Joined California about a week ago and thought I’d update this thread. For background, I’m pretty hardcore about going to the gym, and am usually there about 6-7 days per week doing weights and cardio.
I’m staying in a hotel somewhat near Tapei main station while I look for an apt, so I walked into the CA gym there. The salesguy was named “Johnny,” and his english was fairly good. He wanted to take me on a tour of the gym, but I told him I had been in CA gyms before and just wanted to work out the details of membership (I hate going on gym tours). Johnny asked where, b/c he could waive the joining fee if I was in their computer system. I said it had been a while ago in Hong Kong (late 90s), and then 24-hour fitness in the U.S… However, I had been in Portugal for the last two years (different gyms there) and so had no recent contact with CA and likely wasn’t in their system.
Johnny said no problem, he would waive the start up fee anyway. We ended up with a NT500 “processing fee,” which I probably could have gotten waived, and NT2000/month, with a one year contact. I didn’t bother to bargain at all. My overall feeling was that I was willing to spend US$60-70/month for a gym, especially since I was spending US$90/month in Portugal, so as long as CA came within that price range, I would be satisfied. Plus, Johnny wasn’t giving me the high-pressure pitch, which put me in a good mood.
I asked Johnny to mark my map with locations. He marked the one on Zhongxiao east, west (the one we were in), one near the Ximen subway stop, and one up in Tianmu. I think that was it…there might have been another one, but Johnny was a bit too worried about defacing my map and made really, really tiny Xs.
Johnny gave me a membership card immediately, and I’ve had no problem using it in the past week. So far, the staff seems friendly (people at the front desk and the towel people), and the instructors haven’t bothered me at all (although this could be b/c I work out with headphones on, which makes me less approachable). My pet peeve about being in a gym is crowds/not waiting around for equipment, and there is enough of a selection of that I can usually find something open.
As others have mentioned, downside so far has been that the music is really, really loud. I usually listen to audiobooks or music when I work out, and I’ve almost given up b/c I’m worried about long-term damage to my ears…I’ve got to turn up the volume to the max on my mp3 player to hear anything. It’s especially bad when they have this live DJ guy in there. I’ve seen him twice so far (I think it was Thursday nights), and the music volume easily becomes twice as loud when he’s around.
Re sanitary conditions, my gym in Portugal was spotless…cleaning crews constantly moving through the place and doing a really good job. But then, that gym didn’t get the volume of people that CA does here. Overall, the men’s locker room main area isn’t that bad. However, the bathroom has a constant smell, and it always looks like a typhoon just hit …tons of water everywhere, on the sinks and the floor. I haven’t used the showers yet b/c I usually just walk back to the hotel and shower there. Once I move into a more permanent place, I’ll still probably try to avoid showering at the gym if I can make it home.
Leo0808
