Which Asian City?

Have you considered Taiwan? Much cheaper than Tokyo. Incredibly friendly people. Fantastic food and night life. Also has great night markets. Plus, you can take the high speed rail from Taipei down to Kaoshung, and then take a trip down to Kenting Beach.

Taiwan seems to be such an overlooked travel gem. It is my favorite place to visit in Asia.

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2. Thinking about beach like Bali for second leg of trip. Again, I don’t know differences between different beach locales in Asia.

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I don't have advice on the others, but I highly recommend Bali. There's a stickied thread I started with descriptions and photos, so hopefully that can help you out.

Bali looks really nice. Was specifically looking at the Conrad in Bali.

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What are your favorite experiences in Taipei?

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Here are a three of my favorite experiences...

In Taipei (and a few other cities), you can go Shrimp fishing.


You pay for your time fishing, catch all you can catch, and cook it for yourself on the grills provided. You can also have them cook it for you for a very small fee. The thing is, expect to stay awhile. Expect to drink a lot of good cold beer. Expect to have a fun time getting to talk with the locals. The shrimp are HUGE. If you enjoy relaxing having good food and meeting new people, I highly recommend.

I typically like to walk around a lot. Find hidden restaurants and just enjoy seeing how other societies negotiate every day life. So, one evening just before sunset, I'm walking around this one city called Chiayi.

I'm walking down this street that has many restaurants open to the street. The sidewalks are full of tables that customers use instead of sitting in the cramped restaurants. It's hot. I'm sweaty. I'm walking passed this table with 5 or 6 people, all Taiwanese. A couple of them are looking at me. I smile and say hello. One guys says, "It's much too hot to be walking around. You should sit down and have a cold beer." I told him, "sure, but only if I get to buy you all a round."

His response was to pull out a chair for me. And as I was sitting down, he says, "You buy the beers, I buy the snacks." He calls the waiter over and rattles off a lot of chinese that I have no idea what it is. The waiter brings everyone a cold bottle of Taiwan Beer (actual name, and the Gold Label Taiwan Beer is really damn good). Anyway, we prost/cheers and take a sip of beer. He hands me a paper sack and tells me to have a snack. I reach in, and pull out...



I can tell you, at first I was like... WTF?@?! But, these were good people, and I enjoy a food challenge. He told me, "don't bit it, just nibble the edges". Man, let me tell you, spicy chicken feet and cold beer may not sound very appetizing, but it was really good. I sat with that group for a couple of hours, talking about their travels to the US, mine to Taiwan... foods, music, general lifestyles of living in Taiwan, etc. It was a fantastic time.

Another time, I had just landed in Taipei/Taoyen. Get to my hotel around 10:30PM. I always take a long walk as soon as I get my stuffed stashed in my room. Taipei is ALWAYS bustling. Restaurants stay open till around 2AM, even that late, you'll see families eating dinner. On this particular night, there was zero traffic. Almost all of my favorite restaurants are closed, which is extremely odd. I'm hungry.

No worries, about 4 blocks away, there's a McDonald's. I hate McD's, but I'm hungry, and decide I could go for some fries. I'm in the cross walk of a main street that has 4 lanes each direction, plus a dedicated bus-lane in the center, so 10 lanes of traffic to cross. Except, there is NO traffic. Really, really strange. Anyway, about not quite half-way across the street and this one lone scooter comes down the road and does a U-turn and stops 10 feet in front of me. A little old lady jumps off her scooter, pulls up the seat and starts rummaging around. She pulls something out, and runs over to me... in thickly accented English she says with excitement... "HERE! Rain coming!!" She hands me a cheap rain slicker. Then she runs to her scooter and hurries off.

Well, I'm just like, WTF? But, I don't want to get caught on some Taiwan Candid Camera episode being a mean American, so I put on the rain slicker. I didn't even get across the street completely and the most torrential rain storm I've ever been in hit. I mean it was HEAVY rain. I continue to McD's. Get my big mac and fries, and the workers tell me that a Typhoon was hitting the South end of the Island and that they think I'm crazy for walking around in the storm.

I had no idea. But I was so thankful for the rain slicker.

My point in these long stories... You will have incredible food there. You will see fantastic historical sights. You will have opportunity to have fun and go shopping. But most of all, you will meet genuinely nice people.

I would recommend going to the Philippines for the beaches and on the way back do an extended layover in Tokyo for a couple of days. This would basically save you money on flights since you have to have a layover in Tokyo to get to the Philippines anyways. I've been all over south East Asia and Philippines is up there with any country in the region when it comes to beaches. Tokyo is really cool city and a good place to explore for a couple of days.

Bangkok from what I've been told.

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Vietnam is remarkable (here now)

A swing through Hanoi, Halong Bay, Hue, Hoi An and Ho Chi Minh is a must

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We did that last year and then headed up to Japan and stayed in Kyoto for another stretch. Great trip.

Vietnam Trip

Japan Trip

OP, look into Osaka/Kyoto.

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Floating Change Up

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Great post.