Day 5 in Taiwan

Day 5 in taiwan and we are enjoying every single moment of it. Travelling is a very liberating experience for both the body and the mind. Sometimes you end the day with a aching and bruised body and you know that you wont trade the experience away for anything. I like to travel, to see the world and to experience whatever it brings with it. It doesn't matter whether it is a pleasant experience or not, as long as it authentic. It is the only time i feel that i am a part of this world, the only time when i can finally taste freedom.
We laid our eyes on this the moment we opened them Tranquility
Home-made breakfast

We have the whole morning to ourselves before leaving for Alishan(阿里山) at noon. So we decided to walked around and see what this lake has to offer. We chanced upon this electric bicycle booth the night before and decided to pick up 1 for each of us.(NT500/3 hours). A useful practice for us before riding an actual scooter in Green Island. The girls initially had some problems controlling the bicycle but after a little practice, they were as good as professionals and start to complain how slow it is -_-"'

Me and my ride Audrey speeding down the lane
She needs to stop to pose properly
Island inhabitants
I(tried) mount the camera on the bicycle This place isn't populated by tourist, so get there before it changesThe beauty of mother nature
I am happy when i eat
So is amelia
There are several stop points scattered around the area where you could rent or exchange your bicycle for a fully charged one free of charge.
"Go that way to see the giant lake monster, it ate my friend just now!" O_O Great place, great company what more could i ask for
We rode for about 3 hours and passed by rice terrace and many farmers home

There are actually many ways to tour area the area which include walking, round trip bus, the ubiquitous boat ride and of course electric bicycle. They are great methods and each offers a totally different experience. Don't miss this place out in Taiwan.

After our ride, we pack our stuff and took the same Green Bus back to the train station. Next destination, ALISHAN!Farewell gift
Train station
Get here if you want to go Sun Moon Lake

Our trains stops at Chiayi and were immediately greeted by touts offering transport to anywhere near. The moment they know we are going to Alishan, they quickly pulled us along with them. We had missed the only train up to Alishan that day and came an hour after the last bus up left. So we had to find other means to get up there. An old lady claiming to be official tour operator(she had a tag) offer us 1200NT/3person up to Alishan. We have heard stories where passenger sometimes were left halfway in no where and were extorted for more money. We didnt want to become a victim of it. I went to a 7-11 nearby and chatted with the store attendant a little and found out that a taxi ride up would cost 2000NT. Immediately the 1200NT offer sounds too dubious. The old lady kept hanging around us and we couldn't shake her off at all. We even wanted to run in 3 different directions on the count of 3 so that we can get away from her but decided that would be too crazy, it was a fun idea though. In the end, we got amelia to walk away to a taxi away from the touts while me and audrey distract her. We were quoted 1800NT by a middle aged man with a smiled benignly. He saw the old lady chasing after us and knew exactly what was happening. He quickly helped us with our bags and drove off.

5 "A" for choosing the right taxi:

1) Avoid bug-liked pestering touts with a super good offer

2) Ask locals who you know isnt involved in the business(7-11 attendant in my case)

3) Analyse the situation and make a decision

4) Abandon your Tout in a swift manner

5) Ascertain your driver. decorations of religious items or family pictures in vehicle is a good indicator. Also look into the eyes, more often than not, they tell you everything you need to know. The journey up is a winding 4hours elevation in thick fog The fog is so bad the visibility is only about 5meters.

On the journey up, we were telling the driver about where we come from and our journey the last few days. We kept conversing with him, partly to keep him awake. We dont want him driving us down a cliff. Minutes passed and the sky darkened as the sun began to set. We came to a dark and lifeless Alishan. Not quite the atmosphere we had expected since this is a popular tourist spot in Taiwan. We went to the Catholic(1800NT/room) hostel which was the cheapest listed in LP and booked our room for the night. We dropped our bags and went around looking for food.

Our home for the night
Everything was closed, and we were the only people around.
13 degrees Celcius!! We didn't expect this temperature

We walked for about 10 minutes and we saw lights in the fog!! We were starved and all the hostel had was cup noodles so we ran towards it and guess what we found. A whole area crowded with steamboat shops!! We picked one that was slightly more expensive than the rest but have a very cosy cottage ambience. We wanted to treat ourselves to a good meal(280NT) after the run. At this place, we met the funny owner who we saw running up and down every 10mins or so. The steamboat we were using were aerosol canned operated and they would generally last for about 30mins or so. He told us that everytime the flame goes out, customers would always try to reignite it and the moment he hears the clicking sound of the steamboat, he would run up and changed it for them. His run is actually more like sprinting up the stairs. I pity him running up and down so many times so after his 2nd change for us, i decided to not click the ignition and went to change the can myself(i saw where he keeps them ). This place does serve good food and the decors are one of the best i have seen Entrance
Decorations
Stairs leading to the 2nd floor seat area
Bears need food too
Alishan Shan Re Chu (Alishan Sunrise) Restaurant Food galore!
The food not only looks good, they taste good too
Our food platter for 1
Set for 1 person(not bad for 280NT)
Table full of food Audrey couldnt finish her food and decided to make fried tang hoon. What a waste! We left the place feeling satisfied

We had to wake up early the next morning to catch the train for Sunset viewing. This is the main reason anybody would come up to Alishan and we couldnt leave without it. Our hostel person was saying we need abit of luck to see it because the weather is foggy these few days. No matter what, we are still going to hope for the best.

