We arrived in Hong Kong on Friday and immediately went to the China Souring Fair in search for new product and manufactures.  The vendors at this show are like vultures lined up and down the aisle saying "Hello friend, come inside and check out my product. You likey?"  We give them credit for being go getters!  This type of conversation occurred today from the hours of 10am until the time I started writing this blog.
Friday's travel WOD consisted of for time 100 jumping jacks, 75 air squats, 50 pushups, and 25 situps.  The results were: Kacee 7 mins and Jay 0 mins.  Jay did not complete this WOD and claimed he had work to do.  I (Kacee) really believe he was being a slacker. Lol.  Today's WOD was 3 RFT: 50 situps, 50 bicycles, 50 toes to the celing, and 50 sec plank.  Therefore, all ab work.  The results were kacee 10:15 mins and Jay 12 mins.  Our abs were on fire after this WOD!  But, not as much as our feet from two days of endless walking. Can you say foot massage? Burpees are up to date of course with a whomping 65.  I actually hope this number is accurate, because I always seem to be off one or two.  So, if my sister or anyone doing the burpee challenge is reading this, please let me know if I am on target. :)
Tonight, we plan on going into central Hong Kong and begin the BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION! :) We will keep everyone posted on the birthday celebration festivities.
I'm writing this a week later due to China's censorship issues.  We are unable to post on blogger, browse twitter, or stalk on face book. Just kidding...lol.  But, we found away around this thanks to Jay's cleverness.
So, the birthday festivities consisted of massages, bubble,  high tea at the Peninsula Hotel, and wine and lobster pizza over looking the Hong Kong City view.  We had the opportunity to view the laser light show, which was unbelievable.  A perfect 30th celebration, we would say!  Asia is winning the war against PALEO.

Emersed into Tawian Culture.

On Tuesday, we took a break from the travel WODs. And for some reason we gave into danishes and pastries this day.  Who would have known that lining the streets of Taipei were gorgeous European bread shops.  Getting an early start, we headed to Beitou where you can luxuriate in sulphurous waters ranging from frigid to a bubbling 45 degrees C.  Here it is important wear a  bathing suit as bathing au naturel is not permitted.  As the only Americans, we made ourselves comfortable amongst the Asians partaking in this scalding experience.  Luckily we did not get in trouble by the "hot spring cop" as we were on our best behavior.  By the way, it cost less than $2 to add this experience to our bucket list.
Maokong gondola was the perfect ending to our relaxing day. The gondola took us over amazing views of Taipei and the lush Zhinan River Valley into the picturesque rows of tea leaves.  Here, we were able to sample tradition Taiwanese tea houses.  This was a spectacular experience while taking in the mountains and Taipei 101 in the distance. 
Starving we make our way back to the noisy streets of the city to #21 Seafood and Goose, for a real local dining experience.  The specialities that we decided to try were the Kung Pao Chicken, baby clams with basil and ginger, grilled shrimp, and sauteed veggies.  Jay claims for this to be the best Taiwanese food he has had this far.
Today, we awoke early hoping to experience Taiwanese culture at it's best at a local memorial hall.  At 6:30 in the morning one can experience Tai Chi along with country line dancing.  It's amazing at the number of Asians dressed in matching uniforms participating in their exercise routine this early in the morning.  Amongst this, we completed our travel WOD.  This WOD consisted of 10 RTF: 10 burpees and 10 situps.  Burpee count in for the day! Yes! ;) For the remainder of the day, we were at the Taipei AMAP show looking for new product and meeting with manufactures.  The end of the day consisted of a local Tawianese dinner with a manufactor. On the menu was pork meatballs to bean curd filled dumplings with lots and lots of wine!   PALEO:1 vs RICE: 7.  Rice won this dinner.

PALEO = 1 VS. ASIA = 6

Okay, okay... I know it's been a few days since our last post, but we have been busy taking in the Taiwanese culture and exploring the streets of Taipei.  When we last left you we were heading into Taipei via taxi to our hotel, The Tango Hotel.  Once we arrived, we were unable to check in.  So, they stowed our bags and we started our adventure to Taipei 101.  Towering above the city much like bamboo stalks, Taipei 101 is hard to miss.  At 508m, this structure held the world's tallest building for a number of years, but now it is in second-place status.  It takes a mere 40 seconds (1010m per minute) to get from ground level to the 89th observation deck.  On the observation deck of the 91st floor, you'll be able to see the massive gold-coloured iron ball that keeps the tower stable through the earthquakes.  In the basement of this tower is one of the most impressive malls and food court.  We decided to eat at the conveyor belt sushi restaurant called Hi-Sushi.  This is one of the freshest sushi we have ever tasted.  Don't worry we didn't eat the rice. 

