Bike Tour Wish List: Taichung, Taiwan

Photo is owned by David Niddrie

Awhile back I went on many bike tours both here and abroad. I've travelled with my folding bike to Hong Kong, Vietnam, New Zealand, Ilocos Norte, Isabela, Laguna, Cavite, Albay and Camarines Sur. But for one thing or another I stopped going on bike tours. This recent article by David Niddrie for Momentum Mag has resparked my interest in the activity.

Niddrie wrote about his experience bike touring around Sun Moon Lake in Taichung, Taiwan--the country's largest lake. The pictures of the tour look fantastic, and total length sounds a reasonable 30 kms. 

I will research more on this and see if I can invite some friends to go along and join me on a bike tour.

Mini Bike Tour of Devonport

I went to the small town of Devonport on the North Shore the other day and brought my Brompton with me. I rode the ferry from the CBD's Pier 1 to the Devonport Ferry Terminal. Adult fare was NZ$11.00 round trip.

On board the ferry to Devonport

Brommie Skywalker on the Devonport Boardwalk

Upon my arrival, I unfolded my bike and started cycling. Devonport is an affluent suburb across Auckland CBD. There are small boutiques, specialty shops and cafes lining Queens Parade and Victoria Road. I proceeded north via Victoria Road then made a right on Kerr Street and followed the path up Mount Victoria. The hill was steep and I had a difficult time climbing it even on the Brompton's granny gears. But I eventually got to the top.

And, boy, did it give a fantastic view of the city.

Mount Victoria's Disappearing Gun

Mount Victoria is the tallest volcano in the North Shore. It used to be a military facility, much like Corregidor in the Philippines. It even has its own "disappearing gun."

After taking photos, I cycled down Kerr Street and turned left on Vauxhall Road. Passed through a row of houses. I stopped at the corner of Vauxhall and Tainui Roads and had a flat white in a french cafe. Sayang, wala silang chocolate croissant.

One of the many public beaches in Devonport. This one fronting Torpedo Bay.

And then I biked on Tainui Road and peeked at a couple of Devonport's public beaches. It's amazing. One minute you're like in San Lorenzo Village, then you make a turn, and its the beach! I wonder how much the houses are in this area. I'm pretty sure they're expensive.

After beach hopping, I turned to Cheltenham Road and biked south. I hit King Edward Parade and stopped by the Navy Museum.

From the museum I rode along King Edward Parade back to the ferry terminal, where I waited for my ferry back to Auckland CBD. I cycled a distance of 6 kms for this mini bike tour.

My Devonport Cycle Route

Tragic News About Bike Tourists

Just learned about this recent bike accident in Thailand that killed two British nationals. Such tragic news for bike tourists, and well, all cyclists for that matter. Peter Root and Mary Thompson of the United Kingdom were touring the world on their bikes when they were hit by a truck in Chachoengsao, Thailand.

Stay safe, everyone.

Bike Tourism for Small Towns

In this video, Laura of Path Less Pedalled talks about the potential economic benefits of bike tourism for small towns in the US. She makes sense. Let's take for example a trip from Saud in Pagudpud to Laoag City. If you travel by car, you'd probably just make one stop--in Pasuquin, for some Biscocho for merienda. That's it. 

But if you travel or tour by bike (like I've done a couple of times before) between the same two points, you'll make more stops, which would lead you to rest and take meriendas in Bangui, Burgos, Brgy. Davila in North Pasuquin and Bacarra. You'll meet more people along the way, buy more goods, and this would somehow help improve the local economy.   

Mini Bike Tour of Iloilo City

I flew to Western Visayas last weekend to accompany my wife to attend a seminar. Brought my folding bike with me so that I could explore the central business district on my own.

I took a Cebu Pacific flight to Iloilo. Packed my Brompton in the new Vincita B-132B Transport Bag (I really like that it's smaller and much more compact than its predecessor).  The bike and the bag weighed a total 17.5 kilos. Had no problem checking it in at the airport.

The flight took an hour. Was quite impressed with the Iloilo International Airport. The place looked new, sleek and shiny.

Once I got to my hotel, I unzipped the B-132B bag to check the bike. Inspected it for any deformities or cracks. Didn't find any. I put air in the tires with the stock handpump. I think I put in 100 pumps per tire. Worked up a bit of sweat there.

After the tires were inflated, I went down the lobby and pedaled away. I biked 3 kilometers to the ferry terminal to buy my ticket to Bacolod for the next day.

