Taiwan day 20: Taipei

Today morning it was pretty difficult for David to wake up and go to work at 7am, as our „let’s have one beer together“ lasted yesterday little longer than expected (until 3:30am!) After packing, I finally could go to Taipei 101 – from 2004 to 2010 highest building in the world (508 meters)! I got…

Taiwan day 19: cycling challenge completed

As next week I am going to volunteer in turtle protection, seeing turtle shell in Chinese medicine show-case was not really pleasant. I liked the group of children going to theater in Hsinchu Just in the moment when I was thinking about my last defect, I felt something strange from rear wheel. All along the route…

Taiwan day 14: Mt. Jade (Yushan) climb

As yesterday I was unable to fall asleep before 10pm, it was very unpleasant when somebody woke me up at 1:30am by shaking my leg! As I didn’t want to hike alone (just in case), yesterday I tried to agree with one Taiwanese couple we would go together. But when I discovered they wanna leave…

Taiwan day 12: Chiayi

This morning was the most difficult for me, the day when I was really sorry my schedule is so tough and I cannot stay longer. I spent last night at CouchSurfing, my hosts were Ruby and her sister Nicki – and the chat with them was just amazing. But if I wanted to arrive to…

Taiwan day 10: Fo Guang Shan and Moon world

There is no way how I could describe the happiness – Daniela has a scooter, so no bike for entire day 🙂 First we went to Fo Guang Shan monastery. It is top most visited place in Taiwan. The monastery itself is really huge. And additionally to this, a mall was built just next to…

Taiwan day 8: Royal stage

Royal stage was waiting for me today. 70 kilometers with few 200 meters gain as a warm up in the morning (preferably early morning before it gets real hot) 10 kilometers with 500 meters high mountain as the main task of the day (crossing from east to south coast of Taiwan) 26 kilometers as a…

Taiwan day 7: friendly people

All the time I am writing about fear from snakes, but real danger here are dogs! There is a lot of them everywhere and when you pass by, they start following you, barking and you never know into which leg they will bite you. When I’m getting closer to my destination and I feel real…

Taiwan day 5: Taroko national park

As my entire body needed a rest from cycling, I visited Taroko national park by hop on hop off shuttle bus. Many tribes used to live in this area, but Japanese tried to move them around 1915 as they were afraid of possible guerrilla soldiers. Shakadang trail was definitely the one I liked most. Crystal…

Taiwan day 4: cycling wrong direction

Yesterday evening all my body hurt. At night I woke up few times for muscle pain in thighs, but everything kind of passed away with good rest. Immediately after sitting on the bike I felt pain in my hands (where holding handlebars) and ass – and this did not disappeared 🙁 Difficult to believe I…

Taiwan day 2: renting a bike

Task for today was very clear: find bike suitable for 1000 kilometers long journey, buy other necessary things which they would not rent you. Giant cycling store should be the first option for renting bike. The bikes are high quality, they have stores all around Taiwan, so in case you can return it in different…