Inflation vs. Salary in Taiwan for the Past Few Years

Recently on the Taiwanese news everyone is blaming current president Ma for prices of goods and services to be increasing too fast. When he was elected for the 2nd term, he promised an economic stability and better living quality for Taiwanese people. So far, all I can say these promises were false, probably spoken as a election talks to get enough votes to secure his position for another couple years. Since president here can only be elected twice, now the fruits can be observed.

How bad does it get? Bad, to the point many voters want to vote for President Ma to step down. Will this happen? Hard to say, but in my opinion, no - it is really too difficult to push it, and while most poorer folks are loosing due to price hikes, some do profit.

What is my take on this? Well, this is the way I see it:
- Gas prices went up by 10-15%. That's about extra NT1000 for me a month spending
- Coffee in 7/11 went up by 10% from NT50 to NT55. What I do? I don't drink it anymore.
- Coke in 7/11 went up from NT25 to NT29
- My favorite fry rice from NT70 to NT80.
- It get worse, 5 years ago I could buy 10 dumplings for NT35, today? NT50-80!

I go to supermarket, like Carrefour, or market, vegetables, fruits, meat all went up (mainly due to prices of gasoline.) On average, everything cost much more than just few months ago.

House market? Tripled in last 3 years. That means higher rent to pay or higher mortgage if you buying a house.

Now, what about the salary? Usually when the price go up, salary slowly increases as well. Unfortunately, for locals, the salary stays the same. What about foreigners? Suppose you are an English teacher - 5 years ago without experience you could make about NT600 per hour. Today? Same or less.

If couple years ago you were making here NT50,000 to NT70,000 a month as English teacher, that would be considered a lot. Today? Try to stay home, cook, have some entertainment - maybe you will save up enough for tickets back home. Compared to locals, who usually make NT25,000-NT35,000 after graduation, it is a lot, but considering they are staying with their family, so no need to worry about food and all the bills, it is really hard to save now.

Cost of owning car in Taiwan

Owning a car in Taiwan can be a blessing and a burden at the same time, depending on your needs. Taiwan is very convenient place and the public transportation is very good - there are many ways for travel - using metro system connected to bus network and rail system as well as taxi transport at every single intersection. If you are planning to own a car in Taiwan, you must clearly understand what costs you are going to have on monthly basis.

In 2009 I have decided to purchase a new Honda CRV from the Taiwanese dealer. The process is simple really - you do not even need to have a first payment as long as you own a credit card. I ended up paying for loan NT15100 a month for 5 years. I paid it off after 2 years, to save money that I would pay for interest (about 5.9% per year.)

So what else you need to worry about while owning a car in Taiwan? A lot:

- Fuel tax: Each year government will send you a nice bill called fuel tax. It depends on the value of your car, I get hammered NT6500 a year.
- Licence plate registration: Another government tax per year. Around NT11000
- Insurance: Basic starts at NT12000 a year and premium around NT60000. The more expensive car you have, the higher the premium.
- Maintenance: need to bring car about twice a year (every 10k km) for regular check up. Add costs like changing tires, batteries, etc. Roughly, 6000-10000NT, twice a year.
- Gasoline: Expect to spend NT4000-7000 monthly
- Car wax: NT450 for small car, NT600 for SUV, every 3 months.

So I calculated all the costs, changed to monthly and I end up with the range of NT7608 to NT15324 a month for car expenses that you will have to take in addition to paying loan for the car.

Wait, this is not all!
Parking space: NT3000 a month to rent a place (range NT1500-4000)
Parking on the street, malls, parking lots: The sky the limit :)
Tickets: try not to break law, and it will cost you nothing.

So after adding parking costs the range becomes:
NT9108 to NT19324 + any loan payments for normal, non-luxurious car.

Car is a sink investment - buy it only if you really need it .

School Supplies From Taiwanese Stationary Store

New semester begins tomorrow for most universities across Taiwan, so naturally there is need to buy pens, pencils, paper, notebooks and even a new backpack. Yeah, right. Not for me. Grab some paper, a pen that hopefully works and off to go with notes that I will probably lose the next day.

