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OFF THE BOOKS TRAVEL

Adventures Beyond the Spreadsheet

Solo travel, hidden gems and real costs – from an accountant who’d rather be anywhere else

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🌿 Restaurant Review | Chao Stir Fry, Taipei @chao_ 🌿 Restaurant Review | Chao Stir Fry, Taipei@chao_stir_fry📍 Da'an District, Taipei💰 £10–15 + mandatory 10% service charge⭐ 4/5Fresh off the Elephant Mountain hike and running on fumes — this was exactly the kind of meal I needed.Chao is a fully vegan/vegetarian restaurant built around the Taiwanese re-chao (熱炒) tradition — think late-night stir-fry joints where friends crowd around metal tables, order plates of garlicky food, and wash it all down with cold drinks. Neon signs, deep reds, buzzing atmosphere. Chao takes that whole experience and makes it entirely plant-based, and honestly? It works.Found it through @happycow , my go-to whenever I'm winging it — never lets me down.I ordered:🍋 Thai Lemon Monkey Head Mushroom Tempeh — with extra chilli obviously🫙 Black Pepper Sizzling Tofu — with garlic, onion and chivesMostly customisable (chilli levels, garlic, onion, chives) which I loved. The tempeh came fast, the citrus hit hard but not in an overwhelming way. The tofu took a while to arrive — the restaurant wasn't particularly busy so I'm not sure why — but when it came it delivered: generous portions of tofu, aubergine and spring onion in a silky black pepper sauce, still sizzling at the table.The ordering is done via QR code — you pick an avatar and build your order from there. Cold drinks are grab-and-go from the fridge.Pricier than your average Taipei meal, but the quality is there.P.S. The pictures for the front and the entrance hall are from Google as I only took pictures of the food...#TaipeiFood #VeganTaipei #PlantBased #offthebookstravel #vegetarian
Day 2: Taipei – 10/05/2026 (Part 2) After the sel Day 2: Taipei - 10/05/2026 (Part 2)After the self-guided walking tour, after a quick pit stop at the hostel, I headed out again for the Elephant Mountain trail. It's approximately 600-700 steps and if you get to the top, you're rewarded with a view of the Taipei skyline (if the clouds stay away).It wasn't the easiest of walks but I have definitely done tougher. It took about an hour to an hour and a half or so to get to the top then we just waited for it to go dark so we could see the lights to go on. If you don't want to pay for Taipei 101, then this is a great and potentially better alternative (as you get Taipei 101 in your pictures).After the walk, I went to Chao, a fully vegetarian/vegan restaurant to refuel.My final step count for today was around 34k and my feet need to get used to this level of walking again...!
Day 2: Taipei – 10/05/2026 (Part 1) I was booked Day 2: Taipei - 10/05/2026 (Part 1)I was booked in on a free walking tour in the morning but the tour guide didn't turn up so I asked AI to generate a self guided walking tour for me and did it myself.The starting point was Longshan Temple. This is a working temple and when I entered, I saw loads of people throwing these moon-shaped blocks. I asked someone what they were doing and was to make a long story short, it's a way of asking the gods questions and depending on how the blocks fall, you get a number which leads you to a poem which you need to interpret to get the answer to your question.From there, I went to the Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall. Chiang Kai-Shek was seen as a hero by some for liberating Taiwan from freeing the country from Japanese rule but others felt he was a dictator and the cause of the 228 massacre. There are supposedly 89 steps to walk up to reach his statue - his age when he died.The next stop was 228 Peace Memorial Park. This was an existing park which was renamed to commemorate the date that was the initial confrontation between the government and protestors back in 1947. From 1949 to 1987, the country was put under martial law and no one was allowed to even speak of it (this was also the period Chiang Kai-Shek was in charge of the country). In 1996, the park was given the name 228 Peace Park and a monument was put up to help relieve the pain of the incident.The next few stops didn't have as much of a story but they were the Presidential Palace (the red brick building), Bopiliao l, a historic street in Taipei with buildings dating back to 200+ years (restored) to show how far Taiwan has come. The final 2 stops of the self-guided tour were Qingshui Temple and Bangka Qingshan Temple.
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