Hi everyone, I'm a young lad with a decent amount saved up, was thinking of moving to either of these two places because sometimes you have to take dumb risks to start living a life worth living, it's either this or I'll still fucking my bedsheets at mummy's house when I'm 35
Both places are pretty low COL so until my own businesses take off I'll hopefully get by doing some sort of online ESL/virtual assistant stuff/etc, haven't worked out specifics yet but I will, don't worry. The internet self improvement gurus told me not to talk about my goals to other people so unfortunately I can't disclose anything more xx
But yeah, between Bangkok and Taipei, which is better for:
>digital nomad stuff/starting a business
>ease of initial assimilation (getting local SIM card, renting apartments, opening local bank account etc.)
>opportunities to meet locals aged 18-30 and become good friends with them
>dating art hoes and those bookish girls with the baggy jumpers/oversized Harry Potter glasses/Line Friends merch
>English proficiency amongst the previous two groups (will do my best to learn the language ofc but there are gonna be times where I need to explain concepts in English)
Also for anons who have lived in both, how does the general day to day vibe between them differ?
So far I know that
>Taipei's public transit mogs Bangkok's
>Taipei is cleaner and you can drink the tap water, Bangkok you gotta buy it bottled or at least get a filter on your sink
>Taiwan is probably easier to stay in long term re. border control, heard Thailand's get a bit butthurt if you do too many visa runs
>Easier access to nature from Taipei
>Potentially more to do in Bangkok but might get distracting, Taipei looks more lokey in a good way
It's a subjective question of tastes for one, and second, since you probably have 0 offers in both countries you're better off taking whatever comes to the table first before even discussing this as it's just useless. When you'll have to choose between either then you'll be realizing how much you actually would rather be in Taipei or Bangkok.
Starting a business is a pain in the ass in Asia in general and most people just try to work around it by putting their (local) wives name instead. Digital nomads they don't mind but if you don't earn much you can stretch your money further in bangkok.
Just fucking go there for a while m8, see if you like it.
Income is gonna be online so I'm not dependent on having pre-existing prospects in either location
I agree with just going there and comparing but if I was to apply for a working holiday visa I'd have to fly back to my home country which would be a bit of a ballache, wanna avoid the extra flights if I can tbh
They say both at the same time, I went with not talking about my goals because they're not super well defined yet and I didn't want to embarrass myself xx
>income is going to be online
Then you're not "starting a business" there. Which is what i advise not to do if you don't know shit about the place.
>I agree with just going there and comparing but if I was to apply for a working holiday visa I'd have to fly back to my home country which would be a bit of a ballache, wanna avoid the extra flights if I can tbh
You got many things wrong in that sentence.
1) You don't need a WHV to work as a digital nomad, you can just renew your visa exemption by leaving the territory every three month (aka visa run)
2) "leaving the territory" =/= "going back home". If you do a visa run or get a WH visa, if you do indeed need to leave the territory (not sure of that in some cases), just book a flight to the philippines for 200 bucks a roundtrip, and an airbnb for dirt cheap for a couple of days or just one, enjoy, and come back. That's what all my digitalfags friends did at the time, for years, and got away with it.
oh and one last thing :
>dating art hoes and those bookish girls with the baggy jumpers/oversized Harry Potter glasses/Line Friends merch
art hoes in taipei are either rich and extroverted and well aware that you stick out and thus will avoid you, or modest but don't speak a single word in english and will avoid you out of fear.
Or they're crazy schizos that hang out at the Triangle Bar or others, in which case you deserve whatever drama and horror will come to you as you date these types. this "Line merch" oversized harry potter bullshit is just a stereotype, bro.
Also, are you an artsy person yourself ? Or are you just fetishizing them because you couldn't get the nerdy girl in high school 20 years later?
English proficiency in Taiwan isn't particularly good either and they compensate for their niceness by being incredibly introverted and skittish but let the guy get his redpill as he arrives there and realizes that a late thirties autistic shutin will just creep out the poor college kids.
What?
Every single self help fucko (non-derogative) says to talk to people about your goals as it will keep you accountable, and cement yourself as a person that will achieve your goal.
>Every single self help fucko (non-derogative) says to talk to people about your goals
Don't listen to them. Never talk about your goals or your self-improvement journey. Why? You want people to think you're someone who has his shit together.
Just so were clear, laowai, you live at home with no job or stable income and you want to leave your country with a couple of thousand bucks to live in a foreign country where you don't know anyone and don't speak their language just because you want to fuck some Chinese art hoes? Are you fucking retarded?
