A Man and His Motorcycle Part 3

The next two days of my journey placed less of an emphasis on my riding and more of an emphasis on my sightseeing. Again, an early rise in Taidong was met with a sunny, bright day. I sat down for a breakfast at a little Taiwanese diner just outside of Taidong and took out my map. This next stretch looked like it was going to be a bit of a tricky ride.

My highway, according to my map, at one point stopped and crossed over the Western side of the island, leaving me to figure out how to get to the bottom of the island without having to drive to Tainan. I did notice that they were in the process of building a road completing the stretch of highway that was apparently missing, so I thought I would conduct a few research experiments on some back roads. My first attempt was down this one lane road along the seaside through tiki like huts, or shacks, which I was not aware actually existed in Taiwan. Or I could be imagining I saw them as I am recounting this trip at least four months after I took it. Never the less, it still had a very tropical island feel to it. Particularly when the paved road...


...gave way to a dirt road...


...and then the dirt road gave way to no road at all.


I pressed on until the path was completely washed out by a raging river, traversable only by an all terrain vehicle. Racing stripes on my 125cc motorcycle does not a Jeep make.

I had but no choice to continue on along the major highway, branching off down side roads in search of the Taiwan's equivalent to the North West Passage, the South East Highway!

At one pictureque moment, I pulled over to take some photos of the luscious greenery unfolding below me. As I sat there, I met some delightful cyclists that were biking around Taiwan. After the customary photo shoot, I asked them if there was a highway along the ocean that I could take. A few broken English and Chinese phrases later, I was able to catch a phrase here or there indicating that there was indeed a road. But I also caught some mention of a military base nearby as well, so naturally, my caution was piqued as I proceeded along my way.


Naturally, I found the road the bikers mentioned and sure enough, the entrance was guarded byt the military. Not wanting to be cause of international drama, that and a helicopter started circling my, I turned my bike around and booked it out of the full metal jacket. Once the helicopter started its retreat, no match for me, I snapped a shot of it for my records.


Alas, with the military blocking my only access to the East Coast, I had to go through some winding backroads across the island to my next destination, Kenting, with an approach from the Western side. I got into this little resort town, known for it's sandy beaches, fine weather, and Mexican Restaurants, took a shower and got what I consider to be the best ribs and bbq chicken on the Island only at Smokey Joes. I then spent the afternoon lounging around on the beach, watching the tide, swimming, drinking, and relaxing to the tunes on my ipod.


Extra points to anyone who recognizes this particularly pretty photograph...


Evening was met with a trip around the night market, some tasty Thai food, and a show. You have to love Taiwan and their shows, particularly in Kenting. Essentially, they have these shows that are advertised for the seedier crowd, but attract the fun loving teenage crowd. Essentially, you sit in a restaurant, and for about fifteen minutes, you are entertained by the stylings of "A Sexy Girl" a "Hot Guy" and a "Lady Boy". Maybe the sexy girl will come up to you and give you a quick lap dance or the hot guy will take your shirt and through it onto one of the rafters for you to climb after, or perhaps the lady boy will find the manliest guy in the room, take him up on stage, and embarress the hell out of him. It's important you realize this is NOT a seedy show at all, but a funny, carabaret or miniature burlesque. Leave it to Taiwan to take the only real x-rated content in the world and make in Disney friendly!


After dinner and show, I hit the hay for another early start. I was not particularly looking forward to this drive. When driving around Taiwan, it is sage advice to avoid the Western side. It is basically all city driving with stoplights and trucks and construction. It is not an enjoyable way to go. However, it did get me to Kiaoshung where a few items of note were encountered.

First, I reached 1,000 Kilomoters in this city.


This is what I saw at this historic landmark of my trip.


I know you feel a little disappointing, but don't worry, my 1,000 mile marker was satisfyingly interesting. You'll know what I mean when I get to it. While Kiaoshung may not have had a great introduction, it was nevertheless a really great city. I found it to be clean, vibrant and set up for tourism. It didn't hurt, either, that the city was also currently hosting the World Games. After going to the Olympics in Turino in 2006 and then missing them in Beijing in 2008, I figured this was an appropriate subsitute.


I wasn't sure what it was that I wanted to see, or where to go to see them, so I stopped in a local internet cafe and hopped online to see what events were taking place. Just my luck that water ski jumping was starting in about two hours on the lotus pond. I am never one to pass up an opportunity to see people crash into the water at high speeds, so I hopped on my bike and proceeded up to the Lotus Pond.


This pond, minus the event, was absolutely beautiful. First, I was surprised by there size of it. It was quite large for a Taiwanese city I thought, certainly we have nothing like it in Taipei! Second, there were temples and sculptures and floating gardens along the water in between shaded walking paths. It was just marvelous.


After a quick tour of these, I made my way over to the pavilion, bought my ticket, and sat down in the viewing booth for the jumps. The first couple of jumps were all very boring- very successful. I decided that I was also hungry and thought I could skip out on the jumps for a little bit. I followed the path around the games and then I came across this little table with light refreshments set out. I didn't see anybody collecting money, and after I saw a few people take them for free, I followed suit. I nice, I thought, for the Taiwanese to be handing out free refreshments. I continued along my walk only to come across a gated entrance. I passed two young Taiwanese lads, said hello and continued on my way. When I returned, I saw a sign on that gate indicating that I was in the Athlete's lounge and just mooched off their tables. Whoops, well, no one stopped me when I went in there on account of my fabulous athletic form I am sure.


I then got back to the grandstand and stayed put until I saw a crash. And boy did I see crashes. Enjoy.

At the end of the event, I packed everything up, got back on my high horse, and made way for Tainan, just a little further up the road. I got into town just as the sun was setting. I settled in for the night after a nice breakfast on this rooftop restaurant next to a lazy winding river. I had to get some early sleep because the next day was the start of my most ambitious drive to date, the South Cross Island Highway.

So until then, from your Taiwan Invading, family strip show attending, laugh at the athletes crashing into the water kind of guy, Michael.