From there, I turned around and visited the provincial capitol compound.

Here's the old capitol building. I think the governor plans to convert it into a museum. Speaking of which, I also stopped by the current Iloilo Museum. I was out of luck because the museum was closed.

After taking some pictures, I biked to my next destination, SM Iloilo. Took my customary SM souvenir shot.

I had merienda at local favorite, Deco's. Tried their La Paz Batchoy. It was a bit salty for my tastebuds.

On the way back to the hotel, I passed by the newly inaugurated Iloilo River Esplanade, a 1.2 km pathway along the Iloilo riverbank. I wanted to cycle on it but I was stopped by a security guard.

It was getting dark so I biked back to my hotel. And that was my afternoon tour of the Iloilo central business district. They said I should've visited the area's other attractions like Miag-ao Church, but that's 40 kms west of the CBD. I didn't have time to cycle that far. May be next time.

Mini Bike Tour of Bacolod, Negros Occidental

I went to my mom's hometown, Bacolod, last weekend. As far as I can remember, it was my first time in Negros since I was a toddler. And I brought my folding bike with me so that I could tour the Central Business District.

Brommie Skywalker at the 2GO Ferry Terminal in Iloilo City

I was coming from Iloilo City. I took the 7:30am 2GO Supercat Ferry. A round-trip ticket set me back P580.00 (US$14.00). The boat ride from Panay Island to Negros Island took an hour and twenty minutes. I arrived at the Bacolod Roll-On Roll-Off (RORO) Port at 9am. 

The weather was fine that morning--sunny, blue sky with some clouds. It was a wee bit hot though. Anyway, I unfolded the Brompton and cycled towards the CBD. My first stop was the town plaza along Rizal Street. I rested under the shade of a tree and took pictures of the nearby fountains, gazebo and war memorial.

On the opposite side of Rizal Street is San Sebastian Cathedral, more commonly known as the Bacolod Cathedral.

From the church, I rode along Gatuslao Street and stopped at the Negros Museum. I wanted to go inside. Unfortunately, the museum was closed that day. Sayang, I heard it had nice exhibits.

I continued cycling north until I hit the Negros Occidental Provincial Capitol. The Negrense have a really nice looking capitol. Clean and lots of open spaces.

In front of the capitol building is a huge rectangle lagoon. I hear it looks pretty at night. Too bad I couldn't ride my bike within the grounds. A security guard stopped me.

Afterwards, I biked back to Rizal Street and headed to SM shopping mall. Took my customary SM photo and waited for my relatives to pick me up. 

The whole bike ride starting from the port to church to capitol to SM was just 5.5 kms.

My cousin Tel passed by for me at SM. I unfolded my bike and loaded it in her car. She took me north to Silay City.

On the way there I observed that Negrense people (at least those living along the highway) planted nothing but sugarcane. For 13 kilometers I just saw sugarcane, sugarcane, sugarcane. Didn't see any ricefield at all. No wonder Negros is famous for its sweets. The dentists must be making a killing down there. 

Tel toured me around Silay and I was pleasantly surprised to discover it to be a beautiful heritage town. The people of Silay were so historical and cultural conscious that they preserved a lot of their old buildings and houses--even to the extent of having them declared historical landmarks by the National Historical Commission. Maganda talaga ang pag-preserve nila. I was really impressed.

The tourism officer, Ver Pacete, was a very friendly and helpful guy. They offer walking tours of their heritage district. If I had more time, I would've done it.

After the tour, Tel brought me to their house and we had lunch with her family. We ate the local specialty, chicken inasal.

Later in the afternoon, Tel brought me back to Bacolod, but not before taking a sidetrip to Felicia's pastry cafe along 6th Street for cake and coffee. The cake was very good. Next time, I have to try the other Bacolod favorite, Calea's. 

Tel dropped me off at the RORO Port for my trip back to Iloilo. By this time rainclouds enveloped the sky. I thanked Tel for taking me around and promised her I'd return with my family and stay longer. And I definitely will. I want to visit the Lacson Mansion Ruins in Talisay.

Bike-cation, another term for Bike Touring and Bike-Packing

Treehugger recently reported on the decline of stay-cations and, inversely, the rise of bike-cations--a new term essentially having the same meaning as bike touring and bike-packing. Anyway, in this video, Laura and Russ (of Path Less Pedaled) promote bike-cations in the US northwestern state of Oregon. It looks very inviting.

