Tuesday 5 November, 2024

We left the Guest House/AirBnB after breakfast and headed to our warmshowers host. He is working today but gave us the instructions to get into his apartment. The instructions were very funny: Go down the small alley at the back of the shops, there will be a grey steel door. Put your hand through the opening and open the bolt. Then there will be another steel door, the key for that is on a small ledge, see yellow cord. When you have opened the lock, put your hand through that door and slide back the bolt. You will be in the storage area where you can leave your bikes.  Follow the stairs up three flights, I will leave my door open for you. He did, his apartment door was wide open.  Thanks Mark it made for a funny story and a good start to the day.

Before we got to Mark’s apartment we came across the statue of Koxinga on horseback. The statue is 8 metres long, 4 metres wide and 7 metres tall and weighs 200 metric tons. The statue was carved from Quanzhou White granite. This statue was presented to Tainan in 2008 by the society of Koxinga Studies, Quanzhou, China as part of intercity exchanges.

We investigated the garden area and found the shrine to Koxinga.  All of the information was in English and Chinese which made it more interesting. I also picked up a pamphlet explaining who Koxinga was and why this shrine was created for him. Koxinga was of Chinese and Japanese descent (Japanese mother). His father took him back to China where he studied Confuscious. However, he gave up his scholarly pursuits to take up arms against Qing invaders. He was born in the reign of the Ming Dynasty. In 1661 he headed to Taiwan to topple the Dutch colonial administration. He was successful in ending a 38 year colonial era (1624 to 1662). He renamed Fort Zeelandia to Anping Township. We are going to visit the Fort tomorrow.

Koxinga was held in very high esteem by the Chinese government of the time. However, he died at a young age of 39. (1662)

During the Japanese control of the Island a lot of the historic monuments were left to deteriorate. In 2008-2010 the Tainan City Government restored the shrine.

After we left Koxinga we found the south gate. This was one of seven fortified gates.

We spotted a small temple, which we went into just to get the Gods back on our side.

By the time we got to Mark’s apartment it was past noon. We sorted our laundry and headed out to the laundromat.

The area surrounding Mark’s apartment was the Blueprint Cultural and Creative Park. We investigated the area. Ralf took photos of the area. The collapsed historical space has been transformed into a 3D blue print sketch. The contours of the history of the building are outlined in white. The co-existing 2D and 3D sight lines morph from reality to illusion.

Other buildings represent old Japanese or Dutch buildings. Mark told us later that the area where the big shopping Mall is located was a Japanese prison and the area where the Blueprint cultural and creative park is located was the Japanese prison guards houses.

Unfortunately, Mark doesn’t have wi-fi so this will have to wait until we get to Kaohsing to post the next two days..

We had a great chat with Mark after dinner. We chatted about Taiwan’s political situation, with regards to Britain and other countries not recognizing it as an independent country. Most Taiwanese are not too worried about the situation with China. Although the Taiwanese government did go to the Ukraine to see how the Ukrainians managed to fight Russia and to see if Taiwan would be able to do the same. They determined that it would not be able to fight an aggressive China. They have decided to increase the mandatory conscription from 3 months to one year, in the hopes of getting more trained soldiers.

Taiwan is self-sufficient, in food, water, power and is the world’s leading producer of micro-chips. The banking situation has strict controls and has not had any major problems, even during the crash of 2008.

We discussed the school system and were amazed to learn that it is mandatory for kids to go to kindergarten at 3 years old. The middle-class want to ensure that their children speak English and will send their kids to an English kindergarten class. Mark teaches 4 to 5 years old. He teaches them in English – math, sciences (suitable for a 5 year old). He said part of his role as a teacher is to teach them to be self-sufficient and ethics. To be kind, to be helpful and to be independent. He said that by the time the 5 year old kids at his school  start Grade 1 their written and spoken English is better than his nephews who is in England. All students who go to university have to pass an English exam to be able to get into university. Mark said that some of his English friends found it hard.

We also talked about the cost of living. He pays approximately $300 Taiwanese dollars a month for his apartment which is one floor of a three storey building. The kitchen is tiny but everyone eats out or has food delivered. He pays about $NT 10 a month for electricity in the winter and $20 in the summer when it is really hot and humid. We didn’t discuss his pay but he indicated that most Taiwanese are not looking to buy property as renting is usually only about 7% of their overall income, whereas buying could be more than 35% of their income.

Sunday 3 November 2024

Today was another day off the bikes. This is not just a bike tour, it is a site seeing tour as well. We had planned to take the Alishan Railway, an historic railway up to the mountain region of Alishan. Unfortunately, we couldn’t get tickets and the regular train wasn’t running today. We decided to go up to Shizhou by bus and walk the Tea Trails.

