22 October, 2024

We have arrived safe and sound in Taiwan, with bikes and bag.

The taxi from Howard’s was 15 minutes early – it was his first time doing an airport run. As we chatted to Dennis he said that he had only flown once and that was to Cancun for their 25^th wedding anniversary (29 years earlier). That was the first and last time for him. They bought an RV and were going to become snowbirds when he retired. They took one trip to Florida and after two weeks decided it wasn’t for them and came home. I am a bit of a home body he said. Ralf and I are definitely not home bodies. We love to travel, to meet new people, see and experience different countries and cultures. I could not imagine being a homebody.

Although I plan everything down to the nth degree I, was very stressed last week. What Ifs. What if the taxi doesn’t show up, what if the first flight is delayed, what if the bikes don’t get to Taipei, what if, what if, what if. In my defense it has been a while since we have flown anywhere or that I have had to plan a major trip. My sisters were laughing at me on the week-end. They were all very excited to be following the Blog again.

Ralf, of course, had an answer for all my What Ifs: I will drive, we have insurance for delayed flights, we will rent bikes or change the trip to be trains. Then he put his arms around me and said thank you for planning our trips.  Breath out and thank God I have my wonderful hubby to keep me calm.

I hadn’t checked in on line, because of the oversized bike bags. Yes, they are still oversized even with folding bikes but smaller than before! We arrived at the airport at 5:30 a.m. and walked straight to a sleepy young man at a United Airlines check-in. Everyone else appeared to either have checked in on-line or were doing self-check-ins at the various terminals. The sleepy young man presented us with boarding passes and told us to take the bikes to the over-sized check-in and our other bag to the regular check-in.

Amazing you pay all this money for a flight but you have to carry your own bags to the luggage place!! We usually have to with our bikes but regular luggage, times have changed.

Then we went through security or at least we lined up to go through security. That took about 30 minutes. Once through security we had to check in at U.S. passport control. 1.5 hours. I felt as if I was at Disney waiting to go on space mountain – just as you thought you were ready to get on the ride there was another switchback and you were back to where you started.  What a night mare.

People were trying to push ahead because they hadn’t left themselves enough time.  I guess they figured because they had checked-in online it would be easy to get through all the other lines. Nope.  We eventually got through and headed straight for our gate. We stopped and got a breakfast sandwich and a coffee. My god it was ridiculously expensive for a couple of slices of white toast and an egg and plastic cheese.

The flight to SFO went smoothly and we were able to head straight for our connector, after looking at some of the artwork.

The sleepy young man at Montreal told us the bikes would be checked all the way through to Taipei.  I was so excited when I saw them by our plane, ready to be loaded.

A young Taiwanese fella asked what we were looking at and we then had a lovely chat with him and on older lady, who was younger than us but would never dream of cycling around Taiwan. They asked us where we had cycled before and was astounded. The lady said it is so good that you like to do this together. The joys of travelling and being open to meeting new people. The young man was visiting his Grandparents in Taipei. The lady was going home.

Onto our next flight and lots of turbulence as we came across the Pacific Ocean. It is always a little scary when the Captain orders the attendants to take to their jump-seats, which he did several times. We tried to sleep and managed to get a few hours in between feedings.

The food was o.k. the attendant was very cheerful and would sing the choices: chicken & rice or 7 Veg with noodles. I think it was the only way he could get through his day.

On arrival at Taoyuan Airport everything went like clockwork. So organized, quickly through passport control – welcome to Taiwan said the border officer. Then through the doors to baggage claim and wait for our bags. Not much of a wait the blue bag was already making its way around the carousal and somebody showed up with our two bikes on a luggage cart.  I was taking a photo of Ralf, when an airport worker asked if we liked a photo together. I am beginning to like Taiwan. There were lots of signs indicating no importation of meats, etc and as we left the arrivals area there was a little dog having a sniff at all the bags.

We checked to see if the regular taxis could accommodate the bike bags, we opted for limousine service. We were taken straight outside and there was a large Mercedes Benz Van to bring us to our hotel.

