Alishan
About four months ago, I promised to write a blog about my
trip to Alison. My family came to visit
Taiwan, so we decided to take a long weekend in Alishan in Chaiyi County.
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| Alishan Express |
If you have ever read this blog, you may have noticed I am
loath to plan ahead. So, as you can
imagine, I under-prepared for our trip to Alishan. Yellow Sugar and I decided to travel down to Alishan
on the Friday evening after work. We
decided to use the high speed rail (HSR) for the first time; it’s expensive,
but we had some benefactors to help us along.
I have been on the Shinkansen (bullet train) in Japan and it reminded me
of being on an airplane. The HSR is, no
doubt, nicer, cleaner, and more spacious than the regular trains in Taiwan, but
it is just a normal train that goes like the clappers. We arrived at Chaiyi Station know we would
just miss the last bus and train to Alishan, but we assumed there would be good
links between Chaiyi and Alishan. We
were dead wrong. To be honest, I hadn’t
even looked at a map, so I didn’t know how far away Alishan was from
Chaiyi. As it turns out, it is long way
away; it is about 40 miles up to Alishan.
This does not seem too far, but you have to consider most of the journey
is up a windy mountain road. This is not
to mention it can get very foggy and misty, the type of mist you only get in
the middle of nowhere, where people do not tread very often. So, our journey consisted of pitch black road
with thick white fog like driving through a marshmallow. It was only possible to drive by follow the
eye of cats in the middle of the road.
It was a long arduous trip for both us and the driver, lasting two
hours. It is the kind of road you would
much prefer to drive by yourself, as it is much more stressful having no
control over your destiny and fighting the backseat driver in you not to
scream. Eventually, we made it, only to
be greeted with a NT$300 entry fee into the park, which surprisingly we didn’t
know about. We were dropped off at, what
claims to be, the highest 7-eleven in Taiwan.
Taiwan opened it’s 5000th 7-eleven in July 2014, so it is
some claim to be the highest. If it is
indeed true, I think that is one to check off the 7-eleven bucket list (highest
7-eleven in Taiwan!). We got a shuttle
bus to the hotel, were greeted like celebrities (which was nice) and then it
was time for a well deserved sleep.
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| Foggy Alishan |
I only really knew one thing about Alishan and that was it
had a funky red train. I had seen it on
many a post card, and this is how I do my research. The first thing we decided to do, after
omelettes from the omelette bar, was to have a wander and find this train. My friends had warned me to avoid this train,
as it was old and there were often landslides.
One even warned me not to get on if there were Chinese tourists, as they
are bad luck (and sometimes less than polite).
I’m not a train fanatic, but this train was the main reason I had taken
such a harrowing journey, so I dutifully ignored all my friends’ advice and we
tried out the train. We took the short
trip down the mountain to the little ‘town centre’ of Alishan. The train is old and rickety and noisy, but
it has character and it is nice to take step back from modern life and travel
the same way they would have in 1912 when it opened. The ‘town centre’ is essentially a small selection
of restaurants, tea shops, shops, and the traditional 7-eleven surrounding a
car park. It was pretty foggy at this
part of the park, you could barely a few feet in front of you, so we decided to
go into a tea shop and have a nice cuppa.
We walked in through a gift shop and up thin staircase and immediately
Yellow Sugar was greeted by small child presenting her with his rubbish. The proprietor, and I can only assume parent,
was mortified, but we found it most amusing and a nice, relaxing way to begin
our break. After a short break we
decided once again to get on the train that shall not be rode and have a stroll
through the park.
