This is a daily chronicle of my trip to Taiwan from 9th to 24th May 2006 with Ronghua and partially Boon Liang. I am trying to blog about all 15 days, so it takes time..sorry.. If you wanna read all that have been posted, pls click on Taiwan Adventure category here, or on the left sidebar.

After deciding not to purchase tickets for the famous train ride up to Alishan as it would only reach at 4pm, we decided to take a 7am bus up Alishan instead which costs NT200 each. However we were waylaid at the bus station by this uncle who offered to take us up for the same price, and that he would refund the bus ticket for us. After the Sun Moon Lake experience, we were slightly sceptical but the worst thing he could do to us is to drive us to some isolated expensive hotel. So we decided to go for it. Before we could board, we were stopped by a lady who offered us accomodation at Alishan for NT1000 which we took lah, save trouble of finding room.

The uncle stopped midway up the mountain at a teahouse ran by his friend. Had great oolong tea to wake us up for the rest of the day…

The fatter cup behind is for drinking, while the slim ones in front are for sniffing.. You pour the tea into slim cups, transfer into the big cup… then take the slim cup rub between hands and sniff it…

The room was well worth the money, the most luxurious room that we stayed in Taiwan

Twin double beds

In Alishan, ppl only come for mainly 2 things, hiking and sunrise..We chose a relatively simple trail, at 2200 metres we were feeling kind of short of breath, and at 17 deg C in the daytime, we decided to take it easy. Alishan has a very interesting spread of natural vegetation. The foothills are decidedly tropical rainforest, midway up you start to get temperate deciduous forest where the leaves turn red every autumn n shed every winter. Towards the top, you actually get temperate coniferous forests, which are mainly pine trees that remain evergreen throughout the year. We took a walk thru the pine forest and came across many interesting sights.

Standing underneath multiple dead trees; The mist came in, bringing some drizzle as well…

This is one of my fav shots in the entire trip..
This was formed by 2 dead trees, which by the powers of nature, combined into a twisted heart shape..really 天长地久

Walked somemore n reached an elementary school which was next to a temple. We joined the kids n played some basketball, before the rain finally came in and we were trapped at the temple for an hour or so, waiting for the rain to stop… Went back later n rested till dinner time. By 8pm the temperature was 13 deg, and the right time n place to have a steamboat dinner, and this is wat we got for NT800

Steamboat with overflowing ingredients, Stir-fried deer meat, mushrooms and young bamboo shoots; Panda fishcake begging not to eaten.

I dunno how the fuck we finished everything. As if still not enuff, can still walk to convenience stall, complaining damn full, and still buy beer n chips from there.

I took 3 hrs to finish that king can of beer… while watching those taiwanese dramas that are in hokkien/taiwanese. The amazing things about these shows: 1. you can be watching for the 1st time and it’s episode 50 but u can still catch the plot. 2. they have dedicated channels which show various serials throughout the night, but the cast kind of repeats.

Ended up sleeping at 2am when we had to get up @ 3.30am for sunrise, major regret..find out more tml…haha!