A BBQ on the Beach...

First, a touch of what we call home. These are the two views that we get from the roof of our appartment; top, the view west to the mountains and the bulk of Hualien City; bottom, the view east to the Pacific Ocean.

Friday, tearing home from work (stopping to get groceries and the ever necessary grill...) we got on the road early. Bikes saddled up, bags packed, and a burning urge for dinner in our bellies, we headed out to Chishingtan beach for a geurilla barbeque dinner. We got there in sunlight, and by 6:30 the dim light of the pressing evening allowed stars to poke out as the embers that cooked our feast burned away. Packing up in the stillness of the empty beach, we biked back to the city to venture off to a place that sells cold brews. What we got was warm beer and ice cubes....but what'er ya gonna do, eh?

Crystal packing the bikes up, yet again.

Crystal on the bike path along the coast, left, and the trail as it meanders into the forgotten forest near the beach, on the right.



After a short jaunt through the city streets, we were out in the less-ventured region of the bike trail and had our time with the buzzing cicadas as we pedaled north to the beach. Hualien City has done a huge service to its people by building such an awsome bike trail, and it actually connects to others in the neighbouring counties making one, almost continuous, bike path for most of the east coast. It dwindles south of Hualien, but there the roads can get so untraveled or curvy and cliffy that the cars are slow and the biking is nice. Canada can learn a lot from these trails....alot. Within a city so huge (by Canadian standards...well....PG size...) there is a high km count of trails for bikes or multi-purpose walking trails or scooter/bike lanes on major roads. If you need to get there, you can take your bike. And the road rules allow for it, the drivers expecting it.

Trevor on the cusp of the beach...pumped for some grilled mushrooms and green peppers and tofu and the sweet smell of calm. Crystal, on the right, biking along the approaching section.

Passing by the military camps, some active and some deactivated, the welcome mat is certainly not laid out. Unless the pervasive broken-bottle fence is a warm smile of a welcome....which I think, possibly, it is not... . Trevor, on the right, gazing out at the ocean in a, honestly, really, totally.....ok a little....posed picture.

Crystal de-biked and searching out our dinner spot. it is much steeper than it looks....getting to the beach below is actually quite a scramble. Short but steep....

So, we found a spot, dug a hole in the gravel and sand and tossed a flame to the charcoal (no wood around these parts...none....picked clean by those who fish its shores in the early morning). Gave the grill its proper home and let the veggies get themselves all nice and warm!

Starting the fire/bbq and a quick inspection of the fare.

Packed up after the sun set, we were full and eager for a drink. Biked back to town, drank our warm-ice-cube beer and called it a night (after an adventurous ordeal with an electronic dart game....one of the most confusing experiences of Taiwan!).

Saturday we were immobile in terms of "fun" stuff....met friends for lunch and did some errands in the afternoon. But Sunday....

Illegal Hikes of Taiwan: Part 3

It all started with a love (Taroko Gorge) and an unfinished task (to bike it)...

It coalesced into an idea and wicked ass trip to start the year. But that was not to be the highlight of the weekend....

What was to be said highlight, was another victorious journey into the world of illegitimate treks within the Taiwanese woods. The lush forests hold within them adventure and, with that as our desire, we stepped lightly past the sign warning of imminent doom and scored another notch on our illegal hiking belt.

But that was the secondary intent this weekend. Yeah, it gets confusing.

Properly, this was a bike trip. So often we have driven our scooter through the wonderous gorge that is Taroko National Park. Always aiming our way up and west, through towering walls of marble and ominous curves and overhangs and cliffs...making our way through the canyon to get somewhere else. To get to a hiking trail, to get to a campsite, to go beyond the park proper and to the backbone of Taiwan -HeHuan Mountain. So often the goal was to get through the park. This weekend, we aimed to live the gorge itself. To slow down, to pace ourselves more with the ticking clock of cicadas, running water and wind shuttering bamboo and stones against impenetrable walls of stone.

No more motors....this weekend we took to Taroko National Park, to ride the glorious Taroko Gorge, on our bikes.

