Bike Ride Alone

My bike with saddle bags




Selfie - I cannot believe the huge zit is on the tip of my nose 

During my 2 week break in Taipei, I was really bored and Grace's brother suggested that I do a bike ride from Hualian to TaiDong. 180Km and if I do it in 3 days that's going to be relax and interesting. I started from Hualian picked up my bike around 11am - by the time I reached the town I am supposed to stop for the night, it is only 1pm. I decided to go further to the next town, it is only 43pm. Oh well, it is only 9km to the next big town (later I realized it is only to the boarder of the county), I decided to go for it. That was a mistake because I actually biked for 15km up to the hill and by the time I reach the town it was around 5:30pm and raining. I found a small hotel and spent the night. I woke up very early the next day (didn't sleep very well) and set off around 6am. The weather was not that great and I can only keep biking. I reach Taidong around 3pm, biked for 95km and had a big lunch. I then decided to take a train back to Taipei that very night, my parents are both very happy because they didn't like the idea for me to bike alone to begin with.

Waitomo NZ (3)

We met the Martyn, Sue, the kids and Douche in Matamata.  The problem in Matamata is there is no good food at all (I think that's the problem with NZ in general - but we found a great Indian restaurant in Auckland near Jon's place).   Holiday making with St. John's is to go hiking, go biking, then swimming, picnic for lunch, tea in the afternoon and card games at night.  Of course Douche hanging around.  Pretty fun - the only problem is I got sun burned so badly after a whole day's bike ride, I had to use olive oil as face cream. 

Waitomo NZ (2)

Scooter for sale?

The B&B we booked in Waitomo was run by an old couple, English, migrated to Australia (math teacher if I remember it correctly) and moved to NZ for retirement.  Amazingly beautiful garden, the 8 room establishment extends up to the hills, flowers, grapes, fruits are everywhere.  We had breakfast prepared by Collin - he made this plum marinated which is delicious, I think Jon got himself a number of helps.  English breakfast - Jon's softest spot.  To me, the super hot noodles soup or rice is more like my cup of tea.  Ah again, tea for English...

We went to the cave adventure guided tour.  Emma and Mike took us through the cave.  We first roped down 50 meters into the bottom of the cave, then flying fox over the dark.  Glow worms decorated the peach black cave they look like stars!  Emma and Mike fed us hot chocolates and then pushed us down the 10C water (ok, not push but we have to jump into the water with the tube under our bums), lots of climbing, swimming, eating chocolate.  We all have the 10mm wetsuit on but we still need to keep moving to keep warm.  The only problem is when you need to pee. 

We left Waitomo to meet up with Mart and Sue at Matamata.

Waitomo NZ (1)

Coming out from the cave

Great little car

I came to Auckland after New Year I was only allowed to take vacation then because I had to run a couple of projects while everyone else went on vacation.  Jon flew back to NZ a couple months earlier.

Summer in Auckland was warm and sunny - we did a few things around the town (had the ride on Jon's scooter to the beach) then we packed up to go to Waitomo because Peggy recommended it. 

Our transportation is Jon's little white 2 door car with 200 or 300K under the belt, the driver side door handle is dangling almost wanted to claim independence (I had to keep an eye on it while driving in case it flies off) and it has only 4 gear wow, amazing - I love this little white Toyota.  It is big enough to stuck a bike, rollerskates and all our gear - 2 computers and stinky undies in the back. 

We drove through Raglan and that other little coastal village.  Beautiful beach but it has turn much commercialized so we drove further down south inching close to Waitomo.  We stopped by a big sand dune beach - before the beach, pine plantation turned sands into forest for miles.  Shallow rooted pine seems to adapt to the sandy soil very well.  We walked over the huge sand dune finally get to see the flat huge black sand beach.  Only a few people around, some of them carried spade start digging holes in the beach. 

Jon explained that NZ people like to build sand castle for kids to play, some times adult plays also.  When ties come in and sand castle crumbles and it is time to go home. 

After the big black sand beach we stopped a little town Kawhia and jumped from the pier with the local kids.  We checked with a local old guy standing around the pier to see it is safe to swim across the big river - he said yes.  So we jumped and started our challenge - it wasn't as easy as it seems.  The current is very strong and I got nervous so I signaled Jon that I wanted to turn back. 

After we got back to the pier the kids said to us they are told not to swim out and the old guy said he is quite happy that we decided to turn around.  Huh?  We started to chat and he explained the black sand beach is actually a natural hot spring beach.  People dig a bath at the beach to enjoy the hotspring, so much the castle story - I almost believe Jon's story.

