2024-06-15
Start: 12:15 / Arrival: 21:00
Distance: 74km / Gained height 380 hm
During the week I had a strange flu/cold from the ACs, so when starting – I was still a little bit low on energy, couldn’t breathe so well – and the heat was also very high.
After the first bridge I thought about just returning to my flat back to the AC, as I had some sort of claustrophobia with the breathing and the heat. But decided to just cycle slow and carried on. Good decision!
Came across a big hidden water lily field. Left the Dahan River for the Sanxia River to, well…Sanxia. The infrastructure there is not as great as on the others rivers around Taipei but still great.
When arriving in Sanxia I heard something familiar – the drumming of a temple fair. And while approaching the Sanxia Qingshui Zushi temple, I had a mobile drum wagon just before my bicycle. I decided to stay behind them cycling, because I love that drumming.
The temple itself is really beautiful. Before entering I just saw a group of younger woman passing it by with parrots on their shoulders and heads. Something I saw later even a further couple of times. The birds had somehow DIY underpants, I noticed.
Today seemed to be a special day, as there was some ceremony. With all the incense smell, singing and the temple drum beating. So wonderful, really enjoyed the atmosphere.
Then had a quick cold fruit tea, went down Sanxia Old Street, but well…it’s a touristic old street, so that was just once walking up and down. Cycled over to Yingge Historic Ceramics Street to visit the potteries there. Wild mixture…some of them sell just regular mass ware (maybe even from China) and some are very bespoken. After some checking out, bought some beautiful two small cups, a bigger one and some tea/table accessories.
As this took some time, I was already late, but decided to ride over to Taoyuan and the Zhulinshan Guanyin temple. The way there was a little bit through industrial boring areas, but somehow also quite nice. Rode along a small river (listening to Kenji Endo), had a climb which left me super sweating with the heat.
When I arrived at the Guanyin temple it was already dark. And still hot. Walked a little bit around and wow….that temple is huge. Again, some ceremony, but with no music.
Left the temple and enjoyed the cooling air while cycling down the hill. Cycled around Luzhou back to the temple in my hood to reward myself for a drink. Then had some nice food, got to know some nice new people and went finally for dancing in a club.
