How's Taiwan for solo traveling? It seems like a good choice sitting between ultra expensive and poor shithole
How's Taiwan for solo traveling? It seems like a good choice sitting between ultra expensive and poor shithole
How's Taiwan for solo traveling? It seems like a good choice sitting between ultra expensive and poor shithole
it is easy and it is small and there are many things to do. lots of it is poor and dilapidated. imagine the USA created its version of China in the 1980s and then never updated it. it is that outside of a few square miles of the country. but it has charm. take the train up the east coast, the east coast is like going between LA and San Francisco.
just go if you are thinking about it. you can find $1000 bottle service nightclubs in taipei if you are looking for that but i doubt it as you are on sighsee.
Any particular places you'd really recommend checking out?
Not into nightclubs at all, the night markets look like they'd be awesome so I can imagine I'd spend a lot of time there.
I'm a complete fucken noob at travelling and Taiwan looks like a pretty good choice for travelling overseas for the first time.
I was there for a month back in May. It's a great country for a newbie solo traveler I think, good baseline food quality, cool attractions both in cities and outside of them. Taipei is pretty average for a big asian city IMO but if it's your first time in Asia it will probably be pretty neat. I 100% recommend going to Jiufen (a few hours east of Taipei), peak comfy vibes. If you have more time, Kaohsiung was also pretty cool, just a slightly more chill city than Taipei with some really good nature stuff nearby. Night markets of course are great, but the restaurant scene is nice too, you just need to figure out how to use the menus (they give you a little laminated text-only menu and give you a marker to put a check mark next to what you want. Use google translate or ask for help). My favorite foods there were the tea eggs you get at 7/11 and the rice drenched in goose fat you get at goose restaurants. Honorable mention to the fucked up looking bowls of boba/pudding/shaved ice/sugar syrup/jelly I forget the name of but you find everywhere, and the taiwanese sausage on a stick you buy at street markets.
Would staying one week in Taipei and one week in Kaohsiung and heading out for day trips from them sound good?
If you are looking for day trips you want to stay in more places than just Kaohsiung (Taipei is fine). You get to Alishan from Chiayi, Sun Moon Lake from Taichung are popular ones, so unless you want to spend most of your day trip on a train/bus then stay in more places
Great trip but you'd be missing the east coast entirely.
Is Taiwan considered China? can i got there with no fear of the Chinese government?
Why would you fear the Chinese Government?
>Why would you fear the Chinese Government?
Naivety
Are you retarded?
See
and what exactly do you plan to do to get locked up for years?
They can plant drugs in your suicase
Some local can initiate a fight knowing the police is at his side
A lot of things can happen, when you go to a country you need to be prepared for their prisons.
lowest iq board
I also her your father beats you up while dressed as Charley Brown
that shit could happen in any non-western country
This guy is fucking obsessed with the drug thing, but it is absolutely true that criminal types in Taiwan are actually a threat. It's unfortunately quite common to hear of Western tourists getting beaten up bad by a whole horde of island Changs over stupid roastie-related bullshit or just because they don't like your face.
Taiwanese gangsters are also hard Blue Chinese nationalist types who particularly hate whiteys too.
Gangs in Taiwan demand you money or they call de corrupt police to arrest you for stupid shit (they will say you started the fight or something like that).
You need to be carreful.
Implessive
why do people here overexaggerate so much?
Even a simple google shows fuck all in regards to crime against tourists
If that really bothers you, wait until you find out that you will get marked as a target based off your appearance (i.e. not being the same race as the locals) in like 90% of the world.
Taiwan is widely considered one of the safest countries in the world to visit
Taiwan actually does have more of an organised crime problem than most East Asian nations though. Obviously you're right that on the whole, it's still very safe. But if you do end up on the sticky end of some violence bullshit it will be because of the kind of assholes I described.
I lived in Taiwan for 3 years and can safely say you do not have to worry about getting into trouble with gangs unless you actively seek them out or go to some shady part of the island deliberately, I never heard of a single foreigner having problems.
WHERE ARE ALL THE GANGSTERS?! like seriously, I loved visiting taiwan, but really missed out on this part. I heard from a bunch of locals that Taichung was full of gansters, so traveled there. Despite my best efforts to find the seediest bars in town I encountered nothing but kindness.
Because anon, 90% of the posters in this thread are fucking gay larpers. They don't know jackshit about Taiwan or have ever had an actual Taiwanese friend to talk to. And the one that went there (i.e. you) are just a retarded ass fuck clueless laowai seen by the majority over there. You've been duped.
