Very glad you enjoyed it. After this Taiwan trip I did some riding around China, so there are some videos up about that now too - feel free to check them out ;)
HI Ben, Nice video. We just met on Saturday in the bus back from Wulai and my friend found the video today checking randomly video from Taiwan by Bike. As we spoke you did actually the perfect ride around Taiwan, the west side is just full of factories and big cities that are way less enjoyable than the east side of the island you are showing. It is pretty impressive you made all the way from Suao to Hualien, we did that by train to avoid the heavy traffic and narrow roads...but checking your video I can see the views paid off. Cheers and nice meeting you! PS: A helmet won't kill you! :-P
Real pleasure to meet you the other day, and thanks for the comment! Yeah after your feedback on the western side of the island, I'll stick with hinting to people that they should focus on the East. Some people want a story to tell though, and 'cycled around Taiwan' is more pleasing and succinct than 'Taipei to Kaohsiung via the east coast' - so bit of a challenge to overcome that! ;) I would actually say that a lot of Suao to Hualien is very ridable, and it is likely to get considerably better after the freeway is fully built. The sections where the traffic was already on the new road rather than the winding scenic/coastal road were awesome. I don't disagree on the helmet - after Taiwan I did some riding in China (with a few more TH-cam vids) and got a helmet sorted for that. All the best for you back in Prague - might shoot you a message if I'm over there for some local riding tips ;)
Did it twice eh the first time from Taipei to Taipei in 10 days, the second one from Kaohsiung to Taitung, best experience in Taiwan indeed:) Keep it up, mate! 加油！
Thanks Paula! I can see myself doing it again too, and yeah...perhaps I should also give the opposite direction a shot as well - might make it feel like a completely different trip :D
Wow, great cycling experience! I had never cycling through the whole east coast even though I'm a Taiwanese. As I know, the hotel in 10:40 shut down not because China issue but because environmental problem. 美麗灣渡假村 is one of the most controversial hotel in Taitung. Taitung government signed a BOT contract with a company helping them built this hotel in order to attract tourists and make more job opportunities. However, they built the hotel in a coastal protection area while escaping any environmental impact assessment. The litigation last for so long and I think it won't but also can't be open in the future~
Thanks for filling me in on that, didn't do my research properly I'm afraid ;) There seemed to be a few abandoned hotels along the trip and I was a bit too presumptuous in my comments about it.
The reason why this road has been taking a long time to build was due to the long process of environment assessment. The government has been very much concerned about the potential damage that it may cause due to the improved mobility and wider accessibility.
When I was cycling in Taiwan I met quite a few Western cyclists like you who were cycling around the edge. I found it boring. I hated the stretch from Hualien to Yilan. You seem to have got off lightly as when I rode it toward the end of feburary there were big 8 wheeler cement trucks passing literally every minute as there is a quarry and factory just north of Hualien. The tunnels were not a pleasant experience riding as fast as I could without becoming gassed from diesel fumes and cement dust. The noise was terrifying. For me the best cycling was in the mountains. I really loved that. I rode south from Taipei to Fuxing then up into the mountains at about 2,600m coming through Taroko National Park down into the gorge which is the best mountain descent I have ever made, long and stunning scenery. They are building massive new tunnels in the gorge as well so the old road will gradually fall into disuse and maybe closed which will be such a pity as it is breath taking to ride. The Love Hotel you stayed in was just a knocking shop. Yuk! I read a review of some such place in Taipei on Google Maps and one comment said that the cleaners had missed cleaning semen from the bedside phone which was fresh. Yuk, yuk, yuk. Taiwan is a great cycling country but for me the pollution can be bad and the heavy traffic insane. I though the East Coast was developed enough, Taipei and Taoyuan were huge cities that were covered in smog and pollution. Such a pity as the cycling infrastructure is pretty good, but not good if you cannot breath! Bloody scooters every where chucking out vile emissions. Anyway well shot and edited. Thanks for posting.
Hey Alex. I agree there are a few rough bits due to the concrete industry north of Hualien, but I think with that huge new freeway that is tunneling through the hills those should be off the road. Aside from the trucks, I think that section of road is one of the most scenic. What could be done instead is to climb up through Taroko towards Shei Pa National Park and head to Yilan that way. I was riding north to south and most if not all the tunnels were downhill in that direction, so I was able to shoot through them pretty quickly. If that was a love hotel it was a pretty kinky one, since it was mostly bunks in there!! :D From what I remember there was one Queen room and one bunk room upstairs, and some more bunks downstairs just off from the living room.