To not disappointing my blog readers, I checked for supplies in the stationary store around my house. It was rather a short trip, ending with a comment to my wife 'how about we just buy this stuff in Cosco?" A 80 page notebook went for around NT70-100, a ball pen for about NT15-NT30, paper about NT100 for 500 pages, hard cover notebooks approaching NT200 and backpacks... let just say the best way for you to shop for a nice backpack is to visit a night market and get one, solid one for NT500-1000. 

I don't want to sound cheap or anything like that, but I was disappointed that stores that make a living from selling stationary putting such a ridiculous prices. I rather go to supermarket and pay a third for supplies. 

How Much Should I Put Into Red Envelope While Attending Taiwanese Weddings?

Many friends asked me that many times, how much to put into red envelope while attending friends wedding? It really depends how close you are to the person that you attend wedding, what is your and their social status, or if you are related in some way or another.

My wife and I. One of the rare pictures I would ever put online for all to see  :)

The idea is that you try to give a sum that have those numbers: 2, 6 and 8, and make sure you avoid 4. Six and especially 8 are considered to be lucky numbers, while four sounds like 'die' in Chinese, so people avoid it. 

If you are not close to the couple that are to become officially husband and wife, you should at least offer enough to cover your food and reservation - NT1200, NT1600 or NT1800 are good sums if you arrive alone or with maximum of one person. 

If you are closer friends, start with at least NT2000 and up, depending how close you are. Again, make sure you avoid sums that will have "four" in it. Just one word of advice, giving too much might be also not advised. Later when it is your turn to have your own wedding, your friends will feel responsible to give back to you the same amount, and often - even more, simply to 'save their face.' If you already had wedding, and for some reason they were not invited - you can feel a bit more generous.

Last part, but not least - the infamous visitor book. You will have to put your name in it and the amount of money you put in the red envelope, for everyone to see. Ain't that sick? :).

Being Vegetarian in Taiwan

I am not a vegetarian. I never plan to become one, with my cultural background (full of meat) it would be hard for me to adopt, or even, I would not really want to be one. But but but this topic is not about me, but about those of you who plan to be in Taiwan and worry about if being a vegetarian will cause some major adjustments.

Well, don't. From what I heard from other expands that travel around Asia and end up one way or another in Taiwan is that Taiwan is ultra vegetarian friendly. No matter if you plan to cook at home, eat outside, hang out and eating with non-vegetarians,or even attend wedding banquet - there is plenty of food around to let you stay full without a touch of meat. 

If you eat at home, which is by far the cheapest way to nourish yourself (do not kid yourself, even if you are single - eating and cooking at home is still far cheaper than eating outside local food.) I usually get my groceries in local supermarkets, Carrefour and Welcome, or local wet markets (some are open in mornings, others at nights.) Local markets might not be necessary cheapest - that depends, but they do have freshest fruits and vegetables there directly from farmers. 

Eating out? A bit more expensive if you ask me, and it can get quite monotonous if you dine in just specific area. You will find a lot of vegetarian only restaurants almost everywhere, as well as other restaurants offering vegetarian food. In case you do dine in a local restaurant that offer meat, make sure that cooks know you do not want any meat. They often put some pork or meat sauces on the vegetables for a better taste.

If you attend any party or a wedding banquet, announce beforehand that you are vegetarian. It is not a problem at all for the host, because venues are prepared for that and you will be served special menu to accommodate your needs. 

As for the average costs, I won't mention it here, because it would be way too broad. However, vegetarian food tends to be more expensive than non-vegetarian food. 

Bon-Appetit

Fuel cost in Taiwan

Many foreigners that stay longer in Taiwan eventually decide to get their own method of transportation, being it a scooter, a motorcycle or a car. One of the main question that come up when facing with decision to own a vehicle is: how much money I will spend to put gas to my new method of transportation?

Well, gasoline in Taiwan is actually quite cheap comparing to most of the European countries and almost in parity with the costs of gasoline in United States. The gas is measured in liters (1 gallon is about 3.79 liters,) so folks across Pacific, I hope this won't be too confusing.

