30days30years

The Hills

So this morning I sat in a classroom at the Shumen Elementary School while Joy and Selep gave a presentation to the school’s president. On the wall was a calendar highlighting some of the region’s most impressive sights. The tag line was “The Breezy Peninsula”.

Breezy is putting it mildly! I can only imagine what this area is like during typhoon season- holy moly it’s windy here. More on that in a sec 🙂

I stayed last night with Selep’s grandparents who live in Da Mei in the Mudan area of southern Taiwan. Da Mei means big plum flower in Chinese. Selep means powerful woman too btw 🙂

Her grandfather is the elder of her indigenous tribe and as such he gets carried around on one of those elevated chairs like Cleopatra during important gatherings. He is this tiny frail man who looks a bit like Gandhi.

The tribe believes in gender equally so Selep, as the first born grandchild, will one day be that person. She has been educated about the obligations of her roll since birth, just like someone like Prince William would have been.

After breakfast we headed to the Kao Shu Elementary School perched in the mountains of the Kenting National Park.  I had no place in the meeting being attended so I cruised around the grounds where I came across a group of kids having a dance lesson. The young guy teaching them was obviously a bit of a dancer because he had them busting out a hip hip routine to some Justin Timberlake song. Very cute. When they finished they all came rushing over to say hi and practise their english. Some asked my age, others my name and some simply said ‘welcome’. It was one of the nicest experiences on my trip to date. Just simply lovely kids. One little girl even suggested her teacher get my phone number! Ha ha!

I have video of them dancing but am having a little trouble getting it off my phone.

Ok so back to the hills. After lunch Joy and Selep left me at the school where I left my bike yesterday and I began the 43km journey to Dawu. On the flat it would be a mere two-hour ride but every time I have mentioned to people I’m taking this particular road they give me varying estimates of how long it will take me. Some say still only two hours (I think they are severely over-estimating my fitness level there!) and others told me it was strictly a full days ride.

I didn’t set off until 2pm and was a little concerned I was still going to be climbing the mountains after nightfall. Ten minutes in I had already begun trying to remember how the contestants on Survivor make waterproof shelters out of leaves because at 4km an hour this was going to be one long journey.

It wasn’t so much the steepness of the hills – I think the road to Sun Moon Lake was a lot tougher- it was the crazy wind gusts. An American girl who I met on a cycling forum is a few days ahead if me doing the same thing and had warned me of the strong winds and the fact they had almost knocked her off her bike a couple of times along this pass but they were nothing like what I expected.

At one point I went from cycling at 17km/hr down to 3km/hr in the space of about a second just because of the headwind. It was mental.

I had made the decision to try to stick above 10km/hr whenever possible so I would make it to Dawu before dark. I ended up averaging about that but with absolutely no consistency which became very frustrating; 3km up a hill, 37km down it. I don’t know how many times I went up and down my gears.

The road was pretty chockers too with a lot of trucks and buses since it is one of only a couple of routes running east-west across the country.

The other motorists were super encouraging though. I was forever getting toots and thumbs up from scooter drivers coming the other way and from construction workers en route as I snailed past them. And then there was the two guys on rollerblades who came flying down the hill towards me, one lifting his thumb out of the slipstream he was in behind his friend.

After 20km of heading mostly upward I’d made it to the top which then meant 10km of pure downhill. I was delirious with excitement! I ended up making it to Dawu in three hours. I’ll take that any day of the week. As my friend Kara told me the other day: the hills never get any easier, you just get faster!

I arrived in Dawu with no place to stay. The Taiwanese are ridiculously nice though and I feel 100 per cent safe here so I stopped in at the local police station to see if they would give me a bed for the night. They pointed me in the direction of the local school. I had heard from other cyclist that most schools will let you camp in their grounds overnight for free as long as you’re out before school starts the next morning. I don’t have any camping gear but was hoping they might let me sleep in a classroom. Failing that I was going to knock on the door of the local temple.

When I found the school a woman who I assume is the principal stopped me as I approached the main building. I told her I was after somewhere warm to shelter for the night and she agrees to let me stay in the student dormitories since its Friday and they have all gone home for the weekend. It’s not exactly the Ritz but the showers are warm and there is a roof over my head. If I ever have a spare million in the future I’m going to donate it to this school to revamp it living quarters for their students. Their generosity is heartwarming. 🙂

Oh and I found this in the room I’m dossing in for the night…. Looks like it was meant to be!