A trip to Yilan

I went to Yilan yesterday...

Taking the bus...it was convenient...

I was dropped of at the same pace as I left from after my 53k marathon this summer

On road 9, going from Taipei to the south of taiwan, passing the east mountains...

And the hill, that I often take pics of, which I ran up on at the same marathon...

Wow, a chirstmas tree, in novmebrer...welcome to taiwan...

I brought my Whicky, that I never finished from last time I was here...

Yilan by night...if often seems like a very small village...
 
 A famous night market
 
 This was famous...
 
 I bought some fried salad...and also met 2 girls from france and germany, who was here 1 year as rotary exchange students...interesting...many restrictions...
 
 This place was also famous...
 
A nice temple in the city...
 
 Wow, Yilan produced beer...
They had 4 different kind...one with algea...as I drank in singapore... 
 
 I never heard of this brand before...
 
 I tried all the kinds, excet the algea one...
 
 One had pineapple flavour...tha dark one was suprisingly good...

They also had dance performance...

Faomus place...maybe...

And this to...

Omg...Alishan tea...

I went to a uesum the day after, near Wai ai, where I use to go and surf...and where the boats leave to Turtle island...

Omg...so many umbrellas...

_nice view of Yilan, with turtle island in the background (taiwans only active vulcano...)...

And mountains...xueshan...for instance...

Andanintersint projection of rht world...not using mercator...

Omg...so many lakes in Yilan...I love taiwanese lakes...

How to spell "Qing" dynasty? "Cing"!?!
Or "Qing" dynasty?
 
 or "Cing"...
 
 Or "Qing"...
 
 Or "Cing"...even in the same paragraph they used different spelling...confusing...
 
 "Gaga" so intersting...
 
 Omg so many island I wanna visit...
 
 An old map of Taiwan, made by dutch people...
 
 Wow...5000 years ago...people settled in Yilan...
 
 Aboriginal tattoos, reminds me of the tattoos in New Zeeland...
 
 And the move Seediq Bale...

And at the Souvenir ship, one could by the Eiffel tower...

And miniatures of the museum...

On the way out, I saw some lockers for umbrellas...some one could bend lose anyway...but it was a interesting solution...

A resturant was the next stop...

They had alof of pics of fishes...

It was still raining in this "they rainy city" of taiwan...

So weird...in taiwan, they serve chicken with the head on the plate...

More rain...

Here is a map of a water fall in Yilan...

One had to walk a path up hill...

It was kind of touristic...

But also nice...

Aobut 20-30 meters high...

Up towards the jungle...
In the winter, it get snowy here...(or in the near by area)...
I bought a bottle of the local beer...a dark beer...
Later I went to the german restaurant at taipei main station (that is 100% taiwanese, btw)...
And alot of side ddishes were ordered...
Spicy sauce...one of the guys going there did an "italian", he took the reciept for company purpose, while everyone paid for themselvess (more or less)...omg south europeans...
After this a trip was made to a spanish bar in the city...
The door was locked...but it was full party in side...
Many ppl at the bar...
And in the basement they had a band that played and people danced...
I tried this german beer "Faust"...it was fruity and good...
Many foreigners  there...I will come back here some day to try their spanish food...

