Sunday 17, November 2024

A train ride today. Although we did cycle 14.77 kms to our warmshowers host.

We got to the train station way too early. Then worried where to stand on the platform to get the bikes on the train. We had to be in the last carriage, but didn’t know how many carriages there would be. We watched the high-speed train arrive and the car # and the platform # lined-up perfectly.

Eventually when the train arrived, we had lots of time to get the bikes on the train. We just rolled them on, there were no tie-downs, nor did the seats lift up, we just had them leaning against a couple of seats.  We were the only two in the carriage. Because we had booked our bikes without bags, we had to take the slow train to Luondong.

From the train we saw a lot of landslides and damage from the April earthquake and the typhoon Kong Rey. The train had to slow down in certain areas.

By the time we got to Luondong it was raining. We cycled out of the downtown area and then stopped for lunch. We arrived at our warmshowers house at 2:30. Wan-Wei is a prison officer and is also a published author. He has written many stories about his life as a prison officer and surprisingly they haven’t fired him. Although I am sure they will be glad when he retires in 4 years time.

We stayed in Prison married quarters and the prison wall was almost next to the house. It was a very interesting afternoon and evening talking to Wan Wei and Joyee. Joyee has travelled extensively as a tour guide both abroad and in Taiwan. Now she teaches the tour guide course, she also is a cultural ambassador for Taiwan and she has been to many places including the Edinburgh Fringe Festival showcasing Taiwanese Art Forms like puppetry.

Wan Wei and Joy had a little rescue dog. They got him when he was 2 years old from a puppy mill. He is now 14. they were both surprised when he went up to Ralf and wanted to sit on his lap. My hubby the Dog Whisperer.

Joyee cooked a really nice meal. Taro soup, which Ralf really likes Taro, a fish and tomato sauce dish, which I really enjoyed, rice and 100-year old egg and tofu (top right in photo).  Our first taste of 100-year old egg. These 100-year old eggs are very popular in Taiwan. They are not actually 100-years old, but the way they are made makes them smell like it ha ha. Not really, Joyee told us that they are duck eggs and in the past they were either wrapped in mud and left in the ground to mature or soaked in horse pee. Now they are ‘cooked’ in a lime mix. The eggs when opened are black. They had an odd consistency, almost rubbery, they tasted o.k. but I wouldn’t go out of my way to eat them again.

We had an early night. Forecast for tomorrow is for more rain.

Saturday 16, November 2024

Hualien was going to be a short stop so that we could book a tour to the Taraoko Gorge. Unfortunately, due to the earthquake in April, most of the trails entering the gorge at the east side are not accessible. The government have been spending all their efforts ensuring that the three major roads that cross the middle of Taiwan are repaired and safe to drive. One road was reopened very quickly, (by the end of May) the other two have taken a little longer to repair and have been down to a single-lane of traffic and restricted use. That would not have been any fun on a bike. Taiwan Kong-rey created more problems with landslides and the roads department are working overtime to get that cleared.

We have seen some road damage as we cycled up from Fengbin yesterday. But, it is amazing how quickly they get everything cleared and ready to go again. We believe this is from Typhoon Kong Rey.

Today then became a rest day, but as most of you know we don’t actually rest on our rest day. We walk the City we are in. However, we did manage to sleep until 8:00. We had breakfast next door, they didn’t seem to be keen to see us. We managed to use google translate for the menu and point to pictures.

As we wandered around the City we came across a kids play area. These were concrete slides. – Tough kids.

We then headed out to the train station to see if we could change our tickets. No problem, cancel the originals, issue the next set and get 4 NTW$ back (about 18 cents). We are going further on the train but do not have to change, it was cheaper.

We got a taxi back to our area and then walked to the Train Museum. This area was built by the Japanese as a train station and administration area. There was also a small farmers market set up. Ralf wandered around the museum and I got chatting to an amazing man at the Farmers Market.

