It is Ching Ming Jie (memorial day or the day where every one goes to the cemetery. Mr. and Mrs. Lee has a family reunion in his home town today after a visit to the cemetary. They insisted on personally going out of their way, changing their itinerary for the day to dropping me off at the Chiayi train station which was an hour away of drive from Shuili. Taking the train would take two hours including a transfer train in Erhshui. It was very nice of them to drop me off. This ensured that I wouldn't miss my transfer train because I got a direct ride to the bus stop. I am grateful! They have just been so pleasant to be with. They are humble people who showed me a lot of grace and class.
This is the train station at Chiayi. The train to Alishan is not operating due to the flooding and land slides of August 8th last year and will not be in operation until the tracks are restored. I hear it is an amazing beautiful ride.
This is the bus stop where you get your ticket to ride the bus to Alishan or anywhere else in the city of Chiayi. If you are facing the train station the bus ticketing office is to the left.
I missed the 8:10am bus it rolled off as I arrived. This ended up being perfect because
I get into the same 8:40am bus as a group of 25 PingDong University Students all majoring in education. This young man is also a student and is leading all his friends on this spring break trip as tour guide. I am glad I got on this bus. I decided then and there that I would just stick by them and follow their itinerary and be guided.
Happy faces, this is before the bus rolled off. Within half an hour of the ride, students were barfing left and right. We lost half of the students on the ride to car sickness. It was a rough ride. I survived. I think it is because I drive and I fixed my eyes out the window. The students thought if they closed their eyes it would work. Well, if you close your eyes you better fall asleep. The only other students who survived were the ones who pass out asleep and those who were standing for the entire 2 plus hours of bus ride. They were standing because the bus only fit 20 people and the group was more than that. But they didn't want to split up and ride in separate buses so the guys here gentlemen like and gave their seats up to the ladies and stood the whole mountain ride way. Standing tickets costs the same as seat tickets.
This stool is what the bus driver called for special seat. Yes it is very special.
We stopped in a town in Alishan where the local aboriginals live and where most tea farmers lived. When we got off the bus driver warned us that the public restroom was built 30 years ago. And then we all found out why he said that when we entered. It smelled and looked as if it hasn't been cleaned for 30 years. I can't believe these facilities still exist in Taiwan.
This is a Japanese breed of a type of YingHua, a type of cherry blossom.
This orchid called one leaf orchid in Chinese, official botanical name is Pleione speciosa. It was all over the walls of the road. They are beautiful, delicate, tiny and amazing to look at.
Spirit of youth, after simple lunch at Seven Eleven and waiting to check in at the Catholic Hostel. I had almost stayed at the Catholic Hostel expect reviews mentioned the Youth Hostel is in better condition than the Catholic Hostel. It turns out there is hot water time restriction and curfew. So I am not staying in the same place as the students are. They are staying for one night. I am staying many nights. The upside of the Catholic Hostel is within the Alishan Tourist gated park entrance while the downside of the Youth Hostel is outside the gate entrance of 7 kilometers away. There is a gate entrance fee good for 24 hours into the park at 100NT for student rate and 150NT for non student rate. Keep your ticket for re-entry. It was really nice of the students to include me and fold me into their group and made me feel very welcomed. They were so much fun and sweet I really enjoyed being with them. I am glad they were afraid of me or ran away from me out of the strangeness of a random stranger of tagging herself with the group without any shame.
Beauty everywhere, sensory overload.
At the cherry blossom garden a group of people brought their 5 Akitas too. It seems it was all about photographing the dogs.
At the Alishan Train Station. If it was still in operation you would arrive here into the park where it drops you off at the heart of all shops and hotels and visitor center.
I left my luggage at the visitor center because my hostel shuttle won't be picking me up till 5pm and I had 5 hours till then to wander about. I was impressed by a man who worked at the center. He was so calm, grounded, gentle, and strong, so pleasant to be with and speak to.
The day was such, a bit of haze, a bit of fog, a bit misty, really pretty in the trails of old groves. The old groves trail takes a little over an hour to do. It isn't long however there are some ups and downs. But the trail is well maintained with wooden steps, very generational friendly. I have seen little kids do it and elders do it. I have even seen people in high heels do it.
This trunk is called elephant trunk for the roots look like an elephant.
This is the three generations tree, where one tree sprouted three generations all in one spot.
This URI(United Religions Initiative) "May Peace Prevail On Earth" peace sign was spotted outside the Alishan Hotel. Pretty cool to me to see one here.
This is my room, four queen size beds for 8. I was the only guest. The room also had a balcony that over looked the scenery where you can see YunHai, (ocean of clouds) but it was over cast and foggy and hazy so I had the view of the fog. My room had automatic heat and ac control. Also had a dehumidifier in the room. I really liked the set up. I stayed in my room and didn't watch the Flat screen TV on the wall but used the wi-fi and cooked instant noodle and drank high mountain tea.In the evening the mountain air fills with extra oxygen, it's a distinct sensation and my lungs feels so good, so healthy and wonderful.
I brought me head lamp for a sunrise hike and a night hike for fireflies spotting. But I am 7 kilometers outside the entrance to the park gate on a foggy mountain road. It would not be a good idea to walk alone in the fog at night for the firefly night hike or for the early morning sunrise hike. A little miss step in bad vision condition and I can tumbling down the mountain and no one will even know I am gone and where. I have considered staying with the students tonight to be in the night hike and the morning hike but I decided to stick with my original plans of staying at the hostel. I am comfortable. My sheets are clean. I have hot water 24-7. I have this big room to myself and no one is snoring in the room! I can get good sleep tonight!
