I'll be visiting Taiwan to see a friend during CNY.

[Natural_Born_Cynic]

It sounds like Taiwanese people are clones of your cousin Taylor.
viewtopic.php?p=174767

Yeah but at least Taylor is friendly to me and replies to me on Messenger sometimes. Btw Taylor is not a blood cousin. His dad and mine are good long time friends, so in that sense I call him a cousin. He is very different and not a freethinker, but he is friendlier than most Taiwanese and he grew up in the 80s too so he is kind of old school too. He is a radiologist with a wife and kids and high income, totally different from me. lol. But he is one of the few TW that are nice to me, besides @Falcon of course.

I'm just joking around Winston.

Well sounds like Taiwanese people has inability to make a joke like other people do.
Damn.. Taiwanese people sounds like depressed and repressed bunch of NPCs just like the Japanese.

I met few Taiwanese people myself in America, but they may look bit Chinese but they act like one of those reclusive and introverted Japanese people on the inside. So weird.... but at least they are not aggressive people.

Maybe Taiwanese people make friends with each other from elementary to university then in the work place just like the U.S?
Or their family, friends introduce new friends, girlfriends, boy friends to each other just like in America?
Cold introverts tends to do that and like to stay in their safe zones rather then exploring?

[Winston]

Yeah but you spin and twist things sometimes. For example you said that the average salary in Taiwan was 100,000 NT a month, yet you knew that wasn't true. You just spun the data to try to make Taiwan look rich. What do you call that? Isn't spinning things a form of lying?

I SENT YOU A FEW LINKS TO DATA FROM THIRD PARTY SOURCES INCLUDING GDP PER HEAD (NOMINAL AND PPP). AND THEY WEREN'T 100K NT$ PER MONTH (HOW CONVENIENT THAT IS'S SUCH A ROUND NUMBER LOL). THAT'S THE BEST I CAN DO UNLESS I GO OUT AND DO MY OWN SURVEY. I WORKED SPECIAL INDUSTRIES AND FIRMS WHICH PAY WAY ABOVE THE NORMAL LEVEL SO IF I USED ANECDOTAL DATA, THE FIGURES WOUD ONLY BE HIGHER THAN THE THIRD PARTY DATA IN THOSE LINKS. AS FOR FOREIGN ENGLISH TEACHERS IN TAIPEI, THE FEW I KNEW OF MADE 60-90K PER MONTH.

Why don't you say anything negative about Taiwan, and I mean something really negative, not trivial things like the weather? You always seem to defend Taiwan and twist things to make it sound good. Yet deep down you know that what I say about Taiwan is mostly true. Bao3niang can't understand why you do that too, he only says that it's probably cause you made a lot of money there.

HERE IS WHAT I DON'T LIKE ABOUT TAIWAN:
- THE RAIN AND WINTER CHILL COMBINED W/LACK OF HEATING
- MOST OF THE BUILDINGS IN TAIPEI ARE UGLY EXCEPT FOR THE NEWEST PLANNED STUFF IN XINYI PLANNED DISTRICT OR REDEVELOPED AREA OF NEIHU
- BEACHES ARE LAME
- LOCAL FOOD IS NOT TO MY LIKING
- NEIGHBORS ARE SENSITIVE AND COMPLAIN IF YOU MAKE TOO MUCH NOISE
- PEOPLE ARE VERY CUT THROAT AND COMPETITIVE IN MANY OFFICE AND BUSINESS ENVIRONMENTS
- WEST AND WESTERNERS HAVE LOST MUCH EXOTIC APPEAL COMPARED TO PRE-SMARTPHONE ERAS
- SOMETIMES THEY LIKE NOISE (RENAO), GOOFY VARIETY SHOWS, AND ARE TOO SUPERFICIAL AND SHALLOW ACTING IN GROUP MEETINGS (CLASSMATES, CO-WORKERS, ETC.)

Clearly you don't find Taiwan to be a fun and happy place.

IF SO, WHY DID I REMAIN THERE SO LONG EVEN AFTER I STOPPED WORKING IN COMPANY? I'VE NEVER LIVED IN ANY FOREIGN (NON USA) COUNTRY AS LONG AS I DID TAIWAN. ACTIONS DO COUNT.

Yet you defend it because Taiwan is a religious cult that you MUST defend at all costs. Otherwise, why do you have nothing negative to say about it? LOL. Think about that. Because you are programmed to not say anything negative about it. The religious cult of Taiwan seems to affect you too.