He was 72 and had learnt English in Junior High School. He told me he liked to read English books so that he can continue to learn. We had a great chat, while Ralf was taking photos of the engine and property. He told me that the Japanese grew sugarcane in the mountains around Hualien and logged a lot of the old growth forest. They built the railway so that they could transport the sugarcane back to Hualien and send it to Japan. He told me he had been a farmer all his life, after leaving school he worked on his farm and grew fruit and vegetables. He was very happy to be working the land, but it is hard work. I was amazed at how good his English was, considering it had been over 50 years since he had any formal teaching. I learnt French in school and struggle to understand and speak the language.

After we had spent time at the museum, we had a wander down to where the night market sets up and discovered another market. Some of the stalls were closing up as it was after 2:00 and they had sold what they needed to sell: fish, meat, fruit and vegetables.  We came back to the hotel to pick up our laundry and spent a pleasant hour watching the dirty clothes go around and around. Another job done on a rest day.

Ralf wanted to go to a bike store and found a store that had good reviews. Off we went for another walk. It was a good Giant bike store, the owner spoke very good English. Ralf bought a phone holder to attach to his handlebar. He has had to use his phone for google maps and has had it inside an old map case. It made it difficult to see and follow the instructions. Although we only have a few days left of cycling, it will come in handy on other trips.

There is an excellent night market here in Hualien. I suggested to Ralf that we eat first and then go to the night market. That way he wouldn’t get frustrated at me not liking any of the fatty, fried foods that they have to offer. Also, there is nowhere to sit and eat at most night markets. We went to NuPasta, but it was a bit expensive. We went back to Three Koalas where we knew they had pasta on the menu. The food was excellent again.

Immediately after dinner we went down to the Night Market. We knew it was a big market over 400 stalls, but very well set up with lots of food stalls, games of chance, and music. The market was well worth a visit and it had a huge seating area with tables where you could eat what you have chosen from the many food stalls.

There are a lot of murals/grafitti on the walls in Hualien. I enjoy seeing this kind of thing, rather than someone’s spray painted signature.

We had a good day.

Friday 15, November 2024

What a day this turned out to be. We checked the weather forecast and where Typhoon Usagi was going to land. The forecast was for rain all day. We left the Millenium Village after a very good breakfast under cloudy skies.

I thought we were going to have a head down and go day to keep ahead of the impending Typhoon and to get into Hualien before any bad weather hit us. We didn’t encounter any rain on our ride. The only rain we encountered was on our evening walk about.

Within 5 minutes of starting our ride we passed over the Tropic of Cancer. Quick photo and on we went. We have now passed the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn on our travels. These lines represent the furthest north and the furthest south that the sun can appear directly overhead at noon. The Tropic of Cancer lies at 23.5 degrees north and the Tropic of Capricorn at 23.5 degrees south of the equator.

The East Coast of Taiwan is stunning, I think I might have mentioned it before. There are a lot of areas where you can pull into and they have sculptures and places to rest.

Today’s roads were a little different from most of the other roads we have been on. They sometimes went to a two-lane road with no shoulder and as the roads were also used by big trucks, it did get a bit hairy at times. That is why most people recommend you to take the train from Hualien up the coast to Su’ao to avoid the narrow roads and big trucks. Although Mark said there is an older road Highway 9b that is not as busy. we will be taking the train.

I knew there was going to be a bit of hill to get over today, but wasn’t too worried about it, as it didn’t seem too big on the map. The map lied. As we made the left turn to go through the mountains the road started to climb, it also went from a four-lane with a scooter/bike shoulder to a two-lane with no shoulder. The road was relentless, we climbed higher on this road than we did getting to the Shouka Pass. Everyone mentions the Shouka Pass but nothing is mentioned about this road! That is possibly because a lot of cyclists go up to Yuli (the East Rift Valley) rather than take the East Coast Route. Back to this hill and we continued to climb. There was a rest stop and look-out point about three-quarters of the way up the hill. We pulled in for a short break and chatted to a family of three women who were visiting their uncle for the first time in 40 years. We talked about cycling and they cheered us on.

