Backtrack
July 22, 2008
We have to start at the very
beginning, Taiwan a home for 7 years, what started out at as a round
the world trip in 2001 flying out from London with Taipei as the first
destination. After getting teaching work I was able to fund the rest of
the trip and nine months later continued my oneworld pass to Australia
(Brisbane, Noosa, Byron Bay, Fraser Island, Sydney, Alice Springs,
Darwin), Singapore, Malaysia (Johor Bahru, Kula Lumpar and a tiny beach
I cant remember the name of) and Thailand (Krabi, Koh Phi Phi, Bangkok,
Koh Pha Ngan). At this point I was supposed to get my return flight
back to London but I let it go and flew back to Taiwan. I picked work
again and found myself settling there. At some point I paid back all my
credit cards, overdraft and bank loan all the while taking as many
holidays as I could to Thailand, Bali and Japan.
Some of the highlights of living in Taiwan include:
- The weather! There are typhoons and months of rain but mostly its hot weather, some might say too hot, but not for me. There are some decent outdoor pools in Taichung (Amvets, ChungCheng) for enjoying sunny days.
- The community. Foreigners stick together in a place like Taichung and friends feel like family.
- The money. It's easy to find teaching work and at the start house deposits, transportation and the usual costs of getting set up in a place are rapidly paid back when the money just starts flooding in.
- The country. The new hispeed rail opened up and made everything so easy to get to. Even without the rail the luxury buses were always fun to take to Taipei. Kenting beach is a bit further to get to but worth the adventure, especially in the first weekend of April when it hosts a massive music festival.
There was always a party to go to or a weekend adventure somewhere, we made the fun ourselves. But then the years started slipping by faster than ever and my itchy feet said move on. By this point I had great friends, an awesome job as head teacher at a school I loved working at and regular dj work but despite this I had to go and see for myself, do I really need Taiwan? Now afraid of the outside 'real' world I packed up my bags and boldly headed to Europe!
Some of the highlights of living in Taiwan include:
- The weather! There are typhoons and months of rain but mostly its hot weather, some might say too hot, but not for me. There are some decent outdoor pools in Taichung (Amvets, ChungCheng) for enjoying sunny days.
- The community. Foreigners stick together in a place like Taichung and friends feel like family.
- The money. It's easy to find teaching work and at the start house deposits, transportation and the usual costs of getting set up in a place are rapidly paid back when the money just starts flooding in.
- The country. The new hispeed rail opened up and made everything so easy to get to. Even without the rail the luxury buses were always fun to take to Taipei. Kenting beach is a bit further to get to but worth the adventure, especially in the first weekend of April when it hosts a massive music festival.
There was always a party to go to or a weekend adventure somewhere, we made the fun ourselves. But then the years started slipping by faster than ever and my itchy feet said move on. By this point I had great friends, an awesome job as head teacher at a school I loved working at and regular dj work but despite this I had to go and see for myself, do I really need Taiwan? Now afraid of the outside 'real' world I packed up my bags and boldly headed to Europe!
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