Last night the host of this guest house (Air BnB), texted Ralf and asked if he could bring us anything because of the Typhoon. Noodles, roast chicken, tea, coffee etc. We said we were o.k. as we had bought supplies to last us through the Typhoon.
In his text he told us there was a couple of things we could see in Beidou. A large temple called Dian’an, it represented the deity Mazu the goddess of the sea.
We didn’t really need another rest day, but we had no idea how the Typhoon would affect our planned route. As it happens we could have left this morning, although it is a little overcast and windy.
After breakfast this morning we went to find the temple. Google maps told us we had arrived at the temple, 450 metres from our guest house. It was a little underwhelming. Oh well, we carried on walking around the neighbourhood and discovered another small temple. Then we found the Dian’an Temple, not underwhelming at all.
This can’t possible be the Dian An Temple. We carried on walking down the street.
2nd Small TempleHappy Lion
No, this isn’t Dian An Temple either, but I liked the look of this happy lion.
We carried on walking down the street and found the Dian An temple. It was not underwhelming at all.
Beidou Dian’an Temple
The temple is a Taoist temple dedicated to the sea goddess Mazu. The history of Dian’an Temple traces back to another temple in Dongluo known as Tianhou Temple. Sources disagree on when Tianhou Temple was founded (1684 or 1718), but the small temple was one of the first Mazu temples in southern Changhua and had a devout following. In 1806, Tianhou Temple was moved from Dongluo north to current-day Beidou, which had a higher elevation, and was renamed as Dian’an Temple. The current Dian’an Temple in Beidou is unique in that it contains a market in the rear hall. During the building’s construction, the temple lacked the funds to complete the building, so they allocated a space for market vendors for extra income to the temple. After damage in the 1999 Jiji earthquake, the market was refurbished and completed in 2016.
As I approached one of the tables of flowers, the smell of the lilies was very powerful. The flower offerings were beautiful and are representative of this area.
We try to be respectful of the worshippers as they go about their prayers. The caretakers encourage us to take photos and we are very grateful for that.
Burning the prayers
At the back of the temple is the food market and this fountain. The fountain is supposed to have special properties. If you poured it over money it may multiply, it can also purify body, car and house and remove bad luck and evil spirits.
On our way back to the apartment, we passed this massive Banyan Tree. It was really difficult to get the size and majesty of this tree. It was planted 300 years ago.
Beidou Giant Banyan – Big Pine Foot. 14 metres tall, the circumference of 7.8 to 10.7 meters. Covers an area of 380 m². Many years ago, businessmen traveling by bamboo rafts arrived on the shore at Beidou, they would walk to the Giant Banyan Tree and rest. It became a small gathering place, children to play and adults to take a break and chat.
We were going to go to the night market tonight, but it is only open on Thursday evenings. Tonight we will eat from one of the street vendors in the neighbourhood.
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.
Bathroom fan & remote
We have arrivedWe have moved in!
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.
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.
Rainbow Village
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.
Best RouteGoogle has gone MadFalse Summit
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.
PineapplesBaby pineapple
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.
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.
Xiangshan Visitor Centre
The ladies toilets were very pretty!
Murals on the toilet doors
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.
First Boat Trip
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.
Walk to IndiaXuanguang TempleOrchid on treeHP shaking hands with Pilgrim
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.
Indigenous Structure
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.”
First of 570Off I goWe made itStairs to the top of PagodaChang Kai Shek RetreatPagoda
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.
Entrance to Wen Wu TempleTwo GodsGranite CarvingBenefactors names
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.
Water Level
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.
Taichung is Taiwan’s second largest City. It has a population of 2.85 million people in an area of 163.4 square metres. I am not sure what that equates to in density per person, but surprisingly it does not feel as chaotic as Hanoi.
There is a lot of new building and large hi-rises. As usual on our rest day we explore the Cities we are staying in and boy did we explore. We walked over 11.5 kms, so much for a rest day.
I had read about the calligraphy park and the Botanical Park. Also, the rainbow village and the Earthquake Museum. We can visit the rainbow village and the earthquake museum on our way out of Taichung on Wednesday.
After breakfast we followed google maps to the calligraphy park. Although this is not Dovedale, Derbyshire there are stepping stones and I am crossing them. I am safe crossing them as I do not have brother Richard trying to push me in the river. To explain to non-family members my Mum and Dad used to take us (Richard, Joy and me) to Derbyshire for Sunday walks. There is one area that we loved and it had rock stones in the river that you could walk across. Of course, big brother would always try to push little sister into the water. He didn’t always win, but more often than not one of us ended up going home wet. This pathway is called the Lunchtime River Walk.
Stepping Stones
I am not sure that we got to the correct Calligraphy greenway. We only spotted a couple of stone sculptures.
However, in that area we came across a few sculptures in a park.
We followed them down the tree-lined park area and came across more and more sculptures. They were fantastic. We had stumbled across the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts outside sculpture park. We spent hours and took lots of photos of the sculptures.
The National Museum of Fine Arts was built in 1988 and has an exhibition space of 102,000 square metres of indoor exhibition space and outdoor sculpture park. The museums main building has a total floor area of 37,953 square metres. Unfortunately, it is closed on Monday, as are most of the museums in Taichung. We really enjoyed the time we spent in this area.
