Tag Archives: taiwan

Impossible is just a word

Okay, so this title sounds like I’ve just been sponsored by Nike, but that didn’t happen. (Though, Nike, if you’re looking at this entry… call my people.) It’s just something I deeply experienced today after going through each impossible-feeling-sounding-thinking thing and coming out on the other side. We climbed 40% flat land and 60% mountain roads, but my trembling knees and elbows insist it was more than that.

Day 6/9: Hengchun to Zhiben (112 km)

This morning, we had breakfast and gathered outside in Hengchun, shortly after sunrise. I had slept for more like 8.5 hours, and had a dream where I had to hurry back to Taipei overnight for some reason, and then was trying to make it back. I was really anxious not to miss the day’s climbing, even though I knew it would be hard. I was in the middle of trying to find transport when the morning call rang my phone, and woke me up. My first thought was pure gratitude that it was just a dream, and I was already in Kenting!

When we first biked out, it was glorious. The sun wasn’t too warm yet, and we biked north for the first time on a small road, splitting apart from the main road to meander through green and gold fields. If we had gone through mango country earlier as we headed south through Pingtung, this here was onion country. It was in the middle of the harvest, and rows of onions lay in the dirt, freshly dug up, as far as the eye could see. I saw several roadside signs advertising Hengchun Onions at the amazing price of 4 bags for 100 NT. Each bag had to have at least 15-20 onions in it. It could’ve fed us for half the year. In Taipei, onions go for 10-15 NT each. We waved to laborers in the fields who were kilted up as we were with long arm coverings and hats against the sun, and many waved back. As we climbed into the hills, we started getting a lovely view of the valley we were leaving behind, and it was breathtaking. It was the kind of scenery I had wanted and hoped to see on this trip. There was much more of it, but it was a struggle to concentrate on that, since the climbing and biking got much, much harder.

After 20 km, Our first stop was Mudan Reservoir, where we all took a deep breath and went to the bathroom. It seemed nice from where we were, but I got the chance to admire it from further on up. The next leg was 14 km, the beginning two a straight ascent. Within 500 meters, I had hit a wall. I ended up stopping every 500 meters to drink a few sips of water and shake my arms out. When I got back on, it was definitely easier, and I had more energy, which completely dissipated by the time I got 500 meters further. On the third stop, I realized I had been overtaken by the last rider, and the tail rider from Giant, who is a shy young woman with a yellow jersey, smiled at me and said, “加油!” That scared me enough to amp it up a little bit and re-overtake the last rider. The thought of being exactly the 50th rider to get my ass up to the next rest stop kept me about 1 km ahead of her for the rest of the hour. I realized later that if I was actually as generous of spirit as I wanted to be, I would bike with her and cheer her on together, but for me, biking on hills is such a tricky thing that keeping to my own rhythm once I found it was of paramount importance. Breaking it to follow someone else’s would be very difficult, so I not-so-virtuously just kept ahead of the last rider, and rolled in about 15 minutes later than everyone else.

We only had 15 minutes to recover, and then it was off to the next 14 km, after which we would reach Shouka, which marked the intersection of our road with the Cross-Island Highway. This highway in the south was the only one that served through traffic, so it would be full of big trucks and all sorts of cars. This climb wasn’t as bad, because it was a lot of on-and-off climbs, and I definitely didn’t roll in next to last. Still, there was a lot of time when it was just me by myself on the road, sweating in silence, and climbing steadily. Here in the south, we are truly in the tropics. It feels like actual jungles around us, with large green ferns, the calls of birds, and air so moist you can taste it. There were homesteads in the middle of all of this, and when I went past, there were dogs guarding the house who weren’t even aware that I was there because I went by so silently. It was funny to creep up on a few, who heard me change gears and whirled around to start barking belatedly. After Shouka, the climate changed again. First, we flew down the hill for an amazing 12 km of downhill. My top speed was about 41 kmph, but I’m sure I could’ve gone faster than that – I was basically squeezing my brakes before every turn.

We stopped soon afterwards for lunch, which was delicious as usual, and I ended up grabbing my usual coffee as well from the 7-11 across the road. It was a good move, because the afternoon was pretty brutal. We had three segments with three stops, and each of them had a significant hill. We were finally heading north into Taitung, but the problem was that we were sharing the picturesque, steep roads next to the pounding surf with all those huge trucks again too! And there was construction. On the first climb out of lunch, we ended up all climbing about 80% of the way up this incredibly steep highway bridge that took us seemingly hundreds of feet into the air about 10 feet away from the beach below. And we waited there for close to 10 minutes while the traffic went the other way. Then they closed off the lane, had our cars go, and then let us through finally. When we descended on the other side, I felt like I had just parachuted into this wonderland. It was amazingly gorgeous everywhere we looked, from the steep, wooded hills to our left, to the dark blue ocean and grey sand to our right, to even the view in front of us, the highway weaving off into the distance, and the many hills that make up the east coast, each a different faded tone of blue and grey. I enjoyed it, but I was also in agony and my thighs were burning. I had to figure out a way of pedaling that wasn’t going to expend all my energy, so I’ve been angling my feet differently when I push down, and switching it up every few cycles so different muscles get a rest, if that makes sense. I complained to Debi at a stop that I had no stamina, but I think that’s a hard argument now that we’ve finished Day 6 of nearly 100 km days. Still, I burn out pretty quick when I push hard to climb those hills, even at a low gear. I’m getting better at gear-shifting, but they told us that tomorrow’s much of the same!

