March 1, 2022
March 1st
Bade
It's sunny again and a ride is on the cards. It just takes me until close to noon to get my act together and wheel my bike out the front door. My goal is the small town of Bade, which has a Louisa cafe in its market area.
Route 114 takes me in the general direction, but fives minutes into the ride I make a right to explore a few side streets after seeing a woman pedalling a trike loaded up with recyclables.
She soon disappears from view as the lane bends, but I spot a bicycle down an alley. As I get my camera out a woman gets on it rides around the corner or what looked like a dead-end. A chair is outside a house, so I make do sapping that before ride tracing her route to find myself in front of a roller door with WANT painted on it.
Back on the 114, I see a small apartment block - or maybe they're town houses - and go across a small park and take a snap from the winding concrete path before opting to get a different angle from a central grassy area. The cream paint on the concrete surface has cracked and come away from years of being exposed to the elements.
A middle-aged women in a bright top walks along the path and gestures to me, so I wave back and then she shouts something that I can't make out. I indicate I'm riding to Bade, but she crosses her arms to make an X in a gesture which means no, and is trying to tell me bicycles are not allowed on the grass. It's just a rough patch and it makes me laugh that someone could be so protective of it.
A while ago I spotted a wicker sofa left outside and have often wondered about trying to buy it. I get there thinking about asking around, but find its gone. It had a bit of damage, but a cushion would have covered the small hole and it makes me wonder where it is now.
The market in Bade takes up a few blocks. The street I go down is on its edge and has vendors selling mostly fruit and veg from stalls. Some of these are makeshift affairs and consist of not much more than a few plastic crates or boxes. It's always busy.
I spend 10 minutes in a charity shop before going around the corner to Louisa, where I get a tall stool next to the window. My bike is across the narrow street and scooters nip back and forth. What used to be a claw machine arcade has gone and the unit is dark and empty now, but there's a man stood at its opening and I take his snap without him knowing. It takes over 15 minutes to get my cappuccino and rice burger.
Customers come and go, with almost everyone taking there drinks out.
From Louisa I decide to ride down the side alleys in a nearby neighborhood as there's a wall there that I like and the sun is out at times and maybe there's a chance of a decent snap today.
The neighborhood is about five blocks by three and the wall is at the far end and by the time I find it clouds have come over and it seems they won't be any sunshine for a while. I head for home.
The road out of town is a bit busy and not a lot of fun. I turn down a couple of cul-de-sacs to see if there's anything interesting but all I find is a big, round bamboo tray that has some cut-up pieces of something drying on it. Maybe Debbie will know what it is. I will ask her later.
I get to a turnoff that takes me on a back lane and a minute later I spot a woman asleep in a plastic chair, so get my camera out and take a snap and ride off without her being aware.
The back lane twists past fields that have lots of poly' tunnels but there are also fields which have recently been planted with rice. The shoots are short and go in more or less straight rows, with the paddies having water a few inches deep in them. It's a nice sight and makes it feel like spring is here. It is March now.
There are rolls of rice like you might compare to the squares of lawn you can buy in the West that's ready to be planted stacked up beside the lane. It's a mostly mechanized process now, but you often see farmers bent over tending to their crops, chin-deep in water.
The constant juxtaposition in Taiwan of urbanism and rural life never ceases to amaze me.
At the bottom of the lane that goes up an small incline is a house that been extended and the original section is derelict. I notice one piece of wall has the mud bricks exposed, with tehceramic tiles having come off. rain will soon demolish it.
I get back on the 114, which is pretty straight and nothing to write home about. It's all urban now and I don't stop as there's nothing new to photograph.
Tonight at gone nine I'm meeting Ralph for a beer and decide I should swap the seat on my commuter bike as it's a bit worn. It's one I bought second-hand from my LBS a short while ago. Maybe that was a mistake, but I'll likely take it to the UK soon and fit it on a bike I have there, as I'll only use it for a few months.
The sprung Brooks I have spare is going on and it takes me a few minutes with an Allen key to do the job. We'll see how it feels on the ride to the pub later.
Today's ride: 22 km (14 miles)
Total: 1,518 km (943 miles)
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2 years ago