Where they have built new tunnels from Yilan toward Taipei only cars can use them as they have designated the new road an expressway so trucks still have to use the old road which is a bummer as you still get gassed and the risk of being flattened, although traffic is less. I came across quite a few of these car only expressways in Taiwan. It would be great if they had made a cycle lane along the edge which they do on most major roads, but exclude the evil scooters. I hated the scooters they ruined my experience in Taiwan. You are sitting at traffic lights waiting for them to change surrounded by nearly a hundred scooters all gunning it when the countdown hits 2 seconds then the light changes to green. I guess a few decades ago there would have been a lot more bicycles as people had less disposable income. Now they have ditched their bicycles for horrible polluting scooters. Sad. Progress it is not.
The new tunnels I'm referring to are still under construction, and are between Yilan and Hualien. From what I can tell the govt is pushing electric scooters and hopefully that transition happens... same deal in Vietnam and Thailand.
wow, awesome views specially taroko gorge it’s more on nature,planning to go there next month,making my own vid, thank you for the information 🚴🏼♂️🚴🏼♂️
Hey i'm in Taiwan right now and i want to do the same thing as you did. Do you have any tipps how and where i can buy a second hand bike? It seems to be hard looking it up on Facebook and co since i can't read chinese. I'd really appreciate to get an insight how you managed that
Just saw this. The second hand market in Taiwan isn't that great in my opinion - big part of the population rather leave things to rust rather than selling second hand. I bought my crappy bike from a little hole-in-the-wall place which I'm pretty sure has closed down. Can't say any option will be particularly easy in English, but you can try: - Facebook marketplace. If you message sellers in Taipei in English, a decent proportion will be able to communicate with you. - google translating Shopee.tw, filtering for second hand goods only. - There are probably many like it, but I met the manager of this bike shop and he has a couple of bikes he can rent out - or at least he used to: goo.gl/maps/XKkLbFWLtCdCiTmw8 - There's also the Giant bike rental program. Don't have details but you can google it, or just go into a Giant retail shop to get details.
Hi there! Great video! It brings me some memories back from my bike trip from Puli to Kenting via Wuling and Hualien! What time of the year did you do that trip? And how were the weather conditions (wind? Raining episodes? Humidity?)for biking?
Just going through old comments and not sure why I didn't reply to this one so my apologies Julien! The ride was in February. I'd say that's a good time of year for it in Taiwan. The other winter months would also be fine. Its popular for locals to ride around the island in summer, but the heat is ferocious and I wouldn't even consider that myself - or maybe just a mountain descent from Lishan to Yilan or maybe Lishan to Hualien via Taroko Gorge. I got rained on pretty hard on the day I left Taipei, but don't remember it being bad after that. Def would have had light rain and a lot of overcast weather, but I don't remember worse than that. As you probably know know, Taiwan overall is extremely rainy, though particularly the north and northeast. The south and southeast are pretty dry in winter, and for example riding Taidong -> Kenting -> Kaohsiung (and on to Sun Moon lake etc if you wanted) the chances of getting really wet in winter are pretty low.
Pretty cool adventure. I've thought about doing the same on my next visit. I must say not looking forward to the climbs, but the views looks awesome. How did you manage where you stayed?
Thanks! I just booked places as I went, mostly staying in hostels on this trip. It would be quite easy to camp, as among other things the police stations often have free camping spots on their lawn. Taiwan is super hot (and rainy) for much of the year though so I rather stay in a place with aircon and a shower ;)
Hey Jeremy, yes I'm still in Taipei. I'm not connected to the cycling scene myself, don't have a bike of my own at all actually - just been using Youbike around Taipei, and going on hikes instead. You moving/moved to Taipei, or another part of Taiwan?
I'd love to do this on a You Bike one of these days lol. How many km did you average per day? Being from Florida and all, I'm a noobie to cycling with lots of elevation changes, but this is something I've always dreamed of doing ever since my first visit to Taiwan.
I think I saw on TH-cam someone attempting it on an Obike (not Youbike), but those are pretty unpleasant to ride I reckon! 😁 I didn't bike very ambitious distances. Around 100km at the most, and many days much shorter than that. Maybe 60-70km on average (?), but I didn't keep track.
