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 sees police. The ones that do exist don’t enforce traffic laws.

Route 9 is kind of fun actually (assuming you don’t get killed). I don’t know where these young guys get the money, but they ride the most tricked-out motorcycles I’ve ever seen, and they dress from head to toe in racing leather and the latest high-tech gear. Some of the motorcycles are pretty ridiculous for Taiwan. The older guys tend to buy the big Honda GoldWings and similar bikes. They look more like small cars than motorcycles. They’re meant for driving across countries like Canada and the United States and Australia, not tiny places like Taiwan. There is barely enough room for them on the roads here in Taiwan. I can’t imagine where they park them in Taipei. They have to have underground parking, and they have to be very rich people. I met one of these guys a long time ago. I was standing at the side of the road and I had just witnessed an accident. A guy on a motorcycle was standing near me and we struck up a conversation. He said that these motorcycle guys are more about owning the motorcycle than riding them. There was a field with a coffee shop not far away, and all these guys would just drive the short distance from Taipei to this field and then park there and admire each other’s bikes. Fair enough.

Today is my last day of holidays, and it is back to work tomorrow. It seems unreal. This holiday has only been a week long, but it seems much, much longer. It feels long enough that it seems like I’ve left my working life behind. It’s difficult to believe that there is a desk and a chair and computer waiting for me with a big pile of test questions to write. Too bad one can’t get paid for going on holiday.

In terms of distance, yesterday was by far my biggest day. I left the mountains and went down to the coast and then back up into the mountains again to this town not far from Taipei. I was sad to leave the mountains behind when I left Baling. However, the leaving was pretty good. From Baling, the road climbs up very high. It goes through gorgeous scenery the entire time and tops out at a beautiful national park. From there, it is a giddy fast drop down a winding road all the way back to sea level. The road twists and turns so many times it gets a bit exhausting and dizzying. I had to turn off the road and stop a few times just to get my sense of balance back. There was a lot more traffic on the road than on previous days, and I had to be careful, particularly on the blind corners. I was amazed time and time again to see people passing over double lines on blind corners. I don’t know why they are in such a hurry or what they’re thinking to do such a thing. However, they do it over and over again. I drove slowly and hugged the side of the road and each time a car or bunch of cars showed up in my rear view mirror, I would time things so that I could put on my right turn signal and slow down and allow them all to pass me at a place where there is a lot of room. My scooter is as fast as a car and much more maneuverable, so I could easily keep up with traffic and even pass all the cars if I wanted to. But I was out to enjoy the scenery. There was no need to race to the next destination. I knew I’d be out of the mountains soon enough and I’d miss the quiet.

I kept thinking about David, the Korean cyclist from Hong Kong. I entertained thoughts of overtaking him, but I probably couldn’t even if I tried. He is still in the mindset of a guy with ground to cover. He probably cycled all day and into the night yesterday, which means that on a bike he would have gone farther than I would on my scooter. Even if I tried to go fast, I probably couldn’t. I keep stopping and exploring little roads here and there.

All too soon, I was out of the mountains and on a main road. The road was straight and smooth and wide, and I quickly had the scooter up to traffic speed. You can never really just turn your mind off and coast as you could in Canada. A huge pothole could turn up at any time, as could a large rock or any other object. The road kept changing, too. It would be wide and smooth and then suddenly be narrow and rough. It would be wide enough for three cars and then suddenly barely wide enough for one. You have to stay on your toes in Taiwan all the time when you are driving.

The road I was on led into a coastal city called Yilan. I’ve passed through it many times, but I always get confused. The roads here are very complicated and there is no way to just get on a route and stay on it. The route will vanish and change a dozen times an hour. All I can do is keep driving in a compass direction and eventually things will work out and I will pop out the other side of the urban area. If you end up in a different place than you intended (which usually happens), you just adjust your plans and keep going. It was easier when I was on a bike because it was easier to refer to a map and look for road signs and get my bearings. On a scooter, you have to make snap decisions about directions and corners to take and you often end up completely turned around and heading in the wrong direction. Further complicating matters is that roads are often given identical numbers but with different grades. So there will be main route 9, county route 9, city route 9, and national route 9. Counties, cities, and regions also get the same name. So the road sign might say that it is 15 kilometers to Jiaoxi, but after 15 kilometers you find you have just entered Jiaoxi county, not Jiaoxi city. All you can do is keep driving and keep an open mind.

In actual fact, I’m way ahead of the game when it comes to this sort of thing. I’ve driven on these roads so many times now that I probably know more about them than even the Taiwanese do. At this point, I spend most of my time exploring the back back back roads – all the tiny little roads that lead to small villages and interesting places far away from all these main routes. It’s astonishing to me how many of these roads there are. The whole country is covered in a web of them.

