taipei city altitude的八卦，Yahoo名人娛樂都在討論

Saving the best for last 😍😍😍
Here with Taiwan's hottest biker chicks Cynthia Wang and 王晨飄, both proud owners of a Ducati 959 Panigale and Aprilia RSV4!!

Staying warm together in the 14°C chilly weather with some really good hot chocolate and talking about everything under the sun, before catching the last flight back home to Singapore! 😀

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Woke up at 3:00am to catch the train from Alishan to Zhu Shan to catch the sunrise. It was pretty cold at 5 deg. Too bad it was a little cloudy but still a breathtaking sight to behold.

Thankfully tho, we were just in time for the Alishan Flower Season where we saw lots of pretty cherry blossoms, so incredibly beautiful as we slowly make our way down the mountain from Alishan and on towards Tai Chung!

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From Kenting, we happily thought that Day 4 of our ride to Alishan mountain will take us just 4 hours via the Freeway.

Turns out, it ended up as my first time involved in a high speed chase here in Taiwan because we were on the Freeway towards Chiayi where motorcycles are actually not allowed on.

Best part was I had no clue the police was chasing with his loud speaker on behind as I was happily throttling off on the Freeway, taking photos, and listening to my favourite "That's What I Like" Bruno Mars song until the rear view of my friends were replaced with a BMW with red/blue blinker lights right behind me 😂

On a serious note, I would like to genuinely apologize for my route mistake, and would like to take this opportunity to commend the police officer who stopped us as he exercised so much grace, understanding and hospitality toward us that left us speechless. He carefully explained the road rules for motorcycles here in Taiwan, and showed us the right route to take to Alishan.

He even left his phone number before wishing us a safe and enjoyable journey as we continued our way up over 2,000m above sea level to Alishan Mountain with nothing but smiles in our helmet and a thankful heart!

Full details will be up on the blog.

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From the Northernmost part of Taiwan to the Southernmost, after doing more than 500km of both mountain and coastal roads, we are finally soaking up some sun here at Kenting on Day 3 of our ride!

The beach here is gorgeous, the weather is perfect, a great getaway from the hustle and bustle of city life.

Taking it all in, falling asleep to the sound of the gentle waves, before we prepare ourselves for the ascend of up to more than 2,000metres in altitude for the next day's ride, to Alishan!

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Cloudy on the second day of our ride but at least it stopped raining! Exploring the magnificent Taroko Gorge, riding alongside an abundance of all that natural marble and gushing river before making our way down South to Kenting! The Hawaii of Taiwan 😀

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First day of our ride saw 7 straight hours of rain as we made our way from Taipei to Hualien. The coastal roads were beautiful as it overlooked the gorgeous Pacific Ocean, but before that was carefully getting through more than 100km of slippery mountain corners.

My arms got so tired from gripping the bars too tightly because I tend to tense up from the phobia of skidding off sharp corners especically when the roads are wet :/

Gloves are completely damped and it's gonna feel oh so gross stuffing my hands into them for the next day's ride! 😂

Let's hope the weather improves for the second day of our ride!

www.vaunephan.blogspot.sg
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Arrived in Taipei safely and all ready for the ride!!

First time riding a motorcycle in Taiwan and rain or shine, cold or hot, we're gonna tour around almost the whole of this beautiful country through gorgeous mountains curves and coastal roads lining the Pacific Ocean with temperatures averaging at 14°C.

Ride for the trip - The Aprilia Shiver 750!
Much thanks to my local friend, Jason, for arranging the bikes!

First leg of the journey - Taking it easy with 181km from Taipei City to Hualien!
Clocking another adventure in 2017! Leggooooo!

www.vaunephan.blogspot.sg

Riding under endless rows of cherry blossoms in Alishan up over 2,000m in altitude before sweeping down to Tai Chung, and wrapping up a wet ride back to Taipei city where we returned our bikes, full story on our entire #7DaysAroundTaiwan on two wheels is finally completed!

It has been one hella ride and I'm definitely coming back to Taiwan again for more!!

好幾天沒更新了，轉眼間已經走完這趟旅行的前1/3了，也已經跑完烏茲別克和吉爾吉斯準備要入境中國了，但動態更新竟然還停在第四天。為了避免因趕文章進度而一直活在過去，這裡簡單總結一下前幾天的行程。

It's been a while since my last update. I have finished the first 1/3 of the trip, visited Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, and am going to enter China tomorrow. Here I'd like to quickly summarize what I did in the past few days, as I don't have time to make up in details.

拜訪絲路古城希瓦（Khiva）、布哈拉（Bukhara）
Visited Silk Road ancient cities Khiva and Bukhara

這兩個城市過去都是汗國的都城，因此保留了許多中亞與伊斯蘭風格的建築。「汗國」這名詞聽起來可能很遙遠（成吉思汗時代的產物），其實不然，中亞的汗國政體一直存在到1920年代被蘇共廢除為止，距今還不到一百年，這也是為什麼這些已經存在幾世紀的建築能被完好保存至今。

Khiva and Bukhara were both capitals of khanates until 1920, when Soviet Communist Party abolished them. The age of khans is actually not that far from us. Consequently, many Turkic and Islamic architectures are well preserved in these cities until now.