Considering how mountainous certain parts of your route was, I'd say that's a good pace! Thanks for uploading your adventure! I will give it a go the next time I'm in Taiwan, maybe even make a video like this one myself :)
Great video! Few questions for you Ben. 1) How many km's did you bike? 2) How many flat tyres along the way? 3) How are the country locals English skills like? Was it easy to converse with them? 4) Would've been good to see something about their cuisine. Maybe next video. How was the food though?
Thanks man! I didn't track km's, but just put the basic route into Google Maps and looks to be around 750-800km. No flat tyres luckily. Didn't even bring a repair kit! If you can't put your trust in a $50 bike not getting a flat tyre then what CAN you trust!? Because I can communicate in Chinese I never particularly tested out English skills in Taiwan. In Taipei though I met a tonne of people with English pretty much like native speakers (though many people still hardly speak any!). It gets worse as you go South down the Western cities. As always the countryside is the worst. For English I would rate Taiwan about 1000x better than China, and probably better than Korea and Japan. I haven't really tried to include cuisine shots but I will try to include more of that in future videos. I'm doing some China ones now and there is at least one basic cuisine bit...but yeah...will see how I can do more of that in future.
Hi Nigel, For the cuisine part, I would suggest you look up the following keywords on TH-cam: "Luke Martin, Taiwanese food" "Mark Wiens, Taiwanese food" "Samuel and Audrey, Taiwanese food" I can't give you better recommendations than their videos about the food heaven.
lol....that hotel wasn't abandoned, it was suspended by the government as it was built on a piece of land which is suppose to be environmentally sensitive.
Thanks for your thoughts! I had a couple of people suggest a drone and I have to admit that it would be kind of cool. I might look into getting a compact one sometime for future trips ;)
Hi Mimin, yep I have been hiking in Taiwan a bunch of times. Its fantastic for it, there are a lot of great trails all over the place. I actually made a video about one such hike, if you're interested ;) th-cam.com/video/sVahhGjwGSE/w-d-xo.html
Did you buy your bike in Taiwan or you bring it from your place? If you did buy it in Taiwan, how much did you paid for it? Was thinking of doing the same. Thanks!
I bought an old banger there for around $50. I think in Taiwan Dollars it was TW$1,200. It was probably around 10 years old and probably not what I'd recommend for most people :P In my case I had my much better bike coming over to Asia after the Taiwan trip so I didn't want to spend too much on another one. Giant has a popular rental bike program in Taiwan, so if you want to ride a good one without having to buy one that's an option for you.
Sorry I didn't make any exact recording of that. I think I made a rough google map and if I find that I'll link that for you later. In general its not really necessary though I think. The specific roads I was on were either the obvious choice (eg. the main coast road), or some rural road not likely to have been any better than the other rural roads nearby.
Thanks to less Chinese coming to TW... that's how the cycling in TW can be so enjoyable now... before there were big coaches of Chinese tours parking/driving everywhere in the mountains (not just in the cities).
why your screen shots are smooth? Thank you. It's not dizzy as many others clips, I wish the background sounds effects are much lower than your talk voices when you are not speaking, because that feels the same way the commercials in the TV programs..... after soft voice, the loud sounds come up
Painstaking editing to cut out the shaky bits! ...though still not perfect of course - someday I think I'll get a gimbal to get smoother shots. Another trick is filming shaky bits in 60fps and then rendering at half speed in the video, and this makes the jumpiness seem...less jumpy. Thanks for the feedback on volume, I just edited a few videos so far so I'm still figuring that kind of thing out, and your thoughts are much appreciated :)
If you liked this video, you miiight also like my book, which is about a trip in the Middle East: amzn.to/UYWFMR (Kindle for $1 or Paperback for $5) I wrote it a long time ago, when I was still young and even sillier than I am now. Feel free to check it out if you're interested ;)
Sorry for the late reply. My trip was in February. Winter is definitely less sunny overall, but I wouldn't suggest doing this ride in summer if you have the choice. Summer heat in Taiwan is ferocious.
Haha, thanks Mats. I checked the route I did on Google Maps and it was around 750-800km...a bit longer because of the route I took around the East Coast.
