Day 3: 13 May 2023, Saturday

After two nights in Taipei, it was time to start our adventure – the Cycling Tour de Taiwan, or Round-The-Island (RTI) cycling tour with Giant Adventure (捷安特旅遊). Over the next nine days, we will cycle a total distance of around 900km, covering between 80km+ and 122km each day. It will be super tough not only because of the distance but also the elevation. The eastern part of Taiwan is mountainous so the slopes will definitely be a big challenge for us since we don’t have that kind of terrain in Singapore.

On top of that, we will be cycling for nine consecutive days with no rest days in between, so we will need to recover enough each day to last the full nine days. I’m also hoping that the beautiful scenery and camaraderie from being part of a big group will motivate and push us along. But most importantly, I hope we will all complete the ride safely and enjoy the experience.

This morning, we woke up at 5:45am and had a simple breakfast at our hotel, eating the buns we bought yesterday and a cup of coffee from the hotel’s coffee machine. At the hotel lobby, we saw another group of eight Singaporeans who were also joining the Giant Adventure RTI. They arrived yesterday afternoon and happened to stay in the same hotel as us.

They were all from the same cycling group in Singapore and they looked pretty pro with their gear and uniform cycling jerseys. For our first day of cycling, AT, TH and I also wore the same attire – a white jersey featuring illustrations of several Singapore icons like the Merlion and Marina Bay Sands. AT and TH had given the jersey to me as a birthday present, and also bought the same one for themselves. From our cute jerseys, you could tell straight away that we were amateurs, just here for a good time!

At 7:00am, we checked out of our Water Front Hotel and walked to the meeting point at Songshan Station, a short 10 minutes’ walk away. As we approached the open plaza in front of Songshan Station, we saw our bicycles laid out on the ground. There was a palpable sense of excitement in the air as the other participants streamed in in groups, wearing different coloured cycling jerseys and dragging their suitcases along.

We registered our attendance with the Giant Adventure staff member. The tour leader, Jeffrey, handed us our goodie bags, comprising a Taiwan cycling jersey, water bottle and rain jacket. Each participant was assigned a number, printed on a sticker that was already attached to the water bottle. I was assigned the number 29. The sticker also bore our names, but unfortunately, they mis-spelled my surname. We were also instructed to paste a second sticker on the left side of our helmets, for easy identification.

After collecting our goodie bags, we went to our assigned bicycles to set up our accessories and test out our bikes. The bicycles were from Giant, of course, and they were hybrid bicycles, meaning it is a hybrid between a road bike and a mountain bike. It has the speed of a road bike with the comfort of a mountain bike – the best of both worlds. It came with skinny wheels like a road bike, but with flat bars (and horns) instead of drop bars, which makes for a more comfortable riding posture.

The bike was equipped with front and rear lights, a bicycle computer (to show the speed and distance), two small waterproof pouches draped across the bike frame and two bottle cages. The pouches were handy for storing my energy gels, isotonic drink powder sachets, sunscreen and small items. I took my bicycle for a quick spin and it felt smooth and light, as expected. This would be my “horse” for the next nine days.

Our cycling tour group comprised of 39 participants in total – 15 Singaporeans, two Japanese, two Australians, a few Hong Kongers, and the rest were Taiwanese. It was nice to have people of different nationalities joining the tour. Our Singapore contingent was made up of three groups – AT, TH and me (the MAMILs, aka Middle-Aged Men in Lycra); the group of eight from the same cycling club, and another group of four family/friends.

At 7:50am, Jeffrey started the briefing session. He had a big portable speaker in front of him, and he used his wireless microphone to address us. I was very impressed by how organised everything was. From the registration to the depositing of luggage to the briefing, everything has been seamless so far.

Jeffrey introduced the other five staff members from Giant Adventure accompanying us on this trip. The lead rider was Bryan – he would be our “GPS” and control the cycling speed of the group. At the end of the pack was the sweeper, Xiao Hei (because he is very tanned) – he would ensure that no one is left behind. Riding in between us would be three more staff members, who will assist to keep the group together and organise us when we need to make hook turns at traffic junctions.

We also had two support vehicles tagging along – one for luggage storage and mechanical support, and another for spare bicycles and snack supplies. The support vans were affectionately called Xiao Bai (小白) and Da Bai (大白) because they were white in colour. We could also keep our small day bags containing essentials like power banks, medicine or rain jackets (things that don’t go into the luggage) in the van for easy access during breaks. Xiao Bai was our best friend because that was where all the snacks were!

