FrankLu的發現之旅

咱們63歲的Kingsley昨晚再度傳來最新戰報.
重點如下:
1. 兩天內幾乎爬了兩次阿里山
2. 第二次挑戰阿里山時, 海放香港同行的年輕車友達兩小時.
3. 阿爾卑斯山比起阿里山只是小巫見大巫.
4. 覺得日月潭太過商業化
5. 與香港車有分道揚鑣, 他先往南騎, 幾天後再挑戰海跋3250公尺高的武嶺.


喜愛單車的朋友, 閱讀Kingsley的單車旅記的同時, 又可練英文, 真是一舉數得!  
以下是我查好的單字中英對照, 方便大家閱讀. Hope you can enjoy the story!

mountainous: 多山的
misty : 有霧的
plantations : 農園
betel nut palms : 檳榔
lookout : 瞭望台
reservoir : 蓄水庫
switchback : Z字形的山路
cyclist : 騎腳踏車的人
the day was young  : 天色還早
managed to : 設法做到
plains : 平原
downtown: (ad. 副詞) 在(或往)城市的商業區
fabled : 傳說中的
arrive on the High speed train : 搭上高鐵
en route : (片語) 在途中的
festival :  喜慶日
honour : (= honor)  尊敬
Taoist : 道家
take part : 參與
be home by dark : 天黑前回家
commence : 著手進行
relentless : 殘酷的
ascent : (n)上升;  ascend (v)
soft-drink : 清涼飲料
fuel : 燃料
landslide : 山崩
ignorant : 無知的
yell : 吼叫
closure : 關閉; 禁止通行
naughty : 淘氣的; 撒野的
in retrospect : 回想
incessant : 連續不斷的
glide: 滑行
crawl: 爬行
rugged : 高低起伏的
sag wagon : 下陷無蓋貨車
stunning : 令人震驚的
infant : 嬰兒
undergo : 經歷
set off : 出發; 動身
exhilirating : 使人振奮的
decent : (n) 下坡;  descend (v)
scenic : 景色秀麗的
commercialized : 商業化的 
decadance : ???
find myself alone
road maintenance crews : 修路工人
enthusiastically : 滿腔熱情地 

完整中文版
http://www.hometec.com.tw/news.asp?nid=141

Hi all
After surviving my late day mostly lost in the mountainous misty tea plantations, i tried to plan a more gentle day, but still with mountains. This time i went southeast and climbed through plantations of betel nut palms to a lookout over a reservoir. It was saturday and the motorcyclists were also having fun on the numerous switchbacks on this road. They were curious about a cyclist up at their lookout, but friendly although only a couple spoke english and chatted with me. I turned back to avoid getting trapped in the next valley with no easy way home. But the day was young so i still managed to find another (small) mountain to climb on the way back to the plains where i enjoyed a late afternoon coffee and cookie.
Next morning Fleur and i met downtown to ride up to the fabled Mt. Alishan and back. Now this was an ambitious plan, even more so for Fleur who first had to arrive on the High speed train from Hsinchu, some 250km away. (And return afterwards) About 20 km en route we rode through a festival to honour the birthday of one of the Taoist gods. Lots of fire crackers and busloads of tourists taking part, but we stopped only for a quick drink on the way to visit our own mountain god. By 2:30pm we were still 20 km from the top, although some 1300 metres above our start altitude and we turned back to ensure we could be home by dark.

And that evening a group of cyclists from Hong Kong arrived in Chiayi. They planned to ride up to Mt. Alishan next day and I would join them. Was i crazy to ride this mountain twice in 2 days?? Regardless, next morning 18 of us commenced the relentless ascent of 2170m in 77km. After 50 km most riders were struggling as this was no ordinary mountain. While they all drank tea, i rode ahead to find a shop to buy soft-drink, as i need the sugar for fuel, not merely water. But despite waiting for 45 mins, no other cyclists came by. So i departed to finish the ride alone. At one point the road was being repaired across a serious landslide. As i arrived they closed the road. But i pretended to be an ignorant foreigner (which is not hard for me)  when they yelled at me in mandarin, and i rode through the closure. A bit naughty, but actually quite lucky in retrospect as the road closure was for close to an hour. This meant i had the road to myself for the next 15 km as the incessant stream of tour busses were stuck at the road closure. It was great to peacefully glide (ok, crawl really) through the forests high above the rugged valley. I reached the top at 4pm but no other cyclists arrived before 6pm. Except for 3 who had caught a bus. And many riders needed help from the sag wagon. It really is a serious climb, but the scenery was stunning. I have ridden in the Alps, but i now realize that the alps is where infant mountain-gods undergo their preschooling. When they grow up, the adult mountain-gods actually live here in Taiwan!

After a relaxed day in the nearby forests, we all set off to the north for Sun-Moon lake, another famous tourist destination some 110 km away. Strangely, there was almost no traffic on the route we used and we enjoyed an exhilirating descent down into another rugged mountain valley. Frequent photo stops were required to capture this amazing scenery. But the lake was actually uphill in a different river valley and few riders were expecting the climb at the end of the day. The lake itself is scenic enough, but clearly heavily commercialised. I did however enjoy a Starbucks.coffee, the first i had seen in Taiwan. Surely i had earned a little decadance by now!

Next morning the HK riders set off northwards to ascend the highest main road pass in Taiwan, 3250m. But i turned back south as i have more mountains in my plans yet. It was a bit sad to leave my new friends of 3 days and find myself alone again. But as i climbed route 149 through the tea plantations later that day almost every motorist that saw me waved and shouted hello. Even the road maintenance crews enthusiastically welcomed me as i rode by. I have declared this to be the "friendly road" and despite being alone it feels that there are friendly and helpful people everywhere.

It is time i now crossed the main rage to the east coast. Warning - big mountins ahead! This is sure to be fun.

Kingsley