Haha good question. My brother was bringing my bike from New Zealand across to Asia, but he met me in China (where I cycled after Taiwan) so I just needed a stop-gap bike! Bonus update is that I sold it for $25 in Kaohsiung ;) As you may know there are rental bikes in Taiwan, particularly the Giant rental scheme, but I called a couple of their rental locations in Taipei and they either wanted the bike to be returned to Taipei (ie. requiring a full loop) or didn't have a bike in my size in stock.
About the hotel this video mentioned at 10:40, it was shut down because it failed to pass the environmental impact assessment. Nothing to do about China.
Thanks for that! Some other commenters pointed it out too - admittedly I was totally speculating and I got it 100% wrong...oops! Better sharpen up my research next time.
the weather in winter time around Taipei vs. in NW. Yunnan China is totally the opposite lol. yes, be alert to the trucks on the costal line along the northern part of the Eastern Taiwan.
After recording the clip you're referring to I saw some signage which from memory mentioned that the buildings were built by the Japanese during colonial days. Not sure if my memory is right on that, but that's cool to know they relate to mines. I know that there is a lot of mining related history surrounding Jiufen ;)
![กี่หมื่นฟ้า | Your Sky Series EP.1 [2/4]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/qJbQs_nhjD4/mqdefault.jpg)
The special abandoned building , it was actually a gold mining site before.
And i love the unique atmosphere there,too!
很多外國人真的比台灣人更愛台灣，用他們的腳透過他們的眼睛去愛台灣！💕❤️🇹🇼
天啊~你的路線跟我當年單車環島 非常相似 很多路線都是台灣單車族的路線 並不是一般單車觀光客會走的路線~ 風櫃嘴 花蓮193縣道 大農大富 還另外介紹了關閉的美麗灣 ~真是厲害! ~佩服 ~
去看看大农大富确实感觉挺划算 :)
Greeting from Taiwan. Thank you for introducing this cycling trip in Taiwan.
Sure thing and thank you. Beautiful country!
Unbelievably beautiful!!!
Very glad you enjoyed it. After this Taiwan trip I did some riding around China, so there are some videos up about that now too - feel free to check them out ;)
SCTtube yes! That’s beautiful 台灣!
Wow! Truly adore your passion and gut to ride all the way from the North to the South. You deserved a medal!!
Haha, thanks Simon! ;)
HI Ben,
Nice video. We just met on Saturday in the bus back from Wulai and my friend found the video today checking randomly video from Taiwan by Bike.
As we spoke you did actually the perfect ride around Taiwan, the west side is just full of factories and big cities that are way less enjoyable than the east side of the island you are showing.
It is pretty impressive you made all the way from Suao to Hualien, we did that by train to avoid the heavy traffic and narrow roads...but checking your video I can see the views paid off.
Cheers and nice meeting you!
PS: A helmet won't kill you! :-P
Real pleasure to meet you the other day, and thanks for the comment! Yeah after your feedback on the western side of the island, I'll stick with hinting to people that they should focus on the East. Some people want a story to tell though, and 'cycled around Taiwan' is more pleasing and succinct than 'Taipei to Kaohsiung via the east coast' - so bit of a challenge to overcome that! ;) I would actually say that a lot of Suao to Hualien is very ridable, and it is likely to get considerably better after the freeway is fully built. The sections where the traffic was already on the new road rather than the winding scenic/coastal road were awesome.
I don't disagree on the helmet - after Taiwan I did some riding in China (with a few more TH-cam vids) and got a helmet sorted for that.
All the best for you back in Prague - might shoot you a message if I'm over there for some local riding tips ;)
Did it twice eh the first time from Taipei to Taipei in 10 days, the second one from Kaohsiung to Taitung, best experience in Taiwan indeed:) Keep it up, mate! 加油！
Thanks Paula! I can see myself doing it again too, and yeah...perhaps I should also give the opposite direction a shot as well - might make it feel like a completely different trip :D
What I like about him is that he gives honest review haha
Haha thanks Hunter :)
Wow, great cycling experience! I had never cycling through the whole east coast even though I'm a Taiwanese. As I know, the hotel in 10:40 shut down not because China issue but because environmental problem. 美麗灣渡假村 is one of the most controversial hotel in Taitung. Taitung government signed a BOT contract with a company helping them built this hotel in order to attract tourists and make more job opportunities. However, they built the hotel in a coastal protection area while escaping any environmental impact assessment. The litigation last for so long and I think it won't but also can't be open in the future~
Thanks for filling me in on that, didn't do my research properly I'm afraid ;) There seemed to be a few abandoned hotels along the trip and I was a bit too presumptuous in my comments about it.
th-cam.com/video/Jg2Wq0OXMpU/w-d-xo.html 那裡很美 ，我的故鄉。以前稱 杉原灣 ，經常去玩水浮潛有很多魚跟很美的一大片珊瑚群， 是個很美麗的海岸。
The reason why this road has been taking a long time to build was due to the long process of environment assessment. The government has been very much concerned about the potential damage that it may cause due to the improved mobility and wider accessibility.