Ok well assuming this isn't some typical day dreaming larp gay post, my advice is don't do it. At the very minimum you want to have a like 10k banked and a consistent amount of money coming in every month. I spent more than 5k just to get here and get an apartment
>At the very minimum you want to have a like 10k banked and a consistent amount of money coming in every month
What if I'm frugal though? I'm not a materialistic person, I already have everything I need. Gonna try and get $1.5k coming in each month before I make the move and I already have my nest egg that I mentioned, but other than that I think I'm good? idk if there's anything I'm not thinking of lmk
>I spent more than 5k just to get here and get an apartment
That sounds like a lot, how did it end up like that?
Also where you at anon?
The two cities couldn’t be much more different. Have you ever been to either?
Bangkok is somewhat cheaper, somewhat dirtier, quite a lot hotter, much smoggier (although I’ve been told that there are seasonal air quality problems in TPE too, it was fairly clear on my two visits), and close to five times the size of Taipei. Taipei is a fairly large place, but Bangkok’s much closer to a megacity, and it feels like one. If you’re used to small towns or easily overwhelmed, BKK is probably going to be harder to deal with than Taipei, which is in large part relatively orderly where Bangkok can be chaotic.
Personally, I would rather live in Thailand (I was there for several years, including a year in Bangkok), but I think Taipei is an easier place by a lot of metrics. I prefer the food, and I enjoy a bit of chaos.
English proficiency isn’t particularly good in Thailand outside of relatively narrow tourist areas, and most Thai women are disinclined to date foreigners, in part because they don’t want to be mistaken for prostitutes, who are treated like absolute shit by locals. There are exceptions, including very rich girls, party girls, and girls with their hands out, but no matter what sexpats/sex tourists manage to convince themselves, being a white guy does NOT make you more attractive or interesting in Thailand in general.
Not 100% sure how much better the English is among average Taiwanese, as I’ve always been visiting an expat friend and his Taiwanese wife when I’ve been there, so I both met people who spoke English fairly well and had a handy translator, but my surface impressions are that the average proficiency levels among young people are at least a little higher. And although my sample size is small I had a clear impression that dating white folks isn’t as stigmatized there.
No idea about Taiwanese residency policies, but know that despite its popularity among laptop hobos, Thailand is explicitly not a digital nomad-friendly country.
Thanks for the detailed rundown anon, sounds good.
Is the bit about Thai women not dating foreigners true for zoomers too? (I'm in my early 20s). Like what if I spoke a fair amount of Thai and was meeting them through hobbies/mutual friends (as opposed to bars, cold approach and apps), would I still be shit out of luck then?
Ah ok sounds gud
re. the WHV, I'm pretty sure you gotta go to the embassy in your country to get the WHV signed off or something, visa runs are all good but the WHV would probably make it easier to get apartments/open bank accounts/get SIM cards etc. which is why I'm inclined to try and get it
I'm early 20s and am compatible with art hoes in terms of interests/fashion/lifestyle
>WHV would probably make it easier to get apartments/open bank accounts/get SIM cards
At least in Thailand you don't need any special visa to get a SIM, it takes like 5 minutes at the airport and they just take a picture of your passport, I haven't been to Taipei, but it works the same in almost all the other Asian countries.
Ah ok, there's probably international sims/bank accounts I can get anyway so this is likely all a nothingburger on my part
Fair enough anon, thanks for the rundown
Thought it was worth asking because zoomers on average are more open minded/progressive and this board leans more millennial so maybe things have changed since anons anecdotes were true? idk
>wound up with a serious girlfriend
I'd be interested to hear more if you wanna share?
>wound up with a serious girlfriend
>I'd be interested to hear more if you wanna share?
My experience isn’t relevant to you or to most people here, and this relationship wasn’t in Bangkok. But I was working for a university, she was a grad student from a very respectable, conventional, middle-class background. We were together for ~2.5 yrs, ultimately splitting up when our only realistic options were to do that or get married, which neither of us were looking for at the time.
We’re still friendly, both married to other people now. Her husband teaches painting and they’re talking about opening a restaurant.
Ah I remember you, you went into detail about it in a Thailand thread a couple years back
Glad to hear it's good between everyone involved even though the relationship didn't work out
>Is the bit about Thai women not dating foreigners true for zoomers too? (I'm in my early 20s). Like what if I spoke a fair amount of Thai and was meeting them through hobbies/mutual friends (as opposed to bars, cold approach and apps), would I still be shit out of luck then?
