I’ve been out of the country a while now and while I left for a number of reasons time abroad has given me time to reflect.

Sure Australia has it’s problems but there are somethings that no matter how long I’m away for I’m always going to miss.

I’d love to say things like mateship, great food and other stereotypes made the list but most of what I miss are creature comforts we take for granted.

In no particular order here’s my list of 10 things I miss about living in Australia.




1. Pedestrian Crossing Buttons

I haven’t been to Taipei yet but everywhere else I’ve travelled to in Taiwan is utterly devoid of pedestrian crossing buttons.

Instead you’re presented with an LED animated walking man and a timer counting down how long you have to wait. Whilst arguably more useful then a button and definitely more informative I still miss pressing a button to cross a road.

I think it’s got something to do with having a feeling like you’re controlling the traffic. That and a random timer that just changes with the lights each time is easily ignored by motorists.

Sure you might have the right of way but this is Taiwan, size matters and a pedestrian crossing the road has as much leeway as an ant trying to cross an elephant’s path.




2. My Car

Although cumbersome to lug around at times I’m glad I decided on bringing my bike with me to Taiwan. For local travel it’s been great and I’ve even done some longer rides on the Trucker but I’m really missing the car on the weekends.

I plan to buy a scooter sometime in April/May but until then I’m kind of stuck riding around, getting lucky and finding a girl with a scooter or relying on taxis on the weekends.

Public transport to get around is pretty quiet outside of Taipei so unless you’ve got your own wheels or a designated driver it does feel like you’ve taken a few steps backwards independence wise.




3. The Art of Conversation

In Australia I knew I could talk to people if I could. Over in Taiwan I’m finding the only thing more frustrating then wishing people would stop talking to you is knowing that you’re unable to communicate with them.

I’ve started my journey of learning Chinese but it’s going to be a long one and at least a few months before I start to get anywhere.

In the meantime I’ve lost count of the amount of times I’ve had someone start talking to me (this is especially painful in bars) and I haven’t been able to respond despite desperately wishing I could.




4. Big Business

Big business does exist in Taiwan but for the most part small family run businesses are still very much king. This is great and convenient if you can read Chinese but if not you’re pretty much relying on someone to show you around or slowly learning your surroundings one shop at a time.

Additionally because the businesses are smaller on average you wind up getting slightly less of a range then our larger chain stores back home.

When I unpacked the Long Haul Trucker a few weeks back I discovered some parts of the dynamo setup had been damaged during transit. Despite there being a few small hardware stores around I would have killed for the convenience of a Bunnings.

I know some would argue that it’s probably a good thing all these smaller local businesses haven’t been swallowed up by giant multi-nationals. To be honest the convenience of them is far outweighing the local economic damage they might do.




5. Milo

Flavoured milk in Taiwan is practically non existent. You can buy
crappy flavoured long life milk in glass bottles but the taste is quite bitter.

For now I’ve replaced my daily Milo with either a 700ml or 1L cup of milk tea but some days I’m just craving a chocolate Milo.

I’ve discovered some 7-11′s stock Milo but then there’s the problem of milk, which brings me to my next item…




6. Milk

I’ve yet to see a cow in Taiwan I’m guessing the lack of them is the largest reason for the stupid price of milk here. Little 250ml bottles of flavoured milk are a couple of dollars each and plain milk is virtually non existent in 2L+ bottles (although I’ve yet to hit up Costco here).

Even when I do though I’m expecting the price to be massively cost prohibitive.

Asian people just seem to not care about milk. Nobody eats Yogurt, nobody eats cheese and nobody drinks milk!

Can somebody please tell me what the deal is with Asians and the lack of dairy?

(and if anyone suggests soy milk they’re dead to me. Do you hear me? DEAD!)




7. Bicycle Lanes

I soon realised after I started cycling in Taiwan that I’ve been massively spoilt by the abundance of bicycle lanes we have on every major road.

