First Impressions

The Taiwanese I've met have all been friendly, courteous and helpful.  But I am getting ahead of myself.  Let me provide a visual description of my B&B.

My bedroom.  One of three.  Initially I thought there were two!

The lounge

The Dining area with the kitchen behind.

Most of the bike has been reassembled but I have a problem with the new battery connection.  The positive and negative terminals on the battery plug are the reverse of the plug on the ebike motor.

Remember the 5 P's.  (Prior, Planning, Prevents, Poor, Performance).  I did a risk assessment before leaving Perth and bought a spare set of plugs with me just in case there was some type of issue.  Rather than carry the heavy battery around looking to have the plug wiring reversed I decided to have a 'cross-over' cable made using my spare plugs.

Whilst walking around today (more on that later) I came upon a small motorbike repair garage and using sign language asked if they could do the soldering for the terminals.

When I attempted to pay they physically and vocally refused any payment.  After thanking them using only one of my two words of Chinese I had the problem sorted.  The cable is now ready for installation between the battery and the motor, 

The first task on today's list was to take the Canon DSLR camera to 'camera street' and see if I could get the camera body cleaned and the lens repaired.   'Camera Street' is near Taipei Main Railway Station and I decided to take the Metro.  The underground metro station are huge.  Fortunately everything is in both Chinese and English.  I was attempting to work out how to purchase a ticket from the machine when a Taiwanese lady asked me in excellent English if I required assistance.  I gratefully accepted her offer and she showed me how to identify the correct fare and how to purchase a token.  She even bought the ticket for me with her money; despite me offering to pay!  The fare was TWD$20 or A$1.  I've now started thinking in Taiwanese currency!

Eventually I worked out how to exit Taipei Main Station using the closest exit to camera street.

The above ground part of Taipei Main Station.  Underground is far larger.

When I left the B&B there was morning drizzle.  By the time I exited the station the drizzle had stopped and the temperature had risen.  It started to get humid.

It's Saturday and the camera repair shop was closed for the weekend.  I leave on the cycling trip early Monday morning which means it's unlikely the camera will be serviced and repaired.

A few things have become immediately apparent.  There are 7/11 and FamilyMart stores everywhere.

If you look at the sign on the right of the above phone you may notice most 7/11 have an area where you can sit and eat.  They have an ATM and toilets.  My guess is I'm going to become very familiar with 7/11's

Another thing that was quite noticeable.  No Litter.  Moreover there were no litter bins!  I assume this is a cultural thing where people don't drop rubbish and take it home instead.  We could all learn from that!

Whilst Taipei has many narrow alleyways the main streets are quite wide.  Up to six lanes.  The footpaths are also wide with marked cycleways.  At each set of traffic lights there is usually a rectangular box marked on the road at the front which is used by motor scooters and bikes.

I decided to walk back to the B&B via a bike shop I'd seen on Google Maps.  The shop didn't have what I wanted but I did notice the large tree in the photo below.  I had been trained to grown as a linear façade up the side of the multi-storey building.

Standard shopping hours are 11am to 9pm with the food market often open to 1am.  I was starting to feel out of breath and realised it had been some time since I'd eaten.  The nearby 7/11 had something that looked hot in a small paper bag.

After buying it and then look with my glasses I realised it was some type of potato.  Not what I had anticipated.  Half of it was eaten before I went and bought a hot dog in a bun covered with four cheeses and some strawberry flavoured milk.

I thought it had to be eaten cold but the young girl behind the counter zapped it in the microwave.  When you're hungry almost any food tastes good!

This evening I'll probably walk to the Giant Bike Shop and see if they have a wrist mirror.  Tomorrow I'll take the Metro to Taipei country railway station and buy the tickets for myself and the bike so I can start on my cycling trip.  I can also complete the assembly of the bike now I have the battery cable.