Room 815

It is a great feeling to wake up and the first thing thing you see is fresh green vegetation soaked in morning dew right at your door step. However, that is not the case for us. Especially when we had to wake up at 3 in the morning!

Instead we were greeted by darkness, icy cold breeze and hordes of tourists.

Alishan isn't just famous for the mountains, alishan ladies, alishan hunk or the song that depicts them. What is it truly famous for is the SUN RISE, other than the humorous mayor who gets a chance to see it everyday.

We had reached the train station at 3.30AM, thinking that we would be the only few people there. What unfolded before us is what seems like the whole Alishan Population waiting for the train(150NT) to the peak of "Chu San" Chu Mountain.
This is what the interior of the train looks like BEFORE it was filled to the brim

On the way up to the peak, i suddenly remembered a blonde(no offence to all blondes out there) joke i came across.

A blonde, a brunette, and a redhead, all working for NASA, were trying to figure out where to go on the next trip. The brunette said, "We should go to Mars." The redhead said, "We should go to the Moon." The brunette and the redhead sat there arguing for a while. Suddenly, the blonde shouts, "Stop arguing! I know where the next expedition should be to ... the Sun!" The brunette and the redhead looked at each other and started laughing. The brunette finally said, "You can't go to the Sun. You would melt or burn up before you even got close!" The blonde said, "DUH... Not if you go at night!"

The highest mayor(red) in Taiwan! LiterallyThat is like 800 over HDB storeys!Awaiting the arrival of the SUN! And then it was over before we knew it

It was kind of disappointing that we did not manage to catch the sunrise due to the heavy fog. All we saw was the sky gradually lighting up the surrounding mountains and that was it, completed in a matters of minutes. All we are left with are breath taking pictures of the sunrise at the train station.

Feeling tired and sleep deprived, we went back to our hostel to sleep, not before taking some pictures and breakfast!

Train to the peak

11degrees, even colder than the night before

Some kind of meatballs that taste very much forgettable

Same with the noodles

There wasnt much stores around Alishan in the first place and being so early in the morning, most of it was not opened yet. I would say other than the steamboat, the rest of the meals were nothing to rave about.

The first view of the catholic hostel when coming in from the entrance

And you have to go down this long slope
Enter the door and you will find the front desk, the missing attendant can be found inside his private mini room behind the desk.

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The rooms in this hostel is expensive for what it is worth. The room is bleak and very basic. The private toilet is more like a big toilet with partitions. Sound proofing was terrible. We can hear conversation from the other room through the toilet! 1 door from our room to the toilet, the partition in the toilet and another door from the toilet on the other side to the next room. It was very chilly at night and there wasnt any heated. The only food that we can find in the 200m radius is cup noodles from the front desk. The place seems to be understaffed. There was only 1 person in charge that we saw and he couldnt get the dorm rooms(250NT/pax) ready for us in time so we had to take a room instead. Luckily there wasnt many people staying there.

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Currently the other accommodation in Alishan is restricted to mid to high end hotels. At non peak season, it works out to be of better value. Do look around before deciding on one.

At noon, it was time to roll down the mountains! on the much talked about Alishan train of course. The 3.5hrs ride was not as magnificent as i thought it would be. In fact, i slept through most of the trip(we woke up at 3am remember?).

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Another Alishan celebrity is the Railway Lunch Box or "铁路便当". The price is in the 200NT range. Again, this is another disappointment as all 3 of us thought that the meal simply...sucked. Not going to comment much, try it for yourself. As the adage goes, one man's poison is another man's treasure.

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An interesting event that took place on the train was when Amelia lost our Taiwan Phone! We had got the Taiwan phone(digital tour buddy they call it,links to it was posted earlier) from the tourism of Taiwan. We had used up all the credit so Amelia and Audrey went out to top it up as well as to get their Starbucks fix(yes they have an outlet on Alishan). We were halfway down the mountain when she realise that she could not find it. The train isnt stopping for another 2 hours and even if we were to wait it out and get off at the bottom, there would not be any transport to go up again, not to mention we have absolutely no idea where it could be. So all 3 of us started to panic and begin ransacking our packs, digging every single pockets. After 20mins of blood intensifying search.

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JK: Amelia, did you check your pockets?

Amelia: (Shuffling her jeans pockets)yeah it is not there.

JK: How bout your jacket pockets?

Amelia: What jacket pockets?

JK: (Pointing to the slits in the jackets) Those..

Amelia: (Tapping her side jacket) Ah, i found it...

JK: -_-"'

Then i went back to sleep. zzZzZZ(In)Famous Lunch Box
Looks not too bad, taste very much worst

Our destination after Alishan was Green Island(禄岛) and to get there we need to get to Taitung(台东) which was at the other side of the Formosa Island(Taiwan). Our day from noon till 10pm was spend on 3 different trains, one after another. We did not book any accommodation in Taitung but instead of being worried, i was feeling kind of excited. Before we left taiwan, michael had said that people in Taitung are very friendly and he even spend a night in a police station cause he could not find any place to sleep. Naturally being the dare devil me, i wanted to do that but was opposed by the 2 ladies. Lucky for them, we spotted many advertisement for minsu the moment we emerge out of the train. So no police station tonight for us. We walked around a little and found a hotel with giant neon signs 10mins away from the station. The place is called Xing Long"星龙" hotel. Bargained a little to 1500NT for a room for 3 and we gladly took it. The place looks very unoccupied, in the morning we only saw 1 other pair of customers. The room this time was better than what we had last night. Big room with 2 comfy queen size beds and full of toiletries.

Looks creepy at night
A face lift in the day

Room 815

The next day we head to Green Island, the place where we cant wait to be there. Stay tuned!