Hsinchu, Taiwan

Since the typhoon canceled my plans and since I didn't have the money or energy to bus to Taipei, rave 'til dawn, and bus back in the morning I stayed in Hsinchu. It was much needed time to relax, read and think.

Saturday night we went back to Cammi. We were there on Thursday and I am really tired of the booty hip-hop club scene, though I did manage to enjoy myself. I won't say if I have, once upon a long time ago, surreptitiously drunk outside of a convenience store, but I will say I never pre-gamed inside one. A brightly lit experience that somehow felt a little wrong; but not as wrong as watered down $NT 250 drinks.

We were in the club for about twenty minutes when lights get turned on and the fuzz roll in. Police in other countries make me nervous. I think it is the combination of adolescent distrust of authority, fear of assault rifles and my inability to say "I want to speak to my lawyer". Turns out the 20 plus cops were just doing an ID check, which was pretty silly considering technicaly one can drink at 17. Any 16 year old with the money or the connections to get into an upscale club can be quickly and quietly be stuffed into a closet or jettisoned out a back door. And while the ethnically diverse foreigners were huddling together for protection, Taiwanese kids smushed together to get a snapshot with the police in the background.

Half an hour after fifty leave there was a BMX show in the club. Random? Yes.