A full lap of Taiwan in March 2017 - Page 8

Setting out from Puli, it was wet, and in places, cloud was on the ground. More cloud to come.

I was interested in the archaic Puli bus station, which shines a blue light on the bus thats arriving. Clever, no need for LED signs here.

My first view of the lake. Nice still water for fog reflections.

A bit more lake, thats not the lake, thats a side bit of lake, an inlet perhaps, if I only had to run around that much lake the day would be over soon.

Nice clouds up the valley. Happy with this photo.

My first view of part of the entire lake. It wont all fit in frame. Now it looks like a 33km effort is required.

The first 1/3 of the trip was frustrating as it kept looping in and out of inlets, I didnt seem to be making much progress on the map.

There are lots of spots for buses to drop people off to buy stuff. Some places like this one, look like a prison.

It then became really foggy. I heard all kinds of yelling and screaming ahead. I seriously though a boat had sunk. No, just a heap of people playing canoe polo in the fog.

I tried to capture how dense the fog was. My camera sees through fog better than the human eye.

Its not all flat smooth paths and roads. At times you have to climb up quite a long way, or take switch back roads up a cliff.
I remember reading reports by people who hired bikes complaining that the entire journey is up hill, around a lake, finishing where you started.

Good fog pic, with the very blue water able to be seen. The water is such a rich blue color, it would look a lot more blue if there was sun, which there was not. So today was neither sun or moon lake.

I didnt go through the tunnel, theres a path up and around it for cyclists and me. I think the tunnel is a shortcut though, a dry shortcut.

First stop, grandmas boiled eggs. Literally just a huge line of people waiting to buy a boiled egg.

Boats come across to here from where I started. There is a big pagoda up the hill. I could not see it in the fog. I thought it was a bit too foggy for boats to even operate at this point.

There are lots and lots of temples around the lake. But I was soaking wet and enjoying my running, so I did not stop at this one.

Thats the lake down there, past all the palm trees.

The fog cleared every now and then, and allowed for photos of blue water such as this one.

Somehow my camera has invented fake sun for this photo. This is the largest town around the far side of the lake, where I replenished my fluid supply.

Just past the town is a ropeway station that goes up a big hill to... wait for it, a temple. Nice blossoms.

Ropeway cars disappearing into fog. No Asian tourist paradise is complete without a ropeway.

I went into the station for food, and ended up with a muffin, the line for real food was too long, I had no time. But it was dry and I was able to dry my soaking wet camera.

Ropeway restaurant area. They were serving a really delicious looking beef stew.

No stew for me, more fog. Got to keep moving.

I was now confused which way that ropeway goes, its very high above my head! An earthquake right now would make their day exciting.

Nice photo showing blue water, look how far past the town I have gone already. I was flying around the course.

I think from here I can glance the finishing line, still about 5km away.

Now confident I was going to make it around, in fact if anything it was easier than I expected, I had time to quickly look at this temple, and dry my camera again.

View from temple.

I didnt see anyone else taking photos, but since I already looked like a wet lunatic with a bright red face and a dripping wet $2 rain coat, I took one anyway.

And now I was almost back, time to remove my hood and take a photo. It was almost not raining at this point!
I look very sweaty, and old. So damn old.

Then it rained again, but how can I leave without pulling my stance?

This guy is taking his shoes seriously.

Around the main port area of sun moon lake there are tourist shops and hotels, everything you can think of is there, its a small city really.
I greatly enjoyed running a lap of the lake in the rain.

Puli was a lot quieter tonight. My suspicion that it is a weekend tourist destination for people visiting the nearby attractions seems to be true.
This is apparently, the night market. Not a lot happening.

Here is the only food stand at the night market, currently unattended. You select what you want and they put it in a pot and boil it for a while.
A piece of wire with ribbon on the end spins around to keep the flies off.

My dinner was very healthy but a little unusual. It is a few vegetarian ravioli, with lots of green vegetables, in a kind of thai curry flavoured soup. Not bad, good for healthy.

This is quite a nice supermarket on the ground floor in a nice building. A bit hard to see in the darkness, looks kind of French.

One last neon photo of Puli at night.

Christmas is coming. So are the mormons, run!

And here it is, another 50k today. 110k+ in the last 2 days. Feet in good condition.
According to the good people at Garmin, my normal average of 25,000 steps a day puts me into the top 2% of the population. Which is pretty sad really. I have been averaging closer to 35,000 a day on this trip.
I command everyone get off their fat asses and walk more, now!

