Alien’s post about eateries on Shida Road just made me nostalgic for the days when it was lined with tanzi and chock-a-block with people.
I mean who remembers Top now ? Does anyone still have a Top T-shirt ?
Sad Git
Never had a Top T-shirt, but I definitely have very hazy memories of the place. Who was the guy who ran the place-Marco?
I used to have one, but it got covered in puke one night on the roof of AC-DC so I tossed it.
They were jaggedy-a**e things anyway, all polyester and very tight. It was widely belived that it was all arranged so that Marco could see a load of blokes getting their tops off…! (If you remember you only got one if you changed into it there and then)
Hexuan
Yeah, a nostalgia forum sounds fun. Who remembers the ugly, boxy old Taipei Train Station, the tracks running through the city, the shantytown Ta-an park is now, the student protests in early 1990 at CKS Hall…
Or we could go back a ways and see who remembers the West Gate and the original city walls
And who remembers the first time they were conned by Jenny Lai ?
I miss the old Chunghwa bazaar, but that’s been gone for like 15 years now…and what are these animal pictures doing on my money??
I miss the way my friends took 2 buses to get me a McDonald’s meal for my birthday when I turned 19…there was only 1 McDonald’s in the city then, no Starbucks, no Burger Kings, nuttin’.
A question – is the famous “David” who lives on Lishui St. and tries to rent rooms to foreigners now gone, or does he live on? They used to mention him in the Shita orientation to prevent students from losing their room deposits with him…don’t know if he qualifies as “nostalgia” but at the time almost all the foreigners in the area knew about him.
Terry
He probably is you know, I couldn’t believe it when I read on some other forum the other day about some poor schmuck being led up the garden path by Jenny Lai - I remember her from 10 years ago ! If she’s still going, then I bet “David” is too. Maybe they got married.
Terry how long have you been in Taipei ? Did you go to TAS ?
Hexuan
Sure I remember the old railway tracks and the Chunghwa bazaar – its where I got my first saxophone.
How about the original AC/DC in Kungkuang? Or Birdland?
Or getting busted by the garrison command for dancing in a dance club? You whingeing pups moaning about the cops busting the ecstacy clubs… ye don’t know yer born, I tell ye… Ooooh, me rheumaticks are playing up agin… where’s me geritol?
Ah, the Chunghwa market. I remember it well…specifically the great deals you could find there, especially in its later days just before they tore it down.
I don’t remember any Jenny Lai, though. Who’s she?
Hehehehe A few weeks ago I was mocked for calling it “the new train station”.
I remember driving my friend’s beemer at 140kph or so over the Dunhua South Road overpass that took you over the tracks and getting some air… Whoo-hooo!
I remember U2 disco and Rock City on the corner of Zhongxiao and Dunhua, Buffalo Town on Linsen North Road, and Whiskey A Go-Go with the “Absolut” swimming pool…
I remember that bit of road. I could get airborn on my motorcycle at any speed above 50kph on that thing. I made a point of going that way just so I could jump those tracks.
First time I took off there I was totally wasted and wasn’t expecting it.
Was left with a giant skidmark and it wasn’t on the road.
This is great. Keep 'em coming!
(I’m a wee bitty worried, though – what if all these long-repressed hideous memories start to come to the surface? I’m pretty sure there are many, many Taiwan incidents that I’ve managed to bury in my subconcious – the Dunhua overpass story actually brought back another forgotten memory, one that I have absolutely NO intention of disclosing here! )
Anyone remember the Taipei version of the Goddess of Democracy that was erected in CKS Memorial Park in 1989? I remember how serious everyone was back then. I even gave blood for the cause but I have no idea if it ever made it across the strait. I don’t think that the massacre of students in Beijing would raise the same feelings of solidarity now that it did then.
I was in Taichung, at Tunghai University at that time, and we had a white Goddess of Democracy statue set up near the University Library. About a month or two after 6/4 I walked up there to find it smashed to bits and strewn all over the place.
We did make a special trip up to Taipei for the 1990 protests, though.
Wow! Talk about a blast from the past. I moved into “David’s” smallest room during my first winter in Taiwan – a froze my buns off. I’ll never forget it because when I was there, he threw a fit because someone didn’t clean the squatter toilet properly (it wasn’t me, honest!). I lasted 4 months, but only becuase I felt bad for the guy (talk about a bad disposition). Plus a room opened up with friends nearby.
Hmmn, a nostalgia forum? I didn’t thought I’d been here long enough to wax nostalgic about Taiwan. Nevertheless, we are trying to keep the number of forums down. Couldn’t such discussions be safely kept in, well, Living in Taiwan or Misc?
Good idea. I also think this belongs in the Living in Taiwan forum.
This thread is for people(4 of you) who want to brag about how long they have been here!!!
Oh my god! You are correct! How terribly impolite of us. We should put a stop to this obvious breach of etiquette immediately, lest we offend those who might take umbrage at our arrogance. Please accept our humble apologies and assurances that we will try to refrain from mentioning our -how shall I put this?- somewhat lengthy tenure on this fair island.
Yeah, Top! Mmmm…The good old days, right?
Doesn’t anyone remember the ‘butthole clinics’?
The balding mangey dogs with oozing sores, the beerhouses where Taan Park stands, the beerhouses where Takashimaya stands in Tienmu, buskers in the tunnels–particularly ‘the nutter’ (i’ve heard he still appears around town once in a while!), the clothing styles of daysgoneby–ie>ladies in flouncy dresses and all the guys in high-waisted trousers with playboy belts, the piles of garbage, no bus lanes or mrts, the Dunkin Donuts in Tienmu, the creep Brad from YES English school who stole all the money and skipped town, the rifled guards, the toll for crossing Chungcheng Bridge…Taipei sure has changed…but we’re all still the same?