There were several buses leaving for Alishan, stopping at Shizhou along the way. We got the 7:40 bus by my watch. As we checked the time later both Ralf’s phone and my phone indicated it was an hour later. I think there was a time change somewhere in the world and my watch didn’t get the memo, now my watch doesn’t match the actual time in Taiwan.

However, we had a wonderful time in Shizhou. The first trail was called the Mist trail , the second one was the Tea Trail and the third one was the Cloud trail. The various trails were quite challenging as we were at 1699 metres and climbing uphill until we got half way through the Cloud trail and then it was downhill.

After we got off the bus in Shizhou, we had to walk up the road for about 1 km before we found the first trail called the Mist Trail.

I think they should rename these trails, because we saw more tea bushes and people picking the leaves on the first section. As we crossed from that trail to the tea trail, the clouds rolled in and it was very misty.  The cloud trail can stay the same, as you are often walking above the clouds..

We went through three different eco-systems, very similar to the eco-systems that the Botanical Gardens had created in Taichung. Tea, bamboo and forest.

The tea grown here is primarily green tea. Shizhuo has its own unique advantages for growing good tea. The altitude of the tea area is between 1200 and 1700 meters. The temperature difference is about 10 degrees, with sufficient relative humidity. In summer, the highest temperature is seldom over 25 degrees. Tea leaves do not age due to growing too fast so the tea tastes mellow and not bitter. It grows well at these high altitudes and soils.

You could smell the tea as we passed the pickers. They were all shouting to one another. One of them shouted Good morning to us. I asked if we could take a photo and she said yeah o.k and then turned her back on us as the foreman was coming to check up on the workers. 

At the top of the cloud trail we came across a group of about 4 or 5 people stopped for a rest and snack.

One of the ladies offered us some food. We had no idea what it was until she broke the shell and it looked like a chestnut only softer. She gave us the whole bag to take with us, she also offered us eggs. We declined the eggs but we did take the whole bag of chestnutty things. Whatever the nut thing was it was really good.

Everyone on the walks were very chatty and helpful. It was lovely to be out forest bathing!!

On the way down, we took photos of the flora and fauna.

We were almost at the end when I spotted a very large spiders web with dozens of spiders in it, slight scream from me and walking very quickly away from them. Ralf took a photo and I think he has put it on his facebook page, with a warning for us Arachnophobics.

We got back to the hostel at 4:00 p.m. and are catching up on a few things before we head out for something to eat.

Back on the road again tomorrow.

Saturday 2 November 2024

What an amazing day. Google maps (and Ralf) did us proud, although the mapping sucks a lot of power out of Ralf’s phone and he begins to worry when it gets down to 10%, it did a great job today.

The weather was lovely, sunny, blue skies and not too humid. It did get a bit hotter in the afternoon, but manageable without the humidity.

You might think it odd that there is a picture of hydro tower. We have noticed these towers on our rides and this time we were able to get a good picture of one. Most of the hydro towers are on platforms, due to flash-floods and typhoons.

Leaving Beidou we followed the main road to the Xilou Bridge. The Xilou Bridge was built in 1953 and was the longest bridge in East Asia at 1,939 metres long. It spurred economic growth by linking the road networks of the northern and southern parts of Western Taiwan. It was very difficult to cross the Jhuoshuei river prior to the bridge being built. They would have to wade across or take a wooden raft “ferry”.

The new Highway 1 bridge further down the river takes all the commercial and major traffic away from Xilou. The Xilou Bridge is now a tourist attraction and only local traffic uses the bridge. It is a two-lane bridge with no shoulder for motor scooters or cyclists, but everyone was very respectful. If you are in a hurry you take Highway 1.

As most of you know, Ralf and I have had an ongoing competition spotting windmills ever since we visited Holland in 1986. Guess who was the first to spot a windmill. Ralf!!

We followed a short bike path on top of a berm. As we came down a small hill to the road we spotted this lovely statue.

We spent 95% on rural farm roads. I wanted to stop and take photos of all the different fruits and veges that were being grown. Everything from cabbage to bananas, even geese.  It was a lovely and relaxing ride.

We went through one major town which was a bit chaotic. That is where we stopped for a quick snack at 7/11. About 5 ks outside of Chiayi we were on the main road. It was a straight road almost to our hostel.

We arrived at 2:15 and could not check in until 3:00 p.m. They did allow us inside the hostel to relax and get out of the heat.

After checking in and having a shower, we headed to the train station to find out about the bus/train to Shizhou tomorrow. There is a Tourist Information Centre at the train station and she was able to give us the information about the bus and told us the bus stop was by the white bear outside. We went outside to find the correct stop. We found the stop and then a small Taiwanese lady helped us. She showed us the bus stop, the times it left the bus stop and told us we should be early as it gets busy. Her English wasn’t perfect, but we could understand her and she kept asking if we understood. I complimented her on her English and she said “no it is not good”. Her friend had her phone and googled the times for the return and we all had a nice chat. They were from the Kaohshing area and were visiting Chiayi. They wished us a safe trip and we thanked them for their help.

