your 40+ hour work week starts on weds, work hours are usually from the time you get up (5pm), till when you get home after eating breakfast (if you are capable), anywhere from 5am-10am.
-WED: wed was ladies night, go anywhere nice or wherever you want, twanger girls everywhere. room18... etc. all those "CBC/nicer" clubs will have local girls cuz they can get in for free, without having to pay the cover they can usually cannot afford.
-TUES: i think thursdays not a lotta places are open either, I recall we went to white bars (brass monkey) to watch some recorded hockey games or just grab drinks, or Carnegie's or some shit. It was always some white place thursday. if you have nothing else to do one night you can check those places out. they're like white bar/clubs here, but 99% of the chicks are asian. i don't blame the white dudes, the girls at those places are craving foreign dick and they're so easy to pick up, but the quality ain't as good as the other clubs, you can get lucky though haha, there are sometimes some lookers. try not to get too drunk here, you don't wanna wake up next to something you'll regret.
FRI & SAT: friday and sats were a mix up, cuz everywhere was open, and usually events are on these days (like big dj's coming or VIP parties at diff clubs or whatever). I highly recommend you go to an "event" like if a big DJ comes to town, usually it's hosted at one of the clubs, but if it's an all night super rave, it'll be in one of the exhibition halls near the 101 tower. these events of course take priority over any club night, if something big is happening, go, it'll be worth it. usually costs anywhere from 600-1000NT for an event.
luxy is always pretty wild, nicest "local" club there. two rooms, the main room usually hiphop, and the electronic room. they host a lot of DJ events and hiphop mini-"concert" events.
luxy tip: 7-11 behind luxy, and "bubble tea" joints that open pretty late. if you're ever bored on evening, just walk up and down the main road luxy is on, tons of eye candy, and sometimes some exotic cars. there's a 24/7 pool place near the top of the building in the complex luxy is in. and TRUMP bowling which is also 24/7 is located in one of the ally's behind or near luxy.
room18 was always my favourite back then, but it was cuz i could get in for free, and those VIP parties were pretty wicked. same thing, hiphop room and techno room. more upscaled, like the guy said, more CBC/ABC crowd.
room18 tip: if you can try to get a VIP card, most probably you won't be able to get one unless you're a familiar face, spend lots there, or you've got hookups, or they severely fucked up their service by charging you someone else's table and you bitch like a mother fucker, haha. anyways, the card has free cover, VIP party invites (with free food/drinks), and you can bring in 2 people for free, which is a huge incentive for local girls to come with you cuz they usually can't afford to just go to a place like 18 every night, and you sure as hell don't wanna be paying cover for them. if you and a buddy or two can get the card, partying becomes WAY cheaper. you save 600-800NT per person every time you go, usually get something like a free drink or some other shit. once you get this you can bar hop between 18/lava/barcode/711, cuz they're all next to each other, and lava cover is cheap. party at 3 places, for the price of 1, (this is where the part about the chicks outside 7-11 or in LAVA you see, you can bring em into 18 for free) and you can really ghetto it up and only drink at 7-11 if you want, and you'd only spend like literally cab money and like just over a buck per drink. talk about ghetto VIP's HAHA.
barcode is not bad, more like a lounge though. more classy as well. no cover, like a bar.
SUN: if you just wanna go crazy/wild, LAVA is not bad, it's all you can drink on sundays and maybe one other day im not sure. it's fairly "local" but right under barcode and beside room18. yeah usually went to lava on sundays. oh yeah lava always has these "dance" contests where like 5-7 girls get up and they all "dance" as "sexy" as they can for like some prize, usually some handbag or cash lol. when i say sexy, i mean whoever takes off most clothes.
lava tip: (actually any all you can drink venue tip), they give you a cup when you order something, or a beer bottle or whatever, don't lose that shit, you go trade it in for another drink, or combine cups/bottles (i think it's 4 for a pitcher of something). later at night i've caught them being lazy or whatever, and they just reuse the cups that you give them, which can be kinda gross, especially if you have like 5 cups and you don't remember who's is whos and shit can fall on the ground etc. anyways order something bottled, then order something in a cup, or vice versa, that way they always switch it. if you know buddies that are passed out and/or can't continue to drink, or a group/table that just left, lol, me and my buddies used to go grab their bottles and cups and keep them, go to the bar and trade the used cups for bottled drinks. then we could double fist or more and all you can drink at a much faster rate, usually faster than you can consume.
oh and of course there's always a 7-11 near by, if you run low on cash you can do the cheapo way and hit up 7-11 (the best club in town haha!).
711 tip: when you come outta the clubs for "fresh air" (booze) and to chat up other ppl there to see if the other nearby clubs are bumpin, other than the standard bottled stuff (of course taiwan gold label being your #1 choice), you can get creative, get some extra cups (if they don't have any get extra instant noodle cups), buy a bag of ice, buy some hard liquor and a mixer of your choice. whiskey and cold green tea is good. usually bigger 7-11's have tables setup either inside or outside for you to chill, of not, the concrete curb is just as good. grab a few tea-eggs, or whatever munchies you prefer, your drink and munch out while scopin chicks out and chatting em up, see which club they're at or if they wanna join you.
there's usually a big crowd behind luxy at the 7-11 drinking. same as lava/room18/barcode, there's a 7-11 around the building and tons of ppl munch out on food/drinks there.
not sure about the living mall, plush might be gone, and so might party room. plush was big years back and then back in 08 it was soso. party room was all you can drink on specific nights but not sure if they're open.
back in 04 mint was the shit, it's under the 101 tower, but in 07/08 it was kinda dead. probably dead, or even gone by now.
