After my string of breakfastless stays, it seems I’ll get fed by my stays from now on. This hotel offered a nice buffet, so I made up for my vegetable-free evening last night.
With heat not being an issue, I didn’t depart until 9:30.
I started with 3 km of good urban riding, including passing a well-guarded navy yard complete with a gate and a spike belt. The small person guarding the gate had a very big gun.
The Keelung waterfront. It’s more urban than this photo makes it appear.
It was less fun biking when my dedicated lane ended and there was a bit of construction. I’ve seen quite a few of these traffic scarecrows here. Their arms wave.
I cycled by two nuclear power plants today - I’m a fan of nuclear (and even worked at a plant for one summer during university) but seems like maybe not a great idea in such a seismically active place? Google tells me that it’s a contentious issue for the Taiwanese too.
Having spent the morning along the shore, I decided to take a detour on some quieter roads and different views. That meant going up, so I stopped at busy 7-Eleven before my climb.
The coastal road is quite busy, so I really enjoyed the zero traffic on my climb and descent. at one point, a woman shouted encouragement from her yard. I’ve heard the same thing from multiple people throughout the trip (for example, out of car windows), and have finally figured out what they are saying: ‘jiayou!’. Literally, it means ‘add oil’. But is commonly used as support/encouragement, like ‘go-go-go’.
There was pretty much no traffic on route 19 as I climbed, or 17 as I descended.
This fellow was part of a group of four men collecting wild star fruit along the roadside. He was using a long stick to poke them out of the trees. Another fellow had climbed a tree. Of course they gave me one. I don’t know if they get better when they ripen, but it was very sour.
A sign told me that these are the Songshan Community Terraced Fields. They have recently been restored after 30 years of not being cultivated. The climb was really worth the views!
It was a quick descent back to the coast and a pit stop at a beachside 7-Eleven. They are never far away, and generally have very clean toilets. This one had a display case of freshly made donuts, and three beers on tap. That’s a new one for me.
This is the Fuji fishing village. There were loads of seafood stalls, and a strange waterfront tourist building that I thought was an homage to nuclear cooling towers, but was apparently designed to look like sombreros. Why, I wonder?
There are no photos of a 10 km stretch of unpleasantly busy road with trucks, cars, and scooters screaming by. Yuck. I was wishing for a separate lane, but it never seemed to appear.
Arriving in Tamsui, I was thrilled to get off of busy route 2 and onto a cycle way.
My hotel is nice, but not in a great location, restaurant wise. I got shrimp fried noodles from the only nearby place. They were pretty good, but weren’t exactly loaded with shrimp. After spending last night in the basement linen closet, my bike gets to be in the lobby tonight with my room number prominently displayed.
Fun fact: In 2020, the number of pets in Taiwan surpassed the number of children under 15 for the first time. The pets are treated like kids though. Today I saw multiple small dogs being pushed in prams.