Simon Chiu hey simon!
Thanks for coming to Taiwan. The east coast of Taiwan is awesome. Have a nice trip.
Thanks! 😃
When I was cycling in Taiwan I met quite a few Western cyclists like you who were cycling around the edge. I found it boring. I hated the stretch from Hualien to Yilan. You seem to have got off lightly as when I rode it toward the end of feburary there were big 8 wheeler cement trucks passing literally every minute as there is a quarry and factory just north of Hualien. The tunnels were not a pleasant experience riding as fast as I could without becoming gassed from diesel fumes and cement dust. The noise was terrifying. For me the best cycling was in the mountains. I really loved that. I rode south from Taipei to Fuxing then up into the mountains at about 2,600m coming through Taroko National Park down into the gorge which is the best mountain descent I have ever made, long and stunning scenery. They are building massive new tunnels in the gorge as well so the old road will gradually fall into disuse and maybe closed which will be such a pity as it is breath taking to ride.
The Love Hotel you stayed in was just a knocking shop. Yuk! I read a review of some such place in Taipei on Google Maps and one comment said that the cleaners had missed cleaning semen from the bedside phone which was fresh. Yuk, yuk, yuk.
Taiwan is a great cycling country but for me the pollution can be bad and the heavy traffic insane. I though the East Coast was developed enough, Taipei and Taoyuan were huge cities that were covered in smog and pollution. Such a pity as the cycling infrastructure is pretty good, but not good if you cannot breath! Bloody scooters every where chucking out vile emissions.
Anyway well shot and edited. Thanks for posting.
Hey Alex. I agree there are a few rough bits due to the concrete industry north of Hualien, but I think with that huge new freeway that is tunneling through the hills those should be off the road. Aside from the trucks, I think that section of road is one of the most scenic. What could be done instead is to climb up through Taroko towards Shei Pa National Park and head to Yilan that way. I was riding north to south and most if not all the tunnels were downhill in that direction, so I was able to shoot through them pretty quickly.
If that was a love hotel it was a pretty kinky one, since it was mostly bunks in there!! :D From what I remember there was one Queen room and one bunk room upstairs, and some more bunks downstairs just off from the living room.
Where they have built new tunnels from Yilan toward Taipei only cars can use them as they have designated the new road an expressway so trucks still have to use the old road which is a bummer as you still get gassed and the risk of being flattened, although traffic is less. I came across quite a few of these car only expressways in Taiwan. It would be great if they had made a cycle lane along the edge which they do on most major roads, but exclude the evil scooters. I hated the scooters they ruined my experience in Taiwan. You are sitting at traffic lights waiting for them to change surrounded by nearly a hundred scooters all gunning it when the countdown hits 2 seconds then the light changes to green. I guess a few decades ago there would have been a lot more bicycles as people had less disposable income. Now they have ditched their bicycles for horrible polluting scooters. Sad. Progress it is not.
The new tunnels I'm referring to are still under construction, and are between Yilan and Hualien. From what I can tell the govt is pushing electric scooters and hopefully that transition happens... same deal in Vietnam and Thailand.
Taiwan is such a beautiful country!
TX R yes! Agree!
Only the open minded people knows how to enjoy and appreciate the beauty of Taiwan
4:50 riding on the left side of the road… did you forget you were supposed to ride on the right side? Great footage ❤
Hi ben i love nature enjoy ride
Welcome to Taiwan. Enjoy your cycling tour.
Much appreciated ;)
wow,
awesome views specially taroko gorge it’s more on nature,planning to go there next month,making my own vid,
thank you for the information 🚴🏼♂️🚴🏼♂️
Thanks Mark - enjoy your trip ;)
Ben Neynens
thank you 😊
Amazing trip.
Thanks Jack ;)
The abandoned building behind you was a copper refinery.
