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. 

Day 2: Sun Moon Lake to Ching Jing (83kms)

It would be an understatement to say that this day caught the both of us off guard. I know I haven't trained as much as should have but the mountains proved to be much more than we could have anticipated. I'm really glad we arrived and made it to our inn. 

The morning started out beautifully. We woke up at 6:30 with the goal of starting our ride at 8. We had a quick complimentary breakfast from our inn. Then we set off to ride the first 33kms around the lake. 

The first bit of our ride was quite easy, with a bit of a climb at the beginning but easy riding downhill for most. I think we averaged around 22kph around the lake. The scenery was so beautiful. We truly have an amazing Creator God who made all this. 

After circling the lake we stopped in Puli for lunch. We had a big roast chicken meal. The food was really quite good- or we were just extra hungry. 

The ride from Puli to Ching Jing was the worst. We were in high spirits though and were quite oblivious to what lay ahead (in hindsight I'm glad dad didn't tell me or I would've quit). We had 30 or so kms uphill climbing around 600 meters. Most of this journey wasn't as scenic as the morning. It was mostly just mountain passes with bendy roads beside barriered cliffs. It was a lot like the Sea to Sky highway from Vancouver to Whistler. 

The ride was gruelling to say the least. Our pace slowed to about 8kph on most parts. It was a lot of 'just get to the next bend' and 'our meal at the end will be worth this pain'. We stopped many times along the way to catch our breath and for dad to update his Facebook status. Here are a couple shots:

One of my goals this trip is to glean wisdom from my dad and I have a list of life lessons I want to ask him about. During the ride I asked him what motivated him to endure these arduous rides (he had spent a month riding in the Himilayas in September). He said if you go slowly and steadily you're bound to get to where you're heading. He also said that he often sees the journey itself not as the necessary evil to get to an end but part of the experience. It made me think a lot about my own spiritual journey. We often prize the speed in which we arrive at our spiritual destinations/maturity but forget that our journey takes the conviction to plod ahead each step at a time. May we be encouraged to see our trek as not a race but also an experience, for pain is part of our growth in the journey heavenward.

Dad pointing to Ching Jing, our destination. 

I think after 30 kms of uphill we finally couldn't ride any longer. The sun had set and my knee was locking up from all the climbing. We had a meal at a roadside noodle place and started just pushing our bikes up. What I thought would be about 30 minutes turned into 2 hours. Much of the time was spent in silence just trudging on. We had started at 8 and were nearing 12 hours on the road. I did manage to ask dad what his highlight of the day was and he replied with his usual contemplative optimism, "the scenery from this morning and spending time with you. It's not everyday you get to do stuff like this with your son." And at that moment I already knew that our journey to Taiwan was worth it. Whether my knee can handle another hill or not won't matter. It is indeed about the experience and not the destination. It's about the growth, the pain, the lessons and most of all- the company you travel with. 

Day 3: ChingJing to Hehuan Mountain

Today was a God-ordained day. Everything that happened was sovereignly appointed by the Lord. I'm so encouraged to see God's hand and presence and even more encouraged to see God affirm our plans to serve in Taiwan in August. 

Last night we barely got to town in Chingjing at 8pm. I started getting the shakes because the inn was so cold. Then in the middle of the night I broke out in sweats and thought I would get sick on just our second day. I had to change twice because my clothes were soaked through. 

Well this morning I woke up I felt fine. Praise God! We took a look out the window at the gorgeous view we didn't have a chance to see the night before. It was a precursor to all the wonderful things we'd experience today. 

We decided that because of my knee I shouldn't risk injuring it more on another ascent so I would hire a driver to meet dad at the next destination, HeHuan Mountain. He would take the mountain bike I had been riding and I'd transport his road bike up to the next hotel. Turned out to be a God thing. More on that in a sec. 

But before dad and I would split up for the day, we wanted to visit the ChingJing Farm together, famous for its mountain-top sheep grazing areas. 

So at first, nothing special happened, we fed some sheep, took pictures. Dad was getting ready to leave when we walked up to a gazebo to take a few final pictures. We asked a nearby man, who was resting in the gazebo with his family, to take our picture. 

Dad chatted with the guy as is his usual custom while I sat quietly on the side listening. After a few minutes, dad said his goodbye and got up to leave but turned to ask to take one final picture with the family (I found out later that he was prompted by the Holy Spirit). Not much out of the ordinary but here comes the cool part.

After dad left, the man and his family started talking to me. At first I got really scared because my mandarin is quite terrible, but then I started to understand more or less what they were saying. They asked about the usual stuff, age, work, marital status and how long I was staying for. I mentioned that my wife and I would be coming to Taiwan again in August for a half-year stay. 

