Saturday 2 November 2024
What an amazing day. Google maps (and Ralf) did us proud, although the mapping sucks a lot of power out of Ralf’s phone and he begins to worry when it gets down to 10%, it did a great job today.
The weather was lovely, sunny, blue skies and not too humid. It did get a bit hotter in the afternoon, but manageable without the humidity.
You might think it odd that there is a picture of hydro tower. We have noticed these towers on our rides and this time we were able to get a good picture of one. Most of the hydro towers are on platforms, due to flash-floods and typhoons.
Leaving Beidou we followed the main road to the Xilou Bridge. The Xilou Bridge was built in 1953 and was the longest bridge in East Asia at 1,939 metres long. It spurred economic growth by linking the road networks of the northern and southern parts of Western Taiwan. It was very difficult to cross the Jhuoshuei river prior to the bridge being built. They would have to wade across or take a wooden raft “ferry”.
The new Highway 1 bridge further down the river takes all the commercial and major traffic away from Xilou. The Xilou Bridge is now a tourist attraction and only local traffic uses the bridge. It is a two-lane bridge with no shoulder for motor scooters or cyclists, but everyone was very respectful. If you are in a hurry you take Highway 1.
As most of you know, Ralf and I have had an ongoing competition spotting windmills ever since we visited Holland in 1986. Guess who was the first to spot a windmill. Ralf!!
We followed a short bike path on top of a berm. As we came down a small hill to the road we spotted this lovely statue.
We spent 95% on rural farm roads. I wanted to stop and take photos of all the different fruits and veges that were being grown. Everything from cabbage to bananas, even geese. It was a lovely and relaxing ride.
We went through one major town which was a bit chaotic. That is where we stopped for a quick snack at 7/11. About 5 ks outside of Chiayi we were on the main road. It was a straight road almost to our hostel.
We arrived at 2:15 and could not check in until 3:00 p.m. They did allow us inside the hostel to relax and get out of the heat.
After checking in and having a shower, we headed to the train station to find out about the bus/train to Shizhou tomorrow. There is a Tourist Information Centre at the train station and she was able to give us the information about the bus and told us the bus stop was by the white bear outside. We went outside to find the correct stop. We found the stop and then a small Taiwanese lady helped us. She showed us the bus stop, the times it left the bus stop and told us we should be early as it gets busy. Her English wasn’t perfect, but we could understand her and she kept asking if we understood. I complimented her on her English and she said “no it is not good”. Her friend had her phone and googled the times for the return and we all had a nice chat. They were from the Kaohshing area and were visiting Chiayi. They wished us a safe trip and we thanked them for their help.
We walked back to the hostel and then carried on to the night market. We had a Banh Mi (Vietnamese baguette) for dinner and a waffle for dessert. It was a good night market. Lots of people but not overwhelming.
On our evening walkabout Ralf treated himself to a small powerbank. The assistant who helped us, told Ralf he should be able to get three full charges from the powerbank which will charge his phone from 0 to 100%. We told her that we were on bicycles and she was very careful that we got a lightweight power bank.
Smart Fish restaurant was really busy and is quite famous in Chiayi. There is always a long line up. Pearl Grouper Fish Head Hot Pot Smart Fish has been passed down for three generations. They insist on high quality and meticulously cooking, making their food a popular delicacy in Chiayi. The restaurant has three seating areas, and each one was full.
All in all a very good day. Until Ralf tried to book a hotel in Tainan. We are a day ahead of schedule and Mark our warmshowers host cannot host us on the first night in Tainan. We found a reasonably priced room near the train station and booked it. Now Ralf is trying to work out how to get the code for when we arrive. It is a self check-in place. He has to send a photo of his passport, name his first child after the hotel, that is what we are struggling with no babies. He finally went downstairs to get help from the guy on reception. There is another APP he has to download. Ralf finally got it all sorted by 9:30 p.m. after a lot of bad words. The thing that really annoyed him was the amount of messages they were sending him, which he could not make heads nor tails of. They will send us the code for the room at 4:00 p.m. check-in time and not a moment earlier.
