Taiwan's Cycling Secrets

Tahverlee [00:00:03]:
Welcome to the Bike Life podcast by Warmshowers Foundation, where we will be sharing knowledge, experience, tools, and stories of touring cyclists and hosts from around the world. I'm Tahverlee, the woman behind the scenes at warmshowers foundation, the leading platform for cyclists looking for hosts and to connect with a passionate international community. Find out more by visiting us at warmshowers dot org. Now on to the show.

Jerry Kopack [00:00:40]:
Hey, everyone. This is Jerry Kopack, the host of Bike Life, coming to you from the mountains of snowy Breckenridge, Colorado. Somebody asked me recently, what do you know about bicycle touring in Taiwan? And I thought to myself, not that much. Well, today's guest literally wrote the book on cycling in Taiwan, and he's gonna share all the good details of what makes Taiwan a cycling paradise. Hey, Mark. Welcome to bike life.

Mark Tovell [00:01:04]:
Hi, Jerry. Thanks for having me. It's great to be here.

Jerry Kopack [00:01:07]:
Yeah. I appreciate you waking up early and talking to me today. What time is it there?

Mark Tovell [00:01:10]:
It's just gone 7 AM here in Taiwan. Alright. I'm awake.

Jerry Kopack [00:01:14]:
Not so bad. So I'm curious. How'd you end up in Taiwan? Because your accent kind of indicates that maybe you're from someplace else.

Mark Tovell [00:01:23]:
I'm originally from the UK. I, I've been cycle touring for years, and I just finished a long trip cycling from Alaska down to Panama. And I was back in England thinking about what my next trip would be, and I picked up a book by a type Lebanese author called The Stolen Bicycle. The author's name is Hu Ming Yi. And, yeah, the bike blew me away. The book blew me away. It told me all about this amazing island, you know, just off of the coast of China that was a cycling paradise and a bicycle mecca and all these beautiful mountains and ocean roads I've never heard of. So I decided to come here and take a look for myself.

Jerry Kopack [00:02:00]:
So you went there to visit. How long was your your first trip?

Mark Tovell [00:02:04]:
Well, initially, I arrived here to stay for a month, and then I liked it so much, I decided to keep staying here. And I stayed there for it was, like, 3 months of cycling around, and then I thought, well, I'll let's stay here for a year. But then the pandemic hit. So then 3 months became 1 year, which became 2, 4, 3, and here we are, 5 years later.

Jerry Kopack [00:02:26]:
Wait. So let me get this straight. You went there on a whim because you read a book and got interested, visited, and then never left?

Mark Tovell [00:02:34]:
So far. Yeah. That's true. Except for other cycling trips to countries on my holidays. Yeah. That's it so far.

Jerry Kopack [00:02:42]:
Does it feel like you are on holiday still, or does it feel like, okay. I actually live here now?

Mark Tovell [00:02:47]:
Oh, no. It feels like I live here. I mean, you know, it's Taiwan's one of those countries where you you get settled, and it's it becomes really wonderful, but you grow into living here. You're initially you're you're very separate, but once you become part of the community, it feels, yeah, very homely. So it's great. Got it.

Jerry Kopack [00:03:04]:
Was there anything that, I don't know, felt different about actually living someplace as opposed to visiting? Because, you know, when you're on holiday, everything is easy, everything is a vacation. That's fun. But when you're actually living someplace, yeah, maybe it feels a little bit different.

Mark Tovell [00:03:17]:
Yeah. In Taiwan, you got the the language barrier. If you don't if you don't speak Mandarin as a first language or even as a second, that that can feel a bit intimidating when you first come here. But, actually, after a while, Taiwan is very welcoming, and there's a lot of English spoken on the island. And then if you spend a few months learning some Mandarin, you you get you get by very quickly. But that's I would say that's the biggest difference is just picking up some language.

Jerry Kopack [00:03:41]:
Got it. And, have you been picking it up?