The rule of 3

After a good night sleep at Bo Shu’s place and a night of wrestling with a giant spider in his room, we got up bright and early to visit 章化老街. During our 2 weeks in Taiwan, whenever we told others where we have been, they would be somewhat shocked that we went to章化老街, particularly because it is usually not in the foreign tourist itinerary. Rather, it is where the local tourist will go when they want to travel in their own country.

First up on the to-do list is none other than food!! With me around, every single day is revolved around eating. Thankfully, I wouldn’t put on any unwanted weight, no matter how much I eat. After a short drive from Bo Shu’s residence in Lugang to Zhang Hua, we stopped by a pork intestine mian xian(40NT) place where the locals frequent regularly. In Taiwan, it seems that mian xian plays a rather big role being one of the staple in the local’s diet, even though we have it in Singapore as well, it usually is restricted to either birthdays (we specially eat it) or when our taste buds call for it. And this particular store in Lugang is famous for its delicious and cheap(really cheap) bowls of rice noodles.

Mian Xian
After a satisfying breakfast, we had a few hours to burn before we need to head to our next destination. We wandered around the streets, taking in the atmosphere this place has to offer. We were not the only ones, among us were lots of Taiwanese who came from other parts of the island. Zhang hua offers not only a cheap place to travel, it enables the people who come to slow down their paces and break away from the hustle and bustle of the city life.

Streets of Old Streets

Toys galour!Toys shop Owner

An interesting thing that happened this day is when Audrey went to have her fortune told. She picked one who set up his table by the road side, or rather he picked her since he was touting for customers. He offered different fortune telling, palm, face, birth characters and etc. And each charged separately. So like any bogus fortune teller, he starts off by asking general things about her. Her age, where she is from, what she is doing, who are the people (we) around her etc. The interesting part comes when he starts to tell her “fortune”. Let me try to list down the things he said and how he comes to it.

1.Your family is not bad financially (For people who could travel, how bad could it be)

2.You need to save and not spend everything if you want to be wealthy (This applies to everybody doesn’t it?)

3.Your folks are no longer as young as they used to be and are failing in health (When your daughter is in the twenties, how young can the folks be? With age comes with sickness, we are not immortal.

4.You would be studying overseas (yeah we actually mention that she was going Australia to study, I guess his hearing is perfect)

5.You would further your career overseas( She is studying overseas and she is English speaking, not hard to infer)

6.Your future husband would not be a local (like duh, read above 2)

7.You would have a good career in future (We are paying to listen to flattery? Tell me someone who can’t say that)

This is the result of reading her palm for 600NT, during the course he keeps saying that he is the descendant of who and who and is definitely authentic and he keeps saying that if he is true, we can call him in the future for more fortune telling. When he was done with his crapping, he proceeded to offer Audrey face reading, for a discounted price of 400NT for a total of 1000NT, good price he says. We tried to dissuade her to not to go for it but even after much persuading, she still went for it. Below is the list of things he said.

1.Your family is not bad financially

2.You need to save and not spend everything if you want to be rich

3.Your folks are no longer as young as they used to be and are failing in health

4.You would be studying overseas

5.You would further your career overseas

6.Your future husband would not be a local

7.You would have a good career in future

Anyway, the only person who walked away satisfied other than the fortune teller is Audrey, the rest of us were kind pissed by the money that was “cheated”. In retrospect, I could understand why Audrey wasn’t as negative as us. Sometimes even though we know that the things said is far from fortune telling, we are still willing to pay and listen to it because at the end of the day, it does fulfill the objective of giving us a peaceful mind.

Following that we continued down the ancient street till we reach another interesting place. I recognized the name of the place on a tv program days before I came to Taiwan. Tian Hou Gong(天后宫), temple where they worship Mazu（妈祖）the goddess of the sea. Every year the devotes would carry the statues along the coast of Taiwan for 7 days and 7 nights and wherever they go, people would kneel down and allow the statue to go over them, it’s for good luck they all say. This temple as well is kind of high tech, with led sign boards at the entrance advertising the temple’s web address. After some prayers, and photo taking we wandered down the street once again, this time stopping at an interesting place. It is an interesting place because the whole place exhibits items that are interesting and strange and the name of the place is “Amazing Shop”. Words would not do justice, look at the pictures.

Mazu templeSafe Rice which gives protection
Amazing shop
I have no idea what this is..Amelia WantedAudrey WantedFace Mask4 legged chickenGiant SquidAudrey getting marked!End ResultChastity belt!For this guysOlden days vibratorElephant Condoms, why would they even need 1? Reusable condom

Not long after, it is time for us to say our goodbyes to our host whom we only met for 12 hours.
Our host for the night

For the first time finally since we touchdown in Taiwan, we are ON OUR OWN! For the first few days, we were accompanied day in day out and meeting new people everyday, for the next few days, we would be getting to know each other even more.

Time to explore!

Our next stop is Sun Moon Lake(日月潭), the biggest water body in Taiwan, advertised for its laid back atmosphere and peaceful scenery.

To get there from Zhang Hua, we took a bus to a train station, a train to Er Shui(二水) Station, another train to Shulie(水里) Station(closest train station to SML, this is where you need to get to if you are coming here on your own) and a bus to Sun Moon Lake, we took some time to figure out how to get there and believe me, this is the simplest way to get there using public transport(unless you want to pay for a cab). This is also why I love to travel on land.

3!Taiwan sausage on rice sausage from a road side elderly couple! VERY GOOD!

Open wide!

The train ride is pretty enjoyable with beautiful farming scenes on both sides, a pity we could not stop to take a nice picture, passengers onboard consist of locals staying around the area, some light hearted singing silver hair folks from Taipei whom we chatted and sang with and US! We discovered Audrey’s true pervert character on board as well.

Audrey trying to look natural even though she is holding the camera :p

Audrey's paedo upskirt attempt

When you get off the train station at Shuili, head down slope towards the town area until you see a convenience store (7-11) at a junction and turn left there for about 20m. What you are looking for is actually a “bus terminal” which really doesn’t look like one, it is located amidst row of shop houses with some benches and old motorcycles parked inside and a glass panel with people sitting inside snoring in the far back. Turns out the middle aged man who sold us the tickets is also my bus driver! A good indicator is to look for a Green Bus, which is also the name of the bus company. Throughout the whole journey, there we only a hand full of us in the whole bus with another hand full boarding along the way, all of which were locals who seem to be heading home.

Turn left at 7-11Look for this bus

40mins later, we knew we had arrived at our destination when the water body slowly came into view. The water is calm and the view scenic which explains why we saw 2 couples actually having their wedding pictures being shot there. The moment we got there, we were greeted by hordes of restaurants and MinSu (民俗), guesthouse, walking down the street we had 2 people who asked if we needed lodgings. We had initially made a reservation at one of the hotels recommended by Lonely planet but at a much higher price than what is generally offered there. Out of courtesy we went to look for the place to cancel our reservation and were greeted by a tall and large hotel which I would rate at least 3-4 star from its look. Politely, we told them we didn’t want the room anymore and the receptionist didn’t seem to mind one bit. We head back into the streets and went to look for our home for the day. As it was a weekend, the first 2 places that we went were fully booked which made us wonder if we made the right choice to cancel our reservation.

Streets of Sun Moon Lake

Fortunately for us, we walked further down and found an even better place with great view than the first 2 and they have 1 last room for us!! Don’t be fooled by its name, even though its called “Love Hotel”(2000NT/night for the 3 of us), it is nothing close to what you are thinking, instead it is exactly what we felt there, Love! And without room service, reception and daily housekeeping, it actually felt more like a guesthouse than a hotel. The owners were friendly and non intrusive and provided useful information even though we were only there for less than an hour. They even let us use their washing machine without any charge! After crashing people’s place for the first few days, our first paid lodging is definitely very rewarding and not to mention very clean. We got everything settled by late afternoon and hurried to the visitor center to register our names for the free Fireflies tour before heading to a restaurant recommended by the guesthouse. The food was good albeit nothing fantastic and the price is justifiable for what we paid for(1100NT). And we were also too hungry to remember to take photographs of it. Dang!

I had a seperate bed in case you are wondering
Fish with tons of bones but quite nice

By the time we were done, the sky slowly turned dark and we made our way to the visitor center to be welcomed by lots of people awaiting the tour. The season for fireflies is almost over and this is the last day of the tor which explains why there are so many people. Unfortunately for us, we only saw a couple of single flying fireflies, not the school of fireflies which I had pictured it out to be, nonetheless it was still a enriching trip as I learned a little more about fireflies and their characteristics.

I have no idea what she is trying to do

Fire station!

Back in the guesthouse, we got back our laundry from the motherly figure of place and realize we got a problem. There were like 20 pieces of separate clothing and nowhere to dry them. So as backpackers, we do it the backpackers way :D Till Next Time!

Clean laundry!Improvised hangers