It took us a while, but we finally made it into Zhiben, a famed hot spring town just south of Taitung. After checking into our hotel and spa, our faithful guides warned us not to sit in the hot springs for too long – 10 or 15 minutes was his suggestion – because our muscles have been trained hard from the last five days. To sit too long in the hot springs would mean that we would relax completely, and undo all that work, so tomorrow would be more agony. Well, we all took that advice with a grain of salt. I just finished an hour of on-and-off luxuriating in the hot and cold springs. We spent some time in the indoor ones before figuring out there were open-air hot springs that showed us the clear, full moon and the twinkling stars. After a long hard day, there’s just nothing more amazing than stargazing while lying in the hot spring, sitting on warm rocks, and feeling the breeze on your skin. I had to remind myself that I was almost too relaxed now, and needed to get back to my room!

Today’s definitely been a day of overcoming challenges. Sometimes, it was a matter of taking a break when I thought I couldn’t do it and then getting back to it. Sometimes, it was experimentation with a different style of pedaling. Sometimes, it was a bit of liquid courage (mostly coffee, not the alcoholic kind). Most times, it was just putting my feet down again and again and not looking too hard at where the finish line was. I am awed by what my body has been able to accomplish, because there were so many times I looked at 24 km down the road, and internally despaired. Or if I was here by myself, biking with panniers or just a friend or two, it would be so simple to stop at any old 7-11 or roadside fruit stall and take a break and then another, to call an audible when it got darker and stay somewhere else. But our guides hustled us on, exhorting us to make it to the next scheduled stop 12 km on, and reminded us that because the sun set over the mountains pretty early on the east side of the island, we didn’t have the time to linger. I’ve been learning that impossible is just a word, and in a very good way. What you think is impossible is just usually something different.

With that realization in mind, I’m going to bed. Our next stop is going to be Ruisui, just south of Hualien. It seems incredible, but we’re already done with Day 6. Our trip is two-thirds over!

The ocean at the end of the road

My wrists are almost too weak and tired to type. I wish I could dictate this entry as I do so many of my chat messages now, not because I trust voice-to-text, but because my speed of typing (usually pretty fast) is now too slow to catch up with… my brain, which actually isn’t moving all that fast either. After flying by at 30 kmph, I am now at a complete standstill. Let’s get on with it.

Day 5/9: Kaohsiung to Hengchun (102 km)

I haven’t wanted to go to sleep this badly on this trip so far, but today’s done a real number on me. I unexpectedly met up with my friend Jake last night at the hotel, so after finishing my entry and talking to Steve, I got to bed right before 11 pm last night, and ended up with a square 7 hours, but that’s not quite enough anymore. Blargh. We woke up at 6 am as usual, and after an excellent breakfast buffet as always, headed out of Kaohsiung.

Though it was foggy and somewhat smoggy in the city, the early morning light still felt nice as we wove slowly through the city. We took a waterfront path next to the light rail which Steve and I know quite well from our time in the city. We took in the 85 Sky Tower (Tuntex Tower) from below, and biked past all the newly constructed Cultural Exhibition Center and such in the city. It took more than an hour to go just about 10 km, because we were still in Kaohsiung. When we started out of the city, we started flying down the middle of the road for 20 km at a stretch. After a rest stop for some delicious shaved ice and at another temple, we found ourselves in Pingtung County. All of a sudden, there were mango groves around us, large stretches of short trees whose fruits were painstakingly covered with plastic bags to protect them as they ripened. Though my face was mostly covered by my blue headscarf, I could smell hints of mango as we rode by. By the time we stopped for lunch, people were sufficiently tantalized by all the roadside stalls that they were pretty much ready to demand mango. We ended up having a truly magnificent meal of clay-pot roasted chicken and many, many delicious veggie and meat dishes, finishing with a delicate mushroom soup with goji berries. Other folks went in search of mango, but I ended up going for coffee, which has become a lunchtime ritual. It helps me stay awake on the bike in the two hours or so after we eat lunch, which sounds really ridiculous, but yes, I need help to stay awake while I’m furiously pumping away my legs on a highway. It’s just the truth.

After lunch, we were going to hit three hills between there and Hengchun, which is pretty much near Kenting, the bottom tip of the island. I nearly died on those three hills, pushing myself up and down and cursing. See, I had done better on the hill on the second day than I had on the first, and as a result, while biking through those flat stretches the past two days, I had come up with a Grand Unified Theory of biking on hills. I had concluded that I had figured out hills, because all we had to do was to switch about four or five gears down, and keep biking at the same speed as much as possible, but that was mostly BS, apparently. The theory falls apart when you need to go from a medium gear down to a small gear. This bike has 27 gears, and you can switch between three front gears that you then pedal on, turning the front of the chain. Those are the big differentiators, with a large, medium, and small gear. The back gear has nine different gears, and usually, I only need to switch four or five back gears down in order to make a hill, but these rolling mountains were a bit much for me. But if the back gears stay the same while the front gears change, then you make a pretty big change all of a sudden, not like the very gradual small changes when you switch the back gears.

People in their seventies kept passing me, and while I’m sure that was great for their ego, I felt like I was being destroyed. My speedometer might have said 13 kmph, but you know, anyone can walk at 6 kmph already! Other people also even kept stopping to take pictures of the gorgeous sea scenery, a glittering ocean that stretched into the Taiwan Strait, and all I could do was huff and puff and stay on. When we finally got to the rest stop, it proved to be a lengthy one. They had us lay out our bikes so they could check them up, tune them a bit, put more air into the tires, etc. etc. I just laid back after eating two slices of watermelon and gazed up at the trees above us. It took us a good half an hour to get moving after that because everyone was pretty pooped. Finally, we rode the last 10 km to our hotel, the Grand Bay Resort in Hengchun.