Mark Tovell [00:03:45]:
No. It's okay. Don't don't start speaking to me in in Mandarin now. I'm I'm showing myself up.

Jerry Kopack [00:03:51]:
I actually visited China, on the eastern, eastern Tibet Tibetan plateau area a couple years ago, and I don't speak any Mandarin. So the language barrier was was intense, and there was, to my experience, not any English spoken. So it sounds like there is a decent amount of English spoken in Taiwan.

Mark Tovell [00:04:11]:
I think Taiwan's different from from China in that regard. I mean, China, there's obviously pockets areas where people do speak English, but in in Taiwan, they tried to foster a greater communication and and connection with, you know, like, America and Europe. And so they have all the road signs here in English, for example, and they have a dual language approach to life here. They're trying. I think it's a fairly new policy, but it it certainly helps when you're riding around that you can read all the road signs and get get yourself about. So

Jerry Kopack [00:04:40]:
Yeah. Yeah. For sure. So as I mentioned, I I've cycled through China, also places like Vietnam and Thailand. But somehow, I've missed cycling in Taiwan. That's probably just me. But do you find that Taiwan seems to fly under the radar for cycling?

Mark Tovell [00:04:55]:
Sure. Yeah. I I think it I think it does. I mean, it did for me for a long time too. You know? And I've been cycling in parts of Asia and Southeast Asia, and and, yeah, it never hit me on the map. And, actually, since I've lived here and been hosting people through warmshowers, I realized how many people, you know, just don't don't hear of this island as a cycling destination. And it's it's certainly, it was growing before before the pandemic started, but, yeah, it's definitely off the map, I think.

Jerry Kopack [00:05:22]:
Yeah. And the people that you do meet who are not native Taiwanese, where are they typically from? Are they Westerners or Europeans?

Mark Tovell [00:05:32]:
It's a good question. I think majority are Europeans. We get I've had a lot of Japanese people come through as well and some Southeast Asian riders. But, yeah, noise people are coming through from Europe and North America.

Jerry Kopack [00:05:45]:
You see, many Americans?

Mark Tovell [00:05:48]:
Few. You know? You you guys you guys venture over here. I'd say more Canadian more Canadians, but yeah. Really? No. We did we did get we did get Americans. We did.

Jerry Kopack [00:05:58]:
Canadians are maybe more travel more, I guess. I don't know.

Mark Tovell [00:06:01]:
Possibly. I'm not sure. I think it's the mountains. I think it I mean, obviously, in America, you've got some great mountains, but I think it's we a lot of people from Switzerland and that region of Europe come because they like the climbing. And I think people that are used to climbing would have heard of Taiwan because there's some famous, mountain races here that people have heard about.

Jerry Kopack [00:06:21]:
I'm, I'm so glad you brought this up because I was looking at a map of Taiwan recently, and it looks like the entire east side of the island is just one giant mountain. Yeah. Like like many of the peaks rival what we have in the US and also in Europe with regards to altitude. So what's it like cycling in those monsters?

Mark Tovell [00:06:41]:
It's really incredible because, you know, there's obviously lots of places in the world have high peaks, but to go from ocean to, say, 3,500, 3,600 meters above sea level in less than a 100 kilometers of distance is is really dramatic a change. And I live on the west side, which is a bit flatter, but even here, just a little bit in from the coast and you're going up a 1000 meters from sea level straight away, which means you have really sharp switchback roads that head straight up into the hills. And it makes for really good exploring because you you you basically go from lowland cities straight to this kind of, like, tropical jungle mountain straight away. And then, you know, within 30, 40 kilometers, you're above the tree line, and we are, in theory, snow capped peaks. So it's it's quite amazing.

Jerry Kopack [00:07:29]:
When you say in theory, what do you mean?

Mark Tovell [00:07:32]:
Well, the snow levels dropped off in the last few years, so we don't have as much snow in the high peaks anymore. But that's you know, the the roads stay fairly open all year round, which is quite nice.

