The day begins with a worry. We prepare to leave for a day ride when I realize I can’t find my glasses. We thoroughly canvas the room, and then I go down to the hotel’s reception desk to check there. No luck. Nothing makes sense, but maybe I left them at dinner last night and walked the mile back to the hotel without realizing I didn’t have them. Unlikely, but of course we’ll check it out. Surprisingly, they’re open already - they must also serve breakfast - so we begin our ride by a detour to the restaurant. I enter the restaurant, and hopefully show her my backup pair. She smiles and pulls them from the drawer in front of her.
I’ve really done quite badly on this front in Taiwan. I’ve left them behind in three different restaurants now: in Xindian, in Yilan City, and now here. I’m pushing my luck.
With just a few days left on tour, the tension mounts. Will I manage to return home without losing my glasses this time? Odds are improving, but it’s no sure thing.
Bill ShaneyfeltI hang mine on my neck. Only take them off to shower or something similar. Have not lost any for years, since first doing that in the early 90s. Reply to this comment 5 years ago
Our bike ride today is a ramble through Taijiang National Park. It begins right on the city boundary and spreads north along the coast, covering a large expanse of tidal flatlands and a variety of ecosystems. Small roads, lanes and cyclepaths cut through it, nearly all of which are along the sea or one of myriad of narrow canals. If all you want to do is cycle around, look at the birds and get some fresh air, it’s a great place for a day ride.
We flowed a canalside bike path from our hotel to the sea and the edge of the National Park.
We made a friend at lunch today. We unfortunately didn’t have any oysters for him, probably his favorite, but he seemed grateful enough for scraps of bagel.
Bruce LellmanThis is a native dog - a Formosa Mountain Dog. I know this because our good friends Kat and Willie Weir adopted one from Taiwan. They all look remarkably similar. Reply to this comment 5 years ago
Scott AndersonTo Bruce LellmanOh, of course. Didn’t we see their dog at the first HAC gathering? And you’re right, they do all look surprisingly similar. Reply to this comment 5 years ago
The park appears to promote visits by bicycle. There are many marked bike routes, and new development is ongoing. This bridge across a narrow channel wasn’t even on our GPS map - it looks like it was just opened this year - and cut off a lengthy detour to the nearest highway.
Rachael sniped impatiently at me for stopping to take a photo of ‘just a crow’. That’s no crow, I said enthusiastically. That’s a black bulbul, a new species to add to the life list. I was wrong though. Black bulbuls have a red bill, so it’s not that. This looks like a fork tailed drongo, which is also a new species and sounds even cooler.
Scott AndersonTo Bruce LellmanNice job, Bruce! I almost put a gag hint in the caption as a clue for less insightful readers. Reply to this comment 5 years ago
We were puzzled by this long array of huge, attractive stones, out in the middle of nowhere next to a corn field. They were arrayed in three or four rows, perhaps a hundred yards long. What could the significance be?
Some of them had plaques and descriptions (unhelpfully in Chinese) as well as physical dimensions. Also a QR code, so Rachael scanned one. They’re for sale, or possibly rent, for your decorative feng shui garden. Just a big stone parking lot.
Luerhmen Mazu Temple is huge, and this isn’t the half of it. There’s a second huge statue and an equally large extent of the temple off the frame to the left.
Our planned route back to town was cut short by a twenty foot wide canyon through the middle of our road. This biker pointed to the correct route and then provided a demonstration. He didn’t make it look that easy so we just backtracked and took a different route.
You’re probably getting tired of seeing egrets by now. And frankly, so are we. We see them everywhere, and often in huge numbers. Fortunately we’re getting on toward the end of the tour so this might be the last time they crowd in here.
We had intended to spend the morning in the park and the afternoon walking through the city. With our late start though, it didn’t work out that way. We didn’t make it back to our hotel until late in the afternoon. Just enough time to shower, change, and head out for a meal. We found a place with some good Italian offereings, enjoying lasagna and enough pizza to have leftovers for tomorrow.
On the way back to our room, for the second night in a row we listened to the roar of low flying fighter jets passing over the city, presumably returning to base. There must have been at least seven sets of them that flew over in the space of a half hour’s time. A reminder that just across the water is their big brother on the mainland.
The day ends up with yet another new species to add to the list: the prestigious Tripel Karmeleit, designated the Best Pale Ale in the World abeer Arards, 2008.
5 years ago