The hostel in Taichung was a bit costly for a dorm room by Taiwan standards but had a great owner Jessie who was very welcoming and helpful. After a couple of days you didn't mind paying a bit extra.
On the first full day I joined her and a few of her friends to the big open air Jazz festival. To be honest I was not expecting it to be "my thing" but it was watchable and there was great food available and all the people were friendly.
When it was finished I couldn't help but notice that despite thousands of people being there no litter was left on the ground. If this had been back home they would have to employ dozens of people just to clean up after.
After getting the cycling bug back in Kenting I made the big mistake of trying to explore the city by bike and got very lost. Later that evening Jessie took me on a walking tour of the city.
TUESDAY 27 OCTOBER 2009 - I HAD NOW SPENT A WHOLE YEAR ON THE ROAD
Took a long bus trip to Sun moon lake which was very scenic but a bit too foggy for my liking. Would like to have stayed for a couple of days but it seemed to be all costly hotels.
Jessie took me out to the Dakeng scenic area which was where I was trying to reach by bike a few days earlier. She had never made it up to the top before so I made sure that she did.
It was very steep in places and there were times I was thinking of giving up.........3 hours later in hot weather we made it!!!!!!
I took a trip to a couple of nearby towns. Firstly Changhua with it's 26m statue on a hilltop.
Then the town of Lugang, both were worth a visit but I didn't feel worth staying any longer than a day trip.
Back in Taichung I went to the science museum on the advise of Jessie expecting to be in a couple of hours but the place was massive and also interesting and took up at least half the day.
I left for a few days to meet someone who I had kept in contact with since Beijing. (Covered in next chapter). I went back to the same place for the last couple of days before heading back to Taipei.
As I had left the Philippines early I had about 100 pounds worth of their money. I must have visited 20 banks and money changers while in Taiwan but nobody wanted to touch it. Some of them looked at it like it was radioactive. Very strange for saying it's only a couple of hours by plane away.
Got it changed in the end at Bangkok airport a few weeks later.
On the last day I got talking to a lad from Belfast who like all the others was in Taiwan to teach English. I noticed that the locals attitude to alcohol was a lot different to ours. They looked at us in shock when we came back from the shop with our SECOND beer.
What they would make of my friends back home I could only guess at..............
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