After a safety briefing, we had a warm up session to make sure we were properly stretched and ready for the day’s exertions. Following that, Jeffrey briefed us on the itinerary for today. I liked how they used a small black board with colourful markings and illustrations to show the elevation profile of the route and indicate the distance between each rest stop. This black board would be something we looked forward to each morning, and we would all take turns to take photos with it.

For Day 1 of our RTI, we will cycle 89km from Taipei to Hsinchu (新竹). The route is mostly flat, with only a small hill before lunch and a larger hill after lunch. I guess they are going easy on us since this is our first day. Nevertheless, the distance of 89km will be the longest I have ever cycled in a day, so it is not going to be easy anyway. After taking a group photo with the 0km sign and a final toilet break, we mounted our bikes and set off at 8:25am. After months of dreaming about it, the moment had finally arrived. Here we go!

Prior to this Taiwan trip, I had participated in an overseas group cycling tour in November 2022 so I had some experience cycling on roads and in a group. However, this Taiwan RTI group is much larger and the terrain, environment and road conditions here are very different from that in Vietnam and Cambodia. The cycling speed is also much faster and the group comprises more serious riders.

Taipei is a very busy city with heavy traffic. For the first 8km of cycling in the city, there were many traffic lights so it was very start-stop and we couldn’t get into the momentum of cycling. Even though there was a bicycle lane on the road, we still had to pay attention and watch out for fast-moving cars and scooters. We also had to get used to cycling in close quarters without colliding into one another.

Because it was a large group, the Giant staff members used whistles to communicate with us instead of using hand signals. For example, to signal us to stop, Bryan would make two short blows on the whistle followed by a long, sustained blow. The whistles were very effective because they were very shrill and loud, cutting through all the traffic noise. I could hear the whistle even from the back of the pack. The Giant staff members also used walkie-talkies to communicate among themselves. Like I said, they were very organised and I was very impressed with how professional they were.

After leaving the busy city centre, we had our first break stop at 9:17am at a pier called Da Dao Cheng Ma Tou (大稻埕碼頭) along the Tamsui River. It was a cloudy and overcast day, with the temperature a cool 24 degrees Celsius. It looked like it was going to rain but thankfully the weather held up. We refuelled ourselves with fruits, snacks and biscuits laid out neatly at the back of Xiao Bai and refilled our water bottles.

When break time was up, Jeffrey would play a song on the speaker. When we heard the music, we knew it was time to go and we would get ready. It was a very upbeat and joyous song with a catchy “oh-way-oh-way-oh” refrain. That became our theme song for the trip, and we all loved singing along to it whenever it came on. It’s little things like these that made the trip so memorable and fun.

After a quick toilet break, we moved off at 9:30am and cycled on a bicycle path running alongside Tamsui River. It was much more enjoyable now that we were out of the city and away from vehicular traffic. Shortly after, we had to dismount and push our bicycles up a bridge and across a highway. After that, we were back on the bicycle path and we continued the scenic ride alongside the river.

We had our second break stop at 10:56am, about 32km into the ride, at San Xia Chang Fu Qiao (三峽長福橋). The Giant staff bought us croissants from the famous San Xia Jin Niu Jiao 三峽金牛角 bakery nearby. We soon realised that we would be very well fed for this trip.

After a 20-minute break, we resumed cycling for another 6km in the city before making a steep climb over 2km. This was our first encounter cycling uphill and it was tough, but manageable since we were still fresh and full of energy. We reached the hilltop at 11:44am and took a break to catch our breaths. At the top of the hill was a small temple with a four-faced Buddha, 四面佛福山亭. We rested here for 15 minutes before continuing with the descent down the hill.

One of my favourite things about the tour is the free photography service. Jeffrey would drive one of the Xiao Bai vans and he would stake out at various positions along the way to take photos of us while we were cycling, using a professional DSLR camera. This allowed us to enjoy the scenery and focus fully on cycling. In fact, we were highly discouraged from using our mobile phones to take photos while cycling because we had to pay attention to our safety. Hence, I did not take any photos during the ride, and relied on Jeffrey’s photos to document the experience.

Every night, we would wait patiently for Jeffrey to post a message in our LINE group chat that the day’s photos had been uploaded to Google Drive, so we could download them. It was great to have nice photos taken of us not just while riding but also of candid moments during the breaks. These photos provide a great memory of the trip and I really appreciated the photo service.

