Today's Temp : 23 - 30c
Average Speed : 12.1 kph max: 40.9
Time On Bike : 5 hr 10 min
Average Climb : max: 4%
Total Altitude : max: 1316 m
Today's Spending : NTD 150
Total Distance Todate : 207.6 km
Total Spending Todate : NTD 556
After 2 nights of camping in the moutain wilderness,a free stay in the worker's room of Ilan Junior High School is a welcome sign. At first I was only aiming for the school compound to camp, the school hour already over as it was already 3.30pm and did not see any students around. I approached a lady in her 50s who was lawn moving the grass in the field.She was very friendly when I introduced myself, she lead me to the school office to see the person in charge Mr Lee and without any hesitation, I was given the empty worker's room to stay only for one night,I had to leave latest by 7.30 in the morning before the school starts at 8. Important thing is I get to charge up my camera and handphone batteries .Being fluent in Mandarin has certainly added advantage for me here in Taiwan. Many Taiwanese especially in the rural areas are surprised that Malaysian can speak equally Mandarin like them. And what I noticed so far, Malaysian and Taiwanese spoken mandarin in term of sound and way,are more or less the same.Back to the ride today, started early at 7.45am,a breeze downhill to Sanggung and then up again to Baling joining the main road of Beibu Kong Lu route 7 and then down again to a beautiful Baling bridge, in fact 2 of them,one old and one new. A few workers weres busy painting the old bridge and I was stopped as the other end was closed. So back to cross at the new bridge. Mingchih National Forest Recreational Area,another tourist park with accomodation facilities was quite quiet in week days. Tomorrow's route continues to be down slope and will join up with Route 7A with the Lanyang River.
