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Articles tagged with: South Cross-Island Highway Trip

SCIH 009 – Epilogue in Rainy Taipei

September 27, 2009 – 10:54 am
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Sunday September 27, 9:00 a.m.
Taipei, Taiwan
Well, here it is – the final installment in this long letter. I’ve come full circle and I’m back in Taipei. And, fittingly, it is raining outside. I say fittingly because I associate Taipei with rain. It always seems to rain here. Perhaps it is also raining down in Tainan where I just came from, but I doubt it. I …

SCIH 008 – Ramblings from 7-11 and a Train

September 25, 2009 – 10:37 am
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Friday September 25 11:00 a.m.
7-11 in downtown Tainan
You’ll probably laugh to see that I am back in a 7-11. Do I ever leave these places? I actually tried very hard to go somewhere else this morning for a cup of coffee. I wanted to go to a local type of place, but all of the ones in this neighborhood only have outdoor seating. It’s extremely …

SCIH 006 – Road Ends at a Ghost Town

September 25, 2009 – 8:54 am
Bridge Destroyed by Typhoon Morakot

The real fun began a few kilometers later. I was “zooming” along on my bike when I passed a big earth mover. As I passed it, I heard a voice shout something at me, and a second later, I was at the base of a huge pile of rubble blocking the road. It seemed that I’d found the end of the road. And it really …

SCIH 007 – Back To Tainan

September 24, 2009 – 10:34 am
Too Hot for a Cotton T-shirt Today

Thursday September 24, 2009 1:30 p.m.
Moogo Drinks – Tainan
I just ordered a milk tea and I’m waiting with great anticipation for it to arrive. I had planned to get an iced coffee or something at this place called George’s Fine Coffees. I went by the place half a dozen times my first day in Tainan. I thought it would be a great place to sit …

SCIH 005 – Typhoon Damage

September 23, 2009 – 8:46 am
My Rocky Mountain Bike With Arkel Panniers

Wednesday September 23, 2009 11:00a.m.
At the 7-11 back in Chiahsien
This may be a bit confusing, but I am back in Chiahsien and back at the 7-11. And it is only 11 in the morning and I’m done cycling for the day. So what the heck happened?
Well, quite a bit happened. For one thing, I got a forceful reminder of another thing that one should always …

SCIH 004 – Into the Mountains

September 21, 2009 – 4:30 pm
Bridge Washed Away by Typhoon Marakot

Monday September 21 4:30 p.m.
7-11 in Chiahsien, Taiwan
It was a good day of cycling. It had many of the elements that make for a good day of cycling – including the feeling that the day was much longer than it actually was. It feels like Tainan was a long time ago. It feels like I’ve been traveling for a long time and over a very …

South Cross-Island Highway 003 – Anping District, Tainan

September 20, 2009 – 11:13 pm
Map of the Anping District in Tainan

Sunday September 20, 2009 8:30 a.m.
Dining Room of the Ta Lee Hotel – Tainan, Taiwan
When I checked in yesterday, they said something about breakfast, but I didn’t really understand it. When I came down this morning, I was very surprised to find a very nice buffet breakfast laid out in a dining room. Had I known that all of this was down here, I would …

South Cross-Island Highway 002 – Tainan & Chihkan Tower

September 19, 2009 – 11:09 pm
Chihkan Tower, Tainan

September 20, 2009
Well, I made it to Tainan without incident. The train just raced through the countryside stopping here and there. It was pretty effortless and painless. I can’t say that the scenery was anything to write home about. The east coast of Taiwan is quite scenic. There are mountains and steep cliffs and that sort of thing. But the west part of the island …