Bike trip - Day 5

This is really the final day of our trip. The leftovers of a typhoon were blowing towards Taiwan and we decided to bag our plans to hit the southern tip of the country - even though we were just 30 miles away. It was a bitter-sweet decision but we found riding in a heavy rain is no fun.

This is the beach at our last hotel.

Notice the clouds in the background.

This is as far south as we got...well, not really. I rode about a quarter mile further to the 7-11 the night before

 

We rode to Fangliao to catch the train (Fanshan was too small to take bikes).

 

We rode the rails to Gongshan with a bunch of Taiwanese conscripts. This was a fortuitous event because conscription has been in the news lately (a conscript with a masters degree was worked to death and the subsequent military coverup has caused numerous protests throughout the country) and is on its way out. It was also a reminder of the nation's troubled history with its neighbors.

 

We stopped off at Gongshan and purchased tickets to Taipei. The bikes had to be shipped separately, so we stripped them of all our necessary stuff.

 Here we are posing with the lady who helped us navigate the booking system.

 

We had a few hours to kill before we left, so we walked around the city. We ended up in a market filled with mushroom and peanut vendors.

 

We ate duck for lunch.

 

And then relaxed for a very long 5 hours on the train. The only thing I attempted to photograph during this time was this large Buda statue.

And we arrived at Taipei's main station. Sergio and I didn't say much to each other other than adios before we both headed off to our respective apartments and passed out.