Taiwan, October 19-27, 2013

Two zombies arrive at Taiwan Taoyan International airport at 6 o'clock in the morning after a short night's sleep.

We take a bus to Taipei Main Station and transfer to the MRT for Gongguang station.

From Gongguang we have a short walk to the Odeon Guesthouse, which is located next to the National Taiwan University (NTU) campus. Despite we had booked an early check-in (at 9am.) we don't find anyone waiting for us. Actually, we don't even find the guesthouse, but Odeon Cafe, and assume it to be somehow linked. The cafe is closed as well, but we expect someone to show up at 9am.

When no one does, we call the guesthouse, and soon someone comes, and takes us to another cafe (Lumiere), one of the film themed cafes in the neighborhood. She prepares us some breakfast, and takes us to our room in yet another building.

Still feeling like zombies we head out to the town, since we've only planned to spend this weekend in the capital city itself.

Approaching the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall Square.

National Theater in the Memorial Hall Square.

The main gate to the Memorial Hall Square.

National Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall.

National Concert Hall in the Memorial Hall square.

A view over the square from the Memorial Hall.

One of the new and trendy (and quiet) coffee shops in Taipei. A cup of cappuccino costs 150NT.

A mechanical construction worker directing traffic.

Taipei 101.

At Taipei 101, we are promised a long wait to the observatory at the 89th floor, so we purchase more expensive tickets that get us past the line and sooner to the top.

The view is awesome even if the weather is not the finest. We see both ends of the rainbow.

The 660-ton pendulum, suspended from the 92nd to the 87th floor, serves as a tuned mass damper; its job is to counter the movements of the building caused by gusty winds.

Thanks!

Next morning starts sunny and warm. This is the outdoor day: we plan to visit Yangmingshan National park. We walk to the Guting station, and on our way we see this huge mass of people coming up. Most of them are dressed in yellow t-shirts and yellow hats. Some of them later in the line wear ballet or circus outfits. We really don't know who they are or what they represent.

City bicycle sharing system YouBike is very popular in Taipei.

A small coffee shop on Roosevelt Rd. (Luo Si Fu Road).

We take the train to Jintan, where we take Bus Red 5 to the park. We have a short walk from the bus stop to the Yangmingshan National Park Visitor Center. We are only a few hundred meters above the sea (and the city) level, but the weather is quite different --- it is cool and humid.

After buying the tickets to the park we notice that we actually need some nutrition before the hike: beef noodle soup and sweet and sour pork rice(?)

As we climb up, the forest becomes more misty and mystical.

Qixing Park.

Qixing park.

The trail has taken us up, and now we start the downhill on a very steep slope.

Menghuan Pond.

A distant view indeed.

After a couple of hours of hiking we are at Lengshuikeng Visitor center; cold and wet we are ready to take a shuttle bus back to the town. Easier thought than done, since the shuttle service runs every so often, and there are a lot of people trying to leave the park. We have to wait for a couple of shuttles before we get into one, and still it's super packed.

Finally we survive the long commute in a sweaty and packed bus to Shilin station and then by metro back to our NTU neighborhood and Cafe Bastille for some Young's beers. Finding a dinner place is an ordeal again --- last night we ended up in a Sababa Pita restaurant after checking out a number of brightly lit Chinese places, a Russian and a German restaurant, a few pizza places, and a super popular Japanese place.

This outdoor pizza place serves interesting pizzas, and probably that's why it's fully booked and people are standing in the line all evening --- we have no luck in securing seats. We end up in a Chinese run Japanese restaurant Sanraku, which is not so great. Service is good, though, but not really Japanese style.

On Monday it is time to leave Taipei for a one-week adventure in the rest of the island. We take a train to Ruifang, where we spend some time at a coffee shop waiting for our ride to Jiufen and our accommodation at Shi Xia Xiang B&B. It is raining miserably.

When we reach Jiufen it is still raining. We enter our residence at Shi Xia Xiang by climbing up endless stairs from the street below, following a motorbike that carries our backpacks. Our room at Shi Xia Xiang is very spacious but does not have a window. When we get to the B&B we don't realize how close it is to Jinshan Old Street, and the web of other narrow shopping streets.

A totally new world opens at few steps from our door. That's where we spend our afternoon and the evening.

There are a lot of snack stores and souvenir stores, but what we are really looking for is a sit-in restaurant.

When in the alleys it seems that it's night outside, but it is still daytime, although grey.

The town of Jiufen is located on a very steep slope, which means that with the exception of the main road that runs through the town, all streets are mostly steps.

After a couple of hours of walking in the intricate web of old streets, we finally find a restaurant to have a proper meal in.

