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Day 2 - 30 July 2017 - Riding around Taiwan - Kaohsiung to Kenting



Woke up really early on the following day and I was the first customer for the hotel breakfast at 6.30am. I probably would still be the first even if they start serving breakfast from 5am because I  woke up at 4.45am.

Checked on the weather and it appears that the HAITANG typhoon have changed direction and moved towards north of Taiwan instead of just cutting through from SE to NW. Nevertheless, it certainly has passed Kaohsiung. The NESAT typhoon will hit Kenting on late afternoon so I must reach there before the typhoon strikes. The hotel I have booked at Kenting is 100km away and going by conservative estimate speed of 50km/hr, I should reach there in about 2 hours. I rest assured to myself that there are ample time. The plan is to reach Kenting and let NESAT pass Kenting. Then I should be able to steer clear of typhoon for the next few days.

Did my final packing and checked out of the hotel. Very slight drizzling outside and I put on my raincoat. The odometer reads  24,592 as I commence my journey at about 8.30am.

Getting out of Kaohsiung is a breeze, light traffic once you get out of the city centre. When I reached this portion of highway 17, all vehicle stopped at one point and I wondered why. Until I squeeze my bike to the front, I realized that the highway was flooded !
That area was full of with small (fish?) ponds and the heavy rain brought by the typhoon probably have causes the water pond to overflowed into the highway.


So I have to do a U-turn exploring all other possibilities of bypassing this flood area. This pic shows the actual route I traveled and red circles indicate places where it was flooded. It was taken from Google map's timeline, it actually records all the routes you take everyday. I finally manage to navigate out of the flood zone using google map after trying out quite a few routes and made it to the highway 1.  Spent a full hour navigating the floods.


As I approach Kenting, the wind started to get strong. So are the waves at the beach.



Finally reached the hotel that I booked at around noon-time.
Every room is a nice wooden hut, you can park your bike right outside the room.





The wind got really strong and worrying that it might get dangerously strong later, I rode to a 7-11 convenience store nearby and bought both lunch and dinner together.






The convenience stores in Taiwan are amazing. They sell all sorts of food at very affordable prices. They taste really good too. For bikers like us, its a wonderful choice as you will pass through a lot of these stores along your way. They have seats for people to consume the food or drinks, and its air-conditioned.

The rest of the days were spent in the room watching TV and taking occasion peek at the typhoon through the window.






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