Day One, Part One (Taipei)
Day One, Part Two (Taipei)
Day Two, Part 1 (Shifen)
Day Two, Part 2 (Jiufen)
Day Two, Part 3 (Raohe Street night market)
Day Three (Sun Moon Lake)
Day Four, Part 1 (Sun Moon Lake to Fenqihu)
Day Four, Part 2 (Fenqihu)
Day Five, Part 1 (Fenqihu)
Day Five, Part 2 (Alishan)
Day Six, Part 1 (Alishan)
Day Six, Part 2 (Taipei)
Day Seven (Taipei)
Our final morning in Taipei. It was time to go home but first, a spot of breakfast and there were plenty of choices around the hotel. The good thing about these food outlets is that they are not the street food type that we saw at the night markets. These food outlets operated from small decent shops and I must say that the quality is much superior to the fare from the night markets. For example, my son discovered a shop selling the most delicious pork dumplings in Taiwan. Plus, the so-called China pancake which looked very suspiciously like our own roti chanai but with different types of filling) was wonderful too.
Most of the morning crowd around these food outlets weren't tourists but Taiwanese searching to pick up a quick breakfast snack while on their way to work. Certainly, they knew where to go for good food and that was what tourists should do too. Stay off the beaten tourist paths and follow in the footsteps of the locals.
We left the hotel at 10.30am, caught the MRT to the airport and by eight o'clock at night, had arrived back at KLIA in Sepang. Terra firma. In a way, home but yet not quite. We had to spend a night at a hotel in Brickfields before catching the morning ETS train back to Bukit Mertajam.
As a postscript, my wife and I enjoyed a late breakfast at the Indian Spices Village, a Chettinad restaurant in Brickfields serving in our opinion one of the best Indian food around. We became excited seeing panipuri on their menu and it turned out to be a real treat. The fragrant mutton soup was totally out of this world. My order of chicken masala thosai filled me up wonderfully and my wife beamed over her rava thosai. Everything was washed down with a cup of ginger tea served Indian style in a metal cup and bowl. We shall look forward to visiting this restaurant again.
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| Of course, Taipei needs at least one sex shop 😆 |
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| Should one be drinking from the cup or the bowl? |
Finally, we were back in Taipei. After an easy trip which took us to Shifen, Jiufen, Sun Moon Lake, Fenqihu and Alishan, we were back in Taipei. This time, we decided to stay in a hotel within a stone's throw of the Taoyuan MRT station so that the next morning, all we needed to do was to drag our luggage across the main road, no more using their underground walkways, and tah-dah, we'd be at the station.
But for this last night in Taiwan, what were we to do and where were we to go? At first, we had thought of visiting the Gondola but gave up the idea as we preferred somewhere close to the hotel. We also thought of revisiting the Raohe night street market but for the same reason, we gave up that idea too. Finally, we decided on going back to Ximending as we could then do some last-minute shopping.
Ximending on a Sunday night was a vast difference from Ximending on a Tuesday night. We found the place was jampacked with people and thus, a much livelier environment. More excitement, more crowds everywhere we turned, more fashionable people. More of everything. The few constants were the eateries and street stalls which were basically unchanged and offering the same stuff we saw on our first time here.
We wandered around, watching the street entertainment and at times joining the long queues for some food and snacks. But basically ending up at the shops that were selling Taiwanese tidbits. Among the four of us, we bought enough to fill two luggage bags. Obligatory stuff for the relatives and friends.
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| We discovered this 7-Eleven outlet which sold a lot of Peanuts merchandise |
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| Braised beef noodle soup consisting of meat and tripe |
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| Siew Leong Pau outlets were plenty, but nothing really special actually |
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| We ended up here for the tidbits |
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| Food must be good to attract this queue |
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| More street entertainment but my son wasn't too impressed with his diablo skills |
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| Not going to comment much about this except to say this pineapple cake was available everywhere! |
My alarm rang at 4.30am and my daughter promptly reached out to silence it. "You'll wake everyone up, dii," she told me. But isn't that why we were all waking up at this unearthly hour? To prepare ourselves for the ritual of going to the Alishan rail station to catch the train to the viewing points of Alishan's sunrise. If there was anyone not wanting to see the sunrise, then he had no business to be in Alishan in the first place, I say! 😁
By five o'clock, we were out of the hotel. The whole park area was filled with people, all walking to the rail station. We queued in the long, snaky line to crowd one of the three trains to Duigaoyue (對高岳) station. There, some 25 minutes later, we decided on a vantage point closest to the station. Some of our fellow passengers chose to walk further away to watch the sunrise.
