Cycling from Fengyuan to Heping

Yesterday was unusual in that I was in Fengyuan District all day and had a 3 1/2 hour break between my morning and afternoon classes, so despite the heat, I definately wanted to get out on the bike. I also wanted to have lunch in Dongshi District, so I decided to head up there, hope on route 8 and see how far I could get up that road until I had to turn around due to time constraints.


Sign indicating entry into Shigang District along route 3

Started by getting on route 3 in Fengyuan District and rode through Shigang District to Dongshi District. This part of the road is not particularly picturesque. Not an unpleasant ride which is mostly a modest incline, it was nothing like the ride after getting into Dongshi.

Look up toward the mountains from the bridge between Shigang and Dongshi over the Dajia River

Crossing the Dongshi Bridge into Dongshi District was also the point where the ride becomes much more picturesque. Along many parts of Route 8, you can see the river and the surrounding mountains on both sides of the road. While at points, the climb becomes steeper, at no point is it really a hard ride. Great workout on a hot Wednesday afternoon.

Road sign for route 8 in Dongshi District

This road was used for two stages of this year's Tour de Taiwan - stage 4 from Hsinchu to Sun Moon Lake and stage 5 which was the Taichung stage. It is a moderate clime which is not overly difficult, but enough to make you work. It is a very pretty ride at times and traffic is generally pretty light during the week.

Mountain shot from Route 8

Entering Heping District, the only aboriginal district in Taichung City

The 17km marker on route 8 in Heping District

While I wanted to continue my ride all the way to Guguan, I most certainly did not have time to make the ride there. I needs to be back in Fengyuan by 2:30 and needed to eat lunch. So, about 30km into the ride, I turned around here. You can see the mountains in the background. I definately want to get back up here soon and get all the way up to Guguan.

Small, family-run Hakka restaurant in downtown Dongshi

I rode back to Dongshi District and got off route 8 to go into the downtown area. After getting a cup of tea, I went to Zhongshan road and to this local small eatery which I had been to many times before. I love their fried Hakka bantiao (broad noodles).

Fried bantiao

After lunch, back onto route 3 and back to Fengyuan for afternoon class.

Map of the ride

Wednesday morning cycle workout

Wednesday mornings always begin early for me. The Bigfoot cycle workout begins at 5:15 in the morning, so at 4:20 yesterday morning - up I got for a light breakfast and get on the bike to head out to meet the guys in Dali.

The adventurous morning started with me getting chased by three stray dogs on Wuquan South Road as I was about to cross into Dali District. Fortunately, the dogs were no match for me on the bicycle.

5:15 - we set off from the OK convenience store on the corner of Wenxin South Road and Zhongtou Road.

Heading south on Zhongtou Road toward Wufeng District

Coming off the bridge between Dali and Wufeng districts was a very unusual incident. It is quite common at daybreak to have small, low-flying birds whipping under the bridge. There was a small flock of birds flying just in front of us as we were coming down the ramp from the bridge - surprisingly close. Then suddenly, something bumped up on me just above my right-side chest. I looked back and saw a small bird writhing on the ground. I think it was dead. Nothing I could do coming down the ramp at more than 40 kph, but since I love birds, once I got over the initial shock, I was pretty sad about it.

Still, the workout was on and I was one of three riders who were pushing the pace pretty hard on the morning. In Fenyuan, we were pushing 50 kph and really we were having a great ride. Three of us broke away toward the turn-around and raced for the line, which I won by just half a wheel.
Looking toward the mountains from the turnaround in Changhua City

We took it easy for about 3km after the turnaround to catch our breath and collect everyone who had been dropped over the last few km.

Sign at the turnaround in Changhua

7km marker on route 14 in Changhua

It was here that I decided that the rest period was to end. I pushed up the pace not especially hard, but enough to send the message that the recovery period was over and that it was time to get back to work. The others answered and off we were for the return ride.
Maoluo River in Fenyuan

While we were riding fairly briskly, I took out the camera to snap a shot looking south at the Maoluo River. While we don't do this route for the scenery, there are definately nice aspects to the ride. Not only is traffic relatively light on most of the route, there are some nice scenic spots that can be enjoyed.
Looking toward the mountains from the bridge between Caotun Township and Wufeng District

I took a little bit of a risk to grab this shot. This is an area where the pace usually gets picked up for the last 12 of the ride. And, unfortunately, this is exactly where one of the riders decided to make a push and I quickly fell more than fifty meters behind while getting this shot. It took me about 3 km of hard work to regain the pack. No more pics after this. Hard riding the rest of the way.

