Day 8: Green Island

Today we were lucky enough to catch a boat ride into Green Island, one of the four outlying islands from Taiwan's mainland. It has majestic scenery, but also some dark memories as it served as an island concentration camp during the Taiwanese government's White Terror in the 1940's to the 1970's. The government hauled off anyone they deemed as communist sympathizers to be exiled here on this island. Some were executed here, while many others died from their stay. Because so many of the prisoners were educated, their interactions with the villagers actually blessed the community. They helped tutor the kids, build, and farm. Though theold camps from the White Terror don't exists anymore, the island and its people were forever shaped by the presence of the prisons. 

The prison complexes from a hilltop.

 A wall of the names of political prisoners sent to Green Island.

Sad three-footed Bambi. The island is famous for deer. 

Our host took us night-exploring looking for certain bugs and creatures. We saw some stick insects and some deer off in the mountains. 

I think Green Island is one of my highlights this trip. It's its own ecosystem apart from Taiwan. In many ways it's like a tropical island unscathed by civilization yet there are semblances of a history here that many would like to forget but can't. It is worth the visit of you are ever in the Taitung area.

Day 7: Onward to Taitung

So today was a much more successful day than yesterday. I was pretty down after a short ride and knee pain, but today proved to be a much better day. We rode around 80kms and arrived in Taitung by train after dinner. 

We started off the day with some hill climbs and a visit to the Tropic of Cancer monument near Ruisui. Nothing that special actually, but neat to think that we landed on some important arbitrary line drawn by geographers. 

Neat that on the way to Chihshang we saw a church. I've been surprised that I've seen at least a few churches along the way. I hope that they are thriving and will bless their communities

We arrived in Chihshang which is a town primarily famous for its rice and train station which was an important stop for refuelling train riders with lunches on their lengthy journies. This old restaurant is the most famous one at that, selling wooden lunch boxes to customers on the trains. 

After lunch we went on a "little" bike ride exploring the countryside. 

Our exploring actually took us to the next town where we took a train to Taitung. Glad our biking portion is over because I'm pretty tired of biking. But overall today was a great day and the most actual pedalling I've down since day 2. 

Taitung is rather small city. We had dinner at the night markets today. Other than that we haven't seen much. We will go to Green Island which is 45 mins off the coast. Will update more on that tomorrow. 

Day 6: Change of Plans

According to dad there's a Chinese proverb from Taiwan that says the road never changes, but people do. It's certainly been true on our trip thus far and will probably prove to be true in the few days to come.

I guess a bike trip doesn't really work when one's legs don't, and in my case, my bad knee has been really dampening our progress. The first 20 kms today felt great but the old problem came back and we were force to lodge early after riding only 40kms today. 

It's a disappointing day for me because I had high hopes that we would cover much of the 150kms left to Taitung, and this morning's weather was so ideal for making that distance. Now we're at Ruisui at a hotspring inn. I should be optimistic but I'm finding it hard. I need to remember that it's not about the destination but the journey to it. 

Dad's dropped his phone this morning and we later found that his camera is slightly broken. He's dealt with everything really well which is something I could learn. Maybe his broken phone will give us time for other things the next few days. 

So the plan is to ride another the next train station and get down to Taitung. Hopefully we will spend a few days exploring.

Because we got to our inn earlier in the afternoon we were able to visit a farm nearby. We had some neat snacks and saw ostriches. Who knew there were ostriches in these parts?

So 

I'll end off with a few photos:

The homestay from yesterday

A Betel nut stall along the road. I asked the lady whether I could try one (it's an addictive chewing tobacco-like plant) and she replied, "小朋友不好吃ah" which means "kids shouldn't eat this". So no betel nuts for me. 

Went to this famous ice cream place at Guangfu. 

Our hot spring inn at Ruisui

Ostriches. What's better than an ostrich? How bout none at all- those creepy creatures!

Gotta stay flexible tomorrow because the road won't bend for us, we'll need to move for it. 

Day 5: Rain, Pain, and the Killer Si Fu

Ok. Straight up reports today. No lesson or profound experience. Just lots or riding, lots of rain, and an unexpected healer who fixed the both of us up. 

After last night's jail stay we woke up this morning and realized the stay wasn't as bad as we had thought. I suppose the rain had painted everything a darker shade and put dad in a foul mood. With my knee hurting badly and 60kms before us, prospects weren't too good for a successful ride today. That's when dad had an ephipany. We would ride south instead of north to Taipei. We would hit Taitung and take a train up to Taipei and bypass the mountains. And guess where dad had this brilliant ephipany? That's right, in the jailcell toilet!

