Flew out to Taiwan. There was a stop in Toronto.
Long layover in Vancouver. It had a nice airport, with nice decorations. It was in the middle of the night, and it was cold outside, and I had my check-in luggage, so it wasn't worth trying to go out and see the city. I hope to make it back to the city one day for a real visit.
Fortunately, my credit card comes with lounge access, so I got some refreshment the next morning, before the longest leg of the trip.
For my carry-on, I used my GR2, which had a 15L Bullet Ruck inside of it. It was nice to not have to worry about pulling along a roller, apart from when I had the check-in. It even fits under the seat in front of me, though I didn't always choose to try, since it is a bit tight.
TAIWAN PART 1
In Taiwan, I wanted to savor getting to spend time with relatives. It had been 2 years since my last trip, and it had been 11 years before that.
I felt like meals came often. Jet lag meant sleeping in, or taking naps during the day. We went out to eat more often than I do here in the US, since restaurants and other eateries are comparatively inexpensive there.
I'd usually go out to do something each day, even if it was just a walk to the local market, or a walk around a nearby university campus.
While in Taiwan, I'd bounce between the cities of my dad's relatives and my mom's relatives. It was only a 45 min train ride away.
Thursday, Dec 10:
My first workout there was 5 days after my last workout right before I left the US. I was eager to get out and get my blood moving. The local university had a nice track. Since I was fresh, I could go for the pyramid workout. It was my first time there. I didn't realize it was so accessible, otherwise I would've used it on my previous trip.
My dad came with me. It was overcast, and around sunset. My dad walked and sometimes jogged, while I did my workout. I felt surprisingly good and normal, despite having not run in a while. There were signs posted around the track, saying that lanes 1 & 2 were reserved for the school team, so I went in lane 3 (3-5 were for faster runners, and 6-8 were for walkers).
My workout spanned 23 laps. It was a long time before I realized it, but running 4 laps from lane 1 doesn't equal a mile. It's short. Running from lane 3 actually made it a bit more equitable, since 23 laps gave me 5.9 miles.
- 2 laps warmup
- 4 x 100 followed by 100 jog
- 3 x 200 followed by 200 jog
- 2 x 400 followed by 400 jog
- 1 x 800 followed by 400 jog
- 2 x 400 followed by 400 jog
- 3 x 200 followed by 200 jog
- 4 x 100 followed by 100 jog
I love this workout. It's not too long, it's manageable if you pace it right, and it makes you fast. I call it the PR maker. 5.9 in 44:24, 7:29 ave.
My dad and I had talked about going on a side trip to another country in ANZ or AP while I was in Taiwan. Time had run out for us to join a tour, so we speedily planned out a trip one night, and made all of the bookings.
For luggage, we wanted to stick with carry-ons only, since budget airlines charge a lot for checking stuff in, and we didn't want to run into unexpected exorbitant costs. I packed a week's worth of stuff in my GR2. I put my 15L Bullet Ruck in there, to use as a daypack. It was nice to not have to worry about checked luggage, and to have everything I needed for the week on my back.
THAILAND
We flew out at 1:25 am on Friday early morning. It's an odd departure time, but it let us take advantage of that first day in Thailand. We did have to do a layover in Bangkok to get to Chiang Mai, which is in the northern part of the country.
The modes of transportation in Thailand are pretty unique. Tuk tuks are the most famous, but uber pool-like shared red trucks that you hop into called Songtaew. You stop one of them, explain where you want to go, and if the driver is going in that general direction (or will get there eventually), they'll let you hop in with however many people are already in there. It was an adventurous introduction to the city. We went all the way around the city, dropping off everyone else, before we got to our destination.
After checking in early and dropping off our stuff at the crazy cheap hotel (they're all incredibly inexpensive in Thailand. I don't know how they can afford to make it so cheap. Maybe it's the labor costs.), we started by exploring the temples. We had chosen Chiang Mai over Bangkok because this city is more historic.
There are temples all over the city. Some are older, some are newer. Some are big, some are small. Spending about a day hitting a handful was just right. You're not overloaded, but you get to see a good variety.
We stayed by the Night Bazaar (a night market), so we ate at their food court and browsed the stalls.
The next day, we walked along the Ping River in the morning. It's not commercialized or made into any kind of tourist attraction, but there is a market at the northern end of it, where people can buy produce, spices, and other food items.
