South to Fengshan

January 27, 2019

four hours by train

Last night Debbie and I went for a stroll as we tend to do at about eight and just a block from home we simultaneously spotted a piece of paper money on the ground, so I picked it up to find it's NT$1,000 - about US$30. Nice! It'll pay for a big chunk of my train fare.

My panniers are already packed and it seems like I'm off on a multi-month expedition. They weigh a bit and thankfully Debbie takes me on the back of her scooter to get the train and once in town we've a few minutes to kill and I walk next door to a convenience store and get the day's newspaper and a rice snack for the long ride south and a few minutes later Debbie's dropping me off outside the station and I lug my heavy bags across to platform 3.

I sit at a window seat with the pale green curtain drawn and close my eyes and wonder if I'll nap but I don't. When the guard checks my ticket I ask him to issue me with one to an extra stop - Fengshan - and it costs me NT$23 more.

The four hours don't seem too bad and it's gone 3pm when I get off at Fengshan. The station is big and new and once past the ticket barrier it's quite a walk outside to the baggage room where my bike will be waiting. By the time I get there my arms are killing me.

My plan is to get a bike train in the morning that leaves Fengshan at 9:38 and I decide to get the ticket now to just give me peace of mind. There's just the one special train that bikes can be carried on that goes as far as Linbian - a small town about an hour's journey south.

A hotel is just a minute's ride away from the station and the man and woman standing behind reception don't speak English but I quote a price of NT$1,380 in writing and I say to forget breakfast and it comes down NT$100 and I accept as it's about the usual rate.

My panniers get dumped in the room and head out as the plan is to take some photos of the Da-dong Arts Center for a magazine article and within 10 minutes I'm basically there. There are brown signs to follow.

A brass band is sat playing on the large concourse and there's a foreign conductor leading them, but I know that night time will be better for photos because it's then that the place gets lit up. It seems best to come back later.

There's another arts center 10 minutes or more to the west, straight along the same road, and I ride with the traffic and easily find the new Wei-wu-ying Center for the Arts. It's huge and there's a grassy park to its western side which I cruise around looking for spots to capture it all. It's a shame the grass has dried and gone brown.

It's about 5:00 when I ride back east to Da-dong and hopefully there's a place to eat there as lunch was just a snack on the train. A lot of the roof over the centre's concourse is formed by what looks like the lower sections of hot air balloons, and there are plants and fountains beneath them. As it's still daylight, my guess is the electric lighting doesn't get turned on until gone six, so I lock the bike outside a place called The Zone and order a set meal of pasta.

It's dark when I finish stuffing my face and outside the LED lights are all on and I spend a while walking around taking photos. There are some photographers milling around with cameras mounted on tripods mostly in one spot to snap fountains shooting water high up into the balloon-like openings. After joining them for a while, it takes me just five minutes to ride back to the hotel.

Today's ride: 11 km (7 miles)
Total: 11 km (7 miles)

Rate this entry's writing	Heart	0
Comment on this entry	Comment	0