This is a long page off my Korea blog about my short trip to Taipei, Taiwan. There's a lot of pictures and I apologize to dial-up users. If some pictures don't display, here's some advice: let as many load as possible and then refresh your browser. You can also try to right click on any red x and choose "show picture". Most people shouldn't have a problem and I hope everyone enjoys reading about my trip. Keep in mind, this is not a complete representation of Taiwan or Taipei in anyway. I only stayed in the old part of the city, near Taipei Station. I'm glad I did, by the way. I got to see a little of the authentic Taipei.

Finally, to see the other vacation pages or to read about living in Korea go to the home page.

Korea Life Blog - Taipei


First 5 things I noticed about Taiwan:

1. Safety. You could sense right off the bat that crime and poverty is nothing to fear. I notice this now because I never felt so intimidated as I did exiting the airport in Manila.

2. American/Japanese cars on the highways. I'm so used to seeing basically nothing except Hyundais and Kias in Korea. Many of the American car models I had never seen before, or I've just been away from home too long. Small Fords seemed to be the most common. As to be expected, Japanese cars were by far the most prevalent.

3. Scooters. Arriving in the city, you immediately see entire streets full of them. I expected this though, Taiwan is famous for that. Everyone and their dog rides one, including pretty young girls and senior citizens, which you'd never see in Korea. In Korea, scooters are mostly used to deliver food. They are also associated with da bang "coffee" girls (which reminds me I wanted to do a post on them) who dress sexy and deliver you piping hot coffee and perhaps whatever else your heart and wallet would like.

4. Convenient stores - even more prevalent than in Korea. Perhaps this is because in Korea you can still find hundreds of family owned mini-marts, which I hope never go out. In Taiwan, like Japan and America, chains monopolize the market. There is literally a 7-11 or Family Mart on every corner.

5. The girls! Every guy wants to know, right? I wasn't sure what to expect. I wasn't disappointed. While they have a lousy sense of fashion, many were knock-down gorgeous. It also seemed they have more endowments than Korean/Japanese, which was also a surprise. A+ for sure. I should point out now that you won't see any pictures of hot babes on this page. If you really want to see some, then download some Taiwanese adult films off Overnet. As much as I want to please my readers, it's not like I could just run up to pretty girls on the street and take their pics. I doubt I'd live too long doing that.


Now a run down on the trip:

Only 3 days and 2 nights. I met Fred, a teacher there, Friday around 7:00 PM. He was carrying an open can of beer when he met me at the Taipei Station Starbucks. That's always a good sign. I ditched my coffee and we got more beers and I checked into the YMCA nearby. Fred got me a 15% discount as he knew the lady that worked there. I paid about $50/night. There are cheap love motels everywhere like in Korea, but $50 isn't bad. The room was big and clean, nice hot shower/tub, and there was 100 channels on the TV including HBO, Discovery, CNN, etc. I was more than happy.

I never did get a picture of him, but Fred's 34 and looks strikingly like Jim Cary which he's heard many times before. Several years ago he taught in Korea, his first overseas experience. He hated it, mostly because he got a terrible job. He jetted to Japan as fast as he could. There he taught for a few years and dated a Japanese girl who also speaks English and Chinese fluently. Eventually she took a high paying job in Taiwan and he followed along. They've lived there for a year now, she doing her job and he teaching in a cram school upstairs in the YMCA building. They both like Taiwan. In two weeks they're going to Australia for a year to study but they plan on returning.



Cool! A can of Chinese beer. I think it's hard to tell the true taste of any beer out of a can, but it tasted pretty average. Still, it's Chinese beer! A can runs about $32 NT at the 7-11s - about $1.


A view from the balcony. The YMCA is in a great location and the balconies are great. Look at all those scooters down there! Across the way you can see a couple of English schools.


