Articles in Taiwan
Hsinchu County Scooter Trip 001 – Neiwan
Saturday February 26, 2011
8:25 a.m. Neiwan, Taiwan
The stage for this little trip in Taiwan will be pretty difficult to set, as there are very few places like this little town anywhere in the world. I guess you could call it a tourist town. At one time, Taiwan was a Japanese colony, and the Japanese built a number of narrow-gauge railways to serve mining and forestry …
North Cross-Island Highway 009 – Epilogue
Wednesday February 9, 2011
Taipei – Epilogue
I’ve been back in Taipei for a couple of days already. I got back on Monday evening and I went to work on Tuesday. Today is my second day of work, and it isn’t very exciting. As I expected, it felt very strange to arrive back in Taipei after my 8 days off. My apartment felt very small and dark …
North Cross-Island Highway 008 – Pingling and the Indy 500
Monday February 7, 2011
8:30 a.m. Pingling
Welcome to the Indy 500. Pingling is a small and traditional tea-growing village in the cool mountains south of Taipei. It is on twisty route 9, and the local motorcycle racing enthusiasts have claimed it for their own. That the police haven’t clamped down on these guys racing at unbelievably high speeds is typical of Taiwan. One pretty much never …
North Cross-Island Highway 007 – HsingHsing
Sunday February 6, 2011
8:00 a.m. Still in Baling
My goal for yesterday was to drive my scooter into the mountains southwest of Baling. When I drove to Upper baling, I could look across the valley and see other mountain roads climbing and climbing higher into those mountains. It was impossible to tell from my maps where those roads went or what was over there, but that …
North Cross-Island Highway 006 – Lalashan and the Giant Trees
Saturday February 5, 2011
7:50 a.m
I’m back at my favorite spot in Baling and about to have what has become my traditional café latte. They make a very good cup of café latte here. It’s got lots of coffee flavor and is very hot.
I haven’t written very much the last couple of days despite a lot happening. That’s because it has been so cold both inside …
North Cross-Island Highway 005 – Meeting Travellers
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. …
North Cross-Island Highway 004 – Foggy Paradise
Thursday February 3, 2011
7:20 a.m. Cottage in the Mountains
Where to begin this latest adventure? I’m writing inside a beautiful wooden cottage high up in the mountains. I don’t really have any idea where I am because I came up here in a fog as thick as soup. It’s cold up here, and without any kind of heating, the thermometer reads 7 degrees Celsius inside the …
North Cross-Island Highway 003 – Scootering
Wednesday February 2, 2011
11:45 a.m. Roadside Coffee Shop (sort of)
I haven’t covered much distance so far today. I keep heading off down mountain roads to the left and the right and seeing where they lead. There is so much to see right around here, that there isn’t much point racing off to points south for hours and hours.
My first side trip was off to the …