Friday, November 10 9:00 p.m.

This is the first time that I’ve actually taken the NEO on the road. I was worried about the poor thing because I had it inside one of the side bags on the Topeak trunk bag. It is inside a padded case and I put that inside a water proof stuff sack, but I was still worried. I’m not accustomed to taking electronic equipment like this on a bike. It’s supposed to be pretty tough, but who knows?

I’ve gotten much better at packing for these little excursions. The first one, the ride I took during Chinese New Year, was a somewhat stressful event because I didn’t have any gear at all. So I was busy purchasing the things that I thought I would need, including a tent and sleeping bag. The sleeping bag has come in somewhat handy for keeping a certain dove warm, but the tent has not seen a single night’s use. On my second trip, my ride to Fushing, I took the sleeping bag and tent again even though I never used them. I also took them when I rode around the coast to the north and came back over Yangmingshan. I stayed in a surfer’s B&B near Jinshan that time and the once more the sleeping bag and tent were just dead weight.

I like having a tent and sleeping bag just in case. But it really was a pain to take them since the bike isn’t set up for touring. Finally, when I went to Jingtung and Pingshi, I bit the bullet and left the tent and sleeping bag behind. I just took the handlebar bag and the Topeak trunk bag. I didn’t even use the side bags of the trunk bag. I just used the main compartment. It wasn’t ideal, but it was nice to be so light in the luggage department. And on this trip, I went the same way, though I ended up taking a bit more stuff than before. That’s because I decided to take this NEO. That meant I had to use one of the side bags. I filled the other side bag with two t-shirts, three pairs of underwear, a pair of long pants, and a bathing suit. I wore my blue beach shorts (even though they are a bit scruffy), a t-shirt, and my Teva sandals. The sandals are nice. It means I don’t have to worry about socks and shoes. Though I’ve noticed that the rubber sometimes takes on a distinct stinky odor.

In the central compartment of the trunk bag, I dumped a bunch of random stuff. This bike touring without real pannier bags is a bit of a pain. I don’t have any good places to put things. All the little things that one carries like a flashlight, toolkit, maps, books, extra batteries etc don’t have natural homes. In the handlebar bag I put my camera, binoculars, wallet and assorted odds and ends.

The camera is a bit heavier this time because I attached the winder. I bought the thing on Ebay some months ago and haven’t really used it much. I thought I might as well give it a try. So far, I’m loving it. I don’t absolutely have to have it. It’s not like I can’t advance the film myself. But since the winder does it for me, I never forget to do it, and I don’t have to look away from the viewfinder afterwards. I can just keep looking around and take another picture right away if I want to. When I bought the winder, I thought it would be the most useful for taking pictures of people, and I still think that would be true, but it is also useful for landscapes I’m finding. I just like it. It does make the camera significantly bigger and heavier, but it’s not over the top heavy. It still feels good in the hand anyway.

Packing this morning went very smoothly. I have a list in a notebook now and I go through the list to make sure I have everything. I did forget one thing, however. I forgot it because bringing long pants is a new thing. I hadn’t taken long pants before. I forgot to bring a belt! So these pants are riding pretty low on my hips! I keep having to hoist them up. And I have no place to put my cell phone.

I decided to go to a place Jioufen. It’s not far away from Keelung – a bit up in the mountains though you can still see the ocean. I wasn’t sure which way I should go. I could take the road through Pingshi or I could follow the main road that goes to Keelung and then turn off. I decided to go the Keelung route because it would get me here quicker. That way I could have more time to spend here in daylight. Then I could go back to Taipei along the Pingshi road. I hadn’t cycled the last bit of that road, so it would be somewhat new.

The problem with this route is that it takes me through endless Taipei sprawl. That wasn’t very pleasant. I followed Zhongsiao all through Taipei until it turned into highway 5. It was very challenging. I think I’ve mentioned that cycling in Taipei has gotten much easier, that I seem to have gotten the hang of it. It turns out that isn’t actually true. I’ve just gotten the hang of the particular roads that I take to work. I now know exactly which lane to be in at which time and how to get through each intersection. I know what to look out for. But that doesn’t help me when I’m faced with a new road and this morning I got into all kinds of trouble. If I’m being truthful here, I have to admit to one lapse of control. A van sideswiped me and I beat on the side of it with the flat of my hand in anger. But I didn’t actually flip out or anything like that.

There was very little pleasant about the ride. I’ve actually ridden on that piece of road twice already. I don’t recognize the road so much – it is so irregular that it is barely recognizable as a road anyway. It’s more a jumble of bits of concrete and steel that just got stitched together. What I recognize are the tall buildings and industrial areas along the way. I had my Shuffles with me and I listened to podcasts most of the time.

