Tuesday, 12 November 2024

We had breakfast at a little place two doors down from our hotel. They had a beautiful Bengal kitten. It was very friendly and liked to play. He had just knocked these boxes onto the floor.

Ralf went to a lookout that he had spotted yesterday and discovered that it was the largest rest station on the Nanhui Highway (Highway 9). He said it looked deserted to him, but yesterday there were people on the walkway.

I waited under a canopy out of the drizzle. We started our ride with our windbreakers on as it was drizzling our heavier rain jackets would have been too warm. The forecast was for rain and headwinds.

This is a mural representative of the Paiwan indigenous tribe. There are 14 indigenous tribes in Taiwan.

Today was a great ride, even though it was overcast and a little rainy at times. I would say that going along the coastal road out of Dawu was on par with any of the great coastal rides. The only problem was that there were no stopping places for tourists to take photos of the coast. Most car drivers would not consider this a great drive. For the most part we were on Highway 9, which is a busy road, but had a very wide shoulder for the scooters and cyclists. Of course, cyclists can stop almost anywhere to take photos.

Therein was the problem today, although it was grey and miserable Ralf wanted to take photos for the blog and Facebook. Of course, the best photos happen to be when you are going up a hill. Ralf was on the lookout for the photo op, and I was following him. He would shout photo and expect me to stop on a hill and more to the point get started again. Or he would slow down going down a hill not letting me get the momentum to get up the next hill. I didn’t stop, I carried on past him and waited for him at the top. That made a change Ralf is usually the one waiting for me.

At one point a couple of big monkeys crossed the road, as we were going uphill. Sorry, Ralf I must keep going.

We arrived in Taitung early 1:30. It was drizzling. Ralf had already received the door code for the self-check-in and tried to get in. Didn’t work! Oh, heck not again. He tried the door and realized it was open. The cleaner was still in the building and Ralf told her what room we were in, and we made ourselves comfortable. We showered, got the laundry ready etc. As we were about to head out Ralf asked the cleaner to show him how to use the keypad. It was then that we realized we were in the wrong half of the hotel. Our booking was for 180 Linhai Road. The owners own 178 and 180 and had us booked into 178 (next door). The cleaner and the owner were on the phone with Ralf, showing the cleaner our booking address. Because some of the information Ralf received was in Chinese, we hadn’t figured that we were in the other half. Eventually the cleaner, the owner and Ralf sorted it out and we didn’t have to move rooms. Phew, any hotel room always looks like a bomb has gone off 10 minutes into us moving in, with panniers, wet clothes, jackets and stuff all over the room.

Ralf did a google search and found a pizza restaurant. Damn it was closed on Tuesday. Oh well we will have a wander down some streets and see what we can find.

We found a gem of a place. We looked at the pictures on the window of the restaurant and went in, it was busy. The waiter sat us down gave us an English menu, explained how the set menu worked and left us to it. He took our order then came back a few minutes later and asked us if we were in a hurry as the food may take “twenteen minutes“. Not a typo. English can be complicated: seventeen, eighteen, nineteen and then twenty not twenteen.  Food I could recognize, but to be on the safe side I stuck with the set menu of vegetables and noodles in a vege broth. Ralf choose the mahi mahi. If I had known, it was going to be that good I would have ordered that. The food was delicious.

The restaurant was called the Taitung Red Quinoa. They have won numerous awards for their food. They started as a tea stall twenty years ago. They evolved to a fusion restaurant and have become Taitung’s first restaurant specializing in red quinoa dishes and source local produce. After dinner we walked up the street a little way and saw quite a few fine dining restaurants.

It was raining on our way back to the hotel. We are now sitting comfortably full, writing the blog and relaxing with a glass of Korean Happy water.

Friday November 8, 2024

Breakfast was underwhelming at the hotel. The Pensioner’s bus tour had destroyed the place prior to us arriving. I ate a couple of red bean paste buns and cold scrambled eggs. There was no coffee as the oldies had emptied the machine and the fella on duty was trying to fix it, to no avail.  Oh well, there is always 7/11 on the way. Leaving Kaohsiung I took a picture of the umbrellas, Ralf’s night-time shot was definitely better than my day time. I try.

It took us almost 25 kms to get out of Kaohsiung. For the most part Google took us on Cycle Route 1. I was amazed once again about the amount of industry that is in this area. Primarily steel and aluminium smelters, a couple of petro chemical plants and a massive port where all the imports and exports come into and leave Taiwan.

There was a lot of heavy goods traffic going in and out of the factories and the port. Head and eyes on swivels trying to watch for all the traffic, the traffic lights and following Ralf who was also following the map. Fun 25 kms! We stopped for lunch at a 7/11 and a couple from the Czech Republic pulled in behind us. They are following the Cycling Route One and for the most part are enjoying the ride. We chatted for a while and then they continued on and we went in to have something to eat.

