I left my bike and most of my luggage at a hostel in Puli and went to the Philippines. My plan was to return after a week for the visa run (visa-free renewal), but I ended up returning after a month because I enjoyed surfing.
I had been cycling in the mountains before leaving Taiwan, and after returning from the Philippines, I cycled in the mountains again.
The slopes got steeper as I went.
I had ridden on roads over 2,500m (8,202ft) above sea level in Taiwan, but this time I had to go over 3,275m (10,745ft) above sea level. The highest road in Japan is 2,700m (8,858ft) above sea level, and the highest road in Korea is 1,330m (4,364ft) above sea level. It was surprising that the highest road in East Asia at the eastern side is in Taiwan. Also, the highest mountain in Taiwan is 3,925m (12,877ft) above sea level!
There were many hotels in Renai, which is 1,700m (5,577ft) above sea level, but I found out that it was a very famous tourist destination, so the prices were quite high. In the end, I pitched a tent next to a farmhouse and left early in the morning as soon as the sun rose.
The slope was steep, there were too many cars, and the road was too narrow, so riding a bike felt extremely dangerous. Some sections were only one lane, so cars had to stop on one side to wait for the other side to pass.
I really wanted to pass the summit today, but I only rode up to 2,800m (9,186ft) above sea level. I only traveled 24km (15mi) that day. I thought the distance traveled on a mountain was not important. The more important number was how many meters above sea level I climbed in an hour. Excluding break time, I climbed about 220m (722ft) above sea level in an hour, so it was really hard to climb like this with a fully loaded bike.
I asked if I could pitch a tent at a rest stop in the middle, but they said no. Fortunately, I looked around the mountain before entering the national park road and found a place to set up my tent. The ground was uneven, but I felt relieved that I had a place to sleep for the night.
Because it was a high mountain, the night was extremely cold, and by morning, the temperature had dropped to just 5°C (41°F).
If I climbed 500m (1,640ft) more, I will reach the highest road in Taiwan. There were many cars, some sections had traffic jams.
Once I went over 3,000m (9,843ft) above sea level, it became difficult to breathe, so I had to rest every 10 minutes. Above all, the chain kept jumping, making it very difficult to ride the bike. In the end, I had to get off and push it.
In the end, I finally reached the peak. There was a sijo (Korean traditional poem) that I had been murmuring to myself in the mountains last few days.
“Though Mount Tai is said to be high, it is still beneath the sky.
If one climbs and climbs again, how could one fail to reach the top?
Yet people refuse to climb and simply call the mountain high.”
In reality, there are mountains in life that we can never climb, no matter how hard we try. However, I believe that, more often than not, the reason we fail to reach the top is that we do not truly make the effort.
After that, the downhill continued, but since there were many curves, I was careful and couldn’t get down quickly, so I couldn’t arrive at the village until nightfall.
“I came down to 2,000 meters (6,561 feet) above sea level, but the temperature actually dropped below zero. Since the village was located in a valley, it was colder than when I was at 3,200 meters (10,499 feet). The accommodation had an electric blanket, but it was only warm inside the blanket, while it was very cold outside of it. It was a moment when I truly felt how dangerous it could be outside the blanket. (There’s a Korean joke that says ‘Outside the blanket is dangerous(So, stay under the blanket as much as you can’)
The next village I met was a small aboriginal village.
The aboriginal population, who have lived on the island of Taiwan for over 5,000 years, accounts for about 2% of the population, and most aboriginal people are Christian. For reference, the Christian population in Taiwan is 4%. If you see a church in a small village, you can guess that it is an aboriginal village.
There was a wall with a picture of an aboriginal person.
I bought dinner at an aboriginal restaurant that used the aboriginal language.
There was a place selling fried food right in front, so I bought some snacks. I liked riding bikes in the mountains and wanted to stay longer, but the hotels in Taiwan’s mountains were built for tourists and were quite expensive to me, so I had no choice but to return to Taipei.
It was my first time to stay at a hotel run by an aborigine, and the price was much cheaper than the hotels I had stayed at before, and the facilities were good. So I wanted to stay one more day, but the owner said that they had to go to church and that it was impossible to extend my stay.
