Smile because it happened

Time: 9:19am

Location: Mackay Memorial Hospital, Danshui

Weather: 26C, cloudy

It is the end of June and according to my original plans I'm suppose to be somewhere in Central China right now. But instead I'm still in Taiwan, who would have known that the tail end of my Asian journey would be bout in the hospital. On June 12, one day before I was due to leave Taiwan, I had a bike accident riding on the outskirts of Danshui which resulted in a broken jaw in two spots. It was a combination of downhill and braking too hard but it wasn't like I haven't gone down millions of roads like that before. In the end I think the culprit is simply fatigue, lack of sleep and rest in the days compounded with days of pushing myself to cover as much of Taiwan as possible. I have this problem where I don't really let myself admit that I'm tired, and perhaps this time life needed to show me. Fortunately I was with Flora, and I can't thank her and her friend Vin and my cousin enough for arranging everything in those critical hours at the hospital when I needed the most help. The second day at the hospital, 11 people came to visit and I just about bawled because I couldn't believe I had such good friends, some of which I've literally known for days. Since then I've had my suspected C-spine injury cleared for negative and jaw surgery, where they put my mandible back in place and then wired my mouth shut to stabilize the bone, subsisting on a liquid diet and very little talking. Yesterday I finally had the wires removed and real food has never tasted so good. By the look of things, I'm going to be on the plane home tonight. I would be lying if I said I wasn't ever bitter, but given the circumstances, it's good to have a break and I'm very glad to be home again to stuff myself with sushi and peanut butter (maybe nibble is more appropriate), wake up to the the North Shore Mountains, and stroll on the seawall.

Switching to a lighter note, backtracking to the days before the accident:

I had a few items left to do after coming back from the Philippines during what I thought were my last few days in Taiwan. The first few days of return I caught up on some last-minute dragon boat on-the-water training sessions. Dragon boat is not something I talked about in the previous posts but it's something I've been involved in since April, although my training attendance has not been the most consistent. Being a sport that I've always wanted to try, I jumped right up when my friend Flora told me about the opportunity ro join this Russian expat team. The first few times were dry land sessions at a city-maintained water tank at the most elusive location under a bridge, where I learned quickly that dragon boat is done entirely with the core and back and actually has little to do with the arms. It's great to see that Taipei, or in our case New Taipei City, really supports this sport as it even assigns practice slots for teams to use the city's boats for free. Although we were far from being the winners during the Dragon Boat Festival competitions, I loved the energy of the race atmosphere and our team's unity. Mostly I loved the opportunity to partake in this during the traditional cultural festival and when I go back home, I'm seriously going to look for a way to continue rowing. 

On June 4 I set off for a last trip into Taiwan's beautiful mountains, first a two day hike along the Shakadang trail up into Dali, an Aboriginal village in the mountains of my favourite national park Taroko Gorge, capping off with a ride up Wuling, at 3275m the highest point accessible by road in Taiwan. Special thanks to my friend Nick, who not only lent me his touring bike but accompanied me the entire way, so that I could realize my dream of biking through Taroko Gorge and Hehuanshan, a seed that was planted right from the first time I visited here. I had my heart set on riding in from the east direction regardless of how many people tried to dissuade me from doing so, and in all honesty, it was the best decision I could have made when I saw how trafficked the west side was. It really wasn't that bad save for the last 8km of switchbacks with some inclines that might have made you cry. Since we went nice and slow, spending 3 days along the Central Cross Highway in total, I also managed to check off 5 more mountains over 3000m, albeit some of which are 10min hikes from the highway.

