I was in Taiwan for a week, having stopped there on the way to Cambodia, but only to change flights. Whilst in Taiwan, I did a few touristy things, like going to the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall and the Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall, but I was really there to see if I could live there. I looked for jobs and spoke to many people about working in Taiwan, but decided to return home as I had run out of money and needed a break from being abroad.

My notes on trying to find a job in Taiwan are as follows:

1. go to the country that you want to apply for a job in
2. get a local SIM card, so that you have a local telephone number. This can be used on your CV and the phone can be used to chase up enquiries cheaply
3. give yourself plenty of time
4. find someone who can speak and read Chinese. They will need to help with everything, from registering on job-searching websites to understanding what the phone messages say when you ring up your prospective companies
5. speak to the consulate (if possible)
6. speak to local expatriates (if possible)
7. register and apply for jobs on popular job-search websites. The one I had recommended to me repeatedly was: http://www.104.com.tw/. This is the most popular job-searching website in Taiwan and any jobs that require English will be listed in English
8. try looking for English-speaking companies that have offices in Taiwan
9. consider using teaching as a stop-gap/temporary solution. It may be a case of finding a job that you don’t want to do, in order to allow yourself to get set up and search for a job that you do want to do. The process could take a couple of months.

Many jobs in Taiwan seem to be based on a system of referrals and networking, probably based on the Chinese concept of ‘guanxi‘, but it is possible to find jobs yourself. Bear in mind that I only spent a week job-hunting in Taiwan, so these are the things I learnt in that time.

Whilst in Taiwan I also did some other cool stuff, like visiting the Taipei 101 tower and eating a shaved-ice dessert. The last day I was there was also the national Dragon Boat Festival, so almost everyone had the day off and there were dragon boat races on the Tamsui River. It was very good, but rained a lot.

I popped back to Cambodia for a week to see a friend I had made whilst I was there for a few weeks the first time. If you want any more information on that, you will have to ask me!

I got to Sydney on a comfortable if not slightly boring train ride from Canberra. The train arrived on time, got cleaned and after a friendly (and talkative) train network operator man sold me a ticket, the train departed. The train had everything; comfy seats, lots of space and cheap food. I had a salmon wrap and fruit salad, which was relatively inexpensive, given the prices elsewhere in Australia. I got to Sydney several hours later and began my search for a hostel.

I decided to go for another recommendation from the guy on the India Pacific train, which hadn’t been bad so far. Before that though, I decided to check out one YHA hostel that I had seen advertised in Canberra, but the suffocating dullness and that fact that they treated you more as business opportunities and not paying guests put me off. I went to that bloke’s recommendation, which was in the red light district.

I spent 2 days in Sydney, exploring the harbour area and the city itself. Most things I seemed to do seemed to revolve around the harbour area, which included the Vivid digital art/light festival, walking and going to the theatre. I went to enquire about visas to Taiwan, went in search of theatre tickets and walked around the Royal Botanic Gardens, watching the sun set over the harbour bridge. It seemed a fitting way to end my trip.

The journey to Canberra involved an 8 hour bus journey through the very attractive-looking Australian countryside. It looked best during sunset, when the light changed and you could see the shadows of the trees through all of the forests that you passed through. I didn’t really have much to keep myself occupied, but in the end I didn’t need it.

The options for Canberra were a train and a bus ($53.80), a bus ($80) or the train ($91.20). The travelling times for these were 8h15m, 9h15m and 11h30m respectively, so naturally I got the cheapest, which also happened to be the fastest. The train had been changed for a bus, so all you had to do was change buses in Albury and the job was a good one. Eight hours and 15 minutes later I was in Canberra.

It was very cold in Canberra and I ended up having to wrap-up in order to go out and get something to eat. This meant digging my fleecy-top out of my bag and using my kagoul to try and keep the wind out. It worked and I ended up walking around like this for the next few days.

The time during my day in Canberra was spent running errands and going to look at the Parliament House, which is equivalent to the Houses of Parliament in the UK. Luckily, here, they had question time and this was televised, with the political leaders asking and answering questions, including the prime minister, Julia Gillard. I was very pleased to have stumbled across this and wandered back to the hostel, passing the lake and some scenic stuff.

I got back and tried to organise some cultural stuff, but nothing was on, so I ended up going to the supermarket and making my own dinner, which wasn’t particularly exciting, but was cheaper than eating out.

To see next time (possibly): The National Film and Sound Archive.