"Where will you be staying?" they asked.

"Puli... er... I think it's Puli or Puxi. I don't know how to say it." I replied. 

"Puxi?! By Chiayi? That's where she works," the man said pointing at his wife.

"Yes... yes, I remember it's near Chiayi. All I know is that it's a small place. It's got around 35,000 people," I said. 

"So what will you be doing there for half a year?" they inquired.

At this point I started stammering because I couldn't think of the word for mission work and I didn't want them to think I was coming to Taiwan to prostlyze so I told them we were taking a break from work to visit and reflect on life. I told them that all I knew was that we were going to hosted by a family by the name of Chen. 

"Chen? Is your Chen a Mu Si (a pastor)?" they asked. 

At this, my eyes widened at I got goosebumps. "Yes! Yes! He's a Mu Si and he has a teenage daughter and they're from Australia." 

It turns out the wife works RIGHT beside where our host missionary family stay and they know each other. The family I had been chatting with for 20 minutes now were Chrisitans and live in Chiayi, a neighbouring city to where we will stay in August. It is so crazy that of all the days I had to take a break from biking and laze around a farm, it would be today, and of all the places on the farm to stop, we stopped at this gazebo, and of all the people I would have the courage to converse with it would be this family. Through them I am affirmed that God really does want Michelle and me to come to Taiwan. How else can you explain such coincidence?

The family invited me to lunch on the farm with them and I hung out with them for a while before they dropped me off at the inn in time for my taxi ride. Still marvelling at this, I frantically tried to type down all that happened on the taxi ride to the next stop. 

Dad had mentioned before to be on the lookout for him so on the ride up the mountains I was occasionally glancing out the window while still typing when we passed by a cyclist. At first I didn't think it was dad because the cyclist was wearing this ugly polka-dotted shirt. But upon closer inspection it was dad. Happy to see him, I jumped out to greet him. 

Dad had ridden for 4 hours uphill for 11km. Man, I was so proud of him. 

The driver suggested that we meet day again a few kms up the mountain where there would be a much nicer view. But for now she would drive me to the inn first to get check in. The next time we saw dad, he was at this checkpoint:

The view: 

I asked dad how the ride was and he said that it was difficult. He said that on the ride up he kept thinking about yesterday's ride and how we should have split it into two days instead of attempting it all at once. But it was all a part of God's will that I got injured because that freed up the mountain bike that I was riding so he could use it to climb today. If I hadn't gotten hurt, neither of us would have been able to ride up the mountain today. It's so amazing to see God work in such divine ways. 

I'm reminded of the familiar passage in Romans 8 when Paul talks about our trials. And though an IT band injury is certainly not a trial of faith that would test one's spiritual outlook, his words still ring true. 

"And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28 ESV)"

I can't help but sense that God is piecing together all things- good or seemingly bad- to work together this life He's called us to. Hope this encourages you in your own spiritual walk. God IS at work in your life. You may not see it this day, but one day He will bring it together for good.

Blessings. 

Day 1: Biking in Taiwan

Our day started off early at 5:30 as dad had asked me to be at the airport by 6:30 for our 9:00 flight. Dad actually arrived late himself as the van that was supposed to pick him and the bikes up flaked out. But it didn't matter in the end as our flight was delayed anyways. We ended up sitting in the lounge for a few hours. Dad read the newspaper and I studied my Chinese. 

After a few hours dad went to check the flight statuses and came back to say that our flight had been delayed again so we should just continue eating and stuffing our faces. But after another hour of that we just decided to walk over to the gate to be "early" just in case. Well, wouldn't you know it, as we glanced at the board we found out that our flight wasn't actually delayed a second time- it was actually leaving in 5 minutes. So we made a mad dash for the gate and got there just in time. 

So in all, we arrived in Taipei around 2.5 hours late but we made up for it in the commute to Sun Moon Lake (mid-Taiwan). 

We got here and I realized that I severely under-packed. Dad had gone through the packing list with me and warned me not to pack too much. I had taken his advice quite literally so when he didn't mention to bring shorts, I didn't. So I guess I'll be sharing a bed with dad in boxers.

Checked into an awesome hotel- it'll probably be the best one this trip and walked around the Main Street to eat dinner. We chatted with a friendly restaurant owner and fruit stall lady. It's a nice quaint little town. 

So we are back at the hotel now eating fruit we bought at the stall. There's some really funky stuff that I don't even know the names for. They probably don't even have English names. 

We're going to start assembling the bikes soon but dad's on Facebook again. I guess it's not a rush because we have a few more hours. So far it's been a really good start having some good conversations with dad. Looking forward to tomorrow as we'll start riding. 

That's all for now.