We walked back to the hostel and then carried on to the night market. We had a Banh Mi (Vietnamese baguette) for dinner and a waffle for dessert. It was a good night market. Lots of people but not overwhelming.

On our evening walkabout Ralf treated himself to a small powerbank. The assistant who helped us, told Ralf he should be able to get three full charges from the powerbank which will charge his phone from 0 to 100%. We told her that we were on bicycles and she was very careful that we got a lightweight power bank.

Smart Fish restaurant was really busy and is quite famous in Chiayi. There is always a long line up. Pearl Grouper Fish Head Hot Pot Smart Fish has been passed down for three generations. They insist on high quality and meticulously cooking, making their food a popular delicacy in Chiayi. The restaurant has three seating areas, and each one was full.

All in all a very good day. Until Ralf tried to book a hotel in Tainan. We are a day ahead of schedule and Mark our warmshowers host cannot host us on the first night in Tainan. We found a reasonably priced room near the train station and booked it. Now Ralf is trying to work out how to get the code for when we arrive. It is a self check-in place. He has to send a photo of his passport, name his first child after the hotel, that is what we are struggling with no babies. He finally went downstairs to get help from the guy on reception.  There is another APP he has to download. Ralf finally got it all sorted by 9:30 p.m. after a lot of bad words. The thing that really annoyed him was the amount of messages they were sending him, which he could not make heads nor tails of. They will send us the code for the room at 4:00 p.m. check-in time and not a moment earlier.

Thursday October 31, 2024

A day doing nothing waiting for a Typhoon to hit Taiwan.  Well, not actually doing nothing. We got the washing done and the blog is up to date.

This is a very modern apartment, it has a small kitchenette, with a two-burner induction cook top. There is a unit above the sink that looks like a microwave, then we thought it could be a dishwasher, but it is actually a dish-dryer! 

The bathroom vent has multiple functions: the regular fan, it cools, it can heat, it can blow a cool breeze, it can dry clothes and ventilates the bathroom. It has a 6-hour timer.  We washed our clothes, used a towel to wring them out and then hung them in the bathroom with the heat function on. It took a few hours, but all our clothes are dry including the padded cycling shorts.

I was able to update the blog from Sun Moon Lake and yesterday’s google madness.

All the time we were waiting to be hit by 200 kph winds and damaging rain. Ralf was checking the weather reports on Taiwan weather, and we waited. Reports are that this is going to be the biggest Typhoon to hit Taiwan in 30 years.

Garlon and Jean emailed us to warn us of the Typhoon and to stay indoors as we could get hit by flying objects.

At about three o’clock the Typhoon finally hit the mainland of Taiwan on the east coast, but still hadn’t arrived in the central area. Taiwan has a huge mountain range that runs along the centre of the Island. Often this will create completely different weather systems from one side of the Island to the other.  However, because this Typhoon is predicted to be so big, the whole of the Island is on Typhoon alert. Some major industries have closed, the west coast high speed rail has been reduced, but it is still running a limited service. All flights have been cancelled and all schools and government offices have been closed since Wednesday afternoon.

Ralf was going a bit stir crazy and decided he would investigate the street. We had seen and heard scooters going in and around the neighbourhood. We decided to go for a little walk and get some more beer!!

The wind had died down and there was only a smattering of rain. Some of the shops are still open and a few of the small eateries are operating, however, there are not many people on the streets.

The forecast is for more rain overnight and heavy winds. We are staying an extra day here just to be on the safe side.

The east coast of Taiwan is a different story. It has been heavily hit by the Typhoon, with major power outages and trees down.

Update at 6:00 p.m. the Typhoon is now hitting the central provinces and Beidou has heavy rains and 120 kph winds. It sounds very windy outside, but we are snug in our little apartment with beer and Doritos.

It looks as though Typhoon Kong-rey will have left Taiwan by about mid-morning to noon tomorrow.

Wednesday 30 October, 2024

What an interesting day this turned out to be. After breakfast and while we were packing our stuff up ready to leave on our bikes to go to Beidou, I had a little panic attack. I have no idea why. I can’t quite get back into the bike touring mode, it has been a while. I was worrying about the route, the hills, the accommodation and now of course a ruddy Typhoon.

Ralf had requested an extra nights stay at our guest house in Beidou, they responded positively, but Bookings.com said no availability.

We set off and as soon as we were weaving our way through traffic to the Rainbow Village, I calmed down and was in cycling mode, all’s well with the world.