On Sunday, we awoke early and completed our second travel WOD, which was 10 min of running stairs with a 1 min rest in between, For time: 21-5-9 Rep Scheme of box jumps and push ups.  And we forgot to keep track of the results.  Later that day, we went to a once important fishing village known as Tamshui and Danshui (yes, it has two names).  We walked along Gongming St where we enjoyed the morning market and sampled local Taiwanese street food.  The most unique snack was the single spiraled potato deep fried served on a stick. Continuing along this road, we ran into the Red Castle 1899.  This Red castle is a Victorian style building and a well-known landmark in Danshui.  Here we sampled the famous deep fried crab with garlic, an egg and oyster pancake, asparagus with shrimp, and beef short ribs.  Of course we had oolong tea, which is local Taiwanese tea.  Not to far from the red castle lies a gem called In Joy Chocolate.  Now, this was completely unexpected and so random to find a place like this in Taiwan.  Here the menu was... you guessed it... chocolate, chocolate beverages and even fondue, imported from Europe and Belize.  We stagger back to the train station in a chocolate comatose.

Bright and early monday morning we complete our third travel WOD at a local park.  We ran 1 mile, 5 RFT: 25 lounges, 20 air squats, and 10 push ups, and 1 mile back home.  Once again, we forgot to keep track of our results.  I'm blaming this one on the random groups of Taiwanese people doing Tai Chi distracting us.  We made 2 unsuccessful trips to the Yangmingshan National Park this day.  Can you believe the bus went passed us two times?  We even used the universal sign of waving our arms in the air.  And of course the downpour of constant rain didn't help the situation.  Instead, we found our way to the Modern Toilet.  Ok, its a theme restaurant, the theme being "everybody poops".  Sitting on toilets, we were served a curry out of toilet shaped dish.  The food was a good as you expect to eat out of a toilet bowl.  Starving we decided to head to the National Palace Museum.  We settled into the museums cafe opting for a healthy salad, brownies (Jay made us get those), and coffee. Many people believe this museum is home to the world's largest and finest collection of Chinese art.  Since, celadon-glazes are a favorite of Jay's we focused on pieces of theSong and Yuan dynasties.  My favorite we all of the different styles of teacups.  For our Easter Celebration, we went to a lovely hot pot, Qimin From Farm to Table.  The restaurant offers 100% organic food, meats free of growth hormones, and non-GMO veggies certified pesticide free.  It was delicious! And yes, we sampled the homemade udon noodles and cranberry cookies along with a grape vinegar shot.   

Off to a good start! Besides the Paleo!

Good Morning everyone!  Well, night for our family and friends in the USA.  It's safe to assume that we made the 25 hour flight safely.  After eating non-paleo food and sleeping for about 6 hours on the plane, we arrived in Taouyan, Taiwan at 10pm.  After clearing immigration and customs, we took a short shuttle ride to our hotel, Novotel and decided to complete our first travel WOD.  It consisted of: 15 minute warm-up with attempting double unders or as Whitney would say it "skipping," 57 burpees, and 2 min max rep pushups with a 1 min rest, 2 min max sit ups with a 1 min rest, and 2 min max air squats.  Here are the results: Jay completed 34 pushups, 42 situps, and 49 air squats.  I completed 45 pushups, 57 situps, and 87 airsquats.  Needless to say, after this WOD we were pooped. 

We had a wonderful breakfast this morning, paleo for me and don't tell anyone Jay cheated...shhhh.  Soon we will be heading to Taipei and hopefully have a fun filled day of sightseeing if we don't get blown away by the massive winds.

:singing: Leaving on a jet plane and we won't be back for 27 days!

Right now, we are awaiting for our flight from Fort Lauderdale, FL to Taipei, Tawian in the Delta Sky room drinking all the paleo water we can get our hands on. Did I mention this flight is 25 hours? Yes, 25 hours! Luckily, we have books, magazines, paleo food, and each other to get through this grueling flight. Not to mention the in flight movies. In 25 hours, we will be across the world emerged in Asian culture and jet lag. Keep posted for updates! We already miss our Aden, Toby, and PDI. Shout out to the 6am crew! And yes, I(Kacee)did 54 burpees this AM! :)