Motorcycle Touring Here We Come

After all the paperwork hell and everyone medling in our affairs, we finally have a motorcycle. We picked it up last week and took it for a quick drive; it was a very nice night. It is a 2010 Hartford 150cc. It was previously owned by a girl who barely rode it, only 2,200km on it, and it has never been in an accident.

On the following Sunday we drove it to Taichung city, about two hours away (but it took us a bit more than that because we didn't quite know the roads), to meet some potential tutoring jobs for Matthew. My butt was pretty sore by the time we got there. I got to stretch my legs and visit the 24 hour pet shop. There was a little piggy I liked, but she's not there anymore (or at least not that day).

The ride back was better, we tried to avoid the downtown areas through all the cities. They have weird rules here, and unless you have a motorcycle that is over 500cc, you cannot drive on any highways or something. They have a difference between highways, expressways, freeways, and on some of them two wheeled vehicles are allowed and all the rest they are not; it's confusing. So we pretty much avoid all "fast" roads that are 100km or more. So, obviously it takes us more time than a car to get somewhere, but motorcycles are just more fun.

We got home, and my legs were temporarily shaped like the motorcycle or like having sat on a horse for too long. It will take some getting used to. We parked the motorcycle near the seafood restaurant, we had been parking it there since getting it. There is no parking at our place, people park their vehicles against the wall, but it is a small alley and nothing to protect the bike from the rain. We had seen other people park their bikes and scooters around the corner by the restaurant. But on Tuesday after leaving for work, it was gone. We talked to our housemates and my employer, they said people don't tow your vehicle in this town, so it must have been stolen. I thought to myself, "Oh damn. People know we are foreigners, and they know we just bought a motorcycle and as they are more expensive, someone just took it. We've only owned it for four days. You have got to be kidding me!" Turns out, someone at the restaurant moved all of the bikes and scooters that were parked there, but they deliberately put ours in the park across the street. It took Matthew a while to find it as none of us thought to look for it in a park. I was just about to go to the police station to file a report. How stupid would I have looked.

Now we park the bike a lot farther than where we live so it can stay out of the rain. We'll just have to get some exercise before hopping on it for a ride anytime. But at least this way we know it won't be in someone's way.