The lady at the B&B was certainly friendly. I was slightly confused when she offered me $100 after I paid for the room. Then I realised the B&B wasn't going to provide breakfast and the $100 was a refund to allow me to purchase my own the next morning.
The room was a good size but I noticed there were no towels or slippers. Probably an oversight! I used my own travelling microfibre towel.
I walked into Chishang looking for something to eat. Then I realised I'd left the phone in the B&B. With no access to Google Translate I only had one option. The 7-Eleven. A zapped bowl of braised pork and vegetables on a bed of rice. Not particularly tasty but it will be fuel for tomorrow.
The next morning I departed from the B&B. But not before the lady gave me a piece of fruit. It looks very similar to that photo of the pear I took whilst cycling yesterday. But it's much bigger than any pear I've seen and is not as firm. It got placed in one of the panniers for later investigation.
I headed to Chisang's main street looking for breakfast. The Taiwanese eating establishments appear to be divided into three types. Breakfast, lunch and dinner. It also seems that Taiwanese eat out a lot.
The breakfast café I went to opened at 6AM and closed at 10AM. All five staff were working furiously.
Using Google Translate I selected two different types of omelette from the menu. One had sausage in it.
Each omelette contained one egg and a scattering of veg wrapped in some type of very thin and flexible pastry. The sausage omelette was served in a box and the other inside a sandwich. Total cost was TWD$70 (A$3.50). They were tasty.
Time to head towards Taitung, Taiwan's southern most city on the east coast. The further south I head the more tropical and humid the weather. I started to sweat profusely and was continuously drinking to rehydrate.
After 60km I reached Taitung and headed east to the coastal road, before turning north.
Only 155km back to Hualien
The east coast of famous for three things. Fishing, there are numerous small fishing ports along the coast. The scenery and surfing.
As I cycled through each small villages I started to notice more and more young Europeans wandering around with a semi-permanent look.
The costal ranges look very steep. I started on the other side this morning and I'm pleased I decided to ride around them.
The clouds started to obscure the top of the ranges which suggested to me they might be laden with precipitation. My guess was correct and it started to lightly rain as I reached my hotel.
Tonight's B&B room is quite comfortable and very modern. Perhaps too modern for me as it was an unmanned premise. Access required scanning a QR code and then completing an online form. This information was then compared to the information provided a booking. If the two matched then the system sent a four digit keycode allowing access to the room.
I decided to investigate that pear I'd been given.
It was definitely NOT a pear. As I cut a quarter out I started to smell orange. It had a similar taste to an orange. Definitely not grapefruit. After some online research I've identified it as a pomelo. I decided against eating all of it when I read it contains an enzyme that can adversely affect anticoagulant drugs. I'm on blood thinners
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