It’s not a blanket rule, by any means. I dated when I lived there, and wound up with a serious girlfriend. Speaking Thai obviously helps. But only a minority of women in any age group are interested in dating foreigners. My point was that sex tourists like to believe that they have an advantage because they’re foreign, that Thai women “love white guys,” and this is absolutely mythical.
No. You don't need a whv for all that, and if you really want one, a simple call to the taiwanese "embassy" to check whether you need to come back to sign off on that should be enough.
If you're early 20s you're good.
ah ok thanks anon
>If you're early 20s you're good.
ayy let's fucking get it lads
I've been both to "white 1st world asian" cities like HK and brown shitholes like Manila. Taipei will be more bang for your buck as it's not that more expensive than Bangkok yet much better facilities and cute light skinned chinese cuties. The street food is better (and cleaner) and also the culture is superior, they are not dishonest rats like the Thais.
Have you been to Singapore?
why is this board so obsessed with taipei?
once you've been up the big building and seen a couple of temples it's fucking boring
I've never been but it looks p based, basically looks like a 50/50 split between Japan/HK but gives off the impression of a comfy small/mid sized city
go to albania bro
idk I'm not really feeling Europe, wanna do Asia tbh
Taipei. Bangkok is superior for easy non stop sex with average SEA women, but everything else is better in Taiwan
Banging your cock sounds painful and I'm too relaxed for a place like type-A. I guess you'll have to choose for yourself, I wouldn't do either.
Haven't been to Taipei (I'm in Tokyo now) but I spent a year in Thailand recently. Being white will get you some bonus points but won't automatically get you laid. The truth is there are shitloads and shitloads of white dudes coming to Thailand thinking they'll score easy Asian pussy and that's fucked up the market somewhat. So you need some neck tattoos and that Big Dick Energy to be getting fresh and fine Thai pussy on the regular. But unless you're autistic, you'll at least fuck a Thai mid if you try long enough. The thing I realized though is that I in no way want to be in a long term relationship with a Thai girl and have some baby that's destined for stupidity and Grab-bike delivery work. Their culture is kind of fucked up. They are just so fucking lazy and careless. They fuck dirty though, in a good way. So fuck them for some time, but don't expect anything serious to ever work out with them. From all the dudes I've talked to who've done the Thai wife thing, it's almost always complete dogshit.
This is true. Tons of white dudes in Thailand now. Good news is, if you get decent matches in the West - it's a positive indicator you'll get easy asian pussy in Thailand.
>The thing I realized though is that I in no way want to be in a long term relationship with a Thai girl and have some baby that's destined for stupidity and Grab-bike delivery work.
fuck you I just spit soda all over the kb
reem
Can I get magic shakes in Bangkok or is that just the islands where all the hippie digital nomads go?
You can get weed/edibles from vending machines. Cambodia is where you get happy shakes and happy pizza.
>Cambodia is where you get happy shakes and happy pizza.
Read you can get these in Thailand too but none of the sources mentioned BKK specifically
Heard about bars in Pai (a shitty tourist trap village up north destroyed by hippie backpackers) serving mushroom shakes, but never seen them anywhere myself, certainly not in BKK. In the countryside they’re easy to find growing wild at the edges of rice paddies anywhere that still keeps water buffalo; the Thai name for them is hèt khîi khwaay, or “Buffalo shit mushrooms,” for obvious reasons.
ah ok thanks for the info anon
Not sure how I feel about buffalo poop tbh, maybe it's not for me
Do you want to live in a third world country or a first world country. That is what it comes down to
Are the differences really that drastic?
I know you can't drink the tap water in Bangkok and that the streets are dirty but other than that I thought QOL was decent
People go to either for completely distinct and subjective reasons. If your objective when it comes to living abroad is to meet people and have fun with the locals, don't go to Taiwan. Go to Bangkok, where everything is made so that you can actually do that.
Taiwan is for 30 or more dudes who are looking for a stable life, probably already have a gf or are ready to settle down with one, and basically want to enjoy european salaries with an even lower cost of life, at the price of exiling themselves to another continent. The Taipei night scene is dismal and it's even worse past covid.
This is what will happen if you go there thinking it's Bangkok : you will probably join a group of student that came by fall or spring, you'll have the time of your life for a few months, then the guys leave, you're alone, and what is left are bascially older dudes who are basically either sexpats, woke SJWs who still use facebook, and MAYBE if you're lucky, a relatively sane dude who will be your only friend there.
There are two kind of geeky cuties who have their glasses slightly crooked with some LINE goodies all over them. The first kind speaks only mandarin (and unless you're HSK4 by the time you reach the island, you won't talk to them much for a long while), and the second kind is so mental you'll get your soul sucked out so fast I won't even have the time to say "i told you so".