I LISTED ALL THE NEGATIVES I COULD COME UP WITH ABOVE. IF ANYMORE COME TO MIND, I CAN MENTION THEM IN ANOTHER POST.

Sure it would be more helpful to listen to pro Taiwan people. But that doesn't mean anything will change. Words don't create reality. I can be positive about Taiwan all I want, but it doesn't change the fact that I'm sad, lonely and bored there and feel like crying. It doesn't change the fact that I have no one to celebrate birthdays and holidays with there. All of this is very sad and makes me want to cry. But saying positive things does NOT change that.

BELIEVE IT OR NOT WINSTON, USA IS A VERY HAPPY PLACE FOR HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS IF NOT MILLIONS OF GUYS. SO MUCH BOILS DOWN TO INDIVIDUAL. TAIWAN WAS GREAT FOR ME MOST OF THE YEARS I WAS THERE. BUT IT WAS MISERABLE FOR YOU. MONKRO TOLD ME THAT HIS LAST MONTH IN TAIWAN WAS THE HAPPIEST TIME EVER IN HIS WHOLE LIFE. YOU SEE, TRUTH AND REALITY ARE IN PART RELATIVE TO THE INDIVIDUAL. WE ALL SEE THE WORLD THROUGH ARE OWN LENSE.

YOU SEEM TO HAVE SUFFERED SOME EMOTIONAL TRAUMA IN TAIWAN JUST AS YOU DID IN USA. THE GOOD NEWS IS THAT YOU CAN AND DID FIND ENVIRONMENTS WHERE YOU FIT IN A LOT BETTER. MAYBE ESTONIA, MAYBE MADAGASCAR ARE ABSOLUTE TOPS FOR YOU, WHO KNOWS? THAT'S FOR YOU TO FIGURE OUT.

BUT IN PURSUIT OF REALITY, DON'T TRY TO MAKE EVERYONE FIT INTO THE WINSTON PEG. PHILIPPINES AND RUSSIA ARE GREAT FOR SOME PEOPLE BUT TERRIBLE FOR OTHERS. IT'S NOT ACCURATE TO ASSUME THAT EVERYONE WILL EXPERIENCE EACH COUNTRY JUST AS YOU DO.

DEVELOPED NE ASIA IN GENERAL IS VERY TOUGH FOR A LOT OF WESTERNERS. IT TAKES A SPECIAL TYPE TO FIT IN LONG TERM. BUT TAIWAN IS DEFINITELY CHEAPER AND EASIER THAN S.KOREA OR JAPAN, THAT'S FOR SURE.

I can say that Taiwan is great, but it would be a lie. I can say that Taiwan is fun, but that doesn't change the fact that my only social life there is having relatives come over for dinner or taking us out to dinner for one or two hours. I mean I love my relatives, but how the f**k can that be the LIMIT of my social life there? WTF?

SAYING A PLACE IS GREAT IS AN OPINION. ITS BASED ON THE IMPRESSION OF THE ONE MAKING THE STATEMENT. IT WOULD ONLY BE A LIE IF THE PERSON SECRETLY FELT THAT THE PLACE WAS NOT GREAT.

IMAGINE A GIRL TELLS YOU SHE FINDS YOU SEXUALLY ATTRACTIVE. AS LONG AS SHE IS ATTRACTED TO YOU SEXUALLY, THEN SHE IS BEING HONEST. IT'S ONLY IF DOESN'T MEAN THAT AND IS SAYING IT FOR SOME OTHER REASON (TO MAKE YOU FEEL GOOD, TO GET SOMETHING FROM YOU, ETC.) THAT SHE IS LYING.

ANOTHER EXAMPLE IS FOOD. DIFFERENT PEOPLE LIKE DIFFERENT THINGS. SO WHAT'S GREAT FOR ONE PERSON MIGHT BE CRAP FOR ANOTHER.

I've asked my dad many times this question: "If Taiwan is so friendly, then why can't I make real friends there?" He cannot answer that. This speaks volumes.

Twisting facts doesn't change the above. Neither does being positive. The truth is the truth.

BUT SOME PEOPLE IN TAIWAN HAVE LOTS OF FRIENDS. SO IT STILL DEPENDS ON THE PERSON. MY EXES BROTHER HAS A LARGE CIRCLE OF FRIENDS AND HER DAD HAS EVEN MORE.