We reached our lunch stop at Shui Yuan Di (水源地餐廳) at 12:45pm. My Strava showed that we had cycled almost 54km at that point, which means we were more than halfway through the day’s ride. It was a large Chinese restaurant with round tables, so we broke into groups of 10 for lunch. It was the first time we had the chance to sit down together and socialise. Besides our group of three MAMILs, we were joined by five other Taiwanese (Jacky, Gary, Steven, Skyler and Peilin) and two Japanese (Yoshi and Hiro). We would hang out with this group quite a lot over the next few days.

Lunch was very sumptuous, an 8-course meal with steamed fish, sesame oil chicken, ma po tofu, stir-fried cabbage, hot soup and bamboo shoots among the dishes. It was nice to chat with other like-minded cycling enthusiasts and hear about why they decided to join the tour. It was also great to see Taiwanese themselves joining the tour to explore their own country, and we benefitted so much from their sharing of local culture and knowledge.

At 2:00pm, we continued our ride. We started climbing immediately, and it was a long and gradual climb over 20km, with an elevation gain of around 160m. However, the ascent was not as steep as the earlier one before lunch because it a series of rolling hills. At 3:20pm, we took a break near the Hsinpu Township Farmers’ Association, at the 74.5km mark. Jeffrey bought persimmon and cut them into small pieces for us. They were so good! I also took the opportunity to eat one of my GU energy gels that I brought along for the trip, to give me an additional boost.

At 3:48pm, we set off again for the last segment for the day. From there, it was all downhill so it was much easier. At one point, I hit a speed of 49km/hour and it was super shiok! The scenery was also nice as we saw padi fields and some small tea plantations. Once we were in Hsinchu city, it was back to the usual traffic stops. We reached our Howard Plaza Hotel Hsinpu at 5:00pm.

My Strava showed that we had cycled 91.3km (about 2km more than the official distance), with an elevation gain of 515m and average speed of 17.2km/hour. It was my longest ride (so far), a record that would be broken several times in the next days.

We wheeled our bicycles to the basement carpark, removed our accessories and stacked the bikes neatly against the wall. We then proceeded to the hotel lobby for cool-down stretching. After that, Jeffrey briefed us about the programme for the rest of the evening (dinner on our own, free-and-easy after that) and the next morning (morning call at 6:00am followed by breakfast at 6:30am and gather at lobby at 7:10am). He disseminated our room numbers via the LINE chat and distributed the room keys. With all the administrative tasks completed, we were officially done for the day.

Our room was large and quite spacious. AT, TH and I were the only ones sharing a triple room – everyone else stayed in twin or single rooms. But since there were only two Queen beds in our room, two of us had to share a bed. So, we resolved this the old-school way, by playing “Oh-a-beh-a-som”. AT was the “winner” so he had the luxury of having the entire bed to himself tonight. We would rotate over the next few days.

After taking a well-deserved shower, we met up with Jacky, Steven, Gary, Hiro and Yoshi at 6:30pm and headed out for dinner. We asked the Taiwanese guys to recommend some local food so they brought us to a restaurant that served braised pork rice (滷肉飯) and the local specialty, Gong Wan pork meat ball noodles (貢丸麵). We then adjourned to another restaurant to try some pig’s trotter (豬腳).

Following that, we walked to the nearby Hsinchu City God Temple (新竹城隍廟), considered the most important of all City God temples in Taiwan due to its superior spiritual power of its City God in protecting the town. Strangely, the temple is nestled within a street food market so there is no way to get a good shot of its façade because the front of the temple is lined with many small food stalls. We went in to the temple for a quick look before heading to the market to try some of the street food.

There were dozens of stalls and the entire place was buzzing with locals at that 8:00pm hour. TH recommended the meat bun (肉包), which had a chewy skin texture similar to har gao. It had pork meat as filling and it was topped with gooey, sweet sauce. I thought it was ok, but it wasn’t my favourite. We also tried the oyster omelette, which had the same sauce topping so it was sweet, unlike our Singapore version, which is savoury. The other difference is that the Taiwan version of oyster omelette contains vegetables (lettuce), which is not found in our Singapore version. I prefer our version haha.

After dinner, we strolled back to our hotel and did laundry. This would become an almost nightly affair as we only had a limited number of jerseys and cycling pants for nine days of cycling. All the hotels we stayed in had coin-operated washing machines and dryers for this reason. With our laundry collected and bags packed for tomorrow, we could finally rest.

Overall, we were very blessed to have the perfect weather for cycling today – cool and cloudy, with no strong winds or rain. Hopefully it will be like that for the next 8 days. The body feels good for now. But after two nights of not much sleep, I’m going to need more rest tonight. Day 1 of RTI completed, 8 more days to go, bring it on!