When I traveled around the South Pacific, I saw that most stores were closed on Sundays because it was church day. In particular, in Tonga, gas stations were even closed on Sundays, and the most important tourist attractions were closed, too. The only places that were open were the hotel and three restaurants in front of it, but the Taiwanese aborigines closed their hotels without exception. It was the first time I saw a hotel that was only open six days a week during my world travels, and I thought that some Taiwanese aborigines had quite deep religious beliefs.
Most hotels in Taiwan have a check-out time of 11 a.m., but the owner of the aborigine hotel allowed me to stay until 1 p.m. I went down with my luggage and saw a note. It said that they were going to a nearby village, so I should leave my keys on the table and close the door before I leave. The hotel owner’s family lived on the first floor, and I was grateful that they trusted me and allowed me to stay late even though they were out of the house.
Since the mountainous region was so cold, I wanted to go down to a lower area now. As I was going down a country road, I saw dogs tied up.
In the countryside of Taiwan, just like in Korea, I often saw dogs tied up on short leashes. However, in the city, there are a lot of people walking their dogs or cats in strollers.
At the fork in the road, I turned off to a place that looked like a nice paved road, but it turned out to be a road that led to a famous tourist site, a private farm. In the end, I had to go back up the hill with great difficulty.
An hour before sunset, the fog began to slowly form. I thought I could easily get down to the next village in an hour, but the fog suddenly became too thick.
Although I occasionally got to ride my bike at night, I rarely rode my bike at night on the mountainside. Especially, it was my first time riding a bike at night on a foggy road like this. There was no visibility at all. Above all, there were many sharp curves, so I couldn’t predict what was ahead, so I had to keep holding the brakes and moving very slowly. I remember it as one of the scariest days of my world travel.
I saw a red light in the distance, so I thought there was a forest fire. My heart sank, thinking that I was trapped in the fog because of a forest fire. Since I couldn’t see anything, I couldn’t even find a camping spot, so I had no choice but to keep going forward. When I got close, I realized that the red light was a streetlight. I didn’t know why there was a streetlight when there was no village around.
I finally arrived at a place where there was light, breaking through the fog that was scarier than a nightmare. I turned on the map and saw that it was a campsite. The entrance to the campsite was extremely steep, so I pushed my bike up hard, but I realized the campsite office was at the bottom of the road. I thought it would be too hard to go back down and up again.
Above all, there was noise from people at the campsite, so I decided to just keep going down to the next village. Fortunately, the fog kept getting thicker and thinner.
Finally, I arrived at a small rural village. Since it was night, the only place open was a 7-Eleven, so I bought a quick dinner, got permission from the police station, and pitched my tent at the basketball court in the community center right in front of it.
The next day, the weather cleared up as if nothing had happened. Today, I had to climb another mountain.
Definitely this kind of mountain is easy to reach the top if you keep pedaling.
The scenery on the way down was really nice, but there was no place to pitch a tent. Then, just before the sun set, I found a place to pitch a tent in the forest. It was far from the city, so I could sleep comfortably.
The next day, since it was downhill, I thought I could easily get to Taipei, so I spent the morning leisurely. After that, I was about to ride my bike faster, but my rear wheel got a puncture. While I was repairing it, I found a crack in the rim. I had no idea when the crack had started. I suddenly became anxious about riding my bike. All I could think about was wanting to get back to Taipei as quickly as possible.
But soon the road was blocked. The hard part about cycling through the countryside of Taiwan is that there are times when the entire road is blocked for the construction. The construction worker said that I could only pass by at 5 PM. Since there was no shortcut back, I had no choice but to wait. Now I had to ride my bike in the middle of the night again.
When I first arrived here, something funny happened. Three young friends riding motorcycles collected money among them about U$35 and went to the construction site to bribe. I was going to join them if it was possible, but the friend who had taken the money came back soon after. It must have been a special road that money couldn’t solve.
In the end, I was only able to pass by when the sun set. I had to ride my bike in the mountains again late that night, but since the villages kept coming out, there were lights so it wasn’t as scary as the day before. However, I was tired because I had to ride my bike until late at night.
