Taiwan (Part 1): Not Love at First Sight (Taipei to Taitung)

Taiwan wasn’t love at first sight. It started with our arrival to Taoyuan Airport. A bus took us from the plane to the terminal. But it took a roundabout route that passed through a series of dilapidated buildings. A taxi then took us from the airport to our Warm Showers host in the outskirts of Taoyuan. It was in an industrial wasteland, ugly, and with no shops or restaurants in sight. Looking for something to eat for lunch involved a long walk on the road that ended at the 7-Eleven. We did find a coffee shop that had tasty Australian Meat Pies. They were rather good, but that wasn’t exactly Taiwan…

Perhaps it was also due to us arriving to Taiwan after traveling in Japan for six weeks. On our arrival to Taiwan, we kept noticing how busy, noisy, and chaotic everything was. No sidewalks. Lots of motorbikes everywhere. Pushy drivers that seem out to get you. The smell of sewage, and similarly – stinky tofu (more on that in a moment) everywhere. A place where the locals won’t drink the water. Lots of ugly buildings, and streets… Not exactly worthy of a postcard home.

Another surprise was that despite reading countless articles about how amazing Taiwan is for cycling, the first half of our trip seemed to be trying repeatedly to convince us that that isn’t the case… Mandatory double highway sections with no bike paths in sight and a national bike route that hugs the main roads didn’t leave us with such a good impression (but this would change drastically as the trip unfolded).

Then there was the stinky tofu incident. I had read that stinky tofu (yes, that’s what it’s called!) is one of the national dishes of Taiwan, and was pretty stoked to try it out. On our walk back to our host in Taoyuan we passed by a tofu factory. The workers were packaging bright orange bricks of tofu that were dazzling to the eye. Luckily a student from San Francisco was working there for a few months to learn the secrets of tofu, so we could communicate using more than our usual hand gestures. He promised that if we cooked it the way he told us, it wouldn’t stink. He lied… We headed back to our host’s place with a large bag of the stinky tofu, and I did just as he said, and it still smelled of sewage. In fact, by the time I was done, the whole kitchen smelled of sewage. I’m not exaggerating here. We threw out the tofu and I had to scrub down the kitchen. So far for day 1 in Taiwan.

Gradually, we started noticing some nice things too. Suddenly we could easily get papayas, dragon fruit, and custard apple, and it was all very fresh and soooo sweet. The food was very tasty and dirt cheap – dimsum, beef noodles, and our newly found favourite, dan bing, fried and filled flaky pastry. Cycling from Taoyuan and across Taipei took us past colourful temples covered with dragons, and along lovely cycling paths all the way to our next Warm Showers host.

Flora and Peter were wonderful hosts, who even gave up their room for us. Their room had a half a wall full of drawers full of Lego, all sorted by shape and colour. I had never seen so much Lego. Our kids had fun playing with their kids’ toys, and their bullet train set was an instant success with Neil, of course. Flora cooked us wonderfully colourful breakfasts and dinners, all served in trays with multiple compartments. We couldn’t understand how she has so much energy, to cook full meals after her “short” work day of 11 hours.

We used our time in Taipei to replace some of the trip’s casualties. These included two pairs of sandals (mine and Maya’s) most of the kids’ pants (full of holes), our camera (!), and my bike shorts. Taipei is a huge city, but it’s so easy to get around with the metro that it’s easy to forget how big it is. Rush hour on the metro is a good reminder though…

Then there were the trains. As I mentioned before, we figured out quickly that Taipei is HUGE and the conclusion was that we’d rather not cycle out of it. But how to get out of there? This stymied us for a while, but then I remembered that I had read that it is possible to send assembled bikes on a cargo train, cheaply and easily. It sounded like… a dream. We headed over to the baggage office and deposited our bikes, trailer, and most of our gear with them. At that point I think we were unsure if we would ever see it all again. This freed us to take the bullet train, which is fast and cheap, and then a local train, right to southern Taiwan. The next day we headed to the train station in Chaozhou to pick up our gear, and there it was, in perfect condition. At that point, we were starting to warm up to Taiwan.

We also had our first encounter with some of the wonderful Taiwanese baked goods. At the main train station in Taipei there’s a little place called Uncle Tetsu, where they keep baking cheese cakes and boxing them, still piping hot, so you can grab one on the way to the train – genius! We bought one to enjoy on the bullet train, which washed down our beef soup nicely. But whose idea was it to get takeaway soup to eat on the train anyway?!