We had a good dinner where people shared out some Suntory they got from the 7-11, and we were treated to some impromptu karaoke by the staff. Now because we’re in a very small town with nearly nothing to do, I can finally for the first time rest before 10 pm! So I’m finishing my entry early and getting ready to wind down.

One of the last things I wanted to note is that despite all the whining, I really am very glad I’m doing this trip, and I think that’s probably obvious. Why is a bit more complex to articulate, but it’s worth it. I recently started reading The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, which is apparently a really popular book though it sounds like it’s only for ambitious MBA-types. This book advocates that in order for people to make centered, balanced, principled decisions about what to do with their lives, they can create their personal mission statement according to their own beliefs, values, and ideals. It’s more of a process than just a one-time brainstorming, so I’m taking my time with it. However, even after thinking about it, it’s clear that I’m kind of simple when it comes to my principles. I believe that everyone has potential and value. What follows from that is that I hope I can help people develop that potential and value, which I do a lot in my daily job, and I want to develop my own potential and value as much as possible. This trip is pushing the boundaries of what I think I can do physically, and especially because it’s uncomfortable to climb these hills, I know I’m doing it.

Another statement I want to put into my mission statement is “Give what you cannot keep to gain that which you cannot lose.” And roughly speaking, youth and energy are a fleeting state in a person’s life. I’m already realizing I am less flexible, less impetuous than I used to be, and even have a few small injuries to my body that will never completely heal during my lifetime. But the feeling of accomplishment and understanding of what I am capable of doing are things nobody can take away from me once I’ve got it.

When we biked out of Kaohsiung this morning, I looked up at the 85 Sky Tower, and for the first time, felt something in my chest, and I started getting really a little emotional about this whole trip. Being in a place like Kaohsiung which I’ve visited quite a few times before, having walked where I’m now biking before, I am realizing that I’m really going to be able to do it. To bike places I had only gone on trains before, and finish this trip and come back to Taipei. I stopped getting too emotional because as I reminded myself, I’m not done with this trip yet by a long shot!! But we’re halfway through, and half-done is well begun.

The long road to the south

Today was a long one, but we all made it! I’m limp with exhaustion and relief. I don’t have much else to say, so straight into it.

Day 4/9: Chiayi to Kaohsiung (127 km)

Today was the hottest and longest day on the trip so far. I hesitate to say anything with out putting “so far” behind it, because I’m encountering so many new things each day and learning so much that it’s probably a bad idea to make my stand on any particular impression. But it was certainly hot. It was a high of 28 degrees Celsius, and in the middle of our longer stretches (22 or 24 km), the guides forced us to stop at a certain time and take a few gulps of water before moving on. Many people ended up taking off their jackets and long-sleeved jerseys to get some relief from the heat, but other people including me stayed resolutely hidden underneath all the long coverings, with only our fingertips showing. If Southeast Asia has taught me anything, it’s that being covered up is counter-intuitively much, much cooler. I’ve been wearing sunblock everywhere, so I don’t have any exciting tan patterns yet, but it’s clear that overall, I’m getting a little more tan despite all these efforts. That’s perfectly fine – I just would prefer not to be perfectly bronzed by the time we get back to Taipei.

I think some people I told were impressed that I was going on this trip. It is a very long trip of nine days. It is certainly also a long distance of 910 km or just over 565 miles. But by the second day, I was thinking that pretty much most people I know who are physically active can do this. Why? Because even kids can bike. The physics of biking are that if you expend some effort to get up to a certain speed, it takes then less effort to stay at that speed. It’s way easy than jogging around, which never gets easier at any point. You have to keep moving actively or stop. But speaking of jogging, I think that if you can or have run a 5K (around 3 miles), then you can do this bike trip. The most difficult thing about the trip is persistence, which is much harder to access. When you face down an entire nine hours of biking throughout the day, you get intimidated. When you’re at your second rest stop after lunch and starting to feel all that rice you had, you are craving a nap. When you’ve been going through unending rice paddies or, worse, hit the third red light in less than 500 meters, you get frustrated and bored. It’s just like any other “difficult” thing. You just have to keep pedaling and keep going, and after nine days of biking, you’ve done it.

The important thing is that Giant has found a good way to counteract this. When you feel all these pressures, you may feel inclined to easily give in, but the truth is that you can’t, because you’re surrounded by all these people, the majority of whom are twice your age, who are killing it without complaining. That really makes it impossible for you to give in, short of an actual injury to your body. Add that to the fact that nobody here in Asia wants to lose face, and you’ve got a whole bunch of people racing each other to the next rest break. No one wants to be the last one in, sweating and slowly biking your way to the top of the hill, while everyone else eats a banana and watches you. From a nicer perspective, we can support each other. We update each other at stop lights about how many km are left, and exhort each other to keep going and keep pedaling. The group really makes a real difference, and I’m glad that I could do this trip with so many new friends.

