The Folding Tales: Cycling Taiwan - Parts 1 & 2

The freedom that comes with traveling to, and around, a foreign land is liberating and feeds the soul. Doing so with a bicycle immerses the traveler in his or her environment so much more than would otherwise happen when traveling between villages, cities or countries by automobile, train or bus. The sights, smells, sounds and experiences are more frequent and more immediate when traveling by bike.

Again traveling around Asia, we're back with more Folding Tales, as a group of friends navigate Taiwan aboard their Ritchey Break-Away bikes. This particular excursion has been documented through two blog posts. Below is a brief summary of each one. You can experience more by reading the full posts over at the Folding Tales web site.

As a bonus, we've also included an intro to their practical how-to step-by-step guide on how they pack their Break-Aways.

Cycling Taiwan, Part 1: Journey Through The East RIft Valley

Taiwan’s East Rift Valley is located between the Central and Coastal Mountain Range in Eastern Taiwan. It is a beautifully verdant stretch of green paddy fields flanked on the sides by soaring, rugged mountains. For those who love the great outdoors, this entire area is quite a jewel with plenty of beautiful hiking trails, waterfalls and forest parks. On a bike, you will be immersed in the rural greenery and you will get to experience some of the nicest provincial roads to cycle on. And if that isn’t enough, the hot spring towns of Yuli and Ruisui are a treat for the body and soul.

After two days of fairly heavy riding we were hopeful that the ride would give our legs a bit of a break. It was a somewhat santai afternoon to be sure, considering we had only a short distance to cover after having no choice but to take the train to break up our journey. After packing up, we made our way to the Hualien train station, which was just a stone’s throw away from our guesthouse. From Hualien, we would take a train up to the town of Su’Ao where we would continue riding to our next destination. Read More...

The Ritchey Break-Away is the perfect traveling companion – other than your significant other and friends of course. It comes with its own suitcase that is amazingly compact and many people are surprised that a full-sized bike fits inside. In the photo above, we can see that Nadiah is clearly doing a happy dance and Maya is giggling in glee at how easy it was to bring our bikes to the train station. Learn more...