 

Meanwhile, here in the homefront, I'll be taking my own bike-cation in Iloilo and Bacolod this weekend. I will take the Brompton with me and explore Western Visayas by bike. Safe travels, everybody!  

Video: Family Bike Camping

I'd like to take my daughter (and hopefully my wife as well) go family bike camping someday.

Video from Path Less Pedaled.

Video: Brompton Bike Tour of NYC

I wonder if R.O.X. (or any local bike shop for that matter) can also do this here-- take tourists on a free bike tour of the city. That would be awesome.

They can start in MOA and bike along the baywalk up to Luneta. Take a picture in front of the Rizal shrine, and the proceed to Intramuros. They make all the historic stops and the bike all the way to Chinatown for lunch. From there they get picked up by an R.O.X. van and return to MOA. That's how I'd do it. : )

Anyway, good one, NYCE Wheels! Way to be innovative!

Mini Bike Tour of Hong Kong 3 (Sha Tin-Tai Po-Fanling)

That's me, Eugene and Charlie

And that's Diane with her green Brompton

On our second day in Hong Kong, the five of us, Diane, Val, Charlie, Eugene and I, assembled at University Station in Sha Tin, north of Kowloon. The weather outside was 13 degrees Celcius and there was an overcast just like the day before, so it was a cold day to go biking, but there we were. I did not bring any gloves with me and my hands were freezing. It's a good thing Val had an extra pair with him and lent them to me.

We first biked to the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) Campus. Easily got impressed with the bikelane infrastructure in the area.

We biked south of the station and stopped at a jogging/biking bridge overlooking Sha Tin Hoi river and Mount Ma On Shan.

From there, we retraced our steps and headed back north via the Sha Tin-Tai Po bike network.

Got to use a couple of bike tunnels. Wished they had these here in Manila.

So cool to be biking in a bike dedicated tunnel

We reached Pak Shek Kok Promenade and continued biking. Reminded me of the Roxas Blvd./Manila Bay Baywalk.

Passed the Hong Kong Science and Technology Park. We took a break in one of the buildings. Diane and Eugene had brunch.

Then we continued riding along the Tolo Harbor. It was just beautiful. I really enjoyed biking the miles and miles of bikeways. For the most part it was flat.

My mandatory "Day Off" Pose

We stopped at the Tai Po Lookout Tower. Took some photos of Yuen Chau Tsai Bay.

Then we continued riding until the end of the bike network. I computed 18 kilometers of uninterrupted bikelanes. Kung may ganito lang sa Manila, araw araw ako magba-bike commute. Ang swerte ng mga nagtatrabaho dito. May bikelane sila na maganda.

We biked along Ting Kok Road until we reached Tai Mei Tuk Water Sports Center. We stopped at the dam overlooking Plover Cove. Para siyang CCP/PICC noong araw--many bikes-for-rent. People there were also doing water-related activities like kayaking, sailing and swimming.

Plover Cove

After the break, we entered Pat Sin Leng Country Park via Bride's Pool Road. This section of the bike ride was very hilly. In fact, at some points, we were required (by a traffic sign no less) to get off our bikes and walk up the incline.

I really didn't cycle this. It was too steep for me. This was pure acting.

When there's an uphill, there is definitely a downhill. At one part of the road, from the peak to the bottom, I think I clocked in 40kmh!

We stopped at a roadside canteen in Luk Keng. We had spicy noodle soup for lunch. Enjoyed the view of Starling Inlet. Watched migratory birds float on the water. Val said that just across the bay where we were sitting was Shenzen, China!

After lunch, we pedaled a few meters to another roadside canteen, Chan Fung Kee, and had cold Taho with ginger.

Yummy Taho

We continued our bike tour of the Hong Kong countryside. Val took us through the sidestreets and we found ourselves in the middle of nowhere. Charlie and Eugene said the place looked like we were in UP Los Banos--just because of all the greenery surrounding us.

Doesn't that remind you of UPLB and Mount Makiling?

We headed towards Fanling but stopped at Lau Shui Heung Reservoir. Beautiful man-made lake. It looked like we were in Switzerland.

With our host and ride leader, Val Roque

From the reservoir we pedaled to Fanling, where we finally ended our bike tour.

We folded our bikes and boarded the train to go back to Mongkok. We biked a total of 45 scenic kilometers that day.

I truly, truly enjoyed this bike tour. It was awesome. Thanks, Val, for planning and leading the ride.

PS: Special mention again to Diane Flaviano and Charlie Gaw for some of the photos in this post.