In Taiwan the motor vehicle is king and in place of my bicycle lanes I’ve got scooter lanes everywhere.

I haven’t had any issues riding in them yet (the drivers here might be dodgy but they are definitely more courteous then Australian drivers), but I do feel a bit giddy at times with scooters whizzing past me squeezing between myself and the trucks/cars in the normal lane.

Then as soon as you get off the main roads you’re forced to squeeze between the cars on the road and the cars parked on the side. I haven’t been doored yet but I’ve had some close calls.

My Airzound air horn has proven invaluable over here. People over here don’t seem to even acknowledge bicycles half the time so it’s nice to be able to honk at them and get some road presence to stop that car ahead pulling a U-turn right in front of you.

Thankfully the government seems to be slowly recognising cycling as viable transport and is building offroad tracks here and there. I hope one day there’s a decent sized network of paths as Taiwan really is a beautiful country to ride through (I’ve done several rides now that I need to do writeups of).




8. Local Beer

I’m in two minds about this because in Taiwan the local beer is ridiculously cheap. Walk into any 7-11 and you can pickup a 330ml can of Taiwanese beer for just over $1. 750ml bottles cost about $2.

The tradeoff is that instead of our stock of local beers the alternatives to Taiwanese beers in Taiwan are your typical American beers with some Heineken thrown in.

Taste aside, the price difference alone isn’t worth justifying the purchase of either. Taiwanese beer might not taste all that great but at these prices it’s hard to complain.

Still, sometimes I’d love to sit back with something that tasted good though.

My other gripe is nothing here is on tap. I’ve seen bars with tap equipment but they never use them!

I don’t know if it’s due to a lack of kegs or that it’s cheaper to just buy bottles of beer of the back of 7-11 trucks and sell them at 200-300% markup in a bar but nobody offers beer on tap here.

Infact the only beer glasses I’ve seen so far have been tiny little shot glasses used to drink ‘Taiwan Beer’ (that’s an actual brand name) out of. And when I shot glass I mean shot glass… a tiny mouthful of beer at a time is so unsatisfying!




9. Gardens

I’m not going to pretend like I was some kind of Edward Scissorhands back home. I didn’t do any gardening outside of my fish tank and I rarely used my spacious backyard.

Yet for some reason over in Taiwan I miss gardens. Public gardens here seem few and far between. For the most part they are tucked away and are more of a weekend treat then a regular fixture of the street landscape.

The advantage of this is that they are immaculate but the tradeoff is they aren’t really accessible during the week.

Urban Taiwan is a concrete jungle and unless you’re lucky enough to have a large enough balcony to create your own garden you’re pretty much stuck using public facilities.

Having said that out in the countryside the utilisation of land is amazingly efficient. Every square foot of land seems to be someone’s vegetable garden. At all hours of the day retired people with seemingly nothing better to do toil in their gardens and tend to their crops.

A tad different to the gardens I miss which are mostly of asthetic value but interesting nonetheless.




10. Dry Bathroom Floors

When I first arrived in Taiwan I thought the notion of a compact bathroom was a cruel joke the hotels I stayed in liked to play on visitors.

As I’ve travelled around though I’ve come to realise the stupidly compact bathroom is the norm here. Places with separate shower areas do exist but you’re usually paying a premium for staying in the newer buildings.

Time management becomes chaotic as you lost functionality of a bathroom after a shower due to the floor being soaking wet.

You can get around it wearing thongs when you walk out of the bathroom but I find there’s always something I’ve forgotten to do in there and before I know it I’ve got wet feet again.

Somedays I feel like just not wearing shoes and socks at all.


Admittedly indulgent and somewhat superficial at the moment these are what spring to mind when I think about what I miss back home. On the bright side none of them are large enough to warrant me thinking about coming back anytime soon.

For all it’s criticisms there are some things we get right back home. Like everything though you don’t realise what you appreciate until it’s gone.

Enjoy what you’ve got guys, lets hope some things never change.

Here’s to Australia Day 2010.

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