Published in The Independent on
October 6, 2004

Taiwanese woman passes through Brighton on cross-Canada bike ride

Vicky Lin gathers material to teach university course on tourism

by JOHN BARKER
The Independent

Vicky Lin, a 33-year-old university teacher from Taiwan, said she liked Canada so much on her first bicycle trip here six years ago, she had to come back to experience more.

On Saturday Lin pedalled east after spending a few relaxing days in Brighton — which included an Oct. 1 swim at Presqu’ile.

Ms. Lin is no stranger to bicycling odysseys. From June 1998 to December 2001, she spent 922 days on her bicycle visiting 32 countries. That’s when she got her first taste of Canada — and she was hooked — resulting in a return engagement here this summer.

“I arrived in Alaska in 1998 and rode the Alaska Highway down through the Yukon and British Columbia and into the United States and as far south as San Diego,” she said. “This time I wanted to see the rest of Canada.”

John Barker photo
Vicky Lin, with her $800 24-speed
bicycle, will head back to Taiwan
Oct. 25 to resume teaching at Fangcha University in Taichung.

When she’s not pedalling and is back home in Taichung, southwest of the capital of the Taiwanese capital of Taipei, Ms. Lin writes — appropriately enough — tourism books on bicycle travel and teaches tourism courses at Fangcha University, encouraging her Taiwanese compatriots to take the road travelling around the world.

To keep expenses to a minimum, Ms. Lin has got good at caging freebies when and where available. She accepts the hospitality of strangers and loves to meet folks on the road, saying Canadians have been very friendly across the country wherever she has encountered them.

Here in Brighton, Ms. Lin hooked up with the Hua family, owners of the Mandarin Garden Restaurant on Main Street for a few days.

“That was a nice surprise to find Taiwanese in a small town like these. Usually, people from Taiwan live in larger cities when they emigrate from home. I didn’t expect to find Taiwanese people here, but I did.”

Ms. Lin arrived in Canada in Vancouver from Taiwan June 11. She managed to get free airfare from Taiwan to Canada through an Air Canada contact as the result of her earlier international bicycling exploits.

Once she got to Vancouver, she had free train fare aboard Via Rail to Jasper and onto Winnipeg, again the result of a contact she had made with a woman in the Canadian Tourism Commission office in Taiwan.

Ms. Lin publishes her bicycling stories and photos online on her website www.vickypinky.idv.tw

From Winnipeg, Ms. Lin began riding east. She’s already been to Quebec and Vermont and New Hampshire in the New England states and was making a detour back into Southern Ontario before heading now for Charlottetown and Halifax.

As for problems on the road with her $800 bike: “Not really,” Ms. Lin said.

“I probably packed a bit too much and I’ve had two flat tires — both in the United States, not Canada,” she joked.

On a good day, depending on terrain, weather and her overall stamina, Ms. Lin said she covers 100 to 120 kilometres.

She returns to Taiwan Oct. 25 for more teaching and writing about bicycle tourism in Canada at Fangcha University Taichung

Dear Pinky:

還記得「書聲琴韻」的小朋友寫的童詩嗎？「樹葉想要去旅行，可是它沒有錢，慷慨的風對它說『等到秋天，我免費帶你去環遊世界。』」我這一路上遇到很多好心的秋風，引領我邁向未知卻豐富的旅程，9月21日是夏天的最後一天，天氣開始轉涼，楓葉也開始變顏色，彷彿換上繽紛的衣裳，陪伴著我前進，美得令人陶醉！

離開London後，在24日再次看到安大略湖，忍不住想要跳入湖中，整個湖只有我一個人游泳，飄浮在水面上，海鷗從我上方飛過，我彷彿成了牠們的朋友，一起在天際遨翔，成為自然的一個因子，感受天人合一的快樂！多倫多是一個多元文化的大城市，讓已經在大自然中旅行一段時間的我，感到新奇刺激，好久沒看到那麼多中國人，走在中國城有種時空錯亂的感覺，一點也不像在加拿大，不敢相信再一個月就要回家了，I miss Taiwan我最喜愛的地方。

P.S我已經騎了4000多公里，愈來愈Fit了

---------Vicky 2004.9.25 From 多倫多Art Gallery

【Vicky&Pinky 的文學創作】

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