3 issues here:
- Scooter license
- Scooter rental
- Scooter choice
A quick search on the internet on obtaining Taiwanese scooter license yields this. It shows that for a scooter 50cc or less only require a written test, while 51cc to 250cc requires a written and road test. Now, both written and road test must be taken at a local testing office. I know one near my house in 百福, the same place where I got my driver's license. I've seen the road test, and its not hard. Mainly there is a test for the ability to ride in a straight line within confined space, and a test for basic road signs.
Documents needed are residence permit, 3 passport sized pictures, and the fee for testings.
Next on the agenda is scooter rental. At this point in time, I have no suggestions on which scooter shops are best. Nonetheless, a bit of research leads me to here. Things to be of concerns are A) Reliability of the store, B) Quality of scooter, and C) Insurance coverage and other issues. I dont think I can make any more progress in this issue right now until I get back to the country in a few months time. Will update.
Finally, scooter choice. Generally, what I found was that the average stocked 50cc scooter have a top speed of about 60kmh to 80kmh, where as a 150cc have a top speed of about 100kmh. Of course, I wont be riding in top speed this entire journey, but its something to be of a concern. If we were to assume we choose a 50cc scooter, traveling at an average speed of say, 15kmh (assuming average speed between city and rural locations), then a journey of 1200km will take about 80hours, or roughly 3.3 days non-stop. That said, if the traveling time is broken down equally throughout the 2 week trip (14 days), then the daily riding time is about 5.7hours, a relatively acceptable time frame.
Now, heres where the scooter beats a car: if along any point of this trip we were to decide to take short cuts, and use other forms of transportation other than scooter, both the Ju-Guang Hao and Fu-Hsing Hao trains have the ability to allow riders to carry their scooters along with them on the train. This is a definite aid if we were to change plans on the fly.
With all that said and done, all thats left is to take the scooter test and choose which scooter we'll be riding in.
More updates to come soon. Meanwhile, I've found two Taiwanese movies based on the idea of round island journey. Both movies are done by bicycles:
rOar
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