Rainbow Village was originally military housing, small houses for military dependents. They were going to be torn down. However about 15 years ago, Huang Yung Fu (known as Grandpa Rainbow) painted his house and surrounding houses with colourful paintings, that reflected his optimistic attitude. This became a very popular place to visit, and the Borough of Chunan in Taichung decided not to tear down the Village.  Unfortunately, in 2022 some of his artwork was deliberately vandalized and destroyed. The Taichung Cultural Affairs Bureau covered the fragile murals with wooden walls and invited citizens to paint on the wooden walls to continue the spirit of Grandpa Rainbow. It is now a collaborative art space. Grandpa Rainbow passed away in January 2024 at the grand old age of 100.

We spent about an hour taking photos and then Ralf plugged into google maps the address of where we are staying in Beidou, or at least somewhere close to where we are staying. The options were Best Route, less hills, or busy traffic.  I was going for the less hills, Ralf said best route. Google hasn’t done us wrong yet. So Best Route it was.

We headed out of Taichung on a quieter road and cycled through some small rice fields. The route was really nice. The weather was hot, but not too humid, a good day to cycle. At about 20 kms Ralf said we should stop for some lunch. O.k. next 7/11 we pulled in shared a chocolate milk, had a couple of bananas and a sandwich. Then we headed of again. The central mountains were to our left and we climbed a nice easy grade. This was the life. Then google went mad, it took us through a few little hills and a small village, we took the left-hand farm lane, which deteriorated into a rough path, which got even worse as it became leaf strewn. To top it all it was an 8 – 13% grade.  We couldn’t cycle on this stuff. We were both off and pushing uphill for about 2 kilometres. From the bottom to the top, it took us almost an hour. We got back on our bikes at one point, but it was a false summit, and we were off and pushing again.

At the false summit, we could hear people talking. Who farms at the top of a beejesus hill. Apparently you can grown pineapples in a small area.

At the very top there was a small café which was closed, this obviously was a popular hiking area.  We headed down the hill, I was so pleased we had disc brakes.

At the bottom we caught our breath and carried on a very flat road towards Beidou.  Google had had its joke and decided to take us through small villages again and away from the main Highway 1 traffic route.

We came through the area of Tianwei. This area is known as the flower or garden area of Taiwan. There is an area where you can visit the flower farms and when they are in full bloom, they are stunning. They were a little past their prime, but garden centres line the roads. As we passed one garden centre a gentleman said Welcome to Tianwei. Thank you it is good to be here. I had to stop and take photos of one garden centre, that seemed to have something for everyone.

Ralf was getting a little concerned about the power status of his phone. It was down to 10% and he had no idea how far we were from the guest house. The other small issue was we didn’t have the correct address of the guest house where we were staying for two nights.

We stopped, and I said to Ralf “in Vietnam we always got help from a hair salon”. He left me with the bikes and with google translate on his diminishing phone he headed down the street.  A couple at a small roadside eatery said they might know where it was, and the husband headed of on his scooter to check. In the meantime, the wife offered us water. It was so nice of them. Hubby returned and said in English follow me. Two minutes later we were at our little guest house. It is a small apartment with a kitchenette, two bedrooms, bathroom and living room. Perfect place to keep us safe from Typhoon Kong-rey that is barrelling down on us. The forecast is for it to hit Taiwan on Thursday and bring devastating winds and rainfall.

After we had showered, we headed out to get some supplies so that we can stay in the apartment for two days. Sometime during the day at Sun Moon Lake, Ralf had lost his glasses. He tried to find an optician but the closest according to crazy google was 15 kms away. As we walked down this little street, I spotted some eyeglasses in a shop. It was an optician, 150 metres from our location. We popped in and we were able to buy two new pairs of reading glasses for $13. The screw in my glasses is coming loose and he couldn’t fix it. The optician gave us two plastic cases (pink and blue) and cleaning cloths. Google also could not find us a local supermarket, within 5 kms of our location. On the opposite side of the street from the optician was a PX Supermarket that has everything we need for a couple of days.

Google let us down today.

Although the Typhoon isn’t due to arrive until tomorrow, we bought food for tonight. We could have eaten at a local eatery as they were all open.

Tuesday 29 October, 2024

We had originally planned to ride to Sun Moon Lake and have a rest day at Sun Moon Lake, cycling around the lake and then ride to Beidou on Thursday. Because of my lack of cycling prowess on hills we decided to take a day trip to Sun Moon Lake with a small tour group and then ride to Beidou on Wednesday.  The route to Sun Moon Lake was approximately 79 kms, with the last 17 kms being uphill on a 7 to13% grade. I can’t do hills at the best of times, I certainly would not be able cycle 17kms up hill at the end of a day. The other fortuitous thing that happened because we took the day trip is that we can hole up in our guest house in Beidou when Typhoon Kon-rey hits on Thursday.

