Swimming?!? carneval in Sunmoon lake...day 2

Beep beep beep...time is 4.30...light is turned on the the for me warm bedroom...they others were freezing they told me...

We went on the road donwhill again..and stopped at the same 7-11 for breakfast...

I treid to catch the lake (Batan) again on camera while riding in the car..but it was not easy...

Taiwan is a moutain island...it is easy to forget when u live in Hsinchu...however I got flashbacks from my moutina climbing trip when I saw the peaks in the horizon...

Near the lake it was hard to fid parking lots...

We managed to find a spot...and planned to take some shuttle bus to the lake...

However the bus never showed up...

So we decided to walk...besides the traffic was heavy...walking took as long time as driving...

It was kind of chaotic...but ok. many ppl spent their night in the cars...saving hotel money...

After some while we came to the lake...and there we had to find some gourp...not sure why but I gues it had to do with that we used an agency to complete our swimming team...
we also got hats...

There were alot of tents...reminded me of Goteborgsvarvet in Gothenburg...whoever this event was much more in international focus...even though physical events are not as common nor popular here as in sweden...

After another km of walking we almost reached the starting point...

We took of your shirts...adjusted the floating equipment that we were forced to use...

And went towards the sea shore...where we had to spend another hour of queuing...
The we passed some shower...a chip sensor and of we went...
it went faster than we though...however only 1% of the tai acctually swam...most of them were flotaing on their floating pad, shaking their feet blocking the path for the swimmers...but it was ok...not that many of these people actually had in mind to swim...I guess...

When we finished we got some snax...there were alot of people in the other town at the goal...

We got some taiwanese food...but they were also serving chocolate and pinapple cakes at the tents near the goals...

People were keep on dropping in all the time...
All the way (the about 3 km) there were bridges every 50 meters...and boats going back and forth...
It was a big difference from home, like vansbrosimmet in sweden, where floating equipment is forbidden and considered as cheating...or flippers that many tais were using would disqualify you directly...

I saw flippers that were smaller tham my feet...
I guess big feet is an advantage...
However I consider myself as a bad swimmer, i really need to improve...if i wanna be swedish standard...even if i had a swimming pool at home when i was young...

The 3 swimmers in my team...
It was fun...

We had to take th boat back, since it was quite a bit to walk around the lake...and there were many boats in service...

Mostly swimmers were going back...but it didnt take us to the start...it was to another village, 20 mins walk from the start...

They kept on starting even when we were back...

We passed by the start...and there I saw him/her...the last swimmer...maybe I can b the last next year...just for fun

The traffic was still heavy, but not as chaotic as before...

Here one can slightly see the brdges that makes the track crossing the lake...

After this we went to the car and went back home...

We passed by McDonalds in Taizhong though...on the way...

I got hope of taiwanese society when I saw this recycling bin...perhaps some kind of compensation for all the pollution they r causing with all the scooters...

But NO, when i opened the bin it was all in the same bag...just an inital metallic plate...making it look real...what a disappointment...

Later on that night I ate dinner at Costco...it was nice...hyped myself with caffein from a bottomless glass of coke...

 

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