Even that short bit down river and Taipei becomes less of the choked urban jungle where I live. Taipei proper is no different from any megapolis around the world, but where I ended up felt like it had more character. There was more nature, too, as the landscape became more varied, and there were hints of the beautiful island that lies underneath all this concrete and humanity, which might crop up again once SARS and bird flu combine and wipe the lot of us out, but I digress.
I didn't shoot more than a few frames, though. This was all new territory, and I have a habit of getting lost and ending up in progressively worse situations, albeit always working out in the end, so I was paying more attention to where I was and where I was going and where I didn't want to go.
Fortunately I brought my map or else I don't think I'd be here writing this now. My path home did take me through a tunnel, which I think the least descriptive word I can use for the experience is "interesting". Definitely something I would prefer to do on my own bikes, and not on a clunker that has a top (impulse) speed of 27 mph, if that. Fortunately, no one cares. An old lady could be pedaling her way through a motor vehicle tunnel and no one would take notice.
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| 5:32 p.m. - Guting/Gongguan entrance to the riverside bikeways, exact same shot as earlier in the month in black & white. |
1. Down the Dolce Vita (Peter Gabriel)
2. Country Death Song (Violent Femmes)
3. Concrete Seconds (Pinback)
4. The Thin Ice (Pink Floyd)
5. You Like Me Too Much (The Beatles)
6. Midtown (Tom Waits)
7. Lady Elect (Unwound)
8. The End (The Beatles)
9. Rise (Rainer Maria)
10. Mayonnaise (acoustic) (Smashing Pumpkins)
