Monday January 31, 2011

Awesome Restaurant in the mountains of Taiwan

3:30 p.m.

Chinese New Year is this Wednesday, and many companies, including mine, also gave us Monday and Tuesday off, so we don’t have to be back at work until the following Tuesday. That gave me a total of 10 days. I’d normally have booked a flight out of Taiwan to the Philippines or someplace sunny like that. Taiwan tends to be cloudy and cold and rainy at this time of year. However, I decided to stay in Taiwan. I didn’t make any definite plans about where to go. My only thought was that I’d pack up my tent and sleeping bag and leave on my scooter. It being Chinese New Year, trains and buses will be full and hotels could be full, too. The best thing to do is have my own transportation (bike or scooter) and bring a tent so that I can sleep outside if I can’t find a hotel. I brought a tent on some previous trips, but I never really used it. I always found a relatively cheap hotel. One time, when I found a campground, they turned out to have a hotel as well, and a room in the hotel was the same price as camping. That was an easy choice to make, and I stayed in the hotel.

I tried to fit my stove into my backpack, but I couldn’t really make it work. I thought back over my other trips, and I realized that there are generally so many places to eat in Taiwan that assuming you are not picky, you can always find food. There is no need to cook unless you go camping in the forest. This is a scooter trip, so I doubt I will go hiking into any forests. I will always be near a road, and where there is a road, there is food of one kind or another. So I left with my tent, sleeping bag, sleeping sheet, sleeping pad, backpack, clothes, toiletries, camera, and my new gadgets – my Kindle (with 1,780 books loaded onto it) and this NEO word processor. It was impossible to fit all of that into my backpack, but it works out okay. My sleeping bag fits neatly into the storage area underneath the seat and the tent can rest on the foot platform, hanging in place with a bungee cord. I wear my backpack on my back with the weight of it resting on the seat. It actually gives me a nice backrest. And I put my knapsack on the floor between my feet. It isn’t the most comfortable way to drive, but it works fine.

Getting out of Taipei is not the easiest thing in the world. It’s a large city, and on a scooter or bicycle it takes a while to reach the city limits. With the right attitude, however, it isn’t a problem. It has actually been a long time since I’ve left Taipei on a scooter or bicycle, particularly in the southwestern direction I had planned.

The first challenge is to get across the rivers. Taipei, like most major cities, began as a small town on a riverbank – in Taipei’s case, on three riverbanks. Taipei is bordered to the north by the Keelung River, to the west by the Tamshui River, and to the south by the Hsientien River. My route took me along Highway 3 south out of Taipei. To get onto Highway 3, I had to cross the Hsintien River. The easiest place to do that is over the Huajiang Bridge to Panchiao. I say easiest, but, for a newcomer, it is far from easy. Scooters are often forced to take a different route over a bridge, and finding that route isn’t easy. Luckily the signs are in both Chinese and English. Without the English, I’d never find it. My first time, in fact, was on a bicycle, and I ended up in the fast lanes with the cars and trucks, where it is illegal for bicycles and scooters. I had to pick up my bicycle and carry it across the barriers to get to the scooter lane. This time, I knew there was a separate route. It is counterintuitive, because to get to the scooter lane, you have to turn right and drive away from the bridge for quite a long distance. All you can do is have faith that it will make sense in the end. After perhaps a kilometer, you reach a crazy intersection where it is legal to do a u-turn and doubleback on your route to get onto the scooter lane.

I did that with very little effort, making sure to go slowly and carefully so that I didn’t make a mistake. One mistake and I could be off in a totally different direction and totally lost. The scooter lane is just wide enough for one scooter to pass another if they are both careful. It is much like being in a video game. The weather was cold and windy, and my hands were frozen by the time I reached the other side of the bridge. I have gloves with me, but they are big heavy winter gloves and they don’t give me much control over the throttle. When I’ve worn them in the past, I had some trouble. I ended up accelerating far too fast and nearly losing control. I looked for tight-fitting gloves, but I didn’t find any before I left. I ended up putting on the left glove and keeping my right hand bare to control the accelerator.

Another problem with these scooter lanes is that they often dump you out in a totally different direction from the car traffic. The car traffic continues nicely in the direction the bridge was facing. The scooter lane, being narrow and separate, can end up anywhere. Then you have to do some fancy maneuvering to get back on track and continue in the direction you need to follow.

I had no trouble this time, because I’ve followed this route several times. I didn’t remember it exactly, but I had a vague idea of how it worked, and I drove slowly so that I could look for English road signs and familiar landmarks. Taipei (if you think of Panchiao as part of Taipei) continues for quite a long time particularly as you follow the Tamshui River. I rode for at least an hour in slow traffic and stopping at nearly every intersection. That is never a problem, however, as there is so much to look at. It isn’t like driving through a big city like Toronto. The road narrows and widens and twists and turns and merges and separates with cars and trucks and other scooters coming at you at every imaginable speed and from every imaginable direction. You have to stay on your toes. The road also goes through modern districts and then dives into old market neighborhoods. As I rode, I made mental notes of places I should check out later. I was thinking that it would even be interesting to move out of my apartment and get all of my gear down to just my bike and pannier bags. Then I could spend my remaining months in Taipei moving from neighborhood to neighborhood and seeing new places. Having such a comfortable place as my apartment leads to perhaps too much couch potato living. It would be nice to be out exploring the city as if I were a newcomer.

