Run and Climb Taipei

Taipei is a huge foodie destination, which means that most trips there involve gaining too many unwanted pounds. I’ve recently started working out on my vacations in an effort to keep up with all the eating. But working out doesn’t have to mean wasting precious vacation time in a dreary hotel gym. Below I share some of my preferred places to run while sightseeing (or sightseeing while running, take your pick) and my experience visiting a couple of Taipei’s rock climbing gyms (thank you Taiwan Rocks for information on where to find the gyms!). Hope this provides some ideas for fun ways to stay fit while on vacation!

Daan Forest Park is one of my favorite places to run in Taipei. It’s a huge park, almost a mile and a half around its perimeter, making it a great place to get away from the hustle and bustle of the city for a little. Many locals go there to exercise, and I usually see a lot of other runners doing laps and groups of spry grandpas playing frisbee on the main lawn. I happen to have accommodations close to Daan Park, but it’s also easily accessible by the MRT red line at Daan Park station. There’s also the added bonus of being right next to Yongkang Street, so you can go and regain all the calories you just lost. Oh wait, that’s counterproductive… 

Daan Forest Park

Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall is a pretty common tourist destination, so why not go for a run there and get your workout in while doing some sightseeing? My recommendation is to go in the morning to take awesome sunrise pictures of the memorial buildings and to get the quintessential Taiwanese experience of watching retired people do tai chi in the park. There’s lots of different walking paths to choose from - just be careful not to trip on the uneven ground between paths. This is also easily accessible by the MRT red and green lines at the C.K.S. Memorial Hall station.

Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall

My first time rock climbing in Taiwan was this past trip at the Xinyi Sports Center bouldering gym, conveniently located a couple blocks from Taipei 101. It was kind of a small gym and didn’t look very well maintained. A lot of the colored tape was falling off so you sometimes had to guess where the routes went. I don’t know if I would recommend it for serious climbing, but it’s fine for a casual workout, and at 150 NT for a day pass you really have nothing to lose.

Xinyi Sports Center bouldering area

I had a chance to visit a second gym up in the Shilin area. It’s a brand new gym called The Little Rock - so new that the guy working there was telling us about all the new holds that they had installed two days ago. The gym was small by American standards, but bigger than Xinyi and had much better route markings. Price was a little more expensive at 250 NT, but still much cheaper than any gym I’ve gone to in the US. I really enjoyed climbing here. The only downside with The Little Rock is that they don’t really have that many advanced level problems, but for those of us climbing V4’s and below, it’s a great place to get some good climbs in.

Lots of fun beginner climbs at The Little Rock

I hope to have an opportunity to run and climb in more interesting places on my next trip! Do you have any preferred ways of staying active while on vacation? Feel free to share in the comments below!

Taipei Foodie Tour - 2017 Edition

Ask anyone who has been to Taiwan what their top recommendations are, and odds are food will dominate the list. With choices ranging from mouth-watering street snacks to exquisitely crafted cuisines, Taiwan is one of the top foodie destinations in the world. Anyone who has ever done any research on Taipei has heard of Din Tai Fung’s famous soup dumplings and Sunny Hill’s number one pineapple cakes, so for this post I wanted to share some of my new, mostly lesser known discoveries from this past trip. 

Jiang Jia (江家牛肉麵&永和豆漿) - The best way to start an argument is to ask a group of Taiwanese people what the best breakfast place is. I can’t claim to know the number one place in Taipei, but Jiang Jia is pretty damn good if you’re craving some delicious fried carbs, AKA Taiwanese breakfast. A solid combination is to get the sesame cake with egg and a Taiwanese donut with a side of soy milk. They’re even open 24/7 so if you happen to miss the last MRT home you can still come here to get some comfort food.

Jiang Jia store

Taiwanese breakfast at Jiang Jia

Hong Jing Beef Noodle (鈜景國產肉品專賣店) - I can’t believe how long it took to discover this place considering it’s basically across the street from where I usually stay. There are a lot of great beef noodle places in Taipei, but this is the first I’ve seen to serve “sashimi beef”. The bowls come out with freshly sliced pieces of raw beef arranged over noodles and veggies. They then pour steaming soup over the meat, cooking it right in front of you. The result is super tender and fresh tasting beef. Prices are a little high for Taiwan (and by that I mean slightly below average for Bay Area), but worth it for the true beef noodle connoisseur. 

Sashimi beef at Hong Jing Beef Noodle

Uncle Tetsu (徹思叔叔) - There are many examples of Taiwan taking foods from other cultures and adding their own local twist. Uncle Tetsu originated in Japan, but has since expanded to multiple stores in Taiwan with several in Taipei. Having tried Hokkaido style cheese tarts in Hokkaido, I can honestly say that these are just as good. Highly recommended and best eaten fresh.