Ahhh, confusing, yes, putting gas into your vehicle is very confusing here in Taiwan. I mean I always have no idea how much I am going to pay. First, every single gas station in Taiwan have almost the exact same pricing for gasoline, even if the gas station are competing to each other. I am not really sure how it is done, but I think government is subsidizing for gasoline and dictates prices. However, price quoted on the billboards is not the price you will pay. Every gas station have their own discounts: if you own their membership card (which you can apply by simply asking it) you will be able to either collect points for free gas in the future, or deduct money from your current bill. If you use credit card that has partnership with the specific gas station, you get extra discount. Sometimes when you put gas on specific days, you get 1-3% off, other companies offer free car wash, and or even others give gift like pack of tissues - so yes, it is quite confusing to know how much gas really costs. Every company have their own way of getting customer to tank there.

Most of the gas stations are controlled by staff, so you cannot tank by yourself. You will need to mention how much you want fuel to be added (example, 1000NT worth of fuel) or if you want it full. They will ask you if you want to pay cash or credit card (they ask for that because they need to know what kind of 'discount' to offer,) and if you wish to receive company receipt in addition to the normal receipt.

I will update this post about once every two months with new gas prices, but currently they go for:
92: 31.7 NT per liter
95: 32.8 NT per liter
98: 34.5 NT per liter

I spend around 1000-1500NT a week on fuel driving my SUV in and outside city (approximately 500km per week.)

At the moment I am not sure how much fuel scooters are using, but I'll ask around and update this post as soon as I find this information.

Bookstores and English Books in Taiwan

If you, like me, enjoy reading - don't worry when you come to Taiwan. There are plenty of bookstores that offer English novels and non-fiction, comics and pretty much most of important magazines that are published all over the world, from PC Gamer, to Maxim and Vogue. I used to visit local bookstores quite often, but after I got a Kindle from Amazon, I prefer to do my book shopping from home. Nonetheless, I know that many readers still prefer a real copy of a book than eBook format, and with that in mind I decided to add this post to my blog.

So what can you expect to find in Taiwan in regards to English selection of books and magazines? Well, frankly speaking - a lot. You are pretty much guaranteed to have a world-wide bestseller on the shelves and most of the New York Bestsellers as well. Most of the good novels are also sold in Taiwan, no matter when it was originally published. Most popular book genres are drama, thriller, fantasy, detective, personal finance, cooking and self improvement. Depending on the bookstore, you will also find some very specific-target books, such as numerology, computer science, history books and language books.

Sometimes you might need to do a search for the book you are interested with. Bookstores offer a search engine (in English) that let you quickly type the title of the book and then provide some basic information if the bookstore has it currently, if it is possible to re-order, or if they can ship it to your home. I am a great fan of John Grisham and his legal dramas, and I could almost buy all of his novels without any delay, but sometimes a little search helped. This little tool also told me that I will not be able to buy The Lord of the Rings in hard cover  anytime soon, when I wanted to buy it at the time.

Regarding magazines, as mentioned in the introductory paragraph, you can pretty much find a magazine that talks about anything: movies, video games, watch collectibles, fashion, women's and men's magazines, and more, much more. The more famous magazines are also available, such as News Week, Times, or The Economist and there is even a small selection of newspapers, such as Wall Street Journal and New York Times. 

If you are into comics, you are also not limited in choices. All the popular Marvel and DC Universe comics are here, as well as some Japanese comics that are translated into English. Some of the most famous European comics (such as Asterix) is also easily available. If you cannot find comics, go to children or teen section. Do not ask me who decided to arrange it this way.

Large piles of books in Caves bookstore

So, ummm, right, I am writing about that you can buy books, magazines and comics here in English, but I do not even mention anything about where to buy it. There are three most popular bookstores in Taiwan that offer English books, namely: Caves, Eslite, and Page One.

Let's start with Caves. Caves is the smallest company out of the 3 bookstores mentioned, but it has its niche: it mainly targets 'learn English and other languages' audience and has quite a good selection of English books available, and recently, started to add selection in other languages, such as German and French. If you are studying a language, or you are teaching it, it is one of the best places to shop for teaching / learning material. Anything from books and learning magazines to posters and stickers is available here. You will also find most of the current best sellers and some non-fiction books that you can pick up while shopping for teaching / learning materials. 

Discounts at Caves: If you are a teacher, let the cashier know. You will need to show some kind of proof (such as a contract) and you will get a membership that qualify you for nice 20% discount on most of purchases. 