 

The last two weeks at the hospital, which I've stayed in mainly because I no longer have a place to live and the hospital is the most medically convenient, has been a lot of much needed sleep and considerations about everything that's happened. This is not how I should have left Asia, but not everything always goes according to should have, and it's all part of the experiential of life. The last year or so I've really come to believe that few things in life are truly bad, most of the time unhappiness arise out of how we choose to react to things. So the next few weeks will be a bit of mouth opening and learning to chew again, taking life at a slower pace after a most fulfilled 10 months away. I won't get to go to all the places I wanted to this time around, but Asia will always be here and Vancouver at this time of year is simply stunning, and frankly I'm excited for some habitable temperatures 😃

Filipino Fondness

Time: 6:14pm

Location: on the ferry from Tagbilaran, Bohol to Cebu

Weather: cloudy, 32C

Never would I have imagined finding a home away from home in the short 7 days that I am in the Philippines, but that's precisely what Lennon's Place, an enchanting abode in the middle of the forest and yet still minutes away from the Alona Beach bustles, offered in the last 5 days, and I found myself loving this country more and more each day. Meeting some of the most interesting and crazy people definitely added to the mix. 

After a exhilarating motorbike ride back to NAIA on May 27th, mainly because I couldn't find a taxi from where I was staying, I left the insanity that is Manila for Bohol. Maybe it was something about the trees, the puffy clouds in the brilliant blue sky, or the ocean breeze rustling through my hair, but I knew as soon as I stepped off the Tarmac that I was going to like this place, a lot.

And boy was I right. Spending 3 of the last 5 days underwater, completing my Open Water SCUBA diving course and then diving two more times at nearby Balicasag Island with sea turtles, one of my favourite marine animals, I got to throughly experience Pangalao Island's oceans. Countless times I found myself not believing how surreal it was all was, hanging out 15m underwater being surrounded by magnificent corals that compare to the Great Barrier Reef, as mad schools of fish dash everywhere around, crabs scurry on the bottom, nudibranches, worms, slugs and sea snakes do the wiggle dance. All thanks to my awesome instructor Karim, I now get the skills to experience this again and again!

Of course I also left some time for land adventures. From 5am motorbike trips chasing the sunrise, discovering some of the picture perfect white sand beaches the Philippines is known for (you don't necessarily have to go to Borocay), to witnessing the iconic Chocolate Hills and greeting tarsiers, a real life inspiration for ET, I loved driving through the lush jungles of Bohol taking in the myriad of colours of the vegetation. Outside of big cities, Filipinos are some of the most genial people I have met, always ready for jokes and a good laugh. A few days in the same place and they start to remember you, even if they still do try to sell you tricycle rides and necklaces.

Needless to say, I really mean it when I say the Philippines is a place I certainly would love to return to. 

Sea to Sky Taiwan Edition

Time: 10:59am

Location: Binondo, Manila, Philippines

Weather: cloudy and very muggy, 30C

In the last 12 hours or so that I have been in the Philippines I have managed to:

-Survive NAIA. There are no shortage of horror stories online but I arrived in the newish clean Terminal 3 which wasn't that bad at all.

-Haggle like a true Asian for a taxi ride to be $140, when it was posted for like 10 times that amount. Even the hostel people said people usually pay $350. This did involve walking all over the airport to find the metered taxis that will rip you less off, rejecting numerous touts. What can I say, haggling is tiring but that's SE Asia for you!

-Ride a Jeepney trying to blend in with the locals (not too hard actually considering I am so tanned) even though I had little idea where it was going. A Jeepney is sort of like a converted truck with flamboyant designs and crowded seats in the trunk bed, originating from American military jeeps. Even though they write the major stops of their routes, I still haven't figured it out completely and have been left walking a long way back to my intended destination multiple times.

-Squeeze to the bones on the LRT, which is anything but "rapid".

-Eat balut, Jolibees, mango with pepper salt (!!), amongst other street foods, so far the stomach is holding up well!

I'm going to agree with the general consensus that Manila is not the nicest as far as cities go, quite rough on the edges with the crazy traffic, pollution and in-your-face poverty. I only designated one day here before my flight to Bohol tomorrow, and originally was looking to go to the Taal Volcano down south today but the combination of waking up later than planned and the roundtrip by public transport taking something like 8 hours made me forgo the idea. Instead I simply spent the day walking around Binondo (Chinatown) and Intramuros, the fortified historic centre with Spanish colonial architecture, hopping into churches and air conditioned fast food joints often to not die from the heat. I will say that Manila's noise and prominent Western historical background makes it quite different from all the other Asian capitals I've been to; a fellow traveller I met said it was more akin to South American cities.