Actions speak louder than words. You don't live in Taiwan anymore, yet you are afraid to say anything negative about it. Others have noticed that too and found is strange. Why don't you dish out some real criticisms of Taiwan? You can't because the religious cult of Taiwan prevents you from doing so.

I LIVED IN TAIWAN BY CHOICE MORE YEARS THAN ANY OTHER COUNTRY ON THE PLANET.

Btw, what does it matter how long Bao3niang was in Taiwan for? If he says one week or one month, you will try to twist that against him and say that he wasn't there long enough in order to try to discredit his views on Taiwan. Why can't you just accept that many intelligent honest people agree with me about Taiwan being closed and weird and judgmental?

BECAUSE TO REALLY GET TO KNOW A PLACE, YOU NEED TO SPEND A LOT OF TIME LIVING THERE, NOT JUST PASSING THROUGH AS A VISITOR. LOOK AT WHAT THAT RECENT NEW POSTER HAD TO SAY ABOUT PHILIPPINES AFTER SPENDING JUST 10 DAYS HERE. HE FELT LIKE GIRLS HERE ARE LESS INTERESTED IN HIM THAN IN USA.

@Pixel--Dude , @Lucas88 , @MarcosZeitola , @publicduende , @galii :

Look at Rock's post above from long ago. It's very revealing. Notice at the top he excuses knowingly giving a false fact about the average salary in Taiwan being 100k by saying that he saw a weblink about it. This is not excusable, for a few reasons:

1. First, Rock said he lived in Taiwan for 10 years. That's a long time. He also worked as an investment banker there too, he said.

2. Second, Rock is very knowledgeable about money, finance, economics, etc. So that is his forte and area of expertise. You can see this in all his forum posts here.

3. Every average person in Taiwan knows the average salary is about 25k to 30k, in that range. So how could Rock not know given #1 and #2?

Hence there is no excuse and no way around it. Rock must have knowingly lied when you take the above 3 into account right? Just because he saw a website that said 100k doesn't excuse the above. Especially since anyone can post any false info on a website. Do you see what I mean? This is an example of what I mean when I say he's been cornered a number of times. Regardless, he definitely isn't always honest as you can see. I would say 90 percent of the time he's honest, but the other 5 or 10 percent of the time, he is probably not.

Also, he seems to utilize deception in a clumsy, reckless manner without thinking it through, as if he wanted to be caught. A good liar is calculating and makes sure their lies are consistent and plausible and don't contradict their other statements. If I were to lie, I would make sure my lies were consistent and plausible, in order to maximize my chances of getting away with it. But Rock doesn't do that for some reason. When he lies, it's like a knee jerk reaction, as if it was automatic instinct without thinking about it, as if it's in his nature to make up a lie on the spot, regardless of consequences. That's a very bad character flaw, no doubt. There's no other way to explain it. Here are two other examples:

1. One time in the forum, he tried to debate me when I said the public parks in China are much bigger than in Taiwan, which everyone knows and can see on a map. Yet he took an impossible position in trying to debate it. Normal people do not do that, they admit the obvious, especially when it's on a map. That sort of discredits him when he does that, because he has no valid point except to argue endlessly for sport, as if it's his personality to do that, and nothing more. Very annoying.

2. Last time he went to China he said he was in a small city where he was starving and couldn't find anything to eat. The thing is, the restaurant menus in China are 10 or 20 times the size of them in Taiwan, so the food choices have a lot more options and variety. And Rock likes to eat steak, which you can find anywhere, even in China. So there's no reason for him to starve. Also Chinese cooks are very flexible and skilled, so if he wanted his steak a certain way, he could have asked them to prepare it in a certain way.

The thing is, when I asked him why he didn't just order fried rice then rather than starve, he said that the Chinese restaurants there didn't have fried rice and wouldn't prepare it for him. Again that's another obvious lie. Everyone knows that any random Chinese restaurant or canteen can make fried rice if you ask them to. It's the easiest and most basic Chinese dish. Yet he said that knowing that he would be easily caught in an obvious lie, as obvious as 2+2=5, yet he didn't care. It was as if telling an obvious lie was in his personality or blood and he could not help it, nor did he care about getting caught. I don't get that. Why would anyone do that? Are there people who lie compulsively and frivolously like that even when there's no reason to lie, and don't care if they are caught? I thought only women did that? Men do it too? Is it just a bad habit they have that they can't control? Is it in their DNA or a learned behavior? How to explain this kind of character flaw? Have you guys ever met anyone that did that before?

