Day 3 - August 24: An incredible leap south on the map: Taitung and Taimali
The first two days had gone pretty smoothly and I had already finished the first 300km of the trip. I had also left the most dangerous part the trip behind me. Today’s trip will be around 200km in length and it will be a giant leap from Hualien city to Taitung city. This is a part of the island which I have never seen before. I mean, I visited the two cities last year, but I never travelled the giant 200km gap between them. Unlike the two days before, for today’s road there were three possibilities, each with pros and cons
1) I could take the National Road 9 (台縣9 Taixian 9) that I have been cycling yesterday as well. Basically this road 9 goes from Xindian in Taipei to Taitung, which is a long road. The big pro is that for this road you just have to follow Route 9 and eventually you will find yourself in Taitung city. The big con is that it is situated between two mountain slopes and because of that, you miss the stunning views of the Great Pacific at your left and you will be presented with lots of opportunities to display your climbing skills.
2) Route 11, which starts in Hualien, is also a taixian and it hugs the Great Pacific for almost the entire length of the trip. It has a few second degree hills but the views are absolutely amazing. However, because of its vicinity to the Great Sea, there is a lot of head wind on this road and on a 200km trip, that is bound to set you back another two hours at least. In other words, this is not a road for pussies or amateurs.
3) Xiandao 193. This road is right in between of Route 9 and 11 and therefore it will be a lot steeper than its colleagues, as it actually runs over the mountains. This road will take me through very remote places and I would have hard time finding reinforcements (7-11s or even bike shops). We cannot exclude the possible event of getting “bike trouble”. I also hear that this road is in a terrible shape and that it is not your number one choice when traveling on a road bike.
To be honest, I had already considered the several possibilities yesterday evening and my personal preference was Route 11. I have no problem cycling 200km with a possible fierce head wind. I mean, I got all day, don’t I? Worst case scenario I would still be able to cycle around 22km/hour and then I would need ten hours for it. So there I went, leaving the still dark and peaceful Formosan Backpacker Hostel of Hualien and heading out for a very long trip. Hualien is still a pretty big city and I had some trouble finding the right direction. I even went in the wrong direction for a few minutes, but in the end I got myself on the xiandao 193. Not what I had planned for, but at least I was on the road to Taitung. It was a bright morning with a clear sky and I witnessed the beautiful scenery of the morning sun struggling its way through the mountain peaks. I stopped on several occasions for some pictures, because that was just not a common sight. After about 20km I saw a sign that guided me to a little village, located on Route 11. I knew that there were very few horizontal connections between the three routes, but this was one of them, so I took my chance and got closer to the vast blue sea that was only a few miles east.
Route 11 was really nothing less than what I had been told: a never-ending beautiful sight of the Sea of all seas. Unlike yesterday, this road was wide with two lanes son each side and lots of place for cyclists and scooters. No need to fear incoming vehicles! That made me enjoy the moment even more. Maybe it was the time of the day or even the time of the year, but the combination of the sea, the mountains, the sunrise, the sound of birds and other animals waking up was just breathtaking. It is almost unbelievable to image how an island like this can display so many diverse landscapes and even geological patterns. I saw lots of nice things on route 11 of which I feel a picture says more than a thousand words. Then all of the sudden, a thing happened that my map did not anticipate: there were road works and I was forced to exit Route 11. Luckily there was a sign leading to Route 9, so I never get lost. The downside is that this meant that at least for the next 90 km - I would be travelling on Route 9 instead of 11. There were no other connecting possibilities between these two roads. But the good part is that Route 9 had nice stuff to offer as well. Actually I ended up cycling all three of these roads: 193, 11 and 9. So I think that is actually the richest experience you can get of Taiwan’s wonderful east coast.