After that, I returned to Taipei, the capital of Taiwan. The original plan was to return to Korea after Taiwan, but the plan changed at the last minute.
My original dream was to return to South Korea through North Korea, so I sent letters of help to many places, but it was no use. I didn’t want to live on the road my whole life, so I thought I should just give up and go home, but then an idea came to me while looking at a map.
I thought I should ride a bike along the Amnok River to the Tumen River in China; the border between China and North Korea. However, mainland China continued to close its borders after COVID-19. In 2022, many countries around the world gradually opened their borders, but even in 2023, there was no sign of China opening its borders to tourists.
But there was a rumor at the time that the borders would be opened after the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (China’s largest political event) in March 2023. I decided that if China didn’t open its borders by May, when my Taiwan’s visa-free period ends, I would give up and return to Korea.
Since I had some extra time, I ordered a new helmet online. I thought I ordered the same model, but when I received it, it was a different model.
The white helmet on the right was a gift from a local who sold bicycle parts when I traveled to Italy in 2014. It was so comfortable that I didn’t feel like wearing a helmet at all. However, it was so old that the parts of the helmet were missing and broken, so I couldn’t use it properly.
I was very disappointed because the new helmet didn’t feel as comfortable as the other. The buckle part was made of extremely thick fabric. It was a place where sweat would collect, and I didn’t like the idea that it would smell like crazy if it was made of such thick fabric.
It would take a long time to return it and get a new one, so I had no choice but to use it.
There is a long river in Taipei, Taiwan, which is perfect for cycling.
There was also a campsite on one side of the park.
I visited a bicycle expo, and the wooden bicycles were amazing. I would like to buy one later if I get the chance.
I was invited to the wedding of a friend of a Taiwanese local friend, Yachu. The difference from Korean weddings is that you don’t have to wear a suit. Some people wore suits and others wore casual clothes, and the atmosphere was very free. One thing that was similar to Korea was that they gave congratulatory money before entering.
The friend of my friend worked as a designer at a bicycle company, and the couple entered the wedding on a bicycle, making the guests laugh.
Unlike a typical Korean wedding, which ends after the officiant’s speech and simple events like songs, the ceremony continued with the groom and bride’s professors, colleagues, and acquaintances giving gifts and sharing words of blessing. The wedding lasted for over 3 hours, with food being continuously served. It was the most delicious Taiwanese food I’ve ever tasted.
Taiwan uses the cash mostly rather than electronic payment. So to prevent tax evasion the government issues lottery receipts. The lottery number is written on the receipt, so you have to keep the receipt. There is a drawing once every two months, and the first prize is U$300,000. The lowest prize, 6th place, is about U$6.5. If you scan it by using an app, it will tell you which prize you won easily. One of the receipts I collected won 6th place, and when I went to a nearby convenience store with my passport, they gave me the prize right away.
It was really cold in the mountains, but it was so humid and hot when I came down to Taipei. I went to the ice rink to escape the heat, but there was a hockey game going on, so I couldn’t go ice skating. Anyway, it was nice to be able to escape the heat, and it was fun to watch the dynamic ice hockey.
I used to go to board game cafes with friends when I was in the school, and there are board game cafes in Taiwan, too. So it was fun to play board games again.
I also went hiking with Yachu and his friends. You have to apply in advance to enter certain hiking trails, and they have locks. Yachu applied in advance, so we were able to hike in a place where there weren’t many people.
There was a swampy area, and since I’m not good at jumping, I ended up sinking one of my feet. Yachu’s friend must have known I would sink in, so he took a series of pictures with his camera, and I was able to get some fun pictures.
I also went to a shrimp fishing spot, and it was pretty fun. If the price was cheaper, I would have sat and fished for shrimp for hours. Most of the customers had their own fishing rods. After catching shrimp, I had to clean and grill them, but since it was only an hour, there weren’t many shrimps to grill. Maybe it didn’t seem right, but a local person said they caught too many shrimp and shared the rest.
At E7PLAY 三重館, you could use various arcade games, billiards, a bowling alley, and a dart hall for U$9 for 3 hours. The bowling alley was the most popular, and I ended up getting my highest score of 129 points. I also tried darts for the first time, and it was so fun.