So you see, nothing about Rock makes sense and the above definitely call into question his credibility. He will never admit to it of course since like all men, he has a big ego and pride and places them above the truth. And he sort of has that arrogance that PAG has where he says to himself "I'm the MAN!" And that's why he probably resonates with PAG even though he shouldn't.

[Winston]

Zboy, you are just staying a few days and visiting during Chinese New Year. All you can do is tourist stuff.

Winston stays mainly in the small city of Chiayi. He's had very short visits to Taichung, Kaoshuing, and Taipei. I think he lived in suburban Taipei (Tanshui) for some months back when he was 17 too.

If you don't pipeline girls in advance via websites, you probably won't be dating. Even Monkro needed time to warm up girls he succeeded with after getting their numbers. He did have some success in clubs too but I don't think that's your thing. PM him and let him advise you first hand.

Also talk to Falcon if you are interested in meeting Indos in CKS Memorial Hall, Filippinos around Datung on Chung Shan N. Rd., or both around Taipei Railway Station. He's the expert on that.

The natural beauty is more on east coast - areas like Hualian and Taitung where you not only encounter more natural wonders but also can meet many aborigines. Taiwan has 7 or 8 recognized native tribes. If you stay near Taipei, I recommend you take a full day trip to Wulai to visit and indulge in hot springs and also visit aborigine museum (there's also a lot of aborigines there too).

I hope it doesn't rain while you are there at least. Good luck and hope you can find some positives there.

BTW, last month, I hosted a couple and their son in one of the studios I have in Taipei. Here is one of the comments they sent me on Skype:

All is well! We are enjoying Taipei very much. People are great and go out of their way to help. Three people have given us their email addresses/phone numbers in case we need help.

The apartment is working out well. We have everything we need. S...... (guy in one of other rooms) is great and we get along perfectly.

Although our son has not made his flight reservations yet, he has promised to come to see us around 22 and stay a few days. We would see him more if he stayed here, so we are suggesting that to him; we shall see. He needs to go to Hualien on Jan 25, so we will go there at the same time and stay for a few days.

Changing topics: Have you been to Ye-liu, the sandstone beach? We thought it would be nice, but Lonely Planet kind of bypasses it. For you, what would the "do not miss" be in Taipei/Surroundings. We went to National Palace Museum, Longshun/Night Market on blue line north east from here, Tamsui, Elephant Mountain.

But @Rock. I have pipelined dates on dating sites in Taiwan before. They all flake out or something happens to block me from seeing them, as if the universe was against me in Taiwan and an invisible hand prevented me from doing anything. Even when a woman wants to meet me, some invisible hand seems to block me from taking action to see her.

You keep assuming that Taiwan is neutral and has no metaphysical forces. Not so. You forget that in Taiwan, there is like an INVISIBLE WALL OF ENERGY that's constantly PUSHING AGAINST ME. @Lucas88 told me that that's what happens if the egregore of a particular country or place doesn't like you. That is true. I definitely feel a WALL PUSHING AGAINST me all the time in Taiwan, as if everything I do is AGAINST THE FLOW and AGAINST THE GRAIN. It's an awful feeling, and eventually corrodes your confidence and self esteem. I'm sure all of us have felt that way at some point when we are in a place where the egregores don't like us and keep pushing against us so that we cannot do anything except basic functions.

It seems that in China for you Rock, you must have experienced the same thing. Because in China you seem to act like everything is against you and you cannot even find any food to eat. As if the egregores there don't like you too so you feel uncomfortable and get easily annoyed, just like I do in Taiwan. In Taiwan, even little things like traffic and insects flying around me annoy me more than usual. In other countries like the PH those things don't annoy me as much, because the egregores there don't keep pushing against me, so I feel far more comfortable. I know all this stuff sounds metaphysical, but I swear it's true.

Here's something interesting. When you visit me in Taiwan, Rock, I notice that when you are near me, I do NOT feel that invisible wall pushing against me anymore. It's as if your presence makes it subside, as if the egregores in Taiwan like you and aren't hard on you like they are to me, so they do not push against you like they do to me. I've definitely noticed that, hence people in Taiwan are friendlier to me when you are around. Not because you are white. It cannot be about race, because most Asians report a positive experience in Taiwan, like you do. There is like a cult like mind control in Taiwan that makes people of all races praise it as being "wonderful and friendly and beautiful". So it's not a racial thing, as you know.

