Alright, so after a September of two weeks in Italy sandwiched by a couple of three-day bike trips and boys’ weekends in Germany, I was off to Taiwan. On the itinerary: two weeks of cycling around the island with one of my best buddies and one of his best friends, a giant labrador of a human. Constant good vibes haha. Why Taiwan of all places? Because my buddy is Taiwanese and wanted to show us around.

Why was the trip so special? The combination of traveling with a dear friend, cycling, having a mix of nature and city, delicious food, getting to know a completely new (and incredibly friendly) culture, and getting to do so with an insider. Just a dream.

So, what did the trip look like?

Twelve days of cycling in two weeks. Blue lines below are what we covered, roughly 1100km.

The basic setup was thus:

• Wake up early & get breakfast
• Ride a few hours
• Eat an early lunch
• Ride a few more hours
• Shower/laundry
• Explore our new location
• Eat more
• Rinse & repeat

We started in Taipei where my buddy (Barry) has a family house we could stay at. We went to his local breakfast spot, where the restaurant’s matriarch greeted us with cries of “the handsome boys have arrived” if she was in a good mood, or the more brusque “what do you want” if she wasn’t. Hilarious. Delicious too.

In contrast to being fully self-supported in South America, here we had the posh package. Not gonna lie, I like this option! Our guide had tools, drinks and snacks in the van, along with our luggage, and would meet us every 10-40km so we could rest, replenish, grab a jacket, etc. What a glorious luxury!

The riding was incredible. Over 100 peaks above 3000 meters. Spectacular jungle and island views everywhere and pristine asphalt except for where it had been damaged by earthquakes (more on that in a bit) or mudslides, both of which happen quite frequently. Our first ride day needed to be rerouted because of a landslide due to a typhoon which landed a couple days before we arrived and left just as we got in, but beyond that, the weather generally cooperated. Typhoons are typically unheard of at this time of year, but, you know, climate change.

Taroko canyon is the sight of the “Taiwan KOM Challenge”, a race which goes from sea level up to a pass at 3275M over about 80km. The road was very badly damaged by a magnitude seven-something earthquake in April but had been cleaned up enough to be passable and had been reopened. Still, pretty much everyone counseled us against doing the lower section, where rockfall was an ever-present danger.

The evening before we were supposed to do it, while we were walking around stuffing our faces at the night market, another earthquake hit, a four-something, enough to shake the ground beneath us. We were obviously disconcerted, given the next day’s plan, but the girl at the food stand laughed at us and said “first time, eh?” We were later told that those “small ones” happen nearly daily, and only quakes above five on the Richter scale are worthy of discussion. Still, felt like bad juju, so we chatted with our guide who was following the government websites and reassured us that we’d be fine. So we did it (skipping the first and most dangerous 20km), complete with the final, soul-crushing 10km which includes a max gradient of 27.5%!

Other adventures and mishaps

On our shortest day (the only day with less than three hours of riding), Barry had arranged for us to do a quad tour on the beach, complete with photo shoot. Kinda like on the Bolivian salt flats, this was a game of optical illusions, absurdly dumb but ridiculously fun. Two extremely good-natured Taiwanese brothers shouting commands at us, maybe a quarter of which Barry translated. But the results speak for themselves!

 

Barry, knowing the country pretty well, had worked with the tour organizer to plan the routes. Barry listed the highlights, the organizer plotted the courses. For the most part it went well, until it had us descending 30% farm roads which wound up dead-ending into a cabbage patch. Not to be thwarted, we walked through multiple cabbage patches, hopped a fence, and found a way back to the main road. A little adventure within the adventure!

The last day we were supposed to go to a two-star restaurant, but having enjoyed the food markets so much, we started to reconsider our plans. I was on the fence; Taiwanese – Japanese fusion at that level would have been incredibly tasty, but I find fine dining a little soulless. When forced to explain why, I realize it boils down to this: the best dining experiences, for me, are cultural affairs. My favorite restaurants are loud Italian trattorias because everyone is at liberty to boisterously express how delicious they think the food is, tell jokes about their friends, complain about their football team, etc. It’s so much more than food. No Michelin-starred restaurant (apart from the street food ones) is really gonna give that to you.

In the end Barry and Medum agreed, so we starved ourselves for the day and went to Taipei’s (and one of Taiwan’s) most famous food market where, even hungry, our eyes were bigger than our stomachs and we bought ourselves a veritable feast. Perfect way to end the trip!