Gradually during a 35 to 40 minutes of waiting, the surroundings slowly grew brighter. Animals like monkeys, squirrels and birds emerged to give us curious stares. Over the mountaintops in the distance, we saw clouds in fiery hues of orange. But from where was the sun going to emerge? From which part of the mountain range would we see the first rays?
We found out at 6.24am. Alerted by some keener-eyed people, we shifted our sights slightly as a pinprick of light emerged from behind the mountain. Wow, was that it? We woke up at 4.20am just to see this fleeting moment? If not for the wonderful views and the animals we saw, this sunrise could be a bit of an understatement. We wandered around the station for a while before catching the train back to the main Alishan rail station. Breakfast over, we checked out and took the bus back to Chiayi.
One thing I must comment about the high-speed rail service in Taiwan. If possible, do try to buy reserve seats. No doubt they will be more expensive but it should be worth paying extra. When we arrived at the Chiayi HSR station, we could only purchase the non-reserve seats for our return to Taipei. Not that we purposely chose non-reserved seats over the reserve ones. The carriage was quite full when we boarded. My wife and I managed to find some unoccupied seats but my daughter and son had to stand for some time before some seats became available. And along the way, more and more people boarded the train and for the latter part of the ride, it was standing room only for these newcomers. Can also imagine that we had our luggage with us too.
Another thing I must comment on: the Taipei Main Station. It's so complicated with unhelpful directional signboards to find our way through the labyrinth of underground shops. It was quite a mess. We were unable to find the exit that we wanted and as a result, we wasted a lot of time. And finally, when we did find a near enough exit, we searched but couldn't find an escalator or lift to take us to the ground level. Although it was another long walk through the streets to locate our hotel, at least it was much easier to get our bearings right.
Maybe it was too much for me to expect, this being Taiwan and not Japan, but the bus was late and we only managed to board at 11.30am. After an uneventful journey through the long and winding road, we reached the entrance into the Alishan National Forest Reserve at about 12.45pm. The building was bustling with people but it turned out that they were waiting to leave Alishan, not going in like us. At first, I thought that after alighting here we had to push our luggage to the hotel - it was only a mere 500 metres away - but my daughter stopped me. Let's phone the hotel and see whether they have a shuttle service, she said, which turned out to be a pretty good suggestion because I noticed with some consternation that the route, had we walked, took the shuttle bus through some rather steep terrain.
We opted for lunch at a place known as Shan Bin Restaurant. Their signature dish was the stone hotpot, featured in a standard menu that included offerings like deep-fried sea bass fillet, grilled bamboo partridge and an array of stir-fried delights such as wild boar, king oyster mushroom, mountain vegetables and bamboo shoots. A staff member recommended their set Menu B, but realising we were a party of only four diners, she graciously reduced the serving amount and charged us a discounted rate. Such a thoughtful service! Consequently, our bill, originally priced at NT$2,200, amounted to only NT$1,500 at the conclusion of our meal.
At four o'clock, we decided to catch a shuttle bus to the Alishan Shouzhen Temple (阿里山受鎮宮) which marked the starting point of our journey to the Sisters' Ponds (姊妹潭). Despite the numerous steps along the way, the path was a pleasant stroll through a cedar tree-filled forest. While the pond wasn't vast, the atmosphere exuded tranquility and serenity. During our walk there, we encountered several individuals walking back from that direction. The main pond itself appeared somewhat deserted, with only two additional visitors besides my family. Very likely, this was due to the advancing hour. As we ventured among the trees and a damp atmosphere, we sensed a drop in temperature and observed a subtle dusk settling over the surroundings. It was time to retrace our way back to the starting point.
By the time we reached the Shouzhen Temple, there were no more shuttle buses in service. Now faced with the task of walking in semi-darkness, we began our way back to the Alishan main park area. Along the journey, we were treated to the enchanting colours of the sunset, witnessing the last rays of light disappear. Soon enough, we found ourselves at the 7-Eleven outlet in the park, and adjacent to it, the Shan Bin Restaurant was busy with a lively crowd. Fortunately, we had no intention of joining the evening bustle, choosing instead to retire early. Tomorrow would greet us with a wake-up call at 4:30am for a train ride.
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| This lady provided a personal touch to the hotpot. |
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| The rail station at Alishan were we took a train ride to watch the sunrise the next morning |
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| Meanwhile, we walked up this trail to the Sisters' Ponds |
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| Glorious colours of sunset |
