Moon Festival '08 -> Hwy 20

I guess the trip started on Dong's birthday, September 21st. We kicked off the festivities by taking me to the hospital. I had been sick and had a fever for a couple days. "We're not going anywhere tomorrow!" said Dong. My temperature was soon back to normal but we decided to sleep in since i hadn't been sleeping very much on the nights prior to going to the hospital. I woke up late, around 10:30am. "We're not going to the east coast, lets just go to Taichung," said Dong. Even though it was now late in the day and it was raining, I insisted on going through the mountains. The further we got into the mountains, the colder it got, the harder it rained. We dodged the crazy drivers coming the other way, the boulders in the road, and drove over the rubble where the road had washed away.
I lost my shoe: We came to a place in the road where the road had washed away and was now a small river going from one side -> across the road -> and off the cliff. We couldn't turn back. It was hours since we had passed the last town and the sky was now pitch black. Dong got off and was trying to find a good place for the scooter to drive through. Being the impatient American, I just went for it: I was sliding all over the place and lost my balance at one point. When i put my foot down, my flip flop came off, and poured over the side of the cliff. Nevertheless, I made it. We found a hotel where others like us were stuck. We show up on one scooter, everything wet, and I have one shoe. The hotel was full, but luckily, two guys named Jaco and John, let us stay in their room. We were soon joined by two others with no room, Danny and Wennie. The room was the size of my bedroom which was probably better because it was so damn cold. We had a great time that night just chilling in our hotel drinking Taiwanese alcohol.
The next morning the road opened in front of us and we were able to go to Taitung on the east coast. The Wreck: The road was better today and there were many cars coming up the mountain as we were descending. In one of the tunnels we slipped on some water and the scooter came out from under us. We came out fine fortunately, just cuts, bruises, torn rain coats, and a digital point and shoot camera that bit the dust. My ribs are bruised from landing on my digital SLR camera. That camera is OK fortunately. We make it out of the mountains and get caught in the rain which continues into the night. The next day we take off, around the mountains this time, in the rain, back to Tainan.