This post is long overdue. I kept saying I would write it and I’m finally ready now to answer the nagging question that I am asked over and over by both friends and locals. Why did you keep going back?

Yes of course the cute guys are part of it. The few friends I made are part of it. Learning (some!) Chinese was another part. Then there’s food – it is always a big part of my travels and one of the fastest ways to my heart. The local cuisine is good and cheap and heavy on seafood. The fruits and desserts are amazing. The people are very polite and extremely friendly, especially to foreigners. Transportation options are clean, modern, and affordable. Quality of life is high. It’s very gay friendly. Crime is almost nonexistent and the people are well educated. There’s a lot to do around the island especially if you’re into the outdoors. A fusion of cultures and a rebellious attitude. People that love to spend time with others sharing meals and stories. Curious people that love to travel and replicate what they liked about other places. The short history of Taiwan includes colonization by the Dutch and Spanish and Japanese, a large influx of Chinese, and American influence as the US supported its independence and democracy. But this is an opinion blog and not Wikipedia, I’ll leave it there.

Like any other place, it has its strengths and weaknesses. I am not blind to the fact that for me, as a foreigner earning an American salary, life was a lot more flowery. I heard that corporations work with the government to keep the currency undervalued and salaries low – much lower than other East Asian countries. The capital is not very cosmopolitan and not pretty by any means. Part of the charm, though, is to discover its beautiful insides and lush green surrounding nature. Oh, and people take wayyy too many group photos!

I had many firsts here that I’m sure affected my perspective:

• Traveling somewhere totally alone
• Coming back to my hotel almost half naked. Full story here.
• (Unplanned) threesome where a hookup just decided to bring someone else without asking.
• Going to a hot spring
• Attending gay pride

• Going to a totally non-commercial island (green island) and swimming in one of the three known sea water hot springs in the world. Also posting a letter into an asshole 🤷‍♂️

• Discovered auto open/close toilets with heated seats, turbo jets, and god knows what else those buttons do. Once you use these a while, regular toilets will suck.
• Participating in an again unplanned kissing orgy (straights, gays, and lesbians!) where I was rated best kisser 💪😆. It all started with a girl wondering which gay boy kisses better and it ended up being a free for all. Three days later half of us got a cold though, bad idea 🙂
• Trying out badminton and paragliding (where I almost had a heart attack due to language issues mid flight). Lesson learned, do not do anything dangerous without checking if the staff speak English. Luckily lived to tell the story and take a selfie with him.
  
  
  
• Going to an S&M bar and gay sauna and enjoying them more than expected
• Experiencing over a thousand lit lanterns fill up the sky. You write something you wish for and release the lantern into the sky.

• Having a monkey steal my sandwich in Koahsiung and realizing these guys can be sneaky! Thank you for posing with my sandwich sir.

• My first Buddhist temple which was wayyy more beautiful than I imagined. This is also in the south and surprisingly not a very popular tourist destination.
• First time drinking and playing at a video game bar. My Mexican friend is most certainly the queen of the just dance game.
• Eating at a night market. Tons of food to choose from but my favorite is almost always the squid.
  
• Trying bubble tea at supposedly the first tea shop that created it: Chun Shui Tang in Taichung
• Getting up close and personal with my next meal at Yang Ming mountain

• First Michelin starred restaurant (Din Tai Fung) where the bill per person came out to less than 20$. Yes it’s a chain, you must still go.
• Spent a little time in a jail cell. Not not for real, don’t call my mom 🙂

Fun facts

1. Supposedly my teacher says the 101 building is called 101 “1 and only 1” because at the time it was built it was unique and the tallest in the world – not because of the 101 floors. This is one of my favorite high rises because you can really tell which part of the world you’re in just by looking at it.

2. Modern Chinese has four tones and is a pain in the ass for us non Chinese speakers. I was surprised to learn that original Chinese had 8 tones and Manchurians changed it to make it easier.

3. Most 7 11s per capita. Yes almost one on every corner. You can do everything from printing documents to sending packages, paying bills, calling a taxi, buying bitcoins (!), and much more

4. Interesting system to make sure people ask for receipts (to ensure businesses are paying their taxes). Every receipt has a number and several times a year there is a lottery.

5. Egg obsession. This applies to Asia in general but I first observed it here. Eggs are in literally every other dish you order. You can get at least three types of eggs at convenience stores from boiled tea eggs to diced spicy to cold semi sweet Shi An farm ones (for God’s sake please try these) . A Lebanese restaurant in Taipei put eggs in its hummus. It wasn’t bad but please don’t mess with one of my favorite dishes. I’m also looking at you America…your guacamole hummus still gives me nightmares. The egg obsession is so bad here that even my head looked like an egg after I got my first haircut. Also a Japanese/Taiwanese phenomenon, haircuts take longer the more you pay. If you want to splurge on a cut make sure you set aside a entire afternoon.

6. Garbage cans are very hard to come by (people normally carry their trash and throw it in their homes). Garbage trucks play loud music to indicate their arrival. Don’t expect ice cream! During the holidays you can also hear Christmas songs.

7. Some aboriginals believe that placing a giant wooden penis in the house would increase chances of having a male child! You must believe me when I tell you this thing is yuge.

The bottom line is that the answer to the question is that it’s simply a good place to live if relatively low salaries are not an issue. The same reason why I am fond of Boston for the US, London, Copenhagen, and Amsterdam for Europe, and Melbourne for Australia. It’s not because these places are the most exciting places for tourists in their respective continents – in some ways they are not – but they are, in my opinion, some of the best places to live when you consider life as a whole.