#6: Day 1 “The Journey Begins”

1 Jun 2008, this is the day that begins it all …

Similar to all riders who are about to embark on the journey, sleep for the previous night is very shallow. Tossing and turning … and waiting for that moment to come.

We will be taking a anti-clockwise route. The logic is simple; getting used to the ride and bike before we face the toughest part of the journey. From various sources, we come to understand that the toughest parts are in 旭海 to 壽卡 via route 199 & 200, then the biggest fear of all cyclists doing round island … 蘇花公路! Even though there are cyclists that recommends a clock-wise route to ride the toughest part first when you first have the energy but we decided otherwise.

One picture before we hit the road ...

0530 – We gathered in front of the Taiwan office, making last minute preparations. The plan was to leave by 0600, getting an early start on the first day.

It was a cloudy day, little did we know it was a sign of what is to come in the next few days.

Not knowing what to expect and excited about the trip, the feeling then was one of “untouchables” … we can conquer anything. Again, little did we know what lies ahead of us waiting. On hind sight, it is not us that conquer the journey but it the journey that has humbled us. We do not conquer anything, we have no power to conquer but to accept what was thrown at us and push forward. In a sense, the only thing that we managed to conquer, is ourselves. OK, enough of this profound babble.

First day and we are already faced with the issue of which route to take. We need to get out of Taipei City and there are several routes to take. Patty, at this moment said: “I know a way, it is nice and relaxing … just follow me”. After all, she is the only Taiwanese in our team, other than her, who can we rely on? So follow her it is.

Day 1 - Breakfast

If you notice the time that was mentioned above, you would have realized that we did not have time for breakfast. Soon enough, hunger creeps up on us and we are looking for a place to satisfy our need for food. Like all 1st day trips, we are still very polite “What would you like to eat?”, “Anything la”, “I am OK with anything …”. Since Jacky has not been back to Taiwan for such a long time, and he did mentioned that he missed the ever famous traditional soya bean breakfast, we decide to look for it. Somewhere near 新店we found such a shop. First meal on the first day of riding. As a newbie in touring, we took all our luggage down during the meal. Later on, putting ti all back on the bike again. This is something that we do less and less as days goes by. It was just too much trouble. However, at this moment, spirits was still high and we have not seen anything yet. At the same time, I did notice that a heavy loaded bike is making riding somewhat more difficult (what a redundant comment). Things are able to get tougher.

First hill of the ride with rain

True enough, it started to rain as we enter the first small hill of the trip. Taipei is basically a basin, no matter which direction you head, you would have to climb some sort of hill to leave Taipei. So here it is with the first hill. Carrying about 15kg of stuff and my less than ideal physical condition, that little stretch of uphill was killing me, “What am I doing?”, “Are you sure?” … the first of many such thoughts to come start to float in my mind. To top it all up, it started to rain. Yup, bring it on … bring it all on!

After this hill, we will be leaving Taipei City. At that time, no thoughts are crossing my mind … hahaha … was too out of breath, too busy drinking water to think of anything else. Even taking photos becomes a tedious task. That is why in this entire blog, you will see that we have less photos than others who have done the same. A combination or rain and catching of breath is preventing me from taking more photos.

My bike in 三峽老街

After the “little” hill, we slide our way down into 三峽 and make our way into 三峽老街. The first “tourist” spot. Have more photos taken here. As a foreigner in Taiwan, heard of this place many times but never got around to visiting it. Usually during weekends, all these so-called tourists spots are filled with people, which did not help to motivate me to visit. We arrived at 三峽老街 early that day, most of the shops were not opened yet. We just walk through the street briefly, within minutes we were come to the end of the street. Moving forward …

Looking around

The destination for the end of 1st day is 新竹. A mere 70km+ out of Taipei City, thought that it would be an easy and relaxing ride. It was not! Arrived at 新竹at about 1600. Checked into one of those drive-in motel and get ready to go out for dinner.

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