Taiwan Living Day to Day

  I celebrated my 62nd birthday at Chuck's Roadhouse on January 10th. 2026. My nephew sent me a picture of the family as all of us were celebrating my birthday at Chuck's. I looked like a beached whale! I can't find the pic otherwise I would have posted it. That picture would change the course of my whole life.  I decided that if I did not do something drastic, my health would never improve and that the vicious cycle of eat, sleep and sh## would keep on happening. A change HAD to be made for my future health. I decided to quit my job on the Monday following that weekend. I also decided that I was going to live overseas again and get back to teaching. Taiwan was my choice due to my friend Dave living there. Our history goes back to moving to South Korea together in April, 2000.  I promised myself then that I would never be that fat and unhealthy again; I stepped on the scale on January 9th at 310 pounds! I literally started my own fat camp. I started exercising twice a day...

 It was quite an eventful week. I had myself all geared up to do the interview with APPLYTAIWAN, which I set up for Tuesday. 16th of June at 3pm. I inadvertently had changed the time to Japan/Korea time. Only 1 problem with that; those time zones are 1 hour ahead of Taiwan. I logged on and of course no-one was there. It took me about 20 minutes and I googled the 'bible' and it told me the time difference. Oh well! Shit happens! I saw this beauty as I was walking along side the river here in Wenshan District. I walked about 7km in about 90 minutes. I saw some great wildlife and some awesome greenery.  I went to downtown Taipei on Monday and walked around the whole area for about 2 hours. Saw all kinds of awesome buildings including Taipei City Hall and a bunch of  ritzy malls and shops. It is quite affluent downtown and even the cars are all high end. I even saw a Bentley pulled over on the road. Of course, Taipei 101 is always quite a site to see. It used to be the talles...

  Quite often, I am going up the mountain and while doing so, am going up and down 100s of stairs and different paths around the mountain. There are houses and little shops up there and they have their own little paths and stairs etc. It is quite a strenuous walk when the steps are included. I can get my heart rate up to between 105-125 or so. Some of the views are absolutely spectacular. Even the photos don't do justice to just how the building are all built on the side of the mountain and all the rain water engineering to prevent flooding and to get it down the mountain. It takes about 20 minutes up a little bit of an elevation to get up to the entrance of the Temple area, then another 5 minutes to get up to the actual Temple. Getting up there involves a lot of steps and once you reach the entrance to the Temple itself, there are at least 30 or 40 steps just to get access to the actual altars. Once you are at the entrance to the altars, there are also other paths that you can tak...

  Since arriving here, I have comandeered an unlimited pass for the MRT and buses for 30 days at a cost of $1200 NT. That is about $50 dollars CAD and allows me to just swipe on and off on any bus or subway station anytime of day and allows me to get lost anywhere in Taipei and just hop on any bus if needed and find an MRT station. Here is the map and how extensive the lines are as well as a pic of the card that I use to swipe on and off of every transit vehicle that I ride. Dave was generous enough to give me his coolest card ever....lol. I  generally get lost (really it is just I don't know what area or the roads that I am on) about 5 times or more a day. I have not travelled too far away from the area where I am staying, but plan on being more aggressive this week.  I just find any bus and hop on it until I get to the closest MRT Station and then figure out where to go. It is easy to navigate the MRT stations and is very quick and efficient. The MRT cars run almost eve...

Yesterday, Dave told me about a great place to have dinner, so we met after he finished work about 6pm. It was down at the bottom of the hill from Dave's place and in the centre of the streets that surround the local university. Dave said this place has been there for years and years. It is so cheap and the food choice and prices are amazing! I had the fried beef noodles with a side order of veggies, Dave had the fried pork noodles.   A few days ago, we went to one of the many Costcos in Taipei. I found a little bit of exlixir.; 1.75 litres. It is called Kirkland American Vodka; $15! Today, it's Friday. Start of the World Cup. I woke up at 3am to watch Mexico vs South Africa. Only lasted 45 minutes then went back to bed. Must be getting old....hahahahaha. With the time difference here, a lot of games are at 3am and 9 or 10am. Needless to say, the 3am games will be a write off unless it is the knockout stages and my teams; England and Canada. I am watching the 2nd game: South K...

Today has been mostly raining since I got up. I find I am wide awake everyday at 6am and get up almost instantly! I don't even think it's jet-lag. I think I am just getting enough sleep. Yesterday, I walked about 9kms and did about 14000 steps. I am trying to do at least 10000 a day and continue my weigh loss journey. I am eating healthy still and smaller portions, albeit a different diet for sure. Here there are a lot of what they call Dinner Boxes. They all vary in what is in them and somewhat quite affordable. You can get ones with chicken, beef, fish etc. The added stuff can be veggies, noodles etc. Some are called BENTO boxes, but there are also various names for them. The average price depends on the size and the ingredients; from NT $90 - NT $150 (about $3.95 to $6.95). The majority of them are very healthy, too. I live close to Zhinan Temple which is absolutely spectacular in every sense of the word. From how it looks to the colours and the amount of engineering to buil...

  Having arrived on June 2nd. 2026, it has taken me a week to decide to start a blog about my adventures and daily living in Taipei, Taiwan. After having visited Taiwan twice previously in September, 2007 and August 2013, I was aware that there would be a lot of humidity and heat. However at both of those times, there was very little rain or not continued days of rainfall.  This time, however, there is tons of rain. The nice thing about it is that it is nice to walk in, as it is usually around 24 degrees or higher. I notice that almost everybody uses an umbrella and it is very unusual to see anyone without one.  I am currently residing with my best friend Dave and his wife who have kindly allowed me to stay with them until I can get a job sorted and then housing. Dave's wife is Taiwanese, so she has offered to help me locate housing once I know where the job location will be. Dave lives at the top of the mountain close to Xinshi Temple, which is absolutely amazing. But 10...