We finished the 55km ride in 1 hour 35 minutes - the fastest I have been on this route. We had a great ride and I love riding with these guys. If you want to ride with us, see is at the OK in Dali at 5:15 in the morning.

The Wednesday morning bike route

Texas and the Right to Consular Access

The State of Texas has been at loggerheads with the executive branch of the federal government, especially the State Department, over the past few years. While normally I would support the rights of a state government, especially over the State Department, in this case the government of Texas is clearly in the wrong and their actions make it potentially more difficult for the State Department to call for the basic rights of American nationals in other countries.

What is at question here is the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations. This multilateral 1963 treaty provides, among other things, the right of foreign nationals accused of criminal activity in a host state to have access to consular personal from his/her country of citizenship.

Article 36 (Clauses 1-3)

Commication and Contact with Nationals of the Sending State With a view to facilitating the exercise of consular functions relating to nationals of the sending State:

consular officers shall be free to communicate with nationals of the sending State and to have access to them. Nationals of the sending State shall have the same freedom with respect to communication with and access to consular officers of the sending State;

if he so requests, the competent authorities of the receiving State shall, without delay, inform the consular post of the sending State if, within its consular district, a national of that State is arrested or committed to prison or to custody pending trial or is detained in any other manner. Any communication addressed to the consular post by the person arrested, in prison, custody or detention shall also be forwarded by the said authorities without delay. The said authorities shall inform the person concerned without delay of his rights under this sub-paragraph;

The United States Constitution is very clear on the status of treaties in the
United States and its applicability to all of the States

Article VI Clause 2

This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound hereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding.

For all of his other problems, President Bush was right to oppose the State of Texas and called on the Justice Department to argue for upholding the treaty before the Supreme Court. However, despite the clarity of Article VI of the United States Constitution, the Supreme Court came up with the following inexplicable ruling:

Medellín v. Texas, 552 U.S. 491 (2008) is a United States Supreme Court decision which held that while an international treaty may constitute an international commitment, it is not binding domestic law unless Congress has enacted statutes implementing it or unless the treaty itself is "self-executing"; that decisions of the International Court of Justice are not binding domestic law; and that, absent an act of Congress or Constitutional authority, the President of the United States lacks the power to enforce international treaties or decisions of the International Court of Justice. (from Wikipedia)

The United States Department of State insists that all foreign governments abide by the provisions of the Vienna Convention. It did recently when a U.S. man working out of the embassy in Pakistan was held by Pakistani authorities. When China holds U.S. citizens for whatever reason, the U.S. demands to have access to them. If U.S. states begin to ignore this treaty (and this is not the first time in the case of Texas), this puts the legitimate rights of Americans overseas in grave jeopardy.

Training ride to Caotun

While not a great ride for scenery, given that I have two hours between classes on Monday evening, this is a great workout ride. It is a bit over 35 km long and given how close it is to downtown Taichung, the road opens up pretty quickly. After a short ride on Zhongming South Road under Chunghsing University, a left onto Wuquan South road quickly brings you to Zhongtou Road in Dali District. From there, through Wufeng District and then to Caotun Township in Nantou County, there are few lights to worry yourself with and with the exception of the area around the Expressway 6 interchange, there isn't all that much traffic. The ride takes you to Taiwan route 14 before turning around and going back home. Fairly flat route with only moderate undulations make this a fast ride. Much of the return trip is spent in the low 40s. Finished the ride in about one hour six minutes today.


The route from South District through Dali and Wufeng Districts to Caotun Township and return. Elevation is in feet, not meters.

Back into the pool

Triathlons are a lot of fun. Putting three sports together and doing them without a break is a challenge, but an enjoyable one. Finishing a triathlon is an accomplishment for anyone. However, there always seems to be one leg that most athletes are not as good at as the others. For me, it is clearly the swim.

