Apr 08

I had only been living in Taiwan for 4 months when I booked my holiday to the Philippines. My job was driving me mad and I was desperate for some sun, sea, sand and opportunities to meet new people. It took about 12 hours to get from my apartment in Taipei to my hotel in Boracay. It was only 3 hours flying time but a number of different connections and waiting times made it a pretty long journey. From Kalibo airport I travelled for about 2 hours by bus through narrow roads lined with palm trees and small hut-like houses. When I reached the harbour to catch the ferry to Boracay I was met with the first of many amazing sunsets.

People were looking at me a little strangely on the boat because I was obviously travelling alone, but I felt really relaxed about the whole thing. I was looking forward to meeting some people on the island, having some new conversations and hopefully making some friends I could stay in touch with. It was dark by the time I reached the hotel and I didn't venture far that night. I found the internet cafe, looked at some jewelry stalls and booked myself on a boat trip for the following morning.

I woke up early on the first day, had some breakfast and went out for my boat trip. I met two really cool people and the boat trip was great. We went to some caves to snorkle, stopped off at a few random spots in the middle of the sea and bought ice creams from local guys in little boats, who sailed round all the tourist spots with a big cooler box.

I met lots of people in Boracay, from lots of different places. It made travelling alone seem very easy because I always had someone to spend time with in the daytimes and evenings.

Boracay is a great place for beach bars with live music and a variety of reasonably priced food. The hotels are nice and many are very cheap (600 pesos per night). I had only booked two night's accomodation when I arrived but I managed to get a 20% loyalty discount at my original hotel and moved to a fanned room to save more money.

I had a fantastic time in Boracay and I would recommend it to anyone who is travelling in Asia or looking for a holiday on a beautiful island.

My journey to Taiwan started in January 2007. I had been living in Scotland since I went to University in 1997 and decided I needed a change of life and scenery and wanted to satisfy my burning desire to travel. I was originally interested in teaching in Japan but the company who interviewed me offered me a job in Taiwan too. I chose Taiwan to avoid the grammar test required for Japan :-p

“The first condition of understanding a foreign country is to smell it.” - Rudyard Kipling

My first impression of Taiwan was that it smelled of sewage, pollution and stinky tofu stalls. I still smell the tofu and sewage but my nose has become used to the pollution. Having never lived in a city my lungs have been relatively healthy throughout my life. However, I have been unwell countless times in one year here and had Bronchitis twice within 7 months! So it's fair to say that the environment in Taipei is not a healthy one.

The things you can do in Taiwan are limited by the things you can find out how to do. The level of English is not particularly good for a city (hence the need for English Teachers!). The MRT provides English maps and details of the tourist attractions you can get to by metro. The most 'oriental' tourist spots are Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall, The Grand Hotel, Sun Yat Sen Memorial Hall and Longshan Temple. In my first 6 months I went to most of the places on the outskirts of Taipei worth visiting. Wulai is an Aboriginal village with pretty mountains and a waterfall.

Some of the challenges of living abroad continue on for the whole time you are there. In Taiwan I struggle with the language, the food and the culture. I have tried to embrace these things but I find the food of very low quality and bland taste and the people are pretty much scared of life, which makes them hard to live and work with. Challenges I have overcome are homesickness (although I have a boyfriend now so that helps), and fear of getting lost - I walked across the city for 3 hours and gained a much better knowledge of its geography.

Taiwanese culture is based upon a close family unit - everyone lives together and the young look after the old. Even the families that move abroad expect their children to return to Taiwan to look after them in retirement. The people are concerned about how they look to such an extent that many will lie to avoid admitting they don't know something. Confrontation is not part of society so when people act stupidly, wrongly or dangerously no-one will point it out. I have nearly been run down by taxis who have seen me crossing the street but carry on regardless. They don't care because no-one will do anything about it!

Taiwanese children have virtually no free time because they go to school, English classes, Maths classes, art classes, after-school classes and homework classes! The obsession with education leads to academically educated adults that have no common sense and a very narrow understanding of life outside of Taiwan. One of the guys I met asked me, "Why don't you sound like my BBC CD?" Now I'm not so narrow minded as to group everyone in Taiwan together as ignorant but even my Taiwanese friends fall prey to the same cultural flaws. They are taught to repeat the actions of those before and not to question anything. Therefore they lack creativity and free ideas, which are things I prize so highly.

After a year I was ready to leave this country and put it down to a difficult, but nonetheless rewarding experience, but I'm now committed for one more year. It's cheap to live in Taiwan and the wages are good enough to save money so my boyfriend and I are going to travel on when we have some money to bigger and better things...