We carried on up the hill for another couple of kilometres and then it started to go downhill. Yay I had made it. No, I hadn’t it turned back up hill again. Eventually after climbing for ever we encountered our first tunnel. No scooter lane and a 854 metre tunnel which opened up for about 500 metres then we were into four more tunnels of varying lengths from 400 metres to 445 metres. Fortunately, we were going downhill and fast. We dropped over 100 metres in elevation over  2.5 kms. I am glad I was able to adjust my brakes and that they worked.

After we exited all the tunnels we crossed a bridge and there was an amazing view of a gorge. We parked the bikes and took a short walk across the old bridge and back along the new bridge. The things you can see from a bike.

There used to be a walking path you could take down to the bottom of the gorge. It is blocked off now. How do you fancy taking these steps down?

I thought today was going to be a head down and go day to beat the Typhoon. The sun came out and there were lots of things to see on the route and the coastal road is beautiful. I could have done without the hills but it was a good day, with lots to see.

Eventually we were back on the coastal road. there were some roadworks being done and at one point we were in a construction zone, peddling as fast as we could as were holding up a long-line of traffic. We moved over as far as we could but the car behind us didn’t try to pass, which really surprised me. When the road opened up again he passed us slowly and gave us a little toot. We waved to him and I blew him kisses. He had been holding the traffic back so that we weren’t squeezed into the guardrail. All the cars zoomed past him, obviously annoyed at being held up. Sometimes there is a road angel watching your back.

Our final stop was the Buddhist temple. This Buddha looks a bit crazy to me.

We found our hotel quite easily and they checked us in as soon as we arrived. We are staying on the Champs Elysees. Honestly, Hualien has a wide pedestrian boulevard that runs from our hotel about one kilometre. It is called the Champs Elysees.

After we had settled in we walked to the train station to book our tickets for Sunday. I had looked on the Round Taiwan route map, they indicated to take the train to Su’oua. So we booked tickets. By the time we got back to the room and had checked in with our warmshowers host, we could have gone further to Loudong train station. Maybe we can change our tickets tomorrow.

We had a nice pizza at the Three Koalas and headed back to our room for a good sleep. It has been a good day but tiring. That is why this isn’t going to get posted until tomorrow.

Thursday, 14 November 2024

Today was a very short day, even for this trip of shorter kilometre rides. The reason for the short day is that we could not find a hotel further along the route. By having a short day, we know our next day into Hualien is going to be the longest day on this trip. However, not as many hills as our first couple of days to Hsinchu and Yuanli. Unfortunately, we are also racing against the weather. There is another typhoon forecast that may hit this area (Hualien County) late Friday to Saturday.

Due to the short ride today, we started later. The breakfast place (Good Morning) next to the hotel was doing a roaring trade. We had a good breakfast and left the hotel a little after nine.

It was raining when we started and raining when we finished. There was a brief period of not too bad weather in between. When we stopped at the rest stop yesterday, (where the sculptures had been placed in 2022) it indicated that there were six sculptures. We only saw three. Today we spotted a few more, but it was raining and we couldn’t stop. This whale may or may not have been one of the additional sculptures. There is whale watching in this area. From May to September you can spot sperm, orcas, and pilot whales. Humpback and beaked whales can only be seen in the spring.

Although we stopped for lunch, we still arrived at the hotel at 12:30, way too early for check-in. Ralf emailed the property owner and asked for an early check-in. The owner arrived and told us check-in was at 3:00 p.m. Ralf explained that due to the weather we arrived early. His wife arrived, she spoke some English and allowed us to check-in. She told us where we could keep the bikes. While all this was going on I managed to find a hose and cleaned both bikes. I was also able to do a little maintenance on the back brakes. My back brake was almost useless, I found the adjusting screw and tightened it and now I have back brakes again, yay.

If the weather had been more conducive to taking photos you would have seen what a great ride this was.

This coast line is beautiful. The rugged mountains come down to the edge of the road. Steep slopes covered in verdant forests and waterfalls. This coastal area consists of coral reefs, coastal terraces, sandy beaches, gravel beaches, reefs, offshore islands, which makes it a fabulous place to ride.

