Before today’s ride, I fueled up at a build your own “bento” lunch box type restaurant,

which are very popular in Taiwan.

There are a bunch of items for you to choose from, and you can grab whatever you want

and add it to your plate.

There are usually a lot of healthy options, including a variety of vegetables, tofu, and fish

Most places give you the option to eat inside or to take your food to go

And the price is usually calculated by weight.

Everything I got here cost about 120 Taiwanese dollars, so only about $4 USD

Which is pretty fantastic considering how much food I got.

Now that I am fully fueled up, let’s start today’s ride!

What’s going on?

Not really sure on the day count anymore, but

I’ve been here a bit over a week now

It’s Thursday afternoon and

I’m nearing the end of my trip here in Taiwan

So I’ll be heading back, my flight back to Japan is Sunday night.

So Friday and Saturday might be my last two opportunities to cycle

I’m gonna try and ride Sunday if I can, but really depends if I can use the shower

at my hostel and get a late checkout and have time to pack up my bike before going to the airport.

So, starting to get a little sad, sinking in that my trip is over.

Of course, looking forward to being back in Japan, but it’s just been a great trip here

Lots of great new food to try

Pretty cheap, reasonable food, big portions, been really enjoying that.

Bubble tea every day

And also I can wear shorts and short sleeves while riding, which is really nice

I think it’s still too cold for that in Japan right now,

But we’re starting to get into Spring season, so should start to get some warmer weather

in Japan pretty soon once I get back

So this is my second time visiting Taiwan

And just really love it here, really enjoyed both trips

The cycling network, the food, people’s attitudes, and just general desire for improving

physical health, which is great to see.

Beautiful place, if you ever have a chance to come, it’s definitely worth to come out

and do a cycling trip

Great cycling, great food, great people.

Happy looking people

Dogs everywhere, if you’re a dog person, you’re gonna love it.

What else..?

Well, that’s all I can think of now

Maybe I’ll add some more a little bit later.

Today, just a relaxing day.

Got some work done this morning.

Went to a nice, big lunch buffet a little bit ago so

stomach's a little full.

Can’t ride hard, but it’s a beautiful day.

I couldn’t not ride, so I’m going out for a little spin right now to enjoy the sunlight

Hopefully work on my tan lines a little bit.

No specific plan, I’m just gonna ride along the river path, maybe take a turn I haven’t

done before and find something new.

And, just enjoy the views, enjoy the sunshine, and have a nice relaxing ride for one of my

last few rides here in Taipei.

So if you go along the river paths on the west side of Taipei going north, you’ll

arrive at this point,

Which is pretty beautiful.

This is where the rivers intersect into different directions

So going North and South this way, and East over that way

From here, you can see a couple of the biggest climbs there are around the area.

So behind me right now is one of the largest climbs north of Taipei.

Huge, just gigantic park.

Lots of great hiking, lots of great roads for cycling

I rode up it a few days ago, so there’ll be a video as well.

I’ll link to that video here.

But, that climb goes up above 800 meters for the road ascent on the road bike.

You can go up higher if you want to continue by hiking.

So really large climb, especially coming from sea level from a downtown major city

Amazing, huge climb just right at the doorway.

And here on the North West side of the city, there’s another mountain which is also a

really good climb.

I went up it the other day.

It was about 500 meters or so, so not quite as big, but still a large climb

And the great thing is from both of them, you have amazing views of other mountains

This one especially, you have a great view right into the city of Taipei, you have a

view of this other large mountain, and on the other side, you have a nice view of the

ocean and nearby port.

Just amazing views at the top of these mountains because it’s all so close to the ocean,

it’s all so close to the city, and even other mountain ranges, so depending on the

side you’re at at the top

And which direction you look, you can so many different things.

So ocean, city, different mountains, just truly beautiful

So lots of people fishing here today, it’s a beautiful day.

We’re gonna continue on and see if I can find some more of my favorite spots and talk

about them a little bit before I leave.

One of the other great things about the cycling paths is just the access to public restrooms

They have facilities like this all over

Basically every kilometer there’s at least one public restroom that you can use.

These are some of the nicer ones, so of course they have the more traditional portable toilets

where there’s not much to them and they’re a bit small and cramped,

But as you can see, these ones are huge, and they’ve got them separated by category

So all gender / disabled, so they’ve got handicap access.

It’s also large enough so you can bring your bike in if you’re not comfortable leaving

your bike outside

And then they have a male one for quick urinals as well.

So great system and really convenient

been trying to find my way to the grand hotel here.

The roads to get here are a little bit complicated

So the only entrance I could find was this stair entrance, so I’m walking up the stairs

right now and hopefully this will get me to the hotel

Looks really beautiful from afar and can’t wait to see it up close

Alright, today’s goal has been achieved.

Made it to the hotel

As you can see from the video, this thing is massive.

Just huge.

I can’t even imagine how many rooms there are in this thing.

Unfortunately, not going to be able to check it out on the inside today.

Just wanted to ride by and check out the exterior

Really impressive stuff, beautiful, today’s mission a success!

Now time to head back to the hostel

Check out this black sesame snack!

Sesame on the top of the bread and black sesame on the inside

Raaaaaaaa

Can you say that one more time, Natalie?

No!

What was that about not ruining the tip?

The tip’s the best part, now stop making it dirty!

Good

Thanks for joining me on day 11 of my Taiwan Cycling Trip.

Sadly, we’re nearing the end of this trip with only a few days remaining,

but the last few days were especially awesome, and I have some great footage coming up.

If you’re new to this series, you can check out the entire playlist here.

Also, if you’re new to this channel, and want to see more videos like this, click the

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And as always, thanks for watching Two Wheel Cruise, and I’ll see you here next time!