I personally do not shop in Caves, the books before discount tends to be slightly more expensive than other two bookstores that I will introduce now.

Secondly, there is Eslite, which is the largest bookstore chain in Taiwan and the only one that offer a bookstore that is open 24/7 (not all of the branches though.) In Taipei City Hall MRT Station it has a bookstore that takes full 2 floors of the small mall, and it has the largest collection of international magazines in the whole Taiwan. The size of the bookstore is large, so you can expect it to be crowded almost all the time - forget about finding a little spot to sit down and read in advance few chapter of a novel before you decide on purchase. That makes my trip there quite short: Grab something I know I want, and leave. I don't have much patience when there are tons of people around me, so I do not mark this bookstore quite highly, but if it does not bother you - it might be your second home. The magazine section, again pretty large, covers everything, and you can even read magazines that are closed in protective foil. All you need to do is ask staff to remove the foil for you, and in exchange, they ask you that when you finish browsing, return it to them so they can put protection on it again. Eslite also has surprisingly large selection of non-fiction work, anything from historical books, to cooking and numerology. 

Discount at Eslite: You need to spend over specific amount of money to be able to receive a membership card. The last time I checked it was NT4000, which let you gain 15% discount on future purchases and it is usually cumulative (add discount to ongoing promotions.)

Eslite huge magazine section

Also, Eslite opened Eslite Discount Bookstore close to MRT Gongguan Station (near National Taiwan University Main Campus.) There you will find a selection of English and Chinese books at low prices, perfect for discount hunters. 

The last bookstore that I would like to mention here is Page One, where I am currently a member and it is my favorite choice for book shopping. I usually go to the one on the fifth floor of Taipei 101 mall. Here you will find largest collection of English fiction that I know of in Taiwan. Bookstores themselves are divided into different segments offering different genres of books, for instance, Fantasy section will get you from classics such as The Lord of the Rings and Song of Ice and Fire to fantasy-genre specific such as Warcraft or Starcraft universe to modern fantasy books such as Dresden Files, and this is just a warm up. There are large sections that focus on humanity, religion, and philosophy, and another great section for business, management and economics. Travel section and cooking have its own parts, and children section (and again comics there) are also quite large that could be a stand alone store by all means. Lastly, although selection of magazines is not as large as in Eslite, it is still a very large and contain a mixture of most popular topics. This is the only bookstore chain that I think of, which has more English books than Chinese books.

Entrance to Page One in Taipei 101

Discounts at Page One: It usually offers many books on sale, especially bestsellers or new comers that come with 10-20% off the regular price, making it much cheaper than purchase from other bookstores. If you spend over NT4000 in a day, you get a small gift bag, a membership card that gives you additional 10% off books, 5% off novelties, and 15% off from their coffee shop (which is a nice touch.) 

Now, summarizing everything, how much books cost in Taiwan? Or more precisely, how much English books, magazines and comics cost in Taiwan?

Well, 3 bookstores mentioned above have pretty much identical prices, with the differences of 5-15% from book to book, so on the long run, you will basically shop in the bookstore where it has the largest selection of book of your interest and is most convenient to you. Grabbing VIP card or getting any discounts helps a lot to save some money if you plan to buy a lot of books during your stay here in Taiwan. 

Here I put few titles of popular books and their prices accordingly:

Nonfiction:

Web Marketing for Dummies: NT906

How to Talk to Anyone: NT563

MicroTrends (soft cover) NT282

Super Freakonomics (soft cover) NT486

Sales Bible (hard cover) NT1100

Fiction:

John Grisham soft cover novel: NT282

Most NY Bestsellers soft cover: NT280

Dan Brown Lost Symbol (hard cover): NT900

Marley and Me (hard cover) NT560

Chicken Soup for Teenage Soul: NT467

Comics: 

Asterix soft cover: NT450

Magazines: 

Prices range a lot, from NT150 per issue to NT600. Best way to buy if you live in Taiwan for longer? Subscribe it and let deliver to Taiwanese address. Sometimes price can be as much as 80% lower than prices from the bookstores.

If you know of any bookstore in Taiwan that offer English books (or you are an owner of one) feel free to write to me. I will be happy to add more choices to the blog in the future.

