Taiwan is one of the lesser visited countries in Asia (by Western tourists at least), but is blessed with stunning mountains, forests, hot springs and beaches. Luckily, due to not being as well known as say, Thailand or Borneo, its easy to get away from people on the weekends.
I’m here for a year, working my arse off in a job I’m not overly satisfied with, so try to get out of the city as much as possible. One of the (many) great things about Taiwan is that due to being a very well developed country, it has excellent roads for cycling – well maintained, and generally in good condition.
An example of a great road
Another handy thing about Taiwan (the land of convenience stores) is that it is home to Giant, the bike manufacturer. Giant offers a great service where you can hire a bike at any of its stores, along with lights, a lock, waterproof panniers and a bike computer, and then drop if off at another store, which makes it perfect for long distance cycling trips. We decided to cycle from Hualien, up on the East coast, down to Kenting, in the South. Our route would mostly take us along the coast, although we would cut inland through the mountains for part of it, with a distance of about 330km.
Although I seem to (falsely) give the impression of being somewhat sporty, I am by no means a cyclist! I would say this route is very accessible, as although we cycled on average 110km a day, you could take however long you wanted, and take very little stuff because there are plenty of cheap hotels along the way. I used to cycle a lot in Bristol, but only short commutes. In fact, I often used to struggle to get up Park Street, and I’m pretty wimpy when it comes to any kind of hill combined with wind/rain. However, after the first day I felt like I had got used to riding again and I didn’t find it too bad at all.
Feeling a bit ropey on the third morning, and dreading the thought of the mountains ahead.
On the first day of our trip, we arrived at the bike shop in Hualien and collected our bikes. We had been pretty busy up until this point, so hadn’t actually bothered to plan our route or buy a map. I didn’t have a cycle helmet either, and as Giant don’t hire them out, planned to buy one. However, I discovered I have a head the size of a pea, because despite being unable to squeeze myself into a size XXL swimming costume here, I was unable to find a helmet small enough to fit(including the childrens range). Well, we weren’t going to let either of those minor hiccups stand in our way, so merrily we set off peddling in what we assumed (successfully) was the right direction.
We headed southwards along the coast, and then the road took us inland through a long ass tunnel. The tunnel was not particularly great, as the traffic roared past and the tunnel seemed to stop the wind from passing through, which meant we were pretty hot and sweaty after only the first hour or so of riding. We carried on steadily climbing up for the next couple of hours or so, stopping fairly often under the pretence of taking photos/adjusting seat height etc, whereas actually I just wanted a little rest. We also had a very long lunch break in a place called Fongbin. We finally arrived at a rest stop at the top of a mountain, which had great views onto the valley below. The coast stretched out in front of us and we breathed in the fresh air, feeling pleased with ourselves.
We realised we were going at a fairly leisurely pace, what with all the photo stops and our 2 hour lunch break, so we needed to get a move on if we wanted to arrive somewhere before dark. We decided to aim for the fishing town of Chenggong, but in the end found a hotel on the road a few km before. We finished the first day riding for about 40 minutes in the dark, having clocked up 110km. We planned to get up early and continue to Ghiben, a town with some hot springs the next day. Unfortunately we were pretty sluggish the next morning, and after leaving later than planned, stopped after the first 20 minutes of riding in Chenggong for breakfast. My knee was killing me for some reason, so I was dosing up on Ibuprofen and tiger balm, while the others were having to put up with my poor attitude!
Riding out of Chenggong harbour
After our slow start, we successfully made it to Ghiben. We picked this next stop-off point because we wanted a shorter day (about 80km), as we were all feeling the effects of the day before, and we were very tempted by the idea of a long soak in a hot spring. We knew that the last day would be the longest and toughest day of riding, as we would leave the coast and head inland through the mountains to cut across the island, and we wanted to be well rested.
The last day was the most spectacular in terms of scenery, and we had all managed to find our cycling muscles where they had lain buried under layers of noodle/office induced fat. As we pedalled off up undulating roads in the rain, I remember thinking to myself “I feel like a superhero!!”.
A sweet-ass view
The route we chose involved about 2 or 3 hours of steady climbing onto the 199 road. Despite the hills, we all agreed it was the nicest road we’d ever ridden on. A cycling crew from Taipei whizzing round the island on carbon fibre bikes kindly slowed down to keep me company for a bit as I huffed and puffed my way along (the others were way ahead). We were rewarded when we reached the top with great views, and then a very quiet, smooth and shady glide down through the mountains.
The lovely 199 (on the way back down)
We successfully made it to Kenting just before dark, where we found another hotel for the night. Upon checking the location of the Giant shop, we realised that we had in fact overshot, and it was in Hengchun, the town before. We decided to stay the night in Kenting before heading back up the coast to Hengchun and then back home to Kaohsiung. Liam and Ralph decided to celebrate with a burger, while I wisely stuck to deep fried cheese sticks. The next day we returned our bikes successfully and headed home, with the intention of celebrating and savouring our last afternoon before going back to earth. We all felt pretty pleased with ourselves for coping so well with 330km of hilly riding in 3 days, without any prior training! Unfortunately pride comes before a fall, and the 2 lads were almost immediately struck down with violent food poisoning when we got home.
Overall, we had a great trip. Once you’re out of the cities, Taiwan is an excellent place for cycling, and cars/drivers are generally considerate with rallying shouts of “Jia-you” (which basically means “Keep going! You can do it!”). More posts to come soon from FARTS abroad!
Washed Up 