Cycling Trip to Taiwan: Day Two

Sony rode for about 50 km with us, up to somewhere near Sanxia, a little town southwest of Taipei, before she headed back home. Joe and I continued on our own. We had a good 100 km ahead of us, since the plan was to ride across the mountains to the east coast town of Wujie. The weather conditions weren't great: it was slightly chilly as well as a bit rainy. Nevertheless, the booties that Joe brought along helped to keep our feet warm and dry and we were a lot warmer than we would have been had we still been in Japan, so neither of us was complaining.

Take a look at Joe's bike and you'll see that we really traveled lightly. Each of us had a small bag attached to our handlebars, plus a small bag in back for our gear, which included, at least in my case, not much more than spare inner tubes, rags, and a few tools; my wallet; some maps; a pair of walking shoes; and minimal extra clothing. We each took along so little stuff that when I was wearing my tights, long-sleeve shirt, and windbreaker (along with my riding outfit, of course), for example, about all that was left in my bags was a pair of sweat pants, an extra top and bottom to ride in, and an extra pair of socks, underpants, and gloves. (I ended up wearing my extra riding top not for riding but rather at nighttime when we went out for dinner or whatever, since that was the only shirt I had that wasn't stinky. My extra riding shorts were actually a bathing suit, and that and the extra gloves are the only articles of clothing that I brought but didn't wear. Had Joe had a bathing suit, however, I would have worn mine the one time we went to an onsen [but didn't go in!], since, unlike in Japan, you need a bathing suit at many onsens in Taiwan.)

We stopped for lunch a little before 1 p.m. This was our second time in a restaurant in Taiwan, but the first time we had to order for ourselves. (Usually when we stopped for lunch, there weren't too many places to choose from, and they were all kind of run-down looking, so we kind of scoped them out and eventually both agreed where we'd eat. Luckily, we made some pretty good choices!) Out in the boonies as we were, it came as no surprise that the staff could barely (if that!) speak English and the menu was only in Chinese, but Joe and I used a mix of Japanese, English, and sign language to get across that he wanted noodle soup and I wanted fried rice.

If you've read some of my other travel stories, you know that I pick up on a lot of little things when I'm in foreign countries and this trip was no different. One of the things I noticed in restaurants was that the chopsticks were not only disposable, but also wrapped in plastic. Furthermore, the Taiwanese usually eat with both chopsticks and a spoon, and the spoon is often of the throwaway variety. (I planned to bring along a set of re-usable chopsticks on the trip, but, regrettably, decided against that at the last minute.)

Joe and I each had two drinks and the total bill came to the ridiculously low amount of about 140 Taiwanese dollars, with TWD 100 being equal to about JPY 300, USD 3, and EUR 2.20. (I figure each meal was about 40 dollars and each drink about 15.) In other words, our lunch came to all of about $4.25. Talk about cheap! Prices for the most part stayed that low throughout the trip, whenever we ate at one of these mom-and-pop-style restaurants. (Naturally, in the bigger town of Kenting and, of course, in Taiwan's second-biggest city, Kaohsiung, the prices were more in line with the prices in Japan.)

Another food item(that we had later on the trip) that I remember the price for is what the Japanese call "gyouza," or what the Americans call "pot sticker." The standard price for those was $4 each. What you're looking at in the picture is a fantastic side dish for a pittance: $1.00.

Anyway, after lunch we started on the biggest ascent of the day (and of the whole trip, for that matter), the climb from about 600 meters (that's the Big Baling Bridge in the picture) to a little over 1200 meters. Unlike in Japan, there were kilometer markers along most roads, including the one we were now on, the "7," also known as the Northern Cross (Island Highway). Unfortunately for us, however, we weren't quite sure which kilometer marked the high point of the road. We thought it was Kilometer 66, but we had trouble believing that (or rather, didn't want to believe that), since the "real" climb started at around Kilometer 46 and would have thus meant roughly 20 grueling kilometers to go.

As we slowly grinded our way up and through the mountains, we counted down the kilometers as we passed each marker. I remember finally reaching Kilometer 56 and thinking, "Oh my God, only half way." And I remember reaching Kilometer 58 (or so) after approximately 1 1/2 hours of riding and sarcastically saying to Joe something like, "Only 8 kilometers to go." We were both pretty exhausted by that point, though I honestly must say a lot of the exhaustion, at least in my case, was more mental than physical.

But just then a funny thing happened: We turned a corner, saw a group of riders, and decided to pull over and chat with them. Of course, one of our first questions was how much farther we had to go until we made it to the top. Imagine our surprise as they told us we were there!

Flashback: Remember when I said we didn't always get the best information from people we talked to? Well, this was one of those cases! Joe and I were really happy to have made it to the top of the hill, but we were still fairly skeptical. The group of riders insisted, however, that we were at the top, and the road ahead certainly went downhill, so we figured they must have known what they were talking about.

After a short rest, we started our long descent. Or so we thought.

It turns out that the road ahead went up and down, up and down, up and down ...

for the next 8 kilometers or so ...

all the way to ...

Kilometer 66.

So for all of you out there who are thinking about riding this route, believe me, you haven't reached the top until you see the sign for the Mingchih Forest Recreation Area.

As you can imagine, the rest of the ride was mostly downhill and flat, all the way to our destination, the Ilancat B 'n B in Wujie. We had to ride in the dark for about the last hour and a half of the 150 km ride (since we simply couldn't out-pedal the setting sun that goes down at around 5:30 p.m. in these parts), found our goal easily (thanks, again, to the kilometer markers in Taiwan!), and were immediately blessed with more good luck: A Christmas party!

We had some great food at the party and got to meet some lovely people. What I liked most about the party was that it was so relaxing, as opposed to the parties that I've been to in Japan, which are usually characterized by a stiff atmosphere. What's more, there were no official start and end times for the party, as there would have been if it had been a Japanese party. After having spent so much time in Japan, where the people are überpolite and afraid to express their true feelings, the party in Taiwan gave me that taste of normalcy that I had so sorely missed.