Friday February 4, 2011

8:00 a.m. Having a coffee in Baling

I had a very interesting evening in Baling because of all the people I met. The first was a Taiwanese man in his forties named Carlson. He sat down in this restaurant where all the girls had asked me to sign their magazine. He looked over at me and asked if I was traveling alone, too. He sat at my table and introduced himself. He was Taiwanese, but he had recently been living in Montreal and had just moved back to Taiwan. He was very unusual for a Taiwanese, and he was on a scooter, too. He was stuck in Baling for a couple of hours because the brake line on his scooter broke. They had to order parts from Taipei to be brought in by bus. He was driving up to a town in the mountains and then going on a six-hour hike. He used to own a juice bar franchise in Canada. He sold that, and now he worked as a freelance translator in Taipei. I didn’t get his phone number or email address though.

The second fellow I met was a Korean who had spent most of his life in Hong Kong. He was here for a cycling holiday. He had just discovered cycle touring and was very excited about it. Over Christmas, he had gone on an 8-day ride through Yunnan province in China. A very tough ride. I’d need a month to do what he did in 8 days. But then again, I go very slowly and like to look around and explore. He did a lot of long riding days.

He flew to Taiwan without a bike and bought a folding bike in Taipei for $100 Canadian. On his first day he rode all the way from Taipei to Hualien. That is a long distance over some incredibly difficult mountain roads. I would have taken at least three days to do the same route. Then again, I would have stopped lots of places. He’s more focused on riding.

It was astonishing how much we had in common and how much we had to talk about. He knew about all the same cycling web sites and travel blogs that I knew about. He probably wanted to go to bed, but I kept him awake and talking until late. It was a good experience for me. One of the best things about my trips in my life has been meeting people. Lately, though, with my life in Taiwan, I haven’t been meeting new people. I’ve only met people when I left Taiwan to go to the Philippines or Cambodia. It was nice to meet some fellow travelers and have a good travel talk.

I saw him again over breakfast and we chatted about his route. He had a great map of Taiwan – much better than any map I have. I’ll have to track one of those maps down.

Baling filled up with people yesterday. They’d come to celebrate Chinese New Year with a good meal, firecrackers, and karaoke. A lot of noise, but I slept well. It was a toasty 13 degrees in my room as opposed to the 7 degrees up in Shanbaling. Today is going to be another day of pure pleasure for me. I found out that there is a forest of 2,000-year-old cedar trees up around Shanbaling. So I’m going to drive back up there today and check that place out. Then I’ll drop in on Eric and his family at their Swiss lodges. The sun is out and the weather is beautiful. It will likely be cloudy in the afternoon, so I should go soon.

 

Tags: bike, North Cross-Island Highway, scooter, Taipei, Taiwan