Getting out of Taipei proved to be as frustrating as getting in. No one could tell me where the road was that would lead me to the coast. After riding the same strip of highway back and forth about ten times, asking for contradictory directions, I found a policeman who not only told me how to go but rode ahead on his motorcycle to show me where to turn. On the way we passed his colleague who had mistakenly told me to go in the opposite direction.

As I had given up any hope of following the route I had planned out, settling instead for any road out of Taipei, I really didn't know where I was. I was somewhere in the interior of Taiwan following the No. 3 Highway south. Eventually, this route would have taken me to Taichung and back to the sea. However, I didn't relish the idea of riding inland for two days. Also, as I said, the route was poorly marked and poorly mapped and I was in danger of getting lost. I rode all day not knowing where I was or when I would see the ocean again.

Last night, darkness caught me somewhere on a mountain pass. I had no idea where I was, only that I was heading more or less south. Unable to continue in the dark, I stopped and made camp in a tin lean-to beside the highway. During this trip, I had become so accustomed to always being able to find a 7-11 that I stopped carrying food. In fact, I only carry about two liters of water with me now. Stuck here in the mountains, I had no way to buy anything and I still hadn't had dinner.

I stretched out and read by flashlight an incredible travel book by Peter Hopkirk, "The Great Game". Suddenly, I heard an ear-piercing scream and realized it had emanated from me. A mouse had just run across both my legs. I settled down, laughed at myself and began reading again. Minutes later, something jumped over me and crashed into the aluminum wall with a loud CRACK! I shined the light, but couldn't find the culprit. The next minute, something huge jumped up and hit my eyeglasses. I jumped back and realized that the something huge was a very small tree frog, which was hopping harmlessly around my camp.

Once again, I had a laugh at the expense of the boy from New York who was lost in the woods. Not two seconds later, something else hit the shed even harder. This time it turned out to be the largest, ugliest locust I had ever seen in my life. It was at least four inches long but had a disposition like an auditor for the IRS. Herman Melville believed that nature was ambivalent. But this locust was pure evil. He really frightened me. God knew what he was up to, what he was planning. I would not have wanted to spend two minutes inside of his twisted little mind, which surely was a dark and barren place where kindness could find no purchase.

While I pondered the locust fiend, something hit me in the arm. It was the tree frog clinging to me with his sucker feet. He bounded off and I settled down to sleep. Sometime during the night I heard voices and saw lights. I knew I was dead and tried to run away from the light. It turned out to be the police.

They asked why I was sleeping outside.

"It got dark, and I got stuck," I said.

"But it is too dangerous here," said one of the cops. "The vines grow right up to this lean-to and the snakes come in here all the time. Why didn't you sleep at the Catholic church?"

"I have been sleeping in Catholic churches. But tonight, I don't know where I am."

"We'll take you to the church," he said.

The cops waited patiently while I packed my things. They road behind me, keeping me safe from traffic and lighting my way on the dark, mountain road.

They used their police skills to jimmy the lock on the gate at the church, but there was no one home.

"You can come back to the police station and sleep there," they said.

They let me take a shower and then gave me a bed in the police barracks where the cops sleep during their rest periods.

This morning, I made it out of town and sort of figured out where I was. I found a road back to the coast and I stopped to do E-mail. Supposedly I will be seeing the ocean again shortly. I had wanted to be home by late Tuesday night, but it may take slightly longer to get there.


This is part 4 of Antonio's adventure cycling around Taiwan.

See also:
Part 1 - Kaohsiung to Hualien
Part 2 - Hualien to Suao
Part 3 - Suao to Taipei
Part 5 - The Final Chapter
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