We have pork dumplings, and then beef and chicken dishes with rice and Taiwan beer.

And we continue exploring the alleys.

Every now and then we get a peek to the East China Sea.

And to Jiufen town.

Later we find a stall selling fruit smoothies. The passion fruit is really good.

And another stall selling bugs and other things we don't recognize. These we don't taste.

Yet another one making filled pastries.

Our residence is located on the first floor of this building. We have a spacious room with no window. If it had one, the view would be awesome.

Jiufen at night.

Next morning we head out for an early morning run. It is quite an uphill from the town.

After the breakfast that was waiting in our room when we returned from the run, we visit the tourist info for some information and coffee, more of the latter though.

We take a (wrong!) bus to Gold Ecological Park, since we think (wrongly!) that any bus form there will get us to the East coast -- ideally yes, according to the time tables. We end up waiting for a long time while several buses go past, or pick up hundreds of tourists or school children visiting the park.

Eventually, a bus comes that takes us to Shuinandong by the seaside. There we catch the Taiwan Tourist Shuttle(*) to Fulong. (*)Taiwan Tourist Shuttle is a regular bus service running on a schedule between various locations throughout the island, and it is also used by the locals.

In Fulong we are dropped of at a tourist visitor center, just a couple of hundred meters from the railway station.

On our way to the station we see some quirky characters.

At this point we are super hungry and try to find a place to eat. We pick up a famous Fulong box lunch (biandang, meaning easy) but eat it at the place before boarding the train.

The train trip from Fulong to Hualien is quick and we reach the last Taiwan Tourist Shuttle of the day to Tianxiang in Taroko Gorge.

The gorge is gorgeous but not very easy to photograph because of the lighting conditions --- and our equipment, and the fact that we are in a shaky tourist shuttle.

Once in Tianxiang our dinner options are limited. Nothing there but a couple of eateries that close early (around 7pm.), and our accommodation Youth Activity Center. There is a finer resort hotel, but they don't accept dinner customers other than their own residents. Which is kind of sad since they are not too busy tonight.

We have dinner at the YAC. A six piece set dinner costs 250NTD per person; it is not bad and helps us survive the night and the morning hike.

The alarm goes off before six o'clock next morning. We head to the Baiyang trail that takes us in two kilometers and through eight tunnels to Waterfall Curtain.

We start for 900 meters on the Central Cross-Island highway. The traffic at this hour is non-existent.

Necessary tips and warnings.

From the highway we first walk through a tunnel that is almost 400 meters long.

After the tunnel, we are met by some gorgeous scenery in the gorge.

The early morning light is warm, even if the air is not.

With no breeze, it is also disturbingly quiet.

The morning air smells so good.

We reach this waterfall, but can't really go any further. The tunnel with Waterfall Curtain is simply too wet and slippery for us to go on, and too dark to take any pictures, so we turn back.

He is a goner.

We have not seen a single human soul so far.

When we started it was rather chilly, at least cooler than we've used to lately, but now it is getting warm. Really warm.

We return to the hotel for breakfast.

Now we are again in the Taiwan Tourist Shuttle on our way to Hualien. We get stuck in the line with the tourist buses. There are tens or even hundreds of them (they are everywhere we visit Taiwan, the worst is even to come in Alishan)

Hualien train station. We buy a couple of hot dogs for the six-hour train trip to Chiayi.

The trip is not too interesting: first we follow the East coast down to Taitung and even further to Dawu. From there the train goes over the mountain range to the West coast, and then to Kaohsiung City and up to Chiayi.

Once we reach Chiayi, it takes us some time to figure out how to find to our hotel Day+. The tourist info at the railway station is very helpful, but still we are a bit lost, since it turns out to be a longer walk from the station than we think.

Day+ is cool and modern. It is only there that Tomi finds out that he's lost his credit card. Not really lost since we know where it likely is --- at the railway station in Hualien where we bought the tickets (the clerk never gave the card back). A short phone call solves the problem. They will send the card to Taipei Main Station.

Then it is the dinner time. The hotel staff directs us to the food street Ren ai Lu. What we mostly find there is "pig testicles" sold on bicycle racks, but we want a sit-in restaurant. Eventually we find Nan Yang Yan serving Thai food and promising to be open for us even if it is late (in local standards). We start with Taiwan beer, which causes a tiny panic -- they have to go out to buy the beers somewhere. We have papaya salad (which is strange) chicken curry and baked fish, which is delicious.

Before checking out from Day+ we have breakfast at a very Chinese buffet while doing laundry. We have a quick walk to the railway station to catch the 8:10am shuttle bus to Alishan.