We had a lovely day visiting Sun Moon Lake. We were picked up by our tour bus at promptly 8:15. There were only two other people on this tour with an English speaking guide. They were from Australia. Mr Xiao who told us his English name and abbreviation, we could call him HP, like Harry Potter!  As we drove towards Sun Moon Lake he told us our itinerary for the day. There would be a boat cruise, lunch and time to explore a local village, and several short hikes up to temples. He gave us a little history lesson, he also pointed out various things on the drive.

One of the stories about Sun Moon Lake is that it was discovered by an aboriginal fisherman, who went back to his village and encouraged them to move with him to the lake as there was plenty of fish in the water. He was asked what this place was called and he called it Fish Pond lake.  When the Japanese controlled Taiwan they built a Hydro Electric Dam and the lake then became the size it is today. It is a semi-natural lake. It is called Sun Moon as there is a distinct division to the lake. Half of the lake resembles a sun and the other half resembles a crescent moon.

As we drove up to Sun Moon Lake,  HP showed us many Betel Nut plantations. The trees grow quickly and there is a growing market for betel nut. The trees can also be cut down and the material is very fibrous, it can be used for paper products. Betel nuts are similar to chewing tobacco and is quite addictive as it can give you a moderate high.  Although the nut is white, when chewing the leaf or nut it changes to a red colour and you can identify people who are chewing it by their red teeth, gums and lips. Ugh.

We arrived at the Visitors Centre and watched a short video on the area. The Xiangshan Visitor Centre was designed by a Japanese architect – Norihiko Ddan and Associates. The uniquely designed building has wood-patterned exteriors and wings that stretch like human arms embracing the earth, a very cool design.

The ladies toilets were very pretty!

Sun Moon Lake is a 800 hectare lake with a 35 kilometre shoreline. I think the Aussies and ourselves would have like to rent bikes and cycle around the lake, but the temples we visited were interesting.

We then headed out on our first boat trip across the lake to XuanGuang Temple.

A short hike up a hill to the temple that was built for XuanGuang. He had taken a bit of a walk to India to learn about Buddhism and bought translated scripts back with him. His pilgrimage took him 17 years. His relics were reportedly dug-up during the Japanese occupation and were then moved to another temple. I asked what relics were and HP told me they were bones. So basically they dug up his skeleton and moved them to a different temple.

After this temple we headed back across the lake to an aboriginal village for a traditional lunch.  Five of us at the table with a large lazy-susan in the middle and five to six dishes bought out for us to try. Pork, chicken, fried tofu, vegetables, rice and fish. It was very tasty. Afterwards we had time to wander around the Ita Thao shopping district. Ralf and I had some ice-cream and were very surprised that it tasted of tea. You would be amazed at the different ways they use tea here. Eggs boiled in tea, tea ice-cream even a vege broth with tea. Tea is grown in Taiwan. Some of the tea is Oolong, but the majority in this area is Assam as it was deemed to be the most popular tea in the world. The tea bushes were imported from India and grown in this area.

After our wander around we were taken by van to the Ci’en Pagoda. This was a 0.7 km trail with about 570 steps. At the top of the trail was a Pagoda, it was built by Chang Kai Shel for his Mother.  Can you imagine it’s Mothers Day, he traipses his mum up a .7 kms climb with 570 steps and goes “ta da look what I have got you as a present –  a 7 story pagoda perched at the top of a hill” Mum’s reply “Thanks Son but a box of chocolates and a bunch of flowers would have been sufficient.”

Ralf and I were the first to the top and then climbed the 270 steps inside the Pagoda for a great view over Sun Moon Lake. There was also a small house which Chang Kai Shek would stay at on his visits to the Pagoda. Unfortunately, you couldn’t visit inside the house, but you could peer into the windows.

After the Pagoda we headed to Wen Wu Temple. Wen Wu Temple is two temples in one.  The Cultural and Martial temple. It represents Confuscius, Wen Chang Di (God of Scholar) and Guan Gong (Saintly Emperor).

Wen Wu Temple sits on a property of 264,458 square metres it has three halls. There were two temples originally. When the Japanese Electric Company created the hydro electric dam, the water level rose and they had to move the two temples. The Electric Company offered compensation for moving the temples. The “managers” of the two temples decided to combine their resources, with the help of the electric company, and combined their two temples on this site. Most of the money to build this temple reconstruction was raised by local fund raising and there are multiple walls with the names of the benefactors. HP informed us when visiting a temple you enter through the right door and exit through the left door. The middle door is the mouth of the lion and you do not want to enter that way.

This temple is also where you could pray for assistance with medical problems or for matchmaking. I tried to trade Ralf in but nobody would have him. I guess I will have to hang onto him for a while.

Our final little hike was to the Nine Frogs. This little sculpture located in the lake indicates how the depth of the water. HP said that in the summer you can sometimes see seven out of the nine frogs, we could only see the top three.  It was a nice end to the day.

We headed back to Taichung and arrived back at 5:30. After showering, we met up with Bike Snail for dinner.

