Taiwan is my favorite country now, but why?
After visiting five countries in Asia, we have a winner
This post is a bit longer than what's normal for me. More words, more photos. Leave a comment if you like this new format. Subscribe for future posts on Vietnam, Thailand, Tokyo & Penang.
Flaneur in Taipei
On my first morning in Taipei, I spent three hours wandering the streets, but I never made it farther than a five-minute walk back to my hostel. It was all so interesting that I'd stop every 15 feet watching this new world go by.
In 1984, a Taiwanese couple opened a corner stall to sell simple breakfast and lunch options for daily commuters and passersby, like me. I sit at a table with legs concrete glued to the street in 2025, ready to taste what 40 years of service can cook up.
I didn't find this place online, because it doesn't exist online. It's the kind of place that calls your name when you're walking by in the early morning light, an inviting establishment on a random street corner in a faraway place. Only street food, found only by wandering. This is how I eat in Taiwan.
I choose noodles with peanut sauce, tofu and two eggs with soy and sesame. The couple is so cheery, and we laugh together speaking our own native tongues but hardly understanding a word without pointing. I revisit the next day for breakfast round two, and we take a selfie. Both day's meals combined total, $4.40. They won't let me tip.
During this slow meandering, I bop into various shops selling trinkets, hardware, kitchen appliances, stamps, letterpress, freshly made snacks, toys, tea, oil container seals, recycled jars & bottles, wires, ropes & chains, tubes, rubber mats, tapestry & fabrics, mostly women's clothing, bags, toilets & sinks, many-sized boxes and Chinese watercolor paint brushes.
Each shop sells that one thing, and that one thing is replicated thousands of times with different variations, all stuffed into a small space, bursting at the seams with product. Never have I felt such amusement staring into a shop full of items I have no desire to purchase.
Well, except for one.
I buy a tiny Pikachu trinket the size of my thumb.
Gotta catch em all!
Throughout my time in Taiwan, I couldn't believe how many adults were shopping at toy stores. I met a guy in my hostel in Taichung with suitcases full of anime toys. The "Otaku" culture is huge here, collectors go nuts for this stuff (same goes for Japan too).
Sitting inches away from a 90s TV screen must have hardwired my brain to stare in awe at Goku & Pikachu figurines. My dad would excitedly burst in the room while my sister and I watched Dragon Ball Z battles in pixelated picture, "You kiddos watching that Toad Ball X again?!" My 7 year-old brain goes window shopping in Asia in 2025.
Ok, back to my favorite neighborhood in Taipei. One of the shops sells dried animal bones... I think. Some cut into tiny pieces, others are bigger than a baby's arm. The money tree on the counter stretches to the ceiling, and the man behind it won't allow me to take photos.
I ask if these were in-fact animal bones, or some organic material I'm not familiar with. Not sure if he understands my inquiry, but I prefer to leave it a mystery. Maybe he collects the skeletons of his enemies to sell to local patrons. Bold move, boss man.
Then I see a sign, Yokoso Coffee Stand. Expecting it to be a street stall, I'm surprised when I round the corner and walk into a super clean Japanese-style coffee shop hidden in an alley three streets off the main drag. Little dog and cat figurines share the countertop with coffee-making essentials.
The girls at the shop speak great English, much to my surprise. I give them my phone and they go crazy adding recommendations of things to do in the city, saving them to my map. This is helpful, because my knowledge of Taipei is smaller than a coffee counter kitty cat. I drink a maple hojicha cafe latte, a Japanese tea with espresso, maple syrup and milk.
It's the color of swamp water, but tastes like "Wow, Taipei so strange and cool." That doesn't make sense? Good, welcome to Taiwan, where weirdness abounds. Yokoso means "Welcome" (in Japanese.)
Number one in my heart
Taiwan, I love you. Perhaps my favorite country I've been to now. But why?
You have the modernity and (mostly) clean streets and stellar public transit like Tokyo, the incredible street food and affordable prices like so much of Southeast Asia, and the oh-so-different from my home Chinese weirdness that I can't get enough of. Endlessly lovable.
How about the natural landscape? Taiwan is one of the most mountainous islands in the world with 268 peaks above 3,000 meters (about 10k feet). A dozen of these peaks are above 12k feet, with the tallest, Yushan (aka Jade Mountain) standing at 13k feet (3,952 meters).
Imagine the Colorado Rockies, but more tropical and green, sharing an island with beautiful beaches, elite Chinese food, high speed trains and Taoist temples dating back to the 1600s. Towns and cities are the modern result of centuries of Chinese influence and history, but they maintain the tradition and culture rather than deleting it or altering it.
Locals tell me in Taiwan they've kept the traditional Chinese alphabet characters, while in China it's now simplified. They uphold religious traditions and upkeep temples, while in China some are being torn down, a censoring of sorts.
1,500 temples are scattered about the cultural hub city of Tainan, outnumbering its convenience stores. Some are no bigger than a bedroom, tucked between two apartments. Others can be found as the central gathering point, a place from which the neighborhood spawns off in all directions. Walking the backstreets in Tainan would inevitably lead us to temples.