However, this post will recap my spontaneous trip to Lanyu, Green Island, and Xueshan in Taiwan last week. I was amidst writing an earlier post about the rest of April and May until let's just say my phone got baptized in the cold springs of Lanyu. When I get a new phone and hopefully find that post again, rest assured that it will be retro-completed. Unfortunately the lack of a phone also means I have little to no photos of these places. Or perhaps that is a blessing. Frankly, I didn't panic at all without a phone (the guy at the Green Island Visitor Centre who helped me big time and I both joked that a Japanese, and perhaps most Taiwanese, would definitely freak out and maybe even end their trip right then) as it was actually quite nice not having to worry about taking the perfect photos (which I find I don't really look at too often after the fact except to show people occasionally), checking messages and emails, and I just lived in the moment everyday. There was a lot more human interaction because if I had questions I'd just ask people rather than asking Google. I think a lot of the time we take photos for other people, to an extent to make them jealous that we were there and they weren't. As someone who values experiences and memories over any material goods in life, I believe, as I said to many friends, that eyes are always the best lens and that your brain is better than any camera. 

To start, my trip to Lanyu was not without a few hilarious hiccups. For whatever reason (lack of sleep and over contemplation of other things most likely), I took the wrong train in the opposite direction on Saturday May 14th night, going to Kaohsiung instead of Taitung. This meant that I had no way of making my planned 9:15am ferry the next morning at Fugang Wharf. As soon as I realized that, I vaguely remembered you could also get to Lanyu from Houbihu Wharf down in Kenting, and after frantic exchanges of messages with the boat ticket agent (who amazingly was still awake past 12am on Sunday), I was rebooked for a 1:00pm ferry from Houbihu. And so that is how I end up accidentally circumnavigating Taiwan again, spending a few hours chilling on the beaches of Kenting. The ferry ride itself was 2.5 hours, about the same time from both terminals, and quite rocky, reminiscent of the ferry ride to Heron Island in Australia, but scenic and filled with flying fish performances. Even though I normally don't get seasick, I took motion sickness pills just to be safe and still felt a bit wheezy. 

Once on Lanyu, it was my mission to find a rental bike, which fortunately didn't take too long as the guy I asked went about calling his friends until he got a working one for me. For the type of weather (including a monsoon) and terrain (steep, steep 10%+ grade hills) I rode though all over the island, I have to really thank my stars that this cheap department store type bike held through the whole time. 

On the first afternoon, I went off counterclockwise without a plan, stopping at Qing Qing Meadows just in time for the sunset before finding a wonderful backpacker's inn for the night in the east coast village of Hongtou, where I ended up staying for two nights. Over the next 2.5 days, I splashed around in the cold springs (my absolute favourite place on Lanyu despite it being the death location of my phone), rode around the coast checking out all the interesting rock formations, swam in the ocean (so much so that my skin started peeling although that might be sun-related too), traversed over the coral rocks coming face to face with sea snakes amongst other marine organisms, visited the Tao tribe's underground dwellings, climbed up to the Lighthouse, Small Heaven Lake (which was dry) and Large Heaven Lake, scuba dived through this hole 20m below the ocean, and most of all, ate enough flying fish for a lifetime. And yes I did have time to nap on the beach too. It was in the middle of flying fish season so the local Aborigines go out to fish every night and you could see all the fish hanging to dry on racks everywhere. On my last night I camped at a pavilion by the cold springs, and let's just say I had the most random conversation with a drunkard who insisted on telling me all of his life troubles before coming back to bring me a bunch of flying fish. 

The lack of development, authentic natural beauty, and the sincerity of the people I met makes Lanyu such a hidden slice of paradise and now I think my favourite place in Taiwan, even though it resembles little of the rest of Taiwan. How does one go back to living in Taipei, or any urban city for that matter, after going to Lanyu?

