spec me a flight back to Blighty (UK) from Taiwan

Surfer

Surfer

Surfer

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Time to head back to good ole blighty :D Taiwan is pretty cool but so many things i was missing and things that did my head in, in Taiwan.


Best ive managed so far for a flight from Taipei to London is £359 via skyscanner.net


My plan is to get a fight to London then bus or train to glasogw (usually works out cheaper than getting a flight straight to glasgow)

But hey im willing to consider flying from taiwan to any UK city if it is the cheapest.


need to fly back before April 15th :D and after March 29th


If anyone wants any advice on getting setup in Taiwan etc etc just ask.
 
That's about the best price I could find too, though I ended up getting a more expensiv one with a shorter layove, and so I was on the same flight as my fiancee.

Incidentally, I'm sending this from Taoyuan airport waiting for our flight :D
 
Oh cool, you're in Taichung! I was there last year on business, great place! Half of the manufacturers in our industry are there or in Changhua County anyway :D
 
Yeah i think Taiwan and Taichung etc is a great place for say a holiday but if you want to live here that means teaching fulltime for at least a year. So if you aren't cut out for teaching then you can't really stay (as in my case). Unless you have an open work permit then the only job you can do legally is english teaching.

Also when you live here for longer than say a month (the "honeymoon" period) lots of little things will drive you nuts....well they drive me nuts e.g. the insane traffic.


Sun every day and 28 degrees heat i will miss bigtime :(



Feef said:
That's about the best price I could find too, though I ended up getting a more expensiv one with a shorter layove, and so I was on the same flight as my fiancee.
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i managed to find a little cheaper at £329 in April. Will book it in a few days thanks anyway dude.
 
What's the pay like for teaching and does it provide a good standard of living?
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yes :D

wages for a newbie start off at 600NTD an hour which is about £14. Not that much but the teaching is relatively easy. If you work fulltime (upwards of 20 hours teaching a week but will probably include office time) then average wage is around 55,000 - 60,000 NTD a month.

Bear in mind that the average degree educated taiwanese person earns around 30,000 - 35,000 here.

I share a very nice, big apartment with 2 flatmates. i have my own bathroom and my own balcony. Rent is 6000 NTD a month =roughly £130 a month. Yep :) internet is 200NTD and gas and electric another 200NTD

Once you get a job and established i recommend buying a scooter/or motorbike. Everyone, and i mean that literally haha, has a scooter here and they are cheap as chips! You can get a 2nd hand scooter for about 10,000 NTD. petrol is cheap as well.


You can get nicer villa type houses if you are prepared to live on the outskirts of the city (ie more countryside area) but rent is probably around 15 - 20,000 But think realy idyllic surroundings...and if you have a scooter then getting to work on the other side of the city isnt too much of a problem.


If you live in Taipei then the average rent is much much higher. I lived there for a month in a studio apartment (very small!) for 12,000 ntd a month.

Taipei definitely has loads more shops, restaurants and everything else you can think of....except the weather. It rains constantly haha.

Taichung is like a mini-california when the weather is good (ie low pollution and sunny and hot). I can count on 1 hand the amount of days it rained in the last 4 months....every day SUN...SUN or sometimes cloudy and hot.

Sounds perfect right? So why am i crazy and leaving?

Well - there are hardly any pubs at all. You will go days, maybe weeks without seeing another foreigner/english speaking person as not a lot of taiwanese speak great english apart from a few words.

Also the only legal job you can really do as a foreigner on a restricted work permit (small number of exceptions to this) is teaching. If you hate teaching then you're scuppered matey!

The number 1 hindrance to you will probably be culture shock and how everything is in a different language so going to a restaurant is not as simple as it seems. Going shopping...theres loads of shops but what they sell? who knows because its all in chinese.

Also tbh i didnt really like the food that much....to eat cheaply here you can get a sortof takeway chinese meal with rice, chicken etc. I dont think its that healthy but its cheap. Most apartments dont have gas hobs or cookers so everyone eats out....great at first but eventually...its a hassle!

Traffic is almost chaos incarnate (i reserve that "accolade" for the cesspit that is Manila) and most street signs are exclusively in chinese (unless you live in Taipei)

I should mention that the taiwanese are very friendly to white foreigners. If you are a guy then the women will be all over you. There are lots of single beautiful taiwanese women here for you :)

If you are young (under 30) then come, without a shadow of a doubt. If you dont mind the teaching then i'd be willing to bet you will L O V E it here.



