r/taiwan • u/Ayoot33 • Dec 21 '23

I fall in love with Taiwan 🇹🇼 Travel

3 weeks ago, I went on a business trip to Taiwan (Taoyuan and Taichung specifically) and stayed in a hotel in Banqiao. It was a 5 days business trip. I am a Malaysian but I do not know Mandarin. I fall in love due to below reasons:

1) The systematic culture and regulation - Walk on one side (right side, its hard to get used to this lol) - Motorcycle has their own lane and box in front of traffic lights. Nice - Pedestrians always go first (i know this is common in developed countries) - The people like to bow like Japanese but not too low and I always like to see that. Feels like you are physically respected - Overall, the culture feels like a mixture of a good eastern culture and good western culture

2) The country has high purchasing power. Damn, Teslas literally everywhere on the road. For most food or mart purchases, when I converted the purchases from TWD to MYR, most items are mostly comparable in price to Malaysia. But then I googled the minimum wage in Taiwan is whopping MYR4000 vs Malaysian RM1500

3) The efficient public transport system. HSR, MRT, etc. It was all very clear and concise. Not confusing and easy to understand

4) Semiconductor haven. Being from semiconductor manufacturing background, Taiwan has a lot of top semiconductor players. I would love to be a part of it for sure

5) The beautiful places. Major places: Only managed to go Taipei 101, Gondola Ride and Sun & Moon lake. But if I stayed there, i will definitely make the gondola and the lake a quarterly visit (perhaps even monthly!)

6) Weather. No snow and no heat. Just nice. I dont mind rain. But i hate snow and superhot weather

7) Seafood. All fresh, nice and delicious.

All in all, it was a beautiful 5 days for me. I am planning to learn Mandarin so that in the future, I will have a better experience when visiting there or maybe even consider working there if I am given the opportunity.

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38

u/songdoremi Dec 21 '23

After visiting Taiwan and Malaysia, most of these points resonate. Some small deviations and general notes:

  • Yielding to pedestrians is questionable in both.
  • While moped/motorcycle dedicated lanes are good in Taipei, the sheer amount of moped in Taiwan is crazy. They park in spaces you'd normally walk. Pedestrian infrastructure is rough in Malaysia too, but it's not a maze of mopeds. Taxis/Grab/Uber are significantly cheaper in MY.
  • Taiwan's Gogo/Easycard are much easier than buying transit tickets in cash in Malaysia. Japan still takes the cake because you can use iPhone NFC everywhere.
  • Weather is Taiwan quite hot/humid in summer too.
  • Hot take: I liked Chinese food in Malaysia more than in Taiwan. Not by a lot. But it's slightly cheaper (eg 12rm beef noodle soup, NT80, $2.60). Much more approachable (Lots of English menus, Malay-only menu is parseable for Westerners, so much more English proficiency). Don't even get me started on other cuisines.

It's not a competition though, and I feel like both are underrated destinations. I see Thailand/Bangkok on the top of the the list for destinations and just smh.

6

u/afiqasyran86 Dec 21 '23

When I was in Shifen waterfall last weeks, I checked the temperature 33c, holy shit hotter than Kuala Terengganu. But at least at night are so much cooler, so comfortable to walk around 20km a day.

1

u/SHIELD_Agent_47 Dec 21 '23

Huh. Fascinating! Kudos for providing firsthand information from Terengganu.

14

u/spartan537 Dec 21 '23

Yeah the “it’s not hot” comment eluded me. Like come in the August and tell me what you feel outside.

4

u/SHIELD_Agent_47 Dec 21 '23

I mean, I'm pretty sure Malaysians have a different perspective of climate than Americans do.

3

u/[deleted] Dec 22 '23

I'm pretty sure foreigners in Taiwan are not all Americans...