The hotel entrance was hidden but our taxi driver found it and helped us to the (elevator) lift with our bags. Ralf was about to give him a tip, but he ran away. Tipping is not customary in Taiwan and could be considered offensive. Taxi drivers will accept a tip, but not this fella he was away like the wind as soon as we were in the lift.

The room is clean and very nice. We had a shower and I wrote the first draft of the blog, then off to sleep. Hopefully we won’t have too much difficulty adjusting to Taiwan time as it was 10:00 p.m. when we hit the hay.

September 27, 2024

I was a little disappointed with this Best Western. The service was average, the taps in the bathroom were loose and I am sure that the “Queen” sized bed was only a double bed, I asked at reception and she assured me that it was a Queen sized bed. The breakfast was really good, lots to choose from: sausage, eggs, home fries and beans! Yogurt, cereal and fruit. Good coffee. I can’t complain too much as we used points and didn’t have to pay for the stay.

An interesting ride home. I had planned a route with RidewithGPS and downloaded it onto my Garmin.  The start was almost at our hotel so we set off to connect with the Cataraqui Trail. Just a short ride of 4 kms on the trail and then down a quiet road towards Toledo. I was a little concerned when a fella asked us where we were going and why were we going this way as it was way out of our way. Way too many Ways in that sentence !  He told us we will eventually have to ride on Hwy 29 which is a death trap and we would certainly be killed or worse.

According to my memory we weren’t going onto Hwy 29.  So we set of down the gravel track which is the Cataraqui Trail.  Now, Ralf and I aren’t particularly fond of gravel and will avoid it at all costs, when we are riding our road bikes. We got to the next intersection at Golf Club Road and yes it spat us out on Hwy 29 and we would have had to cycle 19 kms on the death trap.

I got out my phone and asked google maps to take me home. Surprisingly it did an amazing job. However we did spend quite a bit of time on gravel roads and even more surprisingly we enjoyed the gravel roads. The traffic was minimal and the roads were hard packed.

We had one short section of Hwy 29 from south of Tincap to home only about 6 kms. We didn’t die (obviously).

Day two of training ride survived. Quite a few changes to what we are going to take with us on this trip to Taiwan. Less clothes and sandals instead of running shoes. Also no kitchen – stove, plates etc. I am sure we will not go hungry as we love eating street food when we can.

September 26, 2024

Our first fully loaded ride on our new folding touring bikes. It was only a short ride, but we were battling 18 km headwind most of the way. We also had gusts of 26 km. It was a tough ride, but at least we now know what we should be taking and leaving behind. The kitchen sink is staying at home. Actually, all of the cooking stuff is staying at home. We will be staying in hotels and eating out for all of our future cycling adventures. Ralf has decided to take my Arkel Dolphin panniers and I am taking the smaller ‘front’ panniers.

The bikes feel very weird, as all of the weight is on the back whereas before we had equal weight on front and back.

The route was nice with quiet back roads for the most part. There were some heavy trucks on a couple of roads, but they were very good and gave us lots of room.

We passed a cemetery for lawn tractors, there must have been over 100 old, rusty lawn tractors all lined up in rows. Very strange people in Elizabethtown Kitley. We have to get back into the habit of stopping and taking photos of interesting and weird things on our journey. Like this massive solar panel on a house.

After we arrived at our Best Western Hotel, showered and had a nasty cup of coffee we headed into downtown Smith Falls. The municipality have done a lovely job in beautifying the downtown. The planters were stunning, especially for the end of September.

Dinner was at the Lock Masters Taphouse, a bit expensive for a pub dinner, food was o.k. service was good.

Another walk back to our hotel and a relaxing evening watching the TV. We should sleep well after the hard ride.

Tomorrow we head back to Brockville on a different route and according to the weather network a tailwind.

I received the Lonely Planet Guide for Taiwan as a Christmas gift. This must mean Ralf is ready for us to go on another Bike Trip.

Our last big bike trip was in 2018 to Europe. During that trip we decided that camping was no longer fun and our next bike trips would be without camping gear. Almost as soon as we got back we sold our tent and some cooking gear. The next trip was definitely going to be without camping gear.