A well placed elementary school overpass gave me an opportunity to take a photo of the town and the mountains. Parents crossing with their children were concerned that I was hanging out taking photos, so I had to move on.

Here is the exploded liquor still at the Shaoxing brewery. Shaoxing is a city in mainland China, so I dont know what rights Puli has to call their brewery that. Trademark infringement like Champagne in France.

On the museum gift shop tour, you can walk through a cave of liquor vats. There is not a lot of room and they seem to just be resting on planks!

One last photo of Puli before entering the bus station. I climbed that mountain back there!

Todays picture from a moving bus, nice mountains.

For the sake of completeness, here is the inside of the high speed train again. Quite full today.

Picture of Taichung city from a moving train, featuring Chinese man with gas mask.

This is the winch in my hotel room. Its to lift fat people on and off the bed / toilet.
Actually I think its for me to abseil out the window. There is no rope or harness. I guess they throw one up to you if you are about to burn to death?

My room is much bigger than it appears from here. The bathroom has a regular, non glass door (important info for my mother).
It is called the Energy Inn. They were very insistent at check in that I select my breakfast for tomorrow morning, and a specific time to eat it. I guess I better turn up.
The internet speed is maxing out the network card on my laptop, 100mbit up and down.

I am smack bang in the middle of the fashionable XiMenDing district, centre of youth culture in Taipei. I am the oldest person here.

As it was still early, I headed out and enjoyed a delicious iced tea, followed by a visit to the bakery next door to my hotel for some tiny finger sandwiches and a selection of cakes.

The streets of Taipei on the eastern edge of the city at dusk.

Here is the giant sphere mall. It is a very quiet place.

I went inside anyway, to admire the sphere, which is impressive. They have a food court, but it looked a bit crappy, plus I wanted the best beef noodle, so I pushed on.

I bought a gun just in case.

A big building that is not Taipei 101, the top part is nice.

However, Taipei 101 is looming large behind it.

This is a really busy intersection, the Taipei mini version of the Shibuya crossing. Except it takes much longer to get across. I think I stood here for 20 minutes.

Once you get to the other side, its all high end shopping.

And it was here I found my beef noodle soup, CNN approved. It was pretty good, but I wouldnt say it was the best, they did not provide the proper chilli sauce for a start.
However the addition of an egg was appreciated. Beef was also really nice. The thing sticking up at the back is a deep fried crunchy doughnut.

This place has a nice roof garden, by garden I mean plastic creatures to take selfies with. I stubbed my toe on the stairs, and took my shoes off to do an inspection.
At this moment the security guard came outside and shone a torch on me, just as I was trying to shine my phone torch light thing on my big toe. I dont know what he thought was going on.

Toe inspection over, I joined my 2 best friends for a group photo.

Back in Ximending now, and trucks drive by advertising popstars and movies, just like Japan, except these screens are 3d, like at the Chimei museum.
Giant 3d screens for which you dont need to wear glasses to experience the 3d effect. I dont know how they work.

These guys had very dramatic music and the prime spot. I stopped to watch for at least 5 minutes. They did synchronized stretching to music, and then their performance ended.

Ximending was very busy for a Monday night. I was surprised.

I wonder if it will be noisy in my hotel room from all the people? Time will tell.
As promised, no photo of my watch.

WESTERN BREAKFAST! My hotel insisted when I checked in that I selected my breakfast and my breakfast time to the nearest 10 minute slot. I did not select a hot dog sausage and chips, I selected egg and bacon, but it was labelled western breakfast.
I did not want egg and bacon breakfast either, but the other option was salted fish congee, and not making a selection seemes to cause great offence.
After finishing my fries, they were very insistent I select my breakfast and time for tomorrow, I will not be having western breakfast tomorrow. I will get whatever the Chinese breakfast is. Hopefully not ground up rice with added salted fish guts and soy milk.

Boring photo from inside the bus to Jiufen, or is it? Note the woman up the front has put her umbrella up, inside the bus. Another new way to terrify me with umbrellas.
At one point the driver slammed on the brakes, hard enough for a guy sitting at the back in the middle to fly down the aisle, and for everyones phones and bubble teas to go flying. No one was hurt, and my phone remained in my hand.

Thats the mountain I climbed last time I was here, which is a never ending stair case with little rest pavillions all the way up. It was excellent fun if I recall. My mountain today is a lot more challenging. A shame that the pollution haze is impacting the view.