Jerry Kopack [00:07:41]:
Okay. So it's, it's just when you talk about the roads, because I had an experience when I was cycling in Taiwan. I'm sorry, not Taiwan, but in, in Thailand. And the roads are immaculately manicured, not a grain of sand on them, but they're insanely steep. It's almost as if somebody forgot how to build switchbacks there. It's like cycling up an elevator shaft. So you you mentioned the roads are steep there. Describe some

Mark Tovell [00:08:07]:
of the roads. You know, in, the the main we the main arteries that go up into the mountains, there's not that many in Taiwan. But the main roads that go up go up, their their gradients are pretty good. Like, you know, it doesn't average too much above 6 or 7%. But then as soon as you veer off those into the farming mountain farm roads, we're talking, yeah, 15, 20% rates all over the show. But, you know, the road quality is amazing in Taiwan. They they have a big agricultural sector here that that has the roads kind of kept nice and smooth for them. So you can kind of be in the smallest little winding mountain switchback roads, and the tarmac will be nice and smooth.

Mark Tovell [00:08:44]:
So, actually, there's it's it's more the longevity of the climb rather than the steepness, I would say. Some of the main peaks here, I don't think really get above 7, 8%, but it's 40, 50 kilometers of cycling straight up.

Jerry Kopack [00:08:59]:
That sounds downright delightful because some of the things I've cycled in in in Thailand were 10, 12, 15% grade, and it was just it was relentless. So it sounds like, you know, 6, 7% is is quite enjoyable.

Mark Tovell [00:09:14]:
It is. It is really lovely. I mean, there's I'm sure there's people listening to this that have cycled those mountains that we're streaming at this podcast because there are, of course, like, there's the the highest pass in Taiwan's, and the main road up to there has some brutal 20% grades. But, yeah, overall, I think it's it's manageable. It's just whether you're used to to mountain riding or not, really.

Jerry Kopack [00:09:37]:
So when you talk about cycling, you mentioned that great quality of roads. Is most of the cycling done there, is it on nice new tarmac pavement, or are there ways to get off the road, maybe some gravel roads, or maybe even singletrack for mountain bikes?

Mark Tovell [00:09:51]:
Yeah. There are. The mountain bike seems burgeoning here, and it's kind of getting larger in the in the hills around the Taipei region. But it's mainly Taipei. There's a lot of road bike riders here. But, yeah, like I said, once you get into the mountains and you get off the main road, you're in kind of broken concrete, gravel, some some sandy roots. There's a few They're they're quite good here at Taiwan at trying to open up the the tourism industry, certainly domestically. And so there's plenty of trails that go to lakes and and features in the mountains that are just sand tracks or gravel tracks, and there's multi day rides you can do, things like that.

Mark Tovell [00:10:28]:
So there's plenty to explore off the road.

Jerry Kopack [00:10:30]:
So what about the, the traffic? Is it pretty cycling friendly? Because, again, I keep going back to to Thailand. Everyone there seems to be really courteous, rule followers. But you go to places I don't know. Like, I've been in Vietnam, and it's kinda like a little bit of some people call it chaos, but they would call it organized chaos to to the trained eye. What's it like in Taiwan?

Mark Tovell [00:10:51]:
It's, you know, it's really great here because we have it's a it's a it's a large scooter culture, and so there's a lot of traffic lanes for scooters and bicycles in the city. It's fairly safe. The in Taipei, there's a huge culture of riding the kind of shared bicycle scheme up there that gets used a lot. And then, generally, on the roads, the traffic's very calm and nice towards cyclists. Rather than getting shouted at, you get a lot of kind of spirited, cheers from people as they drive past. There's a famous phrase in Mandarin, jayo, which means, like, keep going, and they get shouted at you a lot by people here. It's a very friendly atmosphere between the cars and cyclists, generally speaking, I would say.

Jerry Kopack [00:11:31]:
Was that, was that one of the first words you learned in Mandarin?