Oxygen Canister

Strong wind we can bearly stand

Old town in Peng Hu

Very cute ladies

One week after heading back to Hong Kong from my Easter holiday break, I got a FB message from Mankit that Dad was admitted to the hospital due to lung problem. I had to fly back to sort out dad's bills, the oxygen machine to use at home, and the canister that he can carry around so that he can have some mobility. Jon's brother in law is the pediatrician saying in NZ normally doctors won't prescribe oxygen to smokers because they tend to blow themselves up.

Sambal Sauce (3)

Sambal Sauce (2)

One,

Two,

Three!

Batu cave is pretty amazing but we didn't want to join the cave tour. The Waitomo caving experience is really cool, didn't want to spoil the memory. We then drove to the port Dickson, it is said to be the beach resort KL people go to. Miles of miles of palm tree farms, original forest or vegetation has been completely cleared up. The water looks muddy, waves pushing mysterious bubbles into the flat sandy beach. We drove back to the hotel and dived into the swimming pool again. What else is left after the heavy industrialization? Where can people enjoy the nature or it is just too luxurious to think about nature. The cooking class is absolutely fun - we had great time learning the palm oil, sago and coconut milk. Shrimp paste, fresh chilly paste, shallots can turn into delicious sambal sauce which tasted great with shrimps (I am the fake vegetarian sometimes).

Sambal Sauce (1)

Cooking lesson, I am just being attacked by army of mosquitos at the same time.

Jon is forced to participate - he is the only man in the class oh wow.

We didn't do much on Easter holidays - this year in Hong Kong, good Friday and the Chin-Ming holidays together with the weekend means roughly 6 or 7 days off from work. So we got the most reasonable tickets to fly away, ending up in Kuala Lumpur (I was thinking about going to Honui, Vietnam but it is just not possible to get anything). I thought tropical weather, good food and night life, KL could be pretty good. We can then hire a car to drive to the beach, wow, perfect. It turned disastrous, the decision to hire a car. The highway signs are totally unfriendly and there are almost motors ways/toll roads everywhere. If you miss an exit, chances are you have to drive for miles to get back on and pay another toll. For a city of 1.5 million population, it has staggering amounts of toll road. It is obvious some money has changed hands due to these type of government own infrastructure construction. It took us 3 hours to get to the hotel (for a supposing 1.5 hour drive) the road sign shows to Kuala Lumpur but it is actually heading back to the airport, we were lost after hitting the first construction site. We had no map no smart phone, gas station do not sell maps because maps do not help. Sometimes you cannot find anyone speaking English because the gas station workers looks like new immigrants. We thought our nightmare is over when we drove around in the broad daylight - wrong. Again we were lost on the way to Batu Cave, which is supposingly 20 minutes drive away from the city center. It took us 2.5 hours to get there - it was a bit heart breaking to see the beautiful cave being cemented into a Hindu temple but what can you do.

Year 2015

The view from my balcony/living room.  That's kitchen plant, no name, harry and my new friend "co COO KOO". 

Being very lazy in updating my blog - quite a few things to record since Jan 2015.  I went to NZ to visit Jon and family.  Learnt what is river bashing (jump into the 10C clear water and being washed down by current - adrenaline rush makes you forget about the chill, in my case I was worried to death that if my bum is going to hit the rocks at the bottom) and exploring unconventional hiking trail (the family decided to get down the mountain via the water way, we climbed the rocks, slipped down the mud, dived into the river, waded across the stream to get back down the hills...).  We bid farewell to the family and went to do the caving in Waitomo.  Lots of crazy people in NZ I can only conclude. 

In February we went back to Taipei for Chinese New Year.  One thing we learnt is that all good restaurants are closed, only not so good restaurants are still running because they are desperate. 

In March I was forced to used up my vacation days that is 14 days.  Otherwise they will go expired before April.  I took 2 weeks off.  I took Mum (and group of Aunties, they would like to tag along because retirement is so boooooring) to Peng Hu - a little island west of Taiwan.  Beautiful small island, I was the tour guide, driver, travel agent.  All ladies were having great time despite the strong winds and empty street (not yet the hot season because of the strong north east wind, even the fishmen were at bay).  Very net and clean and lots of beautiful scenic sites. 

I was again pretty bored after the trip so I went on the 3-day bike ride by myself.  I hired the bicycle with saddle bags departing from HuaLian, thinking to finish the 180 KM tour reaching TaiDong on Monday but somehow I arrived TaiDong city center on the second day.  So I had to travel back to Taipei earlier but both dad and mum are happy that I came home early.  They are not happy I decide to bike alone. 

Now I am back to Hong Kong - my compost project is a great success without worm.  The first batch of tomato plants are growing pretty good.  I shall write some more about them later.