I really want to go to bed soon, but I have to give a shout out thus far to our guides. Giant has done an amazing job making this event happen. Every morning, a staff member guides us through our warm-ups and stretches while other staff members load the vans with our luggage. Then they brief us on exactly how many km we’re going through, how many hills and bridges we can expect, and remind us to stay single-file and to stay spaced out. When we set out, there are four people with us, one at the front and one at the end, with two in the middle, riding along the whole way. When we make a turn, there’s always someone standing there blowing the whistle in short bursts and directing us. When we stop at a rest area, the van’s already there with the back door up, snacks ready, and the music blaring. They refill the water as soon as it gets low, and next to the snacks, provide small bottles of sunscreen that are refilled so people can put on more. We even found today after people got sunburnt that they carry aloe vera gel. When your tire gets a hole, these guys patch it together right away. When it’s time to pull into the hotel, there’s someone guiding us down the parking lot ramp to the basement where they are directing us to the right corner to pile our bikes together, and then they guide us again through cool-down exercises before instructing us to come down for dinner an hour later. I know plenty of people do the round-the-island tour without a support van and these folks, but they are so experienced and take care of us so well that I feel free to enjoy the road and not worry about where I have to go. Consider this a ringing endorsement (so far) of Giant Bicycles as a travel agency!

Tomorrow, we’re headed for Hengchun, which is located near the southernmost point of the island. So it’ll be Day 5 when we will reach the bottom of the island, and then turn to start our trip back north. I’m excited to see the East Coast, but not as excited about the mountains. I’ll write more tomorrow about my theory about hills and physics too! Until then.

Observations on the countryside

Day 3/9 on this crazy road trip around the island is a wrap, and for once, I am sitting at the desk in my fancy hotel room well ahead of schedule. I’ve got a little bit of peace and quiet to write my entry and reflect on the day before I go to bed around 9:30 pm. It only took me two days to get this far!

Day 3/9: Lukang to Chiayi (77 km)

Today was an easy day. I can definitely say that now, propping my feet up and flexing it to relieve the soreness, which I know could have been worse. We got up a whole half hour later – at 6:30 am, and had a leisurely breakfast before biking out of Lukang at 8 am. We rolled into Chiayi around 4:30 pm, after having some very leisurely breaks and lunches in the middle indeed. The guides told us today was deliberately meant as a day to help us calibrate our bodies and get used to the road before they threw some more challenges at us.

Some things come into sharper relief with more time to ruminate over it on the road. Even though three days is over, it feels like this trip is stretching out even longer than before. I am starting to appreciate what it really means to be biking consistently for 9 days. The aches in my pelvic bone where my butt meets the seat are a dull constant companion, though I can usually distract myself from it. Now that we’ve entered the south, the sun has also come out more consistently, and my skin is taking on a definitely bronze cast. I’ve pulled my neck scarf over my head now and look like I’m auditioning for Blue Man Group, and I’ve been assured I will STILL be tanned when I finish this trip. We live our lives indoors, staring at screens or walking inside air-conditioned, lit up spaces. It is different to be exposed to the elements all the time, marking the appearances of the sun, the waves of drizzle that come and go. We’re entirely kitted up now with arm and leg coverings, which are usually only worn by roadside aunties who sweep the parks for a living or work in the fields. I never understood those coverings and broad sunhats with flaps that cover the neck and face until now, because it never seemed to be an issue – you’re just outside, and the sun is nice and warm. But day after day, it takes a toll on your body, so you stay covered up as much as possible so that at night, when you come back out, no one can tell you spend all your time outside.

It ended up being a good thing that I put on the blue neckscarf today to hide my face from the elements, because the elements also contain air pollution. The south of Taiwan has much heavier air pollution, and we spent most of the time on the road next to large trucks which sounded terrifying barreling down the road a meter or two away. They threw up a lot of dust, of course, that mostly got filtered out through the neck scarf, thankfully. We also biked right past many refuse yards or recycling yards. The poorer parts of Taiwan is also where you see more recycling business or trash businesses. We saw a landfill yesterday as well as a trash incineration power plant, actually. So the smell is much stronger and more overpowering. In these small towns, the road looks polished enough, and the buildings that line the front only look a bit shorter and slightly more faded than the ones I’ve seen in New Taipei City. But you also hear the roosters crowing from right inside those buildings as well, and behind the house is the rice paddy.

Out in the countryside or in the small towns, locals set up an astonishing array of little shops or stalls, sometimes right out of the trunk of their four-door sedan, sometimes in one of Taiwan’s ubiquitous blue pick-up trucks. We saw one selling stones from Hualien and Taitung (according to the sign), with about a dozen or so large stones, some beautiful looking geodes and other rugged, distinguished pieces of granite, set in wooden stands on the ground or on the back of the truck. The owner was seated in the driver’s seat, smoking a cigarette and reading the newspaper. Another blue truck had the most amazing array of clocks and bells, with little captain’s wheels and gold bells hanging from the roof of his truck. It looked like something straight out of a Neil Gaiman novel, and I wished I could have taken a photo of it, or even better, spoken to the owner. The most hilarious was probably the one I saw this afternoon. One man in an otherwise unremarkable Toyota Camry was speaking to another man while rummaging in his trunk, and we could see while going by that it had several wire cages full of brightly colored yellow and green parakeets. I guess the avian black market is lucrative enough here!

We’re a fairly large group of 50 people, and though we’re still mistaking each other for someone else that we had met, fairly clear personalities have already started to emerge within the group. I’m mostly sticking at mealtimes with some very affable Americans (most from LA) and a handful of Taiwanese who live in Taipei and are by themselves here alone. There’s also a handful of Singaporeans who hang out by themselves, bike in a group, and all brought their own bikes, but they’re friendly enough. Then there’s about 14 people who are all mainland Chinese who now live in Canada. They’re kind of fun to talk to because they act just like my parents, but I also heard one of them tell the guides in a very forward way, “You said you’d fix my speedometer yesterday. Why’s it still wrong?” You can take the Chinese out of the mainland, but… The rest are a group of older Taiwanese who probably bike or hike Yangmingshan for fun in the mornings – they are way too mobile and in way too good humor all the time. I should be so lucky to be like them at that age. . Anyway, there are two or three people my age, but most people seem to be in their mid-40s to mid-50s, with a good minority of 10 or so in their late 60s or early 70s (mostly the Taiwanese). It’s very impressive, and basically leaves me with no excuse! If they can do it, I certainly can.

