Nested Fall 2018

Taipei has been the most unique place we’ve nested so far. It’s been one of our absolute favorite places, but it’s not a good place for a first nest. It’s busy and fun and full of incredible food, but it’s not as accessible to Westerners as some of the other places we’ve been. There’s lots of English on signage, but there’s few organized events and information for tourists. There’s lots here – you just have to be bold and dig. But when you do, you’ll be richly rewarded!

Currency

Taiwan’s currency is the NTD or New Taiwanese dollar. Current exchange rate is here. Coins run from 1 dollar to 50 dollars and bills start at 100 dollars. Large stores take credit cards, but you’ll need cash for smaller stores and the street markets.

When to Go

It rains a lot in Taiwan, and it can get very hot in the summertime. Locals will tell you that October is the best month to be in Taiwan, and we found it very comfortable, with temperatures in the mid 70’s.

How to Get There

There are two airports in Taipei, both served by their excellent metro system. The most likely one you’d be landing at is Taoyuan, which is about a 40 minute ride out of town, or a 800 to 1000 NTD taxi ride. ($26 to $30 American dollars at the time of writing.) Songshan Airport is right in town, but most of their flights are domestic or from mainland China, Japan or Korea. Taiwan has Uber, and they serve the airports.

Grocery Shopping

This will depend a lot on where you are. Taiwan has Costcos, so if you’re a Costco

member, you might want to consider bringing your card. There are also large Carrefours (a British grocery chain.) Other than that, you’ll mostly find small convenience-type groceries. Welcome is probably the most common local chain. That’s all we had in our area, and I did nearly all my shopping in small stores. It was limiting as to what you could find, but because of the very robust street food scene, we didn’t eat at home a lot anyway. (In fact, some apartments in Taipei don’t even have a kitchen!) Dairy products (milk, cheese and yogurt) are very, very expensive. When we were there, milk ran about $11 US a gallon. Cheese selections are very limited, as are wine. (If you want cheese or wine, go to Costco.) Your best bet is probably the people selling fruits, vegetables, handmade dumplings, buns to steam and other pre-made foods on the streets.

Other Shopping

Probably the most fun place to go for shopping in Taipei is the Jianguo Jade Market. It’s located underneath the Ren Ai elevated highway by the Zhongxiao Xinsheng metro stop on the Orange line, and is only open on weekends. You’ll find about 500 vendors selling mostly jade, but you’ll also find other gemstones and semi-precious gems, carved wood and tea. You can chat with the friendly dealers, bargain and learn about jade. It’s probably not the place to buy a very high-end piece, but if you want gifts for friends or less expensive pieces, it can be really fun. Dig through piles of jade bead bracelets for 100 NTD each or find some chubby little jade Buddhas for your mantle! Continue on through the jade market into the very beautiful flower market that runs for six blocks! For just 50 NTD it’s possible to get an orchid for your nest to brighten your stay.

One of the better places to see all that Taipei has to offer shopping wise is The National Cultural and Creative Gifts Center.  Run by the government to offer a place for visitors to shop, it has items ranging from thousands of dollars US down to just a few bucks. You can be sure of the quality and the authenticity here. And the place is huge – 4 full floors of goodies. The prices are fair, too – in most things, very comparable to buying in other places. You’ll find everything from tea to jade to Chinese painting to Koji ceramics – the ceramics that are on temple roofs. And lots, lots more, actually.

One thing you may want to consider, as you’re nesting and in the city for a while, is to have a bespoke suit made. If you begin the process early in your nesting time, you’ll have time to have a garment made to fit. They are not cheap, but the quality is superb and you can get exactly what you want. After asking some locals where we should go, we used Grand Tailor and were very pleased with the result.

Taipei is actually the best if you just wander the streets. There are little booths in street markets that change constantly and pop up stores in the Art Centers and the Eslite stores – bookstores with pop-up areas with all kinds of interesting and ever-changing wares. Stores change quickly, stocks are always shifting and items come and go with a lot more speed than in Western shops.

Connecting with the Local Community

Taiwanese people are so friendly that you might easily make friends in a restaurant, your apartment lobby or riding the bus. That being said, we also made connections through our alumni organization. Taipei also has a very, very active Rotary that is conducted entirely in English.

Favorite Restaurants

This is an impossible category for Taipei. It really is. There are thousands of restaurants, mostly hole in the wall places, and honestly, the best food we found were in non-descript little mom and pop shops. Just look for lines and get in them. The busy ones are best. Sometimes they’ll have a laminated translated menu, but if you watch what everyone else is getting and point, you’ll do fine.  Some of our favorite street food includes the very famous Beef Noodle Soup, Scallion Pancakes (I like mine with an egg inside), Oyster Soup and Shaved Ice. Just be bold and try things. If you don’t like them, the street market is very cheap anyway, and you can get something else instead! The biggest thing is to try – we were intimidated at first, but these are the friendliest people on the planet, and they will be very happy to help you try their food.

However, there is one eatery that we kept coming back to again and again, and it’s a bit more than street food. Aquatic Addiction Development is a huge fish market with an amazing stand-up sushi bar that will blow you away. They have both Japanese and Taiwanese sushi. (Taiwanese sushi doesn’t have raw fish.) Seriously, if you like seafood or even think you might consider seafood, this is the place. Besides the restaurant, they have a large take out area with pre-packaged items and picnic tables. I am ruined for sushi for life because I’ll never, ever have it this good again.

Festivals/Events

The Taiwanese love festivals. Every weekend in Expo Park there’s something going on with a stage and performances. There’s temple parades that just pop up and seem to happen. I know that there are famous and publicized events – the lantern festival comes to mind – but often the ones we just stumbled upon were more fun and engaging than planned events. In the fall, when we were there, they held the Moon Festival, where people barbeque with their families on the streets and eat Moon cakes. You’ll see long lines of people buying Moon Cakes at their favorite stores. There is also 10-10, which is the Tenth of October, Taiwan’s Independence Day. There’s a parade and a celebration down in front of the government building. Most important is to try to avoid those days for travel.

Health care

There is a national health care system in Taiwan. The medical care is quite good, however, basic needs such as meals, linens, towels and bathing are not provided at hospitals. If you are admitted to the hospital, you will need someone to care for you, sometimes even sleeping at the hospital with you. Foreigners will be expected to pay for their medical treatment, but it runs much less than in the US – about 20% of the cost. There are private hospitals with English speaking staff that cater to foreigners. It’s a good idea to have health insurance that will cover you here.

One other thing of note – due to the SARS epidemic in the 1980’s, the Taiwanese people are still quite worried about people spreading germs. You’ll see people wearing surgical masks all the time, and there’s a public service announcement on the metro system that requests you to wear a surgical mask if you have a cold. If you sneeze in public without one, expect disapproving stares.

Discount Cards

There are some short term discount cards for tourists, but none really make sense for nesters. The most important thing to be sure to have is a metro card. You can buy them in any metro station for $100 NTD and re-load the card as needed. When you travel on the public transportation system, you get 20% off if you use a metro card rather than buy a paper ticket. Also, you can use your metro card to pay in some stores, such as grocery stores, bubble tea shops and 7-11’s.

When Packing for Taipei, make sure you bring…

An Umbrella

Surgical masks