Unexpected Ride

Last night was Friday and I didn't have any particular plans for the evening.  No plans for Saturday either.  It was looking to be an uneventful start to the weekend.  Thankfully Damien txt'd me mid-day asking if I wanted to do a short notice evening bike ride.

The plan was to do a leisurely ride up to a lookout point he knew of.  I left work slightly early in order to meet up with Damien and Rachel at Treasure Hill near Gonguan (about a 20min bike ride from my work).  Treasure Hill is this really cool little artist village situated alongside the river and hugging onto a hill.  There are handfuls of tiny cement alleys winding up the hill, and along the alley's are little cafe's and artist galleries.  Littered along the paths you can sometimes find miniature scenes of people sitting or walking.  And I mean minature.  Like 4cm tall little people someone glued in random places.  Very cool.

Damien recommended this particular cafe overlooking the river.  The place was 2 floors high, but the house probably should have only been 1 story high.  Everything inside was mini.  All the door frames must have been less than 5' 8", and I could have easily bumped my head on the roof of the upper floor.  Neat little place though.  We sat down and ordered some of the set menu (tofu, chicken, pork) and I ordered a Grapefruit Green Tea while Rachel had some sort of lemon/lime slushy.  The food was pretty tasty and a reasonable price.  I plan on taking Eliza here when she arrives as it's very accessible by the river path on bikes.

We took longer than expected eating and we left back onto the trail after nightfall.  It must have been 8:30pm by this time.  From here until about midnight we snaked our way up along the winding river cutting through Taipei.  It's a beautiful ride and the path is really nicely landscaped and far away from the roads so you can bike and feel like you're not in the middle of the city.  Along the path you'll pass basketball courts and tennis courts filled with youth and seniors being active.  There are many other bikers and joggers/walkers scattered along the path and you really felt like the city had a great active lifestyle culture.

We rode up to another lookout point and coincidentally Rachel's parents were there on an evening walk.  Neither Damien or I had met them before so we had our introductions.  They were very nice.  They didn't speak very much English but I found I was able to follow along with maybe 20% of the convo and I could say a few things.  Rachel's dad was familiar with the Rocky Mountains in BC and he said lake louisé was "piao liao" (beautiful).

After saying bye we continued to ride up the coast until Damien found the spot he was looking for: Dadaocheng Warf.  At night it appeared to be a pretty casual spot for cyclists to have a seat by the water side.  It was dark but the water was quite still and the reflections of the lights made for some nice scenery while Damien poured us some Green Label with Perier and Mint.  The Green Label was from 7-11 and the mint was from a local market he'd been through earlier in the day.

The Warf ended up being a lot farther north than we'd first anticipated.  About 18km from my house.  It was near midnight and we figured we should pack it in.  We tried taking a short cut through the city but ended up back on the riverpath as the roads are a bit complicated in that spot.  We reached the Gonguan area a bit past midnight and then we split our different ways.  Rachel and Damien biked to their respective houses (east/south east) and I headed home (south).  Along the way back I noticed a sign that appeared to be a shortcut.  It took me through some slummy areas where I saw a guys house that was made entirely of doors stacked up and attached together like paneling.  I continued cycling and somehow I ended up nearly in Bitan (a few km past my house).  The only reason I knew I had gone too far was because from my apartment window, I can see this tunnel lit up along a mountain.  It's far off in the distance and while I was biking along this new route I ended up right beside the tunnel (crap!).  My phone was out of battery so I asked a local how I could get back to Xindian by using the elevated highway because I didn't want to go back and do the large loop around the creepy slum area.  Turns out getting back home was really easy and I stepped into my apartment around 1:30am.

And that's how a casual evening ride turns into a 35km+ excursion!