Long Distance Moped Trips

I went downstairs to meet Luke at 9:30. We were planning to go to Wu Lai today, on his moped. He texted me and told me he'd been up late talking with his mom (about style), and 10:30 would be better, so I went to the library for a bit, and researched travel to Thailand. At 10:30 I met Luke, and we took off on his moped for Wu Lai. I had previously ridden on Kuan's moped, but I think Luke's isn't quite as nice as Kuan's. It is little, and maroon colored, and the rear shocks bottom out when we go over a bump. It took us about 40 minutes to make it there, but it was a beautiful drive. Taipei is in a basin, so we started to gain elevation right after we left the city. At one point it really reminded me of Idaho, because we were driving alongside a river with steep slopes on either side. To get to one of the good backpacking places in the area, you take Highway 12, which runs between two national forests for most of the way, and also follows the Clearwater River, then the Lochsa (a famous whitewater river). These rivers have carved out a deep canyon, and it is a really scenic drive, travelling between steep pine covered slopes, with a beautiful whitewater river flowing beside you. Riding on Luke's moped through this canyon, following this turquoise Taiwanese whitewater river flowing between steep, densely vegetated slopes really reminded me of Idaho.

We drove past the waterfall (the main attraction), and parked the moped near the town-like area. Luke quickly stumbled upon the main food item, 'mountain pig on a stick'. Basically long, fatty, greasy hot dogs (presumably made of pork), and so he got one of those. I held out for a rice filled bamboo stick, and some dragon eyeball (little grape like fruits, that are mostly see through) smoothie, and some honey yam. We wandered around the city for a bit eating different things and looking around. There were a lot of people on bikes, and a lot of them had nice regular bikes, but about 50% had tiny ridiculous little circus bikes. They had about 12 inch wheels, and the frame would usually come to about 15 or 16 inches, then they'd have a 3 1/2 foot long seat post. Then the people would deck them out with accessories like a rack, and panniers, and water bottle holders, like they were going to bike around Taiwan with their tiny little bikes.

After we finished looking around the city and eating delicious foods, we headed back to get the moped. On the way there, we passed a man, yelling advertisements for his restaurant. He yelled something which I didn't understand, but Luke repeated it, and the guy grinned and yelled something else, which I also didn't understand, and Luke also repeated (I came to find out later that Luke also didn't understand.) Then he said in Chinese 'come look, there are quite a few'. Luke and I walked cautiously over, and he gestured to a group of white people eating inside. It seemed as though he was trying to tell us, look this place is "White People Approved", or look, these people are white, and you are white so you must want to eat with these other white people. We politely turned him down, and rode the moped back to the waterfall.

It was a nice waterfall, but there wasn't a whole lot to do. We walked down to the viewing platform, and viewed it. Then we took some pictures and left. The ride back was a little scary. I think Luke was in a hurry to get back, and get some homework done, so he was driving a little faster. The shock also seemed to bottom out a little more easily, but I was mostly scared going around corners. It is all fine and good for one person to lean into a turn, but when two people have too, it gets a little more dubious. One person can keep their center of balance just fine, but when two people with two different centers of balance lean, it would seem fairly easy for them to lean at different angles, and cause chaos. However, my fear was for naught, and we ended up making it back with no trouble at all.

I proceeded to eat some, because the bamboo stick with rice in, hadn't really filled me up. After eating, the same thing happened as yesterday, and even though I felt overwhelmed with homework, I couldn't muster the motivation to get up, so I napped for about 2 hours. I'm getting a little concerned. I like a good nap every now and then, but I think I might be getting carried away.

In the evening I went and bought a computer. A guy I met at Thai boxing offered to take me to this electronics warehouse/blackmarket/graymarket/wholesale store where computers and electronics were cheaper. I had expected a large room, or possibly big open shelters with lots of tables, kind of like a farmers market but with electronics. It was actually a whole lot of regular sized stores , and one or two bigger stores all selling computers or electronics, and all right next to each other. I shopped a bit, and ended up deciding on an IBM. Hopefully it will make things a little more convienient.

Here is another picture of the waterfall.