April 2, 2023
April 2nd
Fugang to Hukou
It's gone 10 o'clock when Debbie and I wheel our bikes outside and discuss where to ride. Her suggestion is the riverside bike path, while I like the idea of going somewhere different and say we can ride to the train station and see if we can get a train south, and if not, then cycle beside the river.
At the crowded station our luck is in and the clerk sells us tickets for a southbound train leaving in less than 20 minutes, so we take the elevator up and then down to Platform 3. It's only a 15-minute journey to Fugang - three stops away - which is just as well, as the train is pretty much full and we have to board at different doors and squeeze our bikes in between passengers.
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The sun is out when we get off the train, which is a pleasant surprise as we thought it'd be overcast and cool all day. Our jackets come off before I show Debbie the nearby Old Street, then we head out of Fugang's small center, dip under a bridge carrying the railway lines and start riding along a straight road that goes south through open countryside.
I've only been this way once and my memory isn't great, but it seems like this is the right way to Hukou. After a couple of minutes, a few buildings look familiar and there's very little traffic. I know that there's a right turn somewhere that leads along back lanes and sure enough we find it after briefly checking Google Maps on Debbie's phone.
We cruise along a straight, narrow lane through this rural part of northern Taiwan and it occurs to me we're now fairly close to Hukou Old Street and recall making a turn at a stream and spot a small bridge, so lead Debbie to the right, but soon after nothing looks familiar and I'm confused. We make a left and reach a road that's wider than anything I rode along before, so we consult Google Maps again and decide to head south. After 10 minutes or so, I know that by now we should be in the old part of Hukou. We're not.
We're in a busy market area and find some shade outside a shop and look again at Debbie's phone to frustratingly find we're a few kilometres away from where we should be. Route 117 will take us there and that's easily enough to find and we ride into a breeze and eventually get to Hukou Old Street. It's become a scorcher of a day and we're both feeling empty.
Debbie hasn't been to this 'old street' before. When I visited a while ago, it was mid week and quiet; however, today's part of a five-day-long, national holday and the place is crowded. We lock the bikes up at the end of the traffic-free street and start looking around. First up are a couple of antique shops.
There's very little old stuff in Taiwan. Fifty years ago, most homes would have had a wooden kitchen table, a handful of stools and a cupboard, plus other furniture, but there were no decorative items like you find in Europe - that didn't really come about until the 1970s. Still, we enjoy browsing around.
One shop has a nice small painted cupboard about two-foot high and another has a round table that Debbie likes. She egst quoted NT$6,000 = about US$180. A third place has an assortment of odds and ends outside on a metal rack and among them is a cotton teatowel from England, with Shakespeare's face on it. Someone local must have brought it back. We get told it's NT$300, which is about NT$250 more than I want to pay.
It takes nearly 30 minutes to reach the end of the street, during which time Debbie buys a bag of garlic from a street vendor and we have roasted corn on the cob, which is not as tasty as we'd imagined.
There's a temple at end of the street and Debbie goes inside to pray. It's hard to know how old these places are, as they're often renovated and repainted. There are features which indicate this has some history, with a carved stone tablet at the exit bearing a tiger and a cub. It's quite naive.
We walk back and stop at a place selling a tofu dessert called Douhau. It's chilled and goes down well bearing in mind the temperature now is high, marking a dramatic change from the past couple of weeks.
Coffee is needed and a 7-Eleven is not far away, so after getting back to the bikes, we ride there and sit and relax for another 15 minutes. The meandering way to the train station starts just across the busy road outside, down a small alley.
Debbie wonders how I discovered the route, as it's just a narrow alley at first. It leads to part of a grid of lanes that serve rice fields and the crop is currently still just a few inches tall.
A couple of times I wonder if we're actually riding on the same lanes that I did previously, but we manage to find our way to key points, the first being a railway track and then a small river. The water is murky and pungent, so it seems funny there are signs saying 'no swimming'.
The river leads us towards the back of the train station and it's now close to three o'clock and we're both feeling the heat. The station clerk says the 3:35 departure and the couple after that are fully booked for bikes. One with space is in over three hours' time, which is bad news. We look at Google Maps for a route to cycle home, but Debbie really wants to try and get a train, so we opt to buy tickets for the one at gone six as a way of getting down to the platform to see if we can squeeze on next departure.
As we're waiting on the platform, a young ticket inspector comes along and tells us we're simply not allowed to board the 3:35. The digital board says there a 3:12 departure, which is also a commuter train, but she says it's not classed as a 'bike train'. As we're arguing about it, it pulls in and it's practically empty, and actually has the logo outside saying bikes are accommodated. Thankfully the guard on board says it's OK for us to catch it, so we dash along to the end carriage where the bike racks are. It's just us two for the whole journey home.
Today's ride: 35 km (22 miles)
Total: 2,699 km (1,676 miles)
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