Mark Tovell [00:11:34]:
I think it's the only word I yeah. For the 1st 6 months, it was, anyway. And when I first rode around and people were shouting at me, I had no idea what they were saying. I thought they were maybe being aggressive, and then I had a local tell me, no. No. It means they're saying, like it literally means add oil. It means to, you know, keep putting energy and keep going. So, yeah, it's a lovely phrase, for sure.

Jerry Kopack [00:11:52]:
Add oil. I like that.

Mark Tovell [00:11:54]:
Yeah.

Jerry Kopack [00:11:55]:
It's, the the one expression or the one word that I learned that I heard so much when I was cycling in China was mayo, which Oh, yeah.

Mark Tovell [00:12:04]:
Simply meant no one. Yeah. Yeah. You don't hear that as much here in Taiwan. That's pretty good to not hear that, I think. You know, it's it's a it's a really beautiful, community here in Taiwan, and people are very, very happy to meet people who come in, especially if you're riding a bicycle. Right? Because when you're cycle touring, people are always quite amazed that you're getting about on your own own wheels, and they're, yeah, they're they're very happy to see people here. So it's very supportive on the road.

Jerry Kopack [00:12:29]:
Yeah. I'm so happy to hear you say that because that was also my experience traveling through Asia and Southeast Asia. There's so many beautiful aspects of that part of the world, but my favorite, I think, was the people, the culture, the communities. People were so friendly, so curious, so willing to help. Talk to me about that, the people in Taiwan.

Mark Tovell [00:12:49]:
Yeah. I mean, you know, it's it's a very, very developed country. And on the on the west side of the island and around Taipei, you have a lot of people with a puzzle and bustle kind of life. But certainly on the East Coast, you go through some indigenous villages. You're rolling around the Pacific Highway that we have over here. You know, people are very laid back. They're very friendly and welcoming. You'll be offered food on the low side, sometimes fruit, sometimes bottles of water.

Mark Tovell [00:13:14]:
When you get into communities, they you know, camping's quite quite comfortable here in Taiwan, and there's always a smile cracked towards you. You can have conversations very easily even with a language barrier. People are very welcoming here. There's not much animosity on this place. So

Jerry Kopack [00:13:30]:
Good. I love hearing that.

Mark Tovell [00:13:32]:
Yeah.

Tahverlee [00:13:36]:
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Jerry Kopack [00:14:23]:
So I wanna pivot in and dive into your book. What was the inspiration for writing it?

Mark Tovell [00:14:28]:
Well, you know, online oh, so the title of the book is Bicycle Touring Taiwan, Roads Above the Clouds, and it's part part guide and just kind of part exploration of Taiwan itself. I got into writing it because during the pandemic, I I've been trying to write a novel for a long time. It's, you know, it's an aspiration I had, and I was struggling with it. And I'd read a book by Murakami about his experience of running and writing at the same time, so I decided to apply that to cycling. So whenever I went for a long bike ride, I was trying to write at the same not literally the same time, but when I would take breaks, I would try and write. And I thought I was writing this novel. And then after a while, I realized all I was really doing was just writing about the roads and the scenery that I'd seen around Taiwan. And so I decided to kind of keep going with that.

Mark Tovell [00:15:22]:
And after a year or so of taking notes, I had multiple, full journals of just sketches and notes of the island. So I decided to flush that out and use my drawings to illustrate, you know, some of the landscapes and the roots we have here. And that just kind of grew and grew and grew until I realized what I had was so much information on the island that I'd been, you know, almost on every road around here. So I thought, well, it's time to put it all together and to to make something.

Jerry Kopack [00:15:54]:
I love it. So is it geared towards single or multiday rides or kind of

Mark Tovell [00:15:59]:
both? It's mainly geared towards multiday. It kind of talks about when we talk about riding around Taiwan, we say, which means basically around the island. And the book is mainly geared about alternative ways to go around. There's a main route that the government has, like a a bicycle route that they prescribe you to, and it goes from Taipei, and it follows the western western coast down to the bottom and up the east. And my book talks more about hitting some of the mountains and hilly areas in the west, hitting some of the more remote areas in the south and alternative routes on the east coast.

