Keelung to Taipei

Last days in Taipei

16th March

No one had much enthusiasm for exploring Keelung and I wasn’t prepared to fight the traffic to find the colourful houses or fishing port.  After a leisurely hotel breakfast of scrambled eggs on toast (where the butter came in a can), Si and I wandered across the road to the Maritime Plaza and Guomen Square to check out the port and the famous Keelung sign.

For once, we all left together, and the first 20 minutes was a slog through busy streets before we turned onto backroads and then picked up the path along the Keelung river that would take us into Taipei. 

It was only around 40 kilometres to our accommodation but it was slow going due to the barriers that were too narrow for our touring bike handlebars.  The trail along the river was very pleasant, but the barriers were strategically positioned before and after every road crossing which made for slow going.  Jonno didn’t hang around and sped off ahead. 

Si worked out that he could lift those barriers that weren’t padlocked and that helped speed us up a little. We had only travelled about 15 kilometres when we decided to stop for morning tea at a convenient bench with a nice river view.  We couldn’t linger too long as the mosquitoes were quite vicious. 

We moved from one side of the river to the other, crossing a variety of bridges and passing a cemetery built into the hillside.  As we approached the city, the path opened up and the barriers disappeared, allowing us to pick up our pace.  For once we could see the full height of Taipei 101 tower through the haze. We turned off to visit Songshan Cultural and Creative Park where Jonno was already browsing. 

We were ushered out of the precinct by a security guard when we tried to park our bikes and followed his instructions to park them on the roadway near the entrance.  There were lots of stalls and a couple of food trucks, where we were able buy an egg pancake for lunch.  Formally a Japanese built tobacco factory, the park had lots of buildings that included craft shops, exhibitions including a big mineral expo.  There was also a 24 hour bookstore opposite.  We wandered around the stalls and browsed the shops, spending most of our time at Design Pin, which had some interesting (and pricey) items.

Jonno headed off, taking the river path while we lingered to enjoy an ice cream, and took the more direct 6 kilometre route through the centre of Taipei.  Fortunately there was a bike path marked on the wide pavement for most of it, and we kept a careful lookout for the pedestrians who had right of way.  Once we turned off the bike path, we followed the locals where possible, weaving around buses and parked cars, as the paths were often too busy to ride on.

Finally, we were all back to the Airbnb where we started and our bike bags were waiting for us.  We took the bikes out to the little courtyard, and put on a load of washing, only to find that the hose was not in the drain so the courtyard flooded.  We hung out the washing and headed off to the Red House in search of souvenirs and somewhere for dinner, finding a little restaurant that served delicious seafood soup.  We detoured via the supermarket to pick up breakfast provisions and a bottle of wine, so that we could toast our successful return.

17 March

Our last morning was spent cleaning and packing the bikes.  We then caught the MRT to Shilin where we had scallion and egg pancakes for lunch, followed by some fried chicken and then cinnamon rolls for dessert.  We caught the bus to the National Palace Museum and spent a few hours wandering the galleries with an audio tour.  There was so much to see, we focused on the curios, ceramics, jade, calligraphy and an exhibition on ancient weaponary.  We all liked the jade cabbage and jasper meat. Jonno even bought a jade cabbage replica to bring home.

We took the shorter bus route back to the MRT and ended up back on the same line we had taken to the Maekong gondola on our first full day. We walked back through the laneways of Ximendeng one last time, which was bustling as usual,  We relaxed a while then went to a little restaurant just next door to us for dinner, and had delicious chicken meals, accompanied by some side dishes, and fruit. A nice meal to end our trip.

Trip summary

Over 20 cycling days, we covered 1047 kilometres, with a total ascent of 7130 metres.  We found Taiwan to be incredibly cycle friendly.  We appreciated being able to buy a half price ticket for our bikes and roll them onto the local trains, panniers and all.  Every place we stayed allowed us to either leave our bikes in the lobby and secure them in their parking area.  We never had to leave our bikes on the street overnight. 

Drivers would shout encouragement as they passed us, and passengers would lean out the window to give us a big thumbs up. People would say hello as we passed or smile and give a thumbs up.  We did pass quite a few road cyclists, often in big groups, and a handful of other tourers.  The main route was tedious at times with lots of traffic lights, but the backroads were delightful and the mountains were our constant backdrop, often draped in cloud. 

The weather was perfect for cycling, with only a couple of brief showers. We did have a couple of hot, sunny days but most of the time was overcast and cool, with just one really windy day. A perfect time to visit Taiwan

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