用三天時間品味鐵木兒帝國首都撒馬爾罕的輝煌
Enjoying Timur empire capital Samarkand for 3 days

我對中亞的第一印象應該是國中時在國家地理雜誌上看到的照片，一座方正的廣場上，三幢華麗的經院建築面向廣場中間三面並立，繁複的拼貼磁磚與渾圓的尖頂是我未曾見過的，中亞的伊斯蘭風味從那時起就吸引了我，這趟總算可以見到本尊。稱撒馬爾罕為15世紀的巴黎一點都不為過，中亞規模最大的伊斯蘭建築都聚集在這個城市；這裡到今天仍然朝氣蓬勃，即使待了三天也不覺無聊。

My first impression of Central Asia was from Samarkand, where around a square stand three madrassases with delicate tiles and rounded domes. Since then, Central Asia has been attractive to me. In 15th century, this city was as important as Paris, and today this is the place to find the biggest and most splendid Islamic architectures in Central Asia. Today it's still a vibrant city, and I didn't feel bored after spending 3 days there.

進入吉爾吉斯，在比什凱克（Bishkek）遇見台北
Entering Kyrgyzstan, and encountering Taipei in Bishkek

塔什干到比什凱克是行程中除往返外的唯一一趟飛行，之所以不走陸路是為了要以電子簽證入境，但電子簽證目前只開放機場入境。這趟飛完，下次再踏上飛機就是在芬蘭赫爾辛基了。

吉爾吉斯在中亞五國裡面經濟算後段班，但首都仍然是個活力十足的地方，隨處可見的行道樹與綠廊是它與眾不同之處。有趣的是這裡高層公寓與傳統矮房並立，而且居民似乎相當熱衷於裝鐵窗和外掛冷氣，乍看之下還以為回到了台北。

The flight from Tashkent to Bishkek is the only non-over-land segment on my trip, and I did so in order to obtain Kyrgyzstan's e-visa, which now only opens to air passengers. After this flight, the next one would be one month later from Helsinki, Finland.

Kyrgyzstan's economy is not great compared to other Central Asian countries, but its capital still flourishes and looks appealing. Greenways and street plants make its appearance especially unique. New high-rise apartments and old low houses both exist here, and interestingly, just like my hometown Taipei, they also like to protect windows with rails and have ACs hung outside buildings. While seeing this scene, sometimes I thought I was back in Taipei.

在頌湖（Son Kul）體驗遊牧民族生活
Nomadic life at Son Kul

頌湖是吉爾吉斯第二大湖，雖然規模遠遠不及第一大湖，3000多公尺高海拔的純淨藍天配上周遭保存至今的游牧傳統讓我將它列為必遊之地。前往此湖的熱門方式是向旅行社買套裝行程，由當地牧人當嚮導用兩天時間騎馬翻山來到湖邊，然後居住在居民的蒙古包裡體驗他們的生活和飲食。五月中旬來此還沒什麼遊客，當天參團的也只有我一個人，以費用來說是貴了點，但當我來到湖邊，一個人奢侈的享受整個湖的時候，我覺得非常值得。

Son Kul is the second largest lake in Kyrgyzstan. While being outsized by the first, its pure sky at high altitude and nomadic lifestyle made me decide to put it on my "must-go" list. People usually go on tours arranged by agents, where a local guide leads you to ride horses for two days and cross over mountains, and then after arriving at the Lake, you can stay in yurts and experience the life and cuisine of the locals. As it was fairly early in season, I was the only tours that day, which means I had to pay a bit more. However, as soon as I got to the lake and felt the solitude, I thought it was totally worth the price.

下一站
Next stop

離開頌湖之後我一直在搭車——先是2小時下山、3小時回到首都，接著馬上是15小時的夜車從北跨到南部大城奧什（Osh），然後再3.5小時到達今晚過夜的Sary-Tash，一個位在帕米爾高原上海拔3170公尺的小鎮，準備明天一早翻過山進入新疆喀什。從山上下來又搭夜車，已經連續四個晚上沒洗澡了，期待明天到達喀什可以好好給他洗洗睡 :)

明天就要進入五聲音階（CDE_GA_）的國度了，祝我的VPN運作順暢。

Since leaving Son Kul, I've been riding vehicles: 2 hours to get out from the lake, 3 hours to go back to Bishkek, which was followed by a 15-hour night ride from Bishkek to Osh, and then a 3.5-hour ride to Sary-Tash, where I will spend my night at. Tomorrow I'll leave in early morning to enter China via Pamir Highway. My destination is Kashgar. It's been 4 days since the last time I got a shower. Looking forward to doing that in Kashgar tomorrow :)