Why did the chicken cross the road? My daughter ponders the age-old question as she looks at a rooster that has done just that. The shirt she is wearing is emblazoned with the self-serving (for her father) words パパ大好き, or "I ♥ Daddy" in Japanese, which I picked up for her last year when I was in Beppu 別府.
The picture above was taken this afternoon on the T'ányǎshén cycling trail 潭雅神綠園道, a bicycle path linking the former townships of T'ántzῠ 潭子, Tàyǎ 大雅 and Shénkāng 神岡, all three of which were merged late last year into a Greater T'áichūng 大臺中. Amber rode about 3 kilometers (1.86 miles) round-trip on her Hello Kitty ハローキティ bike, which isn't a bad workout for a 5 year-old getting around with the help of training wheels. The trail was active today, but not crowded, which is quite a contrast with Sundays, when it's usually 人山人海, "jénshān jénhǎi" or "People mountain, people sea". Unfortunately, some Taiwanese ride bicycles in the same manner in which they drive cars - carelessly, recklessly and with little or no regard for others sharing the same road (or trying to cross it). In short, like absolute morons. 星期天 are days best avoided.
Just in case there was any doubt the above entry describes events taking place in Asia, this picture of a rice paddy and palm trees should put those doubts to rest.
Speaking of cycling, the new Lonely Planet guide to T'áiwān 台灣 is out, and it devotes a lot of ink to where visitors can ride their bikes on the island of Formosa. There is also much more coverage on hiking (perhaps one day LP can publish a hiking guide to Taiwan, similar to their book on hiking in Japan, which I've used on several occasions), and a new design layout. The latter will take some getting used to, but I like how many of the entries are individually identified, such as "museum", "scenic area", "Buddhist temple" and so on. On the down side, the descriptions for many of the listed sightseeing attractions seem to be shorter compared to past editions, and there are also fewer recommendations for places to stay and eat. Worst of all, the "Getting There and Away" and "Getting Around" sections are generally unsatisfactory - for some places, we're told to ask at tourist information offices for how to get to where we might want to go. While this would pose little trouble for a resident such as myself who has a car and/or scooter, for those short-term visitors dependent on public transportation, it would have been better to have provided more specific advice on which buses to take, for example.
I'm still going through the new LP guide, so the jury is out for now. Rough Guide will be publishing its updated Taiwan guide very soon, and the British travel publisher Bradt will be coming out with its first book on Taiwan at about the same time. I have both books on order from Amazon (I admit it, I'm a guidebook junkie), so it'll be interesting to see how the three guides compare with each other, and which one I'll end up turning to the most often on our travels around Formosa (Fúmósà) 福摩薩.
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