After a very long time, the city began to space itself out. There were suddenly little chunks of open land between buildings. There were small bridges with views of rocks and water. And, eventually, I got my first glimpses of the mountains. Taipei is surrounded on all sides by mountains. It is one of the great pleasures of Taipei that you can so quickly find yourself in near-wilderness. I can’t think of very many cities with so much beauty so nearby.

As I said, I hadn’t planned my trip much. I had just a vague idea that I would head to a small town I know called Fushing. It’s in a beautiful place in the mountains, and the road winds through gorgeous scenery along the North Cross-Island Highway. This highway goes right down the center of the mountains all the way to a mountain town called Lishan. This is near Hualien and the famous Taroko Gorge. On a scooter, that is a long journey and with a side-trip to visit a friend in the big city of Taichung, I could easily spend eight days there.

I had just left the small town of Sanxia. I was on my way to Daxi where the North Cross-Island Highway begins. However, there is a smaller road through the mountains that makes for a beautiful shortcut, and when I saw the entrance to that shortcut, I turned down it. Instantly, I was deep in the mountains with lots of things to see. When I saw a turn-off across a narrow bridge leading to a small road climbing into the mountains, I took that to see where I ended up. I found myself in the Manyueyuan National Forest Recreation Area, an area I’d never seen before. I’d seen the turn-off several times, but I’d never taken it. It’s a beautiful area with hot spring spas, lots of people cooking snacks at the side of the road, and some nice cafes and restaurants.

Restaurants can be a bit of a mystery in Taiwan. In fact, all places can be. It’s hard to tell if they are open or closed. And if you are unable to read Chinese, it’s also hard to figure out if they are restaurants at all, and if they are, what they serve. They generally cater to larger groups. A sole traveler like me may not fit into their menu system. Yet, if you can figure all that out you may get lucky and find some incredible places. It actually took me a long time to figure that out about the region around Taipei. I regret it now that I let so much time go by without exploring this area. I guess I was too busy working, and I didn’t have any extra cash. I also didn’t have a scooter, and so I wasn’t as mobile.

Anyway, I finally got around to discovering these regions, and I’ve had lots of great experiences. I drove up the winding road through lots of little villages and past lots of spas and such places. I passed dozens and dozens of semi-stray dogs. On a bicycle, they can be a bit of a problem. You never know if they are going to be territorial and chase you or not. On a scooter, I have the power to accelerate and get away much easier. The wind picked up and it became colder and colder. The traffic wasn’t heavy, so I figured it was safe to put on my gloves. I drove very slowly and stopped often to take in the view and look around. It was a little dangerous, as the few cars and trucks on the road drive at very high speeds and they generally go wide on the corners. I’m in the habit of monitoring my rear view mirrors constantly and I never do anything suddenly. I certainly don’t drive very fast. I’ve seen many, many videos on YouTube of scooters losing control on the corners and sliding into oncoming traffic. It’s made me a very timid driver, hopefully a safe driver. Actually, I remember quite clearly the day I became a slow driver. When I started driving a scooter instead of a bicycle, I was sad that I was suddenly going so fast. It meant that you saw much less. However, it dawned on me one day that I didn’t actually have to go at traffic speed of 50 or 60 km/hr. I slowed right down to a cycling pace and then it became much more enjoyable. It isn’t quite as nice as riding a bicycle, but it is okay.

There were a lot of signs on the road indicating how far it was to a whole range of spas, hiking trails, and even a campground. I’ve followed many such roads in my time in Taiwan, and I generally follow them all the way to the end and turn around and come back as I explore the area.

Today, I happened to spot a nice little restaurant that had people inside it. I decided to take a chance that it was open and could serve one person, and I was rewarded with the best meal I’ve had in months. The café sits right at the side of the road and has outdoor seating by a fishpond as well as tables inside. Too cold to sit outside, I took a seat inside. A group of eight people were having a meal and I sat at one of the empty tables. A woman brought me a menu that had a smattering of English on it. She made my day by suggesting what I should have. I like that, because it was clearly kind of the meal of the day. It was a set meal with roast chicken. And once I ordered that, I didn’t have to make any other decisions, and I was treated to a delicious range of dishes. I don’t have names for any of them. I don’t think I could even describe them. There was, however, a delicious soup with a plate of leaks and three other wonderful dishes. These were just the starters. Then came rice and salad with a creamy sauce and roast chicken in lemon. The meal ended with delicious coffee, jasmine tea, and a dozen orange slices. It was incredible, and it cost NT$260, which is around $8. These meals and these mountains regions are two of the great things about Taiwan. This first day of my Chinese New Year trip is making me glad that I’ve made the decision to stay longer.

One of the owners of the café spoke to me after my meal and he offered to help me find an inexpensive hotel in the area. He said there is a place for around NT$1,200. That is within my budget, so if it works out, I think I will stay there tonight. There is still so much I haven’t seen in these areas right around Taipei that if I don’t want to, I don’t even have to go all the way down to Lishan and that area.

 

 

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