Well, my 50 km day turned into a 70 km day. But at least it didn’t turn into a 90 km day.
I woke to find a message from my planned Airbnb for tonight that they did not have room. I spent a while searching my various sources and couldn’t find accommodation nearby. However, a few hostels showed in OSMand, and I decided I’d give one of them a try.
The west coast has most of the cities, and cycling through them takes forever. There are a lot of traffic lights, each 60-120 seconds. I don’t know if it’s good or bad, but many of the traffic lights show a timer for how long it will be until they change. There are a lot of traffic lights. Not timed for bicycles.
I read a lot of cautions about the scooters on the roads before my trip, but the scooters mean that the cars are well trained and well behaved.
One of the difficult tasks in cycling is making a left-handed turn in heavy traffic on a multi-lane road. Because normally you ride on the right side of the road, but then have to cross multiple lanes of traffic to make the left turn. John had pointed out that the Taiwanese do that differently. Instead, you ride forward and then stop in front of the traffic that is stopped at the crossing. You then wait there until the light changes and proceed forward. See the white box on the right:
So a turn involves two traffic lights. Long traffic lights
The day was a mix of path next to the road and dedicated path.
Cycling along I came to a road closure. A bridge that was the only one across the wide delta for kilometers. I stopped to ask a construction worker. He already had queued up on Google translate answers to my questions, and helpfully routed me around the construction.
I had lunch today at a 7-Eleven. There are thousands of them in Taiwan, and serve food. They’re a staple for cycle tourists.
I almost cycled past the salt museum today. It was only because I stopped to wonder what a tourist museum was. One of the main salt refineries in Taiwan, which extracts salt from seawater. The factory has created a small museum, store, and saltwater spring to soak your feet.
Arriving at where the first hostel should be, I was across the street from a train station, a promising location for a hostel. Well, it was supposed to be. I used the Chinese symbols from my map to identify a sign with a phone number. After figuring out how to make a call via Google voice in Taiwan – no answer.
The next hostel was 10 kilometers in front of me and a couple of kilometers off of the national cycle route. As the roads got smaller and smaller, I pondered the wisdom of my choices. But I have a room for the night! I’m not sure quite what it is that I am staying at. Some combination of temple, restaurant, and rooms. I don’t think I’d call it a hostel, as I have a room of my own.
I have to change up my normal schedule a bit, as Taiwan starts to get dark about 5:30 p.m. The next hostel on the map was another 10 km, and who knows if it would have been there! I’m used to relying on just cycling further to solve many problems, but that’s harder when it’s dark. 70 km for the day.
I managed to sunburn myself a little bit yesterday, and probably made it slightly worse today.
My next few days should be a detour to Sun Moon Lake.