Uncle Tetsu's cheese tarts

Uncle Tetsu's cakes

Zhangmen Brewery (掌門精釀啤酒) - Not strictly a food place, but Zhang Men is a local brewery and a solid place to try some local beers. They have a huge selection of rotating taps with light beers, dark beers, and everything in between. Drinks here aren’t super cheap - roughly 150 NT for a small glass and 600 NT for a flight of six drinks - but not too bad for a night out. I really liked the passion fruit beer!

Inside the tasting room at Zhangmen

Beer flight for 600 NT

Oia Cafe (伊亞藝術咖啡館)  - This isn’t really a food place either, and it’s not even technically in Taipei, but none of that matters because Oia Cafe is so much more than your typical cafe - it’s an alpaca cafe. Adjacent to the cafe is a large pen zoo with alpacas, goats, and donkeys that you can pet and feed carrots to. But the real stars are the two snowy white alpacas running free inside the cafe. With the purchase of a drink, you can spend as much time with the alpacas as you want. Pro tip: to get the best pictures with the alpacas, wait until they start chewing on the furniture - it’s the only time they stay still enough to get a good shot.

Alpacas at Oia Cafe

Shing Peng Lai (興蓬萊) - My cousin brought us here for an impromptu last meal in Taiwan, and they had quite possibly the best fried pork chops I’ve ever eaten. Shing Peng Lai serves traditional Taiwanese fare with a wide assortment of seafood, soups, and meats. Everything we had there was good, but the pork chops were absolutely heavenly. Crispy on the outside and juicy on the inside, they were so good I couldn’t resist going for seconds, even if I could feel my arteries clogging with every bite. Located in Tian Mu, one of the suburbs of Taipei, Shing Peng Lai is a little out of the way, but 100% worth the trek for anyone looking for great Taiwanese cuisine a few steps above night market food.

Best fried pork chops ever at Shing Peng Lai

It’s always nice to revisit old favorites, but I’m glad I had the chance to try out some new places and discover new go-to’s. I’m always looking for new things to try - do you have any lesser known favorite food places in Taipei? Let me know in the comments below!

Shrines and Food in Fukuoka

As the largest city in Kyushu, Fukuoka was where we flew in and where we based our travel after returning from the Kurokawa Onsen area. Fukuoka was great for shopping and food, but in terms of actual places to see, I found Dazaifu much more interesting. A short train ride away, Dazaifu is one of the many day trip-worthy towns near Fukuoka, known for its temples and shrines. Here are some highlights from both places:

Tenmangu Shrine - HUGE shrine near Dazaifu station. Tenmangu is probably the biggest tourist attraction in Dazaifu, and since we are tourists this was our first stop. There’s a nice garden leading up to the shrine, complete with fish ponds, stone bridges, and trees hundreds of years old. The actual shrine has a raised platform where we were lucky enough to see some sort of ceremony in progress. Nearby were a bunch of small wooden structures where people had hung placards with their wishes written on them - mostly students looking to pass their exams. It was a nice place to just walk around and take pictures, and admission is completely free, so definitely worth checking out.

Lots of other tourists visiting Tenmangu Shrine

The actual shrine

Best of luck fellow bear!

National Kyushu Museum - Housed in an impressively large glass building, the National Kyushu Museum is one of the four National Museums of Japan. I’ve been to the one in Nara in the past, but I think I liked the Kyushu one better - the main part of the museum focused on Japanese history, with each area dedicated to a different era. Everything was well organized and explained well (with English translations!) and I would highly recommend a visit to anyone interested in Japanese history.

Kyushu National Museum

Dazaifu Mozenmachi - Right next to the Dazaifu main station is a shopping street with lots of souvenir shops, restaurants, and snack stands. The whole street is pedestrian-only and retains the traditional architectural style, so it was cool to just walk around and explore. We really enjoyed all the snacks - especially the umegae-mochi that every other store on the street seemed to be selling.

Umegae mochi

Yatai Food Stalls - Eating at a yatai food stall is the one must-do thing when visiting Fukuoka according to the natives. Each night, vendors set up tents all along the riverbanks. Inside are essentially small bars where patrons can order food and drink from the chef cooking right in front of them. The concept is neat, but I was a little disappointed by the selection - basically all the stalls we passed by were selling the same menu of skewers and ramen. It was pretty expensive too, with each skewer going for a few hundred yen each. Still, it was a cool experience. Go for the atmosphere, not for the food.

The yatai we went to

Inside the tent

Canal City - Canal City is basically a giant mall with a river running through it. We spent a good few hours there walking around and buying way too much stuff at the Walmart-sized duty free store. The entire top floor of one of the buildings housed “Ramen Stadium”, a food court with ramen from all over Japan. Great place to try a variety of ramen.

Canal City

Ramen Stadium! I had Hakata ramen from Jinambo