Was on the road before 7 30 am. Would have started earlier but wouldnt pass up a free meal. I had a feeling there would be one heck of a wind today. And yes there was.
Kenting looks way different early in the morning. The nights are filled with action, food vendors up and down the street, a heavy flow of people wandering up and down the Main Street. But the mornings are peaceful and the streets are still lined with leftover trash and remnants of the fun everyone had the night before. There was hardly anyone about at that time.
There was a nice bike path for quite a while but the wind hit me hard from the very start. I tried to maintain a positive outlook, though I did wonder why I didnt opt to turn the bike in at Kenting. I continued to push on to Kaohsiung keeping a constant yet slow pace. When some hills arrived I found them easier than the flat stretches where my bike was thrown from side to side.
I took a side trip to Hengchuen to visit the remains of the old gate and walls. My first impression was that it would be a nice town to stay in. At the other end of town it put me back on route 26. There were some picturesque sections of the road with the ocean just by its side, but the wind often made it difficult to really enjoy it.
My goal was to get to Kaohsiung City, get to the Single Inn that I had pre booked and see if I could return my bike to the nearby (or hopefully nearby) Giant bike store. Once the bike was returned my goal was to book a ticket for the mid day high speed to Taipei. Tomorrow is Friday the 13th and so I thought I would try to catach the 13 o clock train.
The mileage was counting down to Kaohsiung and so I figured I would be there by 3 pm or so, with enough time to find the hotel and the bike shop. Plans dont always work out the way you want them to, as you know.
Since I intended to exchange some US dollars for Taiwan dollars I was on the look out for a bank. Every town I passed though had a place that looked official, I walked over to check it out only to realize it is the Post Office. The same happened with the power company, I kept mistaking it for a bank. Third try I did actually walk into what seemed to be a bank. Luckily the teller spoke a little bit of English. She looked at my US dollars, which probably looked like a cheap board game money and said, sorry no service for that here. She told me I had to go to a bank in the next country. I think she meant next county. She must have felt badly, so she ran next door to get a few amazing apples for me. OK, so she couldnt change my money but she did provide me with a nice gift.
I pushed on to what I thought was the next country (county, or perhaps town). A petite and stylish young woman with a mini skirt suit and heels offered to help. I handed her $200 US in hopes that I could change it for Taiwan dollars.
She took my $200 and went to speak with some official looking guy (maybe the manager). They came back looking very apologetic.. We are sorry, he said, money too old, too early issue date (or something like that). OH, I think I read something weeks ago about bringing crisp new dollars, since they often will not accept anything else. He told me to go to the National Bank of Taiwan, maybe they would exchange it. OK, I thought, lets try the ATM machine over there. After trying two different cards and 6 different attempts I was not successful.
The manager must have seen a panic look in my eyes and certainly would not want any kinda disturbance from a old foreigner such as myself. Next thing I knew it I was handed a motorcycle helmet and was riding on the back of the motorcycle with the cute woman in heels. Did I tell you I have never been on a motorcycle before..and had visions that this would not work out well for me. Five minutes later we were at another, bigger bank, and there were no questions asked, the money was changed.
So, I continued on thinking I was still making good time. Hunger set in and in a week moment I looked over and spotted a Mc Donalds and thought, why not give it a try. I cant say lthat I would dine there again but I will say the food was tasty and the price was right.
When I saw a Kaohsiung sign that said 5, I assumed that it was 5km to the center of town. I rode and rode and rode. I came to some kind of Industry area with a gate man. I stopped to check just how far I had to go. He insisted I come into his office area and started to draw a map. What I saw displeased me very, very much. His map had me going 20 – 30 KM and then turn left and then another 10 – 20 km. Yikes, what the …….. I thought I had about 2 or 3 miles to go.
I took a deep breathe and thought maybe the KM was really just the number of streets. I really couldnt figure out the map or any logic to it. I stopped a few more times along the busy route 17 and people kept pointing in my direction of travel and confirming that I was heading in the right direction. I met a young couple that confirmed the same and told me it would be at least another hour on the bike.
I kept a positive attitude coaching myself along, thinking about how wonderful the trip was. I was laughing when I thought about all the interesting characters and helpful people that I had come in contact with. I felt strong, I felt proud that I pushed myself just a little beyond my comfort zone. Thoughts came back to the beauty of Taroko gorge and the day I had the most amazing ride of my life.
I tried again to confirm that I was on the right path. I took a picture of my hotel confirmation and showed the info, photo, address and telephone number that was on the confirmation. The guy made a call to someone, a woman showed up on a scooter and I was told to follow her, and so I did. Within a minute or two I was at the hotel. Happy, happy me.
So I suggest, if you are in this town, you check out Single Inn. Its clean, basic lodging smack in the middle of the city. For $30 I have my own room which is actually about the size of a closet. The sitting and lounge areas are cool and there is a wonderful spa area as well.
Before bed I took a long walk trying to find a night market to wander around and get some cheap interesting food. Again, my camera came in handy. I took photos of all the intersections that I turned at so that I could retrace my steps should I forget the way. I didnt end up needing the photos, but it was a good back up plan.
Another full and exciting day looking forward to finding the bike shop and experiencing the high speed rail of Taiwan.
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