We met “Snail” in Angkor Wat in 2017 when we were last in South East Asia. He told us he was a slow bike rider and Snail was his nickname, he was from Taiwan.  In the meantime, he has travelled extensively in South America and was in Germany in early October. Ralf noticed on his Instagram posts that he was headed to Taiwan and told him we were in Taiwan.  Snail responded with I’m in Taichung, where are you? OMG we were in Taichung at the same time and managed to get together for dinner. Small world.

It was so nice to meet up with him, we chatted about his trips and he said as soon as he got a new passport, he would be leaving for Vietnam as he was finding Taiwan too expensive.

We have added an extra night in Beidou as there is a Typhoon headed our way.

Sunday

October 27, 2024

Last night we had bought breakfast food from the local supermarket, yogurt, muesli and bananas. We also decided we would stop and eat and drink more often.

Today was a grey day, we had a bit of a tail wind and the heat and humidity were not too bad. I am not sure if the grey skies were due to the weather or the pollution.

We headed out to the temple and spent about 20 to 30 minutes looking at this temple.  It would appear that there isn’t an actual Sunday service, you can go and pray at any time. It was very peaceful and a good start to the day.

Today was another good ride. We followed google maps again. On leaving Yuanli we figured that Taiwan got an excellent deal on traffic lights. There seemed to be a traffic light every 100 metres, stopping and starting what a pain in the backside that was. Literally, every time I stopped the bike it wanted to keep moving a little bit and my seat would hit me in the butt. I have another bruise forming on my bum.

We had a short ride on Hwy 1 through Dajia and then followed the Da’An River, along a huge flood plain area.

For the first 20 kms I seemed to struggle even though it was a flat ride. I felt as if my bike was dragging. In Taiwan you can go to any police station and ask for water and assistance. Our route took us through small villages where there were limited or no facilities. Eventually I spotted a police station and went towards. A police officer came out I mimed that I needed a pump. Unfortunately not all police stations have bike tools. Oh well, carry on.

When we got into Houli District I spotted a bike store and asked if he could put some air in my tires. He said they were good, but I said I liked my tires to be firmer. They were reading about 60 psi and I like them around 80 psi. It made a difference. We got some lunch and carried on. I had Bubble Tea, (with coconut) and Ralf had a sandwich from the 7/11.

In Nanyang New Residential Quarter we joined a bike path that ran underneath the high-speed rail line. Once again away from any traffic and a straight line to our hotel.

We arrived at our hotel early and managed to get an early check-in. From our hotel window we can see the old train station and there was a demonstration of Japanese dance and music which we could see, hear and watch.

We discussed our options for the ride to Sun Moon Lake. It is a 79 km ride and the last 17 kms up hill with an 8 to 12 % grade. I was concerned about the hills, of course, and Ralf didn’t want to walk up hill for 17 kms!! We checked the price of hotels, which are expensive and after much discussion we decided to take a tour. Easy way out, but more enjoyable for me at least. We get picked up at the hotel at 8:00 and arrive back at about 6:00, lunch is included and a boat cruise. Lots of time for some walking and site seeing.

We decided we need to get some washing done. We found a laundromat near our hotel and then walked a couple of blocks to find something to eat. We found a Beer Fest happening Yeah. We tried a couple of beers and then got some food which I thought was fried chicken, but it wasn’t not sure what it was but it didn’t make us sick so everything is fine.

A great end to a good day on the road.

Friday 25 October 2024

This day was in three parts: The Ugly, The Bad and the Good. I know it should be the other way around, but this is how the day was.

Part One it was raining when we got up and continued upon leaving. Not just mizzle a steady rain.  We cycled approximately 5kms in the wrong direction (my fault). I was convinced I knew which way was south. I was wrong and it was also Garmin’s fault. The Garmin doesn’t have Taiwan base mapping, it was only showing a blank screen and a line indicating the route. It also couldn’t work out which way was south. We eventually got on the right path. Ralf had wanted to follow the route/map I had created using Ride with GPS and had downloaded on to his Garmin. but I knew we needed to get to the Sanxia Old Street, as this was the Official Start of the Ride Around Taiwan. When we got into the area of Sanxia we followed the road signs to Old Street.

It took us about 1.5 hours to go 10 kms! The roads were busy, and the rain didn’t help. Also, our bikes didn’t appear to be very happy with us. Ralf’s bit him and mine tried to throw me off. We hadn’t quite got used to having all the weight on the back of the bikes. When we stopped suddenly the bikes would twist, hence Ralf’s pedal hitting the back of his leg and me trying to control a back heavy bike and I almost fell over with the weight of it. I have a good bruise forming on my calf.