On the 2 hour boat ride to Green Island I met two Taiwanese sisters who were biking around Taiwan, using the same rental bike that I had! We also witnessed one of the biggest whales I've ever seen! Arriving at Green Island, which was overrun with commercial establishment like the Taiwan that I knew, on Wedsneday afternoon was quite the cultural shock for me. Here comes part two of the bike searching bonanza. For some reason this guy who was waiting at the terminal as soon as my boat docked, initially wanting to rent me his scooters, was very keen to help me find a bike even when I told him I had no interest in a scooter. So off we went asking multiple shops and homestays, sadly without luck, and we were just about to give up as I told him to drop me off at the main food strip when we stumble upon a homestay undergoing renovations with some bikes parked out in front. We asked the owner who let me try the best bike amongst them and I couldn't believe my luck because not only did this bike have gears that work well (much better than the Lanyu one), it was actually a touring type bike with a rack, panniers and even disc brakes. On top of this he didn't really care how much he charged me for it so we just settled for $100/24 hours which to me was ridiculously cheap. I felt like I've won the lottery! To celebrate I had some sea grass shaved ice, which was very expensive as most things on Green Island but was sort of a local must-try delicacy. As it got dark, I rode off to the Lighthouse, which the scooter guy had recommended a good spot for wild camping because even the only campground on the island charged $400/person, and before long was settled in my bivy along a beautiful stretch of sand on the beach. Earlier that night, people kept coming for night shore excursions where they looked for nocturnal animals in the tidal pools, and I secretly laughed at a few of them who thought I was an animal (just like when I camped at a school playground on my bike trip across Canada) or commented that this (as in what I was doing) was what life was really about (not to sound arrogant but I agree!). I ended camping both nights of Green Island on the beach, the second night at a more secluded area called Swallow's Cave (it was where a lot of the past prisoners were cremated and buried, and this should have freaked me out more but didn't really as I generally don't believe in ghosts). It was windy but otherwise perfect weather and I wouldn't have chosen any other accommodation. 

Quite a bit of my time on Green Island, which geographically and geologically is similar to Lanyu but that's about it,  was spent at the two prisons that used to hold "political criminals" during the White Terror Period (1949-1987) of Taiwan, when the KMT released widespread propaganda, heavily restricted the freedom of speech and captured those who had different ideas than the government (proving that history does repeat itself over and over again). I had no idea about this bit of history, in fact, even the museum staff say they don't really teach this in the schools in Taiwan, and so it was very eye-opening seeing how the prisoners lived in captivity and was brainwashed with political lessons. Of course I did also hit on all the coastal rock formations, hike up mountains, soak in the Zhaori seawater hotspring (one of only three in the world), and the most funny of all, experience a Taiwanese-style guided snorkelling excursion where we were all tied into one chain by lifesaver rafts that the guide would control. To make up for the zero freedom of movement, we did see some fantastic underwater life and the third largest mushroom coral in the world just a short ways off the coast. 

Saying goodbye to Green Island, I had a few hours to kill in Taitung (in the middle meeting one of the few foreign English teachers living in Taitung on the bus and hearing all about life there) before my late night train (this time there is no room for mistake to take the wrong train haha), so I went into the city with just enough time to stroll the night market, buy food for my hiking trip, and get an opinion on the salvage probability of my phone (he was super nice and even cleaned the corroded insides of my phone for free but did ultimately give me false hope). I arrived in Luodong, Yilan just before 3am (super nervous about missing the stop and since I didn't have anything to set an alarm I barely slept), where I slept-waited for my 7am bus to Wuling Farm at nothing other than a 7-11. The longer you live in Taiwan, the more you depend on them and realize how essential they are in daily life. Consequently I spent most of the 3 hour bus ride up the mountain asleep. At the bus stop in Wuling Farm, it was another 7km walk along the road to the Xueshan trailhead but fortunately this shuttle bus driver offered to drive me about 3km within minutes after I started walking, even waiting while I sorted out the permit at the police station. I was a bit worried that the National Park staff wouldn't let me hike alone but it turned out to be no problem at all as the Xueshan route is very easy, well marked and well travelled. Some time a bit after noon on Saturday May 26th, I started hiking up, reaching the 369 Hut in a little over 3 hours where I would be spending the night. Everyone who met me exclaimed the fact that I was alone, and yes I guess this was my first time tackling a high mountain solo, but the trail was honestly so dummy proof and easy there was no way to get lost. Along the way I met a Taiwanese-Canadian who was back in Taiwan studying medicine, and asked her if she could send photos of me at the East Peak of Xueshan (3201m), where on Saturday afternoon you could see cloud-shrouded bits of the magnificent Xueshan ranges. 

