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CNY 2003: The Round-Taiwan Bike Trip that Didn't QUITE Come Off...

I traded in my mountain bike for a skinny-tyred road bike In January and, rather foolishly / bravely (delete as appropriate) decided to ride it around Taiwan during the Chinese New Year holiday. On paper, it looked pretty straightforward: start in Taipei, head down the west coast (fairly flat), around the bottom tip and then up the east coast and back to Taipei. I had ridden the new bike a bit, but had hardly been in training...

Got as far as Hsinchu County on the first day. I'd stopped at the side of the road for a 'breather' and a man passing by stopped and started chatting to me. Long story short, he invited me to the family home for a cup of tea. Tea quickly became a meal (it was Chinese New Year's Eve) and, the sky having darkened, he and his family provided me with a bed for the night. An early start the next day, and I was on my way. Made it down to Changhua, pretty tired and pretty clueless about where I was going to stay the night. So I did what any sensible person would have done and CHEATED! Got on the train to Tainan, where I could find a spare bed at Corina's house. Slept like a log that night and most of the next morning, which meant having to scrap that day for riding. Relaxed a lot, met up with Peter and Ava for dinner... Would I EVER get back on the bike?

The next day proved why I should have trained for this trip... I selected Kenting as my next overnight stop and got going, and hard going it was too. Kenting wasn't too far from Tainan, the route was pretty flat and on major roads. The main problem was that my legs didn't seem too keen on going to Kenting; left to their own devices, they would have happily stayed in Tainan... So I slowly made my way down south, through Kaohsiung and onwards. Having left Tainan at 11am, I hadn't given myself that much time, so I still had a fair distance to ride when the sky began to get dark. However, I knew that Kenting was my best bet of a bed for the night, so had to keep going... Once at Kenting, I staggered into the first large-ish hotel I saw and asked if they had room. All full, they said... They must have noticed the look of horror on my face, as they somehow managed to find a free bed in a small room. Slept like the mother of all logs, woke the next morning as stiff as a board. Note to self: TRAIN before doing anything like this again!

Comments

Paul said…
This is a bloody funny and honest blog. I loved it dude. I never knew you tried that. Of course you leave us all in suspense about what happened next. I know the small room/free bed wasn't a portal to a distant world because I have seen you around since (or maybe its your twin I am connecting with now).

Good on you for trying though. Had a good laugh reading this one.

Ciao.
Paul
19 September 2009 at 06:02
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