Punk Trip to Taipei and Kuala Lumpur (Feb,2011)

Punk Trip to Taipei and Kuala Lumpur (Feb,2011)


It is Lunar New Year 2011!! The logest and biggest holiday in Korea!! As you guys may know, Korean people cannot really appreciate the holiday. People forced to work all the time and laziness is not allowed. Luckily, this year I had one week vacation from my work which I was fuck-yeahing over 2 weeks before the holiday.

However, unfortunately, as a low budget traveler like me, this isn’t very good time to go abroad because there is huge price increase in plane ticket due to holiday seasons. I was checking with some travel agency and so desperate. USD 600 for Japan, USD 1,000 for Singapore???!!!FUCK THAT SHIT!! Beside of the price issue, there is no seat available anyway.. Who the fuck said Korean economy is depressed??

Fortunately, I was mindlessly surfing the travel agency web-site and scored THE golden ticket (at least to me). The flight schedule is like this..

Korea -> Taiwan 5th/Feb (Saturday) – 17 hours stop over in Taipei
Taipei -> Kuala Lumpur 6th/Feb (Sunday)
Kuala Lumpur -> Taipei 8th/Feb (Tuesday) – 17 hours stop over in Taipei AGAIN
Taipei -> Korea 9th/Feb (arrive to ICN)

Because of this hardcore flight schedule, no one dare to take this torturous trip except me and the price of ticket was reasonable compared to other flight to KL.

Why I chose to go to Kuala Lumpur? While I was checking with some touring schedule in Asia, I found out that the Nuclear Death Terror from Denmark is touring Asia region during this time.
I could go to Japan (It is cheaper and closer to Korea), but I just wanted some new experience and meet new people!! I was hesitating between Singapore and Kuala Lumpur but It was easy to make a decision since I’ve been to Singapore for 3 times already haha.

I asked my friends some Malaysian contact and started to contact with some of them couple of weeks before I go to KL. They were very helpful like most punks are. I always so surprised that punk scene is really kinda small. Every punk seems to know each other through mutual friends. If I weren’t into punk music, I really doubt that I am able to have friend from Brasil, Sweden and so on..

So I finally left Korean and fly to Taiwan! Fucking six hundred thousand Korean people made chaos at the AIRPORT to get the fuck outta Korea. It was INSANE!! I was lucky enough to mix with those people.


- 5th.Feb,2011 (Taipei)
I am sure many of you guys are not familiar with the country Taiwan. I have some friends who live in Taiwan (punks and not punks). I visit Taiwan pretty often (like once in a year). Somehow, I really have this ‘thing’ for Taiwan (my Taiwanese friends don’t agree with my opinion though hahaha).

Po Wei picked me up from the Ximen station and we headed to his store called “Liberated Rhythm”. It is basically punk shop that has all the cool stuff (records, t-shirts, accessories..ect). Sometime, I am always jealous that Taiwan has this kind of punk shop even though the punk scene is not so big. Also his girl friend Ishin is very talented artist even though I am very anti-art person. She showed me couple of flyers and art-works she’s worked and it was all amazing. Very unique drawing style!!! She would be the first person I would ask some art-work or flyer if I have chance haha!! We waited Apun and his girl friend Tina and headed to Da-An Park (the biggest park in Taipei) for open-air show. I didn’t expect to catch some gig while I was staying in Taiwan but I was very lucky to catch all my friend’s bands (Selfish Sucker,Bazooka..).

Ok, I am officially on Holiday so I need a drink!! I went to 7eleven and grabbed Taiwan Beer!! First band was Sleaze. This band plays sludge and doom style. I was very surprised that I see this kind of band in Taipei!!! They were far beyond over my expectation!! They were very dark,melodic and heavy. Loved it! I can’t wait for their record release!! After Sleaze played, I met up with Taiwanese punk friend Mob Wang and had some nice conversations. Taiwan people are probably the most similar to Korean people and somehow I got to know the best Taiwanese people HAHA!

Second was Selfish Sucker which my friend Apun is playing, they are more like street punk than crust punk music. Definitely not my cup of tea but I enjoyed to see youth Taiwanese punks are making chaos and support. The funny part is that, the way they look is like 100% crusties hahaha
All the band patches and black stretch jeans..band t-shirts thing!! If someone see the Taiwanese punk kids, people might think all Taiwanese punks are crusties. Is Po Wei’s shop responsible for this? I don’t know haha

The Last band was Bazooka (Thrash!!). Last time I saw them at the club Under World (地下社會) and It was totally awesome. Today’s show was okay but I expected little more from them like last time. Maybe next time will be a lot better with fixed members?

After the show, we went to night market to grab a bite. Man.. Taipei is heaven for food. I love every food in Taiwan! Since I am not a vegetarian, I had more choice to fulfill my tummy. We took out some food and beers and sit at the punk park and chatted for many things cultural thing..gossip (I can even gossip over Taiwanese punk scene…hahaa I know too many informations!! Haha)..laughing.. it is always great to meet friends!

I really don’t get why Taiwanese people don’t like Korean in general. They said it is because of politic issue (diplomatic break between Korea & Taiwan) but I think there is something more complicated issues. Fuck it! I love Taiwan so much!! My favorite city in Asia is Taipei. If you have chance to visit Taiwan, please stop by Liberated Rhythm store and meet Taipei punks! You will love it here so much like I do. Taiwanese punk scene is very small compared to other countries but they are very supportive I guess.

Anyway, it was getting really cold outside so we were back to Po Wei’s shop and chat a lot of funny thing. It goes until 2~3 I guess.. then I was totally wasted by myself (Taiwanese Punks are not really messy drinker like me. They are fucking gentle!) and went to bed.

Thankfully, Po Wei woke me up on right time (5AM), I took a cab to the air-port bus terminal. I was still drunk even at the airport gate.

I was a sleep right after I put my fat-ass on the air-plane seat and couldn’t even notice the plane departed. I had good and sweet sleep for about 3 and half hours during the flight to Kuala Lumpur (my second destination).