But yeah, I definitely notice that when you are in Taiwan, the invisible wall that's pushing against me isn't there anymore. It seems to treat you far better than me. Even when I have a positive attitude and try to love everyone and everything, it's still against me, so there is no law of attraction where I am creating this reality, as New Agers wrongly claim.

In fact, this is the reason why I fit into Europe and Russia a lot better. Even if people there aren't as friendly as they were before, the main issue is that the egregores in those countries like me, so I have a more positive experience and luck seems to be on my side and coincidences seem to work in my favor. In other words, there isn't an invisible wall pushing against me in Russia and Europe. Hence I am free to be myself and use my charm and flirtation to try to pick up girls, or talk to strangers, without feeling like it's illegal or against the flow. To me that's REAL FREEDOM. Do you see what I mean? It's a big difference. A VERY BIG difference. This is something PRICELESS and beyond words. If you don't experience it you can't understand what I mean.

The wall only pushes against me in Taiwan and the USA. That's why I feel social anxiety in these two countries, because everything I do feels like it's against the flow and against the grain, as if it's illegal and I am only allowed to keep to myself. As if something is off and does not flow. Do you see my point? I'm sure many here can relate to what I'm saying.

The thing is Rock, when you are in China you also seem uncomfortable and complain about every little thing as if the flow there is against you. But for me, in China the flow is neutral. It's not against me as much, nor is it for me. So I felt freer in China than in Taiwan or USA. Because I don't feel like something is constantly pushing against me.

This is an important key point that I didn't know how to explain before and couldn't put into words. So I hope this makes sense. My friend @Lucas88 said he experienced this in Spain too as opposed to the UK.

[Winston]

3. One more weird example. One time I told him that I always see vehicle and scooter accidents in Taiwan. Even back in the 1980s you would see them frequently on the side of the road. Very nasty collision and accident scenes on the side of the road with police and ambulance at the scene. This suggests Taiwanese are terrible drivers of course. However, in the Philippines I've never seen any collisions or accident scenes like that. Maybe only once or twice since 2006. But virtually never as far as I can remember. This suggests Filipinos are much better drivers than Taiwanese are. But again when I told this to Rock, he started debating me and saying that online statistics show that the car accident rate per capita in Taiwan and the Philippines is about the same. Well I don't care what websites say. Any site can say anything. What I know is what I see with my own eyes. I never see nasty road accidents in the PH but in TW I see them all the time, and have seen them since I was a teenager visiting TW in the 1980s. So I know what I see. The difference is huge. Yet Rock again likes to argue and cites online statistics as proof, as if I'm going to belief something on a website rather than what I see and experience in reality. Yeah right. I'm not that stupid fortunately.

@publicduende and @MarcosZeitola have you noticed this too? That you never see collisions and car accidents on the side of the road in the PH? It does seem that in some countries people are a lot better at driving and in a zen like zone than others. Vietnam is like this too, you never see collisions. There's like a harmony there that doesn't exist in USA or Taiwan. I've definitely noticed that. So again, why is Rock trying to debate this by citing some dumb websites that show that I'm wrong? I know what I see everyday. A website doesn't prove or disprove anything. Text on a screen is just text. It definitely doesn't trump what I see in real life. Anyone can lie, especially online, as we all know.

[publicduende]

3. One more weird example. One time I told him that I always see vehicle and scooter accidents in Taiwan. Even back in the 1980s you would see them frequently on the side of the road. Very nasty collision and accident scenes on the side of the road with police and ambulance at the scene. This suggests Taiwanese are terrible drivers of course. However, in the Philippines I've never seen any collisions or accident scenes like that. Maybe only once or twice since 2006. But virtually never as far as I can remember. This suggests Filipinos are much better drivers than Taiwanese are. But again when I told this to Rock, he started debating me and saying that online statistics show that the car accident rate per capita in Taiwan and the Philippines is about the same. Well I don't care what websites say. Any site can say anything. What I know is what I see with my own eyes. I never see nasty road accidents in the PH but in TW I see them all the time, and have seen them since I was a teenager visiting TW in the 1980s. So I know what I see. The difference is huge. Yet Rock again likes to argue and cites online statistics as proof, as if I'm going to belief something on a website rather than what I see and experience in reality. Yeah right. I'm not that stupid fortunately.

