Too bad you missed it: Alishan

This weekend I repeated a ride that Drew and I had done back in Dec of 2010, Taichung to Caoling on Day 1, then Caoling up Alishan to Fenchihu and then down to Chaiyi city on the glorious 159甲 on Day 2. The ride up Alishan and down the 159甲is one of the loveliest on the island and I had long wanted to repeat it. But there was a problem: on that ride, I was pretty wiped out after the climbing on Day 1 and had to walk a long stretch of the brutal 169 on Day 2. This time I was determined not to fail. I had the 11-32 cassette on my bike (I have a SRAM Apex groupset) swapped for an 11-36. With a 50-34 compact dual up front, this gave me a 34/36 for a climbing gear. Last weekend I tested it: could I spin more and go up hills more easily? It seemed so. Bring on Alishan!

A gazillion pics in this post. Click on READ MORE below to see them. Drew's wonderful posts on the ride may be accessed here.

Betel Nut Culture in Taiwan

I'm off gallivanting around Taiwan this weekend and won't be blogging. So enjoy this piece on Betel Nut Culture in Taiwan, which has excellent photos from the awesome Tobie Openshaw.

Since the late 1990s, betel nuts became the second largest selling crop in Taiwan after rice. The betel nut industry in Taiwan is worth about $1 billion USD and grows about 140,000 tons per year.2 A reason that led to the success of the betel nut industry in Taiwan is the lack of regulations under the Nationalists administration since 1949, which helped turn betel nuts into a cash crop. For a long time, there were no laws or taxes placed on farming or selling betel nut, thus earning its nickname as “green gold.”3 As the betel nuts are sold fresh and must be processed within 48 hours of picking, there are no barriers between the wholesalers and the vendors.4 So far, aside from the betel nut girls, the wholesale marketing of betel nuts is practically free from corporate influence and governmental regulation.5 In addition, due to the lax regulation on betel nut farming, more people began to exploit the lands to create more betel nut farms and as a result, it has brought attention to a number of environmental issues, such as soil erosion and flooding.6

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