Day 7: 17 May 2023, Wednesday
It’s the 5th day of cycling, which means we’re halfway through our Tour de Taiwan adventure. We woke up at 6:00am to 25 degrees C weather and had our breakfast at 6:40am before going for our warm-up and briefing by Jeffrey for the day’s programme. For today, we will be cycling 100km from Kaohsiung to Hengchun (恆春). The terrain will be pretty similar to the previous days, about 90% flat and 10% hills. Compared to yesterday’s 121km, today’s ride should be easier, or so we thought. At 7:30am sharp, we set off.
As we cycled out of Kaohsiung, we had a good glimpse of what the city really looked like. We didn’t get to see much yesterday as we cycled in and it was dark by the time I headed out to explore after dinner. Kaohsiung is Taiwan’s third most populous city and the largest city in southern Taiwan. It is also Taiwan’s main port city. The towering skyscrapers and unique architecture of the buildings here reflect its status as an important economic centre and creative hub. Based on what I see, the city possesses a certain kind of buzz and looks like it will be worth a visit on its own.
We had our first break at 8:20am, at the 10km mark. Our rest stop was at Fei Feng Gong (飛鳳宮) temple. Chinese temples are a dime a dozen in Taiwan and even a seemingly random one like this is grand and filled with ornate carvings. I’m not a religious person but I enjoy visiting places of worship and admiring the building’s architecture and design. After a short 12-minute break, we resumed our ride.
It started to get hot at 9:00am. The previous days were overcast and today was the first time we had clear blue skies with zero cloud cover. We took our second break at 10:07am and it couldn’t come soon enough. Here at the 33.3km mark, we had arrived in Chaozhou Township (潮州) in Pingtung County (屏東).
Appropriately for the weather, our refreshment break was at Chaozhou Shao Leng Bing Shui (潮州燒冷冰水), a famous dessert shop established more than 50 years ago. Located at a prominent spot next to a small roundabout, the shop specialises in shaved ice dessert. But what makes it unique is that it is both hot and cold, with shaved ice on top and hot ingredients below. The hot ingredients include soft peanuts, glutinous rice balls, taro, red beans and mung beans.
Actually, the hot ingredients weren’t really hot because they were cooled by the ice, so it was just like a regular shaved ice dessert, similar to our ice kachang in Singapore. But we were grateful to have something cold and sweet on this scorching day. We resumed our ride at 10:41am and continued riding south towards Xinpi (新埤).
As we approached midday, the temperature rose to 31 degrees C. We hit a long stretch of highway where the feeble roadside trees didn’t provide any shade. We had quite a majestic view though, with the long mountain range on the left and its resultant chain of white clouds hovering above it providing a welcome change of scenery.
As the road was very straight and long, we were allowed to 自由发挥 and go “free and easy”. Those who wanted to challenge themselves broke from the pack and charged ahead while the rest of us cycled at our own pace, eventually catching up with the leaders. Because of the hot weather, we made a quick pit stop at a convenience store to grab some cold drinks before stopping for lunch at 12:15pm at the 61.5km mark, in Fangshan Township (枋山).
I didn’t manage to get the name of the restaurant but it was a regular meal stop for Giant Adventure. It also appeared to be popular with motorcyclists and motorcar club drivers, as evidenced by the many stickers plastered across its windows. As usual, lunch was a feast of roasted chicken, fried tofu, spinach and mixed vegetables, stir-fried cabbage, omelette and hot soup.
I also bought a mango smoothie from the stall next door to quench my thirst. Fangshan is famous for its high-quality Aiwen mango (爱文芒果), which is grown here in Pingtung County. Aiwen mango is renowned for its rich aroma, sweet taste and smooth flesh. Its appearance is quite special as it has a roundish shape and red outer skin. It was pure bliss as I slurped the smoothie down on this very hot day.
We resumed cycling at 1:30pm, stopping for another break half an hour later at the 74.1km mark, at Fangshan Recreation Area (枋山遊憩區). This was a scenic rest stop by the coast and we had a beautiful view of the South China Sea stretching as far as the eye could see. With the waves crashing gently against the pebble strewn beach, it was quite the perfect backdrop.
We always look forward to the breaks not only because we can rest but also because of the fresh fruits prepared by the Giant Adventure team. We’ve had different fruits every day so far – persimmon, guava, passion fruit, papaya and dragonfruit. Today, they prepared something different again – the honeydew was very sweet and a great energy boost for the last quarter of the ride.
We hit the road again at 2:20pm. We were allowed to go free and easy again as it was just one long, straight road mainly hugging the coastline. It was great because we could tackle the climbs at our own pace without cramping each other’s style. We occasionally had views of the sea and I savoured them as much as possible. The blue skies made the rippling waves look even more beautiful.
We had one last break at 3:08pm, at the 94km mark, at the Luo Shan Feng Recreation Area in Haikou. As we ate the sweet pineapples and rehydrated ourselves, the Giant team pumped the tyres and checked all our bikes one by one. Starting from tomorrow, we will be cycling on the east coast of Taiwan, which is mountainous compared to the west coast, which is mostly flat. Hence, they needed to make sure that all our bikes were in tip top condition for the second half of the trip, which will be much more challenging.
We resumed cycling at 3:40pm and arrived at our hotel in Hengchun, close to the southernmost tip of Taiwan, at 4:20pm. My Strava showed that we cycled a total distance of 106.52km today, with an elevation gain of 313m. Despite the distance being shorter than yesterday, today’s ride was much tougher because of the greater elevation gain (313m compared to 185m) and the scorching sun. The heat made it twice as tough and I was almost flat out by the time we reached the hotel. It was the most tiring day, but we also had the best scenery so far.
Our accommodation for the night, Grand Bay Resort, was pretty swanky, certainly the best hotel we’ve had up till now. Our room was huge and there were four single beds in the room, with additional space for a two-seater sofa in the balcony area. There was even a transparent spiral slide from the 8th floor to the 3rd floor, Taiwan’s longest indoor slide in a hotel. Fancy!
At 6:00pm, we had dinner at our hotel’s restaurant, a sumptuous 10-course meal with steamed fish, stir-fried green vegetables, chicken with peppers, cold dish, soup and more. The food provided on the tour has been top notch so far and tonight’s dinner was no exception.
Instead of the regular briefing by Jeffrey, Bryan conducted the briefing for tomorrow’s route. Bryan is the lead cyclist and he doesn’t usually speak much so it was nice that he conducted the briefing for once. He told us that tomorrow’s ride will be tough, with the big climb coming early as we ride to Shouka. He gave us three pointers – pedal, continue pedalling and pedal hard. Basically, just keep pedalling and pushing!
After lunch, there will be three small hills, with each hill having an elevation of about 100m. Bryan also pre-empted us that the roads tomorrow will be narrow and advised us that if we need to stop, to do so at a straight stretch and not at bends with blind spots. In summary, tomorrow will be the toughest day in terms of distance and elevation combined, so be prepared. At this halfway point, my body is holding up and I’m still feeling good, so bring it on!
After dinner, we put our clothes to wash then went out for a walk with Gary. There wasn’t much to see around our hotel so we visited the supermarket nearby and bought some papaya milk before heading back to collect our laundry. After packing our stuff, we hit the sack at 10:30pm. We were all tired from the ride so we fell asleep almost immediately. Sweet dreams before our uphill battle tomorrow!