Cycling around Taiwan

I started to pack...on saturday evening...
I really wanted to bring my pump...
But it was to hard to get on the bike...
I didnt have any carrier on my bike...so everything had to be on my back or attached to the frame...
I broke my light last year...so I passed by a bike store and bought front and rear light...
I found the road that would take me south...number 1...it passed by Hsinchu...it was 18-19 something on saturday...when I took off...
There are alot of convienient stores everywhere on this road...
And even some "asian style"...copy logos...(looks like 7-elevens logo)
I ate dinner at Mcdonalds...north of Taizhong...
This is how it works...every 1km there is a distance sign from Taipei...most roads in taiwan has this system...some even has every 500m...
Taiwans traffic light system is so stupid...it switches based on time...meaning that even in the night when there is no corssing cars...u still ahve to wait for red light...
Meanwhile...cycling in the night, there are only some crazy scooter drivers out...else im the only one on the road...
At midnight I thought it was time for a rest...some motels were really expensive...I found one for 1300nt...it was ok...I cyceled about 150km or something....its a good head start...
This was the motels name...at 11 the day after I continued towards Kaohsiung...
Fuck! suddenly the road was blocked...no signs at so all for alternatives...I even asked ppl but they didnt speak any understandable language...and for them...neither did I...
After a while I managed to find road 1 again...
The road was really flat...and there´s alot of rice fields etc...
I saw other people cycle aswell...but they often has a more robust bike and alot of luggage on their carrier...
I also saw a container house in Jiayi...
They even used a Maersk container...which has as a policy not to give away containers...they probably stole it...
Some times the road just disapeared (I had to turn left or right at some intersection)...it was tricky...and I had to cycle around for a while to find the road, taking me south...I needed to stay focused...
I ate at Mcdonalds for lunch everyday...more or less...
The first sign of sundays destination...here spelled in a strange way (as usual here in taiwan)...
I cyceled until sutset...and passed tainan...here is another useless trafficlight...but i seldom stopped at the lights...bikes are considered more as pedestriants here than vehicles...
I made frequent stops at 7-11...
I also found some giant stores on the way...to bad they were all closed at this time of the day...
There were also super long queues at every gas station...no wonder in a country where everyone is useing gasoline for transportation...
Im in kaohsiung, visiting an old friend...stan. he is so funny. really helping me...
We decided to meet at this 85 building...its the only place i know, and that can be seen from far away...
I drank alot of milk during the trip...
I asked the staff at the 85 building hotel lobby about shorter routes south...and they recommended me to go on road no 17 until it meets number 1, since number one never entered kaohsiung, where I was...so number 17 would be a shortcut...
This is stan...anonymous...
Love river...another famous site in Kaohsiung...
I left my bike at stans place...
And handwashed some clothes...
Then we went to a cosy restaurant at the harbour...
I ate rise...since pasta place is hard to find in taiwan...but both contains carbs...
Kaohsiung has the bigest harbour in taiwan...i think...so theres alot of ships at the anchor place outside the city...
We went to a moutain near a university to see the cool skyline...
And there were some cool monuments...
From stans house we could see the love river...
Stan had an extra computer...that I could use...
The day after I was heading for road 17, on the way to there I passed by ikea...
Of course I had to buy some swedish stuff...påskmust and some chocolate...to bad that they dont have marabou mjölkchoklad anymore...thats my totally favourite...
I found road 17...now I just need to look for road 1 that will connect later south...
Wow, sign of progress...kenting is on of the goals of the day... I also planned to continue to Taidong later on...
The south coast is very nice...here is a nice hang out for people...near a family mart...
The moutain near kenting looks like Stenshuvud in skåne...(can b seen in the horizon)
I tried to pump my tire at some gas station, but they didnt know how the pum worked...and didnt have the equipment to pump bike wheels...
Then finally I came to kenting...I went to Mcdonalds...
And texted my friend Allen that I was there...and he passed by...so nice...
He and his girl friend taled to me for a while, concolidated which route I should take...
And convinced me not to go in the moutain area when it is dark, instead I should take the bigger road number 9, that acctually goes all the way up north near taipei, but near the east coast...
I passed by the so popular Kenting night market...next weekend it will be a wild party here...with the Spring scream festival...
I made it to the southern most point of taiwan, and then I headed back...(the road 26 I was cycling on, that goes around the south coast is not connected...so its impossible to cycle around here, instead people have to take alternative roads in the moutains...
But after cycleing back about 30-40km to the road 26 and road 9 connection, some girl at a local 7-11 strongy recommended my not to take road 9 in the night (even though I was focused to finish my day at Taidong, a city at the east coast), since it is small and alot of heavy trucks are driving there like crazy...so I made some phone calls, asking people what they thought (if it was in sweden I would ofcourse go anyway...its always dark some part of the day and i have reflector jacken and lights...)...I decided in the end to sleep in the small tiwn that I was in...Fenggang...or something...the girl said I could sleep for free in a kindergarden, or in an elementary school or at the police station...