@publicduende and @MarcosZeitola have you noticed this too? That you never see collisions and car accidents on the side of the road in the PH? It does seem that in some countries people are a lot better at driving and in a zen like zone than others. Vietnam is like this too, you never see collisions. There's like a harmony there that doesn't exist in USA or Taiwan. I've definitely noticed that. So again, why is Rock trying to debate this by citing some dumb websites that show that I'm wrong? I know what I see everyday. A website doesn't prove or disprove anything. Text on a screen is just text. It definitely doesn't trump what I see in real life. Anyone can lie, especially online, as we all know.

I can't make statistics about Taiwan, as I have only been in Taipei and for a few days. Whenever we went out, we always took the subway or a Grab car. In the little time my wife and I spent overground, looking from our Grab car window or walking, we never saw an accident.

Curiously enough for the topic, we were indirectly involved in an accident while in Bangkok. We were going back from the riverfront area back to Sukhumvit, where our hotel was, on a dimly-lit part of the road, when a scooter with 3 kids appeared out of nowhere and the taxi smashed into them. The kids flew several meters away, luckily in an area with some grass and soft soil. All of them were semi-conscious and one of them were bleeding copiously. It wasn't long before a small crowd of curious people assembled around the scene. The taxi driver immediately called the ambulance and the police, and so must have done some of the passer-bys. Within less than 30 minutes, two police patrols (on motorcycle) and two different ambulances arrived. The ambulances looked brand news, clean and state of the art. The procedure they used to immobilise the kids, put them on emergency stretchers one by one and board them on the ambulance rear looked impeccable. C and I were truly impressed. Had it been London or Italy, an ambulance would have never arrived, or would have taken more than an hour to get there.

About the Philippines, accidents in urban areas tend to be fewer for the simple reason that the crippling traffic just doesn't allow any vehicle to go fast. The faster roads where a maximum speed of 60 Khm is observed, or the highways, are only meant for cars and heavy vehicles, so the chance of accidents involving lighter vehicles like motorcycles is reduced.

Accidents do happen, though. It is only a coincidence that, in my years both in Davao and Manila, I never saw an accident. Some people I know haven't been that lucky. One of the the guys working in my woodworking shop saw a body cut in half after an accident and got so traumatized, he doesn't want to learn how to drive.

All in all, I don't think Filipinos are particularly disciplined drivers. There is a sense of entitlement from some commercial drivers, especially taxi and jeepney drivers, that they should be given more leeway to break the rules just because they're always on the road, as if they owned it. One thing that is actually reducing accidents, at least in Manila, is the Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) finally waking up to the fact that car fines can be a good method to raise money. All the main roads now have MMDA traffic enforcers and they are very keen to give car fines for even the smallest violations.

Of course, Philippine mentality at work here, many of them are eminently bribable: they are happy to get a P1000 bill for themselves and let go, rather than give a P4000 fine payable at the City Hall.

[publicduende]

@Pixel--Dude , @Lucas88 , @MarcosZeitola , @publicduende , @galii :

Look at Rock's post above from long ago. It's very revealing. Notice at the top he excuses knowingly giving a false fact about the average salary in Taiwan being 100k by saying that he saw a weblink about it. This is not excusable, for a few reasons:

1. First, Rock said he lived in Taiwan for 10 years. That's a long time. He also worked as an investment banker there too, he said.

2. Second, Rock is very knowledgeable about money, finance, economics, etc. So that is his forte and area of expertise. You can see this in all his forum posts here.

3. Every average person in Taiwan knows the average salary is about 25k to 30k, in that range. So how could Rock not know given #1 and #2?

Hence there is no excuse and no way around it. Rock must have knowingly lied when you take the above 3 into account right? Just because he saw a website that said 100k doesn't excuse the above. Especially since anyone can post any false info on a website. Do you see what I mean? This is an example of what I mean when I say he's been cornered a number of times. Regardless, he definitely isn't always honest as you can see. I would say 90 percent of the time he's honest, but the other 5 or 10 percent of the time, he is probably not.

