The sun cracks the horizon, burning through bales of clouds to blaze a shimmering silver blanket across the Pacific. Three blue squid boats steadily return, a mile out, as dumpers pound the rocky shore sending up a fine sea spray. I breathe in the ocean, kick my bike over, and shoot along the Number 11, snaking the seaside. Here, the Coastal Range towers the road’s edge. Its peaks draped in morning mist, while garlands of pink and purple bougainvillea trace out the road ahead to Dulan. This cool morning air belies the heat of the day to come that will melt all to sweet molasses in the Sugar Factory tonight.
If Banqiao is the Armpit then I get to claim the Shithole of the Island (Taoyuan). Or rather, the “Dirty Sphincter”. North Kaohsiung with all the chemicals in the air must be Mordor. My taxi driver last time looked like this:
What about the two areas on National Freeway number one towards Kaohsiung that really resemble mordor. I call them the FFZ (free farting zone) as opposed to the other FFZ (fart free zone).
[quote=“Fox”]The Moonlight Coast (Shihtiping to Dulan)
The sun cracks the horizon, burning through bales of clouds to blaze a shimmering silver blanket across the Pacific. Three blue squid boats steadily return, a mile out, as dumpers pound the rocky shore sending up a fine sea spray. I breathe in the ocean, kick my bike over, and shoot along the Number 11, snaking the seaside. Here, the Coastal Range towers the road’s edge. Its peaks draped in morning mist, while garlands of pink and purple bougainvillea trace out the road ahead to Dulan. This cool morning air belies the heat of the day to come that will melt all to sweet molasses in the Sugar Factory tonight.[/quote]
kick my bike over
Why so angry?
The sun cracks the horizon This is the time I normally paddle out. Sunscreen stained eyes starring into a blaze a shimmering silver blanket across the Pacific
This cool morning air belies the heat of the day till the scorching volcanic rocks and smoothed pebbles scorch the soles of your feet.
Fox. I like your writing style. Took me to the place I want to be. Different experiences on a similar journey.
“Kick my bike over”, figuratively to get it going.
Thanks. ICRT has a comp to write 100 words about your favorite place. I thought I’d give it a try.
The Number 11 is a very interesting place. It’s majestic beauty, mix of cultures, laid backness and better weather beat the crap out of Taipei, but I’m sure others can see something they like about this place.
Home. The part I like best. Hills all around, with a temple overseeing the lake in which they soak their feet (or appear to). The ducks, turtles, fishes, fishermen, spiders, walkers, trees, children, birds, cats, frogs, insects thrive here. Seasons come and go, the mood and colour of the skies change, the water looks different, the hills feel different, people come and go and yet it remains the same. I can hear the traffic zipping past, the quacking of the ducks and the grunts of the frogs, children squealing and people splashing in the pool below. Each day begins with a familiar tick-tock of the tennis balls being hit and the hai HAI of a group doing some obscure tai-chi. I like to see and meet the runners who run no matter hot/cold or rain. And when the typhoons come, when the skies are darkened to a foreboding black and the gusts threaten to bend and break the palm trees, the water seems rebellious, and the rains thrash, pound and threaten to flood our apartment, we seek comfort from the stoic hills. It reads Neihu on the map, I call it home .
Bi-hu lake. Nicely described. You know I go there every day but I never see you. I know all those guys playing tennis there in the morning. One of them works with sandman and knows him well.
Bi-hu lake. Nicely described. You know I go there every day but I never see you. I know all those guys playing tennis there in the morning. One of them works with sandman and knows him well.[/quote]
You don’t know what you’re looking for!! Yeah I am friends with all the tennis players too, we help them collect the balls
Bi-hu lake. Nicely described. You know I go there every day but I never see you. I know all those guys playing tennis there in the morning. One of them works with sandman and knows him well.[/quote]
That’s lovely, Divya. Yeah, I know Bear the tennis player. Nice man.
If you bicycle around the little peninsula of rotted-industrial warehouses, cement companies, and mutant vegetable gardens between the Danshuei and Keelong rivers, just to the west of Cheng De and North of Highway 1. I think it’s called Shezidao.
The Taipei Travel cycling map says " It is a place of agricultural and unsophisticated life where rice paddies and vegetable gardens compose beautiful countryside scenery." :roflmao:
If you look on the map, it takes on a distinctive shape that an ex-Aussie navy friend of mine used to call “The Knob”.
What’s with all this hate on Banqiao? The place seems to be booming.[/quote]
Try driving through Banqiao at night, especially in the vicinity of FE 21, Cashbox, etc. It’s definitely booming all right…and crashing…and squealling…and honking…and shouting…
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