Cycle race "Mazu"

I participated in the race 媽祖. It starts in Miao Li...
Me and a friend were invited to participate...we were suppose to be picked up at 5, so i set the alarm on 4.40, but my friend called me 4.09, so i did not get so much sleep (went to bed at 24 the night before)

Me and Pablo waiting at guang fu lu

We went with a cycling team from Taipei, by bus

In Miao li about 5000 people were participating...

It took a while for the truck with the other peoples bikes to arrive so we got delayed...but at 9.30 we started

The route passes by many temples where u get stamps...everyone visits the temple (and the tais pray).

There is also time for picture taking...

Then we stopped for food.

We tried some local speciality

The weather was nice. I used sunblock...
We passed by many cities and 1000's of traffic lights...

Another city another temple...
We were collecting stamps at each mjor city...in total 4, in a book we got...

There were also some small temples that were worth a visit

In Chang Hua we ate some other local food

Up on the mountain you can see a big buddha statue...

It is nice with temples, u can refill water and visit the toilet...

It seemed to be well organised...many traffic polices were on duty...

Every time we got a stamp, they also offered some snacks...

After a while, the group separeted and I joined the lead

After the 3rd big city there was only the finish left.

The place where the group were suppose to eat at was close, so we stopped at 7-11.
It was a rumor that if we come to the goal after 17 we would not get a final stamp..so I got stressed, even though the others already decided not to make it...(just take it easy to the finish)

My friend pablo gave up at this point, his bike was a small one and he felt tired...

I saw "absolute vodka" in the store...it is amazaing that in almost every single 7-11 store in taiwan u find Absolute Vodka from sweden...

This is the bus last pickup place before we had 40km of cycling to the goal.

This is the finish, a port to the last temple...
I promised my friend not to be in the lead, since we took of to fast earlier on the day. But I wanted to see how fast I could go with my new bike...
I never got to discover it...I just went faster and faster...I came some half hour earlier to the goal than the main group...
Everyone got a diploma even if they arrived late to the finish.

Chiayi city had a really cool temple...

It took a while to find the place, where to pickup the diploma...even though they had signs showing the direction

They also had a stage where they presented some stuff...

My friends made some last prayers at the last temple

And as usualy they had toilets in to the left in this temple as well (it always seems to be in to the left of the temples...)

One guy had a bike  just like my swedish friend Carl, where the cog wheel is stuck to the wheel.

The groups gathered in front of the last temple...

It was by far the biggest on of the day (that we passed).

And it had a cool alley, with an interesting nightmarket. I bought some local candies...

Then we went to some family to eat, it was just near by.

I got a bag of tomatos...of different colours...

Some girl left her marks on the toilet. It is very common in this country that u stand on the toilet while peeing/shiting

On the way home I ate some of the local candies that I bougt...it was a dried banana looking like a cigar...

Kommentarer

Kommentera inlägget här:

Namn:
Kom ihåg mig?

E-postadress: (publiceras ej)

URL/Bloggadress:

Kommentar:

Trackback
RSS 2.0