January 23rd

January 23, 2022

Southeast to Yuanlin City

Sleep wasn't good. I woke up at around four and didn't really drift off again, while g tells me he was kept awake by my loud snoring... I blame the cans of IPA we bought from 7-Eleven. The upshot is we're both feeling pretty lethargic and out of sorts.

It did cease raining last night and we went for a walk to get something to eat (and beer to drink) and while this morning the sky is still gloomy, at least the streets are dry. Our rain gear gets stuffed in the panniers.

The day's initial goal is to explore the town's famous Old Street, which actually seems to be a few interconnected lanes that are just a couple of minutes from the hotel. It's a laid-back start.

There are very few people around at this time - before nine on a Sunday - and we take some snaps of rundown places and accidentally find a temple.

I try using my screen shots to find other places, but after a while we just go on instinct and follow our noses. Some passages are so narrow the bikes won't do down them and I reckon these are referred to as 'gentlemen's alleys' as it was considered rude for men to come into contact with the members of the opposite sex when passing close by. An alternative and certainly more direct colloquialism is 'breast-touching alley'.

We wander through a busy market area with fruit and veg getting snapped up, then discover an old house nearby that's open to the public. It's free, so we step inside the ramshackle doorway to find a shrine to ancestors lit with the usual red lights, while the rest of the room remains pretty dark. We have to squint. Ladder-like stairs lead almost vertically up to a balcony circling above, but all the woodwork seems dodgy and we opt to keep our feet on tiled terra firma.

Our lack of sleep soon takes its toll and we retreat to a Louisa Cafe and enjoy a sit-down with hot frothy drinks.

From here we'll ride due west towards the coast and it looks easy enough, as this Louisa is on Zhongshan Road, which is the one we need to follow out of town. There's usually one of these roads in every town and while Zhongshan translates to central mountains, the name is really associated with Dr Sun Yat-sen, the man credited with founding the Chinese republic over 100 years ago.

It's a busy street with shops and vendors and reminds g and I of urban Vietnam. There's a certain chaos about it that you don't find further north in Taiwan.

We soon make a left onto a farm lane that T's into a new road that leads to a bridge. It's looks like a multi-lane highway and has a separate lane for bikes, but there's no traffic today and I wonder if it ever gets that busy as to warrant such a wide road. Maybe the planners expect lots of industrial development.

The bridge sweeps in a gentle arc over a shallow river and directly below are a few fisherman using sticks to poke around small pools of water trapped among rocks. We can't work out what they're looking for.

The wide highway-like road continues into an industrial zone and it's eerily quiet with it being a Sunday morning. The only other people around are a few immigrant workers zipping around on electric scooters. We safely ride through red lights.

All the factories are dormant and I sense g is wondering where the hell we're going when the building I point out is just another warehouse structure with a large parking area out front. It doesn't look very enticing and once inside we see a few rows of stalls selling sad, tacky gifts.

It's called Taiwan Glass Gallery and what got my attention on Google Maps was the venue's mirrored maze. There's a NT$200 (about US$6) entrance fee to pay, which includes a pair of flip-flops and white gloves to help keep the mirror surfaces clean. I'm surprised they have my shoe size.

The maze is disorientating, with angled mirrors reflecting image after image and the darkness and LED strip lighting add to the general confusion. Some areas have mirrored floors and ceilings, and for some whacky reason there are steps here and there that make it easy to trip and fall, but it seems that g and I basically have the place all to ourselves, which is nice. We reckon it's NT$200 well spent.

We ride back across the curved bridge then make a right onto a small rural lane that'll take us south-east. We soon hit Route 17 that bridges over an estuary, after which we return to riding on back lanes.

Our next destination is Yuanlin City. It'll be another short day and the landscape is flat and the fields are bare. It's winter and the sky remains cloudy.

The route is a bit of a beeline with the goal being to avoid any major roads and we pass very small villages and remote homes without seeing many locals. There's little traffic to worry about and it's just a case of checking my screen shots quite often to make sure we stay on track.

It's getting on for lunch time when we get to a 7-Eleven on busy Route 19. Although neither of us are very hungry, it's nice to sit and have a warm drink.

We stay on Route 19 for all of 50 metres and continue east on a lane that roughly runs parallel to Highway 76, located a few hundred metres almost out of sight over to our right.

There are big metal sheds and warehouses dotted around and farmers seem to be growing a mix of veg and we wonder how much homes cost here in the countryside. Many seem to have been abandoned by the younger generation.

After cutting below Highway 1, the road we ride along becomes number 44 and it passes a tiny temple that's got one annex covered on three sides by the roots of a towering banyan tree. We stop to take a snap.

The route follows a canal that makes it easy to know where we are and it leads us to the edge of Yuanlin City. We head to the train station just to get our bearings.

There are a couple of small hotels nearby, but both look crap so I lead g north up the city's shopping main street to one that seemed OK on Google and the clerk there quotes us NT$2,800 which is acceptable so we call it a day. It's called Grand View, but our window looks out onto an uninspiring back road backed by some light industrial buildings.

Today's ride: 37 km (23 miles)
Total: 1,243 km (772 miles)

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