Four million years ago, the Philippine Sea plate and Eurasian plate collided, forming the Penglai orogeny. This marked the emergence of Taiwan Island from beneath the Pacific Ocean. The Philippine Sea plate keeps moving westward, when it hits the Eurasian plate it goes under the crust and becomes a subduction zone.

Compression from the Philippine plate not only creates new mountains but also lifts the surface of Taiwan. On average, Hengchun Peninsula and the Central Range rise 0.5 centimeters a year. Obviously, in terms of geology, Taiwan is a very young and still developing island.

As a result of the high density of faults, Taiwan also experiences frequent earthquakes, especially in the east. The constant crustal movements unsettle the stratum in mountainous areas, which then tends to collapse in quakes or rainstorms. Today there were three earthquakes recorded in our area. We didn’t feel any of them. They were 3 or less than 3 on the Richter scale.

That is the end of your geology lesson for today.

We passed the Baxiandong archaeological and cave site. We had the time to go in and explore the caves. It was raining, we were already wet and didn’t want to get cold in the caves. Here is the history lesson for the day: “Baxian” (eight deities) are famous Chinese deities. Fogs drift perpetually around the caves and the interior is damp and misty. As the environment resembles that in the folklore when the eight deities cross the ocean, the caves were named Baxian.

After we had settled in to our room, I rinsed out our dirty, wet clothes. Ralf went for a walk on the beach opposite the hotel. He loves taking photos of waves. No doubt he will post a few photos on his Facebook page.

Monday, 11 November 2024

I knew today was going to be a hilly ride and I was a little worried about the hills. I am not good on hills. However, I convinced myself that it was a gradual uphill and not to worry too much about it. We had to get up and over this mountain range and even if it meant pushing the bike that was the only way to go at this point.

I had a good sleep and the breakfast at the hotel was good. With two good cups of coffee, we were ready to leave. Not before Ralf had a friendly visit from a preying mantis. Ralf had gone to get the laundry from the airing room while I was in the shower. As he came back into the room a preying mantis dropped on to his neck. It had been waiting for him in the patio area of our room. Of course, if it had been me you would have heard me screaming in Taipei. Ralf grabbed whatever had landed on his neck and threw it on the floor, he didn’t kill it. Then he got his camera and took photos of the thing.

The weather forecast for today was not going to be in our favour. Headwinds of 28 kph with gusts of up to 55 kph and we are going up hill, flipping awesome.

The start of the ride was very gradual as I had hoped it would be. We cycled about 25 kms battling the wind but still cycling along quite well.

At about 25 kms we stopped for a quick bite to eat, top up the water and then carried on. As I was waiting for Ralf, three fellas ranging in age from late 20’s to early 40’s asked me if I was doing the Round Island cycle route. One asked me my age! They were all very impressed then they noticed Ralf coming. They asked if he was a friend or my husband. My husband, they seemed quite disappointed. They wished us well on our journey and of we went up the hill which began to get steeper until it was a 7% grade, add on the headwind and I was off the bike and pushing.

I eventually caught up with Ralf at the entrance to the tunnel. We are not allowed in the tunnel and have to take the old Highway 9. Renamed Number 9 Wu Highway.

The new highway tunnel runs for 4.6 kms and then the road opens out into the valley below. The highway is built above the tree-line. Allowing nature to be part of the highway. Or at least that is what the official story says.

Another 6 kms of climbing and that ruddy wind. Eventually we got to the Shouka bike stop at the top of the hill. The two main cycling roads connect here. It is a must stop for all cyclists who have climbed these hills. It is downhill all the way from here.

On the way down we stopped at a lookout and a temple. When this was the main road, the transport trucks would stop here for a break. The locals built a noodle store and this became the rest stop for truckers and the only lighted place amid the darkness of the mountain road.

I knew we now had about 15 kms of downhill. Of course we couldn’t just let it rip as the road was very curvy and the winds kept trying to blow us across the road. My top speed was only 40kph.

As we reached the coastal road the winds got stronger. I saw a buddha and asked them to change the wind direction. They didn’t listen.

