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Woke up very early to check-out the hotel. We arrived at Taichung train station at 7 am (left photo below) and bought train tickets at cost of TWD 174 per pax (right photo below). The train: 营光号11 departed from Taichung (台中) station at 0755 hrs and arrived at Chia Yi (嘉义) station at 0928 hrs. Not trying to be so "kiasu" as the next available train: 自強号1003 would only depart at 0910 hrs and arrived at 1027 hrs, which would not give us much time to explore Chia Yi.
Personal Experience: Breakfast such as bread and drinks can be bought inside the train station. Even convenient store like 7-11 is selling steaming-hot buns inside their store!
Chia Yi (嘉义)
Bought Alishan forest train tickets immediately upon arrival at Chia Yi station. After gotten the train tickets, we walked towards the left side of Chia Yi train station to deposit our luggage (left photo below). The deposit fee cost only TWD 17 per piece for a day (right photo below). Definitely useful for visitors who wanted to explore the city without having to carry their bulky luggage along.
Decided to walk to the shopping area located 10 to 15-mins walk away from the train station. Managed to buy a magazine from the book store at this 'FE21' shopping mall (left photo below) and visited some interesting toy shops along the route (right photo below).
Taiwan Cooking Specialty (台湾鲁肉饭)
Had lunch at this Taiwan Cooking Specialty located opposite the train station (left photo below). Ordered a bowl of seaweed soup (right photo below), 'pig-skin' (bottom left photo) and soy-braised meat (鲁肉) with rice (bottom right photo) at a total cost of less than TWD 100. Great taste and value worth!
Alishan Forest Railway (阿里山森林鐵路)
Bought Alishan forest railway tickets at TWD 399 per pax immediately upon arrival at Chia Yi station (left photo below). Was told by the tourist information centre that only a limited number of these train tickets can be purchased from Chia Yi train station daily. Do note that only one of this forest train departs (right photo below) from Chia Yi station per day at 1330 hours on weekdays (think there is another 9 am train on weekends). Boarded the Alishan forest railway train at around 1325 hrs.
The train ride was spectacular. It is one of the world's 3 remaining mountaineering train starting from an altitude of 30-meters at Chia Yi railway station to 2216 meters above sea level at Alishan railway station (left photo below). The whole ride took about 3 hours 20 minutes and passed through 47 tunnels (right photo below). At one part of the track, the train uses 'Zigzag switchback' to "climb-up" the mountain.
Check out more info here on this interesting railway system. No wonder this train ride had become one of the 5 attractions in Alishan, together with Sunrise, Sunset, Sea of Clouds and the Forest.
The train reached Alishan station at almost 1700 hrs. Upon arrival, each visitor had to pay a park admission of TWD 150 per visitor (inclusive of insurance).
Gau Shan Ching Hotel (高山青大饭店)
Hotel staff from Gau Shan Ching Hotel (left photo below) was waiting outside the train station to give us a ride back to the hotel. Booked this hotel for TWD 1600 per room per night including breakfast. Do not expect much from the amenities of this hotel; comfortable but small room (right photo below). Furthermore the heater in the room could not provide enough heat to withstand the high altitude temperature (about 8 °C) during the night.
Personal Experience: Do make an advance online reservation of any Alishan hotel to avoid disappointment as the rooms could be fully booked during peak season.
One plus point of this hotel is the location; it is just beside the main plaza where most shops and restaurants are located (photos below).
Hot Pot Dinner
Decided to have hot pot for dinner and the reason was to keep us warm from the cold temperature of 10°C. Went to this restaurant '玉山园餐厅' and ordered a set with four dishes and a hot pot for TWD 1000. Simply fulfilling with the amount of food and its varieties (photos below).
After dinner, we purchased some snacks and mineral water bottles from the shops at the main plaza for our next day's sunrise trip. Didn't find any souvenirs worth buying while shopping, except the 'high-mountain tea leaves' (高山茶) grown at Alishan area. Tea grown at high altitude tends to taste better than those grown at lower altitude.
Day Four
Short Day Trip to explore Alishan
Made an arrangement a day before for this short day trip during our hotel check-in. Paid TWD 300 per pax for this tour.
First sight was to view sunrise. This was an alternative option provided by the hotel where the site to view sunrise will be from Mount Jade (玉山) instead from Alishan. The driver left the hotel at 0530 hrs via a mini-bus to the first spot to see 'couple trees'. These two cypress trees did not survive through a forest fire in 1963, but had turned into a monument to symbolize their eternal love (left photo below). The sky turned bright soon after (right photo below).
After which, we were brought to part of a road to see the sunrise. Rather disappointed as the clouds turned into rain clouds soon after the first sunbeam (photos below). Weather was unpredictable, especially during this rainy period.
Next stop was to see a cypress tree (神木) of at least 2,700 years old where its diameter can reach 6-meters. As it was raining quite heavily, we then proceeded back to hotel for breakfast. Simple breakfast of porridge and some pickles were served (left photo below).
Forest trekking (right photo below) was next itinerary where the driver left the hotel at 0830 hrs and dropped us off somewhere near the Alishan Hotel (阿里山賓館).
The forest trail did look like those scenes from the movie 'Lord of the Rings' (photos below).
During the trek, there was this strange formation of the tree branches that resembles a 'heart' shape (left photo below). Sights not to be missed are: the 2 sister's pond (姐妹潭), ShouJhen temple (受镇宫) (right photo below), three-generation tree (三代木) (bottom left photo) and elephant tree (象鼻木) (bottom right photo). For more info on itinerary planning, do check out this website here.
Walked back to the hotel at around 1030 hrs, packed our luggage and checked out from the hotel. Took the mini-bus arranged by the hotel at 1100 hrs for TWD 400 per pax to go back to Chia Yi train station. It is faster, cheaper and more flexible to travel by mini-bus than by train.
Fen Chi Hu (奋起湖)
Along the route, the driver stopped at Fen Chi Hu (奋起湖), a small town, for lunch. Went to this humble 'Ah Liang' eatery (left photo below) that sells traditional lunch boxes, also known as bento (便當) (right photo below). Could not remember the price of a lunch box but the taste was good.
The eatery can be easily located from its banner (left photo below). Also there was a shop that sells wooden signage besides this eatery (right photo below).
The town is served by Fen Chi Hu railway station of Alishan Forest Railway (left photo below). After lunch, walked along the old street (老街) of this small town which is about 500-meters in length (right photo below).
I only managed to get some pineapple cakes and a box of hand-made 'Train-cakes' (火车饼) that tasted like moon-cakes (photos below) from this old street.
There are nice places at Fen Chi Hu for photo-taking. One can walk or even lay down on the railway tracks as frequency of trains passing is very low (left photo below), or simply visit the train workshop to have a photo taken (right photo below).
The mini-bus reached Chia Yi station slightly before 1400 hrs and just in time to get train tickets: 自強号1022 departing at 1409 hrs for Taipei at TWD 600 (photos below).
KDM Hotel (凱統大飯店)
Arrived at Taipei at 1735 hrs and went straight to check-in the KDM hotel. This hotel is located next to Chung Hsiao Shin Sheng Metro station (忠孝新生站). Booked this hotel online and cost SGD 432 per room for 4 nights, inclusive of breakfast (photos below).
Ximending (西門町)
After a quick wash-up in the hotel room, we then took the Metro subway to Ximending for dinner and shopping. Didn't expect Taipei to be as cold as Alishan of having freezing temperature at 10°C. As usual, Ximending was bustling with many teenagers (photos below).
