Welcome back to another day in Taiwan. We have an unusual mode of transport today.
What are you saying about my car?
I'm saying your car is a little bit inadequate. We have traveled north from
Taichung to Guanshan. We are biking around the city of Guanshan.
This actually is the first dedicated bicycle path in all of Taiwan.
So what better way to explore it than an electric go-kart? What is this? An electric golf cart?
An electric bicycle? That's what I'm talking about. We have our own shade today.
We are not even using our feet. Although we could technically. We probably will at some point.
We are really excited about exploring Guanshan. So I guess let's go.
We have literally barely begun. He's already making me pedal. Oh geez.
I far prefer the electric method. Oh my gosh, it's kind of hard to coordinate.
Give us the juice, man.
We've read that there's a lot of stops to make along the way and we think we're
at our first one. There's sort of this red overhang. It's beautiful so far with all the
rice paddies around us and it smells green. Like you know what I mean, when it smells green.
Do you know what I mean? Smells like the outdoors, yeah. Seat belt's fastened? Check. Hit it.
This would have been an amazing spot for the lunches that we bought which were bento boxes.
And in fact, we're gonna send you back in time because we already ate them.
This area is known for having very flavorful
rice. It just looks like white rice so we're really
curious whether it's actually different. This is something we've been looking forward to.
Let's give it a try. All right.
Oh that actually is different. It's stickier. I can also taste every
grain. Somehow each individual piece of rice is
more firm. It's a little bit like chewier but not
in a bad way. Plus it's far more fragrant than normal plain white rice. The closest thing that
I can compare this to is the rice that's in Chicken
Rice in Singapore. It kind of tastes like that and
it doesn't appear like there's any spices or anything added to this. So if that's the rice
naturally, that's amazing. We understand that water
runoff from nearby mountains affects the taste of
the rice in this area and that makes it very highly prized for its flavor. I got the pork.
There's a couple different kinds here. It looks
like a breaded or maybe barbecue kind of flavor.
And then there's another one that's more like a
slice of a sausage. I know we're supposed to get
the bento boxes because of the rice but the fried chicken that I had for lunch today
might be the best I've had in Taiwan so far. And you've tried KFC.
And we've had a lot. Including KFC. No. I'm really excited we got to try this and
we're staying here for a few days so I think that we'll get to have it again. Back to biking.
Welcome back from lunch by the way. We hope you enjoyed that. We're on the north side of the
loop that circles Guanshan. We've gone maybe
three or four kilometers and there's 12 kilometers in
total. So far it's been pretty flat. Just a
little bit of an uphill and now we're slightly going
uphill. And we have been surrounded by rice
paddies this whole time and usually some water that's
being used to water the rice paddies. It's been beautiful so far. And this is our carriage for
the day. Complete with my driver.
I think I should have driven today.
We just emerged from a bunch of tree tunnels
to the most amazing view overlooking the town
and the valley and all the rice fields.
It's a beautiful day so we can see pretty far.
This is really fun.
This bamboo is all creaky.
(bamboo sounds)
Wait no, don't get closer, they'll go away.
- What are you talking about?
They want our water bottle and our glasses.
- No, these ones are not.
No, just stop the car.
We can hear some monkeys but we can't find them.
These are not like the monkeys in Bali
that come and take your things.
These are ones that left quickly when we approached.
We're trying to get them on film
but the only monkey I see right now is that one.
- You know why they're hiding right now?
It's because they're gonna hide
and then jump out and take our things.
- Not happening, we don't have any bananas.
Can you see them?
They're back there.
- Well that's a lot closer than yesterday.
Oh, that one's got a baby.
- We have a little baby head.
Oh my god, the baby's so small.
This is not our first encounter with monkeys
so I keep checking our cart to make sure
things are okay and there's no monkey
going through everything.
Now that is the way...there's another one!
You can hear him running away.
Now that is the way that monkeys
should be experienced in the wild, I feel.
They shouldn't be coming up
and stealing things from our bags
or being aggressive. That's learned behavior
by humans being around them all the time.
