For the first six days in Taiwan, I spent a lot of time walking around.
The best way that I can describe Taiwan is that it’s a lot like Guild Wars 2. There are beautiful surprises around every corner, most people treat your presence as a positive thing, and there is an overall feeling of fluidity surrounding sexual orientation.
I walked around aimlessly and purposely got myself lost so I could practice finding my way around. Thanks to my 900NTD (USD: $27) SIM Card that provided unlimited internet, I could easily use Google Maps at any time to figure out exactly where I was. The subway (MRT) went everywhere, so no matter where I needed to get, Google maps could point me to the nearest station and tell me exactly which train I needed to take in order to get to any destination. Subway rides generally cost about 16 - 28NTD (USD: 48 cents to 84 cents), so the cost is negligible. This was a huge contrast coming from California, where rides on the local rapit transit (BART) cost $1-$7 USD each.
No idea what this place is.
When I previously did some initial research on Taipei, most information sources told me that knowing English was enough. I think this information was geared towards tourists that want to stick to the curated experiences designed for tourists, because many of the local people I spoke to were not comfortable speaking english. In many cases, Google Translate Voice-to-Text worked pretty well, but a lot of the time I felt disconnected and isolated.
So I figured I’d try and learn Chinese. I did some Google Searching and found that you can learn it at local colleges for a pretty good price, but those sessions weren’t starting for a couple months. I then found Taiwan Mandarin Institute and discovered that they had 20-hour beginner classes starting every single week.
I sent them an email, and they replied within a few minutes, stating that enrollment was still open and I could enroll online or stop by the office. I decided to stop by the office, and discovered that it was only a 5 minute walk from where I was staying.
I went to their office, filled out a single sheet of paper, paid them $200 USD, and that was it. No weird approval chains or offices-of-offices that had to review or approve my request. It took less time than signing up for 24-hour fitness. I was loving Taiwan more and more as I encountered more of these situations where efficiency was prioritized over approval channels and legal processes. It was Friday, and the class started on Monday.
At the time, I was still staying in a hostel. It was relatively comfortable, but the process of living out of a suitcase, not having any personal space, and sharing a room with five dudes was starting to be a drain for me. It wasn’t that it was problematic; it was just that a lot of my energy was wasted managing little things like taking things out of my suitcase and putting them back in when I was done.
Additionally, whenever I wanted to use my laptop, I had to go to a local cafe. The cafes were beautiful, and coffee was one half to one third the price of what it was in the US, but it felt like the cost would eventually scale properly.
A lot of cafes in Taipei are focused on specific musical taste.
Someone recommended that I check out AirBnB. I previously didn’t give it any thought, since living in Los Angeles I had come to believe that AirBNB was pretty much the exact same price as hotels.
As it turned out, it was totally different in Taipei. There were all sorts of AirBNB options. Everything from $14 USD per night for your own room, to $550 USD to get your own apartment for a month.
I browsed a lot of options, picked the one closest to my school, and booked online. It was simple. To move from one place to the other, I signed up for an Uber account with my Taiwanese number and paid about $4 USD (about the same I would have paid in the US).
It cost me about $450 to move into a place with some locals. It was completely stress-free. Now, I have a desk where I can study and use my laptop, and a huge floor so I can continue my daily practice with Yoga with Adriene.
I'm not vegan, but I still think it's a bonus that the closest restaurant to my house is a vegan restaurant where you get to choose your own vegetables.
Vegluu, Taipei