December 1, 2014
Home again
Some afterthoughts
The flight home was very straight forward - the bikes disassembled cleanly, flights were hassle-free and on time, we had an agreeable schedule, and my sister picked us up at the airport. It was a nice change to get home at midday rather than the more typical late night arrival.
For some reason the period leading up to this tour found me more apprehensive than usual - I was more anxious about cultural issues (language and diet primarily), traffic and weather. It was needless anxiety though as it turned out. The trip went very well, and we thought Taiwan was an excellent cycling destination. We were glad we came and would like to return.
Some general observations:
- first and foremost, the Taiwanese were wonderful hosts. I don't think we've cycled anywhere where we had such frequent warm serendipitous encounters or felt more well-received.
- Taiwan's growing reputation as a cycle-friendly environment is well deserved. The country is making a significant and very visible investment in bike infrastructure - bikeways seem to be popping up everywhere, repair and toilet facilities are common. It is obviously paying off - we saw many (probably hundreds) of other cycle tourists looping the island; and the bikeways along the rivers in Taipei are very heavily used. It feels a bit like Portland, if you overlaid it with a few billion scooters.
- Taiwan has a few scooters. These definitely take some getting used to, and I don't think I'd recommend a tour like ours for someone that isn't already pretty comfortable biking in complex, fluid traffic conditions. Once you adapt to it though, it is remarkable how well the system works - bikes come and go in all directions at once, yet somehow it all works out. For myself, I imagine it like being in a school of fish. It's really pretty fun if you relax, stay alert and go with the flow.
- On the plus side with scooters, many of the major thoroughfares have a dedicated scooter lane that serves as a bicycling lane also. I would much rather compete for space with scooters than sedans, trucks and tour buses.
- We felt personally safe everywhere; and safe on the roads almost everywhere. There were a few spots with too much traffic, no shoulder and no alternative (notably on the southeast coast around Dawu), but they were the exception. We enjoyed many miles of quiet, secluded riding on near-empty roads or bikeways; and where we rode on busier roads there was normally either a generous shoulder or a scooter lane, or both. Also, road surface quality is generally very good.
- Somewhere we had gotten the impression that wild dogs were a menace in Taiwan. Rachael has a healthy fear of dogs (especially since her ramming speed encounter with a German Shepard last year) and was watching out pretty anxiously for them throughout the first half of the trip. They're definitely an overrated threat though. From our experience I wouldn't view them as a concern at all.
- I was glad for the itinerary we took because it gave us a good look at the whole island. If we come here again though I would definitely make more time for the mountainous interior and seek out more hot springs.
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