day11: alishan

tuesday, 4/8/2008:

i got up at 4:30am, caught a train around 6:30am from taichung to chiayi, and at around 7:50am rushed to ticket window no.5 at the chiayi train station to buy my train ticket to alishan. there was only two trains for the day: 9:00am and 1:30pm. in fact, usually there are only two trains on the weekends, and just the 1:30pm train on weekdays, but now is an exception because it was cherry blossom season. i wanted to take the 9:00am train, but the guy at the ticket window said there were no more seats left (but i could buy a standing ticket). who knew so many people would be going to alishan on a tuesday, but i guess cherry blossoms really change things. but then the ticket guy told me to go outside and to the right, and see if there were any tickets. so then i go out there, and there's actually another ticket window, which was closed, but then this guy comes up and is like, "are you going to alishan?" i'm like, "yeah." "do you want to take a little bus?" (you can take a city bus or little private buses up to alishan, but the train is definitely part of the alishan experience.) i'm like, "no i want to take the train." finally he takes out a pair of tickets from his pocket and sells me one, 399NT (~$13), same price as what the tickets actually sell for.

the alishan forest railway is one of only 3 alpine railways in the world, taking about 3.5 hours to run from the tropical (banana and betel nut trees) chiayi city through temperate forests (bamboo) and finally stopping in the alpine (giant cypress) climate of alishan. the back of my train ticket (picture) had a map of the train's route, which goes through a big knot as the train circles its way up the mountains, and then zigzags as the train goes forwards and then backwards to go up the steep final ascent. in the middle of the route is a stop at the town of fenchihu, which is famous for its lunch boxes. the train didn't stop long, but a lady came on the train selling lunch boxes (100NT/~$3, kind of expensive for lunch boxes in taiwan), and i bought one. the lunch had a lot of tiny servings of different dishes, they were okay, but the coolest thing about the lunch box was the plastic sheet that separated the rice and the dishes so that the rice was still as white and pure as new!

my seat on the train (a window seat!) happened to be next to another guy the same age as me. (so random again!) he was a masters student in taiwan, and had taken a week to circle all of taiwan (taoyuan --> keelung --> taitung --> kaoshiung/kenting --> alishan --> jiji --> hsinchu/neiwan --> back to taoyuan), sleeping in parks and train stations along the way! again, i felt that my traveling was very not efficient, but thinking back, i enjoyed each part of my three week trip, even if it was not the most straight of routes. i think there is so much fun in the traveling part (navigating public transportation, walking, getting lost) of sight seeing, and the part where i talk to random people (sitting next to me on trains, or to ask directions, or when buying things). anyway, we chatted and wound our way up the mountain together. i can only say he is quite unique.

when we got to alishan train station, i called my hotel, 青山別館 (qing shan bie guan), which came to pick me up. to even exit the train station, you have to buy a ticket to the alishan forest recreation area, 100NT (~$3), student price, yeah my mit id still serves me well! i left my stuff in the hotel room. it was small, but clean, and only $1800NT (~$60). when i was getting ready to leave, i realized that the area right below the back of my neck was peeling like nothing else, i guess i forgot to apply sunscreen there in hualien, this is already day6 since the bicycling in hualien. anyway, then i went back to the front desk of the modest hotel, where they equipped me with chinese and english maps and sent me on my way.

everything in the alishan forest recreation area is within walking distance of each other. from the train station, you can walk to the shopping/restaurant area and the hotel area, from there you can walk to the trails. i set out from the hotel at about 1:30pm and spent about 4 hours slowly walking through the trails, which for the most part make a loop. the trails were pretty crowded because of cherry blossom season...even on a tuesday! i started the loop from the right, and the majority of the beginning was looking at cherry blossoms and plum tree flowers. the paths are very well groomed and it was all pretty easy going. as i got to the left side of the loop, i started entering the giant tree portion of the trails. while the cherry blossom part was sunny, this part was very shady and nice. i thought the two complemented each other so well and i had such a pleasant walk that afternoon. as i was entering in the more foresty part of the trails, i came to a temple and some shopping, and an elementary school! here i am touristing my way through these trails and i can just walk right up to some kids dribbling a ball during recess outside their school... anyway, one of the things grown on alishan is wasabi! so i bought two small roots, and the lady taught me how to prepare it to be brought back to the us, take off the whiskers, clean it, soak it in water, wrap it in wet newspaper, and package in some plastic bags. she let me try the wasabi, you just grind the root and eat! anyway, then i entered the giant tree trail, somehow from the end, and it started with a sign that said, "giant tree no. 36", and there was an especially big tree, and then you walk a while and then a sign said, "giant tree no. 35"...and this went on for quite a while, for like a million stairs up and down. sometimes it's like SO MANY stairs and then all you see is this really big tree... 36 giant trees was the first giant tree trail. then i went on the other giant tree trail and it was another 20-some trees. but in the end, i thought it was a really nice walk. after the giant trees, there was an area with all these random tree trunks that looked like various things. i thought the golden pig tree trunk looked A LOT like a pig!

finally it was back to the shopping area. i walked up a lot of stairs to the train station to scope it out, where the hotel told me to watch the sunset. but, it was still pretty sunny, so i walked back down to the shopping area and ate at a small food stall: bamboo shoot soup and dragon whisker veggies. then back up the stairs to wait for the sunset. i'm not experienced with taking pictures that are not in the best possible light, so i had no idea what to do. but, the good thing about digital cameras is that you can take a million pictures, and after trying a lot of different settings, i think i might i have come out of it with one halfway decent picture. then there wasn't much to do on alishan, since the shopping area is pretty small, and everyone sells the same stuff, and it's all food anyway, so i walked the lots of stairs to the hotel, then back up to the shopping area, then back up to the train station, then back down, back and forth quite a few times. the stairs made my legs pretty tired and the altitude made me somewhat panty. i was afraid i wouldn't be able to get to sleep right away (did i forget that i had gotten up at 4:30am that morning?), and knew i had to get up early the next morning (to see the sunrise!), so kept on taking the stairs. at one point, in front of the train station, was an aborigine guy singing and these older ladies dancing, it was pretty cute. i finally went back to the hotel and went to sleep around 10pm, and fell asleep right away.

it had been so muggy in taipei, and so hot in taichung, finally the air was so nice clear and cool on alishan! that night i turned on the ac (to be sure) and got in the giant blanket and had a GREAT night of sleep!

WORTH SEEING: alishan forest railway, alishan

WORTH EATING: dragon whisker veggies

full set of pictures at picasa!