The bus climbs from the sea level up to 2190 meters.

The bus makes a couple of stops because of road construction. It seems that landslides are pretty common occurrences here. Even this high up in the mountains it is very warm in the sunshine.

Not any more in Alishan, which is completely in the clouds.

Alishan is the most popular tourist attraction in Taiwan, especially among the locals but also among mainland Chinese and Japanese. These visitors are mostly shuttled around the park in small buses.

We stay at Ho Fong Villa hotel. Although we can't check in quite yet.

Meanwhile we have a (mixed) hot pot lunch at Jiu Jiu Jiu (999) restaurant.

We still can't check-in (only after 3pm); we leave our backpacks at the reception and head out for a walk in the foggy Alishan National Forest Recreational Area.

Construction work to improve pedestrian pathways.

Giant Trees Trail.

Some of these giant Taiwanese red cypresses are over 1000 years old.

Tourists have stripped the bark off of some trees.

Some of the trees are even about 2000 years old (diameter of this tree at the breast level is 11 meters, and the height 35 meters.)

Shou Cheng Temple.

Elder Sister Pond (translation from the local guide map)

Round the pond trail.

The map of tomorrow's hike up to Tashan (2660m)

After the day's walk we heat the small sauna we have in our hotel room: in an hour the temperature reaches 66 degrees of Celsius. We did not really expect to enjoy the heat, but we do.

Time to head out for the dinner.

It is somewhat cool outside.

We have dinner at Juh Shan Yuan Restaurant.

The place is crowded and noisy.

Noodles and deer.

With Taiwan beer.

Next morning an automatic telephone alarm wakes us up at 4:23am., even if we requested it at 4:45am. Right after 5am. we start the one-hour hike on the Chushan sunrise viewing trail to Duei-Kao-Yuen sunrise viewing lot. No other human is up at this hour.

The hike is all uphill, so despite the cool morning we are soon toasted. Fortunately we also took our head lamps, since most of the lights along the trail are out.

We think this is white whiskered laughingthrush. A couple of them entertain us while we wait for the sun to come up.

Eventually we see the sun. The landscape does not turn pink as pictured in many tourist brochures. The sun warms the air quickly though.

TnT.

Also the clouds start rolling up from the valley.

We walk back to the village following the road, which is longer than the trail but also the descent is gentler.

A magical forest. It is not very hard to see in Taiwan from where the Chinese painters got their ideas and inspiration.

Landslide on the opposite slope.

After a not-so-tasty breakfast in the neighboring hotel, and instant noodle soup warmed in our room, we are on the Tashan trail.

Necessary warnings!

The sun is shining from the partly cloudy sky.

The rail starts immediately uphill on hundreds of steps.

In the beginning the trail follows the Alishan mountain rail.

The clouds block the view down to Alishan.

Occasionally we see the peak of Tashan,

as the clouds clear away.

Eventually we are up in the clouds.

The scenery turns very magical.

An abandoned weather station on the top of Tashan.

It takes us two and a half hours, and 5 kilometers, to reach the top.

Time to change clothes for the descent.

Despite the steep steps the way down is much faster.

Our hotel room fridge.

We have dinner at Alishan House hotel, apparently the best restaurant in the village. We have pork and fish, and wasabi mushrooms. (wasabi is a local speciality in the area)

Food is ok, not phenomenal, but the service is very good. They even call the hotel bus to take us back to our place.

Next morning the alarm goes off at the same time even if we did not ask for it. We head again to the sunrise viewing area.

This morning the world is covered in a thick cloud.

We are joined by a noisy group of men, who leave before the sun is up.

The mountain train takes loads of tourists to Chushan viewing lot.

Suddenly we get a peek of the blue sky.

And the sun.

And then the clouds come in again and cover everything.

In the village the sky is clear.

Tashan peak, where we were yesterday.

We hurry to get the tickets to the first shuttle bus that leaves Alishan at 9:10am. to Chiayi.

In Chiayi we transfer to a free shuttle bus that takes us to the HSR station where we take the Shinkansen to Taipei.

No words.

In the Taipei Main Station we easily find the Duty Station Master Office and pick up Tomi's credit card he lost in Hualien few days before. Then we have a late lunch at Ten Ya okonomiyaki restaurant.

We choose wasabi sauce and chili sauce for our okonomiyaki.

A lot of them.

The meal ends with a fresh green salad.

On our last day in Taiwan we go for an early morning run on the National Taiwan University campus. What a peaceful place.

On our way back to the main station we stop again for cappuccinos at the coffee shop on Roosevelt Rd.

Instructins in the ceiling of the bus that takes us to the airport.