Sightseeing along the base of the mountains near PingTung.

I left home this morning at about 8 after taking Johnny to school. It was still too late but better than the 9 o’clock at which I left last week.

A month or so ago there was a big stink in the newspaper about a very prominent directional sign to SeSei. It was controversial because the pinying or English spelling of the word was SeSei, however the pronunciation of the word in Mandarin is DeSei. Someone was obviously embarrassed as the sign was changed. Unfortunately, the sign 100 meters prior to the intersection was not. Not to worry, there is a freeway off-ramp in ZuoYing that has three signs and three different spellings.




Taiwanese don’t seem to like second hand things. They do like to recycle though, this is the local recycling drop-off site:


Seeing the second hand stores I can see why. As I went by the local second hand store today, it was closed. Rats. But I did see something out front that I liked. I don’t know what it is, but I am sure that I need it.


I didn’t have any real destination in mind but thought I should stop for pictures more today since I had neglected that last week. I headed to ShuiMun to start exploring and photographing the northern part of Highway 185 along the base of the mountains. The south part is what I avoided last week. There is more shade on the north part.

The first stop in ShuiMun was to see up close the ultra-light carcasses I had seen from the bridge going to SanDiMun. They were pretty rough; someone had a rather uncomfortable landing. It obviously hadn’t been Sully’d in.


Up at the actual ShuiMun (water door) I decided to find out where the water came from that flowed out of the side of the mountain.


I carried my bike, almost killing myself, up the stairs, down the ramp and up some more stairs, only to find myself at the start of the hill climb to MaJia with no hint of where the water came from other than the sweat that was pouring out of my body. I will save further exploration of the water source for another day. I coasted down the hill to the 7-11 for something cold. Supau, snickers and malted milk balls, what could have been better? Actually it could have been better if that 7-11 hadn’t cornered the market on house flies. There were fewer outside so I rested there.

This is a school where I usually stop if Johnny is with me and we have a soccer ball. It puts a little excitement into our riding and breaks up the monotiny for Johnny. One time Nigel was with us showing me how to do a kick where you throw the ball down and kick it giving it an extra boost. I said I could do that and proceeded to do a Charlie Brown all by myself, ending up flat on my back. Luckily there was no camera on site.


Down the road is a tunnel. Nothing spectacular but there is a sign reminding you in case you hadn’t seen it. One can see the tunnel long before one can see the sign. More interesting, though, is the sign with the track hoe, warning one, I am sure, that there should be no digging inside the tunnel. Or is it, no digging on top of the tunnel?




After the tunnel is a river with a road beside it. I always wondered where it went. Now I know: nowhere. But it did have some interesting homes along the bank and offered a cool place to wade in at the point the pavement disappeared.


Back on 185 I saw some interesting air conditioning concepts.


This procedure could work in Arizona where the humidity is about 10%, but here where the humidity is 85% it really does more harm than good. I have seen misters used here during rain storms. Oh, well.

The next stop was the waterfall. The river coming across (under) the highway actually had water in it so it was promising. I wasn’t disappointed. There was water coming over the weir and water in the bottom lake. Even the waterfall was fully flowing. I took a swim to cool off and it was enjoyable.




A couple of ladies were there and it looked like one was getting a haircut as she had on this smock like thing. After casually watching awhile I realized it was a private tent so she could change from her bathing suit back to her clothes without using the lady’s room.


There is the belief that every piece of available land in Taiwan is being used, either for homes or agriculture. This isn’t really true, but there is a lot of agriculture, especially in the south where the winters are much milder than in the north. At the beginning of my ride I stopped and bought a Supau. While I was drinking it the lady gave me a BahLa, or guava. I didn’t get a picture of the trees but I have seen a lot of different groves, etc. along the way.

Betel Nut.


Bananas


Papayas


Mango


Pineapples


Ducks


There is even a red-light district outside the retired military barracks. They don’t like their picture taken, and that’s probably a good thing.

Pray for rain

June 8th, I took a 106Km ride down south under the auspices of finding a beach that was close enough to cycle to and spend the day. During the entire day, and it took the entire day even though it only felt like a week, I saw no other cyclists. I was the only idiot on the road. That should have been my first clue. The temperature was somewhere in the mid 30’s (Celsius), 95F with the humidity high up there. I never thought I would pray for rain while cycling. The only picture I got was of a recycling plant. Taiwanese are big on recycling.




The rest of the time I spent looking for shade or visiting relatives just to get out of the heat. The first stop was in DongGang to see my (wife’s) coffin making cousin. I just sat in the shade while he worked, making traditional caskets. Just before noon I set out again, never finding a beach (it seemed too far out of the way considering the heat) until I located the tea shop on the marina at FangLiao. I didn’t stop as I had just left a 7-11 after polishing off a liter of Supau, the energy drink.

When I found my way back to Highway 1 I didn’t know whether I was north or south of Highway 185, the road along the mountains back north, so I headed south. After a few K’s I asked for directions (I know, not very manly of me) and found I was too far south.

When I reached 185 I realized I was hot and tired and 185 went uphill with no shade for several kilometers. I stayed on 1 and headed home. It was only 38Km this way, 45 the other. After 25Km I cut through the city of ChaoCho to stop at another cousin’s house. Niece Emily and husband Chuck were in town from Bullhead City so they dropped by to say “hi” while I recuperated. Chuck is my neighbor and very good friend from Bullhead City who married Hsien-Ling’s niece. They are here on a three week vacation.



I finally made it home about 6pm, hot and very tired. 9 hours total, most of it spent hiding in the shade.