During my long stay in Taiwan I have only seen 4 types of interracial couples that worked :
1) Dudes with women 10 years older than them
2) Drugged out junkie DJs with hippie locals
3) Dudes that dated foreigner women (not necessarily from the same country)
4) Oldfags that lived there for a decade or more who dated one of these globalized taiwanese women that are basically weebs but for the West.
Any other variants get filtered because either the man can't put his foot down or the woman is a complete nutcase.
Are you speaking from personal experience? Although I got the impression that there wasn't always as much going on relating to my interests as I was used to, my research still led me to believe that Taipei was a place with a lot going on and lots of opportunities to meet people my age
If anything I liked that it's more lowkey and there's less to do as that means less distractions, and less excuses to not work on getting my business up and running
If you got tips for making frens in Bangkok I'd be down to hear them
Is $750pm enough to live a decent life?
Not into expensive restaurants/bars/nightclubs so apart from rent/groceries/travel/etc my only expenses would be tickets for museum exhibits and punk gigs (BKK's hardcore scene looks fucking sick btw, if anyone reading is into that kind of stuff), maybe clothes and books sometimes but I already have enough of those tbh
>Is $750pm enough to live a decent life?
decent enough, far from a king. I was $1000 a month there in 2017. Doing all that stuff. Skateboarding and going out. My room had no AC and I ate out at every meal.
Fair enough, I actively dislike opulence/wealthy things so my apartment will be nice but nothing extravagant, for groceries I'll just go Tesco or something. Would probably want a place with AC if possible though
>Skateboarding and going out
Any skate spots you'd rec or instagram pages/blogs to follow re. the BKK skate scene? I've been meaning to get on my board again, it's been too long haha
>Any skate spots you'd rec or instagram pages/blogs to follow re. the BKK skate scene? I've been meaning to get on my board again, it's been too long haha
follow Tricket skateshop and follow #thaistyle, you'll find it all there. everyone skated at the time under rama x bridge. I don't know if they still do. It was 6 years ago now.
Thanks king I'll check it out
Ah ok, looks like I'm gonna be a sweaty fuck then
Budget is low because I'm a broke boy with no talent living off his savings until he manages to get some sort of part time income coming in
I'm lazy and unambitious with regards to career/etc but fortunately I'm not materialistic at all so if I have enough money coming in to cover necessities and a bit extra left over to save/spend on gigs/books/clothes then that's enough for me
Freedom and control of my time are important to me and I'm willing to compromise on finances if needs be
>Would probably want a place with AC if possible though
The whole point was that on $1000 a month my room had no ac - for $750 a month, good luck. Why is your budget so small btw?
Taipei doesn't have a "lot going on". It is surrounded by actual, real megacities in East and SE Asia. Taipei has a smaller population than fucking Busan. Taipei is TINY, the foreigner community is minuscule, pretty much everyone that isn't an isolated Forumosa-dwelling boomer whos got his wife and kids before they arrived knows each other, and the scenes that aren't fully taiwanese (and don't hope understanding shit because mandarin will take you at least 2 years to actually speak in an intelligible way and that's if you've been hard at work) are rare and pretty boring.
You'll probably have a one of a time life experience like this, that will change your outlook on your life more than any dose of LSD ever will, and you're going to fucking waste it on milquetoast Taiwan ? Be my guest. To be perfectly honest, your dilemma should be more about Tokyo vs Bangkok and choose whatever suits your personality. You can ask all the questions you want on how you can meet artsy girls (lmao) or what kind of perfume you need to wear, but what you really just need to do is to make a move.
Then all this talk about making money online but you don't have the slightest fucking idea of what to actually do and how much you'll earn then ? lol.
If you persist in doing a WHV, you can find a job locally until you can get anything of your own started. Bartending, english teaching, whatever goes. Same goes for Japan, should you heed my advice (Also apply for JET). At least it'll actually pay the bills.
Damn you sure do hate Taipei
Tell me your story anon, I'll give you a shoulder to cry on
Also Tokyo/Seoul are both on my radar once I start earning more money, rn I'm a brokeboi though so Bangkok/Taipei it is
>You can ask all the questions you want on how you can meet artsy girls (lmao) or what kind of perfume you need to wear, but what you really just need to do is to make a move
Yeah bro I agree, I'm just killing time because I'm still tied to home bc of uni
Not for much longer though
I don't "hate" Taipei. I'm just saying it's not made for you. I'm living just fine there with my gf after fooling around for the better part of the decade. i'm a dev at an MNC and i'm considering marrying her. Life is good, it's just not the life you seem to want.
