Some observations in Taiwan

I am currently in Taiwan for 38 days (14 days in quarantine), and while traveling during Covid-19 was very surreal (not advised unless absolutely necessary), staying in Taiwan for an extended period of time made me realise some interesting quirks about Taiwan that differs from birthplace, Singapore.

1. Credit card woes. I got the YouTrip card before flying to Taiwan, thinking most of my expenses can be covered with it in Taipei. I was wrong. Firstly, most interesting cafes (ie, non-Star*ucks cafes) don’t accept cards. Reason seems to be they don’t want to pay the credit card transaction fees. I also faced situations where only certain Taiwanese local bank cards were accepted at certain shops, and my YouTrip card was rejected. I never had this issue when traveling in Japan, so people thinking of using their YouTrip card in Taiwan (after covid please) should take note of this. Some of these food establishments have e-payment services like Line Pay, but I have yet decided to set those up.
2. Minimum purchases. Many Taiwan cafes require one minimum drink purchase. So you cannot go to the cafe and just eat their cakes. Some restaurants require a minimum purchase for each customer, so no entering an ice cream shop and ordering something to share. I am not saying all restaurants have such conditions, and if they have any, these conditions are written in the menus that are placed at their entrances. Read them properly and there shouldn’t be any awkward surprises.
3. Maximum consumption time. Some restaurants have a maximum amount of time that you can spend eating your meals inside, and these are not even buffets. If such a condition exists, it will be written in the menus as well. I understand that this is largely to prevent people from hoarding seats, so that the food places can have more customers within the same timeframe. So while one cannot have long chit-chats in some of these restaurants, the timeframes that I have experienced are within the reasonable ranges of 50–70 mins. Definitely enough time for a decent, relaxing meal.
4. Same items costs more eating-in than having it to-go. Restaurants have to pay for air-conditioning or heaters when you eat inside their establishments, and have waiters to service you food. So, you have to pay more to eat in the restaurant than ordering to-go. Had a dessert to-go just because of this. This is apparently common in other countries too, but I am have not experienced this before in Singapore. We do have price disparities between eating-in and to-go, but that’s due to some other market behaviour.
5. Sitting with strangers in food places. People who frequent Hong Kong are familiar with this, and this happens from time to time in Taiwan as well. In such places, you largely don’t have control on where you can sit, and you may be even asked to change your seats at times. It might also feel more awkward to sit with strangers during this covid period, but these places usually include some divider as some form of protective measure now.

These are just some of the quirks that I have observed in Taiwan. Interestingly, they all seem to be about managing costs for these establishments. I know how fortunate I am to be able to travel outside of Singapore during this period. I hope everyone on this planet can do our part to stop the spread, so that we can all start travelling again in 2021!

Coding all day can get boring at times, so I am thinking of re-starting my blog (again). I know I have another blog that I have abandoned, but I am thinking of writing more personal, less serious entries again on my Medium blog.