This is a daily chronicle of my trip to Taiwan from 9th to 24th May 2006 with Ronghua and partially Boon Liang. I am trying to blog about all 15 days, so it takes time..sorry.. If you wanna read all that have been posted, pls click on Taiwan Adventure category here, or on the left sidebar.

This morning’s happenings reminded us that we were in a tourist trap and all the niceness of the old hotel owner was thrown out of the window. Previously the deal was that for NT$1000, we would get the room and also MacDonalds breakfast, which for 2 persons is probably worth about NT$150. The scooter rental costs NT$400 for 24 hrs. So the prev day, we checked into the room at 3pm, and took over the scooter at about 4.30pm. So we should have the bike till 4.30pm today at least.

Going down to the lobby at 8am, the 1st thing he asked us, “你们今天还要住吗？”. So we said yes, and he immediately demanded that we pay him. I asked about the macs breakfast and guess his reply..

“你们今天就自己去吃吧。。” 1st stunt of the day, until we reminded him of the agreement before he grudgingly gave us 2 vouchers for the nearby macs. I felt that that we were being shortchanged cos i tot it would be delivered breakfast, but i decided not to kick up a fuss. The voucher turned out to be for a mcmuffin only.

Coming back to the hotel later, he wanted us to return the bike @ noon, claiming that he had guests who wanted to use it. This time me n ronghua really dulan, said that we die die wun return before 4pm. Insisting on us returning before the time would mean that we would check out immediately. Actually it was a small gamble that we took, knowing that it’s a friday and rooms might be hard to find. However with us being so mobile, we can fuck care Kenting and go somewhere else instead. The old man blinked and said we could return the scooter by 4pm, and we finally paid the room rate for 1 more night.

The plan was to explore as much of the southern tip as possible and we headed due east, skipping the lighthouse at Erluanbi 鹅卵鼻 since it costs NT$40 each and we have both been there. Eventually we rounded the southeastern tip of Taiwan and came to Fengchuisha 风吹砂 where we stopped for a while. The place supposedly experiences very strong winds from time to time that shapes the sand on the coast into dunes.

The beach was totally devoid of people, and there were only a few goats which somehow managed to get down the rocky slope to graze, talk about hunger knowing no bounds. Ronghua decided to join them, while i decided to be a bapo and stay on top stay on top and look after the bags, and any situation.

Got video somemore…

Carrying on the journey, i stumbled onto a magnificent yet dangerous idea of taking a pic of ourselves on the bike. It was possible since my bag was slinged in front of me, and I managed to unzip my bag, take out my camera case and take out the camera, all when i was going downhill @ 50km/h. “荣华，看这边，要拍照！”

The Motorcycle Diaries

We arrived at Hengchun 恒春, which is a town familiar to alot of NSmen since one of the Starlight camps is located there. It’s amazing how the military trains alongside civilian areas, there was an outfield command post and a FOFO hill next to a tourist attraction. Hengchun used to be a walled city established by the Qing Dynasty to guard against foreign invaders. The whole city was surrounded by a 3metre-tall wall and had 4 gates which faced the arrows of the compass. So they were creatively named as 东门，西门，南门，北门. The East gate was the most intact, with much of the wall still standing.

I tried, and failed in my mission to take a pic of all 4 gates.

We stopped for lunch at a small eatery where we had roast pork rice, and were promptly exposed as Singaporeans by the lady boss. Never say 打包，the correct Taiwanese term is 便档, especially to someone who stays near many Singaporeans. Speaking of the rice, the Taiwanese tend to use very light sauces that don’t mask the saltiness of the roast pork..

Hengchun is known for a natural attraction called Chuhuo 出火, which is a small area of ground where natural gas emerge from underground and it catches fire and burns forever. A pity that we went in the day, and you can’t see the flames, though you can feel the heat quite obvious. The bubbling of the water and smell of the gas were quite obvious too.. Wasted, never bring food to bbq

Enroute to another location, we were reminded that we were in real nuclear territory

L-R: Nuclear Evacaution Plan; Power plant’s domes and wind turbines can be seen across 南湾

We got to Maobitou 猫鼻头, which is a rocky outcrop along the coast where the rock formation looks supposedly like a cat preparing to pounce on some imaginary prey in the sea. Both of us have been here before but we couldn’t spot it then. Hence the NT$10 parking fee and 30 mins combined ride time investment in order to spot it again..

I didn’t spot it until i got back to Singapore and stared at this picture… Clue: besides the cat, u can see something else rite infront of it. And it seems like we weren’t the only persons trying to spot the elusive cat

Kenting also has alot of go-karting tracks, costing on average NT$100 for 15-20 laps, depending on the circuit. We found a decent one that gave us 18 laps, and alot of wild moments, alot of lateral Gs being pulled and alot of kicks. Too bad no onboard camera like the real F1

Making a point to Shujie, see how cheap this is??

We finally returned the bike and it seems that the hotel owner’s big customer last min flew his airplane and cancelled his room. So the old man was peddling his bike to us, hoping that we can take it for another day. NNB.

Dinner was at a 卤味 shop. 卤味 is basically like yong tau fu and kway chap combined, alot of ingredients to choose from, then later cook liaoz will all lup with the dark sauce (lor zhap). Each of us ordered like NT$200 worth, and they came in 2 fucking large plates. To get an idea of the proportion, most tables of 4 ppl would order 1 plate like ours. No beer this time, concentrate on eating like 2 famine victims.

Boh pian, have to take a walk ard to clear the food. Alot of the stalls sell the same trinklets, especially ornamental candles, of which i bought one for a friend and it’s still sitting @ my house cos she’s too bz to meet up. We ran into Ronghua’s army friend who was there with 10 other friends, and we arranged to meet up @ 11pm to go the pub and watch the special show (Read: full monty and pole dancing). So after sianz of walking, went back room to watch tv and wait for 11pm.

CCB, came @ 11pm and realised they already came out of the pub. Apparently after the dance, the dancers were looking for volunteers to go on stage, and his friend’s friend was saboed to go up. They stripped the poor chap naked, and had him stand on stage, using his hands to cover his vital area. The female dancer proceeded to take ice and reached below his hands and rubbed the ice over his crotch. Shiok or embarassing.. i dunno..haha!

Them friends were pretty high to start with and after a beer each @ the beach, and some fireworks, proceeded to do some stupid stuff along the main street…