Things didn’t get even a bit interesting until toward the end. Then I had to figure out exactly how to get to Jioufen. That was a bit of a problem because all my maps had different names for things and I really didn’t even know where Jioufen was or what it was. I ended up in a place called Ruifang. I suspected that this was the same place as Jioufen, just spelled differently. I brought the relevant pages from the Lonely Planet this time (I cut them out of the book) and they confused me. The content of the book only mentioned Jioufen. Yet the map doesn’t show any Jioufen. It only shows Ruifang where Jioufen should be. I felt it was reasonable to believe that they just made a mistake and that they were one and the same. But Ruifang didn’t look like anything special. I certainly hoped it wasn’t the place I was trying to get to. I finally asked for directions in a 7-11. I also got a meal and some milk. The clerks pushed each other around trying to settle who was going to speak to the foreigner. One guy finally won (lost?) and he came forward. I showed him the Chinese for Jioufen and he pointed me down a road and told me to turn right at an intersection. He said there was a sign that would point the way. With that information, I set off once more and I was soon cycling along a much smaller road that followed a river and slowly started to climb into the mountains. That felt right and I knew I was on my way.

I didn’t have to go very far on that climb. I think it was only about six or seven kilometers. And when I saw Jioufen, I was quite surprised. It was much larger than I expected. I understood it to be a tiny village, but it didn’t look like a village. It looked more like a city. A small city, but still a city. It certainly looked much, much larger than Pingshi or Jingtung.

I had the pages from the Lonely Planet as I said and I looked in them to see if they had any recommendations for a place to stay. It recommended a place with the odd name of Jioufen Kite Museum. The guide said that there were a lot of sub-standard B&B’s in Jioufen, but the Kite Museum was actually clean and nice. It was right on my way and I locked up my bike and walked down a few sets of stairs to check the place out. It was completely deserted when I went in. I had to look around to find someone. Eventually a tiny Filipina came out of hiding and showed me some rooms. They were nice, but I balked at the price of $2,000. The rooms were far too small for that price I thought. And they were too close together. They didn’t feel private. In any event, I didn’t want to pay $2,000 and I told her that I would look around a bit first. In fact, I asked her if $2,000 was a standard price in Jioufen or if there were cheaper places. She of course didn’t answer me. She didn’t see her job as giving me info on other places to stay. I thought I would end up back at the Kite Museum, but I felt it wouldn’t hurt to look around. That’s a great thing about being on a bike. It makes looking around much less painful than being on foot.

Jioufen is a mountain village by the way. It is built on a mountain side and is made up of many small lanes and alleys and stairways. It isn’t exactly an easy place to find your way around in. I really had no idea where I was or where I was going. It didn’t matter much though. I just kept taking random turns and following various roads and lanes. I saw lots of signs pointing to B&B’s, but I never saw any of the B&B’s themselves.

Eventually I saw a place that was clearly identified as having rooms. It was called “Old Window.” It was a very funky looking place with several floors and tons of glass and lots of balconies and verandahs. The main floor was somewhat quaint and was set up for sampling tea – something that Jioufen is famous for. There is also seating for a restaurant. The second floor has a couple sets of tables and chairs and then one big room with lots of cushion style seating on the floor. I think I saw a karaoke machine in there. You can sit there with large groups and drink tea or I guess have a big karaoke party.

There was also a small room with a VIP sign on the door. One can see inside all these areas because the place has an open design and is more glass than anything else. On the wall of the VIP room hung a large painting of a nude woman. Very tasteful, but it struck me as out of place and made me wonder whose influence put that painting there. The third and top floor has three rooms opening onto a big verandah with lots of tables and chairs. From pretty much anywhere in this place you get a beautiful view of the coast. You can see mountains and a fishing harbor and in the distant, Keelung.

I found it an odd place. It’s big, yet the space wasn’t used very efficiently. It feels much too large a place to only have three rooms that they can rent out. The rooms themselves are adequate. At least they have all the things that most people would want and certainly expect when they are paying $2000 – TV, air conditioner, and a private bathroom. But I don’t think anyone would accuse these rooms of being charming or pleasant in any way. And it has a shoddy feel to it. Fixtures and doors and furniture all feel poorly put together. The bathroom is somewhat cramped and has this bizarre shower unit that has eight nozzles and three controls! It took me a minute or two to figure out how to make it work.

I guess I skipped the part where I agreed to take the room. $2,000 is more than I envisaged paying. However, my impression was that it was a standard price here. And I didn’t want to spend a long time looking just to save some money. And there are times when it’s good to spend the money. One would come to a place like Jioufen for the beautiful views and so you might as well pay to enjoy those views. The owner of this place did say that there were cheaper places out there, but who would want to stay in them when you can have the view from this place? So I took it. She actually dropped the price from $2,500 to $2,000 in order to seal the deal.

I took my bags up to my room and quickly took a shower. Then I went back outside and got back on the bike. I wanted to explore Jioufen a little bit. I didn’t have any plans. I just wanted to ride around. So far, Jioufen hadn’t impressed me other than the views. I was expecting a very special place with traditional Japanese architecture. I imagined it was very quaint and beautiful and full of artisans. So far, what I had seen made it little different from any other place in Taiwan. The location was scenic, but that was about it.