Then I found out about the chocolate. You see, southern Taiwan is warm enough to grow cacao beans, and there are several bean to bar factories. As a self professed chocoholic, I had to check this out… At both Cocosun and FuWan, two chocolate factories, we got a tour from the owners and then sampled their chocolate and ice cream. For some reason the chocolate was insanely expensive, but it was still fun to get reacquainted with the cacao fruit (it has a sweet pulp inside) and a good learning experience for Neil – to see where chocolate comes from.

When we arrived to southern Taiwan, it suddenly became hot and tropical. Riding along, we saw a lone iguana sunning by the road. Lunch was incredibly fresh sushi at the Donggang Fish Market. From there we caught a fast ferry to Liuqiu Island, AKA Turtle Island. With turtles everywhere and beautiful beaches, Taiwan just kept getting better. Our next stop was in Hengchun, where we stayed for five nights. With long beaches nearby, an awesome aquarium, the best dimsum we had on the trip, and a cute and for the most part private guesthouse, it was hard to leave. Perhaps we could learn to love Taiwan after all.

In Hengchun we met two other cycling families. The first was a family of five from Nelson BC, traveling on a tandem and a triple. We had actually met online on the forum of Crazy Guy on a Bike. It was fun to hang out with them at the beach, kind of like hanging out with friends. Then there was a family of three from Australia who shared our guesthouse with us. They were on a one year trip with their ten year old superhero who cycles 100km days, and their “rest days” involved surfing and rockclimbing.

Another surprise was the elementary schools, which quickly turned into our preferred and usual camping arrangement, and sometimes lunch stop. It was just so convenient – a playground for the kids to play at in the evening and morning, toilets, a large lawn to pitch our tent on, shelter from the rain, electricity to charge our devices, and often entertainment for the kids and us. Our first school experience was at a larger school with a running track that drew people well into the night. At 5:30am someone showed up to exercise and for some reason kept clapping his/her hands loudly. Then at 7am a horde of kids in cute turquoise uniforms showed up and enveloped us…

Cycling out of Hengchun took us up a small mountain road, into a lush and impossibly green forest, with monkeys, rain, and indigenous villages that seemed like the end of the road. From the summit a quick descent down a busy road got us back down to the coast, and to our lunch spot, a 7-Eleven. Taiwan is full of convenience stores, and stopping for lunch at one of them was a favourite of Neil’s since he often got a tasty egg sandwich or a hotdog, and papaya milk or an ice cream.

For a few days it rained, a lot. Neil didn’t seem to mind. In fact, it seemed like he was having more fun riding in the rain, since it allowed him to zoom through puddles at high speed. After the wonderful curvy road through the rain forest, we reached a main road with no shoulder and lots of traffic. Neil wanted to ride. We had to put our foot down. And use that lollypop I had been saving for just this kind of situation… That seemed to seal the deal.

In the evening we headed over to an elementary school, thinking we’d camp there as usual. Out of nowhere, the English teacher showed up, and told us that their school doesn’t allow it. But she also offered us something better – a night at their church. We had to backtrack to the previous town, but it was totally worth it. At the church we met part of their congregation, and got to play the drums for the first time. On the second floor they had a well equipped apartment and even a row of computers – a very limited commodity on this trip.

From there the road hugged the long and open coastline, but the wind was against us. In fact it was so strong, that we often seemed to slow down to a crawl. It was on this section that we met a couple that was walking around Taiwan, on the road. They had a stroller that they were pushing along, containing their gear. We’re still confused about what that was about. Anyway, the wind convinced us to take the train a short distance to Taitung, and rethink our original plan of cycling up the coast (and against the wind).

Our Couch Surfing host Shih-lung welcomed us with open arms. We felt pampered, with our own room and toilet on the third floor, and lovely treats for breakfast and dinner. Not only did he cook delicious food for us, he also enjoyed entertaining the kids every evening. Before we left he gave us a brand new pink blanket for Kai (so he wouldn’t get cold on the trip) and a small flashlight for Neil (so he’d keep safe). One evening we had to bike back to his place in the rain after it got dark, without our lights, and he was very worried about us (perhaps for good reason?).

With some rainy weather in the forecast, we decided to check out the (apparently) famous Taiwanese hot spring town of Zhiben. With countless pools at different temperatures, a water cannon, a foot bathing pool, and even an area for cooking food in heated hot spring water, we could have stayed the whole day. There’s something so relaxing about soaking in hot water, and it seems the Japanese, Koreans, and Taiwanese figured it out years ago, but North Americans are still lagging behind. 

After several rainy days in Taitung we headed to the train station and once again sent our bikes by cargo train, this time to Hualien. We had no idea that we were about to start the best part of the trip, and that we would soon discover why everyone keeps saying and writing that Taiwan is so great for cycling. The best was yet to come! Stay tuned for part 2…

Also check out:
Taiwan (Part 2): Love at Second Sight (Taitung to Taipei)