Fred was glad I came. My coming gave him a good excuse to have a night away from the girl. (He informed her and received clearance about a week beforehand.) Even though he had to work on Saturday from 9-5, he was ready to party the night away. We walked all over the city for hours drinking beer and talking. The temperature was perfect, about 60-65 degrees. Most of the clubs in Taiepei don't pick up until 12, Fred said. We stopped at a couple of bars but got kicked out because Fred was carrying store bought beer. (He made no attempt to conceal it - I put mine in my pocket at least).


Finally we ended up at Carnegies. Looking back I wished I had taken my camera, but at the time I didn't know how safe it was in Taiwan, and I didn't want to lug my backpack all over, especially to a club. My camera isn't huge but it's too bulky to carry in my pocket. I wish I could get a smaller one, actually.


Carnegies cost 500 NT (something like $17) to get in, which at first I thought was high. But it included a free drink and the place was really packed, decent music, and a decent crowd. Also, we took a taxi there and there's not much else in that area. I was drunk by this time as well. I remember laughing my ass off at this short Taiwanese guy dressed in black leather and wearing sunglasses, dancing up on the bar like John Travolta.


I ended up drinking too much. Fred too, even more than me. How he planned to go to work was a mystery. We stayed there until 4AM or 5AM and then took a taxi to another dancing club somewhere that was free to get in after-hours. Amazingly we drank more, sitting at the bar and watching all the inceredible Taiwanese girls and a couple of lucky foreign guys living it up. The music was loud and thumping. I got back to the Y sometime around 7AM. Phew. Fred had to be to work at 9. He went, too. What a maniac!


Don't get me wrong, I had an awesome time and I didn't regret it. The downside was that I wasted my entire Saturday recovering. I woke up somewhere around 7 or 8 at night, my head pounding, my mouth dry as ashes. It didn't help drinking so many kinds of alcohol. I felt terrible, even that late. I dragged myself out of bed and took a few aspirin. After a long, hot relaxing shower, I started to feel a little better. But then it was too late to really do any exploring. There were several things I wanted to do. I blew it. Oh well. That's what alcohol will do to you.

It wasn't all bad though. I finally regained the spirit of adventure and headed off. For the next 3 or 4 hours, I wandered the streets, feeling much better, excited, enthralled. It wasn't that the city was that spectacular. In fact, I found out later I had stayed in the old part of Taipei. But it was still exciting to me to see all the Taiwanese people, the city-life, the Chinese characters everywhere, the oddities. I was so absorbed in the surroundings, I kept forgetting to take pictures. I did get a few early on:




Being a foreigner and not having a clue how to read Chinese, it's always welcoming to see picture menus in a restaurant window. Unfortunately nothing here looks edible to me. It reminded me of how I felt when I first came to Korea. I'm sure if I lived here a few years, this would all look delicious. Now that I look closely, a couple look like frozen TV dinners. By the way, to get an ideal of what things cost, multiple $NT (New Taiwan Dollars) by 3 (3.5 to be more exact). So you can see the prices aren't bad. However, the street/small restaurant foods usually run 25-30 NT, maybe not as clean, but a much better deal...if you know what to order and can say it in Chinese, that is. Good luck!




Looks like Korea the way the waste food here. (Fred mentioned this to me as well). That's enough food to feed King Kong's family. The stray cats have no shortage, at least. There's one now on the right! Meow!




I'm not sure what's going on with the Super Idol sign, but that fried chicken WOW! advertisement cracked me up. The omnipresent McD's sign shines in the background. I'm not going to eat there, that's for sure.



Some advice for Taiwanese guys: don't go to this hair shop.




There were several places to buy Apple computers, I was surprised to see. There were a lot of electronic shops in he area, actually. I had been under the impression electronics would be much cheaper in Taiwan, seeing that most (including my own Compaq notebook) are made here. However, everything was actually more expensive than I'd ever seen. Of course, Taiwan probably has it's underground shops and Yongsan electronics area too, so who knows.




It's hard to tell from this picture I took but the aisles in many of the shops are so thin. I got bumped 30 times because I was wearing a backpack. I guess that guy in front is on guard duty. How exciting.



I'm getting hungry at this point. What can I eat? There's a restaurant every 5 feet, but nothing looks good. What the hell is that chunk of meat there? Yuck!



