Day 4
We had planned to do an incredible hike that I found online that went from the Jinguishi Gold Ecological Park to Jiufen. This is what it was supposed to look like:
But it involved more rope climbs and while Grace and I were now experienced with them, I was unsure how they would be in the pouring rain because this was more what we saw:
Also, we had to delay our departure in the morning because sonny had to have a skype meeting, so we were several hours later than I had hoped. Grace and I spent the time exploring the hills and parks behind Academia Sinica.
Once Sonny was ready, we went to Nangang Station and got the train to Ruefang but ended up having to wait at another stop for a train change, so we were even later. All this led to us dropping the plans to hike and instead heading to Jiufen. We had to stand on the bus up, but at least we had stopped to eat some beef noodle in Ruefang and so no one was hangry. This was good because Jiufan was still extremely crowded, despite the rain, and now we had to contend with tons of umbrellas in very narrow old streets.
We wandered around before deciding that we had had enough and needed to warm up with some tea. We picked a random tea house and headed inside. The proprietress was not pleased with how wet we were, and stuck us in a back corner, but that was fine by us as it was quiet and private and we still had a bit of a view. We got some green tea and soy beans and relaxed and listened to the rain fall. When we had finished all our tea, we headed out to catch the bus then train, then MRT home.
On the walk home, Sonny stopped and we ordered some salty spicy chicken, and we grabbed some Taiwan beer for Grace to try. We then had a feast in our hotel room before going to bd early so we could wake up in time for our 7 am high speed rail departure the next morning.
Day 5
The next morning bright and early we headed to the MRT. We grabbed coffee along the way at Family Mart. We then headed toward main station to get our HSR train to Chiayi. We printed our tickets then tried to find breakfast. Not much was open so early, even the bakery was still putting out their goods, so we ended up at 7-11. We boarded our train and set off in roomy comfort for Chiayi.
Once there we bid goodbye to the extremely fast train and boarded the bus we would take for the 2.5 hour journey up into the mountains. We got the seats in the very back of the bus and so were able to all sit together in roomy comfort. We played musical chairs for a bit, trying to give Grace the best views out the window as we wound around and around, getting higher and higher.
Finally, we arrived in the Alishan Recreational area. Some things were slightly different than last time. There is now a NTD150 fee to enter the area, so the buses drop you off at a new 7-11 bus station outside the park, then you must walk into the park after paying your fee. Luckily we all only had small backpacks so this wasn't a big deal. We had cheaped out on the hotel and not told them Grace was with us so when we arrived we left her resting on a bench while Sonny and I went to check in. With our luggage stowed, we headed off to explore the park. The first thing we did was walk down a no longer used railway spur to see a very old tree, named the Shuishan giant tree.
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| This is a restored bridge that was originally very old, from when the railway was first built. |
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| The tree is about 2700 years old and 17 meters in circumference. |
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| For the green card ;) |
After that trip we decided to go see the sister lakes and the two temples that are here. Most of the day trip tourists had gone home so it was quieter than normal. I remember the last time I was here, visiting the sister lakes and thinking of Grace. It was very odd and wonderful to be visiting them again with her. We did decide that the elder sister lake is far superior. At least I have that.
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| The elder sister lake |
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| We have a picture of us in NZ by the four sisters tree - here is the three sisters |
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| And the younger sister lake |
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| the Chinese temple. We saw a traditional puppet show! it was so cool I forgot to take any pictures. |
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| When the sun started to set it was glorious |
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| The Japanese temple |
After we watched the sun set we headed to our favorite local secret hot pot place. except when we got there we found out its not a secret anymore! They were very very busy and we had to wait a bit for a table. It was ok though, as we were entertained by watching the owner and her employees run around like headless chickens! They were very stressed but also very dramatic about it all. There was much yelling but eventually we got a table and dug in!
We then snuck everyone into our hotel room and prepared to try and get some rest before our 4 am wake up call. Hopefully this time we'll see a sunrise!
