$1 goes for 30NSD in Taiwan. Most of the shopping we did had comparable prices to United States. We had an hour massage for around $27, which was legit. For the first few days, I enjoyed a smoothie for a little over $2.
Trying stinky tofu was an accomplishment among other foods I never would have tried in "The States".
Hiking, pictures, shopping, eating, drinking, mahjong were the staples of the trip. I was challenged with new experiences essentially everyday and returned home wanting to learn more Mandarin (I'm comfortable with a few words). Luckily, Memrise is the perfect app to enhance my training.
Another thing I noticed about the culture that did not expect was the dental floss or toothpicks presented after each meal. Throughout big meals also, people go around toasting each other, honoring their presence. I remember a few years ago, the inability to use chopsticks whatsoever, I'm far from a master, but don't require nearly as much assistance now.
Scooters run through the town of Taipei. The city lacks parking spaces and have narrow roads. Apparently the cars there are extremely expensive and noticed that many of the cars were Toyotas. It makes sense if most of these cars were from resell that Toyota and neutral colors would make up the majority of cars.
Uber is active there. Lyft is not. Taxis and Ubers were very cheap relative to NYC.
$MCD was packed. $SBUX was fine, but the competition was crazy. I think $SBUX is being chased down and is the reason I'm selling.