[quote=“Mucha (Muzha) Man”][quote=“bushibanned”]and let’s not even start on the lesbian scene here…
reason #321 why I won’t be a lifer here.[/quote]
I’m not sure I understand this. Are you saying the lesbian scene is bad?[/quote]
not so much bad as pathetic. ok, i guess that constitutes as bad. For the local women it’s hip happening… but the biggest lesbians bars in Taipei are located in dank mouldy basments with little to no ventillation. you pay a high cover, get unlimited draft, wait in line for the loo for ages while butch women hold their femme girls hair back while she pukes her brain out. there is actually one bar that put a sign in chinese saying not to puke in the sink, but rather in toilet… and this is the same place that doesn’t even offer bottled water for sale.
i’m not much into the local crew… bizarre interest in strict gender roles and most of them dress like little boys (baseball caps, saggy jeans…)
just not my scene at all. fortunately i have fairly large group of western women as well as some really cool taiwanese women.
i guess gay culture varies in each culture. i don’t want to spend my weekends in a stinky basement with 400 rugrats runnin’ around bopping to techo.
[quote=“bushibanned”][quote=“Mucha (Muzha) (Muzha) Man”][quote=“bushibanned”]and let’s not even start on the lesbian scene here…
reason #321 why I won’t be a lifer here.[/quote]
I’m not sure I understand this. Are you saying the lesbian scene is bad?[/quote]
not so much bad as pathetic. ok, I guess that constitutes as bad. For the local women it’s hip happening… but the biggest lesbians bars in Taipei are located in dank mouldy basments with little to no ventillation. you pay a high cover, get unlimited draft, wait in line for the loo for ages while butch women hold their femme girls hair back while she pukes her brain out. there is actually one bar that put a sign in Chinese saying not to puke in the sink, but rather in toilet… and this is the same place that doesn’t even offer bottled water for sale.
I’m not much into the local crew… bizarre interest in strict gender roles and most of them dress like little boys (baseball caps, saggy jeans…)
just not my scene at all. fortunately I have fairly large group of western women as well as some really cool Taiwanese women.
I guess gay culture varies in each culture. I don’t want to spend my weekends in a stinky basement with 400 rugrats runnin’ around bopping to techo.[/quote]
I agree with many of those, but certainly not all. Jaysus where do you hang out? Go to Orlando in Shida.
What I wanted to say before I got sidetracked, is, for a warm blanket, Ikea isn’t bad. Some nightmarkets also have quite good fare, especially now that the seson has changed.
So what you’re saying is there are a lot of hot lesbians in Orlando? :homer:[/quote]
No, I’m saying it’s a classy joint. So unlike the previously described places, and the food is good, and the company, without fail. And I’m not even lesbian.
One of the better places I’ve been invited to, and I don’t even mean just Taipei.
Well it doesn’t work for me and I’m a guy.
Maybe it’s because I’m a balding chronic underachieving opiniated alcoholic.
Naa- there’s got to be a better reason than that.
[quote=“bushibanned”][quote=“Mucha (Muzha) (Muzha) Man”][quote=“bushibanned”]and let’s not even start on the lesbian scene here…
reason #321 why I won’t be a lifer here.[/quote]
I’m not sure I understand this. Are you saying the lesbian scene is bad?[/quote]
not so much bad as pathetic. ok, I guess that constitutes as bad. For the local women it’s hip happening… but the biggest lesbians bars in Taipei are located in dank mouldy basments with little to no ventillation. you pay a high cover, get unlimited draft, wait in line for the loo for ages while butch women hold their femme girls hair back while she pukes her brain out. there is actually one bar that put a sign in Chinese saying not to puke in the sink, but rather in toilet… and this is the same place that doesn’t even offer bottled water for sale.
I’m not much into the local crew… bizarre interest in strict gender roles and most of them dress like little boys (baseball caps, saggy jeans…)
just not my scene at all. fortunately I have fairly large group of western women as well as some really cool Taiwanese women.
I guess gay culture varies in each culture. I don’t want to spend my weekends in a stinky basement with 400 rugrats runnin’ around bopping to techo.[/quote]
A bar full of lesbians where you get unlimited draft AND can puke in the
sink? sounds great! Can I go? Where is it?
[quote]
Do people understand the reasons for so many coffee shops in Taiwan/Taipei? It’s expressly for the picking up and picked up crowds. This is a case where “being native” is a really beneficial thing [/quote]
Recomend any branches? Haha, I used to hang out at the Starbucks a lot down the road from the Main Station and never experienced any of this unspoken undercurrent of hotness I’m reading about - Although this one time I got approached by a local when I was reading a book and failed miserably to translate what ‘The World According to Garp’ was about, he buggered off pretty sharpish when he found out I was a bit of a di-neng idiot of a low mental grade with English-accented Mandarin.
The other time was when an Aussie Krsna hassled me and my Taiwanese friend hard to get us to take ‘the Book’ in the most condesceding (but perfect Chinese) ever and the pick-up ended rather badly when he got told by my friend to take his ‘ISKCON crap back to convict-land’.