Small Clinics In Taiwan

I just got a bad flu for past few days. Bad, bad flu, combine this with exam week in universities (additional stress) and bad weather (although no typhoon, it keeps raining like all the time) it all accumulate into a really shoot me now, what's the point of waiting. Heh, well there is a point. Surprisingly, Taiwan have a very large number of small clinics that can cure me. They are all private owned, but costs of service is pretty much identical everywhere. So if you have a flu, need to see a dentist, have problem with eyes, ears, or any similar issue, you do not need to worry. In addition, almost every doctor can speak English.

You can visit a clinic with or without an insurance. If you are married to Taiwanese, own a business, work legally or you are a student, it is pretty much mandatory to have health insurance card. The monthly cost of it is about 650NT and it protect you from spending too much in case something much worse than a flu happens. If you are just a tourist, or work illegally and get your visa from visa runs, then you might not have an insurance card. You should not worry about it though - you will still be able to see a doctor.

When you visit a clinic for the first time, bring your ID (ARC preferred if you have one, if not, your passport) and health insurance card if owned. You will need to fill a form with your basic information. If you do not understand it, ask kindly for help and registrant will be eager to help you. This takes about 10 minutes after which you are registered with the clinic. In the future you will just need to say your name when you are going to see a doctor (and show your health insurance if you have one.)

Clinics here are overall clean and doctors are very friendly. You can even ask to get yourself a flu shoot or help you with some medicine that is harder to get to be put with your prescription - nothing illegal mind you, but things like med that can help you sleep better or lower your stress. Some clinics are over popular and there are lots of people waiting, so you might be even waiting for 1 hour and longer if you are unlucky. Entire visit with a doctor just takes few minutes.

Once doctor is finished with you, you will still need to wait for your prescription to be filled. Every clinic has a pharmacy  and all the medicine is included with your visit. You do not need to pay separately for any medicine, which is awesome. You will usually receive medicine for about 3 days, after which you need to visit a clinic again if you do not feel well. I don't like to visit a clinic again, so I kindly ask doctor to prescribe more medicine for me and I just stop using it if I feel better. They usually agree to it, but it will cost about NT50 per day of extra medicine.

Same things apply to other kind of doctors, such as opticians and dentists. I will be doing some check ups with dentists soon, so I will write another post later this year, but it pretty much the procedure applies everywhere in the island, even hospitals.

The overall cost that you are going to spend on clinics:
NT200 - visit and medicine if you have insurance card
NT100 - if you want a shot to speed up your recovery
NT500 - if you do not own an insurance card.
If you are university student, visit your university clinic - usually it is free of charge.

Fried Food Stands in Taiwan - Local Specialty

Anyone that live in Taiwan or even been here must have noticed many food stands across Taiwan that are especially open from late afternoons to middle of a night. Most popular food stands are specializing in deep fried food, grilled food, or 'ru wei' or in English 'Soya mixed meat' - it is kind of stew based on the soy sauce with vegetables and meats of your choice. All of them are not healthy, with incredible amount of vegetable oil, worshiped by locals and heavenly delicious - a perfect meal for lazy evenings in front of TV.

For the purpose of this short post, let us talk about fried food stands only. (The grilled and soya mixed meat stands will follow shortly after.) It is very easy to spot fried food stand here - just look for a business that opens late, it is in form of a small steel stand, which displays variety of food - both meat and vegetables, and usually, there are bunch of people waiting for their orders to be completed. To order your food, you don't need to say a word, simply take a basket from the cart together with tongs, and put inside any food that you wish to eat. After you finish choosing your selection, give it to the vendor and you will be asked if you want it spicy or not. You can choose from 'bu yao la - no spice added, yi dian la - little spicy, zhong la - middle amount of spice, and la - spicy.) I usually choose little spicy - you will quickly notice that even little spicy is quite hot.

Fried chicken chunks with basil. One of the more popular choices.

Most of the food is shown in the stand, and it will include chicken chunks, chicken wings, fried squid, fried mushroom, fried cauliflower, fried beans, tempura, french fries and meat balls. There are also local specialties that you might want to try: vegetables wrapped around bacon, fish and squid balls, blood cakes, chicken fingers, chicken necks, chicken hearts and ass (yep, don't ask me that one) and even more exotic food that I would probably find illegal to order in my home country. There is also food behind the main counter that you must ask for, such as fried chicken breast, so if you want to order extras, knowing a little Chinese would definitively help.

