Cycling Trip to Taiwan: Day Three

Day Three started off with breakfast, which luckily was a far cry from what is typically served in Japan. We weren't served much, but the soup tasted good and the "one-sided" toast with the piece of hard-boiled egg on the side was a nice change from rice. (The following morning, at the next place we stayed at, we were also served the same kind of toast with a topping, and I saw the same thing at a buffet-style restaurant later during our trip, in Kaohsiung, so I figure that this kind of toast must be fairly popular in Taiwan.)

We originally expected the ride to (just north of) Hualien to be mostly flat, since we were going to be riding along the coast. At the party the night before, however, we were warned (correctly, I might add!) that the road was actually rather hilly, and that there were going to be about five up-and-downs along the way. Since we had just finished a fairly difficult 150 kms, we were kind of disappointed upon hearing that news. The next morning, however, with fresh bodies and plenty of fuel in the tank, we were looking forward to the day's challenge ... sort of.

We headed out fairly late (after 10 a.m.!), quickly found our road, and made good progress toward our goal. From what I remember, Joe and I both ate a bunch of snacks around lunchtime, rather than stopping for a meal, and we were simply pedaling along, taking in the sights, with Joe slightly ahead of me.

At around 12:15 p.m., after (what I believe was) the second of five climbs of the day, we rolled into one of the countless rundown towns that we rode past during the week. At one point, we heard music coming from down a side street to our right, so we decided to go check it out. It turns out there was a huge wedding party going on, and, just by staring long enough at the crowd (and being a couple of foreigners wearing weird clothing), we got ourselves invited in! That all started when this little kid came up to us and busted out this pose for my camera.

We certainly felt a bit awkward, not to mention under-dressed(!), but during our stays in Japan, we've both had plenty of these wow-look-at-the-foreigners-they're-like-celebrities-how-cool moments that we simply smiled at each other, shrugged, and walked right in.

Amazingly, we were led to a table at the very front of the place, right next to the stage, as if we had been invited and were part of the VIP crowd. The people at "our" table quickly made some room for us, plopped us down in chairs, and offered us food and drinks.

Even though I wasn't hungry, I was really looking forward to hanging out for a while, especially since I'd never been to a wedding, or a wedding party, in Japan. Furthermore, it's the rare times that you stumble upon these random events that makes traveling all the more fun and unusual. Joe, however, ever the wise one, advised that we get going after only a brief stay, since we had many kilometers ahead of us yet, including plenty of the "up" variety.

Therefore, after chatting with our tablemates, having a drink, nibbling on some sweets, and even posing for some pictures, (including one with this supposedly famous politician!), we hit the road again.

But first, a few notes: When the politician handed his business card to Joe, Joe summarily dropped it on the floor! Oops! As for me, well, after he handed his card to me, I have no clue where it went! I thought I eventually put it in one of my pockets, but for all I know, I left it on the table or also dropped it. That's why the politician we met will forever be referred to as "the politician."

Also, even though as we rode into town we noticed the road heading out of town was uphill, before we left we tried to confirm with some of the other guests that we indeed had quite a bit of climbing to go, since, if we didn't, we wouldn't need as much time to ride and could thus stay at the party longer. Well, the same guy who told us "the politician" was "famous" also told us that the rest of the road was actually "flat all the way."

That guy must have been a politician himself, since he told us what we wanted to hear. Just like the other politicians we met at the top (not!) of our climb the day before.

Using our better judgment, we decided we better believe the people we met at the Christmas party and boogie on outta there.