I have to keep that attitude in mind as we move on tomorrow to Kaohsiung. This is one of the longest legs we’ll make on the trip, a total of 130 km. While there might be one hill or two, it’ll mostly be flat terrain, possibly even more starts and stops as we wind through Tainan and arrive in Kaohsiung, Taiwan’s second largest city. I’m looking forward to the chance to see again a city that I know relatively well, and of course, the pleasure of saying that I made it riding 130 km in one day. On to Day 4!

Biking along the west coast

We made it to day two! It’s been another long day, but if the guides are to be believed, harder days lie ahead. I’m sure that’s a shocker for all involved. I’ll do my best to sum up Day 2, but honestly, everything’s been such a blur, and I’ve noticed and seen too many new things to all be recorded.

Day 2/9: Hsinchu to Lukang (102 km)

I slept (though not enough by my standards) until 6 am this morning, which was when we received our morning call. It was a slow trek to get everything packed and downstairs, so it’s a good thing I showered the night before. Our breakfast was exemplary as usual, as we’ve seen at pretty much every hotel in Taiwan. And then we were off! Super early Sunday morning, there was pretty much no traffic heading out of Hsinchu, and we coasted on out casually.

Today, we made seven or eight stops in total. Some were after about 7 or 8 km (usually after a bit of a climb), but some were kind of far in-between, like after 22 km. At each stop, riders are urged to make sure to address any issues about their bike right away so the mechanics on the team can take a look and tune it up for you. Then you head to the bathroom, fill up your water, and grab some snacks. Their food game is on point, and it’s a good thing, because we’re all eating a lot more than we usually do, and expending up to 4000-6000 calories a day. There are about three or four kinds of fruit, bananas, nectarines, oranges, and maybe something else too. Then there’s three to four different kinds of Taiwanese biscuits and cookies with chocolate or cheese or preserved veggies. There are packets of Pocari Sweat that you can dump into your water bottle, and then fill up with water. For those who don’t want to have Pocari, they also offer some straight-up salt, which helps your body hydrate better. At lunch and dinner, we’ve been feted with some amazing amounts of fish, tofu, pork – typical Taiwanese fare. One of the Canadians I met has opted for vegetarian, and they’ve brought out some excellent dishes just for her, including these lightly battered and fried mushrooms with Taiwanese basil. I can’t complain about any of the food.

Shortly after we came out of Hsinchu today, we made it to the coast. We spent a leisurely morning biking down the coast, gazing at the wetlands on the west coast. Steve and I have visited the Gaomei Wetlands near Taichung, and this was quite similar. The muddy ground sprinkled with short bushes and grasses stretch out for what seems like a hundred meters, dotted here and there by white herons and other birds standing in the mud. Off in the distance, we could see large windmills of the modern variety – tall and three-bladed clawing at the sky – which slowly moved by as we biked south. It was a perfect morning, weather in the sixties, and an overcast sky. Eventually that gave way as we turned inland to more rice paddies, stretching out. Yesterday’s rice paddies were smaller affairs, constrained by the twisting and turning roads and hills that we went through. Today was almost entirely flat. We crossed several very high broad bridges that looked over some narrow channels of water, watching the sun glitter on the creeks and rivers below.

We made two interesting stops today. The first was at 台鹽 Taiyen Company, which makes a popular brand of alkaline ion water here as well as other foods and beverages containin salt. They even had a “Museum of Salt” at their headquarters here. For our snack at this rest stop, the Giant guides brought out salty popsicles in many different flavors. I managed to get one of the last almond flavored popsicles, which was sweet and savory, tasting like the almond milk teas that they make here in Taiwan. It was a fun treat! The second stop was right after lunch at headquarters for Giant Bicycles. It was there we learned that we had among us the former CEO of Giant Bicycles, who is now retired and enjoys going around the island with his wife. He and she were respectively on their eleventh and eighth trips around the island. How’s that for impressive? #lifegoals We also got to see some of the cool prototypes they had on display, even though it was a Sunday, and the factory wasn’t open.

Today was a big day, because for many people including me, it was our first day of riding more than 100 km. Yesterday, we made 92 km, and today 110 km. It is pretty empowering to see these numbers that would have made me wince just last week. We now all have a much better sense of our bodies and our strength and how much we can accomplish in a day. When they announced at our last stop it was only another 12 km until our hotel, a cheer rose up because everyone saw that as being pretty light work of less than an hour! Tomorrow is going to be relatively light too – an easy, flat 83 km to Chiayi. But the day after that will be significantly more challenging – 130 km from Chiayi to Kaohsiung. And we haven’t even really started climbing the mountains. That will be Day 5 and 6 in Pingtung and to Zhiben (near Taitung).

Tonight, we stopped in Lukang, a small town near the coast which is just outside of Changhua. After dinner at our hotel, I went with some people from our lunch group (a woman from SF, her cousin from Toronto, and a couple from LA) to a nearby massage place. I got a 30-minute full body massage that focused on my lower body for just 399 NT (~13 USD). It was a lovely experience, and I now have many of the kinks in my spine worked out as well as some of the knots in my quads and hamstrings. It was such a good idea I’m thinking we should do it again tomorrow night!