While I was spending time in Taiwan editing videos and sightseeing, I finally heard good news. The rumors turned out to be true. China really opened its borders after the National People’s Congress. Since they suddenly opened the borders, there was a rush of people trying to get tourist visas, and they said it would take a long time to get them.
I planned to spend a little more time in Taiwan and then go over to Hong Kong to apply for a Chinese tourist visa.
I had to get my bike repaired before going over to China. My bike rim cracked and needed to be replaced, but I couldn’t find a new rim no matter how many bike shops I visited in Taipei. It was a huge shock that I couldn’t find a 26-inch rim in Taiwan, a famous place for producing bicycles.
26-inch rims are slow in terms of speed, but they are durable and have been used for a long time. However, these days, most bicycles are only made of expensive ones, so 26-inch rims have disappeared into history. A bike shop I found by chance told me that if I ordered a 26-inch rim, I would receive it the next week, but the problem was that they didn’t have the hub parts I wanted. When I was about to give up, I found a place that was like heaven. The man in the photo is Alashi, the owner of a travel bike shop.
There was everything related to the bicycle tour in his shop, Alashi Cycling Studio | SURLY BIKE 台灣官方代理 ｜旅行車客製諮詢 When I asked if they had 26-inch rims, he showed me several different types of 26-inch rims and asked which one I wanted. My bike frame is called Surly Long Haul Trucker, which was famous for a tour bicycle but discontinued a few years ago. Even Alash had this discontinued model in his shop for selling.
I was planning to buy the parts one by one from a Taiwanese online shopping mall called Shopee and replace all the parts myself, but the problem was that I didn’t have the right equipment or place to change. Also, I wasn’t sure if gears I will order would fit my bike.
However, Alash had all the parts I was looking for and offered to give me the exact price I found online. I found out while looking around several bike shops that buying bike parts in stores costs almost twice as much as buying them online. However, Alash offered to give me the exact price I found online, so I was grateful.
Additionally, Alasi mentioned that he would help with real-time bicycle repairs via my YouTube Live. At that time, I was using a Google Pixel 3XL—a model purchased in 2019—which resulted in somewhat poor photo and video quality, and the display colors were already malfunctioning.
I thought that doing a YouTube Live might attract some real-time donations, so I decided to invest in a new phone. I spent U$500 on a new phone, the Google Pixel 7. However, when I actually went live, I received one or two real-time donations, which did not cover the cost of the phone.
(The photos are arranged from left to right: Pixel 7, Pixel 3XL, and Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 Pro. I used the Xiaomi as a backup, but since I will now use the Pixel 3XL as the backup, I discarded the Xiaomi phone. I concluded that while the Xiaomi phone is good initially, after a year it becomes slow and easily breaks, so I decided not to use it anymore.)
After replacing various parts, I ended up spending about U$430 on repairs. (There were also some new parts that do not appear in the photos.) With prices being so high these days, it seemed that the repair costs were higher than they would have been a few years ago. Had I gone to another shop, it would have been even way more expensive.
It was also nice to have a chance to talk about travel stories with people at Alash’s store.
(I highly recommend his store for touring bicycles, gears, and repairing if you have the plan to visit Taipei. Moreover, it’s the only last place you can get 26″ wheel easily now.)
Alash’s girlfriend Jessie drew a picture for me as a gift, and I was touched. Thanks to Alash, I was able to properly repair my bike and leave.
Before leaving Taiwan, I had dinner at the my favorite hot pot place.
The morning I left Taiwan, Alash and Jessie drove me to the airport. There were three cats in Alash’s shop. I especially liked the black cat Kiki, and Jessie made Kiki out of clay, which touched me.
After saying goodbye to Alash and Jessie, I went to the airport and went through immigration. I would take a flight from Taipei to Hong Kong. It seemed like the end of my trip was finally in sight. I hoped I could get my Chinese tourist visa in Hong Kong.
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===Taiwan travel video collection===
Bicycle on the highest road in Taiwan
Cycling in the fog that was real nightmare.
Bicycle repair at Alash shop