In 2019 I took a trip with a friend to the United Kingdom and Ralf planned to go on an organized  bike trip in the U.S. Unfortunately, his trip was cancelled due to lack of interest. Then Covid hit and we didn’t plan any trips that involved flying for a couple of years.

As things began to open up in 2021 we booked a week on Prince Edward County.

2022 we cycled to Quebec and cycled the Petit Train du Nord.

2023 we ventured further afield and went to New York state, specifically the Lake Placid Area.

Finally 2024, we are ready to get on a plane again and cycle somewhere new.  The options were South Korea and Japan or Taiwan. The Christmas Gift made the choice easy.

One of the concerns Ralf has when travelling with a bike is the packing of the bikes for travel. It stresses him prior to the flights and also worrying about finding boxes to return with, especially if we are returning from another airport.

One of the solutions was to travel with folding bikes. After our return from Italy I had been researching folding bikes. I did a lot of research. Do we go with 20 inch or smaller wheels – Bromptons, Dahons or Bike Fridays. Bike Fridays are custom made and therefore more expensive. Bromptons are best for commuter travel and not necessarily touring.

I remember chatting to a British fella in Germany who loved folding bikes and was riding a Brompton. He also had a Bike Friday and a Dahon. He said the best bike for touring longer days and distances in his opinion was the Bike Friday. It had regular components that you could get anywhere in the world (more or less), it was custom made for your measurements and could fold into a suitcase. Whereas the Brompton was great for shorter day trips, was very quick to fold, but the components were proprietary for Bromptons. The Dahon was a cheaper version of the Bike Friday with regular components, but in his opinion not designed for anyone of my small stature.

Another problem I was finding, was Distributors in Canada where we could test ride the bikes. The closest Brompton dealership was in Montreal (220 kms from home) and they did not encourage test rides, or renting one for a week-end.

While conducting a lot of research in the three main brands I came across a bike called the Change Bike Company in Taiwan. This was a full sized folding bike (700 cc wheel). I contacted them to get more information and sizing. I chatted to our Trek dealership regarding the geometry of the bike and the sizing. They thought the bike might me a touch too big, but would depend on the slope of the top tube. Damn, there go my short legs again. It would appear their smallest frame may be a touch too big for me. The idea was for us to buy them in Taiwan and bring them home with us. However, I didn’t want to risk having an uncomfortable bike for a month long trip. Of course, I could always rent a regular Giant bike for the duration and Ralf could have his folding bike.

Back to the drawing board and further research. I eventually came across the Montague folding bikes. I had seen these at a bike show many years ago and thought it was a neat concept, but not sure at that time when we would use a full-sized folding bike.  The bikes were designed in the U.S, by Montague bikes and they had extended their range of bikes to about 4 or 5 different models. Again, the questions: where were the Distributors and could we test ride them, did they have a small enough model for me?

Earlier  this year I discovered there was a Montague Distributor in Ottawa, only 90 kms from home. I contacted him and we were able to meet him and test ride the bikes. The smallest frame fit me and the fold is really easy. We bought the Montague Navigator model and bought them home. What do we call these bikes – Montague bike we could go with Monty and Rommel – English and German. Ralf didn’t think that was a good idea. Famous Navigators  – My bike is called Marco and Ralf’s is not Polo he went with Navigator!!

Since April we have been riding them occasionally. Our panniers fit on these bikes and we will do a week-end test ride at some stage before our big trip to Taiwan in October.

The bikes, back racks fold down to become a stand. Of course this doesn’t work it you have panniers on the rack, but it is quite a nifty thing to use when you are storing them in the garage. To complete the package we have bought bags that they fit in, the bags roll up so that we can carry the bags on the back of the bikes and we don’t have to worry about finding boxes etc. for travel.  The advantage of these bikes is that we can quickly fold them, and put them in the bags and put them on any train in Asia or Europe. They are not the lightest bike, but the weight is comparable to any of the other 20 inch folding bikes and surprisingly their folded dimensions are only a couple of inches bigger than Bike Fridays.