Pure Yoga, Real Fruit Juice, a Gazillion  Scooters, and the Road Less Traveled.

PURE Taipei, Through My Lens: Day 1

My husband surprised me with a trip to Taipei, Taiwan for our 20th anniversary and to celebrate my 43rd spin around the sun (aka my birthday), cashing in every last frequent flyer mile to do so. He works, I PLAY!

Come explore Taipei with me…

Run: The time zone, being twelve hours ahead of ours, always makes us instant morning people, as in eyes-wide-open at 5AM! We waited until the sun came up, then we were out the door for a four mile run to get the lay of the land. And for me, to get rid of the cankles that resulted from my overzealous water drinking on the flight over, mixed with airplane food. Legs felt like ROCKS!

Breakfast: Asian breakfast deserves a post all to its own. I was too hungry to mess around with food styling today. Loved it, I bet you will too and I promise to share it with you another day this week.

Hot Yoga: To further deflate my cankles, I thought I’d sweat-it-out in a hot yoga studio, Pure Yoga. I arrived early and given the way everyone was laying in meditation before class, I thought I positioned myself in the BACK of the room. Sticking out sore-thumbishly (being the only big, white American in class), the instructor walked in, looked right at me and said something in Chinese. I shrugged. He shrugged. Everyone giggled. And, with that class started with me in the FRONT row. Having already sweated all over my real estate (Taiwanese are fastidious about germs), I was stuck. Pure-fect!?!?

Real Fruit Juice: After class, I ventured downstairs to get the advertised wheatgrass shot with pineapple juice (sounded interesting!). Only the girl at the counter had NO IDEA what I was talking about, my hand gestures were not doing the trick and, there was not a blade of wheatgrass in sight. So I settled on a pineapple (containing inflammation reducing bromelain…much needed for the, you guessed it…cankles) and kiwi juice. She handled my money then went right back to handling my fruit (she was clearly NOT Tiawanese). Pushing infectious disease from my consciousness, I tried to focus more on the fact that I had just found a Vita-Mix in Taiwan! CHA-CHING!!! If all else fails, I will NOT starve.

Scooters: One can simply not talk about Taipei without mentioning the GAZILLION scooters here and the death defying ways in which they are ridden around town. Enough said.

The Road Less Traveled: After braving the Taipei MRT for the first time, solo, to get to yoga, I decided to walk back to our hotel on the v. busy Fusing Road to window shop. The smells of the city were starting to get to me: The good, the bad and the toxic. One street East, off the beaten path, is Da-an Road. Calm. Beautiful. Non-touristy. And, above all no fumes. In my post-workout endorphine-rush blissed-out state, I took the road less traveled. I didn’t pass out and THAT made all the difference.

Enjoying the quiet serenity of Da-an Road in my post-workout endorphine-rush blissed-out state What car behind me?

Dinner: Fantastical beyond measure! Stay tuned, blog post to come…