-MON: Your day off, usually just chill, movie or something, pool, bowling, night market, take a girl out on a date lol whatever, just nothing to do with clubs, and usually just a chill drink, no heavy intoxication that day. if you crave white food, TGI friday's is not bad, there, there's drinks, and decent "white food". mcdonalds never fails, but unfortunately there's no mcbeer there (but there is a 711 around the corner), you'd think they'd have that in taiwan though.
-TUES: not much open either in terms of clubs. we went to a japanese bbq place near luxy sorta, near the mcdonalds in that area, behind it in the allys. we drank there then probably continued to drink at every 7-11 we passed. until we figured out what to do for that night. usually drinking anywhere we could find that was fun, remember you can drink on the streets there and at most if not all pool/bowling places. you can bring your own drinks, well at least the place i went. if not there's always a 7-11 around the block.
there's a few new clubs now, PRIMO apparently is the hot new shit, duno how hard it is to get in or much about it, apparently MACHI owns it, higher end place, heard it's kinda like barcode/room18 mixup.
oh yeah there's the taipei beer factory, it's really local, it closes kinda early, i think 12? or 11? or 1130? i forgot. but there's taiwanese munchies there and fresh taiwan beer. go there on days u wanna predrink somewhere other than at 7-11.
i must say there WERE days where some clubs (even clubs like luxy and room18) were DEAD (but usually it was cuz another club was hosting some big DJ event or show). but whatever, cover was free for me and very cheap for you with your canadian dollar. just hop in a cab and go somewhere else.
night markets, there's a few in town, I really only went to shi lin cuz it's the biggest one and i think, the best one. if you've never been you have to go at least once, preferably when it's not raining. if it does rain however, run to your nearest 7-11 and buy an umbrella for like 200NT or some shit.
if you like KTV, cashbox and/or party world, there are many locations, i think they're all 24/7. the one across SOGO is the one a lotta ppl go to, looks like some high end hotel inside. if you personally don't like singing, but your buddies and girlfriends do, it's okay, they have alcohol there, and food. KTV usually means getting hammered, and instead of listening to club music, you're listening to your drunk friends try to sing. some ppl go KTV after clubbing, cuz it's 24/7 and they have food.
hm the 101 tower is worth checking out at least once, if not just for the air conditioning, while checking out girls and the really baller botiques, oh the 101 food court is good.
Shi Men Ding is worth checking out (during the day and evening), it's very local, lots of eyecandy and shit to walk around and just see and do. it's a very "young crowd" area.
anyways, yeah that was my exact schedule for 7 months in 2007, and 2.5 months in 2008, not exaggerating, havent had time to head back this year, maybe later this year or in 2010. i was supposed to be there "studying"/visiting family, but i was asleep most classes/days and i skipped most days cuz i was unable to get up or i was still on the way home from a club or some shit haha. I
DON'T recommend it unless you have the money and time (at least 2 weeks, AT LEAST, and AT least 1500NT spending money per night if you're a light drinker AND you wanna go ghetto and 7-11 most of your drinks, not including living, and eating, shopping, i mean just for transportation/cover/drinking), and you have to not really care about your body to enjoy taipei to the max. i lost almost 30lbs after this party fest. johnny_tran's 1 year taiwan teaching trip turned into a 5 year party fest. a buddy's 1 month "asia trip" turned into a 3 month taipei trip, he ran outta money, didn't wanna spend anymore on flights in and outta taipei/hk to renew the visa every 30 days, and got strep throat and bronchitis probably from drinking way too fucking much and exerting his body to the party max x-treme for 90 days straight. anwyays he was forced to go back after he got sick but it was fucking fun while it lasted. I have the urge to go back almost everyday. taipei is THE place to party while not spending TOO much, but still retaining a bit of familiar class, and civility, not like in some 3rd world party country (you know which ones i'm talking about). Taipei is dangerous, im warning you, if you do stay for long enough to actually get a feel of the place and live there and party there, you'll never want to leave as long as you have some sorta income, or money in the bank. as long as you got a little cash is flowing, life is
110% carefree party alcoholic girl-fest there. I've warned you. if you ever do run outta money, try to find a english teaching job, you should have no problems, easy cash for the parties. if you don't smoke, try not to start, packs of smokes are like a buck a pack. it doesn't really matter, you'll be smoking a pack a day regardless cuz of the smoke in the clubs hah.
I hope this helps, there are a lot of details and other non night-life places to go, but i don't remember. if there are other RS people that like to go party, go meet up with them. I met up with johnny_tran and stevO in taipei while i was there and had a lot of fun over the months and we partied fuckin hard. have fun.
drink till you drop.
here are a handful of pics of what you typically see every night:
some random dead guy surrounded by people outside LAVA
upclose
i have a lot more pics of diff ppl completely passed out like dead on the streets, or covered in their own puke but i can't find them right now lol. it's typical to see people just fucking DEAD inside and outside clubs. guys and girls alike.
walking by mcdix at 430am
YOUR GOD AND SAVIOUR
btw, I'm talking about the 7-11. 7-11 is your first and last resort for alcohol, any kinda munchies, and anything you need to pickup, from girls (drinking outside) to umbrellas, toothbrushes, condoms to pregnancy test kits (you're usually only picking up either or, not both haha...surprisingly the former is usually low on stock... HAH). btw that's the 7-11 around room18. that is the kinda girl you run into around that area after dark... actually most of taipei haha!
god fucking damn, if i had the money and time i'd fly back right now. RIGHT NOW.