Jerry Kopack [00:16:35]:
Got it. And so you'd mentioned there's a strong road cycling culture. Does your book sort of direct the the reader towards a road cycling adventures or gravel?

Mark Tovell [00:16:45]:
It tries to push people towards the more self independent, touring idea. So the idea that, hey, there's there's a lot of road connections in this area. Why you can go and explore that? The aim was not to, you know, provide a complete map of the island. It was more about trying to get people off of the main routes that we have. And for road users in Taiwan, especially the Taiwanese, there's very famous, like, well trodden paths that people take, and the book was trying a little bit to push them. Hey. Why don't you take a right at this road and see where that takes Got it.

Jerry Kopack [00:17:20]:
Yeah. No. I love that. So you talk about these multi day trips. Is the intention for people to to camp or to home stay with locals or small, hotels or guest houses?

Mark Tovell [00:17:33]:
It's you know, Taiwan's a real mix, and they they certainly welcome wild camping. It's pretty pretty okay here in Taiwan, I said. But, you know, the book is geared around the idea that you are self sufficient, and you can every location where I talk about going, you can either camp or find a guest house or a temple or a homestay that you can stay in. Taiwan's, you know, got this huge mountain area, but it's not really a remote island because it's such a small space. So you'll always find a convenience store or a guesthouse relatively close to your location. So the book doesn't offer too many options, but it does kind of try to encourage you and give you confidence that you'll be able to find somewhere nice for the night, whatever your level of comfort requirements are. It's fairly easy here.

Jerry Kopack [00:18:20]:
Do you think it's, is it pretty easy to find homestays with locals?

Mark Tovell [00:18:24]:
Yeah. It really is. There's sorry. There's there's not as many

Jerry Kopack [00:18:27]:
That's always been one of my favorite experiences with traveling is getting that that local homestay experience.

Mark Tovell [00:18:33]:
Taiwan is really sweet because, there's there's a huge culture of people opening their homes up and having them as homestays, especially in the remote mountain regions and on the East Coast because you don't have really big cities. And so the only option is is for really small hotel stays. And quite often, they're just people's homes. They've converted a few bedrooms into places that you can stay for the night. They'll have homemade breakfasts, and you'll meet the family that live there. And that's really common. And we don't have a huge, Airbnb or system here, so it's largely just, yeah, little local homesteads. And you can certainly walk up in most villages without any booking and find something for the night when it's not Chinese New Year.

Mark Tovell [00:19:17]:
That's the one exception to the rule.

Jerry Kopack [00:19:20]:
Yeah. I was looking on our warmshowers map, and I think I counted maybe 10 warmshowers hosts. And maybe that might just be the people who are active when at the time that I counted them. But, have you found there's many warmshowers opportunities?

Mark Tovell [00:19:35]:
There's not so many here in Taiwan. I would say, certainly, the the biggest cities have at least 1 or 2. But in the more remote areas, you won't find you won't find people. I think in Thailand, for example, at the moment, I'm the only host down here. There used to be a couple of us, but, yeah, it's not so many. But I again, it's it's a growing thing. Cycle touring is still quite a fairly new concept in Taiwan as a multiday thing to do. And, there's lots of, temples that offer fairly cheap and free homestays, so I think, traditionally, it wasn't needed.

Mark Tovell [00:20:09]:
But, yeah, it's there's some people dotted around.

Jerry Kopack [00:20:12]:
So you said temples offering, lodging. What what does that look like?

Mark Tovell [00:20:18]:
It's a smattering. There's some that are really big complexes that have monasteries, and they'll have dormitories. But in the mountains, most, of the, like, the the village's main temple will have a small dormitory area. They're usually private rooms that are quite rundown, but for the night, they're maybe less around about 10 US dollars for a night, and they'll give you big thick blankets and, yeah, fairly quiet spaces to sleep. So they're pretty good.