I picked the elementary school...I slept outside...and was dsturbed by buzzing mosquitos the whole night...I reay learned to appriciate a good nights sleep...
This was the schools name...
As sunrise came I took of on the mountina road number 9, to cross the island to the east coast...
And fuck!, my firs flat tire...the front wheel...I changed the tire and continued...
Its a nice road...but uphill very long...
Here is the top of the road I think...and road 199 meets up...it is also a moutain road that I could have taken...
I love taiwans moutains...its a very nice contrast to in Hsinchu...and the west coast where it is very flat...
Another nice view...however, there was alo tof reconscrution work on the road...
Ayio...secod flat tire...and I dont have any more spare tires after this...I could recognize some sharp thing in the wheel that I cannot get out...I text a friend who gave me the address to a Giant bike store in Taidong...I hoped I could repump my tire over and over to save some time, instead of walking or runing to there...its more than 50km...in burning sun...
After a while I could see the ocean on the east coast, and I also found a 7-11...time to buy milk and juice...
Got like 400km or more with east coast to my right and moutains to my left...
Its very tiring to repump my tire...
I had a small hand pump...so it took 1 minute to pump it up...
Suddenly south of taidong, it bacame storm and I could sense the rain in the sky...
I catched up with alot of people onm y ride...this guy was from main land china...also struggeling in the head wind...
More than 5 hours of struggeling...I found my store...
The guy fixed my bike...I was happy, and thought about continue to hualien...another big city 160km north of where I was...
I ate at Mcdonalds...
I always get very dirty in my face when cycling...touching greasy parts of the bike, and using sunblock....etc th oil goes everywhere...
I found a nice hotel in Taidong, I think i slept here like 3 years ago on a road trip i made in Taiwan...I slept like 1-2 ours last night...so i thought I could recover here and then try to reach yilan the day after...in the north east coast of taiwan...
The hotel was said to be cheap...I payed 780nt or something, they said it was discount...
The towels were of paper...so interesting...
And someone left a jacket in the closet...
In the morning I tried to take off as easrly as possible. breakfast was at 6.30...
It was a typical taiwanese breakfast with rise, omelette, peanuts and these sandwish with some jam, chocolate and peanut butter...
In the morning I passed by the lake where I did my iron man swimming...
Its nice moutains in the background...I really love the east coast and the moutains...so mystic and probably has alot of aboriginals living there...pure taiwanese people :)
t today i will try to make it to Yilan...hopefully im in Hualien before 13 or 14...which means I can cycle on the dangerous road before sun sets...that is a road north or Hualien that everyone talks about...
I bought alot of rise dumplings...and drinks...its alot of hills on this road...(number 11 that goes alon the east coast)
Alot of moutains...not super much traffic...
Also road 11 had count down...to Hualien...where it meaets number 9 again...I want to cycle or travel by road number 9 sometime...its a moutain road, so it might pass by alot of cool places...
Wow, a monument showing the tropic of cancer...
Alot of tourist busses were driving back and forth here on the eat coast...I saw a scania bus with the swedish flag...
I alos passed by alot of cool bridges...
Since there are alot of rivers and valleys here, some briges are very old, showing the "old road" of the east coast...
It was alos tomb sweeping festival...so alos of people were having fires at the graveyards and putting flowers on the graves...
I kept on stipping at almost every conveinient store i saw, buying more drinks...it was very warm this day...
And the last part of road 11 was very hilly...with great views as well...
Awesome, in hualien...I could see where road 9 cnnected again...
I heard that hualien is a big city...
It was hard fo follow the road, as usual in the taiwanese cities...the road signs very were bad...
It was about 14-15 when I came to hualien...and sun sets at 18...so i was considering saying for the night...but doing nothing for 3 hours seems boring...so I continued, here passing Taroko national park...super nice...the road up here crosses the island and is the highest road in taiwan...it goes to Hehuanshan where I was 2 years ago with the moutain climbing club...
The distance signs in taiwan are very confusing, sometimes they show the distance to the township and sometimes to the city...and sometimes it doesn tell which one...so I was very confused, wether it was 34 of 70 km to my next destination...but I used refletor jacket and had my lights prepared in case I would need to cycle in the dark on the dangerour road that everyone were talking about that I had ahead of me...
What the fuck! "no bikes", and i have been cycling 15 km on a single road...and no alternatives...so taiwanese...scooters passed by...I called a taiwanese friend and asked for suggestion, later on I decided to cycle anyway...
It was a very narrow road...
They had some traffic guards in case of accident, he didnt seem to care that I cycled and wished me good luck...so asian...not legislation...just recommendation or decoration...I even saw other people cycle on the road...
And some tunnels even had "no scooter" sign, but still the asians kept on using the road...
After some 15km the road became big again...I asked how far it was to the place I planned to stay but no one knew...not even at 7-11...