>the seediest bars in town
chinese gangsters, tw gangsters don't go to seedy bars. they go to nice bars which they own and go into the backrooms, they go to the kyvs they own and go to the best rooms, they go to the clubs they own and sit in the vip section. seedy bars might get you criminals but it won't get you gangsters.
This. I once tried to waltz into the vip section of Frank (rooftop bar in ATT4FUN next to the Taipei 101) and a bouncer stopped me and just started going 'dangerous dangerous dangerous' like an autist. I asked him in Chinese wtf he was talking about and he said it was all mafia and I wasn't allowed to go in
>dangerous dangerous dangerous'
He was checking if you knew MD Geist and you clearly failed
>Look mom I'm lying on the internet!
>Yeah one time a bouncer stopped me from walking into the VIP section of a bar
>No way you're lying
Are you stupid
Do not ever reply to me again you totally not most dangerous anon
I had a Russian friend who came to America on a J-1 work exchange visa in 2016, met a Taiwanese girl, fell in love, then they moved to Taipei. He loved it there, and never had anything negative to say about Taiwan.
I seriously doubt the ROC government allows gangs to rampage around the streets beating up random people in racist attacks. If it did happen on the regular, it would be big international news.
The Taiwanese and the US doesn't want tourist to know about this issues.
Simple as that.
>if a bad thing happens in a country most cant locate on the map, it would be big international (American) news
Are you 12?
Stop spamming this shit in every thread you fucking retard. Go suck start a shotgun.
Whatever crime they choose
Both are rightful Finngolian clay.
Taiwanese prisons are hell and is easy to end up locked for years.
Yes. Seriously.
Just make sure you don't equate Taiwan with Taipei. Get out of Taipei. Even if you just visit cities, do at least Kaohsiung. Even better, check out the West Coast and the mountains, tea fields, etc.
I'd say it's good for solo traveling, mainly because hiking in the mountains or motorbiking around are activities which are fun with or without other people. A lot of the iconic stuff like the art scene and night markets are so much better with another person however. Fortunately there's a decent backpacker scene; I recommend the On My Way hostels for meeting people.
Try to learn as much Mandarin as you can, as locals are generally friendly and approachable.
Mane Taipei is fucking great though. I agree you don't get the whole picture there but you'll never get bored there and there are so many possibilities for day trips to the mountains.
>act machismo with a gangbanger and don't allow him to save face
>wtf why did I get fucked
Would not recommend, there are a lot worse things about it that you don't want to know.
Did you sip grape juice from a wine glass and spoke into your fisher price walkie talkie while typing that?
No? What are you projecting here?
It depends on your budget and how you think you'd like to travel. Hotels can be expensive but food, transport and attractions are very cheap. Highly recommend using the trains or trams and rental bikes to get around a city (cheap). High speed rail for travelling between cities on the west coast.
In terms of attractions it also depends on what you like. Taiwan has a lot of natural beauty, a lot of different hikes and walks. Things you could do:
-Explore Sun Moon Lake (take the boats around points on the lake, cable cars)
-Visit Chiayi and Alishan and surrounds
-Taipei (elephant mountain, night markets, yangmingshan national park, national palace museum)
-Taichung is pretty chill and lots of points of interests in the surrounds but harder to access without car (e.g. sanyi wood museum
-Kaoshiung (catch ferry and climb lighthouse lookout, beach markets, take a boat to liuqiu island and rent a scooter)
>Tourist Trap Galore
The places I listed had predominantly Taiwanese and mainlander tourists. Besides Taipei I was very commonly the only white person at those spots.
If you want to help out OP, list some of your recommended non tourist trap suggestions.
I already said the place is not worth the trouble, so OP should just go elsewhere .
>39 replies
>not a single cooming question
Sorry to be that anon but what is the quality and rates for whoring in Taiwan? if the country is China from the 80s like some anons said does that mean prostitution is rampant and not regulated? How are the women and are they receptive to white men?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prostitution_in_Asia
>Legislation was introduced in 2011 to allow local governments in Taiwan to set up "special zones" where prostitution is permitted. Outside these zones prostitution is illegal. As of 2017 no "special zones" had been opened.[58]
No cooming :'(
Its probably the worst scene in Asia bar maybe South Korea. Non-working girls in TW are great though
Hiking around Taroko gorge was breddy gudd so was the coast in kenting national park. Taiwan has dome kind of dollar store shinkasen so you get around very quickly between the larg cities at least
>How's Taiwan for solo traveling?
10/10 would go again
Biggest concern, is Taiwan specifically Taipei english friendly? I got by with English in their airport doing a layover.
Yeah you should be fine with English otherwise use Google Translate