9:29pm, Youth Activity Center, Alishan
Sure is chilly here at 2000m elevation. Can't quite remember where we started from today, gotta think hard, but tired… Needed some help remembering that we started the day in Tainan City, after now ending the day in such a drastically different locale. We slept in til 8am today, since we didn't have a breakfast to catch, and had plenty of time this morning to check out some of the famous temples in Tainan before heading to the Alishan mountains. We ate some fruit, sweet buns, and I made some banana-honey-oatmeal, in our hotel. Sunny blue skies this morning.
I drove us into the city, with Wendy expertly navigating us through the moped filled, LA-like (with palm trees down center divider) streets of Tainan. We found open street parking in the city center, and walked to Confucious Temple, founded in the 1600s as an education facility. Most of the grounds were free, but the main temple cost 25NT. It was a bit old looking, and not quite what I was expecting for such a "main" attraction.
A bonzai tree on the left, and an ancient nearly dead tree (which they are trying desparately hard to preserve)...
The yellow stickers are prayer cards, stuck to the wall. For a small donation you can fill some out and hang them...
Next we walked across town to the Chiffen Tower, stopping a a smaller temple along the way. Tainan was settled by Dutch explorers in the 1600s, and this was a remnant of theirs. Admission was 50NT, but well worth the price, thanks to the scenic garden with fish pond (Wendy paid 10NT to feed the huge multi-colored goldfish), and large ornate temples.
Satisfied with our temple visits, we tracked down a heralded noodle eatery for lunch. The Changs all had beef noodle soup (dry), and I had a spicy leek with meat sauce dish. On the walk back to the car, I bought a chocolate cream cake from a vendor (10NT, not as cheap as the 7NT place yesterday), and everyone bought some tea, including a tasty winter melon tea.
There was a parking meter ticket on the windshield when we returned to the car. In Taiwan, there aren't parking meters, just someone that puts a ticket on your car, and updates it every hour. You then pay at a 7-11 store at your convenience. Not a bad system…
We successfully navigated ourselves out of the city, and in a couple hours were winding our way up the twisty roads to Alishan, one of the top mountain tourist locations in the country, famous for it's sunrises. When we left Tainan, a heavy haze had set in, just like yesterday, blocking off all views. The first half of our mountain drive was hazed over, and sometimes in fog, but slowly we climbed above the cloud, and were treated to blue sky and mountain views. The LOTR soundtrack on the CD player seemed to match the appropriate mood of the scenery and weather conditions...
We arrived at the Youth activity center ~4:10pm, a bit surprised to feel the cold air (Wendy and I were wearing shorts from this morning), and booked a room. We had called a couple days ago, and they said there were tons of rooms, and would even give us a sizable discount to stay. We ended up with a room that sleeps 5-8 people (5 beds), and a huge bathroom, complete with urinal, and enclosed toilet, enclosed shower, and 2 sinks, all for 2800NT, including breakfast (~$95US). Good deal! We also signed up for an 8 dish dinner, at 200NT/person.
We then drove 10 minutes up to Alishan Village, and got some info at the visitors center. Morning train is at 5:50am, sunrise is 6:50am, and we have to leave our hostel by 5:10am (recommended). Early start indeed. The town was very touristy, and we were happy that we were staying at the quiet, secluded Youth Activity Center outside of town, with it's impressive views to the west.
Escaping the fog...
Some beautiful blooms on trees outside the YAC...
Speaking of "impressive views to the west", we returned to watch sunset a short ways up the road from the hostel. Conditions fell into place for a classic Alishan "sea of clouds" moment, where the fog settled into the valley below us, while the forested mountain tops stood as islands in front of the orange-red stained setting sun.
14er cards makes an appearance at Alishan for sunset this evening (in 2nd pic)...
Wow, do we even bother staying to catch sunrise after a perfect performance like this? No time to answer that, since it was now 6pm, and time for dinner at the hostel. We hurried to the cafeteria, where soup was already served. Several other groups were having the same dinner. One by one, dishes were delivered to our table. Most dishes were quite good. I had been a little burnt out with Chinese food, but found myself happy to indulge in the offerings this evening.
After dinner, we finally got around to hauling our bags into our room (3rd floor), and started planning where to stay tomorrow, and what hikes to do, using the free wi-fi and pamphlets. The room is chilly, and we can't figure out how to use the heater. Sipping hot water with honey is a good way to warm up though.
Alarm set for 4:40am tomorrow! I better get to sleep (10:15pm now)… Here's some B&W pics from Betsy's cam:
