Yesterday Marias and I agreed we would meet at Chishang and share accommodation. I arrived around 1:30pm and started looking for a B&B or hostel. We had agreed a maximum price of $2000 (Taiwanese dollars). I found a place for $1800 and stopped outside. There was no one present. I'm starting to work out the cheap accommodation. Usually there isn't anyone present. You make a booking online and they then give you the access code to enter. you've either paid online or they later visit to collect.
I was trying to phone when a young lady approached me asking if I had a reservation and did I need help. No I didn't have a reservation! She asked if I would like to stay at her 3* hotel on the opposite corner. The room was $2300 and I then explained my friend wouldn't agree to anything higher than $2000. We got the room in a relatively new hotel.
Marias arrived at 6:30pm and was very happy with the room. I had previously checked out another hotel (below) but didn't like to location on a noisy street.
I wandered around Chishang whilst waiting for Marias to arrive. One of the food stalls had an interesting selection of sweets.
Marias speaks and reads a little Chinese. A very useful travelling companion. We retraced my earlier walk looking at the various eating establishment. Eventually we opted for the restaurant below.
The interior was a large concrete box with very poor acoustics. Chinese are also very loud when dining. Fortunately I could reduce the nose somewhat by turning off my hearing aids.
Marias told me the menu options and I selected a dish containing tomato and chicken. When the dishes arrived I sneaked in an unflattering photo of Marias. He promptly grabbed my camera and took one of me!
The room price included breakfast. However the hotel had no dining facilities. Instead they gave us a $60 voucher to use at one of three eating establishment. After checking out this morning we cycled to the one below
Of course there wasn't much on the menu for $60 and we both needed a good meal as we'll probably skip lunch. We're also burning calories.
I ended up paying an additional $40 (A$2) to get the meal I wanted.
Initially this sign on the restaurant wall confused me! No I didn't have to bring my own plate, knife & fork. It actually meant "Knives & Forks available here"!
The meal was also interesting. Two small sausages with some mayo on top. A grilled egg and some chips. The small plate contained apple and a bed of shredded cabbage covered in mayo with raisins on top. It was actually quite tasty.
We parted company after our meal. He only has a few days left in Taiwan before heading home to Lativa whilst I have another three weeks.
My plan for the day was to cycle 75km from Chishang to Taitung. This would bring me to the southern end of the Rift Valley and the coast.
A couple of long climbs during the trip. The bike motor did some heavy work! I saw six touring cyclists on this section. They were all going in the opposite direction. Two were on small folding bikes. There were also three walkers.
After three hours I reached the outskirts of Taitung and decided it was too early to stop. I would continue on south along the coast road to Dawu.
I quickly discovered two things about the coast road. It's busy… and it's not flat!!!
The only good thing about going up is you get a rest coming down the other side.
Everywhere there are men and women tending their small plots.
After dicing with the traffic for three hours I reached Dawu and started looking for a cheap B&B. Found one for $800 off the main road but of course no one was home. I phoned the B&B number and had an interesting conversation with a lady who spoke no English. She must have eventually realised I was at the B&B as she turned up. We then used Google Translate to get the room booking done. Every establishment needs your passport details.
I will confess that I did inspect the room prior to accepting it (and paying). However I didn't check if there was hot water and nor did I check the thickness of the mattress. My error! It won't be the first time I've had a cold shower and slept on a hard bed. However the lesson has been learned.
II covered 106km today. This is Day 3 and I'm now at Day 6 itinerary location. I have some spare time.
No comments :
Post a Comment