Thanks Jerry! Yeah I found out about it after filming that clip, but my updated understanding of it didn't make it into the video :D
nice work dude.
Much appreciated Jerry ;)
Hey i'm in Taiwan right now and i want to do the same thing as you did. Do you have any tipps how and where i can buy a second hand bike? It seems to be hard looking it up on Facebook and co since i can't read chinese. I'd really appreciate to get an insight how you managed that
Just saw this. The second hand market in Taiwan isn't that great in my opinion - big part of the population rather leave things to rust rather than selling second hand. I bought my crappy bike from a little hole-in-the-wall place which I'm pretty sure has closed down. Can't say any option will be particularly easy in English, but you can try:
- Facebook marketplace. If you message sellers in Taipei in English, a decent proportion will be able to communicate with you.
- google translating Shopee.tw, filtering for second hand goods only.
- There are probably many like it, but I met the manager of this bike shop and he has a couple of bikes he can rent out - or at least he used to: goo.gl/maps/XKkLbFWLtCdCiTmw8
- There's also the Giant bike rental program. Don't have details but you can google it, or just go into a Giant retail shop to get details.
Nice exsperion dude,,,you have a good day and beautiful view,,,
Say hii from Taipe
Sucses bro
Thank you! :)
真厲害👍竟然騎腳踏車環島旅行！
谢谢你，但是我其实没有环岛。。。台北之高雄而已 ;)
Ben Neynens 更厲害了你竟然還會讀寫中文！！！
Google translate, or friends
我曾经在大陆生活3年。在去年在台北大概6个月。 中文水平虽然一直腿部还是可以沟通 :)
Hi there! Great video! It brings me some memories back from my bike trip from Puli to Kenting via Wuling and Hualien! What time of the year did you do that trip? And how were the weather conditions (wind? Raining episodes? Humidity?)for biking?
Just going through old comments and not sure why I didn't reply to this one so my apologies Julien! The ride was in February. I'd say that's a good time of year for it in Taiwan. The other winter months would also be fine. Its popular for locals to ride around the island in summer, but the heat is ferocious and I wouldn't even consider that myself - or maybe just a mountain descent from Lishan to Yilan or maybe Lishan to Hualien via Taroko Gorge.
I got rained on pretty hard on the day I left Taipei, but don't remember it being bad after that. Def would have had light rain and a lot of overcast weather, but I don't remember worse than that. As you probably know know, Taiwan overall is extremely rainy, though particularly the north and northeast. The south and southeast are pretty dry in winter, and for example riding Taidong -> Kenting -> Kaohsiung (and on to Sun Moon lake etc if you wanted) the chances of getting really wet in winter are pretty low.
Pretty cool adventure. I've thought about doing the same on my next visit. I must say not looking forward to the climbs, but the views looks awesome. How did you manage where you stayed?
Thanks! I just booked places as I went, mostly staying in hostels on this trip. It would be quite easy to camp, as among other things the police stations often have free camping spots on their lawn. Taiwan is super hot (and rainy) for much of the year though so I rather stay in a place with aircon and a shower ;)
Hey, I am going to Taiwan with my road bike soon. Where it makes most sense to stay? New Taipeh, Taoyuan or a place in the southern side?
Not really sure what you mean. If you're going in a biking trip wouldn't you stay in a new place every night?
a very nice video, highly recommended. :) hitting on subscribe
Thanks, more videos coming soon ;)
I’m VERY into cycling and moving to Taiwan in a week! Are you by chance still there? Or know anyone there? I want to get Into the cycling scene :)
Hey Jeremy, yes I'm still in Taipei. I'm not connected to the cycling scene myself, don't have a bike of my own at all actually - just been using Youbike around Taipei, and going on hikes instead. You moving/moved to Taipei, or another part of Taiwan?
Ben Neynens currently living in Kaohsiung! Wanting to cycle from huelien to taitung. Perhaps we can join forces for that or another route
Nice. I'm likely to be out of Taiwan for most of Feb but happy to get in touch after that. I'll do need to get myself a bike :D
Sounds great! I just sent you a message on Instagram
I'd love to do this on a You Bike one of these days lol. How many km did you average per day? Being from Florida and all, I'm a noobie to cycling with lots of elevation changes, but this is something I've always dreamed of doing ever since my first visit to Taiwan.