Jerry Kopack [00:20:46]:
You sound like maybe you've experienced some of those.

Mark Tovell [00:20:48]:
Yeah. My first time staying in a mountain temple wasn't it was just I arrived really late. You know, I've been riding up the mountain all day. I thought I was gonna stay in a in a hotel that was there, but it was already full. Or it was closed. I couldn't really tell afterwards. And so I asked a local, and they pointed me in direction of the local temple. And I got there, and all the lights were off.

Mark Tovell [00:21:11]:
And I went there's no door to knock on. It's just like an open air temple. And I was walking around till, eventually, the caretaker saw me and, yeah, straightaway opened a room up for me, and it was really great. I was just the only person there for the night. So it was with a huge mountain views in front of me. So it was really good.

Jerry Kopack [00:21:27]:
What's, give me an idea of, say, the the local food cuisine.

Mark Tovell [00:21:31]:
Oh, that's a good question. Well, I'm, largely vegetarian vegan, so I don't eat meat. But Same. Meat's a bit yeah? Okay. Well, meat's a big thing here in Taiwan. I say that. Like, it's it's like a lot of Asian countries. You know, there's meat meat is a huge part of the culture, but at the same time, they have a lot of tofu in Taiwan.

Mark Tovell [00:21:50]:
One of the more famous dishes here is stinky tofu, which is a love it or hate it type dish. But generally speaking, you can get around rice, vegetables, all grown. It has lots of fruit in Taiwan. I never found it a problem. The the biggest issue is really explaining the language barrier that you don't eat meat. But generally speaking, there's lots of options. Bubble tea comes from Taiwan, so that's a huge deal here. You can't really roll through a village without there being at least 4 or 5 tea shops ready to offer you liters of sugary milky tea, which is always good.

Jerry Kopack [00:22:26]:
I, I just remembered talking about, Food Now, one of the other expressions that I learned while I was cycling through the Tibetan plateau in China. And I'm gonna mess up the pronunciation, but I remember, which means you know, means I don't want meat.

Mark Tovell [00:22:42]:
Yeah. And so

Jerry Kopack [00:22:42]:
That was one of the things that I remember. So have you

Mark Tovell [00:22:46]:
That's pretty good. You know, Chinese is great.

Jerry Kopack [00:22:48]:
Okay. Really?

Mark Tovell [00:22:50]:
No. But it's okay. I'm also yeah. Is, is a it's pretty easy to say as and remember that, I guess. If you say that in Taiwan, that normally in the military means you don't eat meat. If you're in a fish restaurant, it might still mean that you eat fish, but that'll get you pretty far. Yeah. But so far, it was pretty good to say as well.

Mark Tovell [00:23:12]:
I don't know. In Taiwan, if you if you if you're stressed about Mandarin, you can usually say in English. And a lot of places on the island, they'll understand that you don't eat meat, so it's usually pretty good. The difficulty will be that if you have, like, a a soup broth or something with all pre precooked in meat, so your alternatives will be, fried rice and those kind of dishes that you're asked for. But Taiwan's full of what what's great here is there's lots and lots of independent, people that make their own little businesses. And so food is in abundance everywhere here. There's everything from chains to the little mom and pop making that little fried rice in the street corner.

Jerry Kopack [00:23:50]:
What about, what about spice? Because I mess also remember, the expression means I don't want spice or heat or something.

Mark Tovell [00:23:59]:
Yes. Taiwan's not, Taiwan's not a massive spicy country. They're more into their sweetness here. You know, they'll that you can find dishes here where they put sugar into their rice and vegetable dishes, for example. So it's not overly spicy, but they'll usually ask you if you want to add spice. And then certainly with their breakfast, their breakfast come quite bland, and then there's an array of spicy sauces you can choose to add afterwards. So you're pretty good here if you're not a spice fan.

Jerry Kopack [00:24:30]:
And, of course, Google Translate, I'm sure, works relatively well.

Mark Tovell [00:24:34]:
Exceptionally well here. Yeah. It's a good it's a good tool, for sure.

