In the morning of November 18 we took a bus for Alishan, a town high up in the mountains of Taiwan. The bus ride took 3 and a half hours. We arrived in Alishan just to find out that accommodation was outrageously expensive. The guys at the information centre were kind enough to find a campground for us but it was far away. While debating what to do we met another backpacker who had already gone through most of the hotels and found that not only everything was expensive but that most of them were fully booked. There was an alternative… the catholic church in town apparently has some hostel-like rooms. The three of us headed there and sure enough we found a basic and semi-affordable accommodation for the night.
We then went for a walk around the park. We visited several places including some temples and walk along a nice forest.
When the night comes the park dies, we almost cannot find a place to eat; everything closes by 8:00pm. We were the last customers at the only restaurant open until 8:30pm.
The reason we came to Alishan is because it is a very popular and traditional place to see the sunrise in Taiwan… let’s wait and see!
On November 19 we woke up at 4:00am to catch the first train up the hill to see the sunrise. We got to the top, walk for about 20 minutes and found this amazing spot to see the sunrise. I have to say that our luck continues to be really shitty when it comes down to sunrises… look at the pictures! There were lots of clouds and we could not see the sun.
Since we waited trying our luck we missed the last train going down so we walked down to the hostel.
We took our backpacks and left for the bus station to get a bus to Fenchihu. At the bus station we met a couple of Taiwanese girls we had seen at the hostel, they were also going to Fenchihu. They helped us to get the bus ticket and were always looking out for us.
We got off the bus with them at Fenchihu, they looked for a hotel for us and even got a nice discount. We got a beautiful room with a nice view! We then went for a walk with them and they showed us all the culinary specialties of the area, we tasted almost everything on the menu. We also had lunch box which is very traditional in this area of the country. But they saved the best for last… the fried doughnuts were to die for!
Around 2:30pm our Taiwanese friends left on the train to Tainan, their home town.
We stayed in Fenchihu walking around and enjoying the scenery!
On November 20 we walked a bit more around town. We found a small traditional house that was converted into a museum. I spent a fair bit of time taking pictures.
We left Fenchihu in the 2:30pm train. The train ride is beautiful, the descend is quiet steep but enjoyable.
We arrived in Tainan in the early evening.