Being a weekend, the hut was packed with Taiwanese hiking groups, who all like to wake up at 2-3am to go climb the main peak for the sunrise, exactly like at Yushan, even though there was again no sunrise the next morning. When I woke up around 5:30am on Sunday, there was hardly anyone at the hut and I could enjoy the brief serenity of being in the mountains. Around 6:30am, I started up towards the second highest mountain of Taiwan, and arrived at the 3886m Xueshan Main Peak in a bit over 1 hour with a much lighter pack. For the first time (okay maybe second after biking through the monsoon on Lanyu but that was exciting to say the least) this week, the weather didn't cooperate and I could see nothing but fog at the top. Chilly photos later, again borrowing other people's cameras and appealing to them to send them to me, I scratched my originally plan of going a bit along the Holy Ridge to the North Peak and just went down and up a slippery scree at times to Cui Pond, the highest body of water in Taiwan. I guess this was the only part of the entire hike where something could have gone bad especially since I was completely alone, but I didn't really think about it too much at the time. 

Returning to the hut I still had a good part of the day even though it was raining outside with pretty bad visibility, so I slowly made lunch, took a nap, and then walked as leisurely as I could down to the lower Qika Hut where I was spending my second night, realizing now that it was possible to do this just in 2 days and make the bus down, even though it would be definitely more rushed. I got to Qika Hut around 4pm, and was insisted by the other hikers to eat their dinner even though I'd just cooked mine. Later a big school group of children arrived to fill the hut, but I didn't care and still managed to crash around 7pm. Over these two days, I saw more of how Taiwan's convenience makes people lazier. People could sign up for these hiking trips and not pay very much for porters, mainly Aborginals, to carry their stuff and cook for them. To me this kind of takes the meaning out of hiking; if you can't be self sufficient on a hike maybe you're not ready to do it just yet, 

The next morning (again many had already left to go up when I woke up at 5am) I walked the last 2km down to the trailhead and because it was still very early decided to make a jaunt for the Taoshan Waterfall. I managed to hitch a ride partially with one of the aforementioned porters going off to do the Wuling Sixiu for another group, even though he told me that I wouldn't have enough time to do this. Leaving my pack at the entrance of the trail, I speedwalked to the waterfall, which I think was definitely worth going to, and ran back down all in about 1.5h. Eventually I did still have lots of time before the 2:10pm bus and was walking back long the road towards the bus stop when an empty bus stopped to pick me up. It turned out to be one of the buses that transported the school group, and the driver was a super experienced hiker, having climbed like everything in Taiwan as a guide and enthusiastically chattered on and on about his experiences. Then he said that he and his partner, the other bus driver chartered by the school group, were going to Lishan, a scenic area about 40min away famous for growing fruits like pears, apples and peaches, and staying there for two nights because the school group wouldn't be coming down until two days later, and asked if I wanted to tag along. We checked the bus time from Lishan to Luodong, after ensuring that it would work out for me, it was a no brainer to join them as I had nothing to do anyways. The weather was much better that day with glimpses of blue skies and sunshine (if only this had been yesterday), and I had a beautiful scenic ride to Lishan with the most knowledgeable guide pointing out everything. For the 3 hours or so at Lishan, we had lunch together and the drivers kept chatting about their hikes and travels right up until I had to get on the public bus back.

So once again, Taiwan proves to be the best place in the world for hitchhiking. And the spontaneous life continues, who knows what's going to happen in the Philippines tomorrow?