Sign at the near side of the bridge that linked us to the trail (I believe it is the Wenshan Trail). Imminent death, doom, destrution, loss ot toenails is to be encountered if one passes... . But, as always in Taiwan, despite the frigid warning and the clearly enunciated fact that the trail was damaged, the trail was perfect.

Throught the gorge, to TienShiang Village. The end.....supposedly...but the road kept going, so we followed suit....

Us, loaded and ready to go on a sunny Friday afternoon!

Friday we shot ourselves out of the city, lone bikes along highways and sidestreets, to the trailhead, roadhead, of Taroko. Two hours, a coffee break and a few picture stops later we eased ourselves into the village of Taroko. From this village the road splits - north to Taipei (4 hour drive) or west to the park. We went west.

The many stages of leaving Hualien City; the inner city of cmall streets (but amazing views), the highway pass with endless cars and traffic confusion.

Then the main dividing point - the Airport. Outside the airport is this sign on the left, and the bulk of the traffic goes left, while we and the few spry adventurers go right. Here the traffic dies, and scenery gets ampified and the traveling is delightful....most of the time. To the right of me biking is the miltary airport. Hopefully more on that diddy later on in the year.

Crystal biking as the sun sets over the village of SanMing, one more village to go before the trailhead for Taroko National Park!

Crystal downing some delightful fare, washing it down with Taiwans finest brew and us standing by a relic of time lost in Taiwan. Not sure of the species or age or date of cutting, but this tree (it was real) was a memory from a bygone era prior to mass logging and the emancipation of large trees from Taiwan. Now there are many "big" trees left, dotted around the country, but this one would make most of them seem toothicky. Think Ancient Forest, only maybe one 'touch' larger. The mega-flora is gone mostly, but not forgotten.

Settling into an overpriced hostel room, locking our bikes in the foyer and hitting the road on foot we set out to find dinner. Fed, relaxed and aimless for the rest of the evening, we grabbed a few beers and scrambled to the roof of our hostel where we lounged and watched the evening slip in and erase the day.

Lest we forget....chinese-english. Direct translations are simply wonderful. This sign was placed lovingly above our hostel toilet. On the right, Trevor, moi, me, getting ready for the Saturday slog through the gorge.

Saturday morning, up at 6:30, we filled up on porridge and coffee and hit the road. The differences between driving and scootering - between what you see and experience in car and a scooter - are pronounced. A car shelters you form the weather, the sounds, the feeling of a place. the difference between scootering and biking is even more pronounced. Slowed down to a pace more subdued, everything becomes noticeable. Little is missed. The beauty of Taroko Gorge was amplified by our pace. The sky was clear, the heat was creeping up towards crazy, but as we pedaled our way along, passed by bus tour groups and cars intent on getting to the end of the gorge and back, we realized how much this pace fit us. The journey...its all about the journey...

Crystal at the enterance of Taroko Gorge. Through this little tunnel lies countless others, and the prettiest landscapes on Taiwan.

Pics of us along the way...Crystal entering yet another tunnel on the left, me taking a pause prior to another later on.

Photo op on the left, and the right - hot humid and loving it!

Landslides, large and small, plague Taroko Gorge, and it is not uncommon for stretches to be clean and clear of any debris, followed by stretche of fallen brash, mud, rocks, anything (shoes, gloves, animals, tape, roots, trees, mountains, parts of mountains.....). On the left is one such section, not too bad, but I would not have wanted to be there when that debris came down. On the right, us taking a break and celebrating an "almost there" moment.

Ok, the short version. People in Taiwan love to go on tours. Independant travel, exploration, anything of the sort is out of the question. So, they sign up on a tour, sit on a bus and sleepily weave their way through all the sights across Taiwan, get off, take a picture, get back on the bus, get off, buy some loal cake or candy, get back on the bus and go home. They "do" nothing. They like to "view"...to see, but not to do. There are excetions, of course, but here our bikes tell the tale of two explorers among a cast of sordid bus-travel tour groups.

Arriving, finally, at TienShiang (the formal end of Taroko Gorge), we were faced with the hardest part of the trip...a 30m uphill climb to get to our hostel. hearts pounding out of our chests and breaths loud enough to wake a dying hippo, we pulled into the hostel. The end.

