Chinese New Year Athletics

Unlike previous Chinese New Year, we have been blessed with nice weather for most of the CNY holiday. While the temperature was a bit cool to start the holiday, the weather warmed up nicely from CNY-eve onward. Given that many people travel out off Taipei during the holiday, those of us that remained, have lots of places to explore without the normal traffic and lines. We were able to play tennis for four days straight at the ACC. For the most parts, it was kids versus parents. While the parents have continued to hold on to their dominance, the degree of dominance has declined dramatically over the past year. Playing pro-sets (first to eight games), the boys are able to get two to three games each time. The breakthrough was Friday, when they were able to win five games in total. Matthew played with a lot of power and a new spin serve while Nick played with more finesse and consistency. Matt hit from the back while Nick covered the net. They still don't communicate well with each other, but that has also shown signs of improvements by Friday when they played more like a team. Too bad that school is starting again and they won't be able to play much tennis until the summer.

The second big athletic event was on Thursday when Nick was out with his friends and Felicia wanted a nap. Matthew and I took a long bicycle ride to Bali(八里). Distance-wise, it's about 18-20km each way. We rode from the bike path in front of our apartment, all the way to Guandu. As it is CNY, there was a huge fair being held at the Guandu Temple, thus jamming the walkways with people and bicycles. The bike path was crowded most of the way, but it got a lot worse as we approached Guandu. At one point, we had to get off our bikes and push, fearing of running into people with our bicycles. I have done the ride to Bali several times and it would normally take me around one hour each way. But the crowd was so heavy it took us almost two hours to reach our destination -- a "paintball" range in Bali. People in Taiwan ride bicycles the way they drive, reckless. We see all kinds of people on the bicycle paths, children in strollers, old folks in wheelchairs, pedestrians, riders with training wheels and riders in fancy racing bikes. One thing that is consistent throughout is that the Taiwanese riders are unyielding on the bike path as they are on the road. Matthew was almost thrown off his bike on several occasions when other bikers swerved into him.

Since the bike path was so crowded, especially near Bali, we decided to return home via the main road. Fortunately, the roads in Bali are smoothly paved and relatively level. The traffic was also relatively light and it took us less than 10 minutes to travel the same distance that took us one hour earlier in the day. By the time we crossed the Guandu Bridge again and return via the Guandu Temple, the crowds have thinned and we were able to return home in about one hour. Matthew has improved significantly in his riding and stamina. He was able to keep up with me most of the time and rode in a safe manner. Good Job, Matt!!

Our last "athletic event" took place last Friday night when Felicia made plans with her friends as have Nick. Since we had a big BBQ earlier that day, Matt and I are not particularly hungry. Nevertheless, we took a long walk to the Shihlin Night Market and walked around there. The Shihlin Night Market is normally crowded as it is both a tourist attraction and a popular shopping/eating area for the locals. The CNY holiday drew even more activities and visitors and the whole area was packed with people and illegal street vendors. These street vendors would occupy the center parts of each allies to hawk their goods. From time to time (every 15-20 minutes), you would see a long line of vendors with their portal clothing racks moving quickly -- to get away from the patrolling police. I feel sorry for Matt. At his height, the most sight he saw that night were other people's back.

We walked around for about an hour before stopping at a stall to buy some street food. I had the stinky tofu and o-den while Matt had the Japanese cake with cream fillings and a grilled double sausage. All in all, we walked about 5-6km that night which make this into an "athletic event."