Earlier in January, after what felt like many many weeks of torturous waiting around, my travel buddies and I went all the way to Taiwan!

Taiwan was actually never in my to-go list, in fact I know pathetically little about it aside from how Wu Chun made his mark and became famous there.

Little did I know that it was to be one of the friendliest places I’ve ever been to (and I’m from Brunei!)

OBSERVATION NUMBER 1: PEOPLE ARE SO FRIENDLY!

One time in Kaohsiung, while waiting next to a road for a free shuttle bus, a motorcycle driver dropped a pencilcase of some sort and all its contents was sprawled all over the road!

Bystanders helping to pick up loose items on the road.

Amazing thing was everyone standing on the side of the road helped the motorcycle driver to pick up all the loose items while traffic was moving. I thought that was really selfless of them because if that happened in any other country, everyone would just stop to stare instead of help.

OBSERVATION NUMBER 2: Taiwan is also the land of the cutest dogs in the world!

This dog was wearing a cute leopard print jacket! How cute is that! In fact, cause Taiwan was so freaking cold cause of the winds coming in from China, most of the teeny tiny dogs wore clothes making them 100000xxx cuter. Haha. Feel like crushing them to death everytime I see them!

OBSERVATION NUMBER 3: I’m also convinced that all Taiwanese girls have legs made with compact natural insulation.

This is what I feel like wearing about 99.9% of the time.

Note that I am also wearing thermal panty hose, thermal tights, Uggs, a thermal slip, t-shirt, very warm cardigan and this thickly lined jacket. and my head and neck must me sufficiently covered. This still feels so cold!

Below is what most Taiwanese girls are wearing 99.9% of the time.

Most wear very very very short shorts with a sheer textured panty hose underneath and stay outside for hours. Note that the whole of Taiwan was very very very very cold when we were there and I was mostly wearing 4-5 layers of clothes to be of decent warmth. How do they do it?  I don’t know! So the only explanation must be compact natural insulation (compact cause they have long skinny legs!)

OBSERVATION NUMBER 4: They love going to parks!

We keep on seeing these cute little parks in the middle of the city, with happy children and adults just exercising happilly. I guess in their homes, space is limited so they have this general area under the sky to just relax and unwind. It’s interesting to note that unlike Ho Chi Minh or Yangon, that also have a lot of these parks, in Taiwan, it’s rare to find couples dating and in deep lustful rapture. Hehe! You see more people exercising instead, or as in the case of the man above, practicing his martial arts.

OBSERVATION NUMBER 5: Fresh fish everywhere!

In fact, I probably ate more sushi in Taiwan than I did in Japan!

Many people would assume that Taiwan is a particularly difficult pace to find food especially if you are a Muslim. Let me dissipate those rumours now!

There is sushi and various bentos EVERYWHERE. And good, high quality ones too! Even if you bought them in a random MRT sushi shop, it will be crazy fresh and delicious. Best part about this? IT’S CRAZY CHEAP!!! The above blue plate cost me BND 1.50 and the bento is only about BND 3 only!

So yes, unless you are highly adverse to consuming fruits la mer, then no, its not hard to find food here!

OBSERVATION NUMBER 6: It is sooooooo clean there!

Please view the following images:

Alishan. A place in the mountains very very very far away from the city. No thrash.

Chiayi. Small town not as high as Alishan but still far away from the city. No thrash.

Kaohsiung’s Love River smack dab in the middle of the highly populated city. Well, no thrash.

Taipei, Chiang Kai Shek Memorial. There ain’t no trash here.

Random shot of the view outside our apartment in Taipei. Again, very clean, no thrash.

So clean! What else is there to say?