Day 20 - Alishan & Our Second Anniversary

On Monday we planned to take a train back north along the coast part of the way, then a bus into the mountain range that runs the length of the country to visit the famous National Park, Alishan. The A-li mountains are very beautiful, and run right next to the tallest mountain in Taiwan, Yushan (Jade Mountain). One of the most popular things to do in Alishan National Park is to take a unique mountain railway to the top of a mountain and watch the sun rise. Therefore we had to spend a night in a tiny village high in the mountains so we could catch the train at 5 am. All the hotels were overpriced, but I managed to get a good deal online.

But first we had to get there! Jeffery had a meeting in the morning, but he promised to swing by the apartment afterwards and give us a ride to the train station. It was a close one, involving some creative short-cuts, and the boys double-teaming to help us buy lunch and tickets and figure out our platform so we could focus on running with baggage, but we made it. After a few hours of travel (we took the regular train back up as it is about half the price of the high speed) we arrived in the city of Chiayi.

Railway lunch box!

Here we had to buy bus tickets and ride on a bus for 2.5 hours up into the mountains. You used to be able to take the railway all the way from Chiayi, but the track was so badly damaged by a typhoon that they closed that route until "further notice." The bus ride up was quite the experience. I sat by the window, and Sonny took the aisle, which was a good thing in the end as there were some very steep drop-offs with nothing but a tiny railing to save us. Not to mention that we were on a huge coach bus the the road was very narrow, and full of other coaches and construction equipment. There were a few times where it was a bit scary for even me! Keeping these roads open is essentially a full-time job as slips occur pretty regularly. They had some advanced anti-slip technology in place, including long tunnel/shelter things in the worst parts, and lots of iron grids and cement. Between the views and the adrenaline, the ride went pretty fast.

We arrived in Jhongjheng Village just before the sun set. The village is really a parking lot surrounded by one road in a loop along which all the hotels are located. There is a 7-11(of course) and several restaurants and that is it. The gate to Alishan is right in town, so you can't stay any closer. We got to our hotel by walking down stairs in a cypress forest - pretty cool.

We checked in, and arrived in our very, very cozy room. It was Japanese-style, with a raised wooden floor by the bed and and slippers to wear. I was glad I got such a deal as the room was not exactly fancy :). Luckily for us, since it was below 8 degrees C they even turned on the heat from 6 pm to 4 am. While our room warmed up, we decided to go get dinner and try to warm ourselves up. I had read online that the majority of restaurants in town cater to the huge busloads of mainland tourists and are therefore not high on quality, so we asked a local where she thought we should eat. She gave us a very good recommendation of a hot pot place, and when we walked to it and saw the windows all fogged up from steam, we agreed. Since it was our anniversary, we splurged a bit and got the house special stone hot pot. These hot pots were not messing around. Unlike the hot plates or gel burners I normally see, this place used LPG tanks at every table and a huge burner to heat the huge cast iron bowl. It was a delicious meal and a lot of fun to eat. We were stuffed by the time we finished.

After dinner we swung by the 7-11 and found a tiny bottle of sparkling French wine to celebrate our anniversary in style! :) Sonny made me open it ( I HATE opening champagne!) and after much lead up, it realised it was a screw-top!! Oh well. We got one tiny glass each then went to bed as we had a 4 am wake-up call so we could catch our train!