This picture was actually taken in the morning. Fogot to take it the afternoon we arrived...I guess our bodies were more focused on oxygen and water and less on photography.

To our room....unpack and right back on the bikes. Without our loaded packs, they were a little lighter and much more enjoyable! Our goal was to continue up the gorge past the village proper and make it up to a nice lookout. However, curiosity got the best of us when we came across suspension bridge and the ominous sign that taunted us openly. Trail closed ("danger, do not use....you will die if you go past this sign").

Decision made. Bike trip turns to bike trip and a hike trip. So, we crossed the bridge, hid our bikes around the corner and locked them up. Tossed water and a few snacks into my daypack and hit the trail.....looking for the certain death that was to face us.

Above and below: Hiking alone the trail. In the upper right picture you can see the bridge we originally crossed to get on the trail (you'll want to click on it and make it biggified!) and the roadway through the gorge. Bottom left, an elephant-bee....or some other biological oddity. The nose (proboscis) did a little wavy-dance continuously that made it look like a drunk elephant trying to beat a monkey with a wet feather. Seriously.

What we did not face - death - was a pleasure. What we did face - a lovely trail that gave us a workout we both were not ready for, stunning views, cliffside traverses and a few barking deer (many heard, one we saw) and the fricking crazy-assed biggest snake I had ever seen in my life. Im going to cut down my original estimate - the old fishing story routine of exaggerating everything - and try to guess its size on the lower end. It was, no fooling, at least 2m long and a good 5cm thick. To come across this, bright yellow stripes on a brown and black body, and be a single step away from it, was heart stopping. I have no real love for snakes, I mean I like them biologically, but Im not an eager snake-love. Not knowing if this critter was going to lunge and bite me (too big to be poisonous, I reasoned) or to try to strangle me (perfect size to be a consrictor, I feared), I ran back down the trail a few leaps to where Crystal was, threw off my bag, unleased my camera and - gaining composure - rounded the corner to try to get a picture. As I got back to it, all I saw was its body slowly slitering back into the brush...without even realizing that I shouldpoint and click my camera. Was it gone? A few thrown stones and some dirt kicked in the direction it fled assured me that ...um...it was probably gone. Gone enough that we could pass it without concern. Too big to be poisonous, anyway. Right? Still have not ID'd it but the reasoning seems to hold true.

After the hike that was both beautiful, scary, and ass-kicking, we hobbled back onto our bikes and rode the lovely downhill ride back to the hostel (we walked our bikes up the hostel road this time!). To dinner. Bamboo rice, some veggies and bamboo itself. A wonderful meal to end a wonderful day. Legs beyond sore, bodies frail with aches and sweat-infested itchy scratches and a rank smell emminating frm our single set of clothes, we called it a night. After a few rounds of cards and some peanuts we hit the sack just shy of 9:30pm.

Awaking to a cloudless sky, a roasting sun and the promise of a lovely, mostly downhill, return to Hualien, we drank tea on the roof and ate our porridge. Packed, readied and hit the road....down to a beach town (Chishingtan) for lunch, hiding from the sun inside that Giant coffee shop - yup, Giant as in Giant bikes, turned a simple bike shop into a lunch cafe with what turned out to be excellent drinks - and pedalled our way home.

Chishingtan beach, us taking a break on the left and the road ahead on the right.

The bike ride was amazing, for Taiwan rarely fails to awe us when we take to our bikes, and the chance to get our illegal feet on another illegal trail always feeds our desire for adventure. All in all, a sundrenched, body-breaking workout of a weekend.....which is simply perfection.

The trail that eventually leads back to Hualien City (this section is also our morning running route along the ocean) on the left, and Crystal loading up her packs with veggies for the week that we just bought from the market.

...now back to work for another week!

First Typhoon of the Season?

So here comes the double whammy of typhoon anger...

