November 4, 2023
November 4th
Over to the east coast
I ride my yellow bike to my 2:00 class and take it up to the 7th floor where I teach till 5:00. After that, there's enough time for dinner and I pedal back to the Indian place, then get the train at gone 6 and g boards at his station 10 minutes later. It's empty, which is a bit of a surprise. The adventure begins.
He has brough his old Giant mountain bike as he reckons it'll suit the possible off-road parts better.
We just see our faces looking back at us in the dark windows, but after a couple of hours, street lights show a sheen on the road suface, telling us it's raining. Jeez. The forecast is never acurate, but we though it wouldn't be this wrong.
| Heart | 4 | Comment | 0 | Link |
Thankfully the roads are dry when we reach Loudong. It's warm once outside of the AC train. It must be around 25C still.
There are lots of hotels just a block from the station and we call at four or five, which are all full. This is also something we didn't expect. Jeez.
We opt to cross over to the north side of the town's main street where we find a tall hotel that looks past its prime, but it has rooms - NT$2,000, which is fine (US$60). Ours is big enough for the two bikes to be parked.
We soon pop out for a beer, to a bar near the station that looked OK. It's big window showed a modren interior with a handful of customers.
However, when we step through the door, the smell of smoke hits us. It's illegal, but clearly nobody cares. We should simply turn around, but the barman is very friendly, so we order two draught Orions and find a spare table. We then realise the music is too loud for us to chat and it's bad rock.
About ten minutes later we're walking across the street to the Hive Bar, which is in the basement of the Hive Hotel. It's modern, but looks 80s, with chrome decoration and tacky furniture. The only other customers are two young women who are sat looking at their phones. They glance up at us, then straight back to their phones. The bored young women behind the bar sells us two cold Coronas. We have just the one and decide to get a can from 7-Eleven and head back to our hotel room.
The fun begins in the morning. Hopefully the weather is OK.
Today's ride: 5 km (3 miles)
Total: 3,320 km (2,062 miles)
| Rate this entry's writing | Heart | 5 |
| Comment on this entry | Comment | 0 |