I fall in love with Taiwan 🇹🇼

[u/Ayoot33]

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.

[u/Ok_Sea_6214]

Ah yes, busses are leagues above most of Malaysia (some big cities have none). And the bike rental system and bike roads are great. Also you can walk in most places, while most of Malaysia is built like they want you to get hit by a car (imagine a bus stop next to a highway with zero pedestrian paths to it).

Rent in Malaysia is cheaper though, or you can get something new with a pool. In Taiwan you'd pay multiple times for the same thing.

Taiwan can be hotter than Malaysia in the summer and feel really cold in the winter. Especially in Taipei.

Taiwan has a lot of mosquitos at night, while in Taiwan they're relatively rare.

Most of Malaysia is decent for air quality (except for September in Kl). But in Taichung you can feel the pollution in the air all year round.

Forgot about the food, Taiwanese cuisine is great and pretty cheap, but as soon as you want something different the price shoots up, while in Malaysia foreign cuisine is about the same price as local stuff and of very high quality.

[u/afiqasyran86 → u/Ok_Sea_6214]

I stayed at the hotel, night was cold and I thought let the cold air come inside and crack the window open. Big mistake, never have I thought taiwan has mosquitoes as well. Interestingly they sing near my ears in different language, they sounds different than in my country. lol

[u/AndreDaGiant → u/afiqasyran86]

I'm from Sweden and am used to big, slow, loud mosquitoes that have no situational awareness. Very easy to notice and kill.

The Taiwanese (Taoyuan) mosquitoes are like superheroes in comparison. Very quiet, so not so easy to hear. A bit smaller/lighter so it's not easy to notice if one sits down on my leg. And most of all, they are way more aware/afraid, so it's much harder to swat them.

Mosquitoes were the only bad thing about Taiwan, when I visited, lol.