Athletic-Minded Traveler

International travelers set for Taiwan’s capital city of Taipei usually arrive via Taoyuan International Airport which is located approximately 30 KM from the Eastern District of Taipei, considered the business, arts, financial and cultural center of Taiwan. This eastern area is mostly made up of three sub- districts: Daan, Xinyi, and Songshan and represents the center of commercial life in Taipei. The area is flush with shops, restaurants, art galleries, museums and offices.

As if we needed additional evidence why wearing a seatbelt at ALL times on an airplane is extremely important (except when using the lavatory):

26 Passengers Injured from Unexpected Turbulence During Continental Airlines Flight

Once I was on a flight from Chicago to Tokyo and the same thing happened -- unexpected turbulence caused the plane to violently drop and then spring back up. Passengers wearing their seatbelts were fine.

When there's a Walgreens or CVS on every other corner, there's no need to worry about finding familiar over-the-counter meds to help remedy an illness. But overseas travel to more remote countries can make finding a bottle of Tylenol as challenging as running a 4-minute mile.

According to Robert Edelman, MD, director of the travelers' health clinic at the University of Maryland medical center, the savvy athletic-minded traveler headed abroad will pack the following five pills as an emergency supply:

AthleticMindedTraveler.com is on a crusade. We seek to revolutionize the way hotels describe their gyms by identifying which properties truly provide "state of the art" fitness centers. And, on behalf of our fish-like friends, we're on a mission to help hotels understand the difference between a "lap pool" and a recreational pool. For some reason, the hotel industry incorrectly believes that a hole filled with concrete, a few hundred gallons of water and a splash of chlorine amounts to a lap pool. Not quite.

Several news items caught our attention this week:

First, ten states and over 100 municipalities have now banned smoking in all public places. Kudos to: California, Delaware, New York, Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Montana, Vermont and most recently Washington. Virginia?s try for a ban was defeated last year; the law is pending in New Jersey and recently put on hold in Ohio.