Rather than booze or cigarettes or pain killers, Taiwan's addiction is potted plants. Every neighborhood overflows with greenery, even in metropolitan areas. Almost every business and home have bundles of potted plants, big and small, displayed on its sidewalks. Walk down a skinny dark alley with parked bicycles and restaurant dish pits, plants are everywhere, inviting you to say hello.
Not even counting the many trees and city parks, the potted plants alone provide so much character, so much relief from your typical concrete jungle. It feels like the vegetation grew from the cracks in the urban sprawl, not the other way around. I don't know how this tradition began or why it's so common, but I'm grateful for it as I walk the streets.
Why you should visit Taiwan
It'd only take me three hours to travel the island (via high speed rail) from north to south, tip to tip, if I was in a hurry (which I never am). I'd say this country is fully explorable in only two weeks for the average traveler.
Or if you're really ambitious, you could visit Japan for a week and then Taiwan for a week. Next year I'm already dreaming of spending a month between the two countries. That'd be ideal.
This amazing island nation was the fifth and final country on my two-month Asian adventure, but I didn't expect it to be a blend of everywhere I'd just been. It was the perfect place to stop for a multi-week and let-me-keep-extending-my-stay-here "long layover" to break up the flight back home to the States.
This is how I got to Taiwan from my previous stop in Penang, Malaysia. My goal was to find the cheapest flight to an Asian country that's geographically closer to the US, then find the cheapest flight to an American city from there.
So it was settled. Taipei first, stay for a few weeks, then onto Denver. I checked visa requirements, then booked the flights, without hardly giving it a Goog. I knew Taiwan was an island with beautiful mountains and modern cities, but that's all. Maybe one day I'll get myself in trouble by visiting a country before doing any research, but so far that's only worked in my favor. I like to be surprised.
It's not often when I travel to a new place that I think, "I will try to come here once every year or two."
These are my favorite places in the world, as of today.
My home in east Tennessee
New York City
Budapest
Tokyo
and now... Taiwan
Playing favorites is a bit silly, I admit. I love every country I've been to. My time in Tokyo was limited to only four days. There's a good chance I'll write another post claiming Japanese superiority (!) when I finally see other parts of Japan.
I have homesickness. The kind where you think, "What if this place became my new home?" I hope I've described Taiwan well enough for you to get a solid picture as to why it stole my heart.
Southern hospitality (in Asia)
I could mention that the Taipei 101 building was the tallest building in the world from 2004-2010 until it was surpassed by Dubai's Burj Khalifa. Or I could tell you about how Taiwan is the global leader in computer chip manufacturing, and you can visit the TSMC Museum of Innovation. Advanced Asian creation on full display.
But what stood out most for me was its people, the welcoming and easy-going, happy and social residents. I tried to explain this to my girlfriend before she met me in Kaohsiung. I'd been in Taiwan for almost two weeks without her at this point, but she had to see for herself.
She says to me, "There's no way people are friendlier than they were in Vietnam and Thailand and Tokyo." You see, we're from the South, Tennessee and Alabama. When we catch a whiff of southern hospitality in other countries we visit, it's intoxicating.
It's hard to put into words that extra little magic that exists. Maybe it comes in the form of greetings, lots of smiles, a free sample, helpful tips, unexpected questions, an abundance of curiosity. But when you feel it, you feel it, and it makes me like a place even more.
Find yourself a Phoenix
I'd just arrived via night train from the airport. It's my first hour in Taiwan. I quickly checked into the hostel, put on my puffy jacket and walked out the door to grab a bite. I don't know where I am, I don't know where I'm going, and that's when I run into Phoenix.
This dude must have a sixth sense, because he asks me, "Are you hungry? Night market?" Lead the way, I say. For the next three nights, this is our routine.
I have no idea what he does all day, and he's oblivious to my wanderings too. But we'd meet up at night, and he would point to various foods and say, "You want to try?" Try this, try that. Yessir, say no more fam.
"Lucky me," I think. I just met the friendliest and most curious local, a man on a mission to make friends, eat foods and practice his English.
Phoenix had two phones. One with data, for calls, texts, maps and such. The other strapped to a lanyard, dangling around his neck 24/7. This was the translation machine.
I never use the talk function on my phone. I'm so deeply ingrained in the habit of typing with my fingers, I have no use for "talk to text" or asking AI various questions with my voice. I'm all fingers, baby.
But Phoenix is built different. That translation device was an extension of his body, a modern-day cyborg, able to seamlessly carry on a conversation in his non-native tongue. His English was pretty dang good, but he'd deny that claim if you asked him, as do most people learning a second language.
I've listened to my girlfriend translate Spanish for me at the speed of light, chatting and laughing with our Guatemalan host as I struggle to keep up. And yet she defines her proficiency as "modest." Yeahhh, ok, chica.
I'm not sure how many English words I defined for Phoenix, but I think I taught myself in the process. I'm now a better English speaker after hanging out with a dude speaking Chinese.
I could go on and on, but if Phoenix reads this post, I want him to know how much I enjoyed the strange foods he made me try and our fun conversations wandering the night markets in Taipei.
Next time you're on a trip to a foreign place, go find yourself a Phoenix. Buy him a beer. He will say he doesn't like alcohol, then down the whole thing with a grin, nodding his head in approval.
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WOW!! What an adventure that you will remember the rest of your life....Keep going!