Alishan Mountains

We took the high speed train out of Taipei to Chiayi and covered 161 miles in one and a half hours. Traveling through the mountains, there were quite a few tunnels along the way.  The landscape included views of cities, shrines and cemeteries dug into the sides of the mountains, rice fields, and glimpses of the ocean in the distances.  Before we boarded the train, we bought Burger King breakfast croissant sandwiches in the train station and had breakfast as we moved along. 

cemetery

 In Chiayi we had a shuttle van waiting to take us to the hotel in Alishan Village.  Unfortunately we had to share the shuttle with 4 others for a total of 8, including the driver.  We were pretty cramped for the 3 hour trip up the mountain.    The van's clutch appeared to be burning along the drive and the driver made a stop in one of the small towns along the way to deliver pizzas.   A better option would have been to take a bus from Chiayi to Alishan.  The buses are very spacious and comfortable.  There are two seats on one side of the aisle and one seat on the other.  The drive itself was beautiful, weaving in and out along the mountain. 

Ears popping, curves so sharp you needed mirrors to look for oncoming traffic, we eventually found ourselves higher than the clouds.  Locals call it the "sea of clouds".

We stayed at the Ding Shan Hotel in Alishan Village.  Reviews of hotels made us a little apprehensive about our choices both in Alishan and in Sun Moon Lake.   The local gods showered us with good choices on both accounts.  Mixing pros and cons on the DingShan:  no elevator but only three stories, low beds but very comfortable and with heated pads, very clean, thin walls, hot water but no shower curtain in shower, English TV,  and a Taiwanese breakfast in the morning.  We requested a double room for the three of us and got two double beds and two extra Japanese mats in the closet.  On-line reviews about skipping breakfast made me curious enough to get up early and see for myself.

Village proper and parking lot

Deng Shan Hotel

Breakfast included hard boiled egg, peanuts (look like beans) steamed cabbage,  pork floss(dried meat), a bun, and rice bowl.

The breakfast items were either really bland or had an interesting taste.  They require some getting used to but were really not that bad.  Consensus was that bacon and eggs would have been appreciated, but when in Rome....    After breakfast, we took two short train rides; one up the mountain and one down.  There were a lot of Mainland China tourists in the area and we seemed to be an attraction within the attraction.  They all asked to have their picture taken with us.  Memorable experience!

We were a photo op for about 10 Mainland China tourists.  They took turns sitting between us on the train ride and having their pictures taken.

There is a lot of walking required for this excursion.  There were at least four levels to the "recreation area" where we stayed.  The hotel we stayed at was on the lower level.  You could walk uphill along the road or take a stairway up to the second level.  The shopping area was located on the next two levels and the train station and museum were on the fourth level.  Redwood carvings were everywhere.   A popular activity is getting up at 4 in the morning and taking the train and then hiking to see the sunrise over the mountains.  I am sorry to say we did not make this excursion. 

The museum behind us

These two pictures are of the remnants of a huge tree...

...with a storeroom in the trunk