Feef said:
Incidentally, I'm sending this from Taoyuan airport waiting for our flight
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Enjoy the air of Taoyuan ;) Lucky you though Tainan must be nice, much quieter than the mad northern cities. Zaijian!
 
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Go to an Asian country to teach a language, but barely speak the native language, then get bored of the country because you don't understand anything... And to top it off long for dirty, smelly, drunk infested pubs?

I really don't get some people :confused:
 
AdladUK said:
Go to an Asian country to teach a language, but barely speak the native language, then get bored of the country because you don't understand anything... And to top it off long for dirty, smelly, drunk infested pubs?

I really don't get some people :confused:
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Whats not to get? Read this bit more closely :o

If you are a guy then the women will be all over you.
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AdladUK said:
Go to an Asian country to teach a language, but barely speak the native language, then get bored of the country because you don't understand anything... And to top it off long for dirty, smelly, drunk infested pubs?

I really don't get some people :confused:
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*whoosh* well my post went right over your head didn't it....

Being able to speak chinese and *reading* chinese are completely different animals altogether. The fact you don't know that...belies your ignorance.

I can speak small things like : greetings, ordering food, how to get somewhere, how much is such and such, names of things etc. Very limited unfortunately.

The plan was to get a steady job and enrol in a chinese class (loads of them) at one of the universities.

Also i suspect you've never even walked in a pub if you think that they are all infested with drunks... pubs are more than somewhere to get ****ed out of your mind. Its about community, about getting together with mates, having a chat, maybe watching footie on the big screen in a nice atmosphere kind of place. Sure some of these things you can do at home but a pub is a more social environment i would say.


I really don't get some people
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ohh ditto lol :rolleyes:
 
Surfer said:
*whoosh* well my post went right over your head didn't it....

Being able to speak chinese and *reading* chinese are completely different animals altogether. The fact you don't know that...belies your ignorance.
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Actually nothing went over my head. You never mentioned you could speak Chinese but not write it. I am aware there is a big difference, but if you can speak Chinese you can get by just fine in Taiwan from what friends have told me. In fact the 2 people I know who live there permanently speak fluent Chinese but barely write a word and survive great. And it's really not that hard to pick up if you take some lessons. Sounds like you gave up on that part though.

Surfer said:
Also i suspect you've never even walked in a pub if you think that they are all infested with drunks... pubs are more than somewhere to get ****ed out of your mind. Its about community, about getting together with mates, having a chat, maybe watching footie on the big screen in a nice atmosphere kind of place. Sure some of these things you can do at home but a pub is a more social environment i would say.
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Pubs stink and if that is one of your main reasons for leaving Taiwan, then yeah, maybe you belong back in the UK.

I wasn't trying to troll you, but I just cannot understand the mindset of someone who would want to leave for the reasons you have mentioned.

A Californian climate with a massive apartment for £150 a month. Good luck finding that back home
 
Surfer said:
Yeah i think Taiwan and Taichung etc is a great place for say a holiday but if you want to live here that means teaching fulltime for at least a year. So if you aren't cut out for teaching then you can't really stay (as in my case). Unless you have an open work permit then the only job you can do legally is english teaching.
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I don't really get this - are there no other expats there except for teachers? I've been living and working in mainland China for over 10 years now as an engineer. I guess the visas work slightly differently on the mainland, but I'm on a business visa, not a work permit.
 
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Majority teachers but yeah there are exceptions e.g. your job in a specialist field would come into the below category. The reason why its difficult to get a job here through normal channels and not as an english teacher is because the local employer has to prove that no Taiwanese citizen can do the job before giving it to a foreigner (roughly speaking).

Approved fields of work:
Foreign professionals who are employed to work in the ROC are limited to working as: A.Specialists or technicians.B.Executives of enterprises set up by overseas Chinese and foreign investors.C.School teachers. D.Teachers at supplementary language schools.E.Sports coach or athlete.F.Arts or entertainment arts workers. G.Crew members of merchant ships or working ships.

http://iff.immigration.gov.tw/ct.asp?xItem=1086934&ctNode=29928&mp=T002
 
hehe, nope, we've just bought a new apartment up here in Qinhuangdao. I'd love to go for a holiday to Taiwan sometime though!
 
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