Part Two was when we eventually arrived at Sanxia Old Street. This is one of the oldest streets in Taiwan and has many connections to the Japanese. Nowadays, only the red brick buildings with arched hallways and Baroque styled architecture remain to tell of their past glory. The characters carved upon the ancient buildings in the street show the first and last names of the occupants, or their occupations, or the names of the store.

It was a beautiful street, and the sun came out.

Part Two of the ride was looking up, until we hit the hills of Daxi and Guanxi, and we were going up and up and up. 

It had taken us so long to get out of Taoyuan, the rain had stopped, and the heat and humidity began to climb, at the same time as we were climbing.  We climbed two hills at the top of the first hill there was a small temple. We stopped as there was a washroom sign and discovered a lovely little temple a massive marble rock and stunning views.

The last hill going up to Guanxi, according to the Garmin was 3.5% climb over 7 kms, easy peasy. Until we got to the bottom of the climb and the road sign indicated that it was a 7% climb. The heat and humidity were getting to me, and I couldn’t get my heart rate down. I had to stop several times, eventually we made it to the top. We were hoping for a 7/11 convenience store, they are supposed to have everything you need. Unfortunately, it was a Hi-Life Mart, the only thing they had that was any good for a cyclist were bananas. I took the last four and bought a 2-litre bottle of cold water. We refilled our water bottles. At this point we definitely hadn’t hydrated well, and we needed to rectify that and quickly. There was still water left in the bottle, so I poured it on my little towel, which I bought for just this occasion and wrapped it around my neck. That cooled me down and we were ready to start again.

At this point we had been working on three different mapping programs. Ride with GPS, Maps.me and Google. A German fella who stopped as we were taking a break on the Guanxi hill told us that google had taken him 15 kms in the wrong direction when he was leaving Taipei. He wasn’t having a good first day of cycling in Taiwan.

We had told our warmshowers host (Garlon) that we would be at his place at about 4:00 p.m. It was already 3:30 when we texted him to let him know we would be another couple of hours.  We had 30 kilometres to go form Guanxi.

The information I had read about the route was that it was downhill all the way from Guanxi. We made our right turn and headed downhill, yeah. Ralf had changed the mapping to google maps and was using his phone and the data.

A beautiful quiet ride from Guanxi. The google route took us through back roads that followed the rice paddy fields and avoided Hwy 1, almost completely.

We had to come away from the rural route and onto Highway one through Zhubei. It was rush hour and bedlam, motor scooters everywhere and cars trying to get through. We saw our first fender bender.

At this point it was getting dark. I never thought we would be arriving at a warmshowers house in the dark. We arrived at 5:30 p.m. Garlon wasn’t home from work and his girlfriend (Jean) was at a music lesson. We had to wait for him to come home and he was stuck in traffic. Fortunately, one of his neighbours allowed us into the garage area of his building, we were out of the way of mosquitos.

Part Three: Our warmshowers hosts. What a joy. Garlon arrived home, we showered and relaxed a little while. When Jean came home they took us out for dinner.  Garlon had asked if we had any traditional Taiwanese food since arriving in Taiwan and we sheepishly admitted that we hadn’t. He took us to a good, traditional Taiwanese restaurant. We told them that I was allergic to shellfish, but apart from that we ate anything so long as it wasn’t moving.

Jean explained that traditionally they would order rice, vegetables and two or three other dishes and everyone would share. She asked if we did this in Canada. We said no unless it was at a Thai or Indian restaurant. The dishes kept coming: noodles with beef, noodles with veges, noodles with mushrooms, it seemed to never end, and we all dug in with our chop sticks. We asked for a lesson on how to use the chopsticks and they tried to show us, but I stuck with the way my Dad showed me, as Jean put it the traditional way. Ralf managed quite well but for a couple of the dishes he needed a fork. We chatted throughout the meal. It was a wonderful evening. They also ordered a couple of bubble teas (famous Taiwan tea with milk and tapioca) and a Guava slushie. Garlon told us that this restaurant claimed that it had invented Bubble Tea. He seemed very skeptical about this claim.  The food was really, really good and we could have stayed longer but the restaurant was closing.

When we got back to their flat, we carried on talking about our trips, Garlon’s ride along the silk road and Jean walking the Compostela in Spain, last year. They had recently returned from New Zealand, and we all agreed how special New Zealand was. Eventually we went to bed at about 11:30. A very late night.

As we often say about our warmshowers guests you meet as strangers and leave as friends. I know we have made new friends.

Thursday 24 October, 2024

Another quick breakfast at McD, it is only 200 metres from the hotel. That is our excuse anyway.  We had booked into a hostel for Saturday night and realized they do not provide towels.  We didn’t bring our camping towels, I never liked them. However, we did decide we needed new lightweight towels. After breakfast we headed out to Green Card Outdoor store. With the data on the phone, we were able to get their quickly. However, when we were passing the Jing Fu Temple, we decided to take a quick look inside.  We asked at the desk if there is anything we shouldn’t do. The lady said we could take photos and enjoy the temple.