For tomorrow, I want to remember to write about my new philosophy about climbing hills (and physics), our Giant tour guides, and accommodations in more detail! Maybe when I’m not scrambling to finish everything before getting to bed, but that’s not going to be tonight.

Around the island!

We’re returning to this blog with some exciting news. Connie, at least, is on the road again. Literally! This week, I am fulfilling a long-held dream of biking around the island nation of Taiwan. It’s spring break, and the weather is perfect – mid teens Celsius, nothing above 70 degrees. Steve’s going to take some more convincing that a 9-day bike trip with more than 100 kilometers a day is what he really wants to do, but even though I’ve never done a multiple-day bike trip before, I jumped in head first as I do with so much. You decide whether that’s a good thing or not.

Day 1/9: Taipei to Hsinchu (91 km)

This morning, I woke up right before 6 am, and we brought me in full riding gear and my luggage to Songshan train station. I arrived just after 7 am to greet 49 fellow riders and our crew, the Giant Bicycles Travel Agency. Giant is a Taiwanese company that is known the world over for their excellent bikes, and in Taiwan, they also run a travel agency which brings bike riding and touring trips to an art. We’re going around the island counter clock-wise, and in nine days, will rack up more than 950 kilometers. Meep.

So it’s been a long day, because I’m typing this at 10 pm. I feel less tired than I should be (especially in my legs), but I think that’s mostly because it’ll kick in all the next day. At times, I felt incredibly happy because I was flying along in the wind, reaching speeds of up to 35 or 40 km an hour, but when we reached the two hills that we climbed today, I felt like I wanted to die. So there have been ups and downs, literally though not accordingly. We made multiple rest-stops, one after the first hill where we met a local park dog who wagged his tail very hard when he saw our white van. Our driver told us that he’s excited to see the group every single week. After all, Giant runs this tour starting pretty much every single Saturday. I felt so humbled thinking about all the people who have gone around the island, and some of the folks on our tour have done it multiple times before. It makes me feel like I’m part of something bigger and makes it feel not as hard as it could be.

We took roads to Dadaocheng where we met the river, and biked on river paths until we got to Sanxia. The riverside paths were nice, but the roads were not as scary as I felt, because we have so many people with us – the drivers are on high alert the whole time they’re going past. For lunch we stopped at a fish restaurant, which kept live fish in concrete tanks near the parking lot, and they served us fish soup, fried fish, broiled fish, and fish fillets, and I’m sure I’m missing something else. There was exactly one dish of cabbages. Sounds like a pescatarian-specific meal? The fellow rider I got to know best (and sat next to during lunch) was Debbie, a Scottish lady with an accent so heavy that I initially thought she was from Eastern Europe or something of the sort. But no, she just grew up in Glasgow, and is now living in Beijing these days. I also met a trio of adult siblings from California by way of Hong Kong, a Canadian from Toronto who bubbled over with good cheer, as well as a couple from Los Angeles who were intending originally to go on a scooter trip around the island. And our table was rounded out by two Taiwanese people who mostly watched the entire lunchtime proceedings with bemusement as they had accidentally sat with the English table. That was pretty funny.

When Steve asked how the trip was going, I told him it was going to be easier and harder than I imagined. The reason why it’s easier is that Erin was right: when you have the right bike, you can go faster than 25 km/ an hour with no issue on flat ground. She gave me a lot of advice beforehand, and this is proving to be true! We’re on the rental bike Giant Rapid, which has 27 gears and probably only weighs 4 kg overall. It’s incredibly light. On the other hand, hills and mountains are pretty dreadful. I have never been forced to go up a gradual incline for as long as 7 km, and I’m sure it’s not going to be the hardest hill we encounter. Both times I was climbing hills, my chain actually slipped off, and I got some grease in my nails and hands trying to put that back together. I also end up at the back of the pack, and it’s still a work-in-progress to understand how all of this gear shifting and stuff works.

When we came flying down the second hill, we went past a number of beautiful rice paddies. The same slope that we were flying down made it naturally easy to irrigate these paddies, with the water from the higher ones flowing into the lower ones. I have no idea what time it is in the rice growing season here, but it looked green and fertile and very bucolic. The countryside was great, because there was very little going on. Our last stop, we had about 17 km before we got to our hotel in Hsinchu, and it took more than an hour because we struggled with lights and traffic the whole way. When we were heading out of Taipei, a woman on a scooter actually told the lady sitting sitting next to me at a stoplight that it was much safer to be riding on the riverside and that we should not do the roads. I wish I could see that woman’s face when we get on the freeway in the next few days! Not to end on a super sad note, but we saw a cat that had been hit by a car. Someone actually moved it off the road right before we went past, which I appreciate, but it was sad. RIght after that, we passed seemingly dozens of pet stores, juxtaposing scenery filled with brightly colored signs, lights, and food. It made me feel like it’s all too easy to become a casualty of the roadside yourself.

Enough thoughts. It’s time to get to bed. Morning call is at 6 am, and we will be off to Chiayi before I know it. More missives from the road to come.

P.S. I forgot to add that when I arrived in Hsinchu, Steve informed me I had forgotten my glasses in Taipei, so I had the singular pleasure of shopping for new frames and getting a new prescription and buying new glasses from Lohas Glasses in Hsinchu. Let’s put that in the unexpected expenses column, shall we? (On the bright side, they are cute, have red arms, and were my first pair of new glasses in like 6 years. Also, they were completed in half an hour.)

I want to write about running.

