In 2013, I tracked nearly every bowl of noodle soup I consumed. Oodles of Noodles, aka my most boring blog ever. A highly debatable title of course. Anyway, if I were to undergo the same project here, I would be posting like every other day. Since returning to Taipei, I think I went to the beef noodle spot by my house three times, including today.
And then we did a day time trip to Ximending, Taiwan’s Times Square. Daisy’s cousin went shopping for Jordans and I picked up a floral brimmed Obey hat that would eventually become like daily wear. There are quite a few street brands here that I’m not sure why they’re so popular — Supreme, for one — and most of it I would never consider wearing in the U.S. but here they mean nothing. Just a word on a piece of clothing. So, Obey it is.
After a quick bite of Ay-Chung’s popular four rice noodles, we ducked into a many floored building selling a variety of merchandise, including quite a few toy stores. On the fifth floor was also an arcade, and I remembered how most of my time during Taiwan summers was spent in arcades. It didn’t even occur to me that I hadn’t seen them yet, on any of the previous trips. I was told that most of the arcades have been shut down, and the ones that remain are a pale shadow of their former selves. Maybe gangsters hung out there? I don’t know. The spectre of “gangsters” seem to lurk over a lot of things, past and present. I, for one, can’t identify any local gangsters, and it seems like Taipei has been cleaned up Giuliani-style.
And then, after a non-stop first week, it was time to take a break for one last night out. Daisy was leaving on Thursday so tonight was a trip to Luxy, the club that most say started the megaclub scene in Taipei. Located right next to the Zhongxiao Dunhua station, off the blue line and in front of the hipster-ish area, Luxy is a behemoth of a club and Wednesday was ladies night.
We made a point to arrive early, like eleven, to fend off sleepiness and de-motivation, and anticipating some difficulty in getting in. However, once we had our IDs checked and paid up — $NT700 for boys — we were whisked up immediately. Getting off the elevator, we were greeted by a lobby full of green lasers that scream “Facebook profile pics, here here!” As far as identifying gimmicks go, the laser lobby is pretty awesome.
Once inside, Luxy consisted of a number of smaller areas plus a huge main room. Unfortunately, all the side stuff was closed so it was just the main space, which was a large round bar surrounded by booths. (I’m trying to think when the last time I was in a club club of this size. Maybe 2011 Vegas?)
For a so-called “ladies night,” there was basically no ladies there. And up until 1AM, the dance floor was completely empty save the occasional daring couple. Yawn city. By 2AM however, the crowd got enough alcohol in them to start dancing and by the time the Luxy girls came out, the place was popping. Sidenote: The Luxy girls can’t dance, as they mostly just come out and kind of strut around. The Luxy boys, in outfits resembling the albino Twins from Matrix Reloaded, plus laser flinging hands, were far more impressive.
The music was a constant boop boop of house and techno stuff but it worked. By 3AM, Luxy was in full gear and we were waving the light sticks around. And then, the cops came. The lights came on, everyone was told to sit tight, and for the next forty minutes we sat around while the police took their time checking IDs. I was under the impression that this was a safety thing, but as explained to me, it was mostly a show of force by the police. It clearly didn’t take that long to check a few hundred IDs but the cops took their time. There were a few people who complained and tried to sort of start their own party, and of course they were expats. (I basically use “expat” as a pejorative which I’ll get into some other time.) Anyway, there’s no buzzkill like freezing air conditioning blowing on you at 4AM so after the ID check, we were out of there.
And then we did a day time trip to Ximending, Taiwan’s Times Square. Daisy’s cousin went shopping for Jordans and I picked up a floral brimmed Obey hat that would eventually become like daily wear. There are quite a few street brands here that I’m not sure why they’re so popular — Supreme, for one — and most of it I would never consider wearing in the U.S. but here they mean nothing. Just a word on a piece of clothing. So, Obey it is.
After a quick bite of Ay-Chung’s popular four rice noodles, we ducked into a many floored building selling a variety of merchandise, including quite a few toy stores. On the fifth floor was also an arcade, and I remembered how most of my time during Taiwan summers was spent in arcades. It didn’t even occur to me that I hadn’t seen them yet, on any of the previous trips. I was told that most of the arcades have been shut down, and the ones that remain are a pale shadow of their former selves. Maybe gangsters hung out there? I don’t know. The spectre of “gangsters” seem to lurk over a lot of things, past and present. I, for one, can’t identify any local gangsters, and it seems like Taipei has been cleaned up Giuliani-style.
And then, after a non-stop first week, it was time to take a break for one last night out. Daisy was leaving on Thursday so tonight was a trip to Luxy, the club that most say started the megaclub scene in Taipei. Located right next to the Zhongxiao Dunhua station, off the blue line and in front of the hipster-ish area, Luxy is a behemoth of a club and Wednesday was ladies night.
We made a point to arrive early, like eleven, to fend off sleepiness and de-motivation, and anticipating some difficulty in getting in. However, once we had our IDs checked and paid up — $NT700 for boys — we were whisked up immediately. Getting off the elevator, we were greeted by a lobby full of green lasers that scream “Facebook profile pics, here here!” As far as identifying gimmicks go, the laser lobby is pretty awesome.
Once inside, Luxy consisted of a number of smaller areas plus a huge main room. Unfortunately, all the side stuff was closed so it was just the main space, which was a large round bar surrounded by booths. (I’m trying to think when the last time I was in a club club of this size. Maybe 2011 Vegas?)
For a so-called “ladies night,” there was basically no ladies there. And up until 1AM, the dance floor was completely empty save the occasional daring couple. Yawn city. By 2AM however, the crowd got enough alcohol in them to start dancing and by the time the Luxy girls came out, the place was popping. Sidenote: The Luxy girls can’t dance, as they mostly just come out and kind of strut around. The Luxy boys, in outfits resembling the albino Twins from Matrix Reloaded, plus laser flinging hands, were far more impressive.
The music was a constant boop boop of house and techno stuff but it worked. By 3AM, Luxy was in full gear and we were waving the light sticks around. And then, the cops came. The lights came on, everyone was told to sit tight, and for the next forty minutes we sat around while the police took their time checking IDs. I was under the impression that this was a safety thing, but as explained to me, it was mostly a show of force by the police. It clearly didn’t take that long to check a few hundred IDs but the cops took their time. There were a few people who complained and tried to sort of start their own party, and of course they were expats. (I basically use “expat” as a pejorative which I’ll get into some other time.) Anyway, there’s no buzzkill like freezing air conditioning blowing on you at 4AM so after the ID check, we were out of there.