>Tokyo/Seoul are both on my radar
Just go there directly. There are far more job opportunities in a 10/13 million hab. city than in a 2 million one. The foreigner community in Japan is far bigger than anything you'll get in Taipei let alone the rest of Taiwan which is basically rural villages all over except for Taichung and Kaohsiung (which are still very fucking backater). You'll find the same jobs, the appartments will be a tad more expensive, sure, but everyone still manages to make a living. Asian countries tend to have far more compressible costs of life, which will allow you to survive on not much until you find some kind of employment, and then you'll be just fine. All you need is two months worth of staying. If you saved 3k USD you have enough to have a comfortable 2-month stay until you can get some work done. Obviously, during that time, you're already getting shit done online, so chances are you'll be hitting your stride by the third month.
Also, maybe you should get your ass to work right now instead of daydreaming during classes about what kind of Sanrio character your imaginary future gf will prefer the most. Teach english online after working hours. make some excel sheets on how you'll manage your finances. Look for a TEFL certification online that is worth doing. Apply for JET program. Shit ton of things you can do and you're here asking how to meet asian women in asia. Also, learn the language.
ok fren, thanks for the rundown there's some good stuff here. I won't stop daydreaming about my Sanrio gf though, nothing will stop me from daydreaming about Sanrio gf
Mainly beatdown/metalcore but there's death metal and powerviolence/grind too
I'm procrastinating on my uni work right now but when I have more time I'll post some more links
Looks sick, thanks man. I wish I explored more of BKK last time I was there instead of constantly going to malls.
>I wish I explored more of BKK last time I was there instead of constantly going to malls.
LOL yeah Bangkok has a lot of cool shit. So many young people.
>Japanese are polite but reserved and hard to form deep connections with
>Koreans are more open but more nationalistic/xenophobic at the same time
>Taiwanese are easy to befriend in comparison
Where do Thais fall into all of this?
>So many young people
Where do you find them?
>It is surrounded by actual, real megacities in East and SE Asia
anywhere in particular you'd rec?
Not really no, there's something for everyone.
Any info on the hardcore scene? I'd be interested in checking it out next time I'm there
>There are two kind of geeky cuties who have their glasses slightly crooked with some LINE goodies all over them. The first kind speaks only mandarin (and unless you're HSK4 by the time you reach the island, you won't talk to them much for a long while),
Also where to find this? I got a while before I'm going over, I might be able to get my language up by then
Good post
Yeah, if you have money QOL is good, can be amazing. I didn't even think Bangkok was dirty.
more to do in Bangkok but might get distracting, Taipei looks more lokey in a good way
this is some retarded weeb level reasoning
>will do my best to learn the language ofc
yeah, you wont. You will be way too lazy to do so.
>I'm a young lad with a decent amount saved up
Well then, what is keeping you from going to both countries for a few weeks to check them out before you move there?
Yeah maybe this was meant to be a question of Tokyo vs. Bangkok after all, idk
Taipei looks really cool but I might get bored in the long term due to the smaller scale of things
Obviously Seoul is nearby and worth considering too, however based off the impression I have of it I'm not sure if it's right for me
Maybe, as everyone has told you in these threads, you're overthinking this shit.
Rather than literally asking every poster retarded questions such as where to find human beings in a 10+M city, you should start asking yourself what you're planning to do in any given country that isn't just flirting with women and meeting foreigners.
This is precisely the type of retarded shit you shouldn't even be considering before travelling. Japs, Koreans and Taiwanese are so similar in their behaviors whatever description of them is made on the internet is just a nitpick from people who have been living there for years. Even Chinese people are very decent and actually pretty warm folks if you interact with them in meaningful ways. The ones that pretend this isn't the case are either larpers who just look at tourists, or, if i'm being very charitable, idiots who have met one or two assholes and decided all the locals would be exactly like them, but these people would do think the same of the locals no matter what country you put them in.
You should be out there investing time studying mandarin or japanese and get some info about the WHV process, Did you know you could apply for a visa that allows you to study Chinese in Taiwan for a year ? Did you know you could also get approved for a work permit or even a scholarship ? Did you know you could actually make a fucking bucket list of all the interesting things you can do in Taipei and Taiwan ? This retard
has been there for 10 years but chances are the only thing he fucking visited was the three big expat bars in town. You're asking all the wrong questions.
>tell me what to do
Fuck no. You look for that on the internet and you put it down here for everyone to know. Every question you've asked so far are questions that could be answered with simple google searches and there is no plus value a guy who's been there can add due to how simplistic they are.