Springing into the third chapter

Time: 10:18pm

Location: Taipei

Weather: 23C, light rain

Another month just flew by and I've officially been in Asia for over half a year! Since coming back to Taiwan, it's been super busy with starting a new job, moving into a new place, figuring out things like paying for bills and buying stuff I didn't have to worry about the first three months I was in Taiwan. I've settled into nice routines, from exercise to meal planning, and once again weekends have become very precious, not in the sense that I only live for the weekends as I try to make everyday extraordinary, but with a fixed work schedule Monday to Friday, weekends are definitely when more can be done! I've been thinking lately about this fixed work schedule vs. variable work debate, and even though I still think I would prefer the latter, I can see how it might be easier to achieve a work-life balance with the former just from a time perspective. I used to believe that once I found my ideal job, my work would be my life and vice versa because I would love it so much, and this balance issue wouldn't exist. Turns out these are idealistic beliefs instilled when you come out of school that slowly get morphed by the realities of life. And not that I've stopped trying to get closer to that ideal job, but I've realized that it might take a very long time, maybe even never, to find a job which you love 100% (big kudos to you if you've found that), and that's okay because as long as you enjoy perhaps 70% of what you do or at the very least don't hate your job, it will make the other parts of your life even more colourful.

Anyways, enough big ideas for this post, here's what I've been up to!

The first weekend back in Taipei, I went to the Taipei International Bike Show where a friend I met biking in January was helping out. It was like a kid being in a candy store and of course I wanted to buy everything. There were demo carbon bikes selling for $20000NTD! That afternoon I went to a short easy Meetup hike in Neihu, passing through Bishan Temple, Yuanjue Waterfall, Baishihhu Suspension and Dragon Boat Rock. 

I met more hiking friends and we made plans to do extended hikes, one of which is Jiaming Lake over the Labour Day weekend very soon that I can't wait for! 

That Sunday I met up with VOC friends Jens and Ru who I haven't seen in awhile and just happened to be in Taipei! They are sort of travelling around the world with their newborn son, coolest parents ever! We did another easy hike up Guanyinshan. I have looked up it so many times from Danshui so it was cool finally being on the top of the other side! Afterwards we hung out in Bali and Danshui, places I can say I know like the back of my hand.

The next two weeks it pretty much rained nonstop, but I still managed to bike or walk the 4-5km to work everyday. I love my Helly Hansen rain jacket but I'm learning from the Taiwanese that a plastic poncho is really the best thing. I spent Saturday March 12th having a wonderful catch up lunch with former coworkers Jenny and Irene at the Taipei City Hakka Cultural Park, which was really nice but sadly desolated even on a weekend. 

In between I caught up with a friend and former fellow UBC Kinner Dr. Frances for dinner at the famous Yongkang Street (where we had the mango shaved ice), and got to learn all about the medical field in Taiwan!

Thanks to another former coworker Jonathon, I also got to attend a great walking tour at Dadaocheng and some traditional puppet theatre performance the next Saturday March 19th. Dihua Street is an area I've been to many times before for dried goods but it's the first time actually having a guide explain what I was looking at and I learned to look deeper than these shops.

I even squeezed in two more hikes during this rainy period, one with Meetup along Taoyuan Historic Trail, which if you remember I went a bit along on when I did the spectacular Caoling Historic Trail, and a quick jaunt up Tianmu Historic Trail to the boundaries of Yangmingshan. Tianmu is a bit of an isolated neighbourhood full of expats in the Beitou District, and actually really reminds me of Kits with the numerous Western styled cafes and boutiques. 

Easter weekend, which isn't a holiday here, I did something on that Saturday I've been wanting to ever since Jeweanne showed it to me back in November. I volunteered to be a guide cyclist for blind people, and it was absolutely one of the most meaningful things I have ever done. That day we rode from Beitou MRT to Tianyuan Temple in Danshui, built very much like the Summer Palace in Beijing which I didn't go this time in February but visited back in summer 2011. We had a guided tour of the temple, and even though the blind people couldn't see the beautiful cherry blossoms that were outside, we did our best to bring the experience to them through their other senses. 

