Big Brother

Early morning bike ride

Bitan

Breakfast en plein air

There are a couple more things to relate before I finish with my blogs on Taiwan. On the third day in Taipei, Michael, Kirk, and I went on a long bike ride, about 6 miles one way. There is a continuous green trail over 100 Kilometers (or 62+ miles) along the Danshui river in Taipei.  We started out at 5:30 a.m. when the weather was still relatively cool and arrived at a place called Bitan a little over an hour later.  Along the way we passed numerous people, young and old, walking, jogging, or biking on the trail.  Unlike in the U.S. where you expect the hiking or bike trails to be in the wilderness, this trail is located right along the highway, with the river on one side and housing developments above the river bank on the other.  Though noisy at times, one never feels isolated; it is easily accessible for people living alongside the trail.  We saw school children from a nearby elementary school running on the trail with their PE teacher, old people practicing Tai-chi, and housewives doing gentle aerobic exercises in the parks by the trail.  Michael told us that Taiwan is a haven for retirees; there is a forced-retirement age at 65 and a functioning universal health care system for every citizen.  We ate breakfast (cold soybean milk and crepes with different fillings) at a quaint, little shack, or more like a makeshift shelter, on the hill above the lake at Bitan.  On the way back, Kirk's bike got a flat tire and we had to walk the bikes for about 30 minutes to a nearby town to see about having it patched.  Unfortunately, the bike shop we found did not open until after 10, and as a result, I took a taxi home with the broken bike while Michael and Kirk rode home by themselves.  Apparently I missed the fun they had of zipping through, what Kirk described as, waves of morning traffic, among cars, motorcycles, and bicycles. 

The upshot of all this is to tell you that I've got a tough brother!  He was diagnosed with bladder cancer a little over a year ago.  He went through an operation which lasted 10 hours to completely remove his bladder and had a new one reconstructed just last March. Afterwards came chemotherapy and a grueling process of learning to use his new bladder. Due to complications resulting from the scar tissues from the operation, his kidneys still are not able to function normally and he has to wear external bags along his legs. Apparently, the distance we rode that day was one of the shortest that he, his wife, and a bunch of friends have undertaken.  How he manages to build up his muscle strength in such short time and ride long-distance carrying external bags on his legs is beyond me.  He is scheduled to be back in the operating room to have the scar tissues removed in early August and we hope that it would completely free him to live as actively as he wishes.

Here's looking at you, big Brother!