Turns out our stay was close to the sea and there were some nice views to be had. There were some nice rolling mountains and a rural village feel to the place that really started off our day serenely. 

We found the sea. It's by a place called Chisingtan (七皇潭) near Hualien. 

There are not a lot of photos of our ride south today because most of it was in the rain. We took lots of stops because of my knee including several stops at 7/11s which so conveniently line the main roads. 

The riding was mostly flat. On any given day most people should be able to average 30-40 kms on the road but we took much longer because of my gimp knee and the rain. We did get into the town where we're staying a lot earlier. I think it was four in the afternoon when we got into Fenglin. On arrival we were both sopping wet. 

Ahh, the blessing of today in an otherwise mundane day was that we landed in an awesome inn. After last night, this is such a blessing from the Lord. It's decorated as the classic Taiwanese BnB with the tackiness but friendly hospitality. The place is SO appropriately named Loveshouse. And here is Otto with a fitting amourous pose. 

Here's the bonus of the day: the host found us a neighbour who does Tui Na (Chinese massage). This guy was a killer. He bears the gifts of wisdom and pain. He also lectured me for drinking not enough water and too much beer. He also told me I had bad eyes and poor insides. I guess I'm going to die soon. Anyway, enjoy our grimace faces. 

He was so good one of my pant legs fell off. 

Here's our Si Fu. 

I'm not sure whether I like you or not, but thank you. We feel much better. 

Day 4: Foresight

Ok. Time to blog. I'll try to keep it short. 

Recap of the day: we descended from HeHuan Mountain and arrived in Hua Lian. It was around 120km and 3000 meters of descent. 

This morning we started off watching the sun rise at He Huan Mountain. I've always thought sunrises were overrated but that's because I'm not a morning person. This one was cool because I got to spend it with my dad on the trip and were doing this crazy biking thing. So it's sentimental I guess. 

Our descent started around 10. The ride was absolutely amazing. I think for around 2 hours I didn't have to pedal at all- which to me is the best part of cycling! It was literally all coasting and carving down the curved roads that hugged the mountainside. The view was also amazing. Imagine descending through a blanket of clouds and catching occasional glimpses of mountains peeking back at you while you try to not steer off into a ravine. Pretty fun stuff. 

So anyways the more memorable part of the day unfortunately wasn't the scenery but the fact that we got lost trying to find our inn. Well actually it's kind of Google's fault and partly Otto's fault, but basically the inn hadn't updated their address and instead of calling to check ahead of time, we just rode into Hua Lian thinking we knew where we were going. We spent an hour biking in the rain- from when the mountain pass ended and we reached town. It all ended in disappointment when we wound up in an alley lane and at a random guy's doorway. We then spent the next 30 minutes looking for a motel room but all were fully booked. There are no photos to commiserate this endeavor in the rain- only wet jackets :( 

Dad called the motel and they told us to cycle back to it's new location (I think just 20 km up the road) - and dad replied by asking them to pick us up. They couldn't do that as their car wouldn't fit us, but they offered to come and lead us to a nearby inn that they also own. 'Great!' we thought. At least we'll be out of the rain. 

Oh so naïve.

We followed the lady for a few blocks. A few blocks turned into a ride out of the town centre, and that turned into an excursion past the airport and to the sea-side. This is where we ended up- a jail cell on the 3rd floor of a beach-side 'house', except the 'house' part is loosely defined and subjective depending on whom you ask. 

We showered, for there was a shower! - and dried ourselves off with old clothing - for there were no towels. There were no restaurants nearby but we were lucky enough to dig up an old pizza from the freezer. Tonight's dinner is not the best, but we feast in gratitude. Kinda.  

During our ride, Dad had some words of wisdom to pass on to me. He said, "in life... there is no such thing as foresight. There is no 'if only I knew.' One has to go through experiences to truly learn," he counselled. 

Heh. How ironic that Dad got a little miffed when we got duped by the innkeeper. "If only I knew, I would've just stayed in the city and kept looking for a motel instead of coming to this hell-hole."

I can't say I really enjoy the room, the pizza, or the nasty neon-yellow sheets, but it is enough. I am happy that I'm out of the rain and not wrecking my knee pedalling a bike. And I'm also happy to experience all this firsthand because according to some, experience is the best teacher. 

Life lesson: Don't follow strange women into the dark on your bike. They will lead you into hell-holes.