Route 9 on a clear bright afternoon
One thing I noticed was the low intensity of the traffic. I admit I was cycling on a Saturday morning but I almost felt like the road had been constructed for me and that after my passage this infrastructure would lose its purpose of existence. I cycled through a number of villages I had read about in other people’s cycling blogs. That was a great help in actually relocating my position. After all, except for my map, I was cycling in a completely unfamiliar territory. In only five hours, I raced through Shoufeng 手風, Fenglin 鳳林, Guangfu 光復, Ruisui 瑞穗, Yuli 玉里, Chishang 池上 and Guanshan 關山. The first part was a little dull because of the infinite straight road in front of me, but then a geological feature called ascent and descent occurred and that truly enriched my experience of the day. I did some nice climbs and even better descents. I touched the Formosan Fifty several times and I even got close to 60, but responsible and careful as I am, I decided not to push it. But the feeling of climbing through these mountains in the morning sun, with only my backpack, standing on my bike and pedaling like there is no tomorrow was just wonderful! Even though I had no clue of what kind of road or even conditions I would be faced next, I knew that in the end it would take me to Taitung, the last city on the east coast.
After six-seven hours of cycling and several pit stops along the road, I found myself in Taitung in the afternoon. The trip had gone great and I did not suffer from fierce head wind. The only elements that were testing my skills were the temperature and the height. Route 9 brought the biggest city in South East Taiwan closer and closer. Early in the morning I saw a sign “Taitung 197”, but during the day it went from “Taitung 120”, to “Taitung 88”, “Taitung 48”and even “Taitung 3”. According to my travel guide, I had travelled another two days J. When I arrived in Taitung it was still early, too early to call it a day. I decided to do the one thing my perpetually knowledge-seeking mind would not forgive me if I omitted it, and that is visit the National Taiwan Museum of Prehistory, located in Taitung city. It was not hard to find, with signs everywhere. Apart from some Buddhist temples and some aboriginal villages, this is the number one attraction of the Taitung region.
When I found the museum and I wanted to go in, they were reluctant about my bike at first. They wanted me to leave it outside. That is when I switched from Chinese to Taiwanese and then I saw how they instantly liked me. I asked them if I could put my bike inside because I had cycled over 500km just to visit this museum. And it worked like a charm: all of a sudden the museum guard went like: I feel you backpackers, no problem, I will personally watch your bike for you, you go and have a good time! Having said that, safeguarding my bike suddenly became the most important day task for him. So if anybody asks me why the heck I would wanna learn Taiwanese, you got the answer right there J In a situation like this, it is more powerful than a sorcerer’s potion. I spent about an hour checking out the museum that was covering two main subjects: 1) the geological history of Taiwan 2) aboriginal tribes in Taiwan and Taitung. Of section 1) the most interesting part was the fact that Taiwan used to be part of the islets in the Philippines but after the last Glacial Era it drifted in the direction of China. Part 2) was very interesting with an explanation of how certain aboriginal Austronesian tribes reached Taiwan several thousands of years ago. I will definitely do some additional reading on this topic!
When I left the museum it was already 5:0 pm and I saw that the sun, that had struggled so hard to climb over the mountain peaks this morning, was now steadily losing its grip and disappearing behind those same mountain peaks. Well not exactly the same ones, because I had travelled over 200km, but you know what I mean! At this point I basically had two options: 1) call it a day and look for a place to spend the night 2) go really bad ass and go that extra mile. Well, saying it like this makes it impossible for me not to choose number two. So there I went for another 35km to the village of Taimali. Taimali is an aboriginal village that has nothing to do with Chinese culture. There were some more ascents on the road up there, but all things considered I did not face any serious setbacks in the last part of today’s trip. When I got there, I did have a hard time finding a place to stay. So I did what I could do, and follow the Taiwanese saying of 路在嘴巴 (the road is in your mouth, this means: you just gotta ask people). I entered a convenience store and asked them for a nearby place to stay. The shop keeper took a name tag out of his wallet and called one of his friends. In less than 4 minutes that guy was standing in the store, right next to me. He said he happened to be nearby haha. He drove his scooter and guided me to his hotel. It was a very fancy place with hot springs and a giant tub in my room. Ok, it did cost me like 1500 NT but I was dying for the hot spring. After all, I had cycled more than 230km and I had spent all day on my bicycle. Considering the fact that I had another 200 planned for tomorrow, I decided to go ith the hot tub. I grabbed something for dinner in a nearby stand and I had a chat with the salesman about my trip around the island. Around 9:30 I called it a day. More cycling tomorrow!
This looks Dutch: a wind mill
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