(It resounds, reverberates and resonates: I don't need to be here anymore, I don't want to be here anymore. Same as it ever was.)

I broke out of my dearly-held daily routine today and did a recon of Taiwan's northwest coast. It only recently became easier to get to the northwest coast when the Taoyuan Airport MRT opened last year. I didn't pay much attention to it because it didn't affect me. From where I live, it's still easier and quicker to take the express bus from nearby Songshan Airport. But it turns out the MRT can be used to get to the coast.

My interest is in shorelines. Getting to the northeast coast is easy from Taipei, but the northeast coast is too cluttered and developed, too many people. From any point, look left, look right, there's something right there. The north coast is only realistically accessible for me by bike, and that's no longer an option. I doubt I have the fitness to even ride the 18 miles to Danshui, the start of the north coast. The north coast was ideal once, but only that once.

I have been to the northwest coast on bike before. Once, on what I remember as a pretty epic ride before I had a bike GPS so I don't have a record of it. It must have been among the longest rides I've gone on ever, riding up to the mouth of the Danshui River and then down the northwest coast and taking me past Taoyuan Airport to get back to Taipei. But the coastline struck me as very appealing as not so crowded with development. Just no way to get there.

The airport MRT came into my consciousness about a month ago when my mother was here, and I realized the last stop before reaching the airport is only about three miles from the coast, where I'd been on that bike ride years ago. Three miles, about an hour walk. I can manage that.

I decided to go today because there's been a dip in temperatures. The past month has been too hot to make the six mile round-trip walk realistic or without risk. I also got a bug in me to do something different from my dearly-held daily routine. I went out without full commitment to the journey and was prepared to turn back at any point. That was reflected in details that I missed: forgot to bring my GPS, wore the wrong sneakers, didn't do time calculations. I didn't even bother eating. Whatever I did, it was not supposed to be trying nor tribulating.

And there was nothing noteworthy about the trek except that it was way out beyond my daily life scope of the last many years. The MRT was just an MRT ride, the walk was just a walk. Good decision to go on a not flaming hot day, as that would've been quite miserable. On any other day this past month, I might have stepped out of the Kengkou MRT station and said, "nope". Not walking six miles in this.

My destination was Zhuwei Fishing Village. I didn't know about it on that bike ride years ago, but remember diverting there when I was passing by. There's a bright red bridge you can't miss, and on bike I couldn't resist exploring.

This time, once I got there I didn't linger. I underestimated the time and just did a quick walk-through before heading back to the MRT station. I didn't explore the coastline because it looked like there was work being done to it, perhaps development to make it more of a destination for visitors. Access wasn't immediately obvious.

I might do another recon in a month's time with better planning. Leaving early in the morning to avoid the heat and allowing for inspecting the shoreline further south of the fishing village. I also learned from this recon that Kengkou MRT isn't the best way to get to the coast. The stop before it, Shanbi MRT, has both YouBikes and buses that run to a stone's throw away from the fishing village. I think the bus is the better option.