Eventually, we crossed into Pingtung County. This is a more rural county and google took us away from Cycle Route 1. We spotted a giant fish and as we had plenty of time before checking in at the Homestay/AirBnB we went to investigate. This is the Dapeng Bay Scenic Area.

This area was the site of the Taiwan Lantern Festival in 2019, it is now a little run down. However, what remained was fabulous.

We headed out to a yellow building, called a Maritime Building that was on a spit. It was a café and had a waiting list for people to eat inside, it was very popular.

We did a little circular route of the park and came across this fantastic sculpture of a woman. The skirt was made from oyster shells.

There was also a sculpture of a seaplane. It was well worth the stop as we had not seen anything very exciting up until that point.

It is a shame that this area is not open, as we would have loved to have climbed into this seaplane.

As we cycled along the coastal sea wall we passed hundreds of fish farms agitating the water for cray fish and shrimp. I will have to be careful in this area to make sure they don’t sneak some shellfish into my dinner. We also saw a lot of floating solar panels.

Again, the pollution was high and by the time we finished the day in Fangliao the smog was heavy in the air.

We arrived a little early at the AirBnb and waited for someone to show up at 3:00 p.m., the check-in time. Ralf emailed the owner, but got very little in response, other than he would be here but not giving any indication of time. By 3:30 we were getting a little impatient and Ralf discovered that they also had a restaurant in town. He headed out to the restaurant to find out when we could get into out room. At 4:15 the owner came and let us into the room. I was hot, sweaty, headachy and annoyed. I was not very polite to him.

The room is nice, we managed to get some laundry hand-washed and Ralf worked out to use the washing machine that was outside to spin the clothes. I am not sure what we would do without google translate on this trip.

Thursday November 7, 2024

An easy ride to Kaohsiung today.  Although it was our first boring day of cycling.  We didn’t follow Cycle Route 1, there were not many alternative routes that were scenic. There was one section of road that was factory, after factory, after factory. About 15 kms of heavy industry, the roads were not too busy, but after a while you could really feel the pollution in the air. You could smell it and taste it in every breath. I can understand why most Taiwanese scooter riders where masks.

It was not a very scenic ride. However, we did have time to take a photo of the High Speed Railway station as we came into Kaohsiung.

Eventually we got to the outskirts of Kaohsiung and discovered a giant buddha like statue.

We stopped to take photos and saw a series of temples and figures on the other side of a small lake.

Ralf was in “find the hotel mode”, which means he was focused on the route. The temples on the other side of the small lake looked interesting and I suggested we go and have a look. We had lots of time to find our hotel and google would reroute us. We took a pedestrian bridge across Lotus Pond.

When we got to the other side of Lotus Pond we discovered a series of large and small temples. I watched the bikes while Ralf went to look at the Big Guy – the Big Guy was Emperor Erxuan. We are not sure what he did to deserve this huge edifice, but it must have been something big. You can actually go inside the Big guy and there are lots of wall paintings. On the way across the small bridge there are statues half of them are men and the other half women.

The other interesting edifice was a dragon. Again you could go inside through the dragons body and here were pictures and icons throughout the tunnel.

There were a lot of dead fish in the lake. There were municipal workers getting them out with a large net. Ralf (using google translate) asked what had happened to them. The supervisor indicated that it could be a virus or the weather conditions (typhoon or atmospheric).  The older worker indicated it was climate change.

We found our hotel after negotiating the busy city of Kaohsiung. The staff are very helpful. The room smelled as if someone had been smoking, so we asked for a different room. There were non available as they were expecting a bus load of pensioners later. They aired the room, while we waited downstairs. It did smell better when we got back in and the sheets and bed were clean.

After showering we headed out to find something to eat. We crossed the street from our hotel and the street was wall to wall clothing stores. Ralf got a really good night shot of these umbrellas.

We decided on hotpot for dinner, which was a bit of a disaster for me. I had ordered chicken and it was awful, I could not recognise what part of the chicken the meat was from. I did get one piece of leg, which I generally do not like. There were lots of other mystery objects in the broth as well. I asked if any of it came from shellfish, as I am allergic. No, they said, but there were some very fishy tasting stuff, which I put to one side. I ended up having cabbage and bok choy chicken soup with noodles. Ralf had ordered lamb and he enjoyed his. It’s an adventure. I think I will try and stick to vegetarian food.

Ralf went to take photos of the umbrellas and all of the stores were closed at 7:30. However, this angel was lighting the street.

Again, not a very exciting day, so not much to write home about.

Wednesday 6 November, 2024

Tainan Rest Day – walking 13.6 kms. What a day, my feet are killing me.  We walked miles, but it was fun. Mark had told us about a great little breakfast place. We found Jays and had a crepe like thing made with scallions, with extra egg and cheese. It was really good, it kept us going for most of the day. As we walked to breakfast an older Taiwanese lady commented that we did not have jackets on, she shivered indicating it was cold. I laughed and said it is hot we are from Canada and she laughed.

