Day 2 Wed 14/10 - Assembling the bike settling down in Shulin

John and his housemate girfriend Caro Lin both went to work in the morning.He is a travel agent while she work in the office.John has big ambition to be his own boss and plan to open up his budget hostel in Taiwan. His ultimate target is an outlet within 100km vicinity.I wish him good luck ,focus to get the first one up then I will invite my Malaysian cyclists to support him. John and Caro had recently riding tandem from Singapore to Dubai in 400 over days.AS usual,being a tour cyclist themselves ,they know how to support another cyclist. My recumbent bike was ok except for the seat ,the pvc cover has some torn lines,no big deal, I just need to patch up with some tapes.And within 2 hours the bike was done and ready to be tested. John came back earlier,took me for late lunch,coffee while waiting for Johan Chew ,one of the beijing2paris cyclist who wanted to meet me.Johan was a young guy who just completed his one year national service.He plan to cycle in England this November ( winter ? very brave guy ) just to meet his girlfriend there! Later we went to a commercial fishing outlet and spent 3 hr prawn fishing for NT300 ,we caught around 20 prawns and BBQ with 2 bottles of Taiwan Gold medal Beer,according to John ,this is the best beer here that won the gold medal. This was follow by dinner a few shops away, steamboat of Duck in Ginger . Oh...., Yummy .Taiwan foods are delicious that came in many varities,styles.

Taiwan Gold medal award winning beer with the BBQ prawns

John Chiang and Johan Chew (spec) fishing prawn in an commercial outlet - a popular past time  hobby in Taiwan

   Its fun and this need not only skill but luck too .

                                 Steamboat Duck in Ginger pot

Day1 Tue 13/10 - Lcct to Taipei and The Unexpected U-Turn

                        
Thank you again Mr Foo  for sending me to Lcct Airport at 6am.Also thanks to his son Sean Jin who cannot make it due to not feeling well after long haul from London.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            My airasia flight on Airbus 300 was sceduled to take off at 10am and expected to arrive at Taipei Taoyuan airport 2.40pm . Everything were smooth from check-in to boarding ,no problem and the plane also take off sharp at 10am. After 30min , the Kapten announced that  the plane had to return to Lcct due to a minor technical problem in the hydraulic system. All passengers were told to remain calm and assured the plane will safely touch down in Lcct. Yes, everyone did look ok on the face,but who knows how their hearts feel. For me,a frequent Airasia customer,this is my first experience and frankly I feel worried as I don,t want to end here . I still had many many more places to see. Thank God ,the plane finally landed safely and all passengers were directed to the boarding room while the plane under repair. The start of long wait and packed lunch of burger plus mineral water were provided to all the hungry passengers. When everyone feel boring and tiring of waiting,came the announcement that the ill-fated plane was abandoned and replaced with another Airbus 300 scheduled to leave at 4pm. The new plane has no problem this time and finally arrived in Taipei at 9pm. John Chiang was my warmshower host and he informed me to take the Airbus ( NT 135) to Yongning MRT and then took a cab (NT 145) to his walk up flat on the 4th floor. We had supper nearby and shower before retiring earlier.

Queing up for the pack lunch - burger and mineral water

Taipei Taoyuan Airport taking bus to Shulin fare NT135

Resting in my Warmshower host John Chiang 4th Floor Flat

John helps me to plan out my route