A Bike Ride Down the Red Line

Greetings!

It's Monday morning before work, and what better a time than now to reflect on the past week. Since Wednesday we have had nothing but heavy rain, which is not uncommon for Taiwan, but has been rare since we've arrived here. Needless to say we have to try hard to keep our stuff dry or it will take forever to dry again. Luckily for me, I (Russ) got a chance to take a really nice bike ride through Taipei the day before the rain came. Here I'd thought I'd share this journey with you.

I woke up and went to work from 9 - 12. After that I went to one of the most Northern areas of the city, Beitou: where the hot springs are. When I got there I remembered that I had a cut on my toe and I really didn't want to go in the hot springs with it. So I hopped on a bike and took the 3 hour journey home.

The subway in Taipei is on par with the best in the world. It has 5 lines and this one (the red line) is one of the two that goes above ground. What I love about Taipei is that it does not spoil an opportunity to throw down a bike path. As I discovered, the majority of the northern red line has a bike trail that runs parallel underneath it.

Along the way I discovered some miniature bouldering rocks, so I stopped an played around on them for a bit.

Then I stopped at a fruit market. Check out these beautiful watermelons and durians.

As I was cruising off the bike path and into a market, I realized that I had been here the day of the baseball game. It was cool to stumble into a place that you've been before. Pictured below are two ladies cleaning their pots as they open their stall for the day. Note: this is being cleaned by a hose down to the sewer. This is a quite common practice and does not phase us nor has it made us sick. Our philosophy on this whole trip has been simple, if it's good enough for locals then it's sure good enough for us.

 This is a common sight as well. Periodically throughout the day people will pull out these fire bins and burn "money". The idea is that they are burning money into the afterlife for their loved ones.

Once that trail ended I decided to hop into the riverside trail. These trails go all across Taipei and the reason they exist is to create a buffer for when large amounts of rain comes. Every park has a giant retaining wall that is designed to withstand river flooding and protect the city. Here are some pics.

Baseball Diamonds

A biking bridge to go over the retaining wall used to keep the river from flooding into the city in case of enormous rains.

Along the retaining wall there is lots of cool art. This one caught me so I had to take a picture. It's the Taiwan flag with their Presidential Palace. There are lots of cool things to look at and I love that they use this space for art not advertising. 

This guy's playing the sax by the river. How about that.

 -RS=T