Location: Chiayi
Weather: clear 14C
Originally my host in Longjing had planned to take me hiking yesterday, unfortunately with the pretty heavy rain, our plans got derailed and I ended up spending a good part of the day reading and watching TV (two things that I actually rarely do in daily life), trying to wait out the weather, very reminiscent of that storm day I spent in Fort Frances on my bike trip across Canada. It got very windy overnight which helped to blow away the rain clouds making for a beautiful sunny day today. I got riding at 8:30am, and with a great tailwind, arrived in Changhua in around an hour where I spent some time at Baguashan, a small hill overlooking the city with a giant Buddha statue.
From there I kept heading south on Highway 19 and then Route 145 this time, stopping briefly at a Sugar Factory in Xihu for a interesting wine and sticky rice flavored popsicle. The road conditions were excellent even in the countryside, with a big shoulder for bikes and motorbikes, sometimes one for each. At least in western Taiwan, I don't think there is true wilderness as there were always houses within sight and a convenience store down the road. It's like Taiwan was built for cycling, for anyone looking to get into bike touring, you couldn't find a better place. The scenery outside of cities for the past couple of days have been mainly rice fields dotted with houses, but this duck farm (?) was quite interesting to see.
Crossing the famous Xiluo bridge (like Guandu Bridge, it's a red bridge that has become a well known landmark), I met up with my former coworker who drove there especially to have coffee with me. We chatted about adventures and risk taking before we both had to get going, me south and him back north.
Today I finally saw some other bike tourers, and talking very briefly with one of the teachers at a stop light, they were university students riding in support of a charity. The last 50km or so to Chiayi passed by really quickly, likely thanks to the caffeine, and I arrived at the fountain by Wenhua Street Night Market just in time to meet my host Mina. We subsequently went out to dinner with some of her friends, most of whom were foreign English teachers. It was such a lovely evening filled with many laughs and I have to say she has some really cool friends!
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