Grandpa Rainbow

Taiwan Stage 4 – Taichung to Puli 71 Km (Wed 14 Nov 2018)

Weather: 20⁰C min – 28⁰C max, clear and sunny

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“I dream my painting, and then I paint my dream.” ~ Vincent van Gogh

Food in Taiwan is sometimes said to be the best in Asia, but it has taken me a while to get the taste. Breakfast at the Smile 73 Hotel this morning helped, presenting me with an interesting array of salads and noodle stir fry … quite different from the “cereal followed by two slices of toast and Vegemite, washed down by a cup of English breakfast tea” that I am accustomed to.

I am quite proud of myself for mastering the menu selection and ordering process in restaurants too. Normally in Taiwan you are presented with an ordering card covered with meaningless hieroglyphics. At first I was ordering blind, but now I use the camera feature of the Google Translate Android app to decipher for me. It didn’t fail me last night because the grilled mackerel, potato croquettes and salad was delicious.

Full of energy after all this wonderful food, I elected to take a circuitous route out of Taichung that added an extra 14 Km to my day (which is why the Strava actual route shows 71 Km compared to the Open Street Maps 57 Km originally planned). Apart from it being a nice sunny morning, and having surplus energy, I didn’t get to see much of Taichung last night because it gets dark early here at this time of year.

But the real reason for the deviation is that I am a kid at heart and I just had to see the Rainbow Village that I had read about. What an incredibly colourful place! The village was formerly used for military housing, but what was once drab walls has been transformed thanks to the creative paintings of Huang Yong-Fu, known as Rainbow Man. After Huang painted these walls they took on a magical, fairytale-like appearance.

Riding along the shoulder of busy main roads has never appealed to me, so I found today’s ride along Huandao Route 1-3 rather boring until after about 40 Km when banana plantations and date palms started to appear. Until then few photographic opportunities presented themselves, unlike yesterday’s magical scenery.

Although the total elevation gain today was 582 m, the gradient was so gentle I barely noticed that I was climbing. The numerous tunnels were appreciated too. Obviously the civil engineers were cyclists! It was very hot though, so on a couple of occasions my eyes were scanning ahead looking for the familiar 7-Eleven logo. These stores are like an oasis here!

You might think the Rainbow Village was my highlight for the day. It was until I came to the Taiwan Gousing Coffee House selling authentic Arabica coffee grown locally in Taiwan. Easily the best cappuccino I have had since I left Sydney! Taiwanese kindness showed through again too, with the neighbouring table sharing some of their delicious cake and then the barista giving me a plate of complementary biscuits.

Tomorrow I promise you are in for a treat because I am passing the very picturesque Sun Moon Lake. Stay tuned for the next exciting episode!