The Taipei Kid

We used to think we would never be able to afford designer clothes, but that was until we spotted this Pierre Cardin scooter raincoat. Sure, at NT$35 (US$1.08) it did cost a bit more than the ordinary, convenience store type raincoats manufactured for the plebian crowd, but style isn’t cheap, folks.

It seems I’ve received a failing blog review and death wish (”Time to Slash the Kid”) from TrippinTV, a site I must say I never heard of until now. The site seems to be a video-version of Forumosa. The Taipei Kid was called “crap” and full of “retarded” articles.

From the review:

The Taipei Kid is one of those blogs that disgusts me simply because of its…incredibly trite writing style, lack of detail, poor use of pics and worst of all its “nutless” ability to actually say what it really means when its hacking on someone else!

Frankly, I am surprised “bitchy” and “shallow” wasn’t mentioned. Anyway, um, thanks for the free publicity I guess. Yes, we know this blog isn’t quite the same as its previous version, as a friend recently mentioned, but having a puppy that’s been in and out of surgery all summer and being freed from the chains of grad school has sort of changed my focus to other areas.

1. Wow it has changed a lot.

2. It is nice being able to speak Chinese around town and do things without having to go through the whole “Wow, you’re Chinese is really good, how long have you been in Taiwan?” ritual eight times a day.

3. The touts in the tourist areas are really annoying–near Bali levels.

4. I’ll probably get smacked for this, but the restaurants seem to have better food.

5. TV here is really boring–no wonder they pirate DVDs so much.

6. I don’t like ending up with counterfeit cash.

7. The pollution here makes Taipei looks like Switzerland (they really need to re-think how they measure progress here).

8. Nice cheap spas.

9. Why doesn’t Taipei have H&M?

10. They might not have freedom of the press or democracy, but hey–they can choose from 10 different types of toothpaste at the store!

I finally had it. I finally had DinTaiFung. I was in the area (the area being Yangkang) during the rare moment when there was only like a two-minute wait. I know that everyone else and their mother has been there, but I wanted to go when the time was right, when it was my moment.

It was good, but it all tastes so familiar–the same kind of stuff you’ve had on every street and stall, although this time presented in a cleaner environment with food literally made more on the scientific side (it is all perfectly measured and cooked in what looks more like a clean room than a kitchen) as opposed to a little pinch of that or a handful of this. The food looked like it belonged in a cookbook. Even the sliced scallions floated ever so perfectly in the bowl. The way the wait staff kindly hustles you in and out of the place reminds me of Mrs. Wilkes’ Dining Room. You sort of have a “does not compute” moment, though, when you take in the taste of everything and look for, and are not able to find, a large blaring TV set hanging on the wall somewhere.

I saw a huge catfight at the travel agency the other day. Two travel agents–one younger, one older. The older one was perturbed at being bombarded with questions from the younger one. The younger one went postal. It got so bad these guys had to come break it up. Some really unprofessional stuff. Lots of shouts from bystanders along the lines of, “Cut it out–we have guests here!”. Meanwhile, I was being motioned to by the lady at the front desk not to poke my head out of the VIP room I was in to see what the hell was going on. Travel agencies might cost a bit more than buying your tickets online, but the entertainment value seems to be worth it.

It turns out that the obnoxious group of foreigners that we saw slobbering on and groping innocent female patrons at that bar on Friday (you know, the one you can dance on) and nearly starting quite a few fights and generally making everyone feel sick, were visiting guests, that’s right, visiting guests of that Government Info Orifice. Nice.

We are laughing our heads off at the recent glut of ads and advertorials we’ve been seeing in the English media here that trumpet a certain American airline’s new direct service to San Francisco. Yes, we are so happy that an American airline is increasing its service from the island, because, you know, American airline are so famous for their quality and comfort these days. As if they somehow can compete with the likes of Singapore, EVA and Malaysia, better airlines which happen to also have direct flights to the U.S. from Taipei.

Wow…we were really surprised to see that a certain business chamber had purchased a supplement in that English paper, especially since the one who calls the shots has in the past lashed out against the quality of said paper. Then why give them your money?

Well, it looks like the McDonald’s restaurant by our house made the news recently. A middle-aged man was arrested for masturbating in the restaurant. They’ve got some really nice graphics of it. We wonder if this branch will become a tourist attraction now. Edit: Article is no longer up.