change of plans back and forth and I ended up with a rusty $60... oh $50 really

$50 bike which, fingers crossed will get me all the way south to Kaohsiung.

Biked up to Fengguizui lookout which is about 600 meters elevation. Can't see anything

from the lookout here Going to hit the road again get some food

in my belly and maybe a little bit of warmth as well.

Turned up at this hostel pretty sodden

last night but I'm fresh and dry now. Late start to the

day today because it was raining again this morning. Plan is to head from where

are now which is Ruifang, and make my way around the coast in the direction of Yilan.

If there were a prize for a country with the most impressive abandoned buildings

Taiwan is kinda cheating because even the inhabited buildings often look abandoned

these specific buildings, I really have no idea what they are. I kind

of just assume that they're all abandoned button factories

Couple hundred meters from the little village of Bitou. I guess this is the only

spot where they were able to find space to build a school because it's either that

or they just wanted to have the best view in town. I'm sure the kids here get

quite a few days off for typhoons because it is a very exposed.

Next door from the school is a cemetery. New and the old, neighbors here in Bitou.

Well, so far riding around Taiwan has proven to be just about the best idea ever.

This morning I'm riding my way through

the Lanyang Plain, which is a beautiful area surrounding Yilan.

Sort of interspersed housing and rice paddies surrounded by hills and then the coast.

Came across this dead fish on the side of the road. Not sure if it's jumped up

from the rice paddies. Could be good eating still but I think I'll give this one a miss.

Just taking it super cruisey today making my way around the rice

paddies that surround Yilan.

Made my way through the port city of Su'ao to the Tofu Cape.

This is more or less where I'm going to finish up for today. I've got a little bit of

backtracking to do just to get back to where I'm going to stay but there's a

nice little local - well what looks like a local hangout that I've encountered here.

Pretty cool beach down there and looks like a nice little spot

Killer bargain on accommodation in Su'ao. Unfortunately just after checking in I

managed to lock myself out of the room and I had to call the owners to drive

back from wherever she is at the moment, so that was a pretty embarrassing start

but yeah awesome... So I've got the massage chair here, I got the washing machine

outside getting me sorted for tomorrow. Tonnes of space so pretty happy here.

I'm going to chill out and rest up for tomorrow.

Day four now and I've gained a

little bit of height above Su'ao so I'm making my way on a section of road

that is super quiet because there's a tunnel that's been built parallel to it

kind of nervous about how much climbing and descending I've got to do today

hopefully I can manage to get to my destination which is the the bottom end of Taroko gorge.

Hard to get a good angle on it but it's a pretty dramatic bit of

coast here just between Su'ao and Nan'ao. I'm still working my way up hill looks like

I don't know maybe another hundred meters of height to gain so just chipping away at it.

Unbelievable number of tour buses - empty tour buses - passing

through here at the moment. Anyway I've got to about 400 meters I think which

should have me at a point where I've done most of the climbing for this

section. Awesome views, real dramatic coastline it's pretty amazing this was

ever the main route up and down the East Coast.

Below me now is Dong'ao beach. I've just got to continue down there and then on

the other side the road ascends again so I'm gonna have to start climbing again.

after making my way down this nice little stretch here.

I'm on the climb now from Dong'ao to Nan'ao.

Shirts off so it must be getting serious.

Anyway I had to pull up here because it's just one more killer view. Turning out to be a

a pretty sweet day. Not too hot, it's glorious.

Getting a little bit closer to Taroko now. Probably about 40 kilometres.

Continuing to descend now. There are a few trucks around and it's going to be awesome when

that new freeway is built through those on the tunnels down there. This road is

just super steep and windy. I can't believe that this is like the main road

going around Taiwan Once those trucks are off the road

going through the tunnel instead it's going to be a killer ride. It's not too

bad in the meantime but you know less traffic is always better.

In fairness to Taiwan, most of the island is like these massive mountains and glorious coastline

and stuff like that and the industry does have to go somewhere but by god

when you see it it certainly sticks out like a sore thumb.

BOOM! Right there...

Day five and I'm a little above Tianxiang now in Taroko National Park. A bit of an

up and back mission today. I am now going to make my way back through the gorge

get a few shots of that and then head through to Hualien.

I'm at the entrance now to this half cut tunnel going along the hillside and halfway down there's

this entrance goes like into the mountain.

No vehicles inside!

...but beware of vehicles!!

other side of the tunnel and there's a trail here that leads

1.8km to the Baiyang waterfalls.

So behind me along the cliffside there is the so-called Swallows Grotto trail

you can see what a precarious line the main road used to take.

I'm now a couple of hours riding south of Hualien and I've decided to get off the

main route. Definitely gonna slow things down a little bit but that's okay, I'm

not in a rush. It looks pretty nice, you know, a lot of rice paddies and little

farms and things around so I hope I am going to enjoy it.

Turns out that the detour has been pretty worthwhile because it's taken me through

Dadongdafu Forest Park which I didn't even know about - I didn't even notice on the map

but yeah nice place. Good views there was like a little bike trail that

went straight through the forest. It makes more sense if the actual marked

cycling route that goes around the island would take people through places

like this. Seems a little bit silly to be down on the more industrial kind of road

below but anyway I managed to find this or myself. There's probably a good theory

that perhaps I should not be filming while cycling at the same time

but it's not too much traffic around... should be okay. So I guess there's kind

of an explanation for that main cycling route not veering off onto these wild bush paths.