I learned so much about using verbal and manual cues, but what I took away the most were appreciation and gratification. Being able to spread the joys of cycling and playing in the outdoors that I get to others who have difficulties experiencing it by themselves was rewarding beyond words, and I plan to continue volunteering with this incredible organization, like I just did this past weekend again (more details below). So many simple daily things like eating and going to the bathroom that we don't even think twice about become challenges when you don't have the help of vision, and yet it's incredible how well these people adapt and what they are capable of doing, for example, some of them have biked around Taiwan just like how I did in January and are training to do it again next year.  

On Easter Sunday, I went to Wulai with my new friend Michelle, another place which has been on my to-do list for the longest time especially since it was damaged badly by the typhoon in August last year.  We had wanted to do a hike but that trail was still closed when we got there so we just went down the river and sat by there for a while. Running back to the Old Street, we had a delicious lunch at an Aboriginal restaurant where I got to taste for the first time some of Taiwan's mountain grown vegetables, including betel nut flower! Afterwards, I finally had the opportunity to experience a real hotspring, not just a feet soaking pool, down by the river in Wulai. I don't have the biggest obsession with hot springs, as many do when they go to Taiwan or Japan, and especially don't like the pool ones in hotels, but this one qualified as semi-wild (even if there was a lot of concrete structures built around).  We went to check out the waterfall before taking the bus back, and on the way home I stopped by Jingmei Night market which was recommended by another friend. I will admit that after going through all of the well-known night markets in Taipei a few times, they actually become kind of old, although I am constantly trying to find lesser well-known hidden ones to explore. I didn't find anything extraordinary at Jingmei but it was nice seeing no tourists and having a very local feel. 

Whirlwind to the end of March and my first month back in Taiwan, it was a 4 day weekend thanks to a Children's Day and Tomb Sweeping Festival, which for those of you who don't know, is a traditional Chinese holiday where families visit and clean the graves of their deceased ancestors. My legs were itching for some long distance riding so I recruited 4 of newly met friends for a bike tour of the North across Highway. Off we went towards Daxi in Taoyuan County on the Saturday, a place I had been wanting to visit for a while and surely didn't disappoint. 

Despite drastically different bikes (ranging from my fully loaded rental mountain bike with suspensions to my friend Nicole's road bike with no bags) and skill levels, we made it up and down the hills of some extremely picturesque roads, including even Lalashan, which even for me was a bit of type 2 fun.

 Special thanks to Nicole's boyfriend Kiwi who joined in last minute as the support vehicle driver, although I'm proud to say I carried my stuff by myself the whole way. The highlights were definitely finding the best off-the-radar wild hotspring and eating chicken from Lalashan on the side of a cliff in the pitch darkness while going down towards if. 

On the last night, I went to visit Jenny who happened to be in Yilan and had the best karaoke and tomato-picking session to prep for the longest last day up Beiyi Road and then from Xindian to Danshui along the riverside path. 120km on a mountain bike definitely takes more toll on your body, and big kudos to Johannes for joining me the whole way!

And as for last weekend, I went on a special two-day event as a volunteer guide with the same blind cycling organization I helped out with two weeks ago. We stayed overnight at Jiaobanshan, which was also the area we camped around on our first night of the bike trip. On Saturday I got to experience a Taiwanese BBQ, where I was so impressed by how you can just order a ready-made BBQ package here with all the food and tools. That afternoon we did what they call "mountain training", which for us involved things like rappelling, rock climbing, tight rope walking and zip lining (my first time zip lining actually and loved it!). Some of these were challenging enough and even a bit scary for a non-climber like me, and it was super inspiring seeing the blind people successfully complete the tasks one after another. 

After a night of singing and dancing to some very interesting music, we got up bright and early on Sunday for a cycling expedition along Luoma Highway, a branch off of the North Cross Highway and supposedly on every Taiwanese cyclist's , eventually finishing the memorable weekend at a DIY tomato farm in Guanxi. For many, the hills along that road proved to be challenging, but everybody did amazingly well. Special thanks to my partner whose iron legs fueled my competitive spirit and had us at the front of the pack pretty much the whole time!

This weekend I'm going to Taichung to watch the annual Mazu Pilgrimmage in Dajia, details all in the next post!