We then headed up to the Botanical Gardens and Natural Science Museum. Again, the Natural Science Museum was closed. I only wanted to wander around the Botanical Gardens, and I knew we could do that. The botanical gardens were set up so that you could experience all areas of Taiwan’s flora and fauna in one area. They created areas of the park that represented the lowlands of Taiwan, the mountainous areas and the coastal area. There was one area which was closed and that was the main rain-forest area, which was in the greenhouse.
Ralf spotted this Black-Crowned Night Heron. He had his camera with him and got a pretty good picture of it.
We had a wonderful day and wandered back to our hotel by 3:00 p.m. I was able to update the blog.
We are leaving Taichung on Wednesday and although we still have plenty of cash, Ralf was concerned about running out of cash in a semi-rural area. I had researched that it was cheaper to get cash from an ATM at a 7/11 than at a bank. On our walk-about today we went into a bank. The ATM switched to English as soon as Ralf put in his card (clever) and before we confirmed the transaction it indicated that there would be 4% charge on the transaction. We cancelled the transaction and went into a 7/11, the charge was $4.00 Cdn. A lot less than 4%.
After dinner, at a Vietnamese restaurant, we headed back to the hotel and prepared for our trip to Sun Moon Lake.
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.
Temple in Yuanli
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.
This was a much nicer day. I was awake early and had a quick shower. Garlon had told us to help ourselves to breakfast. However, by the time we had both showered and packed our stuff Jean was cutting up fresh dragon fruit and we were chatting again. I had to drag Ralf away. I knew we had another longer day ahead of us and possibly headwinds.
Jean, Garlon ,Ralf and Me
Jean is studying for exams to allow her to work in Australia as a Doctor. We chatted about the Taiwan Health care system which is private, but subsidized by the government. The doctors and nurses are underpaid due to a complicated system of how much money individual hospitals are making. If the hospital makes money then the staff are paid better than a hospital that doesn’t earn as much money. Good luck with your exams Jean, I wish you could come to Canada, but as we had discussed and her research indicated Canada is not a great option for a practising Doctor. Canada does not make it easy for foreign trained Doctors. Even though we have a shortage of Doctors.
Good luck Jean. Australia will be lucky to have you as a new General Practitioner.
Garlon has cycled the Round Taiwan Route and Jean has cycled sections. They both said this section was boring. All we had to do from leaving their flat (apartment) was to cycle to the coast and then turn left and keep the ocean on the right side. I think we went a little bit further than the Round Taiwan Route indicates because the first 35 kilometres was lovely. Ralf was using google maps again and it found a lovely route for us.
We were along the coast all the time. Then we followed the Miaoli Bike Route which was a great bike route. It kept us away from Highway 1 for about 35 kms. I said to Ralf if this adds a few kilometres to our day, I don’t care as it was worth it to be away from Highway 1. As most bike paths are, it was a little wiggly, going past sand dunes, crab watching places and forested areas, it was worth it.
This area is a popular fishing and crabbing area.
Eventually we had to cycle along Highway 1. It wasn’t too bad. There was a full width lane for cyclists and motor scooters and if that wasn’t enough a shoulder as well. We were on Highway 1 for about 20 kms. As I was cycling along I agreed with Jean and Garlon this was very boring.
We saw a lot of cyclists out today. The first group were a younger group of teenagers with a variety of bikes. They had a sweep person at the back and as she passed us with a few slow pokes, she said “pleased to meet you”. The younger cyclists that were with her said the same thing, it was really nice.
The second group were a group of roadies that were on a supported ride. All of them were on really nice road bikes but we caught up with them at their end stop which was our lunch stop a 7/11. Typical roadies barely acknowledged us. After yesterdays ride, we realised we need to eat more often. It takes a while to get back into the routine of being on a touring bike and being on a tour. I look down at my Garmin and think – 20 ks to go that is less than an hour. When you are touring it is 20ks to go that is going to be an hour and a half.
We are following google maps and it took us through some different neighbourhoods to keep us of the busy Highway 1. It was very overcast today, so some of the photos aren’t very clear.
We arrived at our Hostel which was advertised as a Homestay. Which to me meant that it was like a B&B, you would meet the owners and be able to chat. As opposed to a hostel where you generally only meet other tourists. It was a bit basic. I don’t mind hostels, but this was not as inviting as most of the hostels we have stayed in. As the hotels are reasonably priced I think we will stay in hotels.
We went to the local supermarket for dinner and a couple of beers and spotted a lovely temple which we will stop at again before leaving this area tomorrow.
Early night and I will update when we are in Taichung. Tomorrows ride is a relatively short 47 kms.
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.
Old Temple at Sanxia
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.
Sanxia Old Street
Characters Denoting Business
It was a beautiful street, and the sun came out.
Fancy Drainage
These are the signs we will be following
Ralf at Cycle Route 1 Sign
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.
Very colourful Dragon
This was a very large marble rock
Views from top of hill
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.
Rice Fields
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.
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.
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.
How Does This Work?
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.
Buddhist Temple
Taoist Temple
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.
