Alishan

The day after getting back from Hualien, we woke up and caught a 6:30am train to Chiayi. I think it was a two hour ride so we were able to catch up on some missed sleep. We left the train station to purchase bus tickets to Alishan but a very persistent woman who did not speak English really wanted us to buy shuttle bus tickets. We finally gave in and boarded the minivan that would take us to the mountain top.

It was a two hour ride full of twists and turns and about 30 minutes into it I was so car sick I wanted to die. Mary felt worse and by some miracle, our driver stopped at the halfway point for a short break. Poor Mary ended up leaving her breakfast in this little ditch.

I layed down on the seat the rest of the way up the mountain and was able to fight the nausea. Mary was looking pretty green and our driver, somehow sensing Mary's suffering, stopped again so that she could get rid of anything else in her stomach. I didn't get to enjoy the breathtaking views on the way up the mountain so Emily filmed this for me. Next time we come here...we are definitely taking a bus or train...no more crazy mini-van driver swerving around cars and steep corners for me, thanks.

This is the cute little bed and breakfast we stayed at. Our room was the window on the second floor to the left.

This was our room with electrically heated mattresses ... heavenly!!!!

I love the mountains!

Here we are doing our best "damsel in distress" impressions.

Wow...I'm a dork.

Then the fog started to roll in....

One minute things looked like this...

and the next we were surrounded in clouds...

These two trees have grown together into kind of a heart shape. We asked some Taiwanese guys that were there to be in a few of our pictures.

The Alishan temple was definitely my favorite so far.

If you ever do go to Alishan, you should be aware of Rule No: 56 of Forestry Law

In case you can't read it, this is what the sign says:

To fine NT:1000-60000 for the following act

1. To break or damage the properties of the Park

2. talls

3. Littering, Urinating, or others

4. Drawing or writing on walls and making noise.

I'm not sure if I broke rule number 2 but I'm only 5'5" so I think I'm okay.

We checked out the Alishan museum and I thought this diagram was interesting. The train route spirals the mountain three times before reaching the top.

We ate dinner at a delicious restaurant (except for the few pieces of raw chicken we found in the dish we ordered) and then did a little shopping.

We all bought hats since, according to Mary, "You lose 80% of your body heat through your head."

*Mary has since checked her numbers (using her favorite website...Wikipedia) and the actual percentage is 30-50%.

Alishan kind of reminded me of an Asian Park City. Apparently, they even get snow sometimes.

It was very cold that night and I can't tell you how fantastic those heated mattresses were in our hotel room...wow....heaven on earth.

We got up around 5:30 am the next morning, bundled up, and walked to the train station that would take us to the top of the mountain in hopes of seeing the gorgeous sunrise above the clouds that Emily had told us about. Here is the train we took...It kind of felt like we were riding the Hogwart's Express... a ghetto version of it anyway.

It was freezing cold but we kept our fingers nice and toasty with the handwarmers I brought from home that my mom put in my Christmas sock. Thanks mom!

At the top, this man was speaking to the throng of people that had made the trek up but unfortunately, we had absolutely no idea what he was saying. Everyone else seemed pretty entertained though.

We never did see the sun but the thick fog rolling through the forest was incredible. I want to come back in March or April when the cherry trees are blooming and the weather is better. We spent the rest of the day walking around the beautiful forest trails. I couldn't stop taking pictures even though the whole time I kept singing John Mayer's song, 3x5 which talks about seeing the world through both your eyes and overcoming the need to fit the world in a picture frame. Huh...this stupid blog is taking over my life.

I felt like I was in Narnia...

This is the Three Generation Tree that shows how one tree died and a second grew from it, then a third generation tree grew from the second tree.

There were a lot of Easter lilies growing wild.

We checked out of our room and caught a bus back to Chiayi. The ride back down the mountain was a lot better as far as not getting motion sickness goes. I loved Alishan and hopefully will get to go back again and see the sun.