Alishan

Here is the belated story of Josh and I's wonderful trip to Alishan.

I woke up early Saturday morning to see if we could get tickets on the Forest Railway. This train is a slower less comfortable way to get to Alishan, but you are riding a train through the forests and you even go through 3 different climate zones. Definately an attraction in and of itself. Unfortunately the train was all booked up and we had to bus it in. I bought some tickets and grabbed Josh from the hotel.

The bus ride was supposed to take 2 hours. Unfortunately, on the bus we realized that the Cherry Blossom Festival was going and it being a Saturday, the roads were packed with cars, busses and scooters. Eventually after an extra couple of hours or so and some serious driving skills from our driver (I swear driving that bus on the mountain should be an olympic sport) we made it to our destination. It's a little foggy but we can tell the view is spectacular.

We did a little sightseeing once we got settled and managed to stumble accross some pretty old and enormous trees (a couple of which were almost 2000 years old!!). We found a nice spot to watch the sunset and parked ourselves there. I think between the two of us that night we scored maybe 100 or so pictures of the sunset....which pales in comparison to the pictures we got of the sunrise (more on that later). On our way home we ate dinner at a delicious (but pricey) Taiwanese restaurant (with English menus, luckily) and wander on home...hitting the sack by an incredible 8pm! I don't think I have gone to bed that early since I was 9 years old.

The reason we went to bed so early is because we had to wake up at 430 am to catch the sunrise bus. Basically the big thing to do at Alishan is to wake up really early and see the sunrise, as was evident by the hundreds of Taiwanese people that were standing on the summit snapping away pictures (despite being broad daylight and the sunrise having been an hour earlier). Of course, this included us, because despite our efforts of waking up early (which for me was insane...normaly I am not going to bed until 430) we still were late. Luckily we managed to snap a few (read: hundreds) good shots (mostly from Josh) and even saw a monkey or two before we headed back to the main part of Alishan.

We really wanted to take the train back to Chiayi so the first thing we did was try and procure tickets...we went into the train station and we couldn't find the ticket window. Josh had the bright idea of going upstairs "just to see". We see the ticket window and push our way to the front (lines? what lines?) and score two tickets on the train at noon (!!!). That gave us a couple hours to sit and relax before the train.

This train takes an extra couple hours to our destination, but what it lacks in speed it makes up for in splendour and beauty. Not too mention a little danger. There were a couple times where Josh would nudge me a little and point to the window where we would be riding on a bridge basically the size of the train. Let me tell you, this train ride has been one of the highlights of my entire trip and one of the coolest things I have ever done. Some of the things I saw I can't even explain (let alone take pictures that could do it justice). Reading and finishing my book (Setting the Table by Danny Meyer) was exactly what I wanted to do for an afternoon...ahh just so relaxing.

We finished off our weekend trip by eating some "famous" Turkey Gravy Rice dish from Chiayi, supposedly from the exact restaurant that it was invented....and still only 2 bucks...gotta love it.

Right now I am in a town called Lekang. Yesterday I saw a really big Buddha statue in Changua and tomorrow I think I am going to Sun Moon Lake....I shall post pictures when I can!