Day #11 - Meishan to Taichung

I think I went up one of the steepest hills ever today. Of course, that's a lie. Anytime anyone says something extreme like that just wave them off and click the ignore button. But we did have to push and push our bikes up the hill. We continued our plan of going more inland to avoid the big city and we were rewarded when we got to the top of this plateau of nice small towns, crops, and great scenary. Especially coming downhill. I've been listening to the book Scars and Stripes so I have all the war stories cemented with this geographic location. One of the things I like most about audiobooks is that when I revisit either the book or the place I was reading it, I get memories of both. Good thing I'm a Geography major. 

Now we're sleeping at a Warmshowers host that built his own rich house with his bare hands and feet and also with the help of his family and friends' bare hands and feet. They fed us hot pot tonight*. Delicioussssssssss. 

*Note: they didn't cook it with their bare hands and feet that we know of.

We biked 99.75 km (61.78 miles) today!

Love the decadence of the Buddhist temples.

Morning breaks at 7-Eleven for dumps and breakfast!

I like to tell Holly, "It's a great [insert season] day today!" Right now, since we're so close to the equator it's already spring. Top that winter haters.

I've been griping a lot about riding through the city lately but I do enjoy the unique buildings. They give good character and soul. Something that Minimalists do not have.

These are tea plants. Or as I like to call them Sin Plants.

We're getting ready to descend on Taichung - Taiwan's second largest city. This is one side of it looking west.

Afternoon breaks!

We found this mystical park full of dead pine trees that had nice wooden structures, benches, and swings to rest on. Wanted to camp here. There was even a THICC lady that sold pizza. Meatsticks said if Taiwan got invaded by China while we were here and we had to remain indefinitely in the country that he would go back here and make her his bride. I was crossing my fingers and praying to the gods all night while making sacrifices that it would come true. Then I'd have free pizza for life!!!!

Now we're about to ride down into Taichung! This was a fun downhill facing north.

Here we go!

I guess we'll call it a love/hate relationship that I have with the city. Maybe I'm just worn out when the evening comes and we're riding up into it that makes me irritated. Like how parents hate their kids when 8PM rolls around.

This used to be an old railroad that fed into the military base. I was speeding along here because the bean was getting anxious.

Hey look, our Warmshowers host has a bean too! Now they're friends.

Holly noticed Lily Rose being cheeky with this one. Wait till she meets her cousin, Elephant Bum. I'm going to need to keep her extra close to me to prevent any potential future emotional damage that could arise. 

I love our bean. 💟

How are you going to change your future by doing something small today? Probably by just ignoring this meme as soon as you're done reading, huh??

Day #10 - Tainan to Meishan

TL/DR: Maybe in the future I'll do something different in my route planning.

So the western side of Taiwan is heavily populated. It's almost nonstop city in some parts. Kinda like what New York City to Atlanta have turned into. There are times in life (sometimes because of OCD) where I won't learn something until I do it. The goal for this trip was to ride around the island similarly to what we did in Iceland. It makes sense for me to do this circular type of route on smaller islands and then for bigger countries I like to cut a swath through it (see my route for Japan and the USA). 

Knowing what we know now I would have been satisified to stop in Kaohsiung - at least it would have been north to south. But I wouldn't have known that before until actually doing it. The reason why is city riding. It's just not fun like it used to be. Either that or it's just really bad here because the stoplights are timed and I think all the loud scooters that ride next to us get my nerves going. Even though we run most stoplights safely and I'd rather ride next to scooters than cars, we just got bored of riding through the city. Plus I can't listen to my audiobooks as frequently as before. Ironically, Tokyo - the largest metroplex city in the world - was much easier to bike through than these smaller Taiwanese metroplexes. 

But I digress. Our Warmshowers host, Mark Tovell, in Tainan knows almost every biking route in Taiwan. He has literally written a book on it that will be published at the end of the month. He gave us some good recommendations for where to go from Tainan. 

We biked 94.15 km (58.27 miles) today!

Lily Rose usually only fusses at night when it's dark, we're at the end of our riding, and she's hungry. It's like the Perfect Storm. Rated R.  

Look at that Mage Guild on the left. Not to mention that neat statue in the middle under the roof.

Nice bike paths to the rescue!

Look at all those birds in the field. What are they doing?

We stopped to rest at a park. I loved watching Lily Rose examine the grass and leaves in her slow, methodological way then quickly put it in her mouth.

She's my bean pie 💕

A lot of people (myself included) don't know that pineapples grow like this. The fruit grows from a stem from that plant and it just hangs out.

Feeding the bean time!

Changing the diaper time!

Riding into Meishan was neat. A touristy town in the mountains.

We're going to camp in this park tonight.

That mountain behind Holly was very looming. I'd like to hike it when we come back.

There's even a suspension bridge way up there.

All these palm trees remind me of Paraguay.

Vietnamese food tonight!

Lily Rose just sleeps wherever she wants. 😅

In the middle of the night, Meatsticks ran out of the tent with my shoes in hand chasing away some dogs that kept barking and making a nuisance.

Day #9 - Koahsiung to Tainan

Shorter day today. Normally I like to take a day or two off each week of riding. However, this trip - for various reasons - we've had the ox be stuck in the mire so it's just been non-stop. Despite the shorter day, man, was it hot. And when I say hot I mean it was like 74 degrees F. 🤷

We took a break at this really neat museum that had a lot of medieval weapons and armor, animal taxidermies, musical instruments, paintings, and other artwork. Apparently this guy had been collecting it for years and turned it into a museum a few years ago. Worthwhile to go visit if you're in southern Taiwan!

Only 47.12 km (29.40 miles) today. Looks a lot longer on the map.

Look how great of an uncle Meatsticks is being to Lily Rose. He loves her.

Getting ready to leave!

But we need to make a pit stop to worship the Almighty.

I love the exclusive tunnels for bikes and scooters.

I also like when they decorate boring old concrete.

Such as these train tracks. It reminded me of toy train sets.

Holly and Sticks raved over this place. It was decent.

It's like they built a Buddhist temple on top of someone's house. Love it.

Here comes HQCH!

That neat museum we found had really nice grounds. Carve out several hours from your day when you stop by here.

My favorite sword. Look how huge that is.

Since the bean is American she has guns in her blood.

We try to get her crawling and stretching as much as possible when we take breaks.

Jamie's first time trying the Japanese fast food joint, Moss Burger. Look what it did to him.

I found an effective way to carry Rose Gold that leaves one arm free.