I think I saw on TH-cam someone attempting it on an Obike (not Youbike), but those are pretty unpleasant to ride I reckon! 😁 I didn't bike very ambitious distances. Around 100km at the most, and many days much shorter than that. Maybe 60-70km on average (?), but I didn't keep track.
Considering how mountainous certain parts of your route was, I'd say that's a good pace! Thanks for uploading your adventure! I will give it a go the next time I'm in Taiwan, maybe even make a video like this one myself :)
Great video! Few questions for you Ben.
1) How many km's did you bike?
2) How many flat tyres along the way?
3) How are the country locals English skills like? Was it easy to converse with them?
4) Would've been good to see something about their cuisine. Maybe next video. How was the food though?
Thanks man! I didn't track km's, but just put the basic route into Google Maps and looks to be around 750-800km.
No flat tyres luckily. Didn't even bring a repair kit! If you can't put your trust in a $50 bike not getting a flat tyre then what CAN you trust!?
Because I can communicate in Chinese I never particularly tested out English skills in Taiwan. In Taipei though I met a tonne of people with English pretty much like native speakers (though many people still hardly speak any!). It gets worse as you go South down the Western cities. As always the countryside is the worst. For English I would rate Taiwan about 1000x better than China, and probably better than Korea and Japan.
I haven't really tried to include cuisine shots but I will try to include more of that in future videos. I'm doing some China ones now and there is at least one basic cuisine bit...but yeah...will see how I can do more of that in future.
Hi Nigel,
For the cuisine part, I would suggest you look up the following keywords on TH-cam:
"Luke Martin, Taiwanese food"
"Mark Wiens, Taiwanese food"
"Samuel and Audrey, Taiwanese food"
I can't give you better recommendations than their videos about the food heaven.
You have a quality audio
lol....that hotel wasn't abandoned, it was suspended by the government as it was built on a piece of land which is suppose to be environmentally sensitive.
Haha oopsie, I guess I was a bit presumptuous on that one! There did seem to be a lot of other abandoned hotels along the route though.
Fantastic Video! Ben, if you could get a "Drone" to take more aerial photos or video, would be even more great!
Thanks for your thoughts! I had a couple of people suggest a drone and I have to admit that it would be kind of cool. I might look into getting a compact one sometime for future trips ;)
If you need any suggestions on buying a Drone, you can ask me!~ I have a DJI Phantom 4 Pro !~
Fantastic.
I've been visit taiwan this early may too..have you try hiking in taiwan?? Elephant mountain..
Hi Mimin, yep I have been hiking in Taiwan a bunch of times. Its fantastic for it, there are a lot of great trails all over the place. I actually made a video about one such hike, if you're interested ;) th-cam.com/video/sVahhGjwGSE/w-d-xo.html
Taiwan is amazing...i stunned
Did you buy your bike in Taiwan or you bring it from your place? If you did buy it in Taiwan, how much did you paid for it? Was thinking of doing the same. Thanks!
I bought an old banger there for around $50. I think in Taiwan Dollars it was TW$1,200. It was probably around 10 years old and probably not what I'd recommend for most people :P In my case I had my much better bike coming over to Asia after the Taiwan trip so I didn't want to spend too much on another one. Giant has a popular rental bike program in Taiwan, so if you want to ride a good one without having to buy one that's an option for you.
太魯閣段拍的很美，讚。
is it possible to show the roads you rode in Google map using a.link for future riders.
Sorry I didn't make any exact recording of that. I think I made a rough google map and if I find that I'll link that for you later. In general its not really necessary though I think. The specific roads I was on were either the obvious choice (eg. the main coast road), or some rural road not likely to have been any better than the other rural roads nearby.
拍得太美啦~
Thanks to less Chinese coming to TW... that's how the cycling in TW can be so enjoyable now... before there were big coaches of Chinese tours parking/driving everywhere in the mountains (not just in the cities).
God forbid they give you money lmao
New subscriber here.. Nice vlogs..
beautiful.
thanks Rosario ;)
why your screen shots are smooth? Thank you. It's not dizzy as many others clips, I wish the background sounds effects are much lower than your talk voices when you are not speaking, because that feels the same way the commercials in the TV programs..... after soft voice, the loud sounds come up
Painstaking editing to cut out the shaky bits! ...though still not perfect of course - someday I think I'll get a gimbal to get smoother shots. Another trick is filming shaky bits in 60fps and then rendering at half speed in the video, and this makes the jumpiness seem...less jumpy. Thanks for the feedback on volume, I just edited a few videos so far so I'm still figuring that kind of thing out, and your thoughts are much appreciated :)
Osmo mobile 2 would be a great investment for you!