Dali Swimming Pool in Dali District, Taichung City

I am going to spend the next three months before my next triathlon working on the swim. I started that this morning by getting up at 5:00 am to have a light breakfast before getting on the bike to the pool in Dali for the club workout. It was a beautiful morning to get into the water, so just after 6:00 I got into the water and began my 2500m free swim. For most of it, I just wanted to get reacquainted with the water. For the last 500m, I worked on my breathing, specifically, going four strokes between breaths rather than two. I was able to do that much better today than in the past. It is my goal to do the entire 1500 meters in the lake at four strokes per breath.

After the free swim, we all did kick only work. I did 150 meters. Legs were a little tired after that. Then, 200 meters of kicking with swim strokes every six kicks. After that, 2 sets of 4 reps of 15 meter hard sprints. I feel like I am going a little faster, but I still have so much more work to do in the water.

I was very pleased to finally get our new triathlon uniform after the workout. I am looking forward to wearing that in our next race.

Me standing in my new triathlon suit

Lightning strikes, World Cup, and the DPRK

Now, we all make excuses. "The dog ate my homework" is probably almost as old as the world's oldest profession. The latest excuse to enter the lexicon is as original as it is bizarre.

The FIFA Women's World Cup is ongoing in Germany. The USA defeated North Korea in each sides first match by a score of 2-0. Following the match, the coach of the North Korean team had a highly original, though hardly believable, excuse for the loss. Lightning struck as many of five of their players.

Yes, lightning struck five of their players, sending them to the hospital. Of course, they didn't mention this until after the loss and given the secretive nature of the state, we will never be able to verify its accuracy. However, this is evidence that as much as we love to redicule North Korea, on this case, they get an "A" for originality.

Miaoli Mountain Mania

You know, and I have said this many times, Taiwan has so many beautiful places to go, visit, and see - if you get outside of the cities. Taiwanese cities are pretty blah, but get into the mountains and it is almost paradise on earth.

Yesterday, I rode on my bicycle with a couple of guys from Taichung to Miaoli County and back. We rode around the Mingde Resevoir before returning to Taichung. This was an unusual ride for me as it wasn't really a training ride, and what I mean by that is that I wasn't riding with guys who were working to make this fast or for me a solo ride where I was riding a time trial pace. It was a leisurely ride with a couple of other guys and we just wanted to enjoy the ride, the scenery around us and one another's company.



We picked up Taiwan route three in Dongshi District and headed up into Miaoli County. Route three is generally much more picturesque than other major roadways in central Taiwan. We were surrounded by mountains, resulting in some climbing throughout the morning. It also resulted in some beautiful scenery, seeing the mountains in the background with clouds remaining from a typhoon that had just passed by the day before left for some stunning visual images. We also met and chatted with a few people at a local Family Mart where we stopped for supplies. After a morning of riding up route 3, it was time for the real climbing work of the day.




Route three brought us to one of the many routes that cross from the major north-south highways. We crossed on route 126, a picturesque, mountainous route north of the Mingde Resevoir from Shitan down into Touwu, north of Miaoli City. It was also the same road that we used for a duathlon last year in Miaoli, though we came in the opposite direction. Of course, this ride was very different in that it was far more leisurely, allowing me to enjoy the natural surroundings and the fresh air. We saw many butterflies and birds throughout the road. I even saw a squirrel playing in the trees near the top of the ride. It was a thoroughly enjoyable ride which was in start contrast to the last time I rode on that road.







Once we reached Miaoli City, we found a small noodle shop where we had wonderful fried noodles. I got myself a plate of mutton fried noodles. I was surprised both by the size of the plate and the amount of meat included. And then, I was very pleased with the taste of the noodles. They were very well prepared with a relatively low amount of oil. They also put some pepper on it to add just right right amount of flavor. Great place. I hope I can remember where it was so I can return some day.




We then made our way back to Taichung. By the time I got back, I had totalled more than 150 kilometers. While it was slower than I would normally cover that distance, I had the chance to enjoy some of Taiwan's natural beauty and have the companionship of a couple of nice guys who in many ways are similar to me in that both have children with local mothers. Despite our other differences in beliefs and lifestyle, that one fact, along with the bikes, gives us something that can always create a bond.


I have a message for my Taiwanese friends. Get out of the cities. Enjoy the beautiful scenery that nature has blessed this beautiful island country with. There is so much to see.

All photos curtesy of Michael Turton