As you know, you will get a variety of advice to get you to the same destination. Some will put you on the quickest main road and others will advise you to get off the beaten path,yet others may look at you as if you say its too far, or I dont think you can make it there. In the end you have to decide for yourself. I met a number of cyclists also heading to Kenting and most of them were planning on taking 9 west from Dareen and continuing all the way to 26 on the west coast and then south on 26 to Kenting. The route did not look appealing to me.
Thanks to a few crazyguysonabike and their journals it confirmed my intention to choose another route. As I may have mentioned route 199 yesterday was a pleasure to bike on.
And as I left Xuhai this morning there were two things lacking – Coffee and Sunshine. So, I just put on the rainjacket and headed south on the beautiful coastal road. and then picked up 200 heading south west. Just before Hsinchuang I headed east and back to the ocean. I was curious about Jialeshuijf coastal rock formations that was listed on my map. It was probably a few kilometers out of the way but a nice variation from the bicycling.
I paid my 70 NTD entrance fee and then pedaled a kilometer or so to a splendid view of the ocean and several food stalls and shops. I was waved over to a small open air transport vehicle. I asked if I could ride my bike, instead, to the rock formations and was told a definite bu how….definite NO.
The formations themself werent all that impressive. It was, however, fun to ride the vehicle packed with Taiwanese and Chinese tourists. A few young ladies from Shanghai latched on to me and insisted of having me in each of their photos,which is usually what happens everywhere I go.
Heading back to route 26 I spotted some surfers and a few surf shops along the way as well as a cool looking place that looked like it might be a tourist hotel.
The route today offered a few challenging hills but the real challenge of the day had been the wind which got progressively worse the further south fI travelled. It was the side to side winds that were the toughest for me. There was, actually a few times a very nice tail wind that was helping to push me up a few short hills.
26 was a pretty nice road, though there was an occasional tour bus. At times there was quite a bit of sand on the road. I often had to concentrate and hold tight on to the handlebars as I was blasted with the wind and a passing tour bus at the same time.
Trying to be a good tourist I headed to the southern most part of Taiwan as did all the other tourists in the area. There was no taking turns for photos, it was mostly a free for all non orderly fashion. It seemed pretty cool to be at the most southerly point but it was even more of a treat for me to splurge on a giant ice cream from one of the venders nearby.
Although three seem to be dozens of options for lodging in Kenting I ended up at the Youth Activity Center. I could have stayed at the Kenting Hostel next to the KFC for 300 NTD, but I think this place is really lovely. Please check out the picture.
Expenses today The Kenting Youth Activity Center around $33 US Ice Cream splurge $3.00 Dinner at a Thai restaurant $10 splurge Street vendor food $1.50 Snacks for the evening $3.00 Total $50.50 Yikes high budget for today, oh and I never had my coffee today.
Some notes on budgeting. Once could free camp at police stations and at many locations around the country Most hostels seem to be about 300 to 500 NTD. You could easily have a meal of noodles or soup for around $1.00 to $2.00 US. If I were staying for several weeks I would probably budget $20 to $25 US per day. If I was traveling with a friend would consider a camping trip bringing the budget to below $10 US a day.
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