If you liked this video, you miiight also like my book, which is about a trip in the Middle East: amzn.to/UYWFMR (Kindle for $1 or Paperback for $5)
I wrote it a long time ago, when I was still young and even sillier than I am now. Feel free to check it out if you're interested ;)
cool !!!!
很不簡單，請問一下 3:45 是在蘇澳的哪裡呢? 我也想去～
goo.gl/maps/G8unj68DoTkSwh8z5 ;)
biyang.. waterfall.. road 193.... i am surprise your instinct guide you to off the main industrial road... pretty
great spot!
Welcome to Taiwan
Thanks Jason! Love Taiwan - I think by FAR the most underrated destination in Asia!
Which month did you travel? Hardly no sum is normal on the eastcoast?
Sorry for the late reply. My trip was in February. Winter is definitely less sunny overall, but I wouldn't suggest doing this ride in summer if you have the choice. Summer heat in Taiwan is ferocious.
Motivated to do the same
Do it! :)
Taipei to Kaohsiung almost 400km ! you are superman
Haha, thanks Mats. I checked the route I did on Google Maps and it was around 750-800km...a bit longer because of the route I took around the East Coast.
West coast > almost 400km and mostly flat, East coat > Double the distance and quite a bit of climbing.
Been in Asia for 20 years - this video - how nice! 50 Dollar bike - ummm - why.....
Haha good question. My brother was bringing my bike from New Zealand across to Asia, but he met me in China (where I cycled after Taiwan) so I just needed a stop-gap bike! Bonus update is that I sold it for $25 in Kaohsiung ;) As you may know there are rental bikes in Taiwan, particularly the Giant rental scheme, but I called a couple of their rental locations in Taipei and they either wanted the bike to be returned to Taipei (ie. requiring a full loop) or didn't have a bike in my size in stock.
If you return to Taiwan - I have 7 bikes at the moment, perhaps I can help! www.strava.com/athletes/9305
Wow, good to know! Thanks Nathan.
超級厲害......讚......值得訂閱
谢谢!~ :)
太佩服了 騎腳踏車感覺好辛苦
我騎摩托車環島過一次都覺得好累 何況是腳踏車
谢谢你，但是我其实并没有环岛，我是骑台北之高雄而已，所以不用太佩服了 :D
😎❤️🇹🇼‼️
About the hotel this video mentioned at 10:40, it was shut down because it failed to pass the environmental impact assessment. Nothing to do about China.
Thanks for that! Some other commenters pointed it out too - admittedly I was totally speculating and I got it 100% wrong...oops! Better sharpen up my research next time.
Please ride on the right side! It's dangerous that you might clash the oncoming car.
good
Thanks Bobo! ;)
玩得愉快~have fun
Thanks Pontus ;) More videos coming in the next few weeks ;)
the weather in winter time around Taipei vs. in NW. Yunnan China is totally the opposite lol. yes, be alert to the trucks on the costal line along the northern part of the Eastern Taiwan.
Agreed! So much winter sunshine in Yunnan ;)
4:33 wrong side!!
You're so beautiful! Can't help myself sorry.
這傢伙太狂了吧
哈哈，有点~ :P
台灣人歡迎您
Thank you ;) Love it there~
A smattering of people and abandoned factories and hotels..
haha yep good summary, would make a good subtitle for the video ;)
Tourism big business, be best tour guide.
Traveling both countries.
你好Chih-Chin。 不完全明白你的意思。你是建议我当导游吗？ :)
This fucking saxophone.
1:00 Abandoned mine
May I ask what camera do you use?
Canon G7X mk2 ;)
please be careful. Many truck drivers work over-hours and they are not very polite.
And btw those abandoned buildings around 1:20 are copper and gold mines.
After recording the clip you're referring to I saw some signage which from memory mentioned that the buildings were built by the Japanese during colonial days. Not sure if my memory is right on that, but that's cool to know they relate to mines. I know that there is a lot of mining related history surrounding Jiufen ;)
my bad around 0:53~1:11
欢迎来到中国台湾
那個 在TH-cam“刻意”強調中國會被罵的很慘你知道吧....