I rode my bike along a narrow lane that hugged the mountainside. It was pleasant and quiet. Eventually, the road ended and some hiking trails began. I turned around and as I came back into the town, I started going up a little bit. When I came to an intersection of two narrow little lanes, I chose the one that went higher. Eventually, I got to a very narrow lane that quickly became jammed with people. This, I found out soon enough, was the main drag of Jioufen called Jishan Road. It’s described as a covered street. It wasn’t actually covered, but it did feel enclosed because the lane was only about fifteen feet wide and yet the buildings on either side rose four or five stories. And there were so many balconies and such things that it had the feeling of being covered.

I wasn’t too impressed with Jishan Road. It was like being inside a shopping mall with ten million people. There was barely room to move. There were some nice little shops here and there, but most of them were nothing special. I don’t think I’ve seen so many backscratchers and back pounders in one place in my life! There were quite a few food stalls and restaurants. And I imagine if one were interested in the local delicacies and had command enough of the language to navigate the ordering, one could have a good time sampling things. I kept thinking that Cindy would enjoy this. I passed all the restaurants by and just wheeled my bike along until I got to daylight. It actually took a very long time. This was a long road. The road ended at the main “highway” and planted right there was a welcome sight for me – a 7-11. And around the corner there was a big new Starbucks.

I decided to do a bit more exploring around Jioufen and started cycling along the main road. That turned out to be a wise choice because the road was very quiet and passed through some beautiful scenery. It started to climb and I ended up doing quite a bit more cycling before deciding to turn around and come back. There was still some daylight left and I wanted to explore Jioufen a bit more. I rode back to the Old Window and took another shower and changed into my long pants. Then I went out into Jioufen on foot. It really is that kind of place. It isn’t a cycling town.

The odd lane that the Old Window is on is a level or two below that of Jishan Road, which is the heart of this town. So I thought I would walk along this lane and then when I came across any old set of stairs, I would go up them and see where they led. I quickly ended up back on Jishan Road and walked its full length again. I ended up back at 7-11 and took advantage of that to get a biendang and a couple of cartons of milk. I know it’s pretty weird to be in a town with probably dozens of fine restaurants at all price levels and eat at 7-11, but that’s the kind of guy I am. And having a 7-11 meal wasn’t a bad thing for me. I actually prefer it. I ate my meal standing up outside and I got to watch the traffic chaos. There is a hairpin turn right there and lots of tour buses and city buses take that road. They can barely make that turn. Add to that the people parking their cars all over the place and they can’t make the turn at all. It was wild to watch.

When my meal was done I went back into Jishan Road. This time I intended to go slowly and actually go inside some of the shops. I was going to dawdle and paw the merchandise. But even with that plan, I moved through the area pretty fast. There just wasn’t much to see or do. I was starting to wonder what the big deal was about Jioufen. In particular, I hadn’t seen any fancy tea shops. I’d read that Jioufen had many of them and they were the highlight of a visit to this town. In fact, the town was the tourist Mecca it was because a famous movie “City of Sadness” was shot in this town and largely shot inside a tea shop. This movie from 1989 sparked interest in the town and people started coming here in their hundreds and then thousands. So where were the tea shops? Where was the “quaint”? I wanted some quaint.

Then I remembered that Jishan Road was only one of two famous “roads” in Jioufen. There was another one. This was one actually an entire road made up of nothing but steps. Till that point, I’d had no idea where I was in Jioufen at any particular point. I wasn’t oriented at all, so I didn’t know where this road of steps, Shuchi Road, was. I did remember seeing on a map that Shuchi Road actually intersected with Jishan Road. I figured out that it must then be at the far other end because I hadn’t gone that way on Jishan Road all the way to the end.

So I dawdled and pawed merchandise and kept going until to my surprise and pleasure, I found Shuchi Road. This was much more to my liking. Very interesting area. I walked up the steps to the very top and then down the steps to the very bottom and in so doing, I discovered that my hotel, the Old Window, sits practically right at the bottom of Shuchi Road. That made me much more appreciative of the place.

Shuchi Road was filled with all kinds of interesting places. The tea shops were here and coffee shops and studios. I stopped to talk to a woman who was playing with a cat. She got me to go inside this coffee shop and have a coffee there. Very bizarre place. I don’t have the energy or the words to describe the area right now. Suffice it to say that it totally changed my opinion of Jioufen. I decided to stay here rather than ride to Pingshi the next day. I want to get up early and take some pictures on Shuchi Road. I think it’s well worth hanging out here for a day. I can take some pictures in the morning and then go cycling during the day and take some more pictures in the afternoon and evening when some people are here. Then I can ride back on Sunday through Pingshi or back the way I came here.

Tags: bike, Jioufen Bike Trip, Jishan Road