Then we headed out on our tourist day of Tainan. A lot of people carry their dogs on their scooters. Usually they are small dogs like the Taiwan Shibu. Today we saw a golden retriever balancing on the bike. My sister-in-law Beate has two goldens, I am not sure either of them would appreciate this.

Tainan is the oldest City in Taiwan and it is celebrating its 400 year anniversary this year.

From 1624 to 1662 it was ruled by the Dutch they called the Island Formosa. The plan today was to visit Fort Provintia and Fort Zeelandia, both outposts of the Dutch East India Company.

We headed to Fort Provintia now named Chihkan Tower first, but got sidetracked by the Taiwan Design Expo at the old market hall.  I have taken these photos for my nephews. Wayne, is a designer of clothing www.Sharp-Apparel.com. He would have loved this expo. The exhibition theme revolved around food and clothing. Creators from the food and fashion sectors collaborated from sourcing to creative output. They have crafted a time-limited virtual brand for Tainan. Pineapple fibre, mixed with oyster shells. Some of the artwork on the material was fabulous. One photo for my other nephew Justin. Love you both.

We headed to Fort Provintia which has been renamed Chihkan Tower.

In 1625 the Dutch colonists gave indigenous Taiwanese 500 metres of fabric in exchange for a piece of land in Chihkan where they built Provintia Street to accommodate businesses, marketplaces, warehouses and hospitals.

In 1653 the Dutch erected Fort Provintia as a defensive building. It was commonly referred to as Redheads Castle. The Dutch were defeated and removed from Taiwan in 1662.

An amazing structure with upturned eaves and red tiles. Chikhan Tower has proven to be a very versatile building over more than three centuries. It was a Western Castle (Dutch) a Chinese-style pagoda during the Qing Dynasty, an army hospital during the Japanese occupation and currently a museum testifying to the past glory. In 1983 Chihkan Tower was designated a Class 1 historic building. It is currently undergoing renovations to the main building.

As we walked around the grounds there was a large Koi pond, Ralf got some fish food to encourage the Koi, so that he could take photos. We didn’t use it all and Ralf gave the remainder of the box to a young boy who thoroughly enjoyed feeding the fish.

As we continued our visit we passed the family again and the little boy, urged on by his Mom, gave us two small packets of crackers (Quinoa and salt crackers). So sweet of them.

In 1886 to encourage education the Taiwan county magistrate built Penghu Academy west of Chihkan Tower.

We walked through some of the old streets of Tainan towards Fort Zeelandia. There are lots of small alleyways that were all part of the old city. Then they spit you out on to a wide multi-lane road. You cross that road and disappear into back alleyways again with small eateries, fabric shops, and all sorts of little stores. Eventually we followed the canal to Fort Zeelandia, it was becoming very warm in the sun. We stopped for a cold drink and to cool down in an air-conditioned shop, then carried on.

Fort Zeelandia now known as Anping Fort was built in 1624 by the Dutch and was known as Orange City. In 1627 it was renamed as Fort Zeelandia and the city walls were gradually rebuilt with bricks. The fort was 916 metres wide and over 10 metres tall, consisted of 3 stories and were surrounded by inner and outer walls.

After Koxinga defeated the Dutch he renamed the area Anping Township. The Japanese rebuilt the Fort and renamed the Fort to Fort Anping. Today the only remnants of the Dutch period are the southern brick walls of the outer fort. It was a very popular place with school kids and tourists.

We, of course, climbed the tower.

Last night, Mark had told us about another place which he really enjoyed.  The place was Anping Tree House.

In 1865 the ports were officially opened to foreign traders. In a very short period of time there were foreign merchants and companies set up.

The British Tait & Co was set up and located in this area. The company mainly dealt with bulk goods such as opium, camphor and sugar. Opium was very popular in the 1800’s. After the Japanese occupied Taiwan the Japanese government took back the trading rights of bulk goods. Only Tait & Company continued to operate.   Eventually the Tait & Co sold the company to the Taiwan Salt Making Corporation. The merchants building was converted into dormitories for the workers of the Taiwan Salt Making Corporation.

The Anping Tree house was the original warehouse for the salt storage. It had a floor area of over 4,600 square feet. The warehouse lay empty for many years and the surrounding Banyan tree filled the void ultimately forming a living roof and walls. It was amazing to see how these trees had taken over the building in a relatively short period of time. The area has been renovated to include walkways above the warehouse. It was awesome and well worth the visit.

Banyan tree is a species that grows aggressively and it is an invasive species that will ensure that other epiphytic plants will not encroach on its territory. Banyan trees thrive in humid places because their aerial routes are capable of absorbing moisture from the air. The roots of the Banyan tree excrete an acid that dissolves limestone. Anpings Banyan Trees have utilized this characteristic to cling to the brick walls which were laid with a special mortar of ground oyster shell, syrup and glutinous rice. Obviously the tree love this mixture and have thrived.

All of the museum visits cost $70 Taiwan dollars which is about $3.00 each. Three museums for a total of $18.00 Cdn. A great day out.

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.