But here, they're timid of us
which is the way I feel like it should be.
We just stare at each other from afar.
This was an amazing encounter.
I loved this one.
Maybe I don't hate monkeys after all.
Bye, monkeys.
I think it just told us that we burned 80 calories.
If you decide to do this biking route,
there is even a bathroom part way around
and helpful signs to tell you how many calories you have
or have not burned.
- I'm working hard over here.
I don't know about you.
- You are not.
Rush hour.
- Let's go.
I don't think we've mentioned it yet
but this bike loop that we're not really biking on today
is the first trail in Taiwan,
absolutely dedicated only to bikers and walkers.
Which I think is amazing.
It's so much more fun and this is blissfully uncrowded.
There's hardly anyone else here.
We've seen maybe two other carriages like ours,
a couple of walkers and some blokes back there
who are monkeying around.
Other than that, it's just been us.
It's been a lovely way to spend an afternoon.
Really recommend this so far, but we're not done yet.
I have questions about my driver's parking skills.
In case he tips over, I'll just wait up here.
(laughing)
That serves him right.
Oh my gosh, stay on the road.
Definitely should have driven today.
Just sits there eating bonbons.
23 minutes until we have to have our coach back.
- No problem.
- Hit it.
I'm just kidding, don't.
I think it's stay left.
Guanshan Town Circle Bicycle Back, this is it.
Oh God.
Well, we have about one kilometer left to go
and we popped out at this beautiful lake
and this cool bridge.
It's a good thing we're nearly done
because we have less than 12 minutes
to return our electric coach that we've been using today.
This park is really cool.
It looks like it's a water park of some kind,
but maybe the water features don't run during the week.
We are here on a Wednesday
and this looks like it is probably kiddie play pools?
Clearly they're not being used though.
- This says bicycle path?
We think we found the right path.
We have five minutes to return our electric coach.
We're just gonna focus on getting this back
at this point, I think.
- Turning.
- Oh God.
(laughing) - Bump!
- Made it.
- Yeah.
- That was really a lot of fun.
There's one other thing we wanna do while we're here.
There's some kind of agricultural center
that will teach you all about the local rice
and we're hoping that they're open,
but really I don't know.
Everything seems pretty quiet here.
We're here on a Wednesday, sort of off season,
so they might be shut.
We're gonna head there anyhow, just check.
We also feel like we haven't exercised quite enough today
since we were lazy and got that cool electric cart,
which we recommend.
Now that we have successfully returned our electric cart,
we are heading out of town,
kind of passing by the old train station
or maybe it was a bus station, I think it was a train station.
This town is so laid back and so quiet.
It's kind of a shock to the system
after being in a bunch of bigger cities
for the last couple of weeks.
Well, we found all the tourists.
Several tour groups here and a giant bus out front.
They were not bicycling or electric carting,
but they are definitely here.
We are here at the very end of the day.
The tour groups were just leaving.
We bought a few gifts.
We've not done like any shopping on this trip.
We have some things we need to bring home.
This is a giant complex.
There's some kids playing back there.
Everything is painted beautifully.
Normally there's like a rice making activity,
but I just think we're here way too late.
They close in like 20 minutes.
So if you come to Guanshan,
don't do what we did,
make sure you come here earlier in the day.
That way you'll have the opportunity
to try their rice making activity
and then come back and tell us what that's all about
because we want to know since we didn't get to do it.
Even though they're closing down,
their cafe was still open.
So we picked up this pie that we have no idea what it is,
but Bill's hungry, hangry even.
So we're gonna try this pie that we don't know what it is.
Cheers.
We still don't know what that is.
It's a little bit close in flavor to a key lime pie,
but the texture is much more dense.
I actually like this better.
- I'm gonna go out on a limb and say,
it's key lime pie cheesecake.
- That's amazing.
And on that piece of good news,
if you are unable to wait until our next video
to experience more biking in this region,
then you should really check out the video right here
where we were biking in Indonesia
because it was a grand adventure.
We think you'll enjoy it.
Thank you so much for watching.
See you next time.
Bye. - Bye.