Jerry Kopack [00:24:37]:
So I know that there's probably a preferred time of the year or season for people to to come and pursue their cycling adventure in Taiwan? When is that?

Mark Tovell [00:24:47]:
Well, the the shoulder season's always pretty good, like, March, April, May, before the plumb rains come. And then in the autumn, kind of September, October, November. Although, as we're experiencing this year, we have typhoons later and later in the year now, but they're usually just blown over after a day or 2. And the the winter's pretty good in Taiwan because, like I said, we don't have snow and the extreme weather, but it is cold in the mountains in the wintertime. And in the summer, we have extreme heat. So if you don't wanna ride in 40 degree temperatures, I would avoid the May summer months. But, actually, it's it's a bit of an all year round island, really. I I I quite like riding in the summer because you have really clear skies.

Mark Tovell [00:25:29]:
You just have to manage the brutal heat really. Most cyclists come here October, November, April. They're the main seasons, I would say.

Jerry Kopack [00:25:39]:
Got it. And then the

Mark Tovell [00:25:40]:
Just avoid Chinese New Year. Just don't come in Chinese New Year, if you can remember.

Jerry Kopack [00:25:45]:
Okay. For those who don't know, when is that?

Mark Tovell [00:25:47]:
Well, it does change every year, but it runs for a week or 2. Usually, towards the end of January and the beginning of February is the main time that it falls. And the reason I say that isn't because it isn't lovely here then. It's just if you're cycle touring, it's really hard to get hostels and hotels because they're usually booked up, especially, outside of the big cities, which is rare because the rest of the year, it's the other way around. It's certainly more expensive to fly in and out of Taiwan in that period of time. But for the Taiwanese, it's only a 1 week holiday. So as long as you avoid flying in and out just before that week, it should be okay.

Jerry Kopack [00:26:22]:
Should be okay. So I don't want you to give away anything here, because I want people to to buy your book, of course. So don't tell me your favorite, but tell me, like, maybe your 3rd favorite ride or place to ride around the island. And why?

Mark Tovell [00:26:40]:
Well, I would say, like, you know, on the on the West Coast, people always ride if they find the the government moving through the the flat areas through the cities on the West Coast. And whilst they're quite nice cities, you're going through a lot of traffic lights and a lot of road traffic around. But on the hills, on the just the lower hills on Taiwan, there's some really beautiful roads through the tropical jungle. And there's a road in in the Tainan region called the Coffee Road. And if you can find it, the Coffee Road is delightful. It's it starts in a hot spring town, and it kind of undulates for about, 30, 40 kilometers along the ridgeline end of a mountain, and it's absolutely stunning. You have coffee plantations and jungle all around you, very minimal traffic. It's you can have views of the mountain ranges and the plateau ahead of you.

Mark Tovell [00:27:31]:
And, yeah, on a lovely autumn day. It's it's nowhere better, really.

Jerry Kopack [00:27:36]:
So you you talk about jungles. What kind of wildlife have you seen?

Mark Tovell [00:27:42]:
Nothing huge here in Taiwan. We do have bears, but unlike Japan, you don't really see them. They're quite they're they're quite endangered here. So unless you're hiking the high mountains for years, you're unlikely to see a bear. But we have some small deer. There's a lot of snakes in Taiwan. We get some marmots and animals like that. They're all quite indigenous, like, unique to Taiwan as an island, but nothing huge.

Mark Tovell [00:28:04]:
There's a there's a lot of butterflies and birds in Taiwan. A lot of migrating birds come through here. Lots of different species. And, yeah, the butterflies are everywhere most of the year. So it's pretty good.

Jerry Kopack [00:28:15]:
So it sounds like you have a a pretty wide array of

Mark Tovell [00:28:18]:
Oh, sorry. And monkeys. Of course, we have monkeys.

Jerry Kopack [00:28:21]:
Of course. Yeah. How can I put monkeys? So it sounds like you got a pretty wide array of of seasons. What kind of gear do you think people would need if they're going to plan a a week or so tour of Taiwan?