Most of the stands offer such a delicious food, that you will quickly wonder why you even bothered with KFC in the first place. It is outstanding, actually dangerously so. It is easy to order, fast and you might find yourself eating it almost everyday, but it is not a food anyone should eat on constant basis (my wife is probably going to say: 'woah, look who writes that! Maybe you should show a good example and eat less of it? Maybe I should...') Food is good, sizes are large enough, if you are vegetarian, you can still enjoy only vegetables, it is everywhere to be found at hours that most of the food businesses are closed, and it is cheap, not dirty cheap, but cheap. If you are only visiting Taiwan, you will probably eat mainly in restaurants. Give it a try - it is something you will probably not find in your country, and you might find yourself hooked with an excuse to come back to visit again.)

The food is affordable and I usually do not spend over NT200 for enough food for 2 and with some left overs for next day. The prices here will vary from stand to stand, but I try to give an approximate averages:
Chicken wings - large 3 wings for 50NT
Chicken chops: Large: 50NT, small 30NT
Chicken breast: 50NT (it is tender, juicy, so good, and usually so large!)
French fries: 20NT
Fried mushroom: 25NT
Fried squid: 50-60NT
Fried beans: 30NT
Fried cauliflower: 30NT
Tempura: 30NT
Meat balls: Depends how many balls, anything from 10NT to 30NT
Blood cake: 30NT
Chicken fingers: 30NT
More exotic: Depends on the stand, but usually from 20NT to 50NT per choice

My normal large order for 2 people would be:
1X Chicken wings, 1X squid, 1X beans, 1X tempura - NT160 - sometimes I add chicken breast, for total of NT210.


Wish you a good appetite.

Bungee Jumping in Taiwan

If you are into extreme sports, or you like to do something special, different, amazing - you name it - next weekend, Taiwan have many opportunities to challenge your guts. Bungee jump is one of the ways to challenge yourself mentally and conquer your fear. Do not worry though - it is quite safe; coaches will make sure that you are ready mentally and safe. 

Since it is in the middle of the mountains, you will need some kind of transportation. Best bet is to either take a bus, drive scooter or car)

How to get there (direction by car) - I will update routes by scooter and bus later this weekend.

Start from Taipei Main Station and take freeway no. 3, exit at Sansia interchange, take route 7 and drive for about 1.5 hour (mountain area) till you arrive to Da Ha Bridge, where you will try your guts at bungee jump.

Before you attempt a jump, you must contact one of the coaches or a girl that takes care of paperwork. The easiest way to contact them is by calling: (02) 8666-6019 or sending email at bungy@bungy.com.tw. You will need to fill up some paperwork (insurance card.) If you have a heart disease, hypertension, asthma, or you are pregnant, you will not be allowed to jump. Also, you must be less than 90kg, and if you are under 18, you must be with your legal guardian or at least have a parental consent form.

In case of bad weather, events will be cancelled and your payment refunded, or rescheduled. 

The jump costs NT2000 and this include insurance. After your first jump, you will receive a certificate and VIP card that enables you to make future jumps at discounted price (NT1000.) Also, you will be able to download high quality pictures of your jump from their website free of charge - a very nice touch. Also, once you complete the first jump, you will be allowed to jump head down, where protective gear is put around your ankles. 

The overall experience is amazing. I was personally scared and I almost did not complete my jump, but at the last second I said 'ah screw it' and jumped. It was a... release. For a couple of minutes I could forget about all the stress and problems, and I felt free. Add to this beautiful mountain - forest scenery, and a creek running under you, it is something I will definitively want to do it again. Next stop Macao? :) (Highest bungee jump in the world.)

You can visit their website at: www.bungy.com.tw for all the information necessary (it is in Chinese, so if you have any questions, feel free to write here in comments.) I will also add their site to the 'link' sub-page.

One thing to mention: From Taipei to destination it takes about 2hr drive by car. There are no toilets there, so ladies - do your bathroom needs before going there. For guys it simpler - trees will suffice.