Welcome to day 11 of my Taiwan Cycling Trip.
Before today’s ride, I fueled up at a build your own “bento” lunch box type restaurant,
which are very popular in Taiwan.
There are a bunch of items for you to choose from, and you can grab whatever you want
and add it to your plate.
There are usually a lot of healthy options, including a variety of vegetables, tofu, and fish
Most places give you the option to eat inside or to take your food to go
And the price is usually calculated by weight.
Everything I got here cost about 120 Taiwanese dollars, so only about $4 USD
Which is pretty fantastic considering how much food I got.
Now that I am fully fueled up, let’s start today’s ride!
What’s going on?
Not really sure on the day count anymore, but
I’ve been here a bit over a week now
It’s Thursday afternoon and
I’m nearing the end of my trip here in Taiwan
So I’ll be heading back, my flight back to Japan is Sunday night.
So Friday and Saturday might be my last two opportunities to cycle
I’m gonna try and ride Sunday if I can, but really depends if I can use the shower
at my hostel and get a late checkout and have time to pack up my bike before going to the airport.
So, starting to get a little sad, sinking in that my trip is over.
Of course, looking forward to being back in Japan, but it’s just been a great trip here
Lots of great new food to try
Pretty cheap, reasonable food, big portions, been really enjoying that.
Bubble tea every day
And also I can wear shorts and short sleeves while riding, which is really nice
I think it’s still too cold for that in Japan right now,
But we’re starting to get into Spring season, so should start to get some warmer weather
in Japan pretty soon once I get back
So this is my second time visiting Taiwan
And just really love it here, really enjoyed both trips
The cycling network, the food, people’s attitudes, and just general desire for improving
physical health, which is great to see.
Beautiful place, if you ever have a chance to come, it’s definitely worth to come out
and do a cycling trip
Great cycling, great food, great people.
Happy looking people
Dogs everywhere, if you’re a dog person, you’re gonna love it.
What else..?
Well, that’s all I can think of now
Maybe I’ll add some more a little bit later.
Today, just a relaxing day.
Got some work done this morning.
Went to a nice, big lunch buffet a little bit ago so
stomach's a little full.
Can’t ride hard, but it’s a beautiful day.
I couldn’t not ride, so I’m going out for a little spin right now to enjoy the sunlight
Hopefully work on my tan lines a little bit.
No specific plan, I’m just gonna ride along the river path, maybe take a turn I haven’t
done before and find something new.
And, just enjoy the views, enjoy the sunshine, and have a nice relaxing ride for one of my
last few rides here in Taipei.
So if you go along the river paths on the west side of Taipei going north, you’ll
arrive at this point,
Which is pretty beautiful.
This is where the rivers intersect into different directions
So going North and South this way, and East over that way
From here, you can see a couple of the biggest climbs there are around the area.
So behind me right now is one of the largest climbs north of Taipei.
Huge, just gigantic park.
Lots of great hiking, lots of great roads for cycling
I rode up it a few days ago, so there’ll be a video as well.
I’ll link to that video here.
But, that climb goes up above 800 meters for the road ascent on the road bike.
You can go up higher if you want to continue by hiking.
So really large climb, especially coming from sea level from a downtown major city
Amazing, huge climb just right at the doorway.
And here on the North West side of the city, there’s another mountain which is also a
really good climb.
I went up it the other day.
It was about 500 meters or so, so not quite as big, but still a large climb
And the great thing is from both of them, you have amazing views of other mountains
This one especially, you have a great view right into the city of Taipei, you have a
view of this other large mountain, and on the other side, you have a nice view of the
ocean and nearby port.
Just amazing views at the top of these mountains because it’s all so close to the ocean,
it’s all so close to the city, and even other mountain ranges, so depending on the
side you’re at at the top
And which direction you look, you can so many different things.
So ocean, city, different mountains, just truly beautiful
So lots of people fishing here today, it’s a beautiful day.
We’re gonna continue on and see if I can find some more of my favorite spots and talk
about them a little bit before I leave.
One of the other great things about the cycling paths is just the access to public restrooms
They have facilities like this all over
Basically every kilometer there’s at least one public restroom that you can use.
These are some of the nicer ones, so of course they have the more traditional portable toilets
where there’s not much to them and they’re a bit small and cramped,
But as you can see, these ones are huge, and they’ve got them separated by category
So all gender / disabled, so they’ve got handicap access.
It’s also large enough so you can bring your bike in if you’re not comfortable leaving
your bike outside
And then they have a male one for quick urinals as well.
So great system and really convenient
been trying to find my way to the grand hotel here.
The roads to get here are a little bit complicated
So the only entrance I could find was this stair entrance, so I’m walking up the stairs
right now and hopefully this will get me to the hotel
Looks really beautiful from afar and can’t wait to see it up close
Alright, today’s goal has been achieved.
Made it to the hotel
As you can see from the video, this thing is massive.
Just huge.
I can’t even imagine how many rooms there are in this thing.
Unfortunately, not going to be able to check it out on the inside today.
Just wanted to ride by and check out the exterior
Really impressive stuff, beautiful, today’s mission a success!
Now time to head back to the hostel
Check out this black sesame snack!
Sesame on the top of the bread and black sesame on the inside
Raaaaaaaa
Can you say that one more time, Natalie?
No!
What was that about not ruining the tip?
The tip’s the best part, now stop making it dirty!
Good
Thanks for joining me on day 11 of my Taiwan Cycling Trip.
Sadly, we’re nearing the end of this trip with only a few days remaining,
but the last few days were especially awesome, and I have some great footage coming up.
If you’re new to this series, you can check out the entire playlist here.
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And as always, thanks for watching Two Wheel Cruise, and I’ll see you here next time!