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| Three Generations Tree |
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| Sacred Tree |
Alishan is like a small version of the Lake District in
England. It is full of large green trees
and you can gaze over beautiful uninterrupted scenery for miles and miles. Normally there are no lakes, but this weekend
was special. Alishan really wanted us
believe it was a Taiwanese lake district and it rained so much, it created a
myriad of small lakes. Unfortunately
this meant that everyone had their umbrellas up. I don’t really want to perpetuate
stereotypes, but this meant dodging, ducking, and getting hit by untold amount
of Chinese tourists. People just did not
want to share the thin walkways that wind around Alishan. We’re all just trying to get somewhere and
have a nice time. We had three
generations of my family on this trip, so we were on a mission to find the
‘three-generation’s tree’, as it seemed symbolic. On our hunt we stumbled upon one of my
favourite things about Taiwan, a primary school at the top of a mountain. Where else in the world puts a large primary
school at the top of a mountain, you see them all over and I just love it. We also found the oldest and tallest tree in
the park, the sacred tree. It is said to
be over 50 metres tall with a circumference of nearly 25 metres, it is a
whopper of a tree to say the least. On
top of this it is supposed to around 3000 years! That’s older than Jesus and the Roman Empire;
it’s older than the Persian Empire! In fact it is nearly as old the Egyptian’s;
we’re talking about the Old Testament! After a nice stroll around the park, we
found our tree, took some snaps, found the token temple and went back the hotel
to relax. In the next morning we were to
be up before the crack of dawn to see the sunrise.
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| Alishan Sunrise part. 1 |
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| Zingy at the Sunrise |
The morning was a foggy in more ways than one; it was early
so the details are fuzzy and it was as it often is in Alishan, foggy. I think we got up around 2am to catch the
shuttle bus to the train station. If you go to Alishan and want to see the
sunrise make sure you book this the day before.
We yet again got on the train we weren’t supposed to, to get to the top
of the mountain. At the viewing
platforms there are various stalls to get a little snack or something to drink,
so you don’t need worry about starvation or dying of thirst. The train gets you there a while in advance,
so you will have the wait in your position to hold it. There is crazy tour guide who stands on the
fence shouting lots and lots of things.
I have no idea what he was saying, but it was mildly amusing, although
maybe a little loud for that time of the morning. After what seemed like an age, the sun finally
began to rise. At this point the reason
people get so early becomes apparent.
The morning sky is filled with an abundance of colours; reds, blues
purples, oranges and mixtures in between. We then learned the fickle nature of
Taiwan and the importance of good fortune.
A stray cloud slowly stole in front of the rising sun and took away so
many of our lovely colours. After this
mixture of joy and disappointment and deciding that the sun was finally up, we
went for a snack and cup of tea/coffee.
Before leaving we had one look over the mountains, just in time to see
another reason to come up so high. The
clouds were streaming over and creating a blanket over the mountain. It is a sight I have only seen on Angel
Island by San Francisco, but it is a sight to behold and one of my
favourites. We had a decided to only get
a ticket up the mountain in order to give us freedom and the chance to see more
of Alishan. Although, the logic seemed
sound, it is a decision I personal regretted at the time. I was extremely tired and just wanted a nap
before breakfast. A 45 minute walk, no
matter how pleasant and picturesque, it was not what the doctor ordered. As it was, we got back, particularly
light-headed, in time for breakfast. I
was determined to have an omelette, but I had not considered the vast swarms of
people you get up for an early breakfast in Alishan… and the amount who order multiple
omelettes. Eventually I had to give up
on my dream of an omelette and go to bed (6 months later and I’m still a little
mad about!). A nap and a wander was all
that the day had in store for us; a sunrise day is not a busy day.
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| The Cloud rolls over Alsihan |
The next day we got the bus from the incredibly high
7-eleven. It was a much more pleasant
journey than a taxi, in the rain, at night. It took around an hour and a half, but we got
back to Chaiyi station and had a quick bite to eat before we were back on the
HSR. It was an unpleasant journey where
adults turned seats around and encouraged children to shout and scream. It took the train staff over an hour and half
to ask them to be quiet and this quiet lasted all of three minutes before the
parents started the noise again. It goes
to show, some people complain about having class systems and quiet carriages on
trains, but I would have killed for one on that train. The HSR is nice, fast and more importantly
expensive, but this does not guarantee a peaceful journey.
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| Alishan Sunrise part. 2 |
With this moan over, I have a recommendation for
Taiwan. Taiwan is a nation with many
bikes, a nation that makes many bikes, and a nation of many mountains and
beautiful untouched scenery. Let’s
create the tour of Taiwan! All I was
thinking of during my trip down the mountain was how perfect this would be for
a bike race. Let us promote Taiwan and
its beauty!
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| Alishan Express |
Sorry for wait,
Hot Tea
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