Mark Tovell [00:28:36]:
I mean, I would definitely bring a very good rain jacket because we do all year round, you can have a really heavy week of rain. And if you're planning just a 2 or 3 week trip, a large part of that could be in rain. Same with your bags and your bike. Make sure you have at least one really waterproof bag because when it rains here, like a lot of tropical parts of Asia, you get just these all day downpours that don't stop. But in terms of warmth, unless you're riding the really high peaks during a a particular cold snap, you don't really need anything heavily heavily from the cold weather. So you can kind of come along with maybe one sweater and a rain jacket and everything else for summer. It'll be fine all year round.

Jerry Kopack [00:29:18]:
So do the high pass you you said they don't get much snow anymore, but do they still get down to that freezing point in temperature?

Mark Tovell [00:29:24]:
They get pretty close to it, especially if you're you know, the highest pass is just over 3,600 meters. And when you're going down from that pass, if it's raining in the winter, it'll be bitterly cold, and it will yeah. You can get a phosphite if you're not careful. Yeah. Watch out for that. And then on the nights and send the night times, if you're camping up there on top, which you can do, it gets it gets to freezing point. Yeah.

Jerry Kopack [00:29:48]:
Got it. This is all fantastic information, and I am so glad we talked because now this is absolutely on my radar. So we've talked about a lot of aspects of Taiwan, but give me your best reason why you think people should come and check this place out.

Mark Tovell [00:30:05]:
That's that's so hard to pick one thing because, you know, what what's so great about Taiwan as an island is culturally and physically, it has has almost everything the world has, but all in one place. It's not necessarily the best at any anything, but it just has an abundance of everything. So, you know, if you like ocean riding and swimming in open ocean with beautiful clear waters with sea turtles and sharks, come to Taiwan. If you wanna ride some of the highest, hardest peak roads in the world, come to Taiwan. And I think that's true of almost every aspect, really. There's not one single thing. But I will say that the people here are really wonderful. And, obviously, everyone goes traveling, and they'll say, oh, the people in that country are great.

Mark Tovell [00:30:51]:
And I it's just particularly true in Taiwan, I think, as a cyclist because they're so warm and welcoming when they meet you that it just makes it so comfortable and and joyous to be here.

Jerry Kopack [00:31:04]:
Yeah. It sounds like you've found a home.

Mark Tovell [00:31:07]:
Certainly for now. Yeah. We'll see. I haven't cycled the whole world yet, so maybe come back later.

Jerry Kopack [00:31:14]:
Well, Mark, I wanna thank you so much for taking the time to share your stories about Taiwan. How can listeners find you or grab a copy of your book?

Mark Tovell [00:31:22]:
That's a great question. Well, all the book's available on Amazon and places like that, but you can also grab it on my website, which is add oil go.com.

Jerry Kopack [00:31:30]:
Add oil. I love that.

Mark Tovell [00:31:32]:
Yeah. Thanks for having me, Jerry. It's been really fun to do this. I love warmshowers as I'm sure a lot of your your guests do, and it's, yeah, it's a really been a really special part of my cycle talking with students. So

Jerry Kopack [00:31:43]:
Excellent. Well, thank you everyone who's been out there listening to my conversation with Mark Tovell. If you enjoy our show, give us a like, a share on your social channels, or just tell your friends. These stories hopefully will inspire you to set off on your own bicycle adventure, and maybe make the world feel a little bit smaller one pedal stroke at a time. My name is Jerry Kopack, and until next time, keep riding.

Tahverlee [00:32:07]:
Thank you for joining us, and we hope you enjoyed the show as much as we enjoyed making it. Wherever you are listening, please leave us a rating and a review as it helps us reach more cyclists and hosts around the world. Visit us at warmshowers.org to become a part of our community, or on Instagram at warmshowers_org. If you would like to be a guest on the show or submit a question, please make sure to email us at podcast at warmshowers.org.