You Gotta Take the Bad with the Good

Cycling out of Taipei: the North Coast

Whoa! Our exit from Taipei was a complete 180 from our entrance. Mitchell pointed out that there was a bike specific path one block from his apartment ( how did we miss that?!?). That path led us to the Taipei cycle and pedestrian dedicated paths that led us not only out of the city, but to the north coast of Taiwan. The ride consisted of many conversations such as: Chiara (sarcastically): 'This is terrible.' and  Bruce (sarcastically) 'I know, Taiwan is terrible. How are we ever going to survive this?' And every turn seemed to just become more surreal and postcardesque.  We rode for 40km with scarcely a motor vehicle near us and exited the city joining the coastline Rt 2 route around the northern aspect of the island.  The day was building up to be the best of the tour thus far with small seaside villages, quiet roads, beautiful sunny weather and two happy riders.  

   

That was until the route took a left turn....literally a left fork in the road that I didn't see and Chiara did, though she was a bit behind me and didn't see where I went and that's where the cautionary tale begins.  Though we had planned for such an event of losing each other our contingency somehow failed and as did our always patchy WiFi we have ben relying on for any email, text etc.  Jump forward 2 hours and you have two riders, on the same road 20km apart and no idea which one is in front of the other.  Flash forward 4 hours and after a bit of hard to decipher text messages and an assurance that both were on the right track you have two riders almost 60 km apart in the dark, hungry, confused and exhausted.  Turns out the place we were both trying to find, Jiufen has an "Old Street"  as do many other towns that have names that also start with "J" and on maps are hard to find because they are so small.  Now you may be beginning to understand what this all adds up to...a day that started like a fairytale and ended in FUBAR.  With nothing left to do but go to sleep in our respective locations and fight a new battle in the morning we resigned ourselves to our fates.  Chiara went to the local police station and found the most sympathetic, concerned and helpful public servants since we were in Japan and misplaced her wallet.  They found a hotel for her across from the station and made sure she had her phone charged and that she knew where she would need to go the next day.  Bruce managed to find the place we were staying but all the amenities had been long since shut for the day.  

The picture Bruce sent to show me the home stay.

Luckily the intended guesthouse was very lax in their idea of "closing for the night" and I found a friendly bunch of Austrian travelers outside that helped me find some WiFi (so I was able to find out that Chiara was indeed safe and tucked in for the night) and that there was an empty space in the house that I could lay my head for a few hours.

  A big shout out to Sebastian, Max and Anna...hopefully we can take them up on their offer to come and visit them on our way back to the States.  The next day Chiara was up at the crack of 6 and she blazed through the mountains, through steep winding roads on her way to rendevous in the quaint old mining town that was intended goal the day before.  The drama of the evening wore away as we made our way to the guesthouse deciding to enjoy a full day together in the little hillside town, eating and gawking at the busloads of tourists that poured into the impossibly small "Old Street".  The views were amazing from the streets but in the daylight we appreciated the strange little homestay with the windowless room we rented that was built into the hillside, a much cheaper and mustier option than the other rooms.  However this came with added bonuses of a dark quiet night sleep and movie channels with English langauge films! You know that things have gone a bit askew when your laying awake into the wee hours watching Night at the Museum 2 and actually enjoying yourself.   We headed back out towards the coast and the famed Taroko Gorge, with a better plan in case we lost each other again and a desire to stay a little closer together when we cycle.

A view from thet homestay.

Narrow little streets on Jishan Old Street.

Evening lights and clouds.  A beautiful sunset.

All the tea in Taiwan

Less than one week into our time on the island nation of Taiwan and we both unequivocally feel that this will be one of the high water marks of our tour.  So far we are finding great street food, low cost, friendliness, great weather, demonstrative locals and just the right hint of organized chaos giving Taiwan a leg up in winning over our hearts as the place of which we want to explore every nook and cranny. 

Taiwan has a very interesting history, it's was called Isla Formosa (beautiful island) by Portuguese conquerors and throughout it's history has the effects of multiple different cultures, including Japan which ruled it for multiple generations and more recently, China, with which Taiwan continues to have a push-pull relationship and which refuses to recognize Taiwan as a sovereign nation. The west side of the island is the side that is more inhabited, where most of the popluation lives and works while the central and east sides are mountainous playgrounds, with 4 peaks over 10,000 feet and multiple national park areas including the beautiful sounding Taroko Gorge area, and indigenous towns and villages with their own cultures, customs, and foods. Taiwan has something like 14 indigenous tribes.   Most have been integrated into present day society, but still live in and around the mountainous areas of central and eastern Taiwan.

Now a bit about how we got here...

You can barely see bruce riding into the airport terminal here.

  Our 5:30 am flight from Tokyo turned out to be NOT the worst choice after all was said and done.  Being that we needed to be at the airport at 3:30 AM for check-in anyway we decided to forgo our last nigh's stay and just ride to the airport, slowly, and arrive around 10pm to sleep and await our flight in the terminal.  Turns out this is more the norm than not as when we arrived already most of the benches were taken with lounging travelers awaiting their morning departures.  We found a little spot, nestled ourselves down and tried to catch a few ZZZ's.  This all went fine and the check-in, boarding and flight went off wthout a hitch.  We arrived extremely tired, and having gained another hour on the clocks (one that we were not expecting). We thought all had gone well with the bikes this leg also until we uncovered Chiara's bike to find that it had apparently fallen off the turnstyle and the front chainring had been bent (note: Tern does not recommend using their carry-on bike bags for air travel, they  recommend boxing the bikes.  We are certainly starting to understand why but continue to struggle with the extra labor involved in this versus our relative ease off riding to the airports and packing on-site.  We are presently evaluating our options for our next few flights).