After a while it became dark...but I felt safe...it is kind of nice to cycle in the dark...many times t feels like it goes faster...the only think i dont like are these cars and trucks that think they are super silent, and have to blow their horn, as if i didnt hear them, nor see their lights...I always onder that is in such a persons mind..they think to much of their vehicle...
At about 19-20 I reached Nanau...a place in the middle of the dangerous road for people to wait out the light...and an intersection for the train to pass...
It had christmas lights on the barrier...
So interesting, really no one here wereusing helmet when driving scooter...maybe the police is on vacation...
Every time I passed by the trail road, the barriers went down...sucha coincidence...
They had a board displaying the trains direction as well...for ectra information...
This was the first time I used my maps that I brought...there are alot of interesting places I wanted to visit, but I did not have time...
I went to eat...but one meal wasnt enough...
Neither was 2...
I left when they closed...after 3 meals...then I went for dessert at another store...(after all, I have done like 250km today...and tomorrow I will do something like 300 or more...so i need to eat, even though meals are very small here in taiwan)...
Wow, a scooter with helmet...so unique...
Breakfast was not at my hotel...but at a local store downtown...I also met other people cycling from here...but they were heading south...
I kept cycling north...on the dangerous road...where at some parts, a limited amout of cars can drive at the same time...
It was a great view...it is a part of taiwan where surfing is popular...alot of beaches are hiding among the mountains...
Finally at Suao...where the dangerous road ends...I also saw a giant store again and repumped my tires...after all, not I have to take road 2...super far, all the way to taipei but passing keelung and the northest part of taiwan...
Haha, so stupid...yet another tunnel where bikes are forbidden, and at the end of the tunnel, without any other roads connecting...there is a bike lane...
Road no2, makeing alot of extra routes...one to left one going straight forward...
I also met KKK...but some friends later on told me it was a funeral or something...I also know that people in spain also are using this dress for some christian ceremonies....
Wai ao...here I have been many times...surfing...now its cycling distance here...just around the corner from home...
The cliffs at the north east coast are cool, they have strange shapes...
Shit...at fulong it started to rain heavily...
I made some stop to wait the heavy rain out..but it didnt seem to stop...and I was eager to continue...so I cycled in the rain with a försvarsmaktens värmetröja and a poncho...it was bearable...itfelt like home in sweden once in a while...
I stopped by 7-11 and bought hot chocolate...to gain energy...
I try to do the same some hour later...but they they gave me coffee...hmm...hih on caffein...both good and bad...
Finally in Keelung...I planned to just pass, but the road signs were so bad...I asked a traffic guard, but he just pointed south, when I said I wanted to go north...hmm...
I took a short break at a burger king...
Ordering a double whopper junior meal...
Then i contined north...the fishing ships had some strange green lights...I wonder what the purpose of that was...maybe to attract crabs...
Hmm...where is the northest point of taiwan...?!?...I have been here before 3 years ago...it was also hard to find then...there are hundreds of signs showing strange geologicl parks and some cultural vilages, but for the northest point there was not a singe sign from the road...
I took some pictures of some signs that could be it...
After some rush, and seeing the danshui sign...or "Tamsui" as taiwanese people nowadays prefer to pronounce/spell it...I came to the MRT stataion...then it felt like I really was in taipei...even though its a 40-50 minutes ride with mrt from here to the taipei main station...
I tried to find a shortcut to get to road numer 1, that I started on some days ago...but gave up, and decided to follow road number 2 all the way in to taipei...
Even that was hard...since road number to just stopped exist...and I had to ask people how to get to the city center...and from there try to localize myself to raod umber one...I also saw some giant stores...they give me hope nowadays...except that these ones were closed at this time...around 21-22...
Wow...the second highest building in Taipei...its near taipei main station...
Yes!!...I found road number 1 now, after some help from friends...the only thing I need to do is to keep focused to not loose it...and I will get home...
I kept cycling under some long bridge...perhaps railway of freeway going towards hsinchu...
Jippi, the first sign of Hsinchu...only 57km...its like Alingsås-Göteborg...not that far...
And the distance started from taipei...and will end in south of taiwan...here I am 17km from taipei...
A little confusing...where does road 1 go?...it goes to the left...not sure why this sign was here...it confuzed me...as so many other strange signs...
I cycleled 76 km, almost in one big city...it ever seemed to end...now wonder taiwan is the most dense country in the world...they are so many, sharing such a small place...on the west coast...here I am near Taoyuan...
Some hills were very steep....but it will pay back...later I got the best down hill ever for like 10-20km...
Hsinchu MRT station....just saved like 300nt...depending on how I define the purpose of the taipei trip...and recognize the savings...
It was a nice moon this night...not shown to good on this pic...I also noticed that road number 1 passed by my Giants store in hsincu downtown...I was back in Hsinchu at about 2...
Here I am, outside my dorm, where I started 4-5 days ago...it was an intersting ride...to bad that my body never remembers pain...i might do it again some time...

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