Somehow I don't think I'll be eating here either.




Oh, man. Please, no! I don't want to eat McDonald's in Taiwan. But I'm so hungry and I can't find anything edible.




I can't believe I'm here. I can't believe they're using that stupid "I'm lovin' it" slogan either. And what's with that picture of corn? Burp! Chomp! At least I'm full. I took a shot of the crowd but it didn't come out, unfortunately. This McDonald's was huge and jam packed with Taiwanese people. It made me sad, actually. If I were Chinese, I wouldn't be eating here...hopefully.


I walked around for a few more hours without taking more pics. It wasn't long before I was hungry again. Yesterday I had seen street vendors selling lo mein noodles. Now I couldn't find a single one. They had all packed up and gone, I guessed. I looked for an hour. Where the hell are they? Searching I started to crave lo mein badly. I thought back to the Chinese fast food restaurants in American malls. I always got the lo mein. That made me think about Orange Chicken, oh man! I want an goddam eggroll!


In Taiwan, Fred told me, it's much cheaper to take out food than to shop for groceries and cook. Therefore every street vendor/small restaurant offers take out. Whatever this was, it was sold everywhere. Without many options, and wanting to try something local, I got some to go. It cost something like $1. Recovered fully now, I also bought a couple of beers. Hey, I'm on vacation! Why not? And this is Taiwan! I have to try Taiwanese beer! (Nothing great, trust me.) As far as the soup, it tasted pretty much how it looked: like shit; sorely disappointing and I can't see what the craze is. Everyone was ordering it. There were even instant versions at the mini-marts. Once again, it's probably an acquired taste. At least I didn't get sick.

The hangover not only ruined most of my Saturday, but it had further ramifications. Since I had slept until after 7PM, I wasn't the least bit tired. I was full of energy again and it was 1:30 in the morning. Fortunately there was over a hundred channels of the TV to choose from. Now, that I must say is too many channels. While 90 channels were crap, there was at least 10 things on I wanted to watch. I settled on Spiderman, which I'd never seen because I really dislike the actor. I still don't like him, but to my surprise, I did enjoy the movie. I think it had something to do with feeling so alive. Even though I was just in a motel, I was in a motel in Taiwan. Holy shit, Taiwan! That place all my toys came from when I was a kid. Wow! Several times I went out on the balcony and just watched the cars, scooters, people. The moon was a crescent in the distance.

Next I watched The Insider with Al Pacino and Russel Crow. I saw it in the theater ages ago but once again it made me feel good I quit smoking (possibly the hardest/greatest thing I've ever done). My favorite part was when all the big tobacco CEOs are in the courtroom and stating one by one they believe nicotine to be non addictive. LOL!

I think I feel asleep somewhere around 6AM again. I had set the alarm for 9AM, but couldn't get out of bed until check-out time: 12:00PM - too late to travel around the city as I had to be to the airport by 4:30. But before anyway feels too sorry for me, don't. Despite a lack of exploration, I was totally happy I came. I'm not at all into touristy spots anyway. In other words I could care less to see a Taiwanese temple. Having taught in Korea forever, and having been to Japan 5 times or more, I really wanted to just see the other place foreigners teach. And I wasn't disappointed. I did manage to go about for a few more hours and getting more pics. (The ones that are small I had to downsize because they were blurry.)



Before I left I took another shot off the balcony. Here it is. Try not to get too excited. It looked better at night.



OK, back outside. I mentioned before that the girls were hot, but they seemed to lack a sense of style. The outfit to the right looks all right, but I think most Taiwanese girls would choose that rainbow shirt instead. I just noticed that girl walking by with the ugly purple bag, another woman is wearing a purple coat. There you go. That old guy in the pink hat is pretty funny too.



One of many side alleys for grabbing cheap, fast local grub. I like seeing the Taiwanese people here. I don't like seeing them at McD's.



Speaking of McDonald's, where the hell am I going to eat. I stopped and looked at this place, but it would take me 30 years to read the menu. I'm getting hungry. Where are all those noodle vendors?