Also, he seems to utilize deception in a clumsy, reckless manner without thinking it through, as if he wanted to be caught. A good liar is calculating and makes sure their lies are consistent and plausible and don't contradict their other statements. If I were to lie, I would make sure my lies were consistent and plausible, in order to maximize my chances of getting away with it. But Rock doesn't do that for some reason. When he lies, it's like a knee jerk reaction, as if it was automatic instinct without thinking about it, as if it's in his nature to make up a lie on the spot, regardless of consequences. That's a very bad character flaw, no doubt. There's no other way to explain it. Here are two other examples:

1. One time in the forum, he tried to debate me when I said the public parks in China are much bigger than in Taiwan, which everyone knows and can see on a map. Yet he took an impossible position in trying to debate it. Normal people do not do that, they admit the obvious, especially when it's on a map. That sort of discredits him when he does that, because he has no valid point except to argue endlessly for sport, as if it's his personality to do that, and nothing more. Very annoying.

2. Last time he went to China he said he was in a small city where he was starving and couldn't find anything to eat. The thing is, the restaurant menus in China are 10 or 20 times the size of them in Taiwan, so the food choices have a lot more options and variety. And Rock likes to eat steak, which you can find anywhere, even in China. So there's no reason for him to starve. Also Chinese cooks are very flexible and skilled, so if he wanted his steak a certain way, he could have asked them to prepare it in a certain way.

The thing is, when I asked him why he didn't just order fried rice then rather than starve, he said that the Chinese restaurants there didn't have fried rice and wouldn't prepare it for him. Again that's another obvious lie. Everyone knows that any random Chinese restaurant or canteen can make fried rice if you ask them to. It's the easiest and most basic Chinese dish. Yet he said that knowing that he would be easily caught in an obvious lie, as obvious as 2+2=5, yet he didn't care. It was as if telling an obvious lie was in his personality or blood and he could not help it, nor did he care about getting caught. I don't get that. Why would anyone do that? Are there people who lie compulsively and frivolously like that even when there's no reason to lie, and don't care if they are caught? I thought only women did that? Men do it too? Is it just a bad habit they have that they can't control? Is it in their DNA or a learned behavior? How to explain this kind of character flaw? Have you guys ever met anyone that did that before?

So you see, nothing about Rock makes sense and the above definitely call into question his credibility. He will never admit to it of course since like all men, he has a big ego and pride and places them above the truth. And he sort of has that arrogance that PAG has where he says to himself "I'm the MAN!" And that's why he probably resonates with PAG even though he shouldn't.

I don't think I can report reliable data from Taiwan based on a single, 5-day visit to Taipei. The little C and I saw about Taipei and its people, we thoroughly liked. Having been to Japan several times and passionate about Japanese culture and society, we could clearly see aspects like cleanliness, perfectionism and work ethics belonging more to Japan than mainland China.

One example: I bought a very expensive ($10,000) PC workstation from a local shop, because I realised I could save at least 30% on certain components, compared to buying them in Manila. I found the right shop and was promptly routed to virtually the only guy who could speak fluent English. This guy spent more than 2 hours with me, he event came up to the lab where PCs were built, to ensure all the parts were there and functioning. He even added me on FB to ensure that I could always communicate with him when needed.

Now, based on what I saw, would I want to live in Taipei instead of Manila? Hell yes! It's probably the closest one can live to Japan, without paying Japanese prices. While this is nothing more than a gut feeling, I don't think Taiwanese people are unfriendly. If they need to help, if anything because of professional duty, they do help above and beyond what you would see in Europe or obviously the Philippines. They come across as "functionally" friendly and competent. This, though, does not mean that they can instantly become your best buddies and hang out with you just because you're a new face, or a white face.

They're a bit like the Japanese in this sense. They behave in a competent, disciplined, professional way and then return to their social bubbles.

[galii]

@Winston

I trust Rock more than I do you. You did not present official data on salary. It looks like he did. So you lose again.

[Natural_Born_Cynic]

Taiwan is alright with me. They make good electronics and one of few countries that make microchips by this company TSMC.
I find that unlike my fellow South Koreans, Taiwanese doesn't have that fast paced, aggressive, competitive, jealous, cunning asshole, Machiavellian streak with a nice mixed of psychopathy and "schadenfreude" like the Koreans. I find Taiwanese people much more pleasant than the Koreans despite their empty soulless, NPC characteristics and despite how Winston think of his fellow countrymen. If Winston have traveled and lived in South Korea and then lived in Taiwan, then he would see his country in more positive light.