This is a travel blog, but sometimes, all the travel I do is around a park. I run the entire circumference of a park, about 750 meters, six times twice a week. For people keeping track at home, that’s 4.5 kilometers, just shy of 3 miles. It’s the “winter” in Taiwan, so I have a routine. On Mondays and Wednesdays when I get home from work, I put on a long-sleeved shirt, socks, sometimes gloves, and a headband that covers my ears, and place a few napkins into my pockets so I can blow my nose on my run. I plug in my headphones and head out to the park four blocks from home. For almost forty minutes, I dodge slow grandmas, people on their bikes, far too many people who can’t be bothered to look up from their phone, dogs, and the occasional corner vendor. Once or twice, I’ve even tripped and nearly fallen on my face. Occasionally, I hate running. Frequently, I think about skipping it. But the general trend is that I’ve come to like this ritual more and more for the endorphins afterwards, and for what it has helped me learn about myself.  Continue reading I want to write about running.

A place to call our own.

Over the last few weeks, we have trekked all over this city to look at potential housing, endured the rollercoaster of emotions associated with finding and deciding on apartments, and begun to shop for and clean up our new place. It has been such a long process, and we’re so ready for a rest that we welcomed this news of a super-typhoon hitting Taiwan with open arms.

Why? Because typhoons are to Taiwan what hurricanes and nor’easters are to the East Coast. Sure, they can wreak some havoc, down power lines and cause damage to roads, but casualties are usually minimal. The solution is usually to go home early, pick up extra food and water and batteries at the supermarket, and hunker down for a day. Perfect for two people who really just need to get a bit more sleep than we have been! I don’t mean to take the weather too lightly. Typhoons can be destructive, and living on the 11th floor of an apartment building certainly means that we are not vulnerable to flooding in the same way that other people are. Rural areas have been warned of flash floods and mudslides that can be deadly. But given what we’ve been told to do by locals, dealing with a hazardous weather condition sounds like a breeze (pun intended) compared to what we’ve been through most recently.

We had the most grueling apartment search either of us has ever endured. I would not wish this on anyone. When we were done, I counted up all the appointments on my Google Calendar, and found that we had seen twenty-four apartments in Taipei over the span of almost two weeks. We saw places that were too small, too big (though Steve would dispute that), too high up of a walk, too dark, too pricey (frequently), too far away from public transit, too whatever. We met landlords who were usually quite honest and frank, brokers who were usually eager to please but obsessed with getting their fee, and even a few people who lied to our faces. We debated and argued and pled endlessly with each other over countless meals and drinks about what was better or worse about one apartment versus another, how high of a rent we could really afford, how much furniture we would need to buy, and whether it was important or not for us to be close to a supermarket and a MRT stop that would get me to work within half an hour. We made multiple spreadsheets in Google Sheets and on Steve’s notebook, and created decision matrices that awarded points on the basis of location, space, and building amenities, and then scrapped the whole thing. Twice. It was a shopping and comparison nightmare, compounded by the language barrier, communication issues between brokers and landlords, attempts to bargain, and the fact that Taipei is simply a fast-moving housing market where apartments are rented within hours, not days. Several times, we got our hopes up, after seeing a wonderful place, but were turned down for one reason or another.  I found myself thinking about the housing  policy module I took this spring, and how public housing design and the Housing First movement to end homelessness have been informed by people’s feelings about home – it is intensely personal, a part of your identity, and sometimes defies reason. We found ourselves driven crazy by this drawn-out search process, with our emotions were on a constant roller coaster. I was never sure about how I felt about a place, and felt like I was incapable of making a solid decision that was not emotionally charged and apt to change.

So even when we finally signed this place, and the landlords walked out, leaving us with the key and the lease, I found myself the victim of unaccountable, rising panic that we had made some sort of terrible mistake. I had felt it twice already during the search, when we were on the verge of committing to a place. Since we moved in three days ago, that panic has subsided, tempered by the mundane issues of having to scrub a place out, and the joy of buying new clean things that we can use and enjoy, like IKEA pillows and comforters, a computer chair, a water kettle, and closet organizers. I just feel so much more normal now, which is a solid relief. And the place has turned out to be somewhat of a dear (at least to me), so it’s not so bad.

We ended up finding ourselves a small apartment, that can either be defined as a one-bedroom or a studio. The living room has a small kitchen, full-size fridge, and a two-person brown couch. The two other spaces are a bedroom, separated by a sliding door, and a study area, which can also be separated from the living room by a set of sliding doors. It has a distinctly Japanese aesthetic – the bedroom and study area have a common floorboard that is lifted up from the living room. We have a magnificent view of the buildings behind us, a hodgepodge of smaller, traditional Taiwanese houses and buildings and back alleys, shored up by larger, newer apartment buildings, and beyond that, the shadowy beginnings of Yangmingshan, the mountain to the north of Taipei. Our building is residential, but also home to a number of companies and oddly enough, churches and religious organizations. There’s a neon cross on the outside of our building, and on Sunday morning, when we first visited, there were several foreigners of different countries and ethnicities walking around, speaking a lot of accented English. We are just north of Zhongshan station, in an area that we are learning is full of stores, restaurants, and shops that cater to a profusion of Japanese tourists. We are working on cleaning the apartment (still not done after three days), buying the little furniture that is necessary to furnish it, and learning how to work it (this washing machine is going to take some time). But in my opinion, this apartment does what we need it to do. It’s a quiet place for us to stay and bring Stella eventually, it is well-located within the city, with a lot of bustle and interesting things just a few minutes away, and it provides a space for Steve to work, and for us to host friends if they eventually come to visit us. It will take us a bit more time to get it shipshape and picture-worthy, as both of us are horrified by whoever used to live here and their cleaning habits. But most of all, I fall asleep these days being profoundly thankful that our lives are returning to normal, Steve and I are beginning our work processes, and that we have a permanent roof over our heads as the storm is about to break.