When I reached the coast at Yilan City, I had a choice to make. I could keep following the coast (which has some incredible scenery) or head inland on route 9 into the mountains. I knew that David planned to follow the coast since he had driven out on route 9 before. But I didn’t think I could find him. And the unusually high levels of traffic convinced me to head down route 9. The coast road was jammed with people enjoying the last day or two of Chinese New Year, and riding down the coast didn’t seem like much fun. I turned, instead, down route 9 where it begins at a place called Toucheng. It’s funny that I know that place so well. I guess I know this part of the world better than I know anywhere except for Sarnia, my hometown. I’ve been on my bicycle through Toucheng a couple of times and on my scooter many times. There is a fishing harbor there, and you can take a tour boat out to a place called Turtle Island. I did that once hoping to see dolphins and whales. Neither showed up, but it was an interesting trip.

Out of Toucheng, Route 9 kicks off with a very steep climb. The road does about thirty tight hairpin turns as it climbs to the top of the ridge. At the bottom, there was a police barricade as they were measuring out the distances of a recent accident. Not surprisingly, it was between a car and one of the racing motorcycles.

I can’t say it was my most pleasant drive down route 9. There were far too many of the racing motorcycles and they were going far too fast. I didn’t feel safe. There were a lot of cars as well, and they insisted on passing me even on tight corners, cutting so close to me that at times I swear I could feel their rear view mirrors whipping though my jacket. In the end, I had no choice but to increase my speed and keep up with the cars. Another problem is that a lot of Taiwanese aspire to own cars, but they don’t drive them in their normal lives. They only drive them on holidays, so they don’t get a lot of practice. (I won’t even talk about the practically non-existent driver training.) There was no way, however, to keep up with the motorcycles. They took the corners at high speed leaning way over with their kneepads scraping along the pavement. They were really driving like they were in a motorcycle race. Their engines were also extremely loud and the roar came as a sudden jolt to the senses whenever they passed by. I suppose all my annoyance with them might have something to do with sour grapes. I don’t think I would want one of their racing motorcycles, but a good cruising bike would be nice.

Once I was on route 9, I had another choice to make. I could easily keep going and go all the way back to Taipei, or I could try to find a place to stay in Pingling. My mood was to go back to Taipei. I’d seen enough of the countryside, I thought, and it would be nice to be back in Taipei and have a full day to do laundry and settle in and get ready for work again. After an hour of route 9 traffic, though, I changed my mind and decided to stay in Pingling. I knew that the traffic would get worse and worse and by the time I got to Taipei, there would be a massive traffic jam. I didn’t want to deal with that at the end of such a (for me) long day of driving.

Pingling is a lovely place. It sits along a river in a beautiful river valley with tea plantations on the mountain slopes all around. I’ve spent the night in Pingling twice before. There is an odd kind of campground/hotel just outside of town. I found that place with much difficulty on one of my first bike trips out of Taipei. I got to Pingling and asked everyone about a place to stay. No one knew of anyplace and that really surprised me. At the same time, it didn’t. Taiwan is an odd place. Here is a beautiful mountain town with a huge amount of tourism, and yet there are no small hotels anywhere. Why there are no hotels in these places is kind of a mystery to me. It seems like a natural place for a hotel. That there isn’t probably has to do with the Taiwanese mindset. They don’t travel in the way that westerners do. When they go on holiday, they like to be told what to do and where to go. They want to go on a tour and they want to go someplace “famous.” To simply show up in Pingling and then look for a place to stay is not the norm for them. They tend more to luxury. They want to stay at hot spring resorts and that sort of thing. My hotel in Baling was an exception to this rule. I’m still trying to puzzle out why that hotel in Baling was so popular.

Anyway, on that first trip, I spent a long time asking people about a place to stay – even a campground. Finally, a police officer pointed me down a road along the river. It seemed like a ridiculous idea. The area was very industrial and dirty. It seemed a ridiculous place to put a campground. But there was one there, and they also had a set of buildings with rooms. I stayed inside one of the rooms (it was the same price as camping). I stayed there a second time on a scooter trip. This is my third time there and I got the same room each time. It feels like a second home.

I thought that with Chinese New Year, the place would be fully booked, but it seemed empty. I drove up to the main building and after a long hemming and hawing and calculating, the elderly man there told me that a room would be NT$1,200 (around $40 Canadian). That’s pretty standard, so I took it. One odd quirk to Taiwan is that they judge how much a room costs based on the number of people. That ends up working in my favor since I am staying alone. This room (according to this man’s scribbling on a piece of paper) costs NT$2,500 for two people, but for one person it was NT$1,200. I doubt I would pay NT$2,500 for a room like that. It’s not worth it. I’d either have continued on to Taipei or found a place to put my tent in the wild. I suppose even NT$1,200 is a bit much for my tastes. But it is nice to have a bathroom with hot water, a TV, a comfortable bed and sheets, and towels, and shampoo and soap and all that stuff. I always bring a ton of stuff with me on these trips, but I never end up needing it. Still, I don’t think I could leave without it. The day I leave without my tent will be the day I can’t find anyplace to stay and wish I had my tent. I also like to have everything with me so that I don’t have to ask for things. If the room is cold, instead of going through the hassle of asking for more blankets, I just whip out my sleeping bag.

