Taiwan Cycle, Day 5

Today's entry takes place mostly in Taidong County. As we had cycled the Coastal road on a previous occasion, we now wanted to try the East Rift Valley road which connects Taidong city to Hualian city.
The East Rift Valley seemed to be where most of the produce for Taiwan is grown, we cycled by numerous rice, bamboo, corn and other vegetable fields.

As the name suggests, the East Rift valley takes us through the centre two mountain ranges. However, thankfully the road is mostly flat.




















When you are hungry, there is no need to go into a 7/11 for a snack, there are plenty of roadside stalls that sell delicious fresh food. We bought some corn from this woman, who as I got talking to her, found out she was from Vietnam. She then offered us free of charge some sugar cane because as she put it 'we were all foreigners here'. Very nice lady, and very nice sugar cane!




























Police stations are great, they offer free water, bike pump, and bicycle repair kit. And if you have a tent, you can camp on their grounds and use their shower and toilet facilities for free! These police men had to take pictures of each cyclist who used their station, so we decided to use this opportunity to also get a photo of them for our collection.

Taiwan Cycle, Day 4

Now this will be a very short post.

When we began cycling, two things were immediately apparent. Firstly, the sun was gone, hidden behind cloud. This was a kind of blessing as it made the day a lot cooler. However, it also meant that sometime later in the week, the rain would come.
And secondly, we were riding into the wind, and we would be riding into it all the way north. We knew before we began the trip that the wind on the east coast would be against us, but I don't think none of us realised how hard it would be.

So, with the wind pushing against us and tired muscles that hadn't fully recovered from the previous day's cycle, we were only able to cycle a measly 30km. We reached Taidong city and gave up for the day.
We stayed in a hotel that we had stayed in the previous year. We all got showered and changed, found a curry restaurant, did some fruit shopping, and then headed back to the hotel to rest up.

These two pictures are photos of the destruction caused by Typhoon Morakot. The river had burst its banks and destroyed or swept away homes and part of a bridge. It is easy to forget that although the typhoon is over, the clean up operation takes months to complete.








This fruit is a mystery to me, the translation of it is 'Buddha head', but it kind of resembles chirimoya/custard apple. Whatever it is, it's delicious, and they are a local speciality in Taidong County.








Taidong city
















Taidong is famous for producing the best fruit in Taiwan. A walk down 'Fruit street' is something to be seen, countless varieties of tropical fruits on sale.

Cycling the East Coast

Wow, this is a blog I should have posted a few months ago, to be more precise, Dragon Boat festival (which I think was May!).

So my usual partners in crime (the Adrians) and I decided to go cycling for three days to the east coast!.
Getting there was probably the hardest part of the whole journey, as we don't have cars, we had to rely on public transport. Getting to Taipei was the hardest part, it involved having to dismantle and re-mantle our into large black bin bags several times (why didn't we think of cycling bags, I don't know!) and then carry them around Taipei in the middle of the night.
Anyway, we got a hotel, and then at the crack of dawn we got up and made our way to the train station. Luckily, the first train to Hualian had a special bicycle compartment, we bought the tick es and made our was to the ticket gate, where the gate man told he didn't think we would be allowed to bring road bikes on the train (the one with the bike compartment!), only folding bicycles were allowed. Anyway, after proving that when dismantled, our bikes were small, did he let us go through, only to find a whole group of guys with road bikes waiting at the platform!!

On the train, only two of our tickets had seats, so the Andrews took them and I sat in the bike compartment which was actually a lot of fun as I got to hang out with the other cyclists.

Arriving at Hualian, we discovered that Adrian's bike had a problem, so before we could start our adventure, we had to get that fixed. Once fixed, off we went.
The first road we went on was neither the coastal road (11) nor the East rift valley road (9). Instead, we had heard that there was a smaller, less used road between them, the 193.
This was a great choice, hardly any traffic, a few challenging hills and lots of farm and country scenery. At then end of the first day, we stayed at Fongbin, at the only hotel (is that too good a word to use?!) in town.

Day 1 - The middle road

Adrian and Andrea with their bikes!









Countryside along the 193 (which had some rest stops specifically for cyclists)







First Andrea...and the Adrian







The bath of the hotel in Fongbin (note the red bowl used to splash water on myself!)












Day 2 - The East coast Highway

After cycling along the mountains, we decided we wanted to see some sea, so we took the coastal road, and what a good choice it was, clear blue skies, a cool breeze and amazing ocean/mountain views!
As the previous night we stayed in a hotel, this night we wanted to go camping.
Along the coastal highway, there are quite a few camping stops, unfortunately, the majority are not marked on maps. We cycled a long way that day and asked quite a few people (most were not sure), but after talking to a policeman, we discovered that some police stations had campsites behind them.


Looking very happy to be by the sea









Group shot!

























My can of 'P', and Adrian drinking my 'P'. He really did love my 'P'









A very big beetle (Taiwan is home to many species of beetles), this one is called a 天牛 (tian niu), but have no idea what that is in English.









One thing you think you would be sure to pack on a trip is underwear. I forgot! So, I had to buy some of 7/11's very handy/horrific/snug/tight/70's porno/thin/ pants. I was grateful that I had a chance to change into some clean underwear, but still, wearing these did disturb me somewhat!





















We didn't find a campsite till well in the dark!









Day 3 - The road to Taidong

After waking up, and putting away our tents, it was time to check our bikes and make them ready for the road again. On the way to Taidong, we made a little detour to a beach.












As we neared Taidong, the excitement of reaching our goal was fading, and the reality that we would be back in Tainan the next day began to sink in.
Still, we made the most of our last night in Taidong, ate sushi, went fruit shopping and even watched the new Star Trek film (which was surprisingly fun). A very relaxed way to spend our last night.