The entrance to teapot mountain is inside the gold mine museum park. This entire area used to be gold mines. There are lots of tunnels and old railways. Not for me today, I have climbing to do.

Nice view down to the ocean.

It is starting to get rocky and windy. I had to put my gloves on at this point and start using the ropes.

A bit more view. I will probably say that a few times today.

The rocky peak ahead, with the red warning sign. Look closely and you can see other people, they warned me it was very windy.

Inside the cave, looking for the opening to crawl out of. Excellent fun!

I am already looking wind swept, little did I know the wind up until now had been but a gentle calming breeze in comparison to what was to come.

I climbed out the last hole.

Picture of hole.

A bit more ocean before I start to go down to the terribly windy ridge joining two peaks.

It would have been impossible to get down without the rope. Eventually these ropes must wear out and break. Thankfully not today.

The back side of the teapot, doesnt look as steep in the photo. It never does.

More view. Yep, that view word again.

Actually this was still a calm before the storm as far as wind goes, it was very windy here, yes, but not windy enough to be picking rocks up off the ground and blowing them off the cliff.

Time to do some more climbing, I appreciated that there was no wind whilst climbing up this crevice.

I am at the top, in the wind, jesus christ.

The view was great but I had to crouch down and hang on.

Excellent photo of me getting wind blasted.

Finally some respite, in the form of a mossy valley below the ridge.

The worst of the wind was over, just this easy bit of path back to the road.

Finally back at the road, still windy at times, but less of an issue when you are not standing on a cliff hanging onto a rope.

Time to use the zoom and see how far it is back to Jiufen, about a 45 minute walk as it turns out.

Thats the path I took at the back of this photo. The rocky bit sticking up on the left was the cave hole, then over all those rocks hanging from ropes, and then back down the ridge line disappearing off the right edge of the screen.

And then I descended down a random stair case in the city built on the side of a cliff, and I was inside Jiufen old street. You can tell, because theres a huge penis sign.
'A piece of Gayke'??? Gay cake I guess. LGBTBBQXYZI is very trending news in Taiwan.

Old street is very popular with tourists, I must have looked a bit weird with hair going every which way, and sun screen running down my shirt.

The street seems longer than I remember, it snakes around on the edge of a cliff, I think there are tunnels but its hard to tell, a fascinating place.

Theres a bit of the city itself, not a great photo, light was no good.

One last photo of the view, this time with temples and an island. On a clear day it would be awesome.

As a reward for my climbing efforts today, a series of tiny white sandwiches. Delicious. These ones are better than yesterdays as there is no mystery salted possibly horse meat included, and no mayonaise.
Mayonaise on a sandwich is worse than salted horse.

Ximending movie street, not the busiest street in Ximending.

Behind the Taipei main station is a busy dense area of streets with mainly Japanese restaurants, lots of good places to eat here.
In addition to the good places, they also have both Yoshinoya and Sukiya.

There is also the Taiwan locomotive railway lunch box. This is not uncommon in Taiwan, there are a few similar brands. Someome liked the train lunch boxes so much they started a restaurant based on the concept.
I recall in Kaohsiung there is a similar one called the Kaohsiung airline catering company, in case you really like plane food.

Under these streets behind the station is a labyrinth of funky little restaurants, I had no idea any of this was here.

My ramen from Ippudo was amazing. I asked for whatever was spiciest, and it was indeed spicy. The red stuff is really spicy red miso I guess, or just plain chilli, and the noodles were awesome.
I also got an entire pickled cucumber thing cause ramen has no real vegetables on its own.
Highly recommended! Its above the main train station for future reference.

To get back to my hotel I walked along the underground subway malls, which had an exhibition of a lego competitor featuring manga girls.

This one was the best in my opinion, the books and bookshelves are also made from the lego knock off.

Eventually along this mall thing you get to a new station, built for the recently opened airport MRT, when they excavated to build it they uncovered ancient ruins. So now you can stand on them and take photos.

All these people are eating Ay-Chung flour rice noodles from 1975, out of paper cups. I had a closer look, they only serve the one thing, 2 sizes, and its just plain noodles in plain looking liquid, nothing else.

Welcome to try to eat.
This store welcomes to deposit an article.

Nearby is the creative artists park in an old building, I think I went here once on a previous trip. A good place to buy gifts from.

They also have a cat.

One last one of these for the evening, maybe the best yet!

Looking forward to that myself.