Pingling is an interesting town for lots of reasons. It is very attractive, as I said. It has a tea museum (a place I plan on visiting for the first time today). There is a lot of easy hiking in the hills around. There are also bike trails. And in the town itself, there are lots of places where you can have a traditional glass of high-end locally grown tea. The interesting thing, though, is how it sits between the generations. I’ve been here and passed through here many times. Yet, I’ve never seen anyone inside the traditional tea shops. The 7-11, on the other hand, is jammed night and day. Now there is a second convenience store – an OK Mart – and I was very glad to see it. I like to sit at a table and chair in the morning and have a good cup of coffee. In Taiwan, though, that is often difficult to do. I described how difficult it was in Baling to get a good meal for one person. The restaurants are designed to give banquet style meals to large groups. They don’t know what to do with one person. So even in a tourist town like Pingling there is literally not a single café or restaurant where you can go inside and sit at a table and get a cup of coffee or a snack. It just doesn’t fit into the Taiwanese way of doing things. Instead, I go to the 7-11. There, you can get a very good cup of coffee from a machine. Some of the 7-11s have stools at a counter and some have a table or two. This 7-11 in Pingling has three tables outside with some chairs, but they are usually full of people. This morning, after a shower and a shave in my $40/room, I hopped on my scooter and drove into Pingling and spotted this OK-Mart. It is brand new and four times the size of the 7-11. It not only has four nice tables outside and two tables inside, it has two long counters with stools with small backrests. One counter is against the window facing the street and the other is against a full set of windows at the back facing the river and tea fields. These convenience stores are stepping in and filling a need that the traditional tea shops don’t. It surprises me that local people aren’t stepping up and building cafes and cheap hotels and that sort of thing. If I wanted to settle down and was interested in business, I’d do it myself. Everywhere I go in Taiwan I wish the same two things – I wish there was a cheap and simple place to stay and I wish there was a simple and cheap place to sit down and have a coffee and a snack. I can almost never find those places. And if I want those places, it stands to reason that other people would, too. It amazes me, to be honest, how much potential for tourism Taiwan has. It is a beautiful place with literally no end to the places you can visit and see. However, almost no foreigners come here. I guess it is too expensive for the average young backpacker. And if you don’t have your own transportation, it is a difficult place to travel in. The language barrier is a big problem. In every other country in Asia, you can show up and just travel around and always find a cheap place to stay. It is almost impossible in Taiwan. Tourism here is for the Taiwanese and for the rich. But I can see that changing. I have the feeling that there will be an explosion of tourism here in the future. It’s kind of nice that I got to see it before that happens. It still amazes me actually to think about how small this place is. There is so much to see here, and yet the whole country could fit in between Sarnia and Peterborough.

After I arrived and settled into my room yesterday, I got on my scooter and did some more exploring. It’s so effortless. I spotted a small road heading off into the mountains, and I hopped on it to see where it led. It quickly started to climb and brought me through fantastic tea plantations climbing right to the top of the mountain giving me great views of the town and the river below. I even made friends with a whole bunch of great dogs along the way. One fellow was a problem at first. He seemed very fierce and he barked and growled and seemed ready to take a chunk out of my legs. Every time I tried to move forward on the scooter, he moved in for a bite. I must not have eaten enough during the day, because I found I was quite irritable and I got angry at this dog. A woman from the farm house came out to see what the commotion was all about, and I waved at her and indicated the dog and generally gave the impression that she should do something about this stupid dog. The woman didn’t respond in any way. She just stood there and stared at me with a dull expression on her face. I tried to drive away again, but the dog kept growling and getting close to biting me. I finally had enough. I put down the kickstand and got off the scooter. I was going to pick up a rock and pretend to throw it to drive the dog away. I walked toward the dog and stamped my foot on the ground. I was really angry. Suddenly, a tiny little brown dog, just a little puff ball, came running up with his tail wagging. I bent down and pet the brown puff ball. Then the big black dog suddenly whined and pushed the puff ball aside so that he could be pet. The crazy thing. He was now as friendly as can be. I pet him for a while and his tail was wagging like crazy. I made a new friend and then got back on my scooter for the ride down the mountains.

 

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