Oh yeah! Finally I found one! Show me the noodles, lady! After I snapped the picture, however, she gave me a dirty look. I walked off quickly.



Fortunately I found another one not far away. I snapped this pic quickly while the man wasn't looking. Just look at all those mouth watering noodles. I wish they had these outside in Korea. I ordered a big bag of the lo mein to go. Price: around $1.



I grabbed a bottle of coke from a 7-11 then sat down outside with my glorious bag of noodles. Look at this! YUM!



Chomp! chomp! chomp! I munched the noodles while looking at this scenery. I wish I didn't have to leave so soon. Oh well, it's only a 2 hour flight and cheap (round trip from Korea, 280,000 won - $250). I can come back anytime.



That's one tall building! After I finished, I took a walk over and got this close-up pic. The bottom part is a department store. Above, offices, I guess. Lots of offices.



Walking around again, some typical scenery. Like in Korea, there's a Starbucks every other block. Even though I sometimes get coffee there, I really hate seeing Americanism everywhere I go. Maybe I wouldn't mind it so much if I wasn't American. Back home it's getting so every single city looks exactly alike.



Some older woman on a scooter. After living in Korea so long, this looks strange. Where's the coffee? And how much for a good time lady?



Al-Qaida? Suicide bomber? I snapped this picture and ran quickly away.



Yes, more scooters. They're everywhere! I can't imagine the air is too clean in this city. Maybe it was a lack of humidity, but the air didn't seem all that bad. I'd hate to be here in the summer though.



More typical scenery. By now you have a good idea of what the city is like. It may not look like much in pictures. In fact, it doesn't look that different than Korea. I tried to think of it like I was coming here from the states and this was my first time in Asia. I love all the Chinese signs everywhere.



Well, there's Taipei Station. I guess I'll have another look around there.



This picture came out terrible, but I wanted to include it. (I hate taking out my camera - everyone turns to look at you and at what you're going to shoot, so I do it as fast as possible, often ending up with blurred shots). No offense to Chinese people but I have never heard an uglier language. That woman on the right sounded exactly like all the stereotypical imitations of Chinese I heard (and made) growing up. "Hang tooey pooey, shianggg hong tannngggg, changg, wang tao chang woo woo shang!" etc. She never stopped either.



Begging, Taiwanese style? This guy played some really good music. I should have put some change in his box, but I didn't know how much money I'd need at the airport.



There was a long hallway in the station lined with artwork like this. Muhahaha!



Back outside. This is the other side of Taipei station and where I need to catch the bus to the airport.



No problem, I got to the airport on time. The bus takes about 45 minutes and costs only 2 or 3 dollars. On it, I met a Taiwanese American guy on his way back to LA after celebrating the Chinese New Year in Taiwan. He was a little nervous because he was smuggling a big load of Taiwanese food which costs 3xs as much in the US.




Desperate for more memories, I photographed some Taiwanese vending machines. Here's Coca Cola, unsurprisingly. I can't get over how successful that company is, considering their product is just syrup and carbonated water. Ingenious marketing.



Some kind of Taiwanese newspaper vending machine. Cool.


Well, I had about $100 and time to kill at the airport so I did some shopping. It was either shop now or go back to Korea empty handed. Forget that.



I picked up these cool postcards for a few bucks. I like the cheesy Bruce Lee one.




Shh, she hasn't seen it yet. This is what I got Julie - a really cute handbag. I hope she likes it.



I got all this for myself at a duty free shop: A bottle of savory wine, 2 bags of tasty beef jerky, of all things, and a little Taiwanese house filled with some kind of booze. Hurray! I also bought a book: Fast Food Nation, not pictured.


Well, that's it. It may not seem like an exciting trip, but it was to me. I'm very happy I was able to see Taipei, Taiwan. And very lucky. I am so happy with my life these days. Above all else I'm healthy. That is by far the most important. But also I have an easy job and opportunities to see new cities and countries. I am truly thankful. I can't wait for the next adventure.

written by KLB Guy -|link