Sunday, January 30, 2005

Biking trip: 3rd day

This day we woke up to some great breakfast- the host prepared some sandwich, soymilk(or milk tea)and some bread and a toaster. I'd say it's very good, expecially the toast. What's incredible is that when we woke up, our team leader(he calls himself "anyway"...)has just got back from where I checked yesterday. What an early bird!

Then we took everybody through the rice paddys, pass the smelly rivers across fields of flowers into the mountains where we would play some games. First stop is "bike assembly and sprint race". I'd like to say sorry here because it is I, who layed out the race route, which is so short that only the "bike assembly" part matters, if your bike acted up and you finished the assembly slower, the speed of the sprint afterwards just didn't matter. Because the brake wire got lose, our bike took longer to put together, which put our teem at 3rd place. However, we are good at the other 4 games, which ridiculously made us one of the 2 teems with the highest overall score. But we lost a final round which made us 2nd place.



The waterfall was great, but somehow I was so tired after the games that I nearly fell asleep on a rock.

Then, with a tired mind, but my legs still paddling, we rode on another small route through the rurel country. Yes, I know it's beautiful, but I'm sort of getting tired of those little yellow flowers(油菜花), 'cause they're just everywhere. And my mind is just a blank, not knowing where I'm riding to, just keep on paddling. I didn't even realize people are singing all along.

Oh well, some how I made it with everyone else to the "welcome to Taitung" post. We had some rest and took some photos. Then everyone went on to the next stop, while I waited for a friend to fix his derailer. We chased on afterwards at a high speed of about 30km/hr, but didn't know the way once we got to the town since the others were long gone. But another guy who is with us catcher-ups suggested that they must be at the place where they have the best food(池上便當). And sure enough, they were all there.

After dinner, we were supposed to ride in the night to guanshan(關山), where we would spend the night. On the order of our teem leader, we, teem 2, rode in a stright line, everybody with their designated place. To my surprise, it really reduces drag, increases efficiency, keeps even the ones without a headlight on the right route, and , with the help of a down hill, the whole teem could finish the trip with a whooping average of 30km/hr and arive at the destination together, no one left out. Just incredible.

We went to a web cafe to do our class selection, which is a new experience. However, I don't like it. The place has a heavy small of tabacco, sticky keyboards and mouse, slow connection, and the "one hour" time limit actually ends in less then 50 minutes according to my watch, now that really sucks.

The accomadation is the worst of the trip. Dirty slipers, cranky sofa, small and creppy room , a TV that is so old that can only tune to 7 channels and one bathroom every floor with a tilled bath tub. Oh well, guess that's a way to save money.

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