We arrived at our hotel early again. There were two female cyclists checking out the hotel. They were cycling the east coast and had already taken the train. They couldn’t tell us about Hualien as they arrived late by train and left the next day to continue cycling the coast.

The owner told us we could leave our bikes in the lobby and come back later. We had lunch and checked in at 2:00. The room is not as nice as last night’s hotel but it is cheap and will do us for the night.

Sunday 10 November 2024

We are halfway around the Island of Taiwan.  This morning we cycled to the southern most tip and to Eluanbi Lighthouse. There were bus loads of people at the lighthouse. It cost 120 NTD to get in and we really enjoyed walking to the viewpoint and wandering around the grounds and lighthouse. We asked a lady if she would take a photo of us. (I didn’t post the photo as she cut our legs off and Ralf had his eyes closed !!) She was originally from Taiwan and now lives in Vancouver, she was visiting family. We had a nice chat with her about Taiwan.

Due to the frequent shipwrecks in the area the construction of the Eluanbi Lighthouse began in 1881 and was completed the following year. The lighthouse was established in 1882. The lighthouse base served as a fort with trenches en-clrcling the outside. It was manned by armed soldiers. This made it one of the few fortified lighthouses in the world. It was blown-up, rebuilt and bombed again in World War 2. It is now a well-preserved historical site within the Kenting National Park. Eluanbi Lighthouse is the most powerful lighthouse in Taiwan and is known as the “Beacon of Southeast Asia”.

A note of interest about Taiwan’s National Parks. It was only recently (1980’s) that Taiwan decided to create National Parks, Not to be confused with National Scenic Areas. Kenting was the first National Park in 1984. There are nine National Parks in Taiwan. The rules to build or develop in a National Parks do not appear to be too onerous, so long as  you get permission from the National Park Commission first. They do restrict height of buildings etc. However, we did see long four-storey hotels built in the hillsides.

As we were leaving Kenting to cycle to the lighthouse, we noticed a lot of high-end road bikes in our hotel and along the main road. We chatted to a young guy who was waiting for a bus to take him and his bike back to Kaohsuing, where he would take the high-speed train back to Taipei. There had been an Audax yesterday. This is a challenge ride and can consist of different distances from 200 km to the famous Paris Brest Paris ride of 1200 kms. Yesterday’s challenge ride was from Taipei to Kenting a distance of 620 kms this had to be completed in 24 hours. The young man we spoke to had lived in New Zealand and had quite the kiwi accent. He did the ride in 22 hours!! I asked him how he was feeling and he said very tired, but he had a big grin on his face. 

Other riders had done 520 kms. We gave everyone we saw wearing a 520 or 620 kms T. shirt a thumbs up.  When we were loading our bikes a group who had done the ride yesterday commented that we were doing the Huan Dao, (the Round Island) they gave me the thumbs up. If they only knew how easy we were taking the ride.

In Kenting and at the Lighthouse there were two fabulous sculptures created with steel rope cables.

Kenting and area is a really nice beachy area. There are surfing beaches, and smaller beaches and rocky beaches. At the moment swimming is restricted because of the rip-tides and there were red flags on almost all of the beaches we saw.

We left Kenting for the second time at about 11:30. It was going to be a relatively easy ride to Checheng. We very rarely back-track on a route. However, we really wanted to see the most southern point of Taiwan and the easiest route over the central mountain range is from Checheng and not following the coastal road up from Kenting.

Of course we were way too early for our hotel check-in. The owner allowed us to leave our bags and we headed into Town, only a couple of minutes away.

There is a very large and famous temple here. (Fu-An Temple). Built during Qing Dynasty and dedicated to the deity Tudigong.

Obviously he likes a spot of Jack Daniels as there was an offering of a bottle for him. Ralf went in the temple first and I watched the bikes and people. There were several groups of worshippers who came out of the temple, banging on drums, cymbals and chanting. The groups were always carrying a banner and some sort of offerings.

