Articles tagged with: scooter
Moon Festival Trip 001 – Pingling
I’m currently in a mountain tea-growing town called Pinglin. I’ve been here many, many times, but I always like it. It’s the very first place I went to on my first trip out of Taipei many years ago. The town itself is nothing that special, but a beautiful river runs through it, and they built trails all along the river and then up into the mountains.
Keelung Boat Trip
Saturday June 18, 2011
I went for a quick 2-day, 1-night scooter jaunt to Keelung. I took County Road 106 to get to Keelung. This is a beautiful mountain road that passes through the old mining towns of Jingtong, Pingxi, and Shifenliao on the way to Ruifang and the coast. It takes about 2 hours to get from Taipei to Keelung on 106. It would probably …
006 – Motorcycling Around Camiguin – Tuasan Falls
Thursday April 5, 2011, 9:00 a.m.
Jasmin by the Sea, Camiguin, Philippines
Jasmin by the Sea rents motorcycles for 350 pesos a day. They are identical to the bikes that were for rent on Palawan. I’ve heard them called underbones, and they are somewhere in between a motorcycle and a scooter. They look like a motorbike and you have to change gears. However, there is no clutch. …
Hsinchu County Scooter Trip 003 – Five Finger Mountain
Monday February 28, 2011
12:30 p.m.
I’m on the road and slowly making my way back to Taipei. I stopped at the Lion’s Head Mountain Visitor Information Center, and here I found a lovely outdoor coffee shop. I have a table in the shade next to a fish pond. A cool breeze is blowing past and pleasant music is playing. I had had some thoughts about doing …
Hsinchu County Scooter Trip 002 – Neiwan Day 2
Sunday February 27 2011
8:00 a.m. Neiwan, Taiwan
I’m back at the same little restaurant in Neiwan as yesterday. It’s not a perfect spot, but it has two key things going for it: it’s open and it serves coffee. As far as I can tell, it is the only place open in the entire town. To be honest, I don’t think it is open for business in …
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 …