This was built in 1745 and expanded in 1813. It was built for worshippers of Kai Chang Sheng Wang. We spent about an hour looking at the amazing architecture.

There were quite a few worshippers while we were there, burning incense sticks and buying “money” to burn in the outside oven.

About an hour later we were on the way to outdoor shop.

We found the outdoor shop and bought two lightweight towels. The owner of the store was very helpful and gave us a 10% discount for first time shoppers. On our way back we spotted a market area. The Nahmen Market was awesome. We both love seeing these markets and wandering up and down the aisles. A fella spoke to us in very good English and indicated that he had kimchi. We chatted to him for a while, he had studied in Winnipeg for four years and was pleased to speak to us. He was surprised we had found the market. We were the only non-Asian people there.

Another rainy day. However most of the sidewalks are covered, they are definitely not accessible for people with physical disabilities.  The material used on the sidewalk outside of the shops varies from tile to concrete and vinyl. It looks as though the shop owner picks the material, he/she likes and installs it. There are steps that are steep or just high enough for you to not notice but trip up. Then of course there is the motorbike parking. It is interesting to walk anywhere here.

We headed back to the hotel to put our bikes together. That is when disaster struck. My bike had been damaged. Well, the wheel at least. The spindle which goes through the front wheel was snapped. Ralf stopped putting the bikes together and we headed to the Giant Bike shop to see if they had a spindle.  Fortunately, he had a spindle, it is slightly different from the one that was damaged. The one I had was a quick release specific to these Montague bikes. The new spindle fits and I don’t intend on taking the front wheel of until we pack the bikes to go home. Important to note, always remove the spindles from the wheel so that it doesn’t get damaged.

The bikes are put together and tomorrow we head out to Hsinchu.

October 23, 2024

Not a very exciting day today.  It was mizzling all day. This word (mizzle) I learnt last time I was in the U.K. (the Lake District) it is a cross between misty and drizzling rain. Not quite enough to get you wet but damp enough to feel uncomfortable.

In fact the day started off so exciting I thought I would show you a photo of the electrical outlets in the hotel room. These are designed so that you can plug any style of plug into the socket. From Australia to the U.K. your electrical plugs will fit into these sockets, no adapters required.

We needed to get a SIM card for Ralf’s phone so that he can connect to Data and get us from place to place. We thought it would be easy, but, most stores do not open until 10:00 or 11:00.  We were both awake early at 6:00 ish. After I posted yesterday’s blog, we decided to have breakfast and venture on the quest for a SIM. We do have wi-fi in the room and Ralf found us a very un-Taiwanese breakfast – McDonalds. It was only 200 metres away, although the big yellow arches were not displayed outside. A very subtle sign on the door indicated we were in the right place. We stayed there until 10:00 and then headed out to get a Sim card, we walked miles, 9.5 kms. We thought we could get one from any phone store, but it had to have Taiwan Mobile on the outside. The first store we went into the lady had limited English but wrote down in Chinese characters where the stores were and told us she thought they opened at 11:30.

We noticed that one of the stores was open at 11:00 and we went in, this assistant told us that we had to get it from the Taiwan Telecommunications store, and directed us down the street about 200 metres. We walked much further than 200 metres and no Taiwan Telecommunications building. We headed back up the street towards the first store spotting a few interesting temples along the way.

Eventually we asked two young men and showed them the piece of paper. They pointed us to a phone shop, two stores down from where we were standing.

We were helped by a very helpful young woman, filling in all the forms and passport information, taking an extra mugshot of Ralf, she got a little confused about Ralf’s date of birth. Ralf had to sign his name, exactly how it is in the passport – Winter Ralf Johann, it took him three attempts. First was his normal signature, second he signed it Ralf Johann Winter and finally he got it right. Winter Ralf Johann. Eventually we got it all sorted and Ralf was happy. She also showed us how to tether the two phones so that I can piggy-back on Ralf’s phone for wi-fi. When everything was done she asked us where we “played” together.  We were a little confused and shocked that she would ask such a personal question. Then realized because we are wearing our matching yellow cycling jackets she thought we were in a team. We told her that we were cycling around Taiwan.

We found our way back to the hotel and planned our route out of here. We do have another day here tomorrow just to get us acclimatized and then we will be on the road. We will put the bikes together tomorrow and check them out. We have a warmshowers on Friday night and a hostel booked for Saturday.

Although there are a lot of scooters on the road, it is not as crazy as Vietnam.  I think we will survive the traffic.

We did spend some time in the shopping mall across the road and decided to have Pizza for dinner. I had a Taiwanese beer “For Women” our waiter told us. Blugh it was a fruit beer, Ralf had a Belgian Beer. The pizza was good.

Fading a little now, an early night is in store.