Taiwanderer

It's been just about 9months since I arrived in Taiwan. It would be at third time here, and the second time in one year. I loved this place so much that I finally decided to turn my love of the travelling life style into a regular lifestyle, why not live and work in Taiwan!

Taiwan is a small enough island to travel from north to south in almost a day. Two thirds of the island is hard mountain region living and the coasts, mainly the west, are dotted with cities. Thanks to the High Speed Rail that travels up to 300kmph, getting out of the concrete jungle that I call home 5 days a week is totally possible. With the recent acquisition of a third hand scooter, day trips out of Taipei is ever more possible. Weekends here we come!

Taipei is a great liveable city for the average westerner. Public transportation is much cheaper, convenient and easier to use than in my home town of Melbourne, Australia. The MRT trains run every 4-12mins and cost as little as $16NTD and as much as $40NTD - thats less that $2AUD a trip!

It seems, from all the travel blogs I watch on youtube, travelling to a different country is ALL ABOUT FOOD. Taiwan is plentiful and abundant of food. Anytime of the day or night, it is not possible to die of starvation. Thanks to our famous night markets, street vendors and 'mom & pa' stores, authentic, cooked to order, tasty and reasonably priced food is readily available.

Although the food is delicious, it would admit it is hard to stay 'healthy' here. Now I know the word 'healthy' varies according to who you speak to. I mean healthy as, wide range of coloured vegetables and fruit that are not heavily covered in oil or sugar, food with little or no processing involved and meat that does not come frozen from distant lands. Thanks to my slight intolerance to wheat, I also try to stay away from breaded or doughy buns, which is not so fun here in Taiwan as the Taiwanese delight is very starch heavy. I am also get heart burn very easily, so to stay away from oil and beer is very difficult. Taiwanese love their Taiwan Beer, there is nothing but other beers to drink at a bar... unless of course you want to pay double for a syrupy mixed drink where they put lime cordial instead of real lime.

It is true that eating out in Taiwan is cheaper than cooking at home. Some apartments here do not even have a kitchen! That says something, doesn't it! I try my best to cook at home for breakfast and lunch. I make porridge with milk (from questionable sources), organic frozen blueberries and honey from Costco and iHerb. My lunch is an oil fry stir up of chicken and with at least four different coloured vegetables, seasoned with natural greek yoghurt - also from Costco. There are certain things you cannot get here in Taiwan without paying an arm and a leg. These are

- REAL cheese (that actually tastes like cheese, none of this American stuff)
- bacon (that isn't spam)
- yoghurt (that isn't sugared)
- bread (that isn't sweetened)

.........

I realise this blog post has become a massive ranting session which I did not intend at all! My intention was to write about all the amazing things about Taiwan, post pictures and encourage others to join me on this adventure! Let's get back on track shall we!

Speak soon!



If you are interested in a briefing of the political history of Taiwan, here is a bit of research I have done when I first arrived here:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1VgqqmtdA8lciwG4fIbTSLEcOMPABKjb70iBfaeIF-wU/edit?usp=sharing