would serve his purposes just as well! haha.

And after you use the bathroom, you can wash your hands in a toilet bowl sink!

For dinner, I ordered Thai coconut chicken and it wasn't bad! It came in a lovely toilet bowl dish accompanied by a side dish covered with a little turd lid!

Clair also got a nice little load - I mean meal - in her toilet bowl!

Clair and I decided to have fun with my little turd and so we lifted up our seats, and...

Ok Ok, it's a bit gross, but how could we resist!!

My coconut chicken was so good, I even licked the bowl clean at the end!

And of course, what meal is complete without dessert?

If you haven't been to Asia, the dish may not be recognizable to you....

but it's a squat toilet!

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm, yummy!!

A good time was had by all!