Luckily light gauge aluminum is easily bent and we were able to get it back into working order for the ride to town, which turned out to be 40 km of traffic, noise, diesel fumes and hopes that the rest of Taiwan would be better.  Turns out there is one thing that this otherwise bike friendly nation has not put into place and that is a good way to get from their international airport to Taipei City.   Not too shocking as most cities don't have a great way to ride to the airport but we have been spoiled by places like our own PDX airport and  the Seoul Incheon airport which have devoted bikeways leading straight to the terminals. Surprisingly though, there are no trains or alternate modes of transit only taxis and buses.  Regardless, I (Chiara) found it exciting to be back on the roads with a little more stimulation.  Motor bikes are the main mode of transport here, which it does not tke long to accertain, and there is generally a lane devoted for them to use.  This system often breaks down however as cars use them to park.  It ends up being a gauntlet of cars, buses, motorbikes, bicycles, parked cars, and pedestrians weaving in and out in a way that doesn't feel  awful or dangerous, more that one needs to  be on their toes and pay close attention to what is happening in front of them at all times, which is bit of a change from Japan and their almost-sedate driving conditions.  

Finally made it to the bike path.

Riding into Taipei City we started to feel excited about spending some time exploring.  It is a very, very dense city, and with apartments above businesses, and the streets teeming with activity, people eating, shopping, and selling.  The delicious smell of food came at us from every corner, as much of it is cooked in open-air stalls on the street with tables in the rear at which to sit and eat.  And the food choices abound as Taiwan is know for it's cuisine.  Due to it's beforementioned history of imperial rule food influences vary as much as the faces on the street.  Beef noodle, pineapple cakes, steam buns, meats, veg, fish, teas, coffee all readily available, cheap and delicious.  

The first place that we arrived to when we got into Taipei City was the offices of one of our supporters Tern bicycles. We had been corresponding with some of the folks that work there for the last few months.  We were so excited to meet eveyone face to face and be able to express how happy that we have been with ourr choice of mounts.

Now that we have had enough time on our bicycles in order to really get to know them and their idiosyncrysis we are learning to appreciate their versality, ruggedness and usefulness.  Other than the gearing issues I have faced from the beginning of the trip due to a bent deraileur at the hands of luggage handlers on our initial flight, we have been very content with our choice.  Side note: After 2 months we fiinally resolved the issue with the airline for the baggage issue and were compensated for our troubles so don't be afraid to utilize the customer hotline if you have any flight problems in the future.  

Parts are the one thing that have been the hardest to appropriate.  Surprising since most of the parts and the bikes themselves come from this part of the world, ie. Taiwan, China, Vietnam.  But thus far, al least in Japan and Korea, we have had no luck walking into a shop, even one that is a Tern dealer, and buying replacement parts off the shelf.  Attempts to buy fairly basic parts like the before-mentioned bent deraileur hanger to the kickstand boot end that both Chiara and I have unfortunately broken while moving the bikes off the exceptionally high curbs we have encountered, have been met with blank stares or sheepish smiles and shakes of the head.  We are lucky, however, to be in contact with the very supportive and helpful people at Tern who have been trying to help us find the parts we need even going as far as to send them to us when we have places to get mail.  Here is another aside about post.  If you want to have something sent ahead but you are camping like us or just don't know your destinations you can use a General Delivery type service that will send the package to the main post office in the intended city and will usually hold it for about one month.  It is best to have the shipping number as we discovered as when we first tried this without the number and we just gave our names we were met with dumbfounded looks of "seroiusly, do you have any idea how many packages we get coming through this post office?!"  All our woes were soon forgotten  as when we arrived at Tern they greeted us like old friends, asking us questions about our journey, taking photos of the bikes, offering us tea, and most importantly fixing up the bikes foor us so they were running like new.  We can't thank Amanda, Gale, Eric, Kara and all the other peoople we met at Tern enough for their hospitality and help.  We can honestly say that touring with these bikes was a great choice.

Wait...wrong bike!

Much better! That's my bike!

We left the Tern offices renewed to meet our Warmshowers host, Mitchell and his girlfriend Lynn.  So gracious, open and welcoming that we were almost a bit taken aback and unsure if maybe all his hospitality was the result of a slight language barrier.  It, however turned out that this is just the way of the Taiwanese people, warm, welcoming, happy, and inquisitive.  We ended up staying more time than we usually do at a host (it is our unwritten rule to not take advantage of the hosts and limit ourselves to 2 night) but with some impending rain and desire to take in more of great activity of the city we spent 4 nights.  We also were treated to the most amazing traditional foods of the Hakka people of Taiwan by our hosts that included a wild chicken soaked in liquor and medicinal herbs and cooked.  This, it turns out, is a truly rare meal even for locals and we felt blessed to have been treated so well by our hosts.

Mitchell and Lynn, and deeeeeeelicious food.