It looks like what we will actually get is a weekend of heavy rain and unforgiving gloom, but not the torrent or rain-wind destruction that usually comes with direct hits from Typhoons. Although there are two of them that are sandwiching us in, neither will make a direct hit. So the Central Weather Bureau tells us....these predictions change with the hour, so by the days end we may be in for a more humbling future (they both go their respective northerly and southerly directions and avoid us entirely) or a more intense future (one, or both, take the opposite course and smack us broadside like a mosquito on the windshield). Either way, we smell rain this week, weekend, and perhaps next week.

In all honesty, it kinda beats the vaporizing heat of the clear mid-day sun. Kinda....

Here are the two that are being tracked thus far:



Heading north, perhaps the most danger here is for Japan, not us in Taiwan.

This one is atypical in its place of origin, as they usually form out in the Pacific and not between the Philippines and the mainland, but typical in its little dance and sway its track makes. So unpredictable, yet the predictions keep coming. Keep them coming!

So, nothing really new to toss up here. We have officially registered for the half-marathon in Taroko National Park and are starting our training routine. We are pretty much unpacked and settled into the house and the routine of garbage/recycling/compost days (gotta run to catch the truck....five flights down, across an alley and out to the front of a neighbouring school) and are planning our first bike trip of the year. Things are starting to take on a calmer, more normal, feel now that we are in our routines. Crystal doesn't start her job for another week, so once that kicks in the full fledged routine will tweak things a bit, but not much.

Hope Canada is doing well....

Back to Taiwan: Round 3

From Toronto to Hong Kong, Hong Kong to Taipei. A 21 hour voyage through the clouds, over the mountains and across the ocean to get back to what is, for now, home.


A morning cup of cereal as we wait for our plane to arrive. We brought our own heritage O's and grabbed some cow juice and a cup, perhaps stole the latter, and sat down to a nice last meal in Canada as we watched the morning come to Toronto, and the neverending airport buzz go on and on like it always does.


The highlight, for sure, was this view of Mt. Fuji as we made our way southward past Japan.


Bam - landed, check in at our hotel, walk the well worn path to XiMen district and sit down for a nice cold Taiwan beer. However, lost in translation somewhere along the way was our true intent - Taiwan beer, which in Chinese is "Tai-Pi". What we got insead was what the bartended thought we were asking for, in English - "Thai-Pi". We asked for Taiwan beer, he thought we wanted Thailand beer. Tai, Thai....

So, while we were speaking perfect chinese, he thought we were speaking half english ("Thai" for Thailand) and half chinese ("pi", which is short for beer in chinese). He thought we wanted "Thai-Pi". As he opened the first bottle of a Thailand beer we realized this in complete horror (we like Thai beer, dont get us wrong, but we waited ever so patiently all summer for our next Taiwan beer that this was a horrible reality facing us....truly!). I lunged toward him and pleaded my case, stammering out in rapid chinese that I dodnt want what he had already opened....we both realized what went wrong, and the remedy was quick. However, I did take that one opened bottle which, if your paying attention to the picture above, is why my bottle is different than Crystals which is obviously a Taiwan Beer bottle....


Then, the move. Last year when we left we were allowed to keep all our stuff in our old house. Packed and boxed in a corner, it stood idle for the summer. Then, we promised, when we arrived back in Taiwan we would immediately return to pick it up. That required us, a van, our friend Peter and his car and a beautiful sunny, scaldingly hot day to pack, transport and carry all of our belongings up five flights of stairs. Three hours of up and down, trails of sweat along the staircase, and then finally completion. Our rented van was returned (renting a vehicle here is as easy as "can I rent your van, Ill bring it back tonight" "ok, $2500NT for the day" "ok" "here are the keys....goodbye"). So, then, that is us in our rental van on our way to our old village to get our stuff.


The morning view, complete with the setting moon, early this very morning...

So, we are here now. Moved in, mostly unpacked and found some neat running routes along the ocean. If we get to the ocean before the sun gets up, we are ok. If the sun beats us, then it,well, beats the heck out of us with its heat. We have a 10 minute window where if we take too long brushing our teeth or getting dressed in the morning to go for a run - torture. If we are on task and get right to it - a placid morning jog along the crashing waves.

So here goes year three on the island nation of Taiwan!