While we were making our rounds of the temple the lady from Vancouver spotted us and chatted again. She said this was a very famous temple and the deity was very special. I asked if it was Tao or Buddhism. She said it was a combination of both, sometimes with these large temples they mix both divinations together. Although the official story is that it is Taoism

At about 2:45 we headed back to our hotel. The owner who spoke a little English showed me the room and where we could keep our bikes. He also asked if we needed to do any washing. I hadn’t realized I smelled that bad. As soon as we showered I did a load of laundry. It took an hour and now it is hanging in their laundry room. I hope it is all dry by the morning.

Tomorrow and the remainder of the trip we will be on the east coast heading towards Taipei.

Saturday 9 November 2024

We left the Homestay/Air Bnb at about 7:30 a.m. there were a couple of breakfast places in Fangliao that we could choose from. The first one was Café 85, a good bakery and coffee shop. However, this one had nothing but cakes and good coffee. We need more than cakes for breakfast, although Ralf would argue that he could live on cakes. We went back to a small corner breakfast place. There didn’t appear to be anywhere to sit, but magically two stools appeared. The owner was really helpful, when we pointed to something he would get the item out of the fridge to show us what was in the sandwich. We ordered two ham and egg breakfast sandwiches, and two coffees. He then gave us a serving of pork loin and eggs and two small buns that were so soft and tasty I could have eaten more.

The day was off to a good start.  We headed off to the edge of Town and took photos of the Love Fangliao sign.  We knew today was going to be a Cycle Route One day as there were no other options to Kenting. 

Strange things you see when you take the back streets. A fisherman with a large tuna about to get on the scooter. It was a statue and the scooter just happened to be in the way.

Prior to getting on Highway 1, google took us through a cemetery. I have no idea why.

We joined Highway 1 and headed south. The road was a little noisy and busy until the Highway 9 exit across the mountains. We continued following Cycle Route 1-20. However, with the wide shoulder for cyclists and scooters I felt safe. 

What a difference a day makes. We are away from the stench of pollution from the industrial north-west and into the coastal area of the south. We could see the ocean most of the day, the hills were small and rolling and the wind was from every direction (but Ralf was in front), life is good.

Sites we see along the way. A Father Christmas (Santa Claus) temple, Yul Brynner and a happy buddha.

As we cycled along, we noticed a few farm stands with black moustaches advertising. We recognized these as the nut the lady had given us in the mountains of Shizhou. We stopped and picked the smallest bag. The lady was very happy.

We arrived in Kenting early around 12:30, check-in was at 3:00 again. We decided to investigate this small seaside area and have lunch. Cheese toastie and chips, it was good. We then headed to the hotel and asked if we could have an early check-in. Unfortunately, as it was only 1:30 the room wasn’t ready, but they very kindly allowed us to sit in the air-conditioned lobby and gave us a cold drink. At 2:00 the room was ready and after showering, we planned our route for the next two days.

Tomorrow we are heading to the southernmost point of Taiwan. We have asked at reception if we can leave our bags while we play the tourist at Cape Eloundi. We will cycle about 18 kms there (Cape Eloundi) and back to Kenting, then pick up our panniers and head back up the coast to Checheng, another 20 kms. This is where we cross the island to the east coast. The plan was to do the Lighthouse and Cape Eloundi and cycle up the coast to Dawu, which would have been 85 kms and a climb of 1,080 metres. Ralf suggested we split it into two days. That will give us more time to be tourists and not worry so much about the climb looming at the middle of the day. Then we can tackle the climb on fresh legs and earlier in the day!!

After doing our route planning we headed out for dinner. There was a night market, but I had decided on a Thai restaurant that advertised vegetarian service. Ralf had a Thai Chicken curry and it looked really good, we had spring rolls, and I had a pineapple vegetable fried rice, with a couple of beer. It was the most expensive meal so far on the trip at $38.00, but well worth the price. Things are a little more expensive in a holiday resort town. However, we really enjoyed our dinner and the walk around the night market.

Some of the food available at the night market: Fried swirly potatoes with battered sausage, steamed prawns, sausage and other pork and donuts and sweet stuff.