Next time, more about my new job and other fun things in Taipei!

Connie

Apartment searching in Taipei and counting unhatched poultry.

Tomorrow night, we will have been in Taipei for a week, and what a tiring and long week it has been. We have been occupied with trying to meet people at my new workplace, putting Steve’s computer back together, taking care of business from home in Boston and Greenville, and above all, the apartment search that has sent Steve and me criss-crossing this bustling, humid city.

Today, the apartment search may have ended. I say may have, because our application for a spot hasn’t been accepted yet, but the broker said he would inform us tomorrow, and to make sure we were ready to submit our deposit and sign a lease. In some ways, it certainly has – we’ve found a place that finally checks all our boxes, and is even within our price range. It’s near Da’an Forest Park, the biggest, most wonderful park in Taipei, and nearly next door to a Wellcome grocery store and a post office and walking distance of several delicious night markets. It’s a quietly appointed, gorgeous apartment with a study for Steve and comes nearly entirely furnished. We are most definitely counting this chicken before it hatches, but having seen more than ten apartments over the last week, we are more than aware of the range of possibilities, and we’re ready to call it quits because this is definitely one of the best. Here’s to hoping we get a positive response tomorrow!!!

Excitingly enough, I’ve also been meeting people at my new workplace! I visited on Friday to say hi to everyone, and briefly meet with our CEO. I got the grand tour (okay, really a small tour) of the facility – there is a large common room, three other rooms used as separate meeting rooms, a kitchen with plenty of coffee, and even a ping-pong table. Yep, I’m joining the start-up world. That ping-pong table is a dead giveaway. I’m also starting to have lunch with people to learn more about them and to help me hit the ground running when I start next Monday. That’s right, my first day of work here in Taiwan will be Monday, July 4. That’s what happens when you’re the only American working at a company in Taiwan: nobody thinks there’s anything special about July 4. It’s kind of refreshing for a change.

What’s on my mind is all these mundane things like searching for apartments and starting a new job, but underneath it all is a bit of quiet wonder and appreciation for the fact that we’re in Taiwan again, and this time for a long haul. There’s not a real rush to see everything, in recognition of the fact that we will make it to X restaurant or Y temple at some point. I can recognize ads for events and music festivals on the MRT, and pencil it in on our calendar, because we’ll be here several months from now! It is so special to be here in Taipei, but it is also real life, not vacation. In recognition of that, I’ve started running again every other day, along the riverbank nearby and hopefully soon, around Da’an Forest Park.

Steve has promised (!!!) to write an entry soon about what he’s been doing here, so I’ll leave it up to him. Otherwise, the world will just never hear about what he’s up to. Oh, well.

More to come tomorrow!
Connie

Hello, goodbye, Taipei.

Tomorrow is our last day in Taipei and Taiwan! Steve and I have stretched our 90-day visa-free entrance stamps to the limit, but tomorrow, we board a plane for Hong Kong, and get to hang out in Hong Kong for four more days before finally leaving Asia for the summer. When we first came here for the summer, Taichung seemed strange and made me feel lonely and homesick, but within a week, everything clicked into place. Since then, living here has felt so natural, so nice. Especially being back in Taipei this week, I take the MRT here for granted, being able to zip back and forth through the city in shiny subway cars and ferried through in relative cool A/C. Being able to take a look around at any intersection and find three convenience stores where I can get my fix of tea drinks or cheap sandwiches. When I walk down the street, looking for scooters and cars roaring by has become second nature. Being able to walk everywhere with a beer in hand, having stinky tofu right around the corner at any one of five night markets in a city (okay that’s just me), and cooing at people’s long-haired dachshunds, which is a definite trend in pets here. I mean, the list literally goes on and on. Steve and I will miss Taiwan severely when we leave this summer.

We’ve had a great time this past week in Taipei, staying with Kara and Ken who have been such helpful and gracious hosts! On Saturday, we climbed Yangmingshan together with their friend Eric, a native Taiwanese, and had a great time. On Sunday, Steve and I visited the Taipei Zoo where they have raccoons (yes, raccoons behind bars) and also climbed Elephant Mountain to watch the sunset silhouetted by the Taipei 101 Tower. Yesterday, Steve coded and Ken went to work while Kara and I walked along the lovely riverside park they live near, and bought some fun summer dresses at Gongguan near National Taiwan University. And today, we visited Yongle fabric market and goggled over fun patterns and gorgeous bolts of cloth. Steve and I also took time in the morning to go see Yehliu Geology Park to the northwest of Taipei near Keelung, which my mom had recommended. It was all gorgeous, and we’re a little exhausted from all our travels and explorations. We nearly haven’t enough energy left to see Hong Kong, and miss our dog and a stable lifestyle not a little bit.

I think it’s fair to say at this point that we will be back. Eventually, this blog will become a chronicle of our time living in Taiwan, which would be really nice and different. =) Our hope is that next summer, after I graduate with my master’s degree, we will move to Taipei and find jobs here for both of us. While I don’t know how long that will be for, what’s certain is that this is a wonderful country with a great culture, environment, climate, and excellent cost of living that we would love to be a part of. Goodbye isn’t really goodbye, Taiwan. We’ll miss those hot pots and teas for the year, but come next summer, we’re planning on being here again. See you then!

Connie