May 2026 in Taiwan
Caption: Art postcard in a very cool shop on Jieyue Street, Hualien.
Greetings from Indonesia. I’m popping in on this late July Monday to share a page I wrote about May, cycling up the east coast of Taiwan.
Looking back, May was different trips in one month: Bell and I continued our ride around Taiwan, but also took a week off work to complete a side-trip loop into the mountains. The last week of the month we spent apart.
I was going to say that the Pacific Ocean was a steady companion. That’s true but it doesn’t account for the high mountains. What was constant the whole month was a lushness and density of vegetation. So many types of plants and so many of them. Even up above 3,000 metres you have little bamboo groves and then, to my delight, clusters of blooming rhododendrons here and there.
Previous monthly updates in this series:
April 2026
March 2026
February 2026
January 2026
December 2025
November 2025
October 2025
September 2025
August 2025
May 2026
Start: Taitung
End: Taipei
In May we carried on cycling up the gorgeous East Coast of Taiwan. You get these stretches of coastal road where you’re so close to the turquoise sea on the right, and then you’re boxed in on the left by very lush and steep hills. We camped a few nights, continued to be safe and beautiful, if buggy.
From Hualien, we took a week off work and left 1/2 our luggage behind, going on a 6-day loop up Taroko, to Dayuling and then hiking to Huehuanshan before descending via Lishan. Up through Taroko Gorge and beyond, you pass through frequent dark, damp tunnels, and when you’re not in those, you’re riding in really special mountain scenery. The verticality made me feel small.
[I lost my pen and this one has such a capricious nub!]
Above Taroko, we climbed into the “cloud forest,” on quiet roads, beneath silent caterpillars on single web strings hanging from misted branches. Now, writing in Sumatra and thinking about how hot it is here and how hot it is in Taiwan lower down. But then, so close as the crow flies, you can be really high, and quite cold and damp. And finally we made it into the alpine! And then, a long descent, days, through tea hills and then cabbage valleys. I remember the road had potholes briefly, shocking for Taiwan, and all the flies because of the chicken manure fertilizer, and the neglected parrot in its cage, and making a huge switchback descent in dense fog.
We took our bikes on two local trains, it was perfect.
On the coast when the sun was out, if you were climbing it was deeply uncomfortable.
We had a week apart, me riding the rest of the way to Taipei myself. Within hours: I got a puncture, at dusk along a coastal bike path. There was actually a big temple nearby, market as a “cyclist rest stop,” and a Family Mart, and a stagnant fish base thing, growing mosquitos. It had been years since I fixed a puncture by myself. I’ve been ashamed of this. Now, I had to do it amidst tons of mosquitos undeterred by 2 layers of sweaty clothing. And I didn’t know what a thru-axle is. I sobbed, took over an hour, but I did it.
A few pictures from May
Caption: Camping near Sanxiantai Island, made possible by a cafe owner who let us camp despite pushback from the park staff. Because of her, we could walk over to the island the next morning.
Caption: The highlight of Sanxiantai Island was seeing this hermit crab.
Caption: A dog with a missing foot outside of 7-Eleven. Because of trap hunting, dogs with missing feet are a common sight.
Caption: Camping at the bus station in Tianxiang, in Taroko Gorge.
Caption: Making our way up through Taroko Gorge on a road that seems to defy the odds (and is only partially open after the major 2024 earthquake.
Caption: In the cloud forests in the mountains above Taroko Gorge.
Caption: We've made into the high mountains of Taiwan, and are hiking up Hehuanshan Peak, into the alpine!
Caption: We've descended into the town of Lishan, and this cat keeps us company outside of, you guessed it, a 7-Eleven.
Caption: The pipes are all installed to bring water to the intensely densely packed cabbage farms. Or, I can keep pretending I was in the Matrix.
Caption: Like I said in my journal, perfect.
Caption: Pretty Bell and pretty east coast ocean.
Caption: Not long after I finished crying and finished fixing my puncture.
Caption: An example of why wild camping in Taiwan is unlike anywhere else in the world: safe, parks, ocean views, quiet.