Oh sealed road again. I'm definitely putting this $50 bike of mine

through some tough little battles

Heading down through the Rift Valley south of Ruisui going through rice

paddies and that kind of thing at the moment so it's quite scenic. Mountains on

both sides and basically I'm heading a little bit further south and then I'm

going to take a road that goes through the mountains from this rift valley

over to the coastline so this afternoon I'll be heading down the coastline again.

I've got a fair distance to go now to get to the hostel for tonight around 50km

The next meal after what I'm eating now is going to be a 7-eleven

about, I think it was 18 kilometres away and basically I'm just working away. It's

a pretty nice area like hills on one side and coast on the

other, as is so normal in Taiwan

Still chipping away at the coast road. Awesome scenery next to the ocean

again. I'm on a nice little stretch of road here which is off the main drag so

I got the whole thing to myself basically. There are some pretty dark

clouds on the horizon. It could be a little bit of rain later on but we shall see.

Day eight now and I just stayed the night last night in little town of Dulan.

Super lazy day planned for today. I'm just out of town here I've stopped

by this little optical illusion called water flowing upward so apparently it's

supposed to appear that this little stream here rises but the water flows

that way. Came here kind of expecting a bit of a lame attraction and I guess

that it is, but then I realized I kind of like it so it's a bit of a

philosophical challenge going on here. I'm going to bike a little bit south

from here, not too much riding today probably about 30km.

Just kind of worn out and feeling a bit lazy after a relatively long day yesterday

Sad face! Another closed and abandoned looking hotel. Kinda everywhere in Taiwan

Mainland loosens its policy in terms of travellers coming to Taiwan and so they

build a bunch of hotels and then there's a big dispute between the two countries

again and so all the hotels get shut down. My plan initially had been to stop

quite a while back but as always seems to happen in this situation I decided to

press on. That was all going well and now I get to a little bit like this and

I'm like, 'oh really, I gotta go ride up that!?

I think I've managed to book the creepiest accommodation in Taiwan

If Dementors had swingers parties this is probably where they would have them.

Even my mattress is covered in plastic what the

What the fuck!?

Just the awkwardest theme in this place as well. There's like these little

cats on the walls. Not sure what the designers had in mind by connecting

these chains to the ceiling. Black painted walls and ceiling as well which

you can admire while getting ravaged by the mosquitoes. So, a few interesting

little quirks about this place not least of which of course is the fact that it

is definitely haunted. Also the very first place in Taiwan

I've ever come across which doesn't have Wi-Fi.

So, not much for me to do around here tonight

I will have nothing but the ghosts to keep me company. Hopefully a good night's

sleep in spite of that and then tomorrow morning I'm heading off towards Kenting.

And here in the mountain rainforests of southern Taiwan a monkey explores the

upper canopy on the rain forest. Bit of a climb on the bike this morning

probably gained about 300 meters or something and I've got around another

hundred meters to go and then it's mostly downhill.

The climbing has certainly paid off I've turned off onto the 199 South which it turns out is

just a beautiful road. I've only passed one vehicle in the last ten minutes.

It just seems to wind down straight through forests basically, there's no rubbish or

junk on a side of the road, no trucks to worry about and just surrounded by dense

awesome forest so it's good downhill all the way to the coast.

Now just south of Kenting where I stayed last night. Going to ride around the

peninsula today and end up in Hengchun so really a short cruisey one today. It is

warm weather which is nice. A bit more sunny than it was yesterday

and who knows, could end up going for a swim a little bit later on. Passing a

little preserved area of the beach along here, absolutely beautiful.

Not allowed to access it unfortunately, I guess they're worried about it getting a bit messy.

Made it around to the eastern side of the peninsula which is similarly calm

actually you'd think there'd be more waves over here considering I think the

next stop is in Mexico or something

Continuing around the cape now. Just passing this building with this cool

very stark architecture. Apparently it's a hotel.

So a bit of a scorching hot day

today and I'm making my way from Kenting north towards Kaohsiung, just passing

through a few little coastal villages just sweating it out probably about

thirty km's to go. So I'm in Donggang this morning. I stayed here last night

and I'm on my last day of cycling for the trip now just got a head into Kaohsiung

so not too far. This is Donggang's well-known temple so

big golden gate here and then if I pan around there's a temple over there on the other side.

So my cycling trip around Taiwan starts in Taipei and ends

in Kaohsiung and I skipped the west coast all together basically. The

reason is that my vision of the west coast is basically pretty much like this the whole way.

So I've now arrived in Kaohsiung. Just left my things down the hill

at the hotel. I've got a little bit of time to fill in before

check-in so I'm just doing a bike around this hill, Shou Shan. Definitely recommend

cycling around Taiwan. Pretty ideal for it. Police stations all provide water for

cyclists and they've got bike pumps and stuff like that. To be honest the

stations themselves are pretty shitty but at least it points out that the

thought is kind of there