I’ve been away from Kaohsiung for a few years.
Everything is different now.
No Pig and Whistle. No DNA. No Green Jungle.
Plenty of new places to hang out and drink, but where the hell can you go dance?
Yes, Brickyard on Wed, Fri or Sat is probably the best bet for foreigners. A number of other places exist but are rather ummm local and perhaps not the safest bet for non-Asian foreigners.
Green Jungle? You have been away a long time… That must have closed the best part of a decade ago.
OK, I’ll check out the Brickyard.
But surely there must be other options. I mean, it’s a city with a population of over 2 million for Chisakes.
Could you elaborate?
I’ve been to places in Taiwan where gangster-types openly consume drugs on the premises. I didn’t feel threatened, but then again, it’s not my scene and it’s not the kind of place I’m looking for to go dancing. Just somewhere with dance music and people dancing - it doesn’t have to be a foreigner hangout.
Some of the other places like Lamp or Dreams (which should perhaps be re-named Nightmares) have been known to have problems with the young TaiKe scooter punk crowd deciding to attack visibly foreign guys. I think if you are a girl or with a bunch of Taiwanese guys and not talking to any Asian girls you would probably be safe enough though but I can’t really imagine why any foreigner would feel better there. I know of one instance of a mate who was bashed when on a motorbike stopped at a traffic light near Dreams (he did not even go there, was just near it) and another of a guy who was with his ABC girl who did not really speak Chinese and got into trouble with jealous local guys. Again Dreams, but I am sure Lamp would have similar problems given the crowd they have.
Another place exists just off SiWei Lu, but I really can’t remember the name of it. It has changed names a few times, but it felt safer to me than Dreams or Lamp would but not really as foreigner heavy as Brickyard.
I am not exactly someone who really needs to speak English or only talk with foreigners, but I feel much safer/happier going to somewhere like Brickyard than the scooter punk crowd places…
Some other places like The Mansion, Bar Code or even my restaurant have occasionally been known to have parties where people dance and are fine for foreigners but these are not every week events.
A year late, but this might help someone. (I last went out in Summer 2011 - I’ll be back in Kaohsiung again in June)
Lamp - Not bad, not that TaiKu really, the dancing girl thing is a bit weird but I guess that’s standard for Taiwan. Drinks are alright (it’s all you can drink I think) and there’s a 7/11 right next door (well, I suppose that’s a given). Music has being getting better and better since I first went in 2010 (it was just Gangster rap all the time with people pretending to be ABC).
Brickyard - I suppose it’s probably my favourite. My mate DJs there (Shank Dub) and the food is great. Get some people sharking the pool table (trying to be cool and hitting terrible trick shots for no reason), but that’s not their fault. Ryan and Graham are stand up guys. Can be a little all over the place though, you get a real variety of performers (metal, latin, hip hop, dubstep), although that’s not a bad thing.
La Vida (or was it Baccara?) - One of those two is shut now, I can’t remember which one I went to, but the one I went to is still open. Think it’s on the 4th or 5th floor of a building. Not bad, drinks are fucking amazing (Cuba Libres + all you can drink = happy Meadows). I went to a chill house night (they were playing music to an elongated version of Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream”. It was kinda surreal but it was good for dancing…I can’t really remember. Probably a good thing.
Dreams - When I’m in Taiwan I live near Dreams (Yishin 2nd Rd). Yeah, don’t go to Dreams, it’s super Taiku. Unless you’re a Taiku. Then you might like it.
[quote=“adikarmika”]I’ve been away from Kaohsiung for a few years.
Everything is different now.
No Pig and Whistle. No DNA. No Green Jungle.
Plenty of new places to hang out and drink, but where the hell can you go dance?[/quote]
All the places i used to go as well…seems like a dificult thing keeping pace. Great thing about taiwan is things move fast and change is rampent. But when you leave town…you loose touch so quickly.
No cheeky charlies either…oh well.
Where to go now? I am in town till end of jan 2013…in pingtung and KHH.
That was run by Raice (have no idea how to spell his name) the Australian guy. He used to have a Sunday night BBQ on the rooftop of a hostel he used to manage for someone else on WufU Second Road.
I remember Green Jungle very fondly, too. Still get the odd joke email from Brian Golding who use to run it back then. Think that closed in 2000 or 2001.
I don’t go out much these days, even less so to dance, but had quite a good New Year’s Eve at the Brickyard two years ago.
Anyone know of a place for swing dancing? Pop/ top 40 w/ actual dancing instead of a crowd jumping up and down/ waving their arms would be okay too.
Here is a swing dancing event in Taipei next weekend. Maybe do some google search and these people would have info on Kaohsiung.
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