Someone will have to point me in the direction of the proper easy-going ‘meat market’ Starbucks/house of cha’s where people are clearly thinking of writhing bodies as they get their macchiato re-fills.
I wasn’t a player at all when I was living in Taiwan, but… there was this one time…
Waiting for the 292 bus in Ting-Hao. A cute woman and I exchanged smiles. She was about 25 and seemed to be an office worker heading home a bit late (8:30pm or so). We both kept on casting glances, and then exchanged smiles again. I went over and introduced myself. She was very sweet and not at all shy. We started to chat. A bus went buy, then my bus and hers, we kept chatting. Not sure how, but very soon the conversation turned to relationships and then sex. (And really, I was not on the prowl, and don’t make a habit of chatting up women on the street). She allowed as how she had become mind numbingly bored with her boyfriend, and I that my girlfriend and I had recently accomplished a long overdue break up. Our eyes kept on locking, the attraction sizziling. Then we were in eachothers arms kissing, as commuters flowed around us to get on and off buses.
We started to walk hand and hand, pausing in the shadows every block or so to exchange feverish kisses and caresses. We made our way to Sun Yat Sen park and ended up pleasing eachother like furtive highschoolers behind some bushes, as grandparents pushed kiddies in strollers, vendors hawked sausages, and less adventureous couples clasped hands on benches nearby. She cried softly on my shoulder after she came. We chatted a bit more about the lifecycle of love affairs and about lonlieness and how hornyness can drive you mad. Then we hugged and said goodbye without exchanging names or numbers.
I rode home on the 292 with the scent of her all around me, and the feel of her burning in my head.
In my 12 years in the ROC there were other experiences like this. Totally spontaneous, very tender, and totally evenescant. Not drunken bar hookups, just magical chance encounters.
In Taiwan, love is defintely in the air sometimes, and surprises happen.
[quote=“Notsu”]
But of course, lucky me, my marital status gives me a chance to pretend that I’m not half as desperate as some other people here [/quote]
Being married seems to be a magnet. Because you’re officially off limits, flirting is safe, and so married people (the ones that are still attractive, I’m not talking middle-aged wrinkly tai-tais here) give and receive a lot of flirting. I guess the woman with the baby figured that it was cool to smile and come on ultrafriendly to me, because, I mean, she has a baby, it’s not like I’m going to come on to a woman obviously spoken for.
If you’re a guy, the best babe magnet is a wedding ring. I’m not particularly “desperate” right now, but if I was, I’d wear a fake one around just to draw bees to honey.
The best babe magnet, apart from charm, good looks, wit and intellect is a Labrador Retriever. I’m serious. Get one, train it well, and take it for a walk anywhere there might be lots of people. Women will come running to talk to you. :scooby: My wife finds it pretty amusing.
A blonde baby does the same trick… But as I don’t need women running after me, I could maybe rent my baby out to some desperate foreign guys for a reasonable price.
I wasn’t a player at all when I was living in Taiwan, but… there was this one time…
Waiting for the 292 bus in Ting-Hao. A cute woman and I exchanged smiles. She was about 25 and seemed to be an office worker heading home a bit late (8:30pm or so). We both kept on casting glances, and then exchanged smiles again. I went over and introduced myself. She was very sweet and not at all shy. We started to chat. A bus went buy, then my bus and hers, we kept chatting. Not sure how, but very soon the conversation turned to relationships and then sex. (And really, I was not on the prowl, and don’t make a habit of chatting up women on the street). She allowed as how she had become mind numbingly bored with her boyfriend, and I that my girlfriend and I had recently accomplished a long overdue break up. Our eyes kept on locking, the attraction sizziling. Then we were in eachothers arms kissing, as commuters flowed around us to get on and off buses.
We started to walk hand and hand, pausing in the shadows every block or so to exchange feverish kisses and caresses. We made our way to Sun Yat Sen park and ended up pleasing eachother like furtive highschoolers behind some bushes, as grandparents pushed kiddies in strollers, vendors hawked sausages, and less adventureous couples clasped hands on benches nearby. She cried softly on my shoulder after she came. We chatted a bit more about the lifecycle of love affairs and about lonlieness and how hornyness can drive you mad. Then we hugged and said goodbye without exchanging names or numbers.
I rode home on the 292 with the scent of her all around me, and the feel of her burning in my head.
In my 12 years in the ROC there were other experiences like this. Totally spontaneous, very tender, and totally evenescant. Not drunken bar hookups, just magical chance encounters.
in Taiwan, love is defintely in the air sometimes, and surprises happen.
Well, R.V.P., I admit that the anecdote I related happened almost 10 years ago, but (for what it’s worth) I assure you that the evening played out as described.
My point in recounting this story was not to brag on myself ( ) , but rather to point out that “warm blankets” can pop up in unexpected places, and when you aren’t actively trying to find someone. I had a number of nice surprises while in Taiwan. Many people I knew in Taiwan had out of the blue romantic encounters, too.
Sometimes you just have to go with the flow, follow up on smiles, and the little voice that tells you that there’s chemistry happening. Sometimes you have to draw on the freedoms that come with being an outsider.
The best kind of romantic magic in Taiwan doesn’t happen in a pub when you are legless and desperate.