Day 6
Morning came fast and we set out for the train station at the top of the hill. It was pretty cold, but not as cold as the last time Sonny and I were here. I had so many layers on it was ridiculous. We joined the queue for the train boarding and made it on to the first train. Apparently a poor girl who looked very very hung over almost threw up on the ride up, horrifying Grace. I missed it all as I was farther into the train car. As soon as we arrived at the viewing platform, we got a good position right at the front and dispatched Sonny to buy warm milk tea and Alishan honey toast. SO GOOD.
The old man from last time was still there, and he kept us entertained with stories and jokes and lots of comments about the fresh mountain air. The Sky continued to lighten around us, and soon you could see rays of light poking around the mountain range.
I was worried about the camera battery in the cold, so I took the battery out for a period and left it in my pocket to stay warm. Nevertheless, right as the sun FINALLY cleared the mountains, in that literal second, the battery went. So I don't have a photo of the blinding moment when the sun fully burst over. It was pretty incredible as the air suddenly started warming up and the sky became fully blue. This was the last photo I got, just as it started:
We wanted to get moving to warm up so we hiked up the world's steepest road to another viewing platform. On the way down, we discovered an extremely cute little Alishan tea shop and were gently bullied by the proprietor into resting with some tea and cakes and enjoying the view. It was pretty magical.
I then dragged Grace and Sonny onto a hike to another viewing platform at the top of another mountain. There isn't much information online, soI knew nothing about the hike. It turned out to be pretty rough, including climbing up and down many many many stairs. It also turned out to be longer than advertised so we started to worry about making it back before checkout time at the hotel. We had wanted to check out when we left in the morning, but there was no one there so we couldn't.
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| She is telling me right here that she was going to murder me if I took a picture of her face. :) |
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| Its ok Grace, I'll take pictures of the view. |
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This is the photos I took to cover for the fact that I had stepped off the road to go pee and an old man was walking by. Grace and Sonny gave the signal by coughing so I pretended to be taking pictures :)
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We finally made it back to the hotel where Sonny got a scolding from the front desk clerk for checking out late. (Sorry Sonny) We headed out of the park and back down to the 7-11/bus station to try to catch the next bus. After some hangry-induced drama and stress, we managed to work out when the next bus was, buy HSR tickets online for the appropriate train, and even pay for them. (This was all much harder than it sounds) I had hoped to save some money by taking the TRA slow train back up, but we needed to meet Shanky, Sonny's colleague for dinner and this was the only night we could do it. While we waited for the next bus, which was a few hours away, we sweet talked the guard into letting us back into the recreation area so we could find some better food. There was lots of walking, and we did eventually find some bao and get drinks. We then laid around like bums in the sun as we were all pretty tired by this point.
We made it back to Taipei finally and met up with Shanky and Sung Yin and went out to eat at a Malaysian restaurant. We were all terrible company as we were absolutely exhausted at this point, and they brought us back pretty early so we could pass out. We were finally rid of the jet-lag, but tomorrow we would leave!
Traveling Back to the US
In the morning we settled our hotel bill and then checked out. The Academia arranged a car service to take us to the airport which was pretty fantastic. I tried to buy some Kavalan whiskey at duty free (I was waiting all trip to do this) but I was denied because Narita airport wouldn't let me have it as they make you go through security again! :( We also went on an extremely long mission to get one last bubble tea before boarding our flight. Flying into Tokyo we hit some rough weather and were delayed. Our already narrow layover was made into less than an hour. To add to the fun we didn't get to dock directly to the terminal but instead were made to wait for a bus, then had to wait for everyone to get on, then had to drive slowly all around the dang airport. When we finally got off we had to go through a security checkpoint again. We were extra worried because Sonny didn't have a boarding pass yet due to US restrictions. We ended up running through Narita (again! WHY does it always happen to me there?) but we lucked out immensely because the gate agent was a wonderful woman who took excellent care of us and even got us seats with extra leg room for the 12 hour flight back. I slept for most of it, which is unusual for me. Dad picked us up, saving us the cost of an Uber during rush hour traffic, AND he had the dogs and a Christmas tree!
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| They had a library/reading area thing in the Taipei airport! |
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| Too bad all the books were in Chinese |
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| Mt Fuji in the distance, Tokyo in the forground |
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| Merry Christmas everyone! |
