頭城休閒農場～阿嬤的家

Hello,

 　　　We managed to arrive to Taiwan; instead of flying Nouméa à Osaka à Taipei as planned, we had to do Nouméa à Brisbane (1 night at the hotel) à Cairns à Hong Kong à Taipei.

Two days before our departure, Aircalin plane got broken and it has to stay in Osaka for a week to get fixed. So we flew with Cathay Pacific.

We arrived Saturday 29th around midnight at Taipei airport. The day before, from Nouméa I had sent a fax to let the rental car company about our delay (we should have arrived at 13:00); and a car was waiting for us. While I was setting up the car paper work, I asked about a hotel that would be open (about 2 hours later) at Jiaosi (Lan Yang Spring Resort); and in the meantime Laurent had collected our luggage and nothing was broken (surf board and kitesurf).

　　　So there we were driving in the middle of the night to avoid day traffic and to start to familiar our self to the Taiwanese way of driving. We managed pretty well to find the hotel and after a good shower we fold asleep around 3:00 am.

　　　On waking, Chinese breakfast quite good (but we will get better ones). We decided to check-out at 12:00 pm (the check-out time). But before and as we had a wooden bath tub in our room with water that was going from a thermal source, we decided that we definitely should spoil our self by using it! Before going into a tropical rainy drive.

We were looking for some surf spots and a hotel. For the surf, no problem; a lot of nice waves, but for the hotel; a lot of searching, back and forth, stops, requests to people that couldn’t speak English to finally end up in a huge farm where the young manager (a lady) came to collect us at a meeting point in spite of all the people she was receiving (on Sunday all is full).

　　　As soon as our stuffs were in the room and without doing the check-in, we went surfing at sunset time to decompress from this special day. The water temperature was at 26°C. And the exterior temperature was about 29°C. This climate reminds us of the one in French Guyana.

Since then happiness! Every day very interesting meetings. Taiwanese are kind and helpful, food is great, and waves are here, friendly surfers, temples everywhere, cities with histories, and an incredible mess on the roads…

Monday, as we were taking outside pictures of a temple, some ladies ask us to come in. One of them guides us to pray. When we were leaving, the ladies were saying something and as we couldn’t understand, one of them took my hand to show me some food; they wanted to offer us food; but we were already full from our superb breakfast!

Laurent sold one of his all surf boards and bought another one in the same shop; the deal was made in English, Chinese and drawings to explain what he was looking for; a lot of fun and kindness.

　　　As we were coming back from our shopping, our hosts took us to a restaurant that the owner, the brother-in-law, opened just for us: magnificent! A recent construction in a tree ferns garden, wooden floor at the entrance and then grey paving stones made out of solidified volcanic ash, diner and services were great. At the same time, we did get some Chinese lessons that would help us in our future meals!

Thursday, Laurent surfed with his new surf board, in a good swell and the result was excellent. He is short of training regarding his arms and shoulders to be at the top of his form, but it will come.

For me, it is quite hard as they are several sand bars to pass over and my leash is quite small, so I’m scare to dive under the big waves. So I only took the small ones.  I will have to buy a surf board leash for big waves even if I have a body board.

　　　As we were walking in the centre of Toucheng, our host (that was passing by) told us that we were right beside a small street that was 100 years ago a river! And then, in that street, a lady on her bicycle came to us and « obliged » us to follow her to show us the very old houses!

Little info, our taste buds were non stop stimulated by the good smell in the streets!

　　　For the supper, we were with a group of retired people that was doing karaoke during the diner: excellent. Ten dishes followed each other on our table; we got full of great food. Some old persons were laughing at Laurent when he was trying to get some of the sleek food with his chopsticks!

　　　In the evening, our hosts invited us at their house. We came with our laptop to show them some pictures from South Africa and New Caledonia.

　　　They told us that when they pronounce: Laurent, the sound of it means rainy day in Chinese!