I went to a cooking class in the evening. I had heard of other tourists doing that, and they enjoyed it. I don't cook often. I'll make turkey bacon and sunny side up eggs a few times each week, and I'll put things in the toaster oven, and maybe once a month, I'll do something that requires a pot (like curry, or spaghetti), but that's about it.
It was fun to learn Thai cooking techniques and taste our creations. The class was made up of tourists from Belgium, Switzerland, China, and the US. We had a good time. The Akha Thai cooking class was very organized and fun.
Thai food is one of my favorite cuisines. I like how flavorful everything is. The spiciness of chilies, the tanginess of lemongrass, kaffir limes, and galangal ginger, and the pungency of shrimp paste are unique. The flavors are complex and melded together.
We made 11 dishes! I was feeling full after the first two. I eat small portions, but often, in everyday life. It was all good. Pumpkin coconut soup, tum yum soup, mango sticky rice, papaya salad, green curry, etc. You got to pick what you wanted to make, for certain courses.
The next day, we picked from among the elephant tours. Riding elephants is bad for the elephants, so many tour companies are now geared towards "taking care of" the elephants. Companies used to also mistreat the elephants, so the modern companies emphasize not using devices to force the elephants to do stuff. You feed them, hike with them, and bathe them in the river.
All of the companies make it sound like they do similar activities, but there's probably a wide range in how well-organized they are. My dad didn't like the one we went on, at all. We were the only ones on the tour, which maybe should've been a bad sign. Well, at least it felt like a private tour. I did feed them 2 buckets of bananas. We went on a walk with them through some trails, and it went into the water, but it didn't really seem to want to. It rather eat vegetation and stay in one place.
The elephants grab the bananas with the nostrils at the end of their trunk, and then they use their trunk to bring it to their mouth. They eat it, peel and all. If you try to feed them a peel with no banana meat in it, they don't want it, though.
We also stopped by a waterfall, and stopped at a street-side shop for lunch. We also took a ride on a bamboo raft, which reminded me a lot of "punting" boats in Cambridge, in the UK.
That night, we went to a big night market in the old city. Towards the beginning of the evening, they played the national anthem. It was interesting to see everyone stand at attention suddenly, in the middle of the busy market. The Sunday market goes for blocks and blocks. At one of the city squares, they had a star party hosted by the Thai version of NASA. There were telescopes where you could look at the moon.
The next day, we flew to Krabi through Bangkok. Krabi has an airport, and is probably mostly used as a launching point for tourists making their way to nearby islands. I was surprised to find strong Arabic influences in that city. The hotel owners were some of the nicest, most hospitable people I've met. It was an interesting experience, since I've never been to the Middle East before.
You do kind of need to stay in Krabi, since ferries only run to the islands a few times per day. We took the 2 hr ferry ride to Phi Phi island the next morning.
Our hotel, one of the medium-priced options at $36 (which felt like we were splurging, hotel-wise), had an infinity pool and nice views. There is a main village of pedestrian alleys with restaurants and tour booking offices and shops and massage parlors and bars and hotels. It's bustling with tourists. Swarms of tourists arrive when each ferry docks.
When I was looking for things to do, I found a tour that lets you swim with bioluminescent plankton. I've seen pictures of people kayaking through glowing plankton before, and had always wanted to see that phenomenon. Maya Beach, which was made famous through some Leo DiCaprio movie called The Beach (never seen it or heard of it before this trip), was closed due to damage from tourism. But we still got to stay in the surrounding bay.
It was raining hard in the early part of the day, and it was raining as we departed. However, the area around Maya Bay was not stormy, fortunately. We first snorkeled or kayaked in the daytime. There were colorful fish in the water. It was my first time snorkeling, and there weren't any lessons (I hadn't thought to ask or look it up, either), so there was a learning curve. I still haven't looked it up, but water would get into the snorkel. I eventually figured out that I could blow hard to get some of it out and clear the air channel again. I don't know if that's normal. It was mostly manageable. It was fun.
The boat was only a month old, so it looked nice. They had a gate on the third (top) floor, so that you could jump off of there into the water. I had recently done the Stacks obstacle at World's Toughest Mudder, so this would be no big deal. There was a party atmosphere on the boat. Everyone else, actually, was doing an enhanced version of the tour, where they'd spend the night on the boat, too, sleeping under the stars on mats.
We had dinner, more curry. Then, at night, we did the plankton swim. They shut off all of the lights on the boat. When you disturb the water, the plankton light up. So, I'd furiously agitate the water by waving my arms around and kicking like crazy. GoPros can't capture it, so you just have to take videos with your mind, they said. It was pretty cool and interesting.
There were a lot of people around my age on the tour. The hosting company (Maya Bay Tours) had many nice people, who seemed to get along very well like family. They created a fun and relaxed environment and made everyone feel welcomed.
The next morning, we went for a hike to the highest point on the island, where you could get a good view. We went for a swim at the hotel's pool, while the weather was still good.
I had thought about renting kayaks to visit Monkey Beach, where there are many aggressive monkeys. But, they came to us! They are like Hunger Games II monkeys... scary. They were ripping metal sheets off of the roof, and they take your stuff, and they have to be chased off with sticks.
We walked around after dinner, to observe the nightlife.
The next day, we picked the last ferry of the day to go back to Krabi, so that we could get in a bit more island time. We found ways to kill time.
That was pretty much the end of our trip in Thailand. Good food. Although, on the last night, I ate something that didn't settle well with me. Maybe it was something that was excessively spicy that my body rebelled against, or maybe it was something else. But I got over it in about a day.
TAIWAN PART 2
It was interesting, though, since I didn't eat anything for like a day and a half. But I still managed to run OK back at the university track.
Saturday, Dec 22:
5.1 mi in 46:11, 8:57 ave. I did 20 laps. Just me this time, no dad. I wanted to get in a run since I had gone through the trip to Thailand without exercising. I didn't miss it while I was there. We walked a decent amount during the trip. But it felt good to run again.
Splits> 9:49, 9:28, 9:23, 8:57, 8:32.
I finally ate some stuff (orange, half a paypaya, and almonds) again this morning, before the run. It was a slow run, which was understandable given my lack of regular training and the lack of food, but that made it a good run to nose breathe on, since those other factors (low glycogen stores, and tummy issues) were the limiting factor, more than oxygen would be. My body was in no mood to go for sprints, so I was perfectly happy with a slow run.
My body did go back into equilibrium, and I ate more in the following days. It knows what it needs.
Sunday, Dec 23:
Back in my mom's hometown, a gym had recently opened up near her parents' house. It was brand new, and for $3, you could get a single visit ticket. I ran for 10K (the default settings on the treadmill were in kilometers). It was warm, so I drank 3/4 a bottle of water. At 3 miles, I felt satisfied with the run, but I kept going. It was a good run, especially considering I had run the day before. The treadmill did stop at 3.5K because I didn't realize it had a default countdown of 20 minutes, so I had to reset everything in the middle of the run.
6.2 in 56:24, 9:05 ave.
It was a nice gym, with a wide variety of equipment for strength, cardio, mobility, and functional fitness.
Tuesday, Dec 25:
Started the morning with 10 miles. I should be almost 2 months into 4 months of marathon training (with the last month for tapering, so really, I should be 2/3 of the way through), and I haven't really started yet, so I wanted to try to get started on longer runs.
10.0 in 1:29:34, 8:57 ave. I had Nutella and 2 pieces of bread as a late night snack the previous night, so I only needed some chocolate and Emergen-C before this run. I figured out how to change the treadmill settings to use miles, and I now knew how to increase the workout duration on the treadmill. My mom helped me re-fill my small water bottle during the run. The gym was warm. The music was less adrenaline-inducing than before. But it was a good, productive run. I used a fancier treadmill this time, which let you visualize where you were on a track, which helped to mentally pass the time.
During this run, I finally felt like my body was going back to normal, with blood flow. Still slow, but otherwise good.
More family and family friend time, during the rest of the trip...
Friday, Dec 28:
Rather than going to the gym to do body weight strength, I did it in the living room.
- Crunches: 450/side
- Plank: 3 + 2.5 + 3 min
- Abductor/adductor Leg Lifts: 80/135
- Single Leg Squats: 125 + 125
- 6 in: 75s + 90s
- Lower Leg Extensions: 105
- Squats: 100
- Plyometric Pushups: 12
Sunday, Dec 30:
A different university track... the mondo rubber was worn on this one, but it was still better than asphalt. 5.1 in 42:20, 8:18 ave. It was windy, and it started sprinkling a little bit. The city is known for being windy, like Chicago is known for being windy in the US. It was a progressive run, which is encouraging.
Splits> 9:52, 8:42, 8:20, 8:01, 7:24 ave. Didn't eat before this morning run, but I had eaten lots the day before.
Flew back on NYE. Napped, and woke up like 15 min before midnight.
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