a few pix

h

i have been trying for days to add a few photos, now the syste

m is allowi

ng me to. 1st Day 8, Bin & Meng Yu by the shore, I lik

e this shot.

near te end

Another beach view before we got in the van to sightsee up Taroko Gorge  

wait until i post the wide angle shots from my Nikon, for now, cell shots cuz the blog & phone are both google, hence they work together.

done, Ten Days, 95% of the Coast biked

for some reason I can't post pictures from my phone so until I get to a real computer
this tiny smartphone keyboard will have to do, lack of spell check & all.
So beautiful, the East Coast has marble cliffs into the Pacific that rival any on HI. but we had to do them in the van because the cyclist organization needed to get back to Taipei.
but at least Juanjuan & I rode as much as
we could. throughout much of the trip the others would ride in the van. Bin rode the most because when you smokes cigs every chance to can you can't expect to be able to ride 1,400ft passes, let alone 100km stretches of beach. Meng Yu? She rode plenty for a 12 yr old. Xia & Li Yun , they did ok but the ride was about Juanjuan & I was not going to ride on thw van.

day 7 the East Coast

Bin with tomorrow's appetizer, the Taiwanese are very Chinese & pig's knuckes are a populer start to a meal

they also love their scooters

the East Coast is a real tropical paradise, tall coastal mountains & nice beaches

today the mountakn stage

today will be the hardest part  120+KM, just Juanjuan & me, I hope this will not be the last photo ever taken of us

at the beach

yesterday we finnally reached the Southern tip of Taiwan, here is the statue,

this part of the country is the 1st time we have experienced beach culture, even though the whole island is tropical. here a 7-11 by the shore with Meng Yu, 

Beach culture or not, these people are not poor, here is a typical home,

& the food is Chinese all the way, here, the end of another greag dinner, with all the shrimp heads sitting on the table,

Day 5

the bikepath S along the W coast was very bike friendly, even if you are a human & not a lobster

this temple has 2 large sleeping rooms upstairs & we were the only ones.

Day 3 evening.

the Tropic of Cancer, 23.5 N. now the tropics, is it just me or is it getting hot around here?

this evening we made it to the Navy base at Tainan, the southern big city. tonight the southern tip of the country cooinciding

Day 4 at the Taiwan Navy Shipyard

finnally back on line after 4 days. so much to add later when I get to a real computer & not this cell phone. As we left Taipei we did pass the "Little Dingdong Science Center seen here,

please don't think that I have a joke here.

But I have failed to explain our tea
m yet, of course the famous Yu Juanjuan of this & other blogs (more on that soon) & me  Phil. We are 7 total so her brother Bon is biking, barely, as his his wife Xia (shiaa) on the middle here, daughter 12 yr old Meng Yu & Li Yin, seen standing & lauging

We are going down the west Coast 1st, on the Taiwan Strait, facing China but too far away to see anything. very urban & developed. Taiwan is the same as China if China were civilized  clean, I could go on & on, just enjoy this picture of clean fruit,

BTW, that is Juanjuan & Bin. This is day 2 & this street market helped make up for the sleazy hotel with the two-bit hookers hanging out in the lobby. One of my favorite things about Taiwam is how, unlike China, when a motorist sees a biker they actually hit their brakes, amazing. Evening 3 was at this temple, a big open sleepong room & we were

Day 1 Juanjuan's birthday

this is pretty I can blog & upload photos directly from my phone.

well I'll make this a quickie. day 1, 

Juanjuan's 54th birthday, Sept. 26, 2012 & we biked 58 epic Km. falls galor, 2 people already riding in the van. Below is our start in Taipei (yes in Chinese it is Taibei) 

theCyclist Federation has rented us these bikes & we have a van & driver. 

Taiwan coming up

In September Yu Juanjuan and family will be biking around Taiwan. A Thousand Kilometer, 600+Mile bike trip to "complete the Chinese map". This will coincide with the near completion of Juanjuan's book about her 25,000 mile/40,000 Km bike ride